ABC News has the bombshell, the story that could bring down Obama’s entire campaign:
Last August, I ran into Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, outside the Senate chamber in the Capitol. . . As any close friend or family member can attest, I have an unusually keen sense of smell and immediately I smelled cigarette smoke on Obama. Frankly, he reeked of cigarettes.
Obama ran off before I could ask him if he’d just snuck a smoke, so I called his campaign. They denied it. He’d quit months before, in February, they insisted. . . Except. . . last night on MSNBC’s Hardball, Obama admitted that his attempt to wean himself from the vile tobacco weed had not been entirely successful. . . Now I wonder about last August.
(Via Hot Air.)
I’m joking, of course, but given today’s vilification of smokers, I suspect this story could do some real damage. More damage than his choice to associate with various crazy people have done him.
Some are saying that that he has every right to lie about a matter so irrelevant as whether he is still smoking. I don’t agree. Unless you are a spy or something, you should tell the truth, or decline to answer. Of course politicians lie, but I don’t have to approve.
Besides, as Tom Maguire has pointed out, Obama has made this political:
Money is tight under the current Administration, but Obama needs donations to run his campaign. Since Obama has quit smoking, we can follow Obama’s lead to donate to his campaign. Quitting smoking and donating the savings to his campaign–that makes sense and cents.
No, I think a better defense is simply that he could be telling the truth. Cigarette smoke sticks to clothing, and it wouldn’t be surprising if one of the smoke-filled back rooms that Obama is spending so much time in right now isn’t merely figurative.
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