Barack Obama
Media Matters – Gibson called Obama’s long-known cigarette smoking a “dirty little secret” –It begins. Let’s face it, this guy is not going to be the next President. But this sort of “scandal” is a real eye-roller. The scandal is within a scandal too. Supposedly Obama smokes three cigs a day? How does that work? Lies I say! Will he crank it up under stress? Will he be smoking at the podium during his swearing in? Does it keep him thin? This is going to get funnier and funnier.
Wagering point: odds are that he does some TV interview about this topic and groans about how hard it is to stop. Place your bets on this when you can. It’s a lock.
On the January 17 edition of Fox News’ The Big Story, host John Gibson, during a discussion with Manhattan Institute senior fellow John H. McWhorter and Young Democrats of America’s Malia Lazu about Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) — who on January 16 announced his decision to form a presidential exploratory committee — said: “And [Obama’s] team works overtime trying to hide Obama’s dirty little secret. He is — get this — a cigarette smoker. The point is: What else do we not know about Barack Obama?” Despite Gibson’s claim that Obama’s smoking is “a dirty little secret,” Obama told the Chicago Tribune in December 2005 that his smoking is “an ongoing battle,” and his cigarette use was, in fact, known during his 2004 Senate campaign, when his wife told the Chicago Sun-Times that he smokes “about three Marlboros a day.”
found by Mr. Justin
Wow a cigarette smoker? The guy must also be a drug dealer and user, a child molester, and a terrorist if thats the case.
My favourite quote…
LAZU: I think Americans — I think Americans will be happy that his vice doesn’t lead him to pages or to choking his mistress.
Bush doesn’t drink or smoke and look at where we are! I’d much rather have a President whose vice is a cigarette than a bomb.
The next thing you’ll hear is that Obama doesn’t kiss babies out of fear of getting Cooties.
What’s the problem?
Everyone knows that smoking is cool.
So if Obama smokes, he must be cool too.
GWB: “I wanna invade Iran!!!”
Aide: “Sir, just calm down and have a cigarette.”
GWB: “Oh. Ok. Ask Cheney if I can take the rest of the day off.”
LOL! I just finished watching Apollo 13 and everyone smoked in there – reminded me of “the good old days” when we supposedly didn’t know smoking was bad for you.
I’m glad John found this, it is rediculous to say the least.
How does he smoke it? From his nostrils?
It’s not important that he smokes, of course, but it’s VERY TELLING that he tries to keep the habit a secret.
Does this senator/candidate not have either the will power to quit or the courage to admit his habit?
9,
He keeps it a secret cause he’s thinking of the children. And he’s not a member of the anti-smoking lobby… Unlike some former GOP congressmen who are “protecting the children” while trying to bang them on the side…
9 …he tries to keep the habit a secret.
Didn’t you read this?
Despite Gibson’s claim that Obama’s smoking is “a dirty little secret,” Obama told the Chicago Tribune in December 2005 that his smoking is “an ongoing battle,” and his cigarette use was, in fact, known during his 2004 Senate campaign, when his wife told the Chicago Sun-Times that he smokes “about three Marlboros a day.”
Is that your idea of “keeping it a secret”??
The only reason Bush doesn’t smoke is because he hasn’t yet figured out how to light a match.
9 – By that logic you’d better push to impeach Cheney for not allowing anyone but oil industry lobbyists into his energy policy meetings. Leaving aside that Obama’s smoking has never been a secret (see #11 for a reminder, if you can’t read the original), three cigs a day is pretty small potatoes compared to wiping Dubya’s AWOL records and drunk driving tickets. Hell, we can’t even read Dubya’s daddy’s presidential papers, last I heard – held secretively by his brother in Florida, or something like that. Yeah, let’s talk about untrustworthy people keeping secrets.
Obama will be the next president. He is more popular then you think.
Who cares if he smokes 3 cigs a day, at least the is human.
#9 – It’s not important that he smokes, of course, but it’s VERY TELLING that he tries to keep the habit a secret.
Does this senator/candidate not have either the will power to quit or the courage to admit his habit?
Quitting isn’t about will power.
Addiction isn’t about will power.
And I wouldn’t question the courage of a black man who stands up in America today and asks for the opportunity to lead.
Fox news…. What a surprise.
He smokes, but he doesn’t inhale.
I am conflicted over Obama. Many say he does not have the experience in government. I see that as a plus. Being basically conservative, though, I fear he would have to sell his soul for support from the Dems.
But I guess if he can drive across a bridge without drowning a staffer or resist the urge to bonk an intern in the broom closet, I can handle his smoking.
15: You give points for being black??! How racist!
And I was a smoker for decades after starting as a young teen. It was an addiction and took will power to stop. (I didn’t get the help of a doctor or 12-point meetings.)
10: The best way he could be an example to children would be t quit politics.
11 and others: Dvorak’s post is headed titled with the words, “Dirty Little Secret.” I’ll bet he never smokes knowing the cameras are rolling at a campaign stop. FDR and JFK did, of course, but they wouldn’t today. That’s the definition of Politically-correct.
Republicans have their work cut out for them in digging up ways to trash Senator Obama.
Smoking is a nice start but they got their work cut out for them. Bush is gonna have to get the CIA involved. Plant a few weeds here and there. Remember, it’s all about “fight’n da war on terr’r “
#21 the Republicans won’t need to trash Obama. When Hitlery decides to claim her spot as the Democrat nominee, she and the commie news media will take care of him.
# 20 – OhForTheLoveOf:
I’ve been a ‘lurker’ for quite a while – dvorak’s blog is my daily staple – but now I just have to say that your comment is the best I’ve ever read, and I wouldn’t have said it better (not that I could…). Nothing to add, nothing to edit – it was brilliant. Thanks.
Gibby is such a hack…he’s a wanna-be O’Reilly who is pathetic and accusatory in everything he does.
He smokes 3 cigs a day! Oh my god, what else is he hiding?!?
Pathetic.
23,
I agree. OFTLO did a good job. But it’s also a bad thing, because lil’pete is gonna have a hard time slandering now… And that’s no way to keep a debate going.
I doubt Pete was slandering. Many people believe that to cite color or ethnicity about a person is racist, because we shouldn’t note a persons race or ethnic roots, but the quality of the person period. It comes from people saying….Hillary Clinton is a Senator from New York, but then saying….Barack Obama, the BLACK Senator from Illinois. Why do we have to have it pointed out that Obama is black, when no one says Hillary is a white Senator? Just examples of where I hope Pete was coming from.
Now….why is 3 cigs a day a habit? I would worry more if he never walked on the wild side. 🙂
Jeez, I dunno…
The PC, nanny-state types who are itching to vote for him simply because of his skin color are apt to get their collective panties in a wad over this.
Anyway, a pack or two a day is detrimental, sure; but 3 a day? That’s too little to have any effect on anyone with reasonable respiratory function. And anyway, they’re his lungs, not yours or mine.
It’s not Republicans, but Hillary’s campaign that is getting scared. She’s in fourth place in some polls right now. Throw this in with the story that he grew up in a madrassah, and they’re trying to knock him out of the race right now.
I thought the big story here was the couple of quotes by John H. McWhorter who said, “the reason Obama is considered such a big deal is simply because he’s black” and “[i]t’s almost like he’s mammy”.
If a caucasian public personality had said that, then the proverbial shit would hit the fan. Racial slurs and slanders are offensive, whomever makes them.
Are we really sure that the current POTUS hasn’t tippled a little, nor put a little pick-me-up up his nose?
It’s a nonstory.
Yeah, I’m late to the party as usual, but I can’t let this pass. OFTLO, I often agree, to a greater or lesser degree, because I’m generally a small-l liberal, but I refuse to follow the lefty party line, because I refuse to follow ANY party line.
This is simply so wrong:
“The definition of “politically correct” is: adjective, used as a slander or a slur against any political position or idealogical stand that differs from that of the one levelling the accusation…
It’s a meaningless bullshit phrase that might have had meaning at one time but is now no longer instructive or useful in any way.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. PC is alive and well. And it is an ironic label used to designate extreme ultraliberal horseshit. PC is the totalitarian “speech codes” on campus. PC is defending vicious criminals like Tookie Williams and Mumia and OJ – because they’re black, they’re “victims.” PC is women who say every act of male-female intercourse is rape. PC is jamming your beliefs (and enlisting government help in doing so) down everyone else’s throat because you are so obviously “right,” like making smoking illegal in people’s cars. PC is moronic shit like “Eurocentric culture” and “dead white European males are responsible for everything bad.”
PC is smug, self-righteous Marxist propaganda that brooks no disagreement. And it’s alive and well – you’ve just gotten used to it, because it’s infiltrated your life so gradually you haven’t noticed.
In fact, a number of entries on this blog are expressions of shared incredulity at instances of PC excess – they’re just not labeled as such.
The issue as to whether or not Barack Obama would be qualified, or electable to serve as President because he smokes cigarettes, I assume was raised because of health concerns. The ones more notably that come to mind are lung conditions such as lung cancer, emphysema, etc, etc. Obviously, we’ve been inundated as of late by reports from the media and health care industry specifically noting that these conditions are a result of smoking, so it’s completely understandable how people might refer to that as a basis for their concern.
However with regards to this issue, there’s a dirty little secret you might be interested in knowing about, that the healthcare industry has conveniently forgotten to mention over the years. In addition, it’s quite apparent they have no desire to come forward and divulge this to the public any time soon, much less make an effort to correct/dispel any inaccuracies or rumors associated with the issue either. Yes, it appears they’re quite content the way things are – no matter how many people may be affected by their silence, or omissions. But with reference to the healthcare industry, there can never be any good that will ever come out of dishonesty, or blatant omission, so I feel strongly the public has a right to know, and absolutely deserves to know exactly what our “medical professionals” (or shall I say, the medical mafia) has been deliberately keeping from us. Having said that, what I’m about to tell you is really just the tip of the iceberg as far as what they’ve truly been able to distort, and keep under wrap. And keep in mind, if they can get away with misleading the public about one thing, is it not logical to assume they might very well be doing the same thing in other areas of concern as well? – Say, for example heart disease, obesity, etc., etc? Just remember, if there’s a profit to be made in some way, often times that far outweighs the desire to be forthright. Case in point … our state health departments literally make millions of $ each year off the backs of smokers (through higher taxes, etc), so is it any wonder they would ever want to upset the gold-filled apple cart, and do anything that could possibly jeopardize that income? Well, I think it’s about time the truth comes out, and our so-called medical professionals are held accountable for the chaos they’ve enjoyed inflicting on the public – all in the name of good health.
What this is about is called: Alpha-1 Antitrypsin – commonly referred to by doctors as Alpha-1. What it is basically, is a genetic deficiency linked to all kinds of lung problems – including lung cancer, emphysema, asthma, etc, etc, R-E-G-A-R-D-L-E-S-S whether a person smokes cigarettes or not, whether they’ve ever smoked in their life, or have ever even been around cigarette smoke – period. In other words, if for example there were no such thing as cigarettes, people would still get lung cancer, emphysema, etc, etc., simply because some of us are already genetically predisposed for having lung problems. A simple blood test in a doctor’s office can determine whether or not you have the deficiency; but unfortunately, chances are, doctors are not going to willingly offer that test to you. But this is why there are some people who get lung cancer who have never smoked a day in their life, and this is also why other people might smoke 50 years, and never have lung problems. Again, it doesn’t matter how much they try, and try, to put blame for this on a person’s lifestyle … The fact is, there IS a genetic link to these lung conditions. But again, the medical community would prefer we not know about this, because otherwise, that would interfere with their true agenda – which is to put as much blame as possible on individuals for the medical conditions they may have. It’s really a shame we’ve allowed them so much power that they’ve been able to get away with this; but from their perspective, it’s better for them, and of course easier too, just to concentrate on blaming the people themselves for certain conditions/illnesses, and they can just wash their hands of it. That way, they don’t have to worry about wasting valuable time studying genetics at all anymore if they don’t want to, and they certainly wouldn’t have to worry about being hounded to get a cure/treatment for something if they could just put the blame for that condition on the people themselves anyway. And of course, need I be remindful as to what happens when there is a cure for something, … for example, polio? The Doctors are the ones who end up with less $$ in their pockets.