Obama: "I wanted to join the military but the war was over...."

It's always fun to watch when a candidate starts grasping at straws. In an interview with George Stephanolousisis (or whatever) today on "This Week,"

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.
"And I was growing up in Hawaii. And I have friends whose parents were in the military. There are a lot of Army, military bases there.

"And I actually always thought of the military as an ennobling and, you know, honourable option. But keep in mind that I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren't engaged in an active military conflict at that point. And so, it's not an option that I ever decided to pursue."

Um, does he know that most people serve during peace time? If he ever really considered joining the military, I'd kiss my ex. Oh and wasn't this about the time he and Al Gore invented the Internet? Obama further expounds on how being a community organizer is just as heroic as spending 5 years being tortured for your country:

During the ABC interview, Mr Obama sought to broaden the concept of national service beyond serving in uniform. Asked about the jibes related to his work when he first arrived in Chicago, he said: "It's curious to me that they would mock that, when I, at least, think that that's exactly what young people should be doing.

"Understand what I did as a community organiser. When I got out of a college as a young person, 24, 25 years old, I moved to Chicago and worked with churches, who were dealing with steel plants that had closed in their neighbourhoods, to set up job training programmes for the unemployed and after-school programmes for youth."

He also tried to "deal with asbestos in homes with poor people - community service work - which John McCain has been talking about, putting country first and extolling the virtues of national service".

Hmmm, being in the asbestos trade myself, did he do actual abatement work or what? Did he organize the abatement work? How does one "deal with asbestos?" Maybe it's in one of those self-promoting books of his.