WHILE pundits are busy pummeling President Obama with criticisms and shaking their heads in dismay over his actions on Guantanamo, General Motors, the health care system and Iran’s civil unrest, the President makes himself even more vulnerable to flagellation by admitting a nasty habit – smoking.
Pres. Obama ruefully admitted his fight with the big C (cigarettes, that is) but redeemed himself by signing one of the toughest laws ever formulated in American history -- the anti-smoking law that seeks to keep teenagers off the habit.
After all, the President did promise his wife, Michelle that he would quit "huffing and puffing" if she allowed him to run the presidential race. A smoking candidate would just simply run out of breath in the neck-and-neck battle for the finish line.
She proudly tells 60 Minutes how she has outed him from the habit. For Michelle, there is simply no room in the White House for a President with a constant cloud of smoke.
However, the President has vaguely acknowledged moments when he "fell off the wagon."
"Almost 90 percent of people who smoke began at 18 or younger," he said. In his youth, Pres. Obama was just one of many who fell prey to the vultures of the tobacco industry. "I know I was one of these teenagers. And so I know how difficult it can be break this habit when it’s been with you for a long time."
But whether Pres. Obama sneaks a smoke now and then is not the issue at this point. It is a human weakness that he sheepishly admits and all for a good cause. Perhaps, his bold confession of this achilles heel would be his key motivation towards his own personal change. (AJPress)
( Published on June 24, 2009 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. A7 )
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