# Does Obama still smoke? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 21, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311 "2008-07-21T22:21:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/21 "2008-07-22T15:21:55Z")
Yeah, he does, but he doesn’t inhale. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/22 "2008-07-22T16:16:51Z")
Please, just no cigars. We’ve seen where _that_ can lead. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/23 "2008-07-22T16:24:55Z")
[QUOTE=aldiboronti] Yeah, he does, but he doesn’t inhale. 🙂 [/QUOTE] What do you mean by smoke? I did not smoke that cigarette. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/24 "2008-07-22T17:50:51Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] No. I’m saying that it’s impossible to know for sure. [/QUOTE] I guess you could say that very few things are possible to know for sure. The way second-hand smoke, smokers and tobacco execs are treated you think that it would be interesting information for the Fourth Estate to get to the bottom of. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/25 "2008-07-22T17:54:17Z")
Expound, please upon how smokers are “treated,” in your view. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/26 "2008-07-22T18:26:56Z")
[QUOTE=What the … !!!] I guess you could say that very few things are possible to know for sure. [/QUOTE] But this is substantially different because, if he still chose to smoke in private, we’d really have no way of knowing. He says he doesn’t smoke any more, and he hasn’t been seen smoking, so what are we to surmise from that? Still, I think it would be a pretty difficult thing to hide. I’ve also seen a reward offered by some right-leaning organization (can’t remember the name) for pictures anyone has of Obama smoking. With the media attention he’s getting these days, if such pictures existed, we’d probably be seeing them. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/27 "2008-07-22T18:35:35Z")
Former first ladies Pat Nixon and Jackie Kennedy didn’t smoke in public, although I don’t know whether or not they were on the record about it one way or the other. I’d assume any photos of them smoking during their White House years are pretty scarce. In any case, the factual answer to the question is still “We don’t know.” ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/28 "2008-07-22T19:25:39Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] But this is substantially different because, if he still chose to smoke in private, we’d really have no way of knowing. [/QUOTE] Serum nicotine levels? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/29 "2008-07-22T19:49:21Z")
[QUOTE=vetbridge] Serum nicotine levels? 😉 [/QUOTE] Ah, but that’s what nicotine gum is for. I knew a guy who was on the patch and chewing nicotine gum who would still occasionally have a cigarette. He hadn’t really quit smoking, he’d just figured out a way to get his nicotine fix anywhere, restaurants, airplanes, hospitals. If you’re on nicotine gum you can chew it wherever you want. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/30 "2008-07-22T20:11:24Z")
I hope he doesn’t smoke, because it’s a stupid, addictive, life-threatening habit, and I’d want him to have a nice, long, healthy life ahead of him. He would also be a better role model (for those who care about such things, which means votes) as a nonsmoker. But I can understand why he might fall off the wagon given campaign stress. In Christopher Buckley’s political comic novel _The White House Mess_, the President smokes secretively, and uses makeup to conceal nicotine stains on his fingers (once threatening the presidential physician, an Air Force officer, with reassignment to Thule, Greenland if word gets out about his inability to kick the habit). President Jack Ryan in the Tom Clancy novels also sneaks a puff now and again, much to the displeasure of his wife, a doctor. ---
**Author:** ![Kuboydal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/31 "2008-07-23T12:51:21Z")
President Bartlett of the West Wing was known to sneak off for a few puffs. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/32 "2008-07-23T12:54:24Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] In Christopher Buckley’s political comic novel _The White House Mess_, the President smokes secretively, and uses makeup to conceal nicotine stains on his fingers (once threatening the presidential physician, an Air Force officer, with reassignment to Thule, Greenland if word gets out about his inability to kick the habit). [/QUOTE] Nicotine stains on his fingers? I think you’d have to be smoking a pack a day of _unfiltered_ cigarettes for that to happen. Maybe that’s what he was doing. But I’ve never known anyone who smoked filtereds to have “yellow nicotine-stained fingers” like the anti-smoking propaganda in elementary school always warns you about. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/33 "2008-07-23T13:58:11Z")
Well, it _was_ a novel, after all, written for laughs. But I remember the scene distinctly. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/34 "2008-07-23T18:11:22Z")
This brings up a good question. What Presidents has the United States had that smoked? I know Clinton smoke cigars(yes, yes, among other uses). Did Lincoln smoke? Did George Washington? I always imagiend Nixon smoking; he seems like he might have needed it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/35 "2008-07-23T18:21:46Z")
[QUOTE=Mahaloth] What Presidents has the United States had that smoked? I know Clinton smoke cigars(yes, yes, among other uses). [/QUOTE] [http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA\_Profiles/People\_Profile/0,2540,106,00.html](http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,106,00.html) [http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/o\_SMOKE.html](http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/o_SMOKE.html) [http://www.usatrivia.com/apmsmoke.html](http://www.usatrivia.com/apmsmoke.html) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/36 "2008-10-08T15:30:45Z")
[A few times](http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/10/obama-admits-to.html) on the camptaign trail. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/37 "2008-10-08T16:01:24Z")
> [@Gfactor](#): > > [http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA\_Profiles/People\_Profile/0,2540,106,00.html](http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,106,00.html) … This article goes on and on about U.S. Grant’s love of cigars, but neglects to mention that he died painfully at age 63 of throat cancer. :dubious: Consider the source! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/38 "2008-10-08T16:24:28Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > Ok, why? Why do people care? What possible difference does it make? It’s a drug, smokers are drug addicts. Does he have the willpower to beat the addiction? Apparantley so, and if so kudos to him. Sure, it’s a legal drug. Ok, let’s say he was addicted to prescription painkillers. Would that be an issue? Or he was an alcoholic- which is just alcohol addiction. That would be a campaign issue, no? My WAG is that he is trying very very hard to quit but may have fallen off the wagon for a very occassional secret smoke once in a while. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/39 "2008-10-08T16:36:50Z")
Democracy now did a health report on McCain and Obama. They said he quit about a year ago. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311/40 "2008-10-08T16:49:02Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Democracy now did a health report on McCain and Obama. They said he quit about a year ago. My personal definition of “quitting” is not doing something anymore, at all. He reportedly said to Men’s Health for publication in the November 2008 issue, “I figure, seeing as I’m running for president, I need to cut myself a little slack.” Sounds recent. From what I have heard, the stresses of the actual Presidency dwarf the stresses from the Campaign Trail. I’d rather not have a Commander-in-Chief who says, “Guess I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-obama-still-smoke/457311.md?page=3)