Federal Update
By Ron Rosenbaum
Dec. 10, 2008 Let me offer a somewhat hyperbolic hypothetical. It's the winter of 2009, and a crisis has erupted between the United States and the former Soviet Union. Putin (surprise!) is acting arrogantly and aggressively, trying to push the new American president around. Do you want Barack Obama, the guy who has his finger on our nuclear trigger, notorious nicotine addict, to be dying for a smoke? All irritable, his nerves and famously smooth temper on edge? No outlet for his intolerable frustration but ... a butt. But no butts to be found. The White House, of course, has been a butt-free zone since the Clinton administration. That pack of Marlboro Reds he's kept stashed under a bush in the Rose Garden, hoping it'll be camouflaged? Out of reach. The only thing that looks like a butt is, well, a button, and it's looking good. Why not reach for it? Then he won't have to put up any longer with the insane puritanical rules imposed by those who don't know, will never know, the knife-edge of nicotine desire. Do you want to die because President Obama is dying for a smoke? It's true that smoking would be bad for our 44th president, who's been trying to kick the habit. Lung cancer caused by smoking is a major cause of death in America. Even secondhand smoke is deadly, we're told. But how about secondhand radioactive plutonium? Might that turn out to be a major cause of death (for those not already dead in a nuclear exchange)? Do I have to answer that? OK, so Obama isn't going to start a nuclear war because of the well-meaning but counterproductive no-smoking rule. At least, I hope he isn't. I don't smoke, but I know smokers, and I know smokers trying to quit, and they scare me. Which is why those who say a president who smokes in the White House would be a bad role model are all wrong. In fact, consider the possibility that he'd be a better, perhaps more effective, negative role model. He'd teach the nation's youth how scary an addiction smoking is: Even the most powerful man in the world is putty in its tobacco-stained hands. The media don't seem to share my views on this, at least if their recent bout of hysterical scolding is any indication. (Perhaps they're using this issue to show they can be tough on the president they helped elect -- about something, however trivial.) First there was Barbara Walters, who came close to implying, in a face-to-face interview, that poor Obama's pledge to quit smoking was more important than any of his other presidential priorities. A collapsing economy? Mumbai terror heading this way? No worries. Will he live up to his no-smoking pledge? Now, there's an issue. Walters had asked whether he still sneaked smokes, and Obama had said something vague about his pledge to observe the no-smoking rules in the White House. Then eagle-eyed Tom Brokaw demonstrated the way a hard-nosed reporter goes after a cover-up. On Meet the Press last weekend, Brokaw picked up on what he thought was wiggle room in Obama's Barbara Walters response and treated the president-elect to a bit of journalistic inquiry that surely ranks with Woodward and Bernstein's challenges to Deep Throat (another smoker?). Brokaw: "Finally, Mr. President-elect, the White House is a no-smoking zone, and when you were asked about this recently by Barbara Walters, I read it very carefully, you ducked. Have you stopped smoking?" (He "read it very carefully"! Wow, are we impressed by his journalistic excellence, or what?) Obama's answer was a classic recidivist's evasion: "You know, I have, but what I said [to Walters] was that there were times where I have fallen off the wagon," Obama told Brokaw. "That means you haven't stopped," the steely NBC interrogator asserted. Obama's response: "Well, the -- fair enough. What I would say is, is that I have done a terrific job, under the circumstances, of making myself much healthier, and I think that you will not see any violations of these rules in the White House." Gotcha! Way to go T.B.! (Perhaps not the best initials here.) Savvy observers and addicts could spot Obama's evasiveness, which wouldn't survive a minute in a 12-step meeting. Don't you love the ambiguity, the weasel-worded squirming? It's so human, it's endearing. All us sinners -- of various habits and forms -- loved Obama for it and loathed Brokaw, Walters, and the nation of scolds we have become in their collective attempt to shame the poor guy (yes, president-elect, I know, but here, just a poor, conniving backslider) into some self-scourging confession. You have to admire Obama's good nature as he puts up with these narrow-minded nannies (addicted to tobacco in their own perverse, negative way) and offers up this masterpiece of obfuscation. Let's parse the statement. I like his assertion of greater healthiness as an excuse for this minor failing. Not gonna work, but it shows his desperation. Still, the key evasion is "you will not see any violations of those rules in the White House." (The italics are mine.) Note that he doesn't say "outside the White House," leaving himself room to sneak a smoke in the privacy of the Rose Garden. And then, of course, there's the fact that a president doesn't spend all of his time "in the White House." He goes to Camp David, Europe, South Dakota, Iraq. Surely, there's a spot in one of those locales to sneak a puff or two undisturbed? With that phrase, "in the White House," Obama has his own "depends on what the meaning of the word is is." He's left himself a hole big enough for Richard Nixon to fit all of Watergate through or Bill Clinton to maneuver a strip club's worth of babes. Don't a few sneaky puffs seem innocent by comparison? Obama -- who, according to a wide array of sources, has smoked for years, but promised his wife, Michelle, that he'd quit in exchange for her help with his presidential campaign -- has never said that smoking is good or healthy or that quitting is easy. Quite the opposite. He's made clear that quitting is a struggle and, like others who struggle with their demons, he's fallen off the wagon. So what? This is probably the most sinless president we're likely to get in the foreseeable millennium, and yet he's already got the health Nazis on his tail. He's human, he's not on Mount Rushmore yet. (Although I kind of like the idea of a giant, granite Obama next to the Rushmore four, a stone cigarette dangling from his lips.) In fact, I'd argue that Obama's smoking habit gives us another reason to like him: He's not a perfect paragon of the Whole Foods boho sensibility, comments about arugula notwithstanding. I'm told there are people who were surprised to learn he smoked, as if it was somehow shocking he didn't fit all the virtuous liberal-elite stereotypes. It would be refreshing (and not in that cool-menthol way) if he's more a democrat, less a virtue-crat. I also wonder -- and this will seem wildly heretical to virtue-crats, so hide the children -- whether some of Obama's finer qualities aren't bound up in his alleged nicotine sins. That contemplative self-possession that so many admire him for. It might come from Obama's ability to sit back, inhale a puff or two, slow down and think -- meditate, cogitate -- before acting. Sure it's a trade-off. Lung cancer later in life: the percentage grows grim. But isn't it possible that, without the mediating thoughtfulness of a nicotine break, Obama would still be a "community organizer"? Not that there's anything wrong with that. Look, people, we have what looks to be an incredibly thoughtful, long-view-taker as president, and maybe we owe it to cancer sticks. That's the tragedy of life. You don't get somethin' for nothin'. Maybe you don't get the Obama we think will make a great president without the devil weed. Maybe we owe him some cancer sticks if that's what he chooses. Because -- and here I take the libertarian view -- you choose your poison. He knows the stats and the risks. Maybe he makes a choice to have a butt or two despite the stats and the risks. Bill Clinton knew the odds and chose his butt or two with consequences that were arguably graver for the country as a whole. (By the way, you know who made the White House into a smoke-free zone? Hillary Clinton. We'd all be better off if Bill had thought "smoking hot" meant he was hot for smoking.) If Obama were still a senator, a largely do-nothing job (at least if you consider senators' achievements), fine, take time, enroll in an anti-smoking program, white-knuckle it, whatever you decide: You have the leisure. But he's going to be president, with the fate of the nation, of the Earth, in his hands. Did George W. Bush make great decisions as a president while abstaining from alcohol? Maybe a sip of sherry or a cold brewski might have calmed him down enough to think twice about invading Iraq or deregulating the markets. Look at all the great presidents we had during Prohibition: Harding, Coolidge, Hoover Š Wow, makes you wonder if abstemiousness is to blame for turning out mediocre-to-disastrous louts in the Oval Office. Come Jan. 20, Obama will be the president of a nation whose entire economic infrastructure is collapsing and who faces renewed tensions with a nuclear superpower. Such tensions could easily lead us to the nuclear brink. Is this the precise time we want our president to undergo the ordeal that giving up smoking represents? Give Obama a break ... a smoking break. No president has come into office facing the massive problems he does. And now he's got Chicago politics, like another monkey on his back, following him there. Let him enjoy a few contemplative moments as he works a problem. Let him have his down time. We'll probably be better off for it. So get off his case, all you holier-than-thou Puritans. I'm not advocating smoking for anyone else, and I think he should make a point of telling kids what a horror quitting is. But, meanwhile, cut the guy some slack. He's risking his health for you. Read
Obama says he won't be smoking in White House Dec 7, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama failed to give a straight answer when asked on a U.S. talkshow on Sunday whether he had managed to quit smoking. In a country where cigarettes are responsible for one in five deaths and smoking costs tens of billions of dollars in health care, Obama has been under pressure to set an example by giving up his reported two-decade-old habit. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" program, interviewer Tom Brokaw told Obama he had ducked answering the question during an interview last month with ABC's Barbara Walters. Noting that the White House was a no-smoking zone, Brokaw asked Obama, "Have you stopped smoking?" "I have," Obama replied, smiling broadly. "What I said was that there are times where I have fallen off the wagon." "Wait a minute," Brokaw interjected, "that means you haven't stopped." "Fair enough," Obama said. "What I would say is that I have done a terrific job under the circumstances of making myself much healthier. You will not see any violations of these rules in the White House." Obama was often observed on the presidential campaign trail chewing Nicorette gum, which helps ease the craving for nicotine. He has tried several times to quit. The 47-year-old president-elect, who takes office on January 20, works out daily at the gym and sometimes plays basketball. His doctor said in May he was in excellent health, often jogged 3 miles a day and was fit to serve as U.S. president. Website www.cigaraficionado.com says Gerald Ford, who served from 1974-77, was the last U.S. president to use tobacco on a regular basis. The White House no-smoking rule was imposed by former First Lady Hillary Clinton, now Obama's nominee for secretary of state. Read
A passage in his recommendations that will resonate with us:
The other strategy, which is very smart, is to leave the nasty details out of the bill. He says that was one of Clinton's mistakes in 1993. Clinton put too many details in the bill, thus alerting those who disagreed to mount an opposition (pages 108-109). Daschle recommends passing a vague bill and then "a Federal Health Board should be charged with establishing the system's framework and filling in most of the details. This independent board would be insulated from political pressure."
- A Newsletter Reader
Daschle-Obama Health Care Possibilities By Tony Blankley As President-elect Obama's apparent choice for health and human services secretary and as White House health care czar, it is a fair guess that Tom Daschle's view on health care legislation may be decisive. So it is worth reading his book "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis," in which the gracious former Senate leader lays out without equivocation both the policy he recommends and the tactics for how to pass it. Read
Under Obama Will Smoking Become 'Cool' Again?
November 21, 2008
By Pamela Meister
Smokers could soon have a reason to rejoice: President-elect Obama is a smoker who has tried hard to quit the habit but just can't seem to do it. His addiction could go a long way toward making smoking a fashionable pastime once again. Hey, reliable liberal and Time magazine columnist Michael Kinsley is just fine with The One's habit. Not only does Obama's need for nicotine show "he's not a superman," but quitting could affect one of his greatest assets: his "steely nerve."
For decades, smoking has been under attack. While always somewhat of a dirty habit due to the smell and mess (not to mention the health risks that became known back in the 1960s), smoking used to be considered a rite of passage. Even women got in on the act in their quest for equality and while they may continue to carp about "equal pay," they are certainly closing the gap with men in smoking-related diseases such as heart attack and stroke.
You've come a long way, baby.
Those who continue to smoke despite the well-known health risks have gained near pariah status in many places in the United States. In 24 states, smoking is banned in the workplace, including restaurants and bars. Other states have partial bans, a few have no ban at all. In some states, like California, smoking is even banned within 20 feet of any window, door or air intake of government buildings or buildings leased by government agencies. Individual counties and towns have also taken it upon themselves to ban smoking in parks, on beaches, and in apartment and condo buildings.
It's hard to be a smoker in the 21st century. Full disclosure: I am a former smoker. I'm generally okay with bans in public buildings, but balk a bit at the bans in public outdoor spaces and apartments. Pretty soon, it seems as though while cigarettes themselves will be legal, smoking them will not. Why not go all the way and get it over with?
For years I've been calling Obama's particular brand of confidence chutzpah. My bad. Besides, I thought Obama was the Messiah, not a superman. I guess even modern saviors must be allowed to have their vices. Jesus enjoyed wine; Obama enjoys tobacco. Same diff, right?
You know, Bill Clinton enjoyed cigars. Unfortunately for smokers, that didn't do much for their cause. But Obama's cult status could be a boon to not only smokers but to tobacco companies in general.
In Britain, they have a Royal Warrant system wherein the warrants "are a mark of recognition to individuals or companies who have supplied goods or services for at least five years to HM The Queen, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh or HRH The Prince of Wales." Those products are marked with a royal seal which, one would assume, is a positive marketing tool.
Maybe the new agent of Hope and Change could come up with a similar system. Products that he and the First Family use exclusively could receive The One's seal - possibly the stylized "O" used during the campaign. Imagine the cigarette brand lucky enough to receive an "O" on its packaging, right next to the Surgeon General's warning that "Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide." Since it's common knowledge these days that Obama can do no wrong, Obama supporters may well rush to the local smoke shop to stock up on Camels, Marlboros, Kool, Benson & Hedges, or whatever brand Obama prefers.
For those who can't wait to find out, since the press was so efficient at ferreting out all of Sarah Palin's dirty laundry and airing it during the campaign, finding out which brand Obama smokes should be a cinch.
And all those parents who were proud to have their children sing odes to Obama that were posted on YouTube will just have to suck it up when they discover that their children have taken up the habit of smoking. "Obama does it!" will be their snarky retort. And who can argue with that?
In the meantime, perhaps the government should consider lifting the ban on smoking in federal buildings. After all, the White House is a federal building. You wouldn't want for our leader to have to suffer the indignity of sneaking out the back door just to grab a quick smoke, would you? Read
Let the Guy Smoke Obama Is Probably Fibbing About Giving Up Cigarettes. That's Okay. By Michael Kinsley
November 20, 2008 It is still okay to discriminate against one group of Americans. This discrimination is not only legal, it is encouraged. You see members of this oppressed minority huddled outside in rain and snow, forbidden to seek refuge. No one feels sorry for them. And yet we may have just elected one of these pariahs as president. Smoking is a disgusting habit that can kill you and those around you. Barack Obama claims to have quit, but the evidence is ambiguous. And the media's lack of interest in this question supports the charge that Obama is enjoying a honeymoon with the press. Compare the attention given to John McCain's melanoma -- a health problem more likely than smoking to kill him in the next four years, but also a problem beyond his control. Smoking, by contrast, is behavior. It sets a deplorable example for young people, millions of whom Obama has inspired into active citizenship. Obama has never denied that he was a smoker for much of his adult life. He said as early as February 2007 that he had promised his wife he would quit in order to run for president. He also admitted as recently as this June -- when his presidential campaign was about three-quarters over -- that he hadn't done so. In May the Obama campaign released a carefully worded letter from his doctor, who wrote that Obama's "own history included intermittent cigarette smoking. He has quit this practice on several occasions and is currently using Nicorette gum with success." Obama has declined to amplify. The instructions on Nicorette say to stop smoking before starting with the gum and to stop using the gum after 12 weeks. We know, because he has said as much, that Obama was still smoking the month after his doctor said he was using the gum. And even if he smoked his last cigarette on May 28, the day before his doctor said he was on gum therapy, the 12 weeks would have elapsed Aug. 20. Wouldn't you think that some reporter since then would have asked Obama whether the gum had worked? Yet no one seems to have asked. According to Nicorette's Web site, the gum "can more than double your chances of quitting versus just willpower alone." Those chances are less than one in 20. Double that is one in 10. Obama is a man of impressive determination and self-discipline, as we are learning. But it would be astonishing if he managed to beat these odds during the past high-stress summer. Now, I have been enjoying Obama euphoria as much as anyone. Without it, the prospect would be depressing indeed. But where is the skepticism? If Obama actually has accomplished the miracle of giving up cigarettes at the apogee of a presidential race, he should be happy to let us know this and add to his superman image. And if he hasn't? Well, if he is straight with us about it, we should forgive him. So he's not a superman. Neither are we. In a democracy, that is a good thing for ruler and ruled to know they have in common. Furthermore, as presidential vices go, this one is not near the top. As for being a role model for youths, Obama's good habits outweigh this single bad one. He's great on hydration, apparently. Obama is 47. A recent Journal of the National Cancer Institute study determined that 49 out of 1,000 American male former smokers age 45 (close enough) will die of all causes over the next decade, compared with 91 out of 1,000 who are still smoking. If he is still smoking, Obama is doubling his chance of an early death. Of course, he increases that risk by becoming president as well. But we allow candidates to take that second risk. Whether he takes the first one is his business, too. Another question is what effect a president desperate for a cigarette and trying to quit might have on your life expectancy and mine. Obama's steely calm is now one of our country's major assets. If he needs an occasional cigarette to preserve it, let's hand him an ashtray, offer him a light and look the other way. Read
Obama Advisers May Signal New Approach to Health Policy By Jane Zhang Nov. 19th, 2008 WASHINGTON -- William Corr, one of two leaders on President-elect Barack Obama's transition team for the Health and Human Services Department, was a top aide to former Sen. Tom Daschle, Mr. Obama's choice to run the sprawling agency. Mr. Corr, now the executive director of the anti-smoking group Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, was chief counsel and policy director from 1998 to 2000 for then-Senate Minority Leader Daschle. He joined the anti-tobacco lobby in 2000, and among other things has lobbied Congress to give the Food and Drug Administration, an HHS agency, the authority to regulate tobacco. An Obama transition official said Mr. Corr, a registered lobbyist until September, is recused from working on tobacco issues. Mr. Corr has an extensive resume working for Democrats on health matters. He was HHS Secretary Donna Shalala's chief of staff during the Clinton administration, and was counsel to the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee for 12 years, working on health-care access and food and drug issues, such as the orphan drug legislation. Advocates welcomed Mr. Corr's role on the transition team. "He believes in government," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, where Mr. Corr is a board member. "Bill is a strong pragmatic health advocate who I'm confident will be figuring out in the coming weeks what HHS should be doing to promote public health." A spokesman for Altria Group Inc., the parent company of Philip Morris USA, declined to comment on Mr. Corr or his role on the transition team. The other adviser leading the HHS transition team is Nicole Lurie, a researcher at the think tank Rand Corp. Dr. Lurie, an internist, was principal deputy assistant secretary for health at HHS during the last three years of the Clinton administration. Her research and media interviews indicated that she favors a strong public-health system, better access for the poor and emergency responses to bioterrorism and other emergencies, among others. She also wants the government to use its purchasing power to reduce racial disparities in health care. Mr. Corr and Dr. Lurie are leading the effort to complete a review of Bush administration policies at the HHS. Their work will help Mr. Obama and his advisors make decisions on policy, budget and personnel before the Jan. 20 inauguration. HHS is one of the largest bureaucracies in the federal government, and its authority ranges from Medicare and Medicaid to regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration. The agency had a $710 billion budget for financial year 2008, and 55%, or more than $390 billion, was spent on Medicare, the federal insurance program for the elderly and the disabled. Mr. Obama's transition team has been working with about two dozen liaisons from HHS agencies such as the FDA and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said HHS spokesman Bill Hall. The liaisons were chosen in the summer to help facilitate the transition. Mr. Obama's team first made contact after the November election and the groups are expected to meet in various agencies in the next several weeks, Mr. Hall said. It's unclear what role the two will play, if any, in the new administration, but their transition team jobs could signal a different focus and approach to health policy. "It clearly sends a message that public health will be a priority in this administration and that science and research will drive policy making," said Jeff Levi, executive director at Trust for America's Health, a public-health advocacy group. Mr. Levi knows both Mr. Corr and Dr. Lurie. The Bush administration -- along with Republicans in Congress -- has expanded the health-care industry's role in government-run programs such as Medicare, the health care program for the elderly, and more private insurers now offer health plans or the drug benefit to seniors. It also favored a deregulatory approach at agencies such as the FDA, which has come under criticism by Democrats on food and drug safety issues. Write to Jane Zhang at Jane.Zhang@wsj.com Read**************** Submitted Letter to the Editor: Jane Zhang's Nov. 19th's "Obama Advisors...." noted that, "... Altria Group Inc., the parent company of Philip Morris USA, declined to comment on Mr. Corr or his role on the transition team" Of course they refused to comment: Philip Morris is very happy that it will have administration insiders to push for the FDA regulation of cigarettes that will lock in its market share and immunize it from lawsuits. But many Americans remain largely unaware of the alliance of forces between the Tobacco Free Kids folks and Philip Morris in this campaign and the Altria group wants to keep that alliance as quiet as possible. FDA legislation will protect Big Tobacco and help ensure that antismoking organizations will have a continued stream of hundreds of millions of Master Settlement Agreement tax dollars from mainstream cigarette manufacturers' collections from smokers. Meanwhile the FDA will either have to vastly expand its budgeted expenditures for their new task or skimp on such things as making sure that our foods and drugs are safe. The FDA bill-to-come is a travesty of American politics and lobbying, and Obama's selection of Corr ensures, contrary to the Trust for America's Health statement, that policy making will drive science and research rather than the other way around. Lysenko would be quite at home in today's America. Michael J. McFadden Author of Dissecting Antismokers' Brains Mid-Atlantic Director, Citizens Freedom Alliance, Inc. Director, Pennsylvania Smokers' Action Network (PASAN) http://pasan.TheTruthIsALie.com
Anti-Smoking Advocate Named to Obama Transition Team
November 17, 2008
By Sean Mussenden
A leading anti-tobacco advocate will serve on President-elect Barack Obama's transition team reviewing health policy and the Dept. of Health and Human Services during the administration switch.
Bill Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, was one of 12 health policy specialists who will "will complete a thorough review" of the health agency "to provide the President-elect, Vice President-elect, and key advisors with information needed to make strategic policy, budgetary, and personnel decisions prior to the inauguration. The Teams will ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in," according to transition officials.
A spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids referred a request for comment to a transition spokesman, who did not return a message seeking comment. Read
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