On Obama And Cocaine
I had, long ago, mentioned that Barack Obama’s candor was refreshing – after all, however many politicans admit to cocaine use? I had to back down, however, when I couldn’t find a citation:
In the post above, I state that Barack Obama admitted to cocaine use; I could have sworn I read or heard him say that, but the interview that I referred to has him admitting to only doing drugs, generically, in his younger days.
Well, I can retract my retraction – the Washington Post solves my problem:
Two decades ago, Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was forced to withdraw as a nominee for the Supreme Court after reports surfaced that he had used marijuana while he was a law professor. As a presidential candidate, Bill Clinton thought marijuana use could be enough of a liability in 1992 that he felt compelled to say he had not inhaled. And President Bush has managed to deflect endless gossip about his past by acknowledging that he had an “irresponsible” youth but offering no details.
Through his book ["Dreams Of My Father"], Obama has become the first potential presidential contender to admit trying cocaine.
To the issue at hand, then; does it hurt him? I don’t believe it does. The past marijuana and cocaine use, unlike the current smoking, can be used to Obama’s advantage, by appealing to that most American of dreams, a second chance at redemption. Again, from the Washington Post article:
In fact, Bush himself has been a beneficiary of those sympathies [towards those with 'redemption' stories]. He has suffered little criticism from his conservative base after acknowledging that he drank too much in the past and is now a teetotaler.
In the book, Obama acknowledges that he used cocaine as a high school student but rejected heroin. “Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though,” he says.
In an interview during his Senate race two years ago, Obama said he admitted using drugs because he thought it was important for “young people who are already in circumstances that are far more difficult than mine to know that you can make mistakes and still recover.”
Let’s put it a different way: those who support Obama aren’t going to quit supporting him because he tried cocaine in high school – at least, not in large numbers. It might even win him a larger number of votes from those, like me, who appreciate not being subjected to the non-denial denial…
On one hand, I say “so what?, to the 2nd chance angle. The main thing was he did stuff once upon a time and has a certain POV and that is that.
As an admitted user, he brings a blast of fresh air to a world of hypocrites who either have done it, yet condemn it while denying having done the same (sort of like Foley on pedophilia or public homophoebs who retreat to their closet as soon as they get home),
or have never, truly done it and think they are imminently and solely qualified to direct the so-called WOD.
There’s morality and then there’s a bunch of laws that have nothing to do with morality and everything to do with trying to control other people’s lives in a manner deemed ‘legal’ by superiors. Is it any wonder why there is diminshing respect for the rule of law?
Just wait another couple of decades and see the buzz when some up and coming kid of today confesses to having smoked cigarettes indoors (gasp) and loved chicken fried in gobs of trans-fat (choke).
Plus in the context of the times, what he did may have been nothing more than a misdeamnor or petty crime, yet some would rush to judge him, or anyone else for that matter, under the artificial construct of current law.
Besides, there’s this little matter of Statutes of Limitations. If the law didn’t catch him then and is powerless to prosecute now, seems to me he ought to be free & clear of further digging on that subject as a matter of political football.
Just as the fact that someone was once a bootlegger or whatever doesn’t cause me to hold that against him politically, why should it with cocaine or any other additictive drug-user. It sure didn’t for hizzoner Marion Berry, tho I have a list of other reasons to disqualify him.
This is not the same as saying someone getting away with murder can expect the same – yeah I’m talking about Teddy-hic-Kennedy.
I’m not sure I have the timing right but here goes: who didn’t do a little blow in the late 70’s and early 80’s? And, if my math is correct, that was 20 plus years ago. Check me on this: he ain’t doin’ it now, right?
There are some who will whisper or make louder noises about this in public, but in the solitude of the voting booth it won’t matter because lots of Boomers and those that immediately followed did the same damn thing.
Crap, I’m glad I don’t have to chronicle or admit to the things I did from 1971 – 1984.
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