Obama Smoking

I don’t follow politics that closely, but the news story about Obama smoking certainly caught my attention.

The last thing I want for this website is to lean one way or the other politically. Liberals smoke. Conservatives smoke. Independents smoke. They all have lives that positively influence our world. They all have families and people that love them. So, as you read this, please don’t think I’m saying anything positive or negative about Obama. My only concern is that Obama smokes. The fact that it’s been in the news so much, however, shows us how much smoking is on our minds.

But anyway…

Barack Obama apparently smokes cigarettes!

When I first read that, I was outraged and thought: “How can he do that?”

I mean, one of my main focuses in life is to help people quit smoking. You can read on my home page about my motivation for making this site. Basically it’s this: my mother and father smoked. My mother never quit…and died at 56 (when I was 22). My father, however, quit, and he lived to the ripe old age of 73. Got to see me as a grown, very successful man, and most importantly, got to see his grandchildren.

So, my first reaction was how can a man who might be the leader of our country smoke? What kind of roll model is that?

Then, I remembered what I know about smoking, what I’ve learned over the years helping others quit.

Smoking is an addiction. Nicotine is as addictive as heroin.

It’s been proven! Smoke a few cigarettes a day for a couple of weeks and…bingo!…you’re an addict. You belong to cigarettes!

It happens to people from all walks of live every single day.

They smoke when they’re young because they need to fit into a certain group--or to distinguish themselves from a certain group.

A study was done where they polled a large group of teenagers who smoked and asked them if they planned on smoking in the next four years. Over ninety percent said they would not be smoking. What really happened? Over four years later, over ninety percent were still smoking.

Why? They were addicts!

Now, in all fairness, Obama says he’s quit smoking. Apparently, he’s using a type of NRT (Nicotine Replacement Therapy) to quit…Nicorette.

His wife said he had to quit before she would let him run for president. She thought the stress of running would only make his smoking worse. So, much to his credit, Obama is quitting right in the middle of probably the most stressful time in his life--a closely contested race for the Democratic ticket.

I hope Obama does quit! I would actually love it if every single person on the planet could quit. They can, but that dream is going to take some work.

No matter what you think of Obama smoking, I’m glad to see a high profile person trying to quit smoking. It throws a lot of much needed light on the cigarette problem, and can potentially inspire others to quit.

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