Cigarette Smoking Obama = Bad President or just Propaganda?

I've seen the photo bounced around the Internet.

Obama with a cigarette in his mouth looking like a casual smoker. It is featured on a few blog sites as well as being placed here at ATS with the simple purpose of showing people that Obama isn't "Presidential" or doesn't have the dignity a leader should. Some sites have called him a liar since he has claimed to have already quit smoking (SunTimes.com). The photo then becomes proof of Obama's insidious nature. That he is already lying to the American public.

Of course I argued that even if he had been a smoker he'd be in the company of a large number of U.S. Presidents. Most of which were smokers themselves.

It wasn't until I showed the photo to my wife that I found out it was a fake.

My wife smoked cigarettes for over 13 years before quitting, and from all the way across the room she saw this photo was a fraud. Sure she is somewhat of a Photoshop expert (a major part of her job calls for heavy use of the software) but it was the fact that his lips were closed so tightly that was the real clincher. She said no smoker could hold a cigarette in his or her mouth like that.

So I did a little research and found this:



No cigarette.
Seems the manipulation is already at work.

So who created this hoax?
I don't know. I do know its intent was quite clear.

I suspect leading up to the general election we will see a large number of fakes like this coming out. I believe the manipulators know that regardless of whether or not the stories, images, or rumors are true, let alone proven false, the damage will be done.

I saw on the news people in West Virginia claiming they didn't vote for him because he is Muslim regardless of the fact that the claim was false. It has still been embedded in the minds of enough people to spread the lie.

Can we even trust most of what we see, and hear leading up to the Presidential election?
Will we just end up taking a ride on the Swift Boat? Do we care about the truth or what we want to see said and spread about the candidate we don't support?

I suggest we all look at the facts before leaping to the fiction.

- Lee

EDIT: Title change


[edit on 31-5-2008 by lee anoma]

reply to post by lee anoma




Well done buddy!


It never occurred to me that the pic could be faked. Tell your wife that her smoking habits are a blessing rather than a curse :p

As for smoking being a bad thing. My great Aunt recently died at the age of 80. She had smoked ever since she was 8 years old and only died of cancer aged 80. I plan to smoke till I die. Smoking is like marmite, you either love it, hate it or put up with its minging flavour.

Great job mate. Obama for President

From your friendly neighborhood Scottish-man

Good find! When I first saw the fake I just shrugged it off without much thought. But it would have been lurking there in the back of my mind, a trap with a coiled spring, just waiting to be triggered when someone says "don't vote for Obama, he smokes!" Disturbing how easy it is to fool people with such a simple hoax. An 8-year old could probably do that kind of photoshop job.

Then again, how do we know you didn't fake the "real" photo?

So? The photo of him smoking might be fake? (I say might be, because this proves nothing. Just as easily as a cigarette can be added in, one can be removed. The removed one might be the fake after all.) Who cares.

He has done far worse. He as actually admitted in his own book to doing coc aine in the past.

Then you have that gay guy that claims to have had sex with Obama, said he did coc aine with him. After Obama admitted he did coc aine, the gay sex thing might be true after all, especially considering to this day Obama has not even denied the gay sex, only avoided the questions.

Do you want a bisexual, coc aine using anti-white big-government racist black muslim as president? I sure as hell don't.

And yes, Cocaine has long-term effects, even if Obama used it long ago. As can be seen in this picture:


Of course, he didn't even use it THAT long ago. Remember, he is very young and if elected will be one of the youngest presidents. He claims to have used the coc aine up till his mid thirties, which was only what, about 10 years ago?

It might be why he truly thinks there are 57 states:
youtube.com...





And Obama is not lying, he's not a muslim. Anymore. He's a christian now, he converted to it for his wife and kids because his Wife was christian. He was only a Muslim for the majority of his life.



Can you really just covert to a different religion that quickly, and not harbor any sentiment from the last?

Don't forgot how his wife was not proud of America before, and Obama himself is quite unpatriotic. He has stated numerous times he refuses to wear the american flag pin on his suit, and he does not put his hand on his heart during the national anthem.

You want a guy who doesn't even like America, to lead America?

But what do you expect from a man who can't even use proper grammar?

"We go play hoop"

"laters"

wow.

Yes, Obama will make a fine leader.



[edit on 31-5-2008 by InsiderInfo]

One could just as easily say that the non-smoking photo is a fake.

In the end, as much as I dislike him, its a complete non-issue to me. So the guy may or may not light up a cigarette. Who cares? I certainly don't.

Freakin' brilliant!

I would be hard-pressed to believe that Obama doesn't know this picture is circulating. Why hasn't he said anything about it being manipulated??

Peace

Your founding fathers and some of your greatest presidents have smoked in some form or another, drank like fishes and womanised but they've still managed to make your country great why is it such a big deal now???

Is it because people are falling for the propaganda and objective of some elements of the media.

The man won't be killing any of you's personally with his habit. Although i admit smoking is a bad habit but still it's his choice are you going to deny a fellow american the right to liberty in making his own choices??

Smoking can lead to cancer but most civil engineers or scientists can list you at least fifty hard plastics and materials that prolonged exposure too will also cause you to contract cancer.

Environmental scientists can ring off chemical after chemical that through man made pollution enters our atmosphere that prolonged breathing exposure to will cause cancer.

Let's not be insecure or ignorant now people...

There are a couple of clues that suggest that the cigarette is photoshopped into photo above.

One is that the cigarette is blurry compared to the rest of the picture. The other is that there is no smoke.

Bill Clinton declared that he never lit his cigars, but there is a convincing photo circulating showing him puffing on a lit cigar with plenty of ambient smoke.

There are plenty of people here who would argue that Clinton was a great president.

I won't be voting for Obama because I haven't heard him say one thing that is substantive enough to convince me of what he stands for except change and change alone is too vague for me to put much stock in such a promise. Widespread pandemonium in the streets would be a change, but not one that I would desire.

....and Obama smoking has what to do with the issues? Being a Muslim or Christain has what to do with the issues? You become president not to further Christianity or any other religion, but to further AMERICA.

I don't like Obama and I don't like Clinton, but I'll take either of them over McCain. That's the problem with elections, there is no good candidate that makes it to the end. Just ones that are better than the other candidate.

Smoking can lead to cancer but most civil engineers or scientists can list you at least fifty hard plastics and materials that prolonged exposure too will also cause you to contract cancer.

Hard plastics, materials, CAN cause cancer. More than likely won't. Smoking, will 100% give you cancer if you smoke it long enough. All of my grandparents, great grandparents, on my mothers side all smoked. Every single one of them died from lung cancer. I expect you to say "well they were old and were going to die any way". Oh trust me, you didn't see what kind of hell they went thru. Lung cancer is a b**ch. personally I'd kill myself if I learned I got lung cancer. put me out of my misery.

But contracting cancer doesn't mean he won't of been a great president or make your country even greater. Roosevelt was crippled by polio but did it stop him from being a great president???? No.

Maybe Obama will be a not so great president...worse than Bush even but that won't be because of cancer it'll be his own abilities.




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[edit: removed unnecessary quote of entire previous post]
Quoting - Please review this link

[edit on 31-5-2008 by 12m8keall2c]

Originally posted by InsiderInfo
Hard plastics, materials, CAN cause cancer. More than likely won't. Smoking, will 100% give you cancer if you smoke it long enough. All of my grandparents, great grandparents, on my mothers side all smoked. Every single one of them died from lung cancer. I expect you to say "well they were old and were going to die any way". Oh trust me, you didn't see what kind of hell they went thru. Lung cancer is a b**ch. personally I'd kill myself if I learned I got lung cancer. put me out of my misery.

I'd say cancer of any type would be a terrible way to go, and cancer is rampant in our society today. I think the cancer problem is an effect of all of the "advancements" and better living through science / chemicals is the main catalyst in it all. I think plastics and contaminated food supplies (with non-natural chemicals and additives ) are a large part of why health problems are on the rise and cancer has such a stronghold over the elderly.

That being said, I don't think that smoking will always 100% lead to lung cancer. I know this reference is used alot, but George Burns smoked pretty much every day till he passed away in '96 and his death was listed from natural causes.
www.tv.com...

And as far as Obama smoking and that changing his ability to be president? I don't buy that at all.... We ALL have our vices, Bill Clinton may not have been a smoker but he did kind of go through a scandal after "self-medicating" with an intern. I know, bad comparison, but we have to remember that these people are human also, and we all have different ways of dealing with stress. Who am I to judge and say that what he SHOULD be doing instead of smoking....

reply to post by InsiderInfo


How can you equate that picture with long term coc aine use? Obviously you have no idea of the effects of coc aine, either long term or short term.
Also, smoking does not result in cancer 100% of the time.

Fake picture? Okay. I don't care if he smokes or not.
I don't know what the purpose of faking a picture like that would be.
Does anyone care if someone else smokes these days?



[edit on 5/31/2008 by FlyersFan]

reply to post by FlyersFan


Care to clarify?

I'm not sure I understand your post.

Peace

reply to post by FlyersFan


Looks like she's had a few cocktails (can't really say what the drinks are) and is angry about something, maybe the photographer.

Just a reminder...

Please focus responses on the Actual Topic of discussion.

Thank you.


» Politicians & People » Cigarette Smoking Obama = Bad President or just Propaganda? » Post Reply

Big star for you. It's crazy how far people will go in an attempt to discredit someone. I see posters are still waving their flags and claiming that Barack Obama is a muslim as if that somehow would make him a bad Presidential candidate.

It's sad that politics have degraded to this point where the issues matter less than the 'dirt' that people try to find (or make up) about the candidates.

Originally posted by Dr Love
Care to clarify?

Sure.

It looks like it's a fake picture. But why did someone bother to take the time to fake him smoking? Nowadays smoking is no big deal, right? No one cares if someone else smokes. If someone was going to make a hoax why did they do something silly like make him smoke?

It's obvious that it's a hoax. But I'm just saying why did they bother?
If someone was going to hoax something why not make him doing a line of coke or something? Ya' know?

Seems a pretty silly hoax. Yes, it's a hoax. But it just seems a silly one to do.