I am theorizing that all the USPO stamps had been phased out by the 2000s. Therefore, if a forger got hold of an old USPO stamp, it would have already contained a 19xx year insert. That is, the 19 would have already been there, and the forger would at most have had to change the year part to get 1980. No need for the suspicion-raising missing 19.
On the other hand, if the forger had used a modern USPS stamp, then he would have needed to find a 19 somewhere or do without. (The form could validly have had either a USPO or a USPS stamp, since both were in use in 1980.) But since the form has an old USPO stamp, it shouldn't have been a problem to get a 19.
Seems a more likely hypothesis is, simply, the document is genuine, and a broken (or improperly inked) stamp was used.
Same logic applies to the date discrepancy, by the way. A forger would not make that mistake. Whereas Obama was probably more interested in making the O in his sig resemble a peace symbol than getting the date right.
In any case, a real investigation would need to go beyond the document itself. There must be computer files of draft registrants, for instance. Is Obama's on file? Is there an audit trail as to when it was added? There must be backups of the computer file. Is Obama's registration on the backups? To guarantee success, a forger would have to have such bases covered (and not leave tracks doing the covering).
cynwoody:”Therefore, if a forger got hold of an old USPO stamp, it would have already contained a 19xx year insert. That is, the 19 would have already been there, and the forger would at most have had to change the year part to get 1980. No need for the suspicion-raising missing 19.”
Please watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHAM3hRI8_Y
This shows that these stamps were made with removable date/year inserts and hence the stamp itself does not keep the “19” intact. So they would have had to find the 19xx insert of the proper size/type in order to modify. Whereas the year 2008 inserts would potentially be readily available when they faked this stamp.
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If Obama's Selective Service form is authentic, then can you show me any examples from anywhere in the United States where a postal stamp on any document or letter or envelope or box where the "19" is missing the "19", or where the first two digits are missing on other postal stamps; for instance, can you show me any stamps where the "20" is missing from a "20xx" stamp?
Your hypothetical forger: You seem to be talking about a professional or experienced forger who would NOT, in your opinion, make mistakes like we find on Obama's form.
But what if the forger was not your normal criminal type, and instead, he was an Obama staff member who was not an experienced forger, and this was the only time he tried to forge a document? I would think that such a person would make mistakes, like forgetting to check the date of the signature against the date of the stamp to make sure that they were the same.
Also, if the form is authentic, I would think that the postal employee would have pointed out the mistake to Obama if the date was really July 29 and not July 30 as we see next to Obama's signature.
And if the form is authentic, I find it difficult to believe that Obama's Selective Service form was the only document or letter or envelope or box that was stamped with the "19" missing in 1980 in that Hawaii post office and/or in other post offices in the rest of the country.
I say this: If you can't find any other document or letter or envelope or box with the first two digits missing---such as "19" or "20"---then you are left with Obama's Selective Service form being the only document in the history of the post office in which the first two digits are missing from the postal stamp.
sheesh....ignorance is bliss....