I never would have guessed!

Apparently Senator Barack Obama is a smoker! Maybe this isn't news to you, but it was to me! I just heard about it on the HD News network, and I found articles on the web confirming it. I never would have guessed! Not that there's anything wrong with that!!! I actually think it's good to know for a couple of reasons. If he gets irritated or edgy while trying to quit, we will know why. It's the cigarettes, not his normal demeaner. It also shows the world that he is just as human as the next person. I think as long as he keeps it out of the publics' eyes, it will, well, blow over - pun intended.

I was also surprised to hear that during his teen years he tried cocaine and marijauana! Well, not totally surprised. I think most teenagers have tried at least one of those drugs.

My intention is NOT to slam Obama. Not in the least. Apparently this just became newsworthy, and you will hear about it eventually. I was just a little taken back by the news and wanted to share story.

Here is some of the article from the ABC News website:

By JAKE TAPPER
Feb. 7, 2007 — When Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., officially enters the stressful world of presidential politics this Saturday, he will be trying his hardest to resist the urge to smoke those Marlboro Red cigarettes he has relied upon for years.

Instead, he has pledged to his wife, Michelle, that he will chew Nicorette gum.

Before the Run, Obama Needs to Quit.

Obama may face several daunting challengers in the months to come — Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., a prying media, a conservative attack machine and the tricky politics of race. But none may prove as mighty a foe as his nicotine habit.

"I've never been a heavy smoker," Obama told the Chicago Tribune. "I've quit periodically over the last several years. I've got an ironclad demand from my wife that in the stresses of the campaign I don't succumb. I've been chewing Nicorette strenuously."

Obama aides say that the main reason Michelle Obama has been pushing so hard for her husband to quit the demon weed is for health reasons, but of course for any public figure, one also has to factor in the image of the habit — either out of concerns he would be setting a bad example, or that he may turn off some voters.

Obama has admitted to cocaine and marijuana use in his teenage years, but it's his use of cigarettes that has merited national media attention.

The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote that his penchant for butts makes the Democrat "intriguingly imperfect," while Fox News Channel's John Gibson has called it "Obama's dirty little secret" and argued that it makes him wonder "what else do we not know about Barack Obama?" (This literally days before Gibson helped spread the false smear that Obama attended an Indonesian madrassa as a youth.)

Other rumored present or past smokers in political life — first lady Laura Bush, former Vice President Al Gore — have assiduously kept any signs of the habit away from any prying shutterbugs.

See the entire article at http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2855994&page=1