TEEN JUNKIE-There I said it.

OBAMA's DRUG DILEMNA

Obama's Campaign is not a "fairy tale" (while his Iraq voting record may be), it is rather
A JOKE.
Obama, knowing he would run for the President published a book that detailed cavalierly his teenage identity crisis which found itself in the middle of unrepented drug use.
He knew that this would be a detracting feature of his future Presidential run if anyone discovered it. People would make hay out of it just as they did to President Clinton's inhaling protestations.
As a good lawyer, he knew that the best defense is an offense and he had to get the worst part out there first so no one could accuse him of being dishonest about it or trying to hide something.
So he openly went into depth and details of his drug use of marijuana and cocaine. We don't know if this was understated, but at least it was stated. This was entirely calculated. It was strategic. It went through several edits. He tried to evoke sympathy about it by tying it to his identity crisis as an excuse or explanation.

IT BACKFIRED. It turns out that people do, in fact care about this and it does in fact affect the perception of his character. Is that fair- maybe yes, maybe no. But the fact of the matter is that
the country does care. Drug use of the kind he used at the time he used it was illegal. He seems completely insensitive to the fact that people have gone to jail for exactly the sort of things he details he did. He is running to be the Administration head of a government that appoints the Attorney General of the entire country. He was a self-confessed teenage junkie. He didn't just take a toke at a party and go "blecch, yuck" he did it over and over, and he did different stuff.

People I know don't care what color he is and it has nothing to do with race- it has to do with the fact that we don't like drug use- some of us have had it affect our larger families in very destructive ways, some of us just think the people who did drugs were morons.

Now, because he laid it all out, thinking that the offense was the best defense, he is trying to play like anyone who comments on it is either racist or playing mean negative character assault somersault politics. The greatest laugh out loud moment was when it was suggested that it was somehow impermissible to raise the issue of the black candidate Obama using drugs because that may somehow raise the image of a black guy using drugs. You don't say! GIVE ME A BREAK! What they mean is that he is supposed to be the race-less black Gomer Pyle and the fact that he did drugs makes him look more like someone who grew up in his wife's neighborhood.

OBAMA asked for this one.

Here is where having a hard-headed wife from the South Side isn't an asset- -insisting the bad guys are anyone who thinks noting drug use is a negative instead of the people actually doing the drugs plays less well with the people in Peoria than in the South Side hood, a culture, class and world away.

It insults anyone who kept their nose clean, worked nose to the grindstone to raise themselves above the drug culture and escape the negativity of drug infested neighborhoods. It insults the intelligence of anyone who knew how to say "No, thank you."

No campaign person or spokesperson should feel the slightest bit squeemish about saying the obvious: The adolescent use of illegal drugs is a NEGATIVE for anyone running for President. People of all colors, shapes and sizes have gone to jail for it. Many a Mom has been driven crazy by trying to keep her kids straight. Illegal Drug use affects the cost of health care and touches on the health care crisis and a host of public policy issues. Real estate laws allow landlords to evict people with proven illegal drug use, property may be confiscated by police if drugs are found in a vehicle (e.g. the police can take your car away), extensive illegal drug use is a large cause of homelessness, and the larger issue touches clearly on more serious crime issues. The cavalier bold what me? no- big- deal how- dare- you, you racist approach when anyone even touches the periphery of the issue raises a very disturbing character issue. IT IS A HUGE LIABILITY in a PRESIDENTIAL RACE. His attitude, not necessarily his drug use makes him totally and completely unpresidential.

So if people forgave him for the original drug use and identity confusion (like every mixed child out there should be excused doing drugs) they won't forgive him for the ludicrous way that his campaign has been spinning it.

What he seems to think is cool, others think is rank SKANK. He now wants to use the race banner by proxy to shield himself from the obvious. No one is fooled here.

This may shock some of the elite Studio 54 wanna-bes of the late 70's but some of us really never touched the stuff. We had far more interesting productive things to do with our teen years. We didn't hang with and couldn't stand the dudes who had legless roaches in their bedrooms, had grow lights over weed in their bathrooms, or diced the ice with a razor. We didn't invite them to our parties. We thought they were idiots. We still do. Sorry. We vote.