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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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ASH: Barack Obama Quits Smoking -- To
Please Wife, Improve Candidacy?
[04/16/07-8]
Senator Barack Obama has announced on the David Letterman Show that he
has quit smoking. Although he says he did it to please his wife, many
have speculated that he also did it because an image as a smoker would
damage his candidacy for the presidency.
Asked by Letterman whether he was still smoking, Obama answered:
“Nicorette. … It’s my wife, actually. She gave out my secret to the
world and then told America, ‘If you see him (smoking), turn him in to
me.’ And I’m terrified of her.. . . .The gum’s working good. … I could
use some now.”
Yet, earlier news articles suggested a different motivation. Here's one
example from the St. Petersburg Times:
Sen. Barack Obama is trying to snuff out a habit before it hurts his
run for president: He's trying to quit smoking. The Illinois Democrat,
who will formally launch his campaign Saturday, said his wife,
Michelle, persuaded him to quit.
"My wife wisely indicated that this is a potentially stressful
situation, running for president," he said Tuesday. "She wanted to lay
down a very clear marker that she wants me healthy." The stakes are
high for Obama not just because of the health hazards but because
voters might be wary of a presidential candidate hooked on cigarettes.
"For many people, smoking is seen as a sign of weakness and lack of
willpower, " said John Banzhaf III, a law professor at George
Washington University and executive director of Action on Smoking and
Health, a group opposed to smoking. "A presidential candidate would not
want to be seen as lacking strong will or lacking determination."
http://no-smoking.org/feb07/02-07-07-3.html
"Many figures in public life -- including politicians and broadcasters
-- try to keep their cigarette smoking from the public. Unlike Edward
R. Murrow and others of his era who were quite open about it,
broadcasters and political figures today are wary of the image of a
cigarette smoker as someone who lacks either the intelligence to
understand how dangerous it is, or the willpower and resourcefulness to
end it," says Banzhaf.
Some have gone further, accusing Obama of being a hypocrite for being a
smoker.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/russell-shaw/barack-obama-as-long-as-_b_45143.html
Banzhaf says that, no matter who eventually wins the race, he hopes
that smoking, which was banned from the White House by then First Lady
Hillary Clinton, will not return..
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