View Full Version : Obama & Smoking
Date: Jan 18, 2007
Source: Media Matters (http://mediamatters.org/items/200701180010)
Gibson called Obama's long-known cigarette smoking a "dirty little secret"
Summary: Fox News host John Gibson claimed that Sen. Barack Obama's "dirty little secret" is that he is a cigarette smoker, despite the fact that Obama's cigarette use was, in fact, known during his 2004 Senate campaign. Guest John H. McWhorter claimed that that the reason Obama is "considered such a big deal is simply because he's black." McWhorter added that "if you took away the color of his skin, nobody right now would be paying him any attention."
READ FULL ARTICLE (http://mediamatters.org/items/200701180010)
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pennylane8510
02-18-2008, 05:56 PM
Please. The color of his skin has nothing to with the fact that he has a nasty habit of smoking. Here is even more proof that the race card is being played in your favor and in your campaign, Mr. Obama!
:rolleyes:
Other articles about Obama's struggle with smoking:
Mar 28, 2007
Trusted MD (http://trusted.md/blog/donald_b_ardell/2007/03/28/barack_obama_the_smoker_fit_to_be_president)
Feb 27, 2007
Boston.com (http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/02/27/big_stakes_as_obama_tries_to_kick_habit/)
Feb 21, 2007
Fox YouTube Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouKJixL--ms)
Feb 6, 2007
Chicago Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0702060167feb06,1,1003440.story?coll=chi-news-hed)
Feb 7, 2007
ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2855994)
Jan 16, 2007
Slate Magazine (http://www.slate.com/id/2157523/)
Dec 2, 2006
David Drake Blog (http://mrssatan.blogspot.com/2006/12/behold-osama-obama-cigarette-smoker.html)
Jan 2, 2007
News Hounds (http://www.newshounds.us/2007/01/10/more_obama_bashing_hes_a_smoker.php)
Jan 1, 2007
Political Insider (http://politicalinsider.com/2007/01/would_america_elect_a_smoker.html)
Nov 20, 2006
Raw Story (http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Laura_to_future_motherinlaw_I_read_1120.html)
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I did not realize Obama was a smoker until today. It concerns me significantly that he is - assuming he hasn't stopped? If he has given up, as he was attempting to in 2007, then good work. If he hasn't I see that as a problematic sign.
1. He is presenting himself as a national role model to young people. What kind of message does it send to young people if he is a current smoker?
2. He is running a campaign on a platform of "change we can believe in". If he can't stop smoking, that does not give me any confidence he can change anything, let alone an entire nation!
3. Smoking is an addiction. It is a distraction, an escape. If he is still addicted to something, he cannot give his all to the highest job in the land.
Does anyone know if Obama is still smoking?
If he is, why is this not being addressed in the media?
I raised this topic (as to whether Obama is still smoking or not) on the Facebook wall and here were 2 balanced responses. Apparently Obama has stopped smoking. Here are the 2 direct quotes with surnames removed:
David S. (responding to a less-than-friendly Obama fan on the wall) :
I am very proud as an American that Obama quit smoking both tobacco and crack cocaine and as a Democrat that we can move beyond someones past mistakes and focus on the strength they gained from that journey.
It takes a lot of strength for a drug addict or abuser to kick the habit - whether it is nicotine or cocaine. He should be honored for his courage and strength and commitment.
I only ask you not to hold against Hillary that when she was the same age Barack Obama was when he was lighting up or using cocaine, instead of being a popular party-goer and drug-user, she was leading the anti-war movement on campus and marching in civil rights demonstrations.
Even though she was in college during the height of the drug culture on campuses, please do not hold it against Hillary that she chose to fight for others rights rather than score drugs and get stoned. She may have been a little nerdy - but her heart was in the right place.
James M. (responding to me) :
"Sorry if you are a smoker? Not sure." No, but it's not because I find it "bad" or "immoral" or a "bad statement." I do not do it because I do not like it...does not suit me.
As far as being a role model, I think we can overlook his smoking when you realize his life story of getting to where he is serves as a rather strong role model to young America, white or black.
I think he will be president someday (either this next year, or in the forseeable future). I just do not think he's the right person, for right now. We have tremendous issues domestically and internationally that must be solved by something other than "hope" and "change."
RAFREE
03-03-2008, 02:10 AM
His life story to get to where he is, is as credible as James Frey's was!! Someone else Oprah fell for.
He grew up VERY well off. Went to private schools then Harvard. Where do they get this stuff about his inspirational life story. A lot of it has been twisted and is not really factual. His father for example was NOT a goat herder. Did NOT come over on a program the Kennedy's set up. That program was not in place yet when Obama's father came to study in the U.S. and yet?? Obama said in his speech when Ted endorsed him that his father had benefited from that program.
The man is a sham.
The man is a sham.
Something my intuition has been telling me for some time now.
RAFREE
03-03-2008, 04:33 AM
O/T, LOOK at my gorgeous avatar! Thank YOU Murray!! *smooches*
O/T, LOOK at my gorgeous avatar! Thank YOU Murray!! *smooches*
Ah, thank SoCal4Hillary for her page of free avatars!! :)
They made a joke of this in SNL last night. His BO back smoking again?
Ohio mom
03-09-2008, 08:47 PM
I raised this topic (as to whether Obama is still smoking or not) on the Facebook wall and here were 2 balanced responses. Apparently Obama has stopped smoking. Here are the 2 direct quotes with surnames removed:
David S. (responding to a less-than-friendly Obama fan on the wall) :
I am very proud as an American that Obama quit smoking both tobacco and crack cocaine and as a Democrat that we can move beyond someones past mistakes and focus on the strength they gained from that journey.
It takes a lot of strength for a drug addict or abuser to kick the habit - whether it is nicotine or cocaine. He should be honored for his courage and strength and commitment.
I only ask you not to hold against Hillary that when she was the same age Barack Obama was when he was lighting up or using cocaine, instead of being a popular party-goer and drug-user, she was leading the anti-war movement on campus and marching in civil rights demonstrations.
Even though she was in college during the height of the drug culture on campuses, please do not hold it against Hillary that she chose to fight for others rights rather than score drugs and get stoned. She may have been a little nerdy - but her heart was in the right place.
James M. (responding to me) :
"Sorry if you are a smoker? Not sure." No, but it's not because I find it "bad" or "immoral" or a "bad statement." I do not do it because I do not like it...does not suit me.
As far as being a role model, I think we can overlook his smoking when you realize his life story of getting to where he is serves as a rather strong role model to young America, white or black.
I think he will be president someday (either this next year, or in the forseeable future). I just do not think he's the right person, for right now. We have tremendous issues domestically and internationally that must be solved by something other than "hope" and "change."
:eek:OH MY GOSH, A PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE IS A FREAKIN' CRACKHEAD!!!!!!!!!! LMAO, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????????WHY AM I JUST NOW FINDING THIS OUT TODAY!!!! AND THEY SCOFFED AT BILL CLINTON FOR NOT INHALING....OMG!!!!!
B positive
03-09-2008, 08:53 PM
Marlbarack Man:p
xfiles
03-09-2008, 11:05 PM
I have ZERO tolerance for someone who used to be or is now on cocaine. I think it sets a poor example for our youth (like GWB) that you can go ahead and break the law and abuse drugs and still become president.
There is no need to tow the line or be straight and narrow.
I think this type of drug use disqualifies Obama or anyone eles from holding the office of the presidency.
How can he be presiding over this country and expect the lows to be enforced against drug use when he broke the law himself.
I don't like his revisionist history about himself, his arrogance and his seemingly less patriotic view of this country than others running for this office.
There has always been something about him that to me is unsettling and now that more and more is coming out, I know why I have felt this way in my gut!
samkm
03-09-2008, 11:08 PM
Drug use... "The Audacity of Smoke and Dope" (as I called it)... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/us/politics/09obama.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=Obama%27s+drug+use&st=nyt&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
And, he shouts and yells angrily.. at reporters who want to post the truth about him on anything: http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-02-28/news/barack-obama-screamed-at-me/full
A sad symptom of the desparate thirst for hope of the people.. that they look beyond such fatal flaws... :eek:
A serious symptom of the exhausted times that they are too tired to dig deep and look for meaning behind his words..:eek:
The nation is crying out for help from the informed, like us. US is us folks.. It is "WE THE PEOPLE..." Let's get the word out, everywhere..::mad:
SantaCruzen
03-09-2008, 11:09 PM
Obama is a Hero of the Drug Culture:
"New York -- Of all the presidential contenders, Barack Obama has been the most forthcoming about his past drug use.
In his biography, he admits to having smoked marijuana, using some cocaine, briefly flirting with the idea of trying heroin (although he never used any) and imbibing a fair amount of alcohol when he was in high school and college.
Quizzed about his past drug use, he confessed to having inhaled the marijuana smoke, unlike Bill Clinton, who when faced with a similar question years ago, claimed that while he had smoked marijuana, he didn't inhale.
"I inhaled. ... That was the point," Obama told New Yorker editor David Remnick."
http://cannabisnews.com/news/23/thread23672.shtml
for archival and email purposes in case they try to hide it from the net,
RE: Obama Cannabisnews
Obama Exhibits Honesty About Drug Use as a Youth
Posted by CN Staff on February 11, 2008 at 04:44:16 PT
By Sheryl McCarthy
Source: Newsday
cannabis New York -- Of all the presidential contenders, Barack Obama has been the most forthcoming about his past drug use.
In his biography, he admits to having smoked marijuana, using some cocaine, briefly flirting with the idea of trying heroin (although he never used any) and imbibing a fair amount of alcohol when he was in high school and college.
Quizzed about his past drug use, he confessed to having inhaled the marijuana smoke, unlike Bill Clinton, who when faced with a similar question years ago, claimed that while he had smoked marijuana, he didn't inhale.
"I inhaled. ... That was the point," Obama told New Yorker editor David Remnick.
Obama's honesty about what he and many other baby boomers did in the '60s and '70s, and which some continue to do today, was refreshing, given the general hypocrisy most of our politicians exhibit on the subject. We haven't heard a peep about marijuana use from Hillary Clinton, though it's a rare woman her age who hasn't taken a few tokes. But then Clinton is so cautious that you rarely hear anything real coming from her.
While he's considerably older than the other candidates, given that John McCain served in Vietnam and spent five years as a prisoner of war, it's hard to believe that throughout that war and the added strain of his internment, when marijuana and much harder drugs were a favorite balm of U.S. soldiers, that no illegal substances ever touched his lips.
Nor can we expect any admissions from Mike Huckabee, the most avid Christian of the bunch, who has said that illegal drug use is not due to a failure of education, but to a failure of righteousness.
So having Obama admit to his past drug use is a kind of progress. It makes me wonder, should he wind up being our next president, if he would be the one to move this country out of its current drug policy rut. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, in 2005 police arrested almost 800,000 people for marijuana violations, the highest number ever recorded by the FBI. The overwhelming majority of these arrests were for possession only. Nor do the experts I've talked to suggest that the increase is in any way related to an increase in marijuana use. It is simply the result of greater harassment, usually of young people, and especially of young blacks, even though the research shows that whites use marijuana at a higher rate.
Queens College sociologist Harry Levine has done research that found that New York City police went on a marijuana arrest binge between 1997 and 2004, when marijuana arrests in the city increased twelvefold. During that time, marijuana use and availability remained largely unchanged. Police are subjecting young blacks and Latinos to arrest and overnight stays in jail, and introducing many who are without criminal records to the criminal justice system for offenses so minor that they don't even rise to the level of crimes.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission recently approved a slight reduction in the sentencing disparity between powder cocaine-related crimes versus crack-related crimes, but eliminating the remaining disparity is up to Congress. And with a federal ban on the use of marijuana for medical purposes having been upheld by a conservative Supreme Court, federal drug agents continue to harass doctors and patients in the 12 states that have declared such use legal.
Politicians, pandering to public fears, continue to denounce marijuana with the fervor of the 1930s film "Reefer Madness," which claimed that smoking marijuana drove young people crazy, and led to violent crime and promiscuity.
How much of a departure from that outdated, erroneous thinking could we expect from the four front-runners? Not much from McCain, who is as militant about the war on drugs as he is about the war in Iraq. He favors increasing the penalties for selling drugs, the death penalty for drug kingpins, and even restricting the availability of methadone to heroin addicts. While he supports expanding federal education and treatment programs, he opposes making marijuana available for medical reasons.
To his credit, Huckabee, while calling for better patrolling of borders against drug smugglers, also supports drug courts and alternatives to prison for low-level drug offenders and drug addicts.
Clinton has said that, if elected, she would end federal raids on medical marijuana providers, eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powered cocaine, and oppose hard time for nonviolent drug offenders.
During one of the debates, Obama raised his hand with the other Democratic candidates when asked if they oppose the decriminalization of marijuana, but his campaign has since said that he supports decriminalization. And he has gone on record as opposing federal raids on medical marijuana providers.
Given his relative youth and his greater distance from older politicians who for years have obsessed over the most minor drug infractions like dogs picking over a bone, Obama may offer the greatest potential for a more enlightened drug policy. But even he has described his youthful dalliance with drugs in an apologetic way, as being a "mistake" during a time of youthful confusion.
It would be interesting, as he campaigns on college campuses, among the young people who have become the rising face of his campaign, if someone asked him:
"Mr. Obama, what exactly are you apologizing for?"
Source: Newsday (NY)
Author: Sheryl McCarthy
Published: February 11, 2008
Copyright: 2008 Newsday Inc.
Contact: letters@newsday.com
Website: http://www.newsday.com/
Related Articles:
Friends Say Drugs Played Only Bit Part for Obama
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23670.shtml
A Truth Obama Won't Dare Tell
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23655.shtml
Obama: Decriminalize Pot
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23646.shtml
foreigner4hillary
03-10-2008, 06:40 AM
Drug use... "The Audacity of Smoke and Dope" (as I called it)... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/us/politics/09obama.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=Obama%27s+drug+use&st=nyt&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
And, he shouts and yells angrily.. at reporters who want to post the truth about him on anything: http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-02-28/news/barack-obama-screamed-at-me/full
Quoting from http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-02-28/news/barack-obama-screamed-at-me/full
"Obama's aloofness on key community issues for years frustrated Lucas and many other South Siders. Now they believe he was just afraid of making political enemies or being pigeonholed as a black candidate. Lucas says he has since become an ardent Obama supporter.
"His campaign has built a momentum of somebody being born to the moment," Lucas says. "He truly gives the perception that he could possibly pull us all together around being American again."
Sheesh. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...
Some people are just suckers.
Ohio mom
03-10-2008, 10:54 AM
Quoting from http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-02-28/news/barack-obama-screamed-at-me/full
"Obama's aloofness on key community issues for years frustrated Lucas and many other South Siders. Now they believe he was just afraid of making political enemies or being pigeonholed as a black candidate. Lucas says he has since become an ardent Obama supporter.
"His campaign has built a momentum of somebody being born to the moment," Lucas says. "He truly gives the perception that he could possibly pull us all together around being American again."
Sheesh. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...
Some people are just suckers.
IT JUST PROVES THAT HE WAS TAKING OTHER PEOPLES IDEAS AND MAKING THEM HIS OWN WAY BACK THEN TOO!!! HE WALKS ALL OVER AND USES PEOPLE FOR HIS OWN AGENDA AND THEN DISCARDS THEM!!!SHAME ON HIM:mad:
Truth: re the matter of drug use, I'm 52 and went to college in the Bronx (Fordham Univ.) during the seventies. I tried every drug available then except heroin. However, my main group of girlfriends at school were from St. Bridget's HS in the Bronx: they taught me how to drink, but not a one of them smoked a joint or did any other drug.
For me, prior drug use is a nonissue. I've been a good citizen and a hard worker in my industry for three decades. So on this score, I can't attack Obama. There are, IMHO, more important flaws to harp on.
Sorry, but I felt compelled to confess (damn you, Catholic school!)....
P.S. to Joy to the World: I agree that on his merits Obama is a bad choice for VP, but I don't foresee Obama supporters voting for Hillary any more than I see Hillary supporters voting for Obama. I won't.
Marlbarack Man:p
You come up with the wittiest phrases! I especially love Hope_nosis!
Thanks for the amusement. Much needed!
Peter in Ft Laud
03-10-2008, 06:59 PM
I just completed the registration process -- how do I write my first "general comment" ?
Optixmom
03-10-2008, 07:11 PM
Marlbarack Man:p
I am going to forward this to SoCal4Hillary...this would make a great anti-obama avatar or T-shirt...:D
Optixmom
03-10-2008, 07:13 PM
I just completed the registration process -- how do I write my first "general comment" ?
Peter,
You can either go to the bottom of a particular thread and hit the reply button to reply to a thread...OR...you can choose a topic off of the main page and hit the "new thread" button to create a new topic for discussion.
Welcome!
--Optix
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