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Let the Guy Smoke: Obama Is Probably Fibbing About Giving Up Cigarettes. That's Okay.
The Washington Post ^ | November 20, 2008 | Michael Kinsley

Posted on 11/26/2008 5:49:39 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

It is still okay to discriminate against one group of Americans. This discrimination is not only legal, it is encouraged. You see members of this oppressed minority huddled outside in rain and snow, forbidden to seek refuge. No one feels sorry for them. And yet we may have just elected one of these pariahs as president.

Smoking is a disgusting habit that can kill you and those around you. Barack Obama claims to have quit, but the evidence is ambiguous. And the media's lack of interest in this question supports the charge that Obama is enjoying a honeymoon with the press. Compare the attention given to John McCain's melanoma -- a health problem more likely than smoking to kill him in the next four years, but also a problem beyond his control. Smoking, by contrast, is behavior. It sets a deplorable example for young people, millions of whom Obama has inspired into active citizenship.

Obama has never denied that he was a smoker for much of his adult life. He said as early as February 2007 that he had promised his wife he would quit in order to run for president. He also admitted as recently as this June -- when his presidential campaign was about three-quarters over -- that he hadn't done so. In May the Obama campaign released a carefully worded letter from his doctor, who wrote that Obama's "own history included intermittent cigarette smoking. He has quit this practice on several occasions and is currently using Nicorette gum with success." Obama has declined to amplify.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: addiction; bho2008; democratscandals; doublestandard; drivebymedia; flipflop; fubo; kinsley; media; nannystate; newsblackout; obama; obamabreakspromises; obamaflipflops; obamalies; obamasmokes; obamatransitionfile; presidentelectobama; presstitues; presstitutes; pufflist; smoking; tobacco
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The nuanced liberal mind grasps that everything depends on context. Even smoking, which lefties have been self-righteously railing against for years, can be cool under certain circumstances — for example, if the Lord Obama does it.
1 posted on 11/26/2008 5:49:40 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why is it ok for him? I’m a smoker and I put up with so much crap when I want to light one up. Again, why is it ok for him?


2 posted on 11/26/2008 5:50:59 PM PST by Free America52
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What a wuss...real men smoke cigars.....


3 posted on 11/26/2008 5:51:11 PM PST by nevergore ("It could be that the purpose of my life is simply to serve as a warning to others.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

But God forbid we let the American underlings decide if they can smoke. In a bar. On the sidewalk. In the car.


4 posted on 11/26/2008 5:52:13 PM PST by dk88 (Kill it grill it)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Smoking is a disgusting habit that can kill you and those around you.

Word up

Bears repeating.... Smoking is a disgusting habit that can kill you and those around you.

5 posted on 11/26/2008 5:52:13 PM PST by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It is going to be tough for him to smoke since he will be spending most of the next four years in a federal government building.


6 posted on 11/26/2008 5:52:20 PM PST by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

You can't handle the truth.
7 posted on 11/26/2008 5:52:27 PM PST by ari-freedom (Turkeys belong on the Thanksgiving table, not in the White House.)
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To: Free America52

I’m sure after that security briefing he ripped that nicotine patch right off and revealed a blonde patch.


8 posted on 11/26/2008 5:52:31 PM PST by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
This is what the defenders of an oppressive government have been reduced to writing about.

A dangerous shame.

9 posted on 11/26/2008 5:53:24 PM PST by rvoitier
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To: Drango

so... how is Biden doing these days?


10 posted on 11/26/2008 5:54:25 PM PST by ari-freedom (Turkeys belong on the Thanksgiving table, not in the White House.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Well, lung cancer and its metastatic forms are not pretty.

If you work indoors around smokers who smoke indoors or outdoors, but especially indoors, it’s hazy all the time.

RJR and the others are no doubt pleased as punch.


11 posted on 11/26/2008 5:55:06 PM PST by combat_boots ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."Aldous Huxley)
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To: Drango
Smoking is a disgusting habit that can kill you and those around you.

It can kill you. The second hand smoke danger argument is tenuous at best.

12 posted on 11/26/2008 5:56:49 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body. -C.S. Lewis)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I wouldn’t care enough to infringe on someone’s right to kill themselves and their loved ones slowly...except for the fact that I have to smell it. I HATE the smell - it’s toxic. It doesn’t just affect the smoker - it seeps into cars and buildings and hangs on hair and clothes and permeates the area that non-smokers have to breathe - HAVE TO BREATHE. I HATE IT. I hope I haven’t been unclear.


13 posted on 11/26/2008 5:59:27 PM PST by WKL815 (If the phrase "personal responsibility" makes you defensive, you may be a liberal.)
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To: nevergore

To each their own, I enjoy smoking a Pall Mall or Chesterfield although fortunately not obsessively.

Who am I to deny Obama the same right?


14 posted on 11/26/2008 6:03:49 PM PST by I_Like_Spam
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To: Free America52
Why is it ok for him? I’m a smoker and I put up with so much crap when I want to light one up. Again, why is it ok for him?

We don't have Royalty in this country (theoretically)

I should be able to smoke anywhere he is able to smoke.

15 posted on 11/26/2008 6:04:13 PM PST by elkfersupper
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I can see it now. The anointed one pacing outside the WH grounds going through a few packs, as he keeps his hands in his pockets, and his suit collar over his neck, while his security adviser is telling him, he must come down to the war room during some real emergency crisis, and he tells them to bug the f**& off, and leave him alone for a while.
Meanwhile in the war room, stupid Joe tries to lecture the Joint Chiefs and one finally can't take it anymore and rams the VP's stupid head into the oak table.
We are in for a grand four years.
16 posted on 11/26/2008 6:05:53 PM PST by Marine_Uncle (Duncan Hunter was our best choice.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

BO is a weak kneed piss ant. So sad that the new “leader” of the “free” world doesn’t have the character or intestinal fortitude to quit. God forbid this idiot has to make any major decisions that involve resolve. ~sarc.


17 posted on 11/26/2008 6:06:39 PM PST by albie
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To: combat_boots
Well, lung cancer and its metastatic forms are not pretty.

There is no proof that smoking causes lung cancer.

People who never smoked and who never hung around people who smoked get lung cancer.

18 posted on 11/26/2008 6:06:41 PM PST by elkfersupper
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To: nevergore
real men smoke cigars

Some guys at my club say that BHO does too.

ML/NJ

19 posted on 11/26/2008 6:06:58 PM PST by ml/nj
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To: WKL815

I suggest that you eat beans regularly in order to generate your own personal atmosphere, where you’ll feel more at home.


20 posted on 11/26/2008 6:07:13 PM PST by Max in Utah (A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.)
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