Like me, Barack Obama has a twenty year cigarette habit, and he is trying to quit. I am going to quit too.
From a registration-required article in the Chicago Tribune:
"I've never been a heavy smoker," Obama said. "I've quit periodically over the last several years. I've got an ironclad demand from my wife that in the stresses of the campaign I don't succumb. I've been chewing Nicorette strenuously."
Obama is somewhere behind Clark or Gore on my favorites list (I know. Gore's not running!), so it is a political sacrifice to publicize his struggles to quit on DailyKos, which may be helpful to him.
While quitting during such a stressful period as a presidential campaign may be difficult, public health advocates count it as a victory for them.
"I hope he makes it a public fight," said Mark Peysakhovich of the American Heart Association, who used to lobby Obama on anti-smoking policies and other public health issues when Obama was a member of the Illinois Senate. "If he's got a nic fit and he's in a bad mood, I hope some of that comes out. Maybe it will encourage other people to be brave enough to try."
It might even score some political points for Obama, he said.
"It could make him more human to people," said Peysakhovich, "if he's got the same kind of struggles the rest of us have."
The reason I am writing this diary is because I have been a smoker for twenty years and struggling to quit for most of them. I have quit so many times that I am an expert on how to fail at quitting smoking. For the last five years, I have probably smoked, off and on, for three of them.
I have found inspiration to hear that Barack Obama was quitting too. Although plan now to wait until he wins the nomination to follow him politically, I am going to follow his leadership on this issue today and put away the cigarettes forever.
One thing I did read in the article is that he is chewing the Nicorette gum. Senator Obama, if you read this, please let me share my opinion that the Commit lozenges are much better. You can take the 4mg lozenges and break them in halves or quarters and carry them in your pocket. This makes it easy to wean yourself off of them. Besides, it is a simple matter to sneak a quarter lozenge as you prepare go go into a living room in New Hampshire or Iowa. If my eagle eyed daughter doesn't know I'm chewing Nicotine lozenges (my kids don't even know I still smoke!), then neither will those pesky reporters.
A challenge to DailyKos Smokers! Let's quit with Barrack!
You can do it!