That’s the big story over at Daily Kos, but I see a number of problems with this.

First, from the numbers used as the basis for this story (you have to follow links from the Daily Kos story to get there), all military contributions only total $95,177.  There are over 2.6 million soldiers in active duty service and reserve components, so that’s not much money.  Certainly not enough to be representative of the military as a whole.  Also, the top-tier candidates in the race have already raised tens of millions of dollars.  This $95,000+ is a drop in the bucket.

Second, how many contributors did this money come from?  We don’t know, but there are some pretty round numbers from some of the candidates suggesting to me a lot of big donations.  Which, again, suggests that this money came from a very small demographic.  Too small to use for drawing conclusions about the overall political leanings of the military.

Third, this is based on what contributors listed as their employer when they contributed.  Given that most soldiers complete their service and then work for someone else (or even that most National Guard troops currently serving might be prone to listing their civilian-life employer) that’s not exactly a good way to ensure that you’re calculating all military donations.

So while these facts and figures might be good for political propaganda purposes, they just don’t pass the smell test.  I’m not saying that US soldiers couldn’t be favoring anti-war candidates with their contributions (anything is possible, though I personally doubt this is true), but the data presented here is hardly conclusive, as much as most liberals may want it to be.