Michael Kinsley needs to retain his reputation has a witty contrarian, so today he has a column arguing that we should all stop being so uptight about whether or not Obama is smoking and just let him have a toke. In fact, Kinsley assumes that Obama is smoking mad jacks anyway:
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.[...]
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.
Now, this column may seem trivial in light of the news that the health insurance industry is interested in discussing mandates, Janet Napolitano potentially being our next head of Homeland Security (Napolitano was impeccably profiled by our own Dana Goldstein earlier this year), and the tone deafness of auto executives that may have just doomed their industry, but ... no, wait, it does seem trivial.
But maybe the most irritating thing about the column -- and I say this as a former smoker -- is that if Kinsley actually thought Obama should be allowed to keep smoking unmolested, he wouldn't have drawn attention to it by writing a whole column about how he's probably smoking anyway and how we shouldn't care, thus making the subject of Obama's smoking a topic of discussion.
--A. Serwer
