Just a day after Hillary Clinton's communication director declared that the campaign would not raise the issue of Barack Obama's acknowledged cocaine use, her New Hampshire co-chair, Billy Shaheen, warned that Republicans will capitalize on Obama's drug history if he wins the Democratic nomination.
Read the rest of this story from The Huffington Post HERE.
A few weeks ago, when it came out in the news that Obama admitted to having tried marijuana in college I was happy to hear him speak so frankly about it. Bill Clinton's admission to having tried marijuana without inhaling during his campaign against the first Bush was an embarrassment. Clearly a half-truth designed to soft-peddle the impact of his relationship to weed to the conservatives. Obama, to his credit, is being straight about trying pot and cocaine. Obama is not a drug addict. He tried a few things. He moved on. Most of us have. If you made it through high school and college without being curious about drugs or alcohol, I don't trust you.
I am not saying one needs to toke or snort or swig a few times to be a better person. I'm just saying that someone who made it through high school and college without dabbling in any illegal party favors is either a saint or a liar. And almost certainly the other politicians who are the most up-in-arms over Obama's drug use are the liars. When Clinton was nearly impeached for diddling an intern, his most vocal opponents were republican congressmen with their own Capital Hill booty bags they were poking.
Maybe the lesson has been learned. Maybe. When Obama's drug use first came out, there was barely a protest above a whisper. Perhaps the opposition is hoping to avoid having the same question put to them.
I don't mind if someone has tried drugs and moved on from them. Someone who battled an addiction is a different matter. You never stop being an addict. Bush fesses up to being an alcoholic (sort of, he at least admits it was a problem and that he kicked it). He won't admit or deny he was a cokehead. Unfortunately for us, he handled these habits by substituting them with a new addiction - power. Addicts are never satisfied. Invading Iraq and Afghanistan didn't do the trick. Maybe Iran will. And shredding the constitution into confetti, just in time for 2008, will help him keep his supply line open.
ROBOWRITERS TONIGHT
It is such a lovely thing to look at the calendar and see that the holidays pose no threat to our Robowriters Meetings. Please join us for the good times. Tonight at 6:30pm at the Uptown Writer's Space, 4802 North Broadway at Lawrence. Bring something to be read, come to get ideas to write, come hang out and laugh. $5.
THE BS NEWS QUIZ OF THE DAY
Yesterday, I asked...
"Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2007 is what?"
This might be a first for the quiz.
No one fell for "RB@Ya" - "Right Back At You,"
"P2C2E" - Process Too Complicated To Explain,"
or "OU812" - "I Heart Van Halen"
100% said "w00t"
According to the Associated Press, "W00t," a hybrid of letters and numbers - the "oo" is two zeroes - used by gamers as an exclamation of happiness or triumph, topped all other terms in the Springfield-based dictionary publisher's online poll for the word that best sums up 2007. I find text messaging useful, but I hate how the abbreviations have seeped into the vocabulary. But trying to fight it is a FAQOMFT.
