Obama And Romney Trade Barbs On Drug Use

It’s time to induct another person into The Moderate Voice’s highly-coveted Get A Life Club. This time it’s someone running for political office.

The Get A Life Club Award is given to an individual, group or institution that reveals his/her or its need to get a deeper sense of perspective due to an obsession with P.C. or other things blown way out of proportion. Other criteria may also apply.

It all begins with a comment by Democratic Senator Barack Obama who earlier this week admitted that when he was a young and — like all too many Americans — not-too-wise young person he experimented with drugs:

Earlier this week in New Hampshire Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke candidly about his past experimentation with drugs and alcohol in high school, and on Saturday—after a question on medicinal marijuana—Obama was prodded a bit further and asked whether or not he had ever inhaled.

“I did,” the senator from Illinois said to light applause. “It’s not something I’m proud of. It was a mistake as a young man.”

Fair enough. I don’t condone illegal drug usage. I have been adamantly against it all my life and was not beloved by some people at college because of my strong views. And my anti-drug show in schools remains the most passionate program I do for young people.

But applause to Mr. Obama for admitting it (which some will argue was him “inoculating” himself to it coming out later via a leak by Democratic or Republican foes).

And there’s more:

The question was a reference to a line made famous by former President Bill Clinton who, while admitting to trying marijuana, said he did not inhale.

“I never understood that line,” Obama continued. “The point was to inhale. That was the point.”

Double applause. He wasn’t trying to juggle or soft-soap his admission. And, yes, those who smoke marijuana do usually inhale just as those who do heroin do usually stick needles in their arms specifically to absorb that illegal drug that way.

So Obama put it all out there: he did something he is not proud of and did not try and “finesse” it.

So that’s the end of it? Hardly:

On the campaign trail on Saturday, GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney said Obama’s earlier comments set a bad example for young people.

“I agree with the sentiment that nobody’s perfect and most of us, if not all of us, in our youthful years have engaged in various indiscretions we wouldn’t want to have paraded in the front of a newspaper,” the former Massachusetts governor said in New Hampshire.

Fair enough..

“On the other hand if we’re running for president, I think it’s important for us not to go into details about the weaknesses and our own failings as young people for the concern that we open kids thinking that it’s ok for them.”

Oh, really?

So Mr. Romney is basically suggesting that candidates shouldn’t be candid with young people and articulate and specify how some things they did as young people were a) possibly inappropriate b) perhaps unhealthy and c) from the perspective of a bit more maturity, perhaps dumb.

He suggests that Presidential candidates need to make sure their images are of people who never made unwise decisions as young people and — God forbid — not to admit them during political campaigns.

Candidates who follow that strategy will be providing a journalistic candy shop for the media which will find and chronicle the details anyway. And then young people will read stories about sanctimonious politicians “busted” by the media.

The debate about drugs and drug use is one thing.

But Romney’s attempt to turn Obama’s statement into a political negative not only falls flat but it smacks of the kind of “old politics” rhetoric that many Americans — particularly young people — have seen all too often.

Romney’s comment is like something the talking heads on Sunday morning talk shows would repeat with a kind of wink, nod and that gratingly obnoxious half-smirk The Inside The Beltway Elite on those shows sometimes get that seemingly says “You know and I know full well that this is smelly horse waste product but you have to do this and say this in politics because it’s the way the game is played.”

Romney could have served his campaign (and image) better by indicating he never did drugs (if that is indeed the case). Or just left it at that.

But it’s HURTING YOUNG PEOPLE when adults admit mistakes they made when they were young or mention something they might not do the same way as adults??

Hardly.

And for that Mitt Romney is inducted into TMV’s Get A Life Club.