Tobacco Habit a Hazy Rumor Behind Official Smoke Screen
Jump to full article: The Washington Post, 2009-06-23
Author: Paul Farhi
Intro: Super double special irony alert! President Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law yesterday, hailing it in a Rose Garden ceremony as "an extraordinary accomplishment" that will "save American lives and make Americans healthier."
Well, let's hope so. But doesn't "healthier" start at home? Wouldn't this be the same President Obama who still has a little tobacco habit of his own?
It's hard to know for sure, because everyone at the White House acts like a kid caught smoking when the subject comes up, but it appears that Obama is the first president in decades to smoke cigarettes while in office. . . .
For a guy with a smoking past and maybe present, Obama's blindingly white smile made reporters wonder whether they should be focused on the coverup and not the crime. So the question hung in the air for the assembled news types, all of whom are doubtless paragons of perfect health and fitness themselves. "Mr. President, how difficult has your struggle with smoking been?" shouted CNN's Dan Lothian from the behind the rope line, as Obama worked the sweltering Rose Garden crowd a few feet away.
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Quotes from this article:
It's hard to know for sure, because everyone at the White House acts like a kid caught smoking when the subject comes up, but it appears that Obama is the first president in decades to smoke cigarettes while in office.
A risible sense of irony suffuses this WP item on Obama's smoking.
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