smoking president, new deal?

Dilly comes from a generation that remembers FDR, and the prospect of having a new smoking president in the form of Barack Obama really lit up her life because a New Deal is exactly what this country needs in relation to smoking.

"When I heard that Obama had quit smoking I couldn't believe it," says Dilly, "and I refuse to believe that he, too, had succumbed to the lies and exaggerations of the anti-smokers or had sold his soul for votes."

"What this country needs is a strong and true leader -- not a puppet," says Dilly. "He needs to be representative of the common man -- someone who smokes, drinks and likes a good time -- and puts forward his vices as strengths, not weaknesses to hide from the public or swear off."

"Obama is an attractive candidate in own right and didn't need to quit smoking for health reasons or anything else," says Dilly. "I don't believe non-smokers would have turned against him because he smokes, and even if some of them were so petty that they did this, their votes wouldn't have been worth winning."

"If a third of this country smokes, then at least one of the three candidates for nomination should be a smoker in order to represent our rights," says Dilly. "We don't want an anti-smoker like Hillary Clinton representing us and maybe going as far as banning the sale of tobacco products (if only to wean Chelsea off the habit, as if any parent can stop an adult child doing things they want to do!)."

"Everyone knows that Bush is a former alcoholic -- and may have been a former crackhead, too -- and while he necessarily had to give up his vices in order to run for the presidency, I don't see why Obama has to give up smoking in a similar bid to become pristine."

"There's a huge difference between an alcoholic and a smoker," says Dilly, "and if Bush had been able to continue drinking without getting drunk he would have been a lot more acceptable to the average Joe. There's something about a 'reformed' person that's irritating, right? And in an important job like the presidency you wonder whether they're paying more attention to fighting their demons than keeping an eye on the ball."

"For instance, in that shot of Bush at the school when told about 9/11 was his delay in acting due to respect for the kiddies or a fuddled brain?"

"One thing I know about cigarettes is that after a smoke I can focus my attention on a task more clearly than anyone I know who doesn't smoke," laughs Dilly, "and that's the sort of focused attention I want my president to have."

"Frankly, I think Obama has done more damage to his reputation by quitting because now the opposition is using his former habit against him in a manner that nobody dared use against Bush," sighs Dilly. "The anti-smokers have no manners or common decency whatsoever. If they can turn two-thirds of the nation against the other third -- just because they smoke -- then they can do incredible damage to Obama, whether he smokes or quits."

"For that reason, I think Obama should have stood his ground on smoking."

"It would be refreshing if any public figure -- and especially a presidential candidate -- actually stood up and defended their choice to smoke," says Dilly. "Because tobacco is a legal substance I don't really believe anyone should have to defend smoking it, but if he had to I would have liked to have heard Obama say: 'Yeah, I know smoking is a health hazard, but thankfully, because I live in a free country, I am able to make a personal choice about it -- and because choice is something we seem to have less of every day under the present regime, it's important for me to make this stand'."

"He might have gone on to say to all those highly impressionable people out there that he didn't encourage smoking -- it was a personal choice he had made, not to be seen as a sign that it's okay for everyone else to smoke -- and imagine the impact he would have had on a nation that's fast becoming a PC mess."

"By qutting, it almost looks as if Obama is admitting it was stupid of him to smoke -- so he's playing into the hands of the anti-smokers who make out all smokers are morons," sighs Dilly. "Frankly, I'm tired of being told by people who barely graduated from grade school that they are smarter and stronger than I am because they don't smoke and I do."

"Sometimes I feel like pinning a picture of a smoking Einstein on my front door so that people who knock and are greeted by myself in a similar mode have something to think about," laughs Dilly, "but I don't think most of the anti-smokers have the brains to make the connection."

"No, I don't wish to denigrate the anti-smokers -- that would make me as bad as they are," sighs Dilly, "but if they believe that our silence and refusal to quit equates with stupidity or weakness then we have to divest them of that thought."

"So why did Obama quit?" asks Dilly. "On one television show was it put forward that Obama was henpecked into quitting by his wife? Oh dear, more bad publicity because who wants a henpecked husband for president?"

"Obama himself said something about 'health' being his main reason for quitting, but come on, Obama, you're too intelligent to swallow the 'health' propaganda."

"We're electing a president -- a strong person to lead us -- and nobody should care if you smoke or not," says Dilly. "There are a lot worse things than smoking."

"Which brings me back to Hillary," sighs Dilly. "OMG, at least the Bush family isn't as anti-smoking as the Clintons -- I hear that Laura Bush and the twins enjoy a puff behind the scenes -- whereas the Clintons are supposedly old friends of John Banzahf of the relentless ASH organization."

"I choose to believe that Obama knows what he is doing and that all the bad publicity comes from a certain camp within his own party," says Dilly, "and whether he smokes or not, I still think he is the best person for the White House."

"Go Obama!"