# Obama Smoking in the White House **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 12, 2008, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314 "2008-11-12T06:54:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/61 "2008-11-12T19:51:57Z")
> [@VarlosZ](#): > > A quick search reveals that the Clintons banned smoking in the White Pre cigar or post cigar? As for smoking in the white house or airforce one, it probably happens in the crisis room depending on what’s got their panties in a knot. Its not like obama is gonna have a bunch of kids trying to emulate him in every thing. declan ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/62 "2008-11-12T19:55:04Z")
I would think he’d avoid smoking inside the White House because its rather filled with historic antiques - smoke isn’t going to be the best thing for that - he strikes me as someone who would be aware and respectful of that. ---
**Author:** ![Corner\_Case](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corner_case/32/234_2.png) [@Corner\_Case](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corner_Case)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/63 "2008-11-12T20:44:47Z")
Sittin’ in the summit, thinkin’ it’s a drag Listening to that U.N. rap - just ain’t my bag When Iran sends a nuke, you know it’s my cue Gonna meet the boys in the War Room too Smokin’ in the White House Smokin’ in the White House Congress don’t you fill me up with your fear Everybody knows that smokin’ ain’t allowed in here ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/64 "2008-11-13T00:21:39Z")
OBAMA AS NEW YORK IS VAPORIZED: Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/65 "2008-11-13T01:33:33Z")
I think some year soon someone will spot an empty coffee can stashed behind a planter on some West Wing balcony. Everyone working there will be careful to never see it. 😃 ---
**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:** [November 13, 2008, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/66 "2008-11-13T01:39:40Z")
There would actually be something kind of humanizing and relatable about the thought of the guy sneaking out to the balcony every so often to hot box a cigarette and trying to keep it a secret from his wife. I’ve been there, done that. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/67 "2008-11-13T01:43:49Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > My guess would be that, as a smoker, he’s used to only smoking in areas where it’s permitted, and will continue to do that. > > Well, thank goodness we’ve settled _that_. Now we can move on to important issues like the inappropriateness of having a puppy in the White House. Dog poo, people! IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!! Where’s the outrage?!?!? And let’s not forget all those presidential couples having SEX on the BEDS there-THAT’S ANTIQUE FURNITURE!!! ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/68 "2008-11-13T04:14:59Z")
As a reformed smoker (2 packs a day for 20 years and often into the 3rd pack) who lives with a man trying to quit (and driving us all to drink) I can’t bear the stink of cigarette smoke in my house and my husband only smokes in his workshop - which is his domain. Not that I’m tempted to smoke,\*\* luckily\*\* for me when I quit I never wanted to smoke again. I hope Mr. Obama succeeds in quitting, for his sake and his family’s. But I bet he wouldn’t smoke in the White House, anyway. Somehow, it doesn’t seem likely. Not sure why. Maybe because he seems like a decent sort. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/69 "2008-11-13T04:25:29Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > There would actually be something kind of humanizing and relatable about the thought of the guy sneaking out to the balcony every so often to hot box a cigarette and trying to keep it a secret from his wife. I’ve been there, done that. Seriously? You thought your wife wouldn’t notice that you reeked of tobacco? ---
**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:** [November 13, 2008, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/70 "2008-11-13T04:30:32Z")
> [@Hostile\_Dialect](#): > > Seriously? You thought your wife wouldn’t notice that you reeked of tobacco? I thought if I went outside and blew the smoke away from me… Aw, I was an idiot. She knew. In retrospect, I was obvious. I was “taking out the garbage” like 6 times a day. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/71 "2008-11-13T04:35:40Z")
Related anecdote: when I did a rotation in the state Public Health office in med school I got to have lunch with my Congressman, Hal Rogers. We were in a hotel conference room with “No Smoking” signs everywhere you looked; in particular, there was one right over Rep. Rogers’ head from my vantage point. That’s why it surprised me when, right after he sat down, he pulled out a cigar and lit it. Nobody even batted an eyelash. I thought it was disrespectful to not even ask, Congressman or not. I also thought that if I were an old, overweight, balding, bejowled Republican member of Congress in an unfashionable suit, I sure as hell wouldn’t be seen chomping on a stogie, for the same reason I’d give up donuts if I were a cop. (And I gave up golf when I finished med school.) ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/72 "2008-11-13T04:39:56Z")
Hey, sometimes the garbage really stinks. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/73 "2008-11-13T04:41:38Z")
As for the piggies, those stoner bastards wouldn’t lay off them even if they gave up the donuts. Which I know because I saw a cop getting a burrito at my local taco shop and I muttered to the next person in line, “I didn’t know they sold donuts here.” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/74 "2008-11-13T05:52:03Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I think there’s another person who would have veto power over Barack being able to lift the ban on smoking in the White House and her initials are M.O. Mary-Kate Olsen has no power over anything in the White House and after her odd role in the Heath Ledger death it would be somewhere between hypocritical and inadvisable for her to make Obama’s smoking an issue. I think Obama should just issue an Executive Order saying “I can smoke wherever the hell I want to.” I can’t remember where I read this, but I swear it wasn’t a tabloid but something at least slightly more reliable: Laura Bush is an on-again/off-again cigarette smoker and keeps her jacket wrapped in plastic when traveling [putting it on before getting out of the vehicle] to avoid it getting smoke odor. Bush isn’t a smoker but admitted in one interview to taking an occasional drag off other people’s, which would imply that somebody at the place smokes. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/75 "2008-11-13T08:56:25Z")
> [@Corner\_Case](#): > > Sittin’ in the summit, thinkin’ it’s a drag > Listening to that U.N. rap - just ain’t my bag > When Iran sends a nuke, you know it’s my cue > Gonna meet the boys in the War Room too > > Smokin’ in the White House > Smokin’ in the White House > Congress don’t you fill me up with your fear > Everybody knows that smokin’ ain’t allowed in here Sorry for the tangent, but in the interest of accuracy, send some apologies to Brownsville Station first. > **[Smokin' in the Boys Room](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokin%27_In_the_Boys_Room)** > > "Smokin' in the Boys Room" is a song originally recorded by Brownsville Station in 1973 on their album Yeah!. It reached number 3 both in Canada and on the US Billboard Hot 100, and was later certified by the RIAA. > The song is about students hoping to avoid being caught violating their school's smoking ban by smoking cigarettes in the boys' restroom. It begins with a spoken recitation, and the verses and a part of the chorus are mostly spoken, rather than sung. > > The song was covered in 1985 b... ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/76 "2008-11-13T18:55:31Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > Pre cigar or post cigar? I thought Clinton was doing _something else_ with that cigar. If he’d only been smoking it, I doubt he would have been impeached. But as for Obama, I think he should smoke like a chimney in the White House and bill the tax payers for his cigarettes. It’d be a maverick move. ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/77 "2008-11-14T03:53:04Z")
I am sure he could if he wanted to i mean who cares. I dont think he cares about the fine or w/e it is. Its not like he will be arrested. Most people will just be asked to stop ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/78 "2008-11-14T05:29:59Z")
> [@Enola\_Gay](#): > > I thought Clinton was doing _something else_ with that cigar. If he’d only been smoking it, I doubt he would have been impeached. > > But as for Obama, I think he should smoke like a chimney in the White House and\*\* bill the tax payers\*\* for his cigarettes. It’d be a maverick move. LOL, more like RJ Reynolds would pull up to the white house in a semi trailer and start lobbing free cartons. What was his slogan , change is in the air 😉 Declan ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/79 "2008-11-14T11:12:03Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > And let’s not forget all those presidential couples having SEX on the BEDS there-THAT’S ANTIQUE FURNITURE!!! This reminded me of something I read the other day, that has nothing to do with this stirring debate but I thought I’d share. [From The Mirror.](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2008/11/09/barack-obama-what-life-will-be-like-for-new-us-president-115875-20881650/) > [@](#): > > At one time, the President and Vice-President were given three-inch-high models of the Washington Monument to put beside their beds. They had simply to knock them over to summon the guards. > > But the models were abandoned after Vice-President Dan Quayle - noted for being clumsy - knocked his over late one night while making love to his wife. > > In seconds, the door burst open, the lights went on and Mrs Quayle was thrown out of bed to the floor as bodyguards flocked around her husband to ensure his safety. Maybe the Obamas should think about giving up wild sex. For security reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314/80 "2008-11-14T11:20:09Z")
Three-inch-high models of [the Washington Monument](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Washington_Monument_Dusk_Jan_2006.jpg/288px-Washington_Monument_Dusk_Jan_2006.jpg)? And they were “knocked over”? Do you see where I’m going with this? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-smoking-in-the-white-house/472314.md?page=5)