Tobacco: Obama the Quitter?
“Quitting smoking is easy,” goes an old joke. “I’ve done it hundreds of times.” So — perhaps — has President Obama, who recently congratulated Congress on passage of a tobacco regulation bill.
Does Obama still smoke, despite campaign assurances he had quit? According to a news account the other day, “White House press secretary Robert Gibbs would not say . . . .” You can take that as a probable yes. If Obama did not, Gibbs would have answered the question.
But so what?
Blogosphere cranks are calling the president a hypocrite, but they have it backward. Sincerely wanting to quit yet having difficulty doing so doesn’t make you a hypocrite. You’re a hypocrite only if you say smoking is wrong when others do it but fine when you do. Obama’s own struggle to kick the nicotine habit might actually fuel his desire to help make sure young people don’t pick it up. He probably doesn’t want them to go through what he has. As Tolkien wrote, the burned hand teaches best.
If Obama is still sneaking the occasional coffin nail, should he quit once and for all? It would improve his health and set a good example. On the other hand, it’s not a question of world-historical significance. FDR and Churchill enjoyed tobacco, while Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon didn’t. Who would you rather have running the show?
Copyright © Timesdispatch
The title of the above article TOBACCO: OBAMA THE QUITTER? strikes a familiar and pleasing note with me. It is my firm belief that in order to be a winner everyone has to quit doing whatever it is that is causing them to be a loser. Being a quitter of tobacco use is definitely a winning move.
Nicotine addiction is a very difficult and powerful addiction to break even when one has a high degree of motivation to quit. Nicotine is a strong drug. I can idenitify with President Obama’s tobacco use addiction. I myself quit many times over a number of years before my final quit became a success.
I applaude his efforts and pray for his success.
My own story of the powerful nicotine addiction, my quit and my successful battle with lung cancer can be reviewed at my website http://www.quitterscanbewinners.com
My quitting tobacco use has added 29 happy years to my life. 26 of them with only one lung.
FDR and Churchill were not engineering the complete overhaul of the nation’s healthcare system based on the idea that costs can be drastically reduced through “prevention.” And smoking is not some minor problem of dubious importance to health like parts-per-billion pesticide residues on the outsides of fruit. Rather, tobacco is arguably the #1 public health threat in American today. Moreover, this guy is the *president* and *the one we’ve been waiting for* in a world where there are a variety of aids to smoking cessation. And he continues to smoke? HYPOCRISY is an apt word for this.