Hey he smokes and uses coke, lets all put that behind us.

It's ok to talk about it now, but it was racist and unethical to talk about it before the election.

I think we'll all see the silver lining tarnish.

Let the tarnishing begin!

Can I get a big hell yeah from my brother Tim??

I read an extensive, lengthy behind-the-scenes look at the election that Newsweek put up. Among the many interesting tidbits I read was that one of the clinchers for Michelle allowing President-elect Obama to run was that he promised her to quit smoking. He has quit (announced on Ellen), then admitted that he's slipped (during the Summer), but it's on the order of bumming a cigarette "a couple of times during the campaign."

Yeah, I think he quit. And with the intense media coverage on him in the campaign I'd imagine he'd have tough time sneaking a butt.

That would have been major news but probably would have gotten more GOP to vote for him. "See he's an American, he smokes Camels."

As for the fall? If he doesn't implode (fingers crossed) then the Democratic party will do a fine job of making that happen with the infighting that appears to be going on now.

Hell Yeah! BUT, I'm not going to slam Obama. He is our President. To be truthful, I really believe that he will do some good things for us in the short term.

In the long term, I am scared to death of this democratic Congress. To be honest, with a line of Presidential succession of 1) Biden, 2) Pelosi, 3) Byrd and 4) Kerry, I think that more Republicans will be jumping on the Obama bandwagon every day. Hell, I'll probably jump in front of a bullet for him if it means keeping any of those others away from the Oval Office.

I'm sure that it will come out that there were quite a number of things that were ignored in the interest of Obama-mania. Bill Clinton certainly seems to think so. I'll lay top dollar that there will be some who investigate and question Obama's ties to the big democratic machine in Chicago. Daley's arms reach pretty far. Let's all hope that they don't (now) extend all the way to Washington.

P.S. The Newsweek article that Dan refers to is awesome. It is terribly long, but has some great behind-the-scenes campaign details. It really made me feel much better about my vote for McCain, as he comes across as every bit the person you'd expect. Obama comes out OK, thought there are a few interesting things (such as the smoking). The best stuff, though, is reserved for Bill and what an arrogant ass he is. Kinda makes you feel bad for Hillary. If you don't have time to read it, at least read the highlights. It is all posted on Newsweek.com.

For God's sakes, Obama smokes and hides it now. Last time I shook his hand in Iowa he smelled like a Winston. I don't care that he smokes, I just wish he wasn't so dang sheepish about it.

He really should appont Nick Naylor to the cabinet.

I'm curious ... ardent supporters of Obama only.

Do you think that it would have affected his campaign, or ability to win the Presidency if he was a heavy smoker and it was common knowledge?

If I would have know that he smoked before the election I would have voted for him.
I don't know why it is easier for me to trust a guy that smokes.

Ardent Obama supporter, checking in.

I was not aware of this fact either. And I'm also an ardent supporter of NOT smoking. But, I think it's ok that he smoked/smokes because it shows that he's HUMAN, for cryin out loud....that he somehow has a connection to the real Americans, with real struggles and things we might ourselves be going through.
Yeah, I'm full of estrogen and hope, and I know how that sounds but I believe it.

Truly, I don't think it would have affected my vote one way or the other.

I'm going to throw in my two cents here too! Yes, I was disappointed when I found he was a smoker. I know that's really judgmental and I'm working on that.

Vicky, I knew I liked you the night of the liveblog. We are so on the same page with this one. If I had known about the smoking prior to the election, it would not have afftected my vote. I felt a little disappointed is all, but that's my problem, not Obama's!

The comic book thing is pretty cool, though. I wonder if he reads this blog..How cool would that be? :)

Interesting to hear that he smoked. If in fact he quit during the election (and his grandmother's death), that says a lot of his personal fortitude. That's a lot of stress to quite something like smoking.

Likewise, Cindy!

I don't think it's overly judgemental....I too was disappointed. Even crushed in a way. But, the disappointment is fading.

And like you, I was ecstatic to read the second part. Yay, the president is a comic book nerd, just like me!
That would be SUPER fantastical if he read this. =oD

I think it is a shows a lot of personal fortitude every time he quits. I think next week when he starts again and then quits and announces it on Opra, we should have a national holiday and when he starts up in a couple of months forget about it like we will forget all of his other broken promises and then have another holiday when he quits again.
I wonder if his ability to keep promises to his wife will be a reflection on his ability to keep his pre-election promises?

Now before all of you that have made Obama your personal Lord and Savior get up in arms and offended, I want you all to know that I am just ranting and joking, kind of.

I guess to continue my rant, Did you all know that not only does Obama collect comics, he is a huge world of War Craft player and a dungeon master at that.

I knew he ran with the cool crowd.

He's on linkedin which is funny.

And probably a joke by some prankster as well.

The comic thing def. got Evil Rich's vote.

So all joking aside, the election is over, Obama is the new president elect.
We are talking about not knowing that he smoked.
So I would like to talk about coke use, I think he referred to it as "Blow" in his book, he admitted using it up through 1999, but I'm not aware of any where that he stated that he quit?
Is there anywhere that he has stated quitting "blow"?
I mean that shit is hard to quit, especially if you can afford it.
Is he off the "blow" or is he just bumming some here and there like cigarettes or is he using it still?
Did he use it as a senator? If so will he use it as a president?

I mean I think most everyone on this site is an Obama supporter, and I'm a little suprised that some of you didn't know that he smoked.

Honestly, not that it's that big of a deal that he smokes, McCain used to smoke. pffft hell most of us probably smoked at one time or another.

I would feel better knowing he is off the "blow". Has he ever said that he is off the blow?
Help me you Obama supporters, surely you would have looked into that as closely as you looked into his association with know terrorist Bill Ayers?

Would that bother anyone if they knew he still used "blow"?

Not since Clinton have we had so much blow in the whitehouse.

That was pretty good.

He admitted using it up through 1999? Wow, I didn't know that.

If he can admit that he used coke as recently as 1999 and get elected President, I guess I'm safe to run for public office after all, since I haven't had anything but beer and mixed drinks since 1982.

Seriously, 1999?

Tim my good conservative, you should have known that.

I'm not sure though the 1999 may have come from the Larry Sinclair allegations of Obama using Coke and having Homosexual sex with him.
Which I don't think there was any proof of that happening, I don' t know if there was any proof of it not happening either.

I think that Larry Sinclair did fail a polygraph test on the Homosexual allegations stating that he and Obama did the wild thing.

I don't know, any Obama supporters want to shed some light on the subject?

I guess I never really seriously considered voting for him since I obviously didn't take him through the due diligence portion of my voting procedure.

I know that most people will not make a big deal out of this, and maybe it isn't a big deal, but to me it puts everything around and prior to that time into question. Suddenly, it makes me question who he really is ... I mean, I was a different person during those days (26 years ago) and so, I assume that he was a different person during those days (9 years ago).

He was still doing drugs at the age of 38? Honestly, who do you know that is anywhere near that age and hasn't been weeded out or become part of the elite crowd? Everyone I know either got their shit together a long time ago, or they migrated to a different social circle. Apparently, I live in middle-class shangri-la.

Alright everyone, go ahead and blast me ... but I think it's a fair point to consider. Not that it makes a difference now.

Dave, the false alarm rate on a polygraph test is alarming. There is a reason it's not admissible in court. Before you take any polygraph test seriously, you should examine the literature on its accuracy.

Man, I don't care what Obama does in his spare time. Bush was supposedly a tea-totaller and look where that got us! Snafu-ed my friends, that's straight talk. Pass the hootch.

E - C'mon seriously? It wouldn't bother you if the President of the US was doing coke in the White House?

How do you think other countries would feel about the President of the US doing coke?

There's a good reason why nobody knew how many drugs Kennedy was on to fight his back pain, or how incapacitating Roosevelt's polio was. The public would lose confidence in the President's ability to handle the pressures of the job and lose confidence in his/her ability to lead.

Tim, I'm not really advocating it, just saying, any rumors in this direction wouldn't sway my vote. That's how badly I think if this administration, I am sorry to say.

OK, gotcha.

Also, I wrote my little thesis above under the premise that the 1999 thing is true. If not, never mind. It sounded to me like it is fact, but I didn't look it up myself.

It's funny how something like this couldn't be used by the Republicans because of Cindy McCain's past coming up in retribution. Politics. Meh.

Tim, cmon now, Bush supposedly was a big cocaine user and things worked out fine with him didn't they?

So, we should expect more of the same then.

I guess McCain really was a Maverick.

Hell, I'm a Maverick..I have never used "coke!"

The people have spoken, so, we shall see.

What we need is a President who likes marijuana. Next time somebody nominate a Cheech and Chong ticket.

Oh come on now, y'all really didn't know Obama smokes? It wasn't much of a secret. I read about it in several places.

But I rely on you guys to give me the liberal slant on everything. I assumed that included all the facts about Obama. Are you telling me that you knew he smoked and didn't share that information with the rest of us?

For shame! I'm calling Rush ...

I tend to concentrate on the funny and the outrageous. But post about sex because that's what draws the eyeballs. If you want fun facts, here's another:

http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/11/10/obama.revealed.as.mac.user/

(Thanks, Brother Bill!)

Now that we are on the subject of things we didn' t know about Obama, did you know that he may not even pass the citizenship requirements?
This is an interesting article about Barry Soetoro (I'd be willing to bet 90% of Obama supporters didn't know he went by this.)

Check out the read it's short and interesting:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=80710

Yeah I just found out about the comic thing today. As if I couldn't love the guy more. Watches The Wire, reads comics. He's my president for sure. He's a big nerd.

He also made that Superman joke at the Al Smith dinner so that should have been a clue.

As for the smoking thing, that's pretty common knowledge I thought. It was pretty widely reported a while back.

Well, it's not as common knowledge as people seem to think, since there are several of us here who have said we didn't know. I think we're all pretty well connected to the political and pop culture world, so maybe this is a sign that more important things caught out attention during the campaign, hmm?

I'm still in love with, and full of hope for, our new president-elect.

And nothing you could say will change that.

Like Miss C, I knew about it as far back as the primaries....

but remember, Clinton smoked too....and the economy was in great shape, gas prices were low, and the deficit was practically non-existent....

I'm not a smoker, but also don't think it's the biggest sin on the planet...I don't plan on kissing the man...as long as he keeps his cigarettes away from the interns, we'll all be fine....

Where'd you get that Clinton smoked, that's news to me. (Assuming 'smoked' isn't some euphamism.')

As far as I knew, Clinton just smoked pot, no?

E, don't cigars count? He actually did smoke them....humidor in the Oval Office, etc...
still actual tobacco....doesn't it count?

ER....from what I read/heard, Clinton's "i never inhaled" excuse was linked to the fact that when you consume pot brownies you don't smoke them...
therefore the lawyerly loophole....
so pot yes, smoking it, no...

but do I believe that? uh....no.

SO, youre right. Didn't think of Cigars. They have that retro-cool thing like it's enjoying a martini but yeah, its still smoking. As far as marijuana, never bought the I didn't inhale thing. In my experience, most people have tried it if you are a certain age. Some people stick with it, but I'll leave that discussion for now.