[DmBarch]

It may matter what her son's draft lottery number was--if it was low and he was facing the prospect of being drafted, or if he was safe from the draft and just wanted to serve in the National Guard. By 1972 the troop levels in Vietnam were pretty low so he may not have had to worry about being sent to Vietnam.

http://www.sss.gov/lotter3.htm This shows that up to #95 of persons born in 1952 were drafted in 1972. Those were the last folks drafted - lotteries were held for later birth years, but no one was taken. John Edwards was born in 1953, so he was not subject to the draft.

[Verginius Rufus]

We don't know what year her son was born--that would have a bearing on what his lottery number was. He may have had a college deferment, or he could have not gone to college and been vulnerable to the draft...or he could have already served in the army and decided to join the National Guard. We don't have enough information and I doubt that it is worth pursuing...this is too peripheral.

After all, it is the Democrats who want to keep talking about Bush's National Guard service, and even if they have to admit the documents are forgeries, they may have implanted in some undecided voters' minds the idea that Bush did something wrong.

On the other hand, if the forgeries can be linked to the DNC or to Kerry, that could really help Bush.

[VRWC_minion]

No one waited until the day that got drafted to avoid the draft. Numbers were drawn in advance and everyone pretty much knew that really low numbers would get drafted. When Nixon stopped the war and ended the draft, many had already enlisted in fear of the draft.