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  1. #1
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member SanJoaquinSooner's Avatar
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    Obama still a closet smoker?

    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

  2. #2
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member Sooner_Havok's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    Least he don't chew
    If I am right, then religious fundamentalists will not go to Heaven, because there is no Heaven. If THEY are right, then they will not go to Heaven, because they are hypocrites.


    -Isaac Asimov

  3. #3
    Soon to be Memphibian

    Frozen Sooner's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    You have GOT to be kidding me.
    "The choices we discern as having been made in the Constitutional Convention impose burdens on governmental proceses that often seem clumsy, inefficient, even unworkable, but those hard choices were consciously made by men who had lived under a form of government that permitted arbitrary governmental acts to go unchecked." INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 (1983) (Burger, C.J.)

  4. #4
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member Sooner_Havok's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    If you can't think of anything else to hurt a guy, say he smokes
    If I am right, then religious fundamentalists will not go to Heaven, because there is no Heaven. If THEY are right, then they will not go to Heaven, because they are hypocrites.


    -Isaac Asimov

  5. #5
    Sooner All-Big XII-2-1+1-1+1 shaun4411's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    or say he's secretly gay
    I'm tired of chasing my dreams. I'm just gonna ask where they're going and catch up with them later.

  6. #6
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member Sooner_Havok's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    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.
    If I am right, then religious fundamentalists will not go to Heaven, because there is no Heaven. If THEY are right, then they will not go to Heaven, because they are hypocrites.


    -Isaac Asimov

  7. #7
    Sooner All-Big XII-2-1+1-1+1
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    Who doesn't like a hit off the hookah after Friday masque?
    Boomer Sooner

  8. #8
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member Sooner_Havok's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    Quote Originally Posted by soonerscuba View Post
    Who doesn't like a hit off the hookah after Friday masque?
    boooooooooo, get off the stage
    If I am right, then religious fundamentalists will not go to Heaven, because there is no Heaven. If THEY are right, then they will not go to Heaven, because they are hypocrites.


    -Isaac Asimov

  9. #9
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member Sooner Born Sooner Bred's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    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.

  10. #10
    Sooner All-World StoopTroup's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    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.

  11. #11
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member JohnnyMack's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    Who gives a ****?

  12. #12
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member 12's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    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.

  13. #13
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member OU4LIFE's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    Quote Originally Posted by soonerscuba View Post
    Who doesn't like a hit off the hookah after Friday masque?
    *raises hand*
    I taste terrific.

  14. #14
    Sooner All-Big XII-2-1+1-1+1 SoonerTerry's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    If I could make this thread stand up I would kick it in the face..
    I fly fake airplanes

  15. #15
    Sooner All-Big XII-2-1+1-1+1 SoonerTerry's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    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?
    I fly fake airplanes

  16. #16
    Sooner All-Big XII-2-1+1-1+1 shaun4411's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    if you dont like it, dont smoke.
    I'm tired of chasing my dreams. I'm just gonna ask where they're going and catch up with them later.

  17. #17
    Soonerfans.com Elitist sooneron's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    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.
    Oh sweet jesus. Its like watching the special olympics in high definition on here now.
    Soonerinabilene

  18. #18
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member Pricetag's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    Quote Originally Posted by SanJoaquinSooner View Post
    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.
    La ola es mía.

  19. #19
    Sooner Benchwarmer dw17's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    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.

  20. #20
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member TUSooner's Avatar
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    Re: Obama still a closet smoker?

    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?!"
    You tell me it's the institution. Well, you know, you'd better free your mind instead.
    (Shoo-bee doo-wah)

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