. . .is a smoker. Big deal or not?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0702060167feb06,1,1003440.story?coll=chi-news-hed

2/7/2007 2:24:07 AM

but he speaks so well

2/7/2007 2:43:23 AM

This is neither new nor earth shattering information. You lose.

[Edited on February 7, 2007 at 3:52 AM. Reason : .]

2/7/2007 3:41:29 AM

who cares

2/7/2007 3:50:28 AM

If that's the worst they can come up with...

2/7/2007 7:32:05 AM

Are radical Islamic extremists allowed to smoke?

2/7/2007 7:34:06 AM

smoking is a sign of weakness.

2/7/2007 7:36:43 AM

I bet he likes transfats, too.

2/7/2007 8:27:03 AM

and really skinny models

2/7/2007 9:19:08 AM

and tobacco farmers

2/7/2007 9:53:44 AM

AND THE NORTH!! STUPID YANKEE!!

2/7/2007 9:56:20 AM

when life gets hard
i just pick up the card
and call the smiley face
call 'em over to my place

2/7/2007 9:58:22 AM

i can think of another great president who smokes. . . .

2/7/2007 10:25:51 AM

This President didn't smoke and helped save the country by shooting down some of those illegal space aliens.

2/7/2007 10:29:49 AM

Some of you are fucking defensive and dense! (1) My vote for or against Obama would NOT be based on his smoking habit, and (2) I didn't say Obama's smoking mattered--others are reporting it and they are saying it matters. In addition, some are saying his smoking might even help him--did you even bother to read the fucking article before you started spewing partisan venom? The answer is self-evident.

The following are a few quotations from the Chicago Tribune piece:

Quote :

"Americans haven't elected an open and unabashed cigarette-smoking president since Franklin Roosevelt, though others such as Lyndon Johnson smoked on occasion."

Quote :

"Kicking the habit is good for just about any politician's image, said Irving Rein, a Northwestern University communications studies professor and author of 'High Visibility,' which examines the marketing of celebrities. Attitudes toward smokers have changed dramatically since FDR's triumphal display of his ivory cigarette holder in an era when smoking made a person seem elegant and powerful. Back then, Hollywood glamorized cigarettes almost as fashion accessories. Attitudes had changed radically by the late 1990s, when First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized actress Julia Roberts for portraying a movie character with a compulsive smoking habit."

Quote :

"'I hope he makes it a public fight,' said Mark Peysakhovich of the American Heart Association, who used to lobby Obama on anti-smoking policies and other public health issues when Obama was a member of the Illinois Senate. 'If he's got a nic fit and he's in a bad mood, I hope some of that comes out. Maybe it will encourage other people to be brave enough to try.' It might even score political points for Obama, he said. 'It could make him more human to people,' said Peysakhovich, 'if he's got the same kind of struggles the rest of us have.'"

2/7/2007 11:36:35 AM

To someone, it's a big deal. I've seen the polling on it.

2/7/2007 11:51:38 AM

Quote :

"Some of you are fucking defensive and dense!"

who is that directed at?

2/7/2007 12:28:20 PM

Maybe, if the GOP can relate his smoking to helping Big Tabacco and killing children.


then the world would end.

2/7/2007 12:39:23 PM

^^ The ones that are acting like this is a fucking GOP conspiracy.

^ Like this guy. The GOP is not forcing Obama to smoke, the GOP is not making him hide it, and the GOP is not reporting it--Nightline and the Chicago Tribune are not affiliated with the GOP.

PS: If you think Obama's not hiding it, find a picture of him smoking. I understand there's a substantial reward for such an image.

[Edited on February 7, 2007 at 12:48 PM. Reason : ^ PPS: "Big Tabacco" ]

2/7/2007 12:46:29 PM

A) Who really gives a shit?

B) If you really care, then you are being nitpicky


I don't know at this point who I would vote for in a theoretical election, but a personal choice such as this would not likely have any bearing on my decision.

No I don't smoke.

2/7/2007 12:50:12 PM

I'm not voting for him because of real issues, I don't give 5 flying fucks if he smokes

2/7/2007 2:51:33 PM

i think it'd be cool to have a badass, Lucky Strike-smoking President.

2/7/2007 2:54:52 PM

you know who else was anti-smoking? Hitler!!

put that in your pipe and smoke it

2/7/2007 3:01:29 PM

all he has to do is quit and say that god helped him, but not really quit

2/7/2007 3:02:36 PM

aha lucky strike

this is currently my away message by coinkidink

2/7/2007 6:10:30 PM

here is something that is ACTUALLY hypocritical. in North Carolina businesses have to have a smoking section, yet people smoke in the middle of the legislative building. its like the fucking 60s in there.

and this state isnt unique.

2/7/2007 6:16:39 PM

^ I don't think that's allowed anymore (smoking in the legislature, I mean).

2/7/2007 6:20:52 PM

Quote :

"^ Like this guy. The GOP is not forcing Obama to smoke, the GOP is not making him hide it, and the GOP is not reporting it--Nightline and the Chicago Tribune are not affiliated with the GOP. PS: If you think Obama's not hiding it, find a picture of him smoking. I understand there's a substantial reward for such an image. [Edited on February 7, 2007 at 12:48 PM. Reason : ^ PPS: "Big Tabacco" ]"

Okay chief, what are you asking then?

I took away that you were asking in Obama smoking is a big deal or not? Soo i gave a little snark on the question.

you know since Big Tabacco and the GOP are buddies (you know funny half truth) and if the GOP (Obama's main opponent in 08)...and i made a joke.

do i seriously have to walk you through that again?

2/7/2007 6:55:20 PM

Quote :

"Americans haven't elected an open and unabashed cigarette-smoking president since Franklin Roosevelt, though others such as Lyndon Johnson smoked on occasion."

Have we had a serious presidential candidate who was an open and unabashed cigarette-smoker since then?

And if we have had one, was their smoking a factor in their not being elected?

This quotation means absolutely nothing.

2/7/2007 7:05:06 PM

reagan's jellybean addiction was a substitute for smokes

2/7/2007 7:06:14 PM

fukken big jelly

2/7/2007 7:27:36 PM

Quote :

"I don't think that's allowed anymore (smoking in the legislature, I mean)."

unless the rules were changed in january it is. the last time i was in there, may of 06, there were ashtrays and couches in every hallway.

in congress its not allowed in certain areas anymore, but they still have shit like "smoking rooms". which, as far as i know, would be illegal in every other workplace in the country.

2/7/2007 9:08:53 PM

2/7/2007 9:47:13 PM

he also admitted to using coke and weed

if you care

2/7/2007 11:36:31 PM

^^ You brought that stupid so-called Muslim school shit up, not me.

Here's another quotation from the linked article:

Quote :

"In Obama's case, the pressure isn't just political. His wife has always been concerned about his smoking and, over the holidays, according to family friend Valerie Jarrett, the two of them agreed that he 'should stop now.' 'He began the process of quitting over Christmas,' Jarrett said. 'I have not heard of him smoking over the last several weeks.' There's a little hedge room in the time frame, allowing for the possibility that Obama's resolve might have slipped a time or two. Obama didn't clarify the point."

If it's no big deal, why is there not ONE picture of Obama smoking? There's a fucking reward out for such a photo! Shit, he's already ducking and dodging. Be a man! Step outside your office and blaze one up--probably a Kool menthol--look at the cameras and say, "Yeah, I smoke, what about it?"

Like this guy:


[Edited on February 8, 2007 at 12:08 AM. Reason : .]

2/8/2007 12:06:35 AM

why would he go light up for the cameras? its possible for someone to smoke and also not want tn encourage smoking

2/8/2007 12:22:08 AM

Yes, be a role model: Hide and duck and dodge and so on. I think people are tired of bullshit.

2/8/2007 1:03:20 AM

clinton was is a pothead and he got elected

2/8/2007 1:05:21 AM

^^What's wrong with wanting to hide smoking? I hid it from previous employers. There is nothing dishonest about it. Methinks someone has too much of an unhealthy fetish for Barack Obama.

2/8/2007 1:14:34 AM

hiding anything is inherently dishonest, whether harmless or not

2/8/2007 1:16:19 AM

hiding something is not dishonest at all.

2/8/2007 1:19:56 AM

i guess that depends on what your definition of is is

2/8/2007 1:24:24 AM

^^^^ I have made it clear: Obama's smoking would not cause me to vote for or against him. MY vote against him would be based on his campaign platform. No matter what some say, I do think it is an issue, and it will become more of an issue as the election nears. "Methinks" you forget how intensely the media microscope examines presidential candidates.

BTW, I would LOVE to vote for a minority presidential candidate--but it has to be the right one. I would vote for Dr. Condoleezza Rice TO-DAY! She has much more executive and foreign policy experience than Obama.


[Edited on February 8, 2007 at 1:28 AM. Reason : ^]

[Edited on February 8, 2007 at 1:33 AM. Reason : PS: Obama's admitted drug use will be an even bigger issue, though. ]

2/8/2007 1:27:42 AM

or your definition of hiding is. He didn't deny that he smokes, if he did that would be a completely different thing. But oh no, he doesn't call a presser to announce to the world he smokes, nor does he walk around smoking constantly.

^and we saw where that foreign policy experience got us. And you sound like a mouthpiece for hannity and o'reilly

[Edited on February 8, 2007 at 1:29 AM. Reason : It's an agumentation]

[Edited on February 8, 2007 at 1:30 AM. Reason : .]

2/8/2007 1:28:29 AM

i meant you were dishonest about your smoking, not obama...when I was saying that your own hiding of your smoking from employers was inherently dishonest...obama is clearly honest about his smoking

^you sound like a mouthpiece for colmes and franken

[Edited on February 8, 2007 at 1:32 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on February 8, 2007 at 1:32 AM. Reason : .]

2/8/2007 1:31:50 AM

It's not dishonest for me to not want to smoke at work.

[Edited on February 8, 2007 at 1:33 AM. Reason : you mean the neutered "liberal" voice on fox news and the annoying wanna be comedian?]

2/8/2007 1:32:30 AM

2/8/2007 1:38:48 AM

^^^^

Quote :

"But oh no, he doesn't call a presser to announce to the world he smokes, nor does he walk around smoking constantly."

What a joke! There's a large REWARD for ONE photo of Obama smoking, for fuck's sake! ONE PHOTO! He's hiding the image of it, man, deal with it!

And fuck that "mouthpiece" bullshit. You don't know me and you don't know shit about me. Hannity AND O'Reilly get on my nerves well over half the time.

[Edited on February 8, 2007 at 1:40 AM. Reason : .]

2/8/2007 1:40:14 AM

2/8/2007 1:40:57 AM

^ ?

2/8/2007 1:43:56 AM