WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2008
Smoker-In-Chief?
Fresh Focus On Barack Obama's On-And-Off Smoking Habit
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President-elect Barack Obama. Mr. Obama is still struggling to fulfill a promise to his wife to quit smoking. And anti-smoking groups are looking to him for a kind of presidential leadership on tobacco use. (CBS)
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Photo Essay Smoking Bans Some breathe deeply while others fume as tough anti-smoking rules catch on.
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Timeline Tobacco Road Review a history of the tobacco industry, court battles and smoking's health risks.
But recent attention to Mr. Obama's on-and-off smoking habit has pinned a new kind of audacious hope to him. Anti-smoking advocates are counting on Mr. Obama as a role model for others trying to kick the habit, showing them - and himself - that while it's hard, all things are indeed possible in America.
More pressure? One imagines the very thought might send Mr. Obama back to the privacy of his yard to light up. In seriousness, though, his familiar plight - a former smoker who says he's quit, but admittedly falls off the wagon - is potentially "the ultimate teachable moment," as one anti-smoking advocate puts it.
"It's a wonderful opportunity," says Cheryl Healton, president of the American Legacy Foundation, a Washington-based group that seeks to prevent smoking among young people. "The president-elect is in a position to help people understand that it's difficult to quit, and to encourage the 43 million adult Americans who smoke to join him in his efforts."
Mr. Obama can perhaps thank Tom Brokaw for renewing the chatter about his smoking habit. On NBC's "Meet the Press," Brokaw noted Mr. Obama had "ducked" the smoking question previously, and asked if he'd indeed quit, noting the White House is a no-smoking zone. (And Mr. Obama has his incoming secretary of state, former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, to thank for THAT.)
"I have," Mr. Obama said. "What I said was that there are times where I have fallen off the wagon."
"Wait a minute," said Brokaw, "that means you haven't stopped."
"Fair enough," Mr. Obama said. "What I would say is that I have done a terrific job under the circumstances of making myself much healthier. And I think that you will not see any violations of these rules in the White House."
Immediately his response was seen as full of holes. (What about outside the White House? What about unseen violations?) As, of course, it was. And smokers understood it well.
"I totally get it," says Josh Abrams, 28, who works in advertising sales in New York. "He leaves it open, so it wouldn't make him a liar if he were seen with a cigarette."
"I do the same thing," says Abrams, who like Mr. Obama is quitting partly for domestic reasons (Michelle Obama demanded that her husband quit; Abrams' fiancee, Cori, has done the same). "When people ask, I say, 'I'm on my way.' 'I'm in the process.' 'I'm getting there."'
Abrams does have a looming deadline: the end of 2008. If he fails, he knows his fiancee will be sorely disappointed.
But let's face it, that's nothing compared to letting down an entire nation.
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And many have high hopes, among them at least one newspaper's editorial board. "With New Year's almost upon us, and quitting bound to top many a resolution list, the nation's smokers - and possibly future ones - might be expected to turn their eyes to Obama," the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote this week. "And here, we hope, the president-elect will - with the loving encouragement of his wife and daughters, no doubt - set an example that will lead him and other Americans to healthier living."
The president-elect is in a position to help people understand that it's difficult to quit, and to encourage the 43 million adult Americans who smoke to join him in his efforts.
Cheryl Healton, American Legacy FoundationA similar hope, albeit with no implied timetable, comes from Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
"He's shown a firm commitment to beat this addiction even though no one could have tried under more stressful circumstances," Myers says. "It takes courage to admit failure, but even more courage to pledge to succeed."
One might think, given Mr. Obama's clear ability to influence children in many ways, not to mention his own two daughters, that anti-smoking advocates would find him a disappointment on this issue.
Yet they say his foible makes him more human, and better able to teach by example.
"I cheered when I saw him acknowledge to Tom Brokaw the very human reaction that he's fallen off the wagon," says Myers. And the fact that he has two young daughters? "That makes him an even better role model."
If he occasionally lights up, he won't be the most recent White House occupant to do so. First lady Laura Bush, who quit a lifelong smoking habit at least a decade ago, reportedly will bum a cigarette from friends on occasion.
All the positive wishes sent out to Obama might be just the motivator he needs to close the deal. Or maybe not, says Dr. David Jorenby, a specialist in smoking cessation.
"Some smokers who are trying to quit actively want people to check up on them," says Jorenby, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. "For others, it drives them up the wall. One size does not fit all."
Mr. Obama has done a lot right, says Jorenby. First, he hasn't tried to go cold turkey, but rather is using nicotine replacement, in the form of Nicorette. Those using the gum are 1½ times more likely to quit than those using a placebo, health officials have found.
Even more important, Mr. Obama keeps trying. "Relapsing is very common," Jorenby says, with a typical smoker making four to six attempts before getting it right. (Healton puts it even higher, at eight to 11 attempts.)
One common reaction to Mr. Obama's smoking is that it's a mystifying contradiction to the rest of his personality - to the famous discipline that keeps him working out every single day, and helped him run one of the more successful campaigns in U.S. politics.
Jorenby says such logic is a fallacy. "They're not mutually exclusive," he says of discipline and smoking. For one thing, a cigarette often helps smokers concentrate - one reason it's so hard to stop. "The thought of not being able to think clearly is terrifying to them," he says.
And also, people often ignore the fact that tobacco addiction is a chemical dependency. "This is not simply a bad habit that one uses willpower to stamp out," he says.
At least one observer says we all need to leave Mr. Obama alone. In fact, wrote Ron Rosenbaum on Slate.com recently, our lives may depend on it.
Tongue in cheek, Rosenbaum imagines a day in the winter of 2009 when an international crisis has erupted. "Do you want Barack Obama, the guy who has his finger on our nuclear trigger ... all irritable, his nerves and famously smooth temper on edge?"
"Give Obama a break," writes Rosenbaum, who makes clear he's not advocating cigarettes for others. "A smoking break."
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 272 CommentsI had my Camel straights in my jacket pocket when I went to the hospital.
I haven''t had a toke since.
I am thankful for the good doctors and nurses who healed me and showed me that LIFE is to be preferred over personal indulgence and selfishness.
I try not to be a prick and a judgemental assWadd, but I tell all my friends it''s a bad idea to smoke.
I show off the foot-long scar on my chest if they want to see it. Otherwise I keep it covered.
Life is good.
And to say b/c I smoke OUTSIDE of my home and NEVER in my car and I have a child how does that affect me being a good parent?
If you talk like this around children I would have yours taken away and pray for them.
We are smokers nothing more. We are not bad people. We just smoke.
I am tired of nonsmokers thinking they are better then I b/c they do not smoke.
So are non-smoking persons who have comitted murder better than a smoker who committs murder?
Posted by endurorob at 07:06 PM : Dec 13, 2008
I smoked from 1952 to 7/10/2004 avg 1 pack a day. I cannot stand the smell of smoke now but there are times I want one very much. I understand the reasons for not smoking but self rightous non (not ex) smokers make my blood boil. They are the ones that treat smokers worse than cr@p. They are the ones that make the demands that smokers stand outside in the rain, snow, sleet, hail and sometimes good weather to smoke. No one made me quit. I did that the day I died. (some die of pneumonia from standing outside in bad weather) My heart stopped, that simple, I was lucky and was on the emergency room table when it happened else I would not be here now. Do-gooders have mercy on victims of circumstance (Darfur orphans and such) but have no care for the addicted, unless they are alcoholics. you will never see an alcoholic forced to stand outside (except for the homeless).
Do-gooders make me sick, People that really care think about the victim as well as the rest of the people. BTW I am a thinking Christian.
I would rather have smoke on my breath than a foul mouth.
I have to ask...How is Obama''s smoking going to effect you? Do you think you are going to be invited to the White House? And if you were by some outlandish chance at the White House would you really tell the President that his smoking stinks and to put it out? Yeah....I thought so.
I hope that more and more parents are held accountable and that laws are passed to keep these bad parents from fouling the air their children breathe. They should be taken away from their parents until they quit. With the information we have today, there is NO excuse to allow smoking around children. The best part is that these gross people are finally put out on the street and not in the restaurants and bars where people deserve to enjoy life without choking on the stench of smokers.
Posted by VcofReason
The screen name doesn''t seem to match the blabbering commentary.
I hope that more and more parents are held accountable and that laws are passed to keep these bad parents from fouling the air their children breathe. They should be taken away from their parents until they quit. With the information we have today, there is NO excuse to allow smoking around children. The best part is that these gross people are finally put out on the street and not in the restaurants and bars where people deserve to enjoy life without choking on the stench of smokers.
It appears that you are a smoker, inferior, self-righteous and indignant to boot.
If smoking is so great, why would those who find it disgusting and say so, be deemed having superior attitudes? Are you supporting the obvious fact that non-smokers are superior to smokers?
Those who can''''t stand smoking are far less offensive than smokers whose stench infects the very air we breathe. I feel so sorry for the children of smokers, but alas, they have the same genes and are destined to be smokers anyway.
Posted by drivelphobe
I am actually an ex-smoker, havn''t had a smoke since October 2002. One thing I cannot stand is self rightous ex-smokers.
posted by rhs648
I agree totally, at our plant smoking is not permitted inside, so the smokers would go outside on their breaks and lunch to smoke. Then the rule was changed to no smoking within 25 ft of the building. Now a lot of the smokers have taken up dipping snuff and chewing tabacco. So instead of the smoke now they are spitting all the time, in a cup or on the floor. Some times I think the smoke would be better.
It appears that you are a smoker, inferior, self-righteous and indignant to boot.
If smoking is so great, why would those who find it disgusting and say so, be deemed having superior attitudes? Are you supporting the obvious fact that non-smokers are superior to smokers?
Those who can''t stand smoking are far less offensive than smokers whose stench infects the very air we breathe. I feel so sorry for the children of smokers, but alas, they have the same genes and are destined to be smokers anyway.
Posted by d7767w
Not everyone is the same. It is more difficult some han others.
The habit is offensive to those who don''''t smoke. A smoker wreaks, wastes valuable time, and is prone to illnesses. It is a terrible example for the younger generation to know the President smokes.
I had a very successful business for over twenty five years. I refused to hire smokers and I didn''''t do business with smokers. My family has eliminated all smoking friends. Only one relative who smokes, is not included in any family events without his promise to forgo the smoking around the rest of the family. No one wants to be around the smoker and they certainly don''''t want their kids around it.
While it isn''''t illegal, it is thoroughly disgusting and creates a rift in relations with other people.
The fact that Obama is a smoker lessens his worth in my mind and many others.
Posted by drivelphobe at 05:10 PM
And your self rightous, superior attitude is offensive.
So what if Obama chooses to smoke as long as he doesn''''t smoke around people who are bothered by smoke. Have you ever sat next to a 250 pound person on an airplane who needs a shower, a coworker who sits next to you with a cold or flu, or purchased food from a cashier who handles money and then prepares your food without washing his or her hands? Then there are the crotch scratchers. There are far worse things in life than smoking.
Posted by nowaymcgoo
Get over it, get a life, and grow-up. Some people will always be idiots.
The habit is offensive to those who don''t smoke. A smoker wreaks, wastes valuable time, and is prone to illnesses. It is a terrible example for the younger generation to know the President smokes.
I had a very successful business for over twenty five years. I refused to hire smokers and I didn''t do business with smokers. My family has eliminated all smoking friends. Only one relative who smokes, is not included in any family events without his promise to forgo the smoking around the rest of the family. No one wants to be around the smoker and they certainly don''t want their kids around it.
While it isn''t illegal, it is thoroughly disgusting and creates a rift in relations with other people.
The fact that Obama is a smoker lessens his worth in my mind and many others.
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