I think Manning is on to something but the Afghanistan stuff is a bit far fetched. I recall that the Class President at Columbia during the years that Obama was there, stated that he'd never met him .....and he knew everybody in the class.
I recall that the Class President at Columbia during the years that Obama was there, stated that he'd never met him .....and he knew everybody in the class. I seriously doubt it. A typical graduating class was around 700 students (it's more now). It's very unlikely anyone, even someone social enough to be elected class president, would personally know everyone in the class.
This is especially true of commuter students, like Obama, who lived off campus and didn't participate much in extracurricular activities.