President Obama Smoking and Drinking

The results of a 90-minute medical exam of President Barack Obama have been released. For the most part, the President is healthy "--has 20-20 vision, weighs 179 lbs in his shoes and clothes, and requires little medication."

There are, however, two caveats in the report released to the public. It seems that President Obama still hasn't been able to kick his cigarette habit, despite promising the First Lady he would do so, and indeed, telling the media that he had done so, "but still had an occasional cigarette, without specifying how many."

Even more intriguing and perhaps even unsettling is the line at the end of the UK Guardian story. "The doctors also recommended 'moderation of alcohol intake.'"

Certainly that is an unusual thing for a doctor to put in the results of a medical exam. It suggests that the examining physician believes that the president of the United States is drinking too much and needs to not drink as much as he is. It does not say how much the president is drinking.

President Obama has not appeared in public obviously under the influence, no more than he has appeared in public with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. But that one little sentence is already causing comment on conservative talk radio.

It is not that smoking and drinking are necessarily things a world leader ought not to do. Winston Churchill certainly liked his brandy and cigars, and he led Great Britain through World War II and lived on past 90 years old.

On the other hand, according to Woodward and Bernstein's 'The Final Days,' Henry Kissinger became increasingly concerned about President Nixon's excessive imbibing during the last months of Watergate. That the leader of the Free World, with access to the nuclear button, suffering under supreme stress of the greatest political scandal of the 20^th century, was drowning his sorrows was a matter of great worry.

One thing is for certain, though. There will be less comment on President Obama's drinking than if he had been a Republican. The media double standard still adheres, after all. If the reader is skeptical, imagine the kind of notation about 'moderation of alcohol intake' being made for, say, President George W. Bush.

President Obama would not be the first president not the last with addiction issues. President Clinton's sexual addiction caused no end of problems for his administration.

However the president of the United States, if he does have a drinking problem, cannot take 30 days off, like a Hollywood actor or rock star, and go into rehab. For one thing, that leaves Joe Biden as acting president of the United States, and who would want that?

Sources: Doctors tell Barack Obama to quit smoking, Ewen MacAskill, UK Guardian, March 1st, 2010

The Final Days, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Simon and Schuster, 2005