From Right Reasons:

During his 7 September 2008 interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Obama said the following: “I had to sign up for Selective Service 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, honorable 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.” Obama did graduate from high school in Hawaii in 1979, but he could not have registered for Selective Service then. Nobody could. In 1975, President Gerald Ford terminated the Military Selective Service Act. It was not reinstated until July 1980. That is one year after Obama graduated from high school. In July 1980, Obama was no longer living in Hawaii. He was living in Los Angeles.

Update/Correction: This story has been debunked. I regret the error.

Update from the reader who sent me the item:

Jonah, Sorry to create some confusion with this item. The point of what I sent you was not that Obama never registered. We’d already determined that he had on the thread I linked in my email. The point is, he did not register “when (he) graduated from high school” as he said today on ABC. In fact, he didn’t register until a year and a half later when he was already a college student at Occidental. That significantly undermines his explaination that he actually considered joining the military because he was living in Hawaii and a lot of his friends had military connections. It also undermines his excuse that we were no longer engaged in “active” conflict. When he registered, he was not a high school graduate exploring career options. He was a college student in a world in which the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan and the Iranians had captured our embassy in Tehran. But again, sorry for the confusion. I’m an avid reader and had no intent of steering you wrong.

Me: Errors we’re all mine for not paying enough attention to begin with.