Obama Pledges Not to Smoke in White House

I am going to do something I have not done to date--defend Barack Obama.

Well, at least partly.

It is common knowledge that Obama is a smoker, which is his right as a free human being. We also know he has tried to quit since he started his quest for the White House.

Sources claim that while Obama has had moderate success with his attempt to quit, he has at times 'fallen off the wagon,' and indeed he has admitted to such.

But Obama made a public pledge Sunday not to smoke in the White House. My question is, what on earth for? It is nobody's business what a President does in his private time.

Obama, however, is part of a political movement that frowns on tobacco but not alcohol. Even marijuana is to be preferred over tobacco. Thus, he felt the need to appease this constituency of the Left by pledging not to smoke once he becomes President.

If he is doing this purely for his health, well and good. But if he is pandering to the demands of the hypocritical tobacco-bashers of the Left, I say he needs to tell them where to jump.

Obama has a right to smoke if he wants...even in the White House. This is, after all, his living quarters--at least part of it.

FDR was often shown smoking in public. Richard Nixon smoked occasionally in private. Gerald Ford smoked a pipe. If Barack Obama wants to smoke, then it is nobody's business to tell him not to.