From the 9/25/07 primary debate:
MR. RUSSERT: Senator Obama, a national law to ban smoking in all public places?
SENATOR OBAMA: I think that local communities are making enormous strides, and I think they’re doing the right thing on this. If it turns out that we’re not seeing enough progress at the local level, then I would favor a national law. I don’t think we’ve seen the local laws play themselves out entirely, because I think you’re seeing an enormous amount of progress in Chicago, in New York, in other major cities around the country. And because I think we have been treating this as a public health problem and educating the public on the dangers of secondhand smoke, that that pressure will continue.
As I said, if we can’t provide these kinds of protections at the local level, which would be my preference, I would be supportive of a national law.
MR. RUSSERT: Have you been successful in stopping smoking?
SENATOR OBAMA: I have. The — you know, the best cure is my wife. (Laughter.)
Democrats: The Do As I Say, Not as I Do Party.
Also announcing he successfully quit smoking in that national in September debate, while Jake Tapper smelled smoke all over him in August:
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 as a nation are confident is the right one. (Corny, I know.)
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/obama-is-smokin.html
GEE WONDER WHAT ELSE HE LIED ABOUT IN DEBATES???
Every chance this man has to p!ss, sh!t or puke on the Constitution, I swear to God, he'll take it.
Maybe this will be a SCOTUS litmus test of his:
"Do you believe the individual states should be allowed any rights whatsoever?"
"Well, I guess, that yes, there are some--"
"Next!