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SanJoaquinSooner
4/4/2008, 12:42 AM
Obama is Smokin'

April 03, 2008 9:29 AM

Last August, I ran into Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, outside the Senate chamber in the Capitol.

This was before the Obama surge, before he had omnipresent Secret Service agents, back when you might see him strolling solo.

We chatted for a second, mainly about the Pakistan speech he'd recently given and about how the media had covered it. He was in good spirits.

As any close friend or family member can attest, I have an unusually keen sense of smell and immediately I smelled cigarette smoke on Obama. Frankly, he reeked of cigarettes.

Obama ran off before I could ask him if he'd just snuck a smoke, so I called his campaign.

They denied it. He'd quit months before, in February, they insisted. He chewed nicorette.

But I knew what I'd smelled and I asked his campaign to double-check and to ask him if he'd had a cigarette.

They reported back that he had told them he hadn't had a cigarette since he quit.

And maybe that was true. Maybe I imagined the cigarette smoke. My olfactory nerve somehow misfired.

Except….last night on MSNBC's Hardball, Obama admitted that his attempt to wean himself from the vile tobacco weed had not been entirely successful.

“I fell off the wagon a couple times during the course of it, and then was able to get back on," he said. "But it is a struggle like everything else.”

Now I wonder about last August.

It's not a big deal in the scheme of things -- the war on Iraq, a major economic crisis -- indeed, it's miniscule. Hardly worth mentioning.

Except that I don't like feeling that I wasn't being dealt with honestly. And as much as citizens who are suspect of the media might scoff at such a notion, many of us consider ourselves to be your representatives to help make sure our leaders are telling us the truth, and leading the country down a path we're confident is the right one. (Corny, I know.)

This isn't the only time I've felt that way about the Obama campaign, of course -- its response to the Austan Goolsbee controversy was a profile in dissembling. (Not that Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain or their campaigns are entirely innocent in this area either. Or even that Obama is necessarily the worst offender.)

Still.

- jpt

Sooner_Havok
4/4/2008, 12:44 AM
Least he don't chew

Frozen Sooner
4/4/2008, 12:51 AM
You have GOT to be kidding me.

Sooner_Havok
4/4/2008, 12:52 AM
If you can't think of anything else to hurt a guy, say he smokes

shaun4411
4/4/2008, 12:53 AM
or say he's secretly gay

Sooner_Havok
4/4/2008, 01:05 AM
But you cannot, under any circumstances, question a padded résumé, or point out differences between you and the other candidate that they have already pointed out.

soonerscuba
4/4/2008, 01:09 AM
Who doesn't like a hit off the hookah after Friday masque?

Sooner_Havok
4/4/2008, 01:11 AM
Who doesn't like a hit off the hookah after Friday masque?

boooooooooo, get off the stage:D

Sooner Born Sooner Bred
4/4/2008, 06:42 AM
I'd think running for President just *might* make it a little more difficult to quit smoking. Don't most people smoke to calm their nerves?

I'm not a smoker, but I still say BFD.

StoopTroup
4/4/2008, 07:05 AM
I just finished his book.

He even attests to needing to quit during a trip to his Father's Funeral in Africa.

I think it's something he struggles with greatly.

I'm sure most of the folks around him are really laying down the pressure for him to quit...especially for his image.

I quit for good back in 1990.

I never really enjoyed it except for that initial blood rush it seemed to give you. After a couple of puffs...I could have tossed it away.

Obama seems to have always had lots on his mind so I wonder if smoking just has become a way of taking a cerebral break and has turned into a physical addiction.

Agreed though...it's his problem not my problem with him.

JohnnyMack
4/4/2008, 09:38 AM
Who gives a ****?

12
4/4/2008, 10:02 AM
Military can't smoke on ships? That's pretty messed up. I mean, I can understand it on a submarine, but ships?

That's a tad overboard.

OU4LIFE
4/4/2008, 10:57 AM
Who doesn't like a hit off the hookah after Friday masque?

*raises hand*

SoonerTerry
4/4/2008, 11:47 AM
If I could make this thread stand up I would kick it in the face..

SoonerTerry
4/4/2008, 11:50 AM
Except that I don't like feeling that I wasn't being dealt with honestly. And as much as citizens who are suspect of the media might scoff at such a notion, many of us consider ourselves to be your representatives to help make sure our leaders are telling us the truth, and leading the country down a path we're confident is the right one. (Corny, I know.)

Corny aint the word I was thinkin about this drivel


- jpt

and is this you San wakeen Sooner?

shaun4411
4/4/2008, 11:52 AM
if you dont like it, dont smoke.

sooneron
4/4/2008, 11:59 AM
Tough habit to kick. I haven't with any regularity for about 2-3 years now. If someone is smoking when we're drinking, I bum one (occasionally). This happens MAYBE once in three months or so. I know some people that have tried everything. It can be a bear. I could give a **** if BHO smokes, however.

Pricetag
4/4/2008, 01:02 PM
As any close friend or family member can attest, I have an unusually keen sense of smell and immediately I smelled cigarette smoke on Obama.
I hate to break it to you, dude, but it doesn't take any kind of nasal superpowers to smell cigarettes on someone.

dw17
4/4/2008, 01:04 PM
Maybe he just went to a concert. That's what I'd tell my parents back in the day when I came home smelling like, uh, cigarette smoke.

TUSooner
4/4/2008, 01:05 PM
I never quite broke the habit myself, I smoke maybe 10-15 ciggies per week (in a heavy week) and cigars now and then. And I don't really like shmokin in general. Wish I'd cut it out altogether.
But I'd actually think well of a candidate that said, "Yeah, I smoke. So what?!"

yermom
4/4/2008, 01:39 PM
who the **** calls someone's office to ask if they were smoking?

either this guy is writing bad satire, or he's a ****ing moron

TexasSooner01
4/4/2008, 01:53 PM
I could care less if he does smoke...my question is "is he the one for the Job?"