Comments on: Did Obama Tell A Lie About Desire To Join Military?

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:50:22 +0000

It may not have been 2000. Maybe early 2001, right before college. But anyway…

By: Big Dog

Big Dog — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:22:29 +0000

@Adam: You registered in 2000 because you were not born when the rest of us had to do it. Young'un!

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:10:58 +0000

I registered in the year 2000. Ha. Oh…anyway…I’ll be quiet now.

By: Big Dog

Big Dog — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:47:28 +0000

@Loverher: I graduated in 1979 and joined the Army in 1980. They made me sign up because I had not yet gone on active duty...

By: Big Dog

Big Dog — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:21:35 +0000

That is the same information I relayed in the post. I also, in an Update, indicated that he could be mistaken but he specifically said that he did it at graduation and made a big deal about the Hawaii military bases.

Obama registered but he did it September 4th 1980. His registration number is 61-1125539-1

By: Loverher

Loverher — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:56:22 +0000

From http://www.sss.gov/FSbackgr.htm

Registration was suspended early in 1975 and the Selective Service System entered into a “deep standby” posture. Beginning in late 1979, a series of “revitalization” efforts were begun in an effort to upgrade the System’s capability for rapid mobilization in an emergency, and in the summer of 1980 the registration requirement was resumed. Presently, young men must register within 30 days of their 18th birthday.

I remember doing this in High School as part of a “graduation” party. However, the facts don’t backup my memory. So (ooh I hate to admit this), the Big O and I both have faulty memory.

By: Loverher

Loverher — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:50:13 +0000

Just for the record, I also graduated in 1979. I don’t know when the law for selective service was implemented, but I do know when I turned 18, I had to register for selective service. I turned 18 in May 1979. So, Obama could easily have registered while he was in High School or soon after.

By: Big Dog

Big Dog — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:46:15 +0000

JT,
McCain entered the Naval Academy following in the footsteps of his father and his grandfather. He entered sometime around 1954 and graduated in 1958. The armistice for the Korean War was signed in 1953 and the Vietnam War started in 1959 so there was no war while he was in school.

He followed family tradition and went to the Naval Academy. He was not forced to do it (except maybe by family pressure).

Certainly, his two children had a choice because there was no draft and they entered. Some families have a tradition of military service.

By: JT

JT — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 05:43:02 +0000

While I respect John McCain’s military service, in McCain’s day ALL men HAD to go into the military. Many guys went ahead and enlisted, because they knew they were going to get drafted anyway. Enlisting was a way to have some say about what branch of the service they could get into.

But would McCain have enlisted if there was no draft? No one knows that.

McCain’s being in the military was a legal requirement of his generation, and to suggest he would have enlisted without a draft is only a guess.

Considering how wild and selfish McCain was in his youth (his own words), I doubt he would have enlisted without a draft.

By: Victoria

Victoria — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 05:03:25 +0000

I just ran across this and as Blackfive puts it–”
This is the matter to remember as we proceed forward. The contest to which this speech applied is over: but the principles that lay under this speech are the ones that should move us in this year’s choice as well.”

I never heard this speech that year, and I didn’t believe there were any Democrats who would say this. It goes to the heart of why I can’t stand Obama.

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2008/09/the-greatest-po.html