There was no shortage of news on Sunday, with an uprising in Iran approaching new levels of violence, nuclear brinkmanship in North Korea, and crisis in health care reform.
One of the most frequent questions asked at the daily press briefing at the White House, however, was a bit more personal: Was President Obama still smoking cigarettes?
Earlier in the day, the president had signed an anti-smoking bill that gave the Food and Drug Administration more authority to regulate cigarette sales and advertising. And in the process, the president referenced his own struggles as a smoker -- which he said he gave up during the presidential campaign.
"Each day, 1,000 young people under the age of 18 become new, regular, daily smokers, and almost 90 percent of all smokers began at or before their 18th birthday," said the president. "I know. I was one of these teenagers. And so I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it's been with you for a long time."
Hours later, in between a host of questions on weighty international and domestic topics, the press flexed its curiosity. Four separate times, Press Secretary Robert Gibs was asked whether Obama was still smoking or, by extension, why he wasn't more autobiographical in his remarks.
From the White House transcript come the following exchanges:
Q: And just quickly, could you be more clear than you have been about whether the President does still occasionally continue smoking?
MR. GIBBS: I haven't probed any deeper than the statements that I've given you all in the past several days, that, as he has told me, it's something that he continues to struggle with as somebody -- like millions of Americans have.
Q : Robert, just to follow up on Jennifer's question on smoking, why haven't you probed the President on his smoking habits?
MR. GIBBS: Just hasn't crossed my mind.
Q: I mean, it just seems to me like today it would have been a good explanation point at the end to say, you know, I had this habit and I kicked the habit --
MR. GIBBS: Well, Dan --
Q: -- if in fact that's what he's done.
MR. GIBBS: I think that anybody that -- I'm not a smoker, I don't -- it's probably just one vice I don't have. I think the President has on any number of occasions discussed the struggle that -- the vice of smoking, what's that done to him and that he struggles with it every day. I don't honestly see the need to get a whole lot more specific than the fact that it's a continuing struggle.
Q: If I could ask one more thing on smoking. During the campaign, the President -- then-senator at the time -- and Mrs. Obama went on "60 Minutes" and used his smoking as part of his biography, as part of his sort of campaign narrative, if you will. He has used his biography in many ways. Why not use this as an opportunity, if he has or if he hasn't quit smoking, to discuss this with the American people or even offer a warning to young children about smoking?
MR. GIBBS: Well, again, I think he was fairly forward today in discussing the fact that this is, as I've said throughout the last couple of weeks, something that he continues to struggle with.
Q: No, he used about eight words in his speech, though, as opposed to saying something that --
MR. GIBBS: I don't know what the appropriate word count would have been in order to check the box. And, again, I think the President spoke about this in personal terms, regardless of the word count.
Q: Is it something that still aggravates him, when he's asked about this?
MR. GIBBS: Maybe I should give you that opportunity to ask tomorrow. (Laughter.)
Q: I did ask him, and he turned away -- walked away.
MR. GIBBS: Well, go figure.
Q: I'd just like to follow up on cigarettes. When you say he still struggles, does that mean he still smokes sometimes? Is that what that means?
MR. GIBBS: I'm not going to parse the President's words on this today.
Q: So those were not how he describes it?
MR. GIBBS: How did he say it today?
Q: He said, in the past, he had been one of the teenagers who had been -- or the current -- I just wanted to understand the --
MR. GIBBS: Again, I think I said last week -- I'd have to go back and look at my exact statement -- but I got from him that obviously this is a struggle that he continues to have.