Posted on 12/17/2008 11:09:43 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Cigarette clamped between thumb and finger, a louche Barack Obama leans back with smouldering eyes and draws smoke deep into his lungs.
Taken in 1980, the picture shows Barack Obama
as a college freshman
The President elect posed for student photographer
Lisa Jack at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California
Ms Jack kept the images locked in a safe during the election
campaign so they could not be used for political purposes
When he agreed to model for an aspiring photographers portfolio, the prospect of this image reemerging 28 years later as he prepared to enter the White House probably never crossed his mind.
Back then he was a student at Occidental College in Los Angeles struggling with his racial identity and, by his own admission, experimenting with drugs. These days he can claim to be the fittest President-elect in history, working out six days a week with a gym regime that some suspect borders on obsessive. But he is still trying to kick cigarettes.
Time , naming Mr Obama as its Person of the Year, yesterday published the long-lost pictures with the photographer, Lisa Jack, saying that they showed a spirit of fun and thoughtfulness in the President-elect.
The film, she said, was kept locked in a safe during the election campaign so that it could not be used for political purposes. Some polls have suggested that his smoking habit was a bigger barrier to him getting elected than colour of his skin.
Although Mr Obama was careful to avoid being photographed smoking on the campaign trail, he has acknowledged in recent interviews that despite promising to quit there were times where I have fallen off the wagon.
Under pressure from
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
The mind boggles.
Related thread:
Next president lets us down by being a smoker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2150045/posts
How dare you insult the great Huggy Bear by lumping him in with Obama?
This is the leader of the free world. We’re doomed.
Man - -
I feel so proud.
/s
He’s no leader. He’ll just be occupying the office for a while.
Sissy.
It's the COMMUNEist organizer that worries me. Especially when that COMMUNEity is the U.S.A.
yitbos
He looks like a young kid trying to dress like a drug dealer from “Miami Vice”.
IMO, he looks a little “faggy” in those pix.
Maybe Larry Sinclair was telling the truth. (I believed him all along.)
Your President Elect looks like a male prostitute. A cheap one.
‘cigarette’? That’s not what it looks like to me.
The fittest president in history!!! Oh, God.
Huggy Bear!!!!
Wassup, my man!
What else about this man's past is locked in a safe somewhere, and why?
...in order to maximize their "scandal" value post-election, and make 10x more money selling the pictures once Obama won the presidency.
It's called "spreading the wealth around."
-PJ
He looks like a fool. NOONE dressed like that in 1980, except maybe nerdy kids trying to act hip. To be fair, he was only 18. Still, after seeing him bike riding, it strangely gives some comfort knowing he is an awkward fool.
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