Obama's pseudo-regular guy Beer Summit raises an interesting angle:
A responsible press would encourage Obama to smoke more and drink less.
Obama comes from two long lines of alcoholics: His father died driving drunk. His
half-brother David died driving drunk. His half-brother Roy was an alcoholic
before discovering teetotaling Islam and changing his name to Abongo. His
maternal grandfather Stan was a barfly.
Back during the Pennsylvania primary, Hillary was always gulping down
boilermakers, hoping (I imagine) to provoke Barack Jr. into responding in kind to
demonstrate his regular guyness and then going off on a Barack Sr.-style bender.
(Barack Sr.'s standing order at his favorite Nairobi bar was two double shots of
Jack Daniels as soon as he walked in the door.)
With that kind of genetic background combined with his stressful job, the
President should avoid drinking.
On the other hand, the President does need to self-medicate his fragile emotional
state right now, so let him do it with cigarettes. So what if he dies of lung
cancer at 75 rather than of something else at 85? We're paying him to be
President in his 40s.
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2009/07/less-beer-more-cigarettes-for-obama.html