May 26, 2012

Obama's "Choom Gang."

Everyone's reading this, so I thought you might like to talk about it.
Excerpts from David Maraniss' Barack Obama: The Story dealing with the elaborate drug culture surrounding the president when he attended Punahou School in Honolulu and Occidental College in Los Angeles. He inhaled. A lot.
(The Maraniss book doesn't come out until June 19th. You can buy it here.)

ADDED: Here's a long excerpt from the book, covering Obama's college years:
Most of Obama's classmates could not see how hard he was working to reconcile the contradictions that life threw at him. They thought he was cool, smart without being pedantic, and seemed to have his act together. To Mark Parsons, who came to know him mostly because they both smoked and spent a lot of time together huddling outside the student union, Obama seemed "almost Zen in walking through all the chaos in our dorm". He displayed one trait that showed he wanted to be a player though: he wore a lot of "stupid hats". He usually wore them cocked, to look cool. Obama also had a peculiar smoking style, a little affectation. He turned his wrist up and cupped the cigarette between thumb and index finger. He smoked a cigarette the same way he smoked a joint. "I have a sense that he smoked because he was addicted, as I was," Parsons said. But, Obama told Parsons, there was another reason. "I remember him telling me he would quit after he got married. He didn't want to quit smoking because he said he would gain weight, but after he got married it would be OK to gain weight. I think it was mostly a joke."

42 comments:

John henry said...

Too bad Obama was not arrested and subjected to the same laws that he thinks are such a good idea.

Not that I think they are a good idea. As a liberal I am pro-choice. I believe that adults have the right to put anything they wish into their bodies.

John Henry

Frankns said...

So Barry was a stoner. Interesting ...

John henry said...

I predict:

In a couple of weeks when the Choom Gang is old news, we will start hearing about Obama's cocaine abuse.

I understand we can quote from his own book about this.

John Henry

traditionalguy said...

This confirms our undertanding of strange Barry, who in his boyhood was a big time self medicator. If I had the experience of his mother's crazy maker ways, that would have been a helpful relief from my emotions.

But he now self medicates with visions of a depopulated wasteland where the Capitalists once roamed free.

He is an enemy of the USA that I grew up in. Not that that is a bad thing for the Dems and the Rinos who get rich from selling off the wrecked nation for parts.

pm317 said...

Ann, what do YOU think of it?

To think if he was caught he would be doing prison time than running for the presidency is galling. There is no plausible deniability here either (as in 'I didn't inhale') because he wrote about it himself.

Bob Ellison said...

Maybe, as in the Biden same-sex marriage gaffe, this will smoke Obama out on his true feelings about marijuana. "I have finally come to the point that I must admit that we should not criminalize reefer. We must move forward."

harrogate said...

What took you so long?

Big Mike said...

All that marijuana in the days of his youth may explain why he thinks there are 57 states and why lately he doesn't know whether he has sons or daughters.

KCFleming said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ErnieG said...

This is all over the right side of the blogosphere, but out in the rest of the world, it's the tree-falls-in-the-forest effect. Recall the number of people who had no idea what all the dog-eating jokes were about.

KCFleming said...

But Romney is Mormon.

Mormon!

ndspinelli said...

Whomever postulated here a few days ago that maybe the pot smoking was not real, and only a ploy to be cool, looks pretty silly.

Candidate Obama said directly and emphatically that he would not use the resources of the Justice Dept. to go after cannabis growers and dispensaries in states where it's legal. He said, "The Justice Dept. has much more important things to do involving terrorism. Now, I'm not going to spend my political capital trying to legalize marijuana nationally, but no we have much more important things to do than to pursue legal states marijauna programs."

KCFleming said...

The choom gives you the munchies, hence the dog jerky.

Right is right! said...

He is a degenerate drug abuser who had no business running for president much less serving as president. But flakey Voters like Althouse thought that his "urban" fly persona was "cool". Great. We now have a spade hipster dude as prez. The rest of the world is laughing at us.

David said...

Does this have anything to do with why he will not release his medical records?

Does he still do any drugs? When did he stop, if he stopped?

(I bet he has stopped. Michelle would kill him.)

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

These revelations fill me with hope that we may finally find it in our hearts to forgive Arnold Schwarzenegger for scandalizing the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

David said...

People who did drugs can stop doing drugs and live perfectly normal and productive lives. I have two close relatives who are in that category. They were addicts and will always be addicts, whether they do the stuff or not. Obama may or may not have been a true addict.

It is interesting in the old pictures that he was so much more robust looking. He is painfully thin now compared to those photos. This may or may not be a function of poor health.

Bush was a drunk. He got over it. Obama was a stoner. Let's hope he has too.

pm317 said...

Bush was a drunk. He got over it. Obama was a stoner. Let's hope he has too.

Standards for US presidency have been reduced to the likes of Bush II and Obama. Great! {I am not implying David approves of it, but just a side note}.

edutcher said...

Thank you, Ann, for putting this up.

Interesting that the only real leadership he seems to have shown in his life was as an innovator in different ways to get the most out of Mary Jane.

David said...

Does this have anything to do with why he will not release his medical records?

Prolly.

Might also explain, as Big Mike alludes, why we've never seen his academic transcripts or why he leans on TOTUS so much.

Right is right! said...

Bush was a good old' boy who drank some beer while Obama is a druggie. Big difference.

ndspinelli said...

I see this thread is bringing out the moonbats who consider Reefer Madness as a constructive public service announcement.

Paco Wové said...

"Standards for US presidency have been reduced to..."

and standards for Congresscritter have been reduced to the likes of Pelosi and Boehner Murray and Schumer and McCain and...

obviously, we are failing our duties as citizens of a free Republic.

Tank said...

Drug stupidness.

Most of the people I knew in the late 60's-70's smoked AND did or tried many other drugs.

With a few exceptions, we're all doctors, lawyers, CPA's, business owners, dentists, chiropractors, insurance executives, printers, bankers, etc, with spouses and children, and have led successful and constructive lives. The drug thing was a phase we went through and left behind (with limited exceptions for some - mostly pot and drinking - oh yeah, the most serious harmful drug of all).

God, the stupid when it comes to drugs is unending.

edutcher said...

Paco Wové said...

Standards for US presidency have been reduced to...

and standards for Congresscritter have been reduced to the likes of Pelosi and Boehner Murray and Schumer and McCain and...

obviously, we are failing our duties as citizens of a free Republic.


There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress. - Mark Twain

This has been going on a long time.

pm317 said...


God, the stupid when it comes to drugs is unending.


So a propped up least qualified candidate who also did drugs, maybe even extensively, can hide in plain sight.. is that it? No more excuses, please.

Tank said...

No, thinking that some recreational drug use he did 30 years ago is relevant now is stupid.

KCFleming said...

Tank, he was a stoner, not just a weekend toker.

Some people might have thought that was important news about the man they were selecting as President. It would not have affected yours, but others might have wondered about the guy a little more.

It's just more evidence of how the MSM was and remains solely a propaganda arm of the DNC. Obama wasn't vetted at all, that's the issue. No one else would have gotten away with such revelations, however much you reject the prejudice.

Anonymous said...

He inhaled. A lot.
Yes, but he didn't exhale.

edutcher said...

Tank said...

No, thinking that some recreational drug use he did 30 years ago is relevant now is stupid.

Sorry, dude, but that recreational drug use he did 30 years ago really is relevant. Pot is far more destructive than tobacco and has been documented as causing brain damage.

Which may explain why "all (the) doctors, lawyers, CPA's, business owners, dentists, chiropractors, insurance executives, printers, bankers, etc, with spouses and children" have made a lot of really lousy decisions in the last 40 years.

pm317 said...

Obama wasn't vetted at all, that's the issue.

Exactly. That is what Hillary kept asking for in the primary but the media just kept quite about these and other troubling things. The Republicans kept quite because they didn't want Hillary.

I am old fashioned -- I expect full mental abilities and evidence of having been consistent in using your brain for accomplishing bigger and better things all your life up to the point of running for the presidency. Drug use may have given Steve Jobs his abilities to think out of the box and we have evidence of what that might bring about. Show us something, anything of what you are capable of -- there is no trail of accomplishments here for Obama.

Mr. D said...

No, thinking that some recreational drug use he did 30 years ago is relevant now is stupid.

No, what's relevant now is that he's putting people away for what he did 30 years ago.

ndspinelli said...

Predicting Reefer Madness moonbats spewing stupidity was easier than predicting the sun will set later today.

ndspinelli said...

MrD, Thank you, that's the point.

jungatheart said...

diane ftw.

The link is amazing. It was a given he was a pothead, but to have the particulars laid out is hilarious. Sounds like a fun guy. As someone who was a serious pothead in her twenties (and who knows how early he started), trust me, it affected him mentally, permanently.

Michael McNeil said...

Standards for US presidency have been reduced to the likes of Bush II and Obama.

And the standards for the British have been reduced to the likes of Winston Churchill! As he wrote (in The Second World War), concerning an audience with Saudi King Ibn Saud:

“I had been told that neither smoking nor alcoholic beverages were allowed in the [Saudi] Royal Presence. As I was the host at luncheon I raised the matter at once, and said to the interpreter that if it was the religion of His Majesty [Ibn Saud] to deprive himself of smoking and alcohol I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.”

Or this: “When I was younger I made it a rule never to take strong drink before lunch. It is now my rule never to do so before breakfast.”

Yes, standards have certainly been relaxed — since, say, the time of Ulysses S. Grant!

Pianoman said...

For some reason I've got the song "Back On The Chain Gang" in my head. Can anyone write a suitable song parody for "Back In The Choom Gang"? It would be a great hit at parties, I'm sure.

bagoh20 said...

This is one of the few things about Obama that does NOT bother me.

His pot smoking never hurt anyone, but his continuation of violent un-American law enforcement policies in the drug war has. Innocent people are being ruined, injured and even killed to rid the nation of weed, and we all know that will not happen.

I would prefer that he and Michele be hitting the bong right this minute, then watching some Gilligan's Island reruns followed by a long lunch and a nap. Then wake and bake, and repeat daily until January.

Methadras said...

What's to read, he's already an admitted pot and cock-head. Woopdee fucking do. That privileged motherfucker has been getting away with shit his whole life. You know, I wonder if Jimmy Carter at this point is wiping his brow and feeling that most tremendous of weights finally being lifted from off his shoulders as no longer being the worst president this country has ever know.

Andy said...

When people bring up Romney's bigotry toward gay people that is supposed to be some kind of distraction, but somehow it's important that we talk about how much weed Obama has smoked in high school because that is necessary for evaluating someone that has already served one term as president.

Amartel said...

This story is significant for one reason only: the lack of vetting.
I don't care if he was a pothead in high school and did some "blow" (jesus, what a dork) in college. It's not optimal but it does not mess you up for life. What I care about is the galactically huge double standard when it comes to reporting on Republicans v. Democrats. Bush had an admitted alcohol problem and he manned up and took care of it. That's a real achievement by the way. But it was a continuing vicious theme from the left that he was sneaking booze or was a "dry drunk" (whatever that is), mentally crumbling under the pressure.

Amartel said...

"That privileged motherfucker has been getting away with shit his whole life."

This. Getting away with shit, and being applauded for it, 'cause it's so cool and clever to get away with shit. Choom.

Strelnikov said...

New Obama campaign theme song: "Keep on Choomin'", either to the tune of "Keep on Chogglin'" (my choice)or the more prosaic, "Keep on Truckin'" for the obvious tie in.