Obama: Lighting up in the White House

last updated 8 January 2015

Barack Obama is no quitter, said Jimmy Orr in CSMonitor.com. “Normally, that’s a good thing”—only in this case, the president-elect has yet to kick his notorious cigarette habit. Asked during two recent network interviews whether he has been able to honor his vow to quit smoking, Obama was forced to admit that during the grueling campaign and in the weeks since, he occasionally has “fallen off the wagon.” That’s unfortunate, said San Jose Mercury News in an editorial, and not just for Obama. Obama is already seen as a tremendous role model, especially for young people and African-Americans. Once he’s in the White House, his every move—including his personal habits—will be scrutinized and magnified. “From a health perspective, the last thing America needs is for smoking to be cool again.”

Obama’s backsliding is “terrible news, obviously,” said Mary Pitman Kitch in the Portland Oregonian. Still, it does explain some things. Many pundits have been struck by Obama’s apparent unflappability in the face of everything from financial meltdowns to political attacks. Now we know “how he managed to keep his preternatural cool during the long campaign.” It turns out his “calm temperament wasn’t natural,” as he “had some help from a drug.” And for anyone who has trouble keeping off those pounds and finding time to exercise, it’s also comforting to know that “the skinny guy who loves arugula and works out like a fiend and orders pancakes, suspiciously, to go—is human.” Still, it is a little sad imagining Barack Obama having to slink around his own smoke-free White House to sneak in a butt.

I say that if Obama wants to smoke, let him, said Ron Rosenbaum in Slate.com. Certain things are more important than the president’s health—such as the fate of the planet, for instance. Imagine this scenario: An international crisis suddenly erupts and our commander in chief faces a decision with potentially devastating consequences. “Do you really want the guy who has his finger on our nuclear trigger to be dying for a smoke? All irritable, his nerves and famously smooth temper on edge?” A timely drag might just help steady him through the emergency. As for his being a bad role model, I’d argue just the opposite. “Obama would teach the nation’s youth how scary an addiction smoking is: Even the most powerful man in the world is putty in its tobacco-stained hands.”