Obama's Health
The fact that Sen. Obama was a smoker is old news, since he quit. Right? Think again.
The stories that have explored this issue all missed the point: Obama's history of smoking raises questions about his current and future health.
Some, like Jake Tapper, have suggested that Obama was less than honest about whether he still smoked, at least as of last August.
Others have suggested that Obama's smoking history makes him "more human," and that his (alleged) ability to quit makes him more heroic.
And some, perhaps with tongue in cheek to this, think quitting may actually hurt him by changing how his voice sounds.
Meanwhile, Sen. McCain's health questions are almost as old as he is. Congressman Jack Murtha (75), thinks John McCain (71) is too old for the pressures of high office, and he has come under legitimate pressure to release his medical records.
But what of Senator Obama's health? It's not as if once you quit smoking, all of the health effects immediately disappear. In fact, after enough smoking, some health effects are irreversible. Consider just the arteries and lungs.
How long and how much one smokes makes a difference. A 1998 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the amount of fatty deposits in the carotid artery depended on total pack-years of tobacco exposure, not whether the patient currently smokes. And a smoker's excess risk of a stroke doesn't return to that of nonsmokers until at least five, or as long as twenty years after quitting. Sen. Obama would have to serve a hypothetical four smoke-free terms before his stroke risk returned to normal.
So how long and how much did Sen. Obama smoke? The information has not been officially released, and the campaign has not returned calls or emails posing this question. But he smoked a lot over his life.
He admits to having smoked up to ten cigarettes a day, but usually closer to five or six. Most people underestimate how much they smoke, but let's take him at his word. Let's also assume he really did quit when he said he did, in February 2007 (although he admits to having fallen off the wagon). That's about twenty-six years, given that we know he was smoking by the time he was a freshman at Occidental College. That's more than 55,000 -- maybe 70,000 cigarettes! Has this aspect of Sen. Obama's ability to serve really been explored?
Just because he's young, looks great, and exercises doesn't mean he's healthy. Recall Jim Fixx. An overweight smoker when he turned his life around at thirty-five, Fixx became the icon of fitness. He quit smoking and started running. Then he died in 1984 at age fifty-three -- while running.
Sen. Obama, while not overweight, smoked a lot longer than Jim Fixx did. And while the stresses of running may have contributed to Fixx's death, it was his years of smoking, not his running, that caused the plaque to build up in his arteries. Doctors say the stress of being president may in fact exceed the stress of running. And it's an unhealthier kind of stress.
The public deserves to know how long and how much Sen. Obama really smoked. Does he have other risk factors for heart disease? Compared to whites, for instance, African-Americans are more likely to die of a stroke, according to the American Heart Association. This, in fact, is probably the only time race is a legitimate question to raise this campaign season -- and just one of several health question on voters' minds.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Get real my husband is 76 years old and still smoke and walk 10 miles 3 times a week, he healtier than a lot of people who never smoked.
Yes! I agree!
And while we're on the subject, I think we need to know how often Hillary knocks back a shot and a beer. Lots of disastrous statistics on drinking, you know. And if she was on birth control, I think we need to know how long that lasted.
Also, I'd like a dietary breakdown for each of the candidates. Specifically, I'd like to know how many grams of fat each eats daily and, if possible, I'd like their dietary histories, too.
Oh, and family medical histories are also an important indicator of potential problems, so we should all have access to those as well.
Finally, I'd like to know if either candidate routinely exposes themselves to undue stress. You know, I'd like to know if their jobs are in any way stressful. Because there's also quite a bit of data on stress impacts on health. I'm just sayin'...
LOL - good stuff. How about STD's? You didn't mention STD's.
I'm thinking that we should see Hillary's mental health records -- I hear that she has PTSD from Bosnia sniper fire.
I thought this was a joke, then I realized you were serious...
While I agree that having a healthy president is good....I think a smart president is even better, especially after 8 years of Chimp Boy. Rather than a fitness test, what about an IQ test....So
I quit smoking 23 years ago after about 17 years of smoking. Not to mention that I grew up in a household of smokers and worked in an office full of smokers before they made smoking indoors illegal. I know that my health would be better overall if I never smoked or lived in a smoke filled environment. But that is the way it went. It is better not to smoke than to smoke. And quitting is better for your health than to keep smoking. I know plenty of very smart people my age, younger and older who smoke and try to quit but haven't yet. This is a non-issue as far as Obama is concerned. What about all the Military Generals and Fat Cats and leaders that sit around smoking cigars? Isn't that bad for their health as well?
Who cares whether he smokes, I'm far more concerned with his advisor Zbigniew Brezinski, who openly bragged to la monde (french newspaper) in 1998 about how it was his idea to fund, train and organise the jihadi movement in Afghanstan. Asked whether he cared for the hell which he inflicted on the Afghan people and the huge problems this caused by spreading to other countries, not to mention the terrorist attacks on American targets, he responded that no, communism was a greater threat!
There would have been no al qaeda, no 911 without this man and his ilk. More importantly millions of innocent people have had to suffer because of this idiot and his fellow internationalists, he should be in prison for war crimes not acting as advisor to a presidential candidate.
Obama has by the people he surrounded himself with proved that no matter who wins the election it will be more American meddling as usual, regardless of who has do die. These people are playing games.
I clicked on this story, hoping it was a lame snark. Hey Mr. Stier, maybe all reporters should submit some data on the frequency of their bowel movements and well as the notes from their psychotherapy sessions, incl. the various psychotropics drugs they are on. Oh, and a complete DNA workup too. I must know if your pettiness is hereditary.
One ridiculous non-issue after another. Shame on you, Mr. Stier! If Bill Clinton, with his bad habit of consuming cholesterol-filled meals (to the point where he had to have heart surgery), was deemed healthy enough for eight years in the presidency, I am more than willing to give basketball-playing Obama a chance. Not exactly a sport for the least healthy candidates.
Pistol Pete Marovich?
Wow. Not just the kitchen sink, but I think the microwave and the toaster went past.
While you are apparently on a fairly commendable crusade against smoking (although I wish it were treated as an addiction, rather than merely as a social stigma and a source of revenue), you appear to have taken a left turn somewhere near reality, and wound up in the vicinity of ludicrous. Sen. Obama may also be struck by a meteorite sometime in the future, so let's put him in a bunker.
While I'm sure Sen. Obama's smoking habits didn't do his lungs a world of good, I expect that were the two of you to play basketball, you'd be winded long before he would.
I thought this was a joke story, but its not?
I think you raise good questions but I don't think the answers will have that much effect. I have known many people to have smoked more than a pack a day and never had any health issues. That doesn't mean they won't later in life but I don't think Obama is in any real danger of dropping dead from smoking any time soon.
Please, we don't need any more of these negative hypotheticals about Obama out on the internet these days, especially from the HuffPO (who, by the way gave us "BitterGate"). Let's give the guy a break. Obama is a positive man with a great attitude and the Obama presidency will light America like a torch in the darkness. His health is FINE. Now, let's get back to the issues, like hope and change and how our future is going to be better than ever with President Obama!
What a stupid story. Find something else to do with your time.
An ex-smoker.
Well, if we don't need to worry about Obama's health (as several comment posters here suggest) I guess we don't need to worry about John McCain's health either, right?
That's right. We just need to owrry about his age.
Yes he brings out his mother to show what youthful genes he has-only problem is his grandfather died at 61 and his father died at 70.
To all the Obama cry-babies now complaining that yet another unpleasant reality has emerged about the weak-character empty-suited airbag Obama, the fact is that his campaign plans to make an issue of age against McCain: http://www
This ties in with Obama's long-held hostility to the BabyBoomers as well. McCain is actually 7 or 8 years older than the oldest Baby Boomer, so he's "pre-BabyBoomer".
Obama's weak character truly shows thru with this smoking issue. As a reformed ex-smoker, I know the difficulties, and if he doesn't have the backbone to deal with this, it's unlikely he can deal with much else.
For Obama to be still smoking in Feb 2007 shows that he is the one who is out of touch. One might understand it if he actually grew up in south side of Chicago, but he didn't. He traveled the world with his hippie mother until he was 12 when he settled down in Grandma's Honolulu high-rise, after which he attended the Ivy League culminating in his Harvard Law Review editor post.
For Obama to be brought up like this and be a smoker, shows he is completely out of touch with what's been going on in America for the past 30-40 years.
What have you been smoking?
What's been going on in America for the past 30-40 years is neo-prohibitionism. Of course the paleo- version was a an intrusive and notable failure brought to you by the Republican party, and this version will fail, too. It's all about social control, baby. But we're still free people and we're pushing back!
"Obama's weak character truly shows thru with this smoking issue. As a reformed ex-smoker, I know the difficulties, and if he doesn't have the backbone to deal with this, it's unlikely he can deal with much else."
Really
Sounds like you got religion. Pass the plate.
What the man does on his own dime and his own time are none of your business.
How about we take your alcohol away?
If you can't give it up at this late date you must have a weak constitution and are not to be trusted.
this is the most ridiculous post i've read in a while.
You're being a bit elitist towards smokers aren't ya, RichLiberal?
Oh, so the millions of people that still smoke have been out of reality for the last thirty years? Grow up. Go get your paycheck and go home.
Anybody who smokes and doesn't recognize the danger to themselves and more so to their families if they have children is in a state of denial and out of touch with reality.
So, yes, the millions of people who still smoke are in the process of committing statistical suicide. Some will survive for sure, but the rest will die in a self-made war zone.
Certainly a non story at this point, certainly not a good habit, but let Michelle worry about that for now.....
Why don't you butt out and MYOFB?
Give me a break!
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
