[Rhodes22-list] But, It Makes for a Good Story, Right? (Political)

[Herb Parsons]

Senator Obama said in an interview with George Stephanopoulos that he 
considered joining the military when he graduated from high school. 
There's an interesting detail to the story:

 From the article:
=====
Mr Obama was asked by George Stephanopoulos of ABC's "This Week" 
programme whether he'd ever thought about military service and replied: 
"You know, I actually did. I had to sign up for Selective Service [a 
means of conscription in case of war] when I graduated from high school.
=====

While Senator Obama my think that "considering" serving is noteworthy, 
there's one small hole in his story:

There was no requirement to sign up for Selective Service in 1979!

President Gerald Ford suspended the requirement in 1975, and it was 
reinstated in the summer of 1980 by President Jimmy Carter. So, maybe 
Senator Obama REALLY meant that he considered dropping out of college to 
enlist, but I suspect that's not the real answer. I suspect he had to 
have at least SOMETHING to appeal to those that are pro-military, and he 
felt that his "newly-disclosed military ambition" would help without 
disenfranchising the anti-military folks (after all, he DID decide not to).

Read the story  here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/2700555/Barack-Obama-wanted-to-join-the-US-military.html