May 13, 2008
GREAT: Claiming Obama's Coked Up Again
It isn't exactly a secret that Barack Obama has admitted a drug problem in his past. In "Dreams From My Father" he wrote of using both marijuana and cocaine (Though he says he passed on heroin when it was offered. Good for him).
Admitted drug use has ended many political campaigns before, but Obama's auto-biographical admission has largely been ignored by a pliant media that are "in the tank" for the first-term Illinois Senator.
Still, fellow North Carolina blogger John Hawkins went over the top in suggesting that Obama's much-mocked "57 states" gaffe was the result of the candidate wilting under the stress of the campaign, and returning to hard drugs as a result.
Honestly, my first thought was that he was so coked up that he lost track of how many states we have. Is that implausible? Not at all. This is a guy who admits that he has used cocaine and was headed towards being a junkie at one point. Could he be back at it during a stressful campaign? Sure, he could. When was the last time the guy took a drug test? Has he ever taken one?
I strongly doubt that a person seeking the Presidency and almost assured of the nomination would run the risk procuring or using drugs on the campaign trail. The risk of getting caught and ending their politician career as a result is simply too high.
In addition, the kind of person who runs for the Presidency has to be hard; if weak enough to be reduced to drug dependency while campaigning, four years in the pressures of the modern White House would literally kill them. I don't think any of the candidates in either party are that weak, even Ron Paul.
With all due respect to Mr. Hawkins, he shouldn't be accusing Obama of returning to drug use when there is no evidence to suggest he has done so.
Pound on his blatant inexperience, his Hyde Park elitism, his dangerous foreign policy, his economy-sapping domestic policies, and the massive tax increases they'll require, and expose the hornet's nest of America-hating rabble that are his friends and mentors. All of these areas are fair game.
Attacking Obama based upon an insinuation of drug use without any evidence is pushing beyond acceptable boundaries.
OK, but can we say that Obama is Jimmy Carter II without the peanuts?
Posted by: bill-tb at May 13, 2008 03:52 PMIt is no coincidence: there are 57 Islamic states.
Posted by: Cao at May 13, 2008 04:36 PMIt is no coincidence: there are 57 (56.7) grams in two ounces of you-know-what.
Posted by: capitano at May 13, 2008 05:33 PMI can agree that no politician would use drugs. I mean we all realize their egos are normal and they believe they serve the people. Hence the lack of drunken senators and representatives not to mention presidents abusing their interns.
We all know that they expect to be treated like everyone else and share the same values as the rest of us. And in case you care to snicker remember that most politicians are former lawyers. Ever wonder why legal secretares earn so much more than normal secretaries? Ask one of them what lawyers are like.
Soif you connect the dots it is beyond the pale, simply impossible to suggest Snobama was coked up. I mean the next thing we'll hear is that senators were soliciting in public restrooms or leaving people to drown in their cars. This irresponsible rumor mongeringmust be labelled for exactly what it is.
Posted by: Thomas Jackson at May 13, 2008 05:37 PMThere's plenty of real issues to slap Obama down with, we don't need to go over the top with things like this.
Posted by: C-C-G at May 13, 2008 05:39 PMYeah, this is a stupid line of attack, there's plenty of legit known things to criticize Obama about.
Posted by: doubleplusundead at May 13, 2008 05:45 PMI think the simple explanation may be the better one: Obama's just not that exceptional intellectually.
Watch his North Carolina speech - and pay attention to his "save five words, break, look left, say the next set of words, break, look right, left, right, left, right and have no connect with the audience." Having coached debate and speech, I would have expected more from a high school sophomore.
His inability to get into any sort of detail is equally alarming. Then again, can anyone show any material legislation he authored in Congress?
The man's allegedly cute and wows women and metros. Other than that, there's really no competency of interest.
Posted by: redherkey at May 13, 2008 11:12 PMI don't think that being in a high pressure job and being addicted to drugs are mutually exclusive--think about doctors or people who work in Wall Street, or Ted Kennedy's famous capacity to imbibe. (Of, course, having never done either of those, served in the Senate, nor campaigned for President, I don't know how the stress compares.)
That said, it was still gratuitous to make that sort of accusation using such weak logic. Stuff like that threatens to reduce the signal to noise ratio of criticism of Obama and make it that much easier for his suppor...er, the media to ignore it.
Posted by: Matt at May 13, 2008 11:37 PMI seem to recall a lot of speculation in years past that Geo W Bush, as a former drinker, would surely backslide under the pressure of the Presidency; indeed, some of the snarkier lefty blogs routinely accused him of having done so.
Posted by: Barry at May 14, 2008 02:51 AMTrue, Barry, but that doesn't mean that we on the right have to sink to their level. We're supposed to be the ones with high moral standards, after all.
Posted by: C-C-G at May 14, 2008 07:46 AMThis might be called a distraction or is he just seeking 15 minutes of fame.
Wow. Different strokes for different folks.
"I strongly doubt that a person seeking the Presidency and almost assured of the nomination would run the risk procuring or using drugs on the campaign trail. The risk of getting caught and ending their politician career as a result is simply too high."
Perhaps...yet stranger things have happened (a la Clinton nailing an intern in the White House). Besides, if he WAS an addict, he wouldn't have a choice in the matter anyway.
Just food for thought.
Posted by: chiefpayne at May 14, 2008 09:52 AMI don't think we can count on the simple high-quality of our politicians to keep them from the arms of Lady Poppy, or whatever but it strains credulity that any serious political actor would back someone they knew to be an addict or even serial user because it WILL come out. These people live in fish bowls. If Barry turns up sniffing suspiciously or some close associate is busted holding we may revisit. Besides which, didn't the Rev take a pretty dim view of drug use? Coke was the other arm of the pincer to Wright; in apposition to da aids.
Posted by: megapotamus at May 14, 2008 12:11 PM
