San Jose Mercury News
Obama is a Chain Smoker
Memo to President-elect Barack Obama:Quit smoking. Now. Really. For good.
We know it’s hard. If it weren’t,nobody would smoke anymore. And we know quitting just as you’re taking on one of the most stressful jobs in the world — well,it’s not great timing in that sense.
But it is in another:Everybody’s watching. Especially kids. Perhaps more than any of his predecessors,Barack Obama,the first African-American president,will be held up as a role model,his triumphs and failures magnified as a consequence. Obama clearly relishes this opportunity to defeat bigotry and reframe the expectations of young people,especially African-Americans. And yet,he smokes.
From a health perspective,the last thing America needs is for smoking to be cool again. Despite decades of campaigns against it,smoking still kills more than 1,200 Americans every day,or 450,000 a year. That’s more than the toll from alcohol,drugs,car accidents and gunshot wounds combined. The odds are that one in every 10 smokers in Obama’s age group who keeps smoking will die in the next decade.