Wow. This must mean something, though not what Democrats want to claim it does since 99 soldiers gave to Ron Paul. Lefties will start harping on the fact that this 134 is six times the number that gives to John McCain as evidence of the military wanting to embrace the cut and run politics of the Democrats and not a general Republican malaise due to McCain being weak on border security and taxes. If that’s true they’d have to concede that Paul’s 99 backers means the military is trending toward coming home to fight the New World Order.

134 people out of hundreds of thousands of people stationed abroad isn’t newsworthy, except that fewer are giving to McCain but a coup for Obama this ain’t:

With the latest campaign finance filings, detailing June fundraising, McCain has overtaken Paul among all military donors, though Paul still leads with contributors listing an overseas address. Financial support from military personnel for anti-war candidates Obama and Paul is a trend that the Center for Responsive Politics first observed last September.

Individuals in the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps have all leaned Republican this cycle, but the only branch in which that ideology has carried over to the presidential race is the Marine Corps, where McCain leads Obama by about $4,000. In each of the other branches — including the Navy, in which McCain served when he was taken prisoner during the Vietnam War — Obama leads by significant margins.

“That’s shocking. The academic debate is between some who say that junior enlisted ranks lean slightly Republican and some who say it’s about equal, but no one would point to six-to-one” in Democrats’ favor, said Aaron Belkin, a professor of political science at the University of California who studies the military. “That represents a tremendous shift from 2000, when the military vote almost certainly was decisive in Florida and elsewhere, and leaned heavily towards the Republicans.”

Of course Obama has out raised McCain in all fields, but still maintains a hairsbreadth lead in voting polls. Obama’s fund raising success may well simply reflect class differences in supporters, with well heeled liberal elitists throwing around the money the rest of us don’t have.

The real question is this: Since when do liberals care about the opinions of the troops?