Barack Obama: U.S. presidential election, 2008/drug use



The following relates to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and the use of illegal drugs.

Commentary
Eric Alterman commented December 13, 2007, at Media Matters for America:

"I don't understand the problem with Billy Shaheen saying that Obama's admission of drug use might turn out to be a problem in a general election. It's true, isn't it? It might be. Is it better to pretend that it won't and then find out later that you've just elected another right-wing extremist incompetent. The fact is we have no idea about any number of issues relating to Obama's potential vulnerabilities, and while I love the guy and think he would make one of the greatest presidents ever, I would like to have those answers sooner rather than later. Of course we'll never get them, but if anyone thinks that Republicans are only going to raise these issues because Clinton did, well, that person is stupid. It's rather childish to pretend that politics doesn't involve finding out bad things about your opponent and saying them. I say let's get everything on the table and let Obama deal with it."

2003

 * Bernard Schoenburg, "Frank Talk About Drug Use in Obama's 'Open Book'," State Journal Register (mapinc.org), November 16, 2003.

2006

 * Amanda B. Carpenter, "Obama Used Cocaine," Human Events Online, October 29, 2006.

2007

 * Jennifer Senior, "Dreaming of Obama," New York Magazine, 2007.
 * Lois Romano, "Effect of Obama's Candor Remains to Be Seen. Senator Admitted Trying Cocaine in a Memoir Written 11 Years Ago," Washington Post, January 3, 2007.
 * Lynn Sweet, "Obama's cocaine, pot use: Does it matter in White House bid?" Chicago Sun-Times, January 3, 2007.
 * Rick Moore, "Sen. Durbin: Revelation of Past Obama Cocaine Use 'Refreshing'," HolyCoast.com, January 3, 2007.
 * Judy, "Fox News Battering Obama Over Books Admissions," News Hounds, January 3, 2007.
 * Lynn Sweet, "Past drug use may test Obama. Scrutiny gives hint of how brutal campaign might be," Chicago Sun-Times, January 4, 2007.
 * "Obama's Use of Cocaine," Unconventional Wisdom, January 4, 2007.
 * "Barack Obama, cocaine use and 60 minutes," Russell Page on PR, February 14, 2007.
 * "More on Obama and Cocaine," Russell Page on PR, February 15, 2007.
 * Brendan Nyhan, "McCain attacks Obama's drug use," BrendanNyhan.com, May 30, 2007.
 * "On Glenn Beck, Shapiro misrepresented NY Times poll's Obama findings," Media Matters for America, June 29, 2007.
 * Eric Kleefeld, "Obama: Reform Cocaine Sentencing Laws," TPMElectionCentral, September 29, 2007.
 * Geoff Earle, "Obama: I tried drugs as a teenager," New York Post, November 21, 2007.
 * Barry Farber, "Obama Admits to Cocaine Use," News Max, November 26, 2007.
 * Douglas Burns, "Obama's Candor On Inhaling Plays Well In Iowa," Iowa Independent, December 5, 2007.
 * Douglas Burns, "The Politics Of Obama's Past Cocaine Use," Iowa Independent, December 6, 2007.
 * Taylor Marsh, "Reality in the Light of the General Election" updated, TaylorMarsh.com, December 12, 2007.
 * Ana Marie Cox, "Obama Cocaine Flap Will Probably Blow Over," Swampland Blog/TIME, December 13, 2007.
 * Taylor Marsh, "Axelrod and Trippi Tag Team Penn," TaylorMarsh.com, December 13, 2007.
 * Mark Murray, "Shaheen Fallout," First Read/MSNBC, December 14, 2007.
 * "MSNBC's O'Donnell claimed Penn 'on his own brought up cocaine' -- but Matthews started conversation," Media Matters for America, December 14, 2007.
 * Taylor Marsh, "Obama Slings Sex to Combat Drug Story," TaylorMarsh.com, December 14, 2007.
 * Greg Sargent, "Hillary and the drug flap. Does her campaign want issue to go away?" TPMElectionCentral, December 14, 2007.
 * Greg Sargent, "NY Times's Kit Seelye Speculates Baselessly -- In Paper's News Pages -- That Hillary Is Trying To Keep Obama Drug Issue Alive," Horse's Mouth/Talking Points Memo, December 14, 2007.
 * Berkeley Vox, "Axelrod: Obama stopped using cocaine at 20," The Daily Kos, December 14, 2007.
 * Jason Clayworth, "Obama: My teen drug use not relevant to campaign," Des Moines Register, December 15, 2007.
 * B Merry, "Obama Cocaine Flap Will Probably Blow Over," Hot Topics/TaylorMarsh.com, December 15, 2007.
 * "Clinton Team Kept Pushing Coke Story, Says Edwards Camp," Political Radar/ABC News, December 15, 2007.
 * Ed Strong, "Obama & Cocaine Use ['A Little 'Blow' When I Could Afford It',"] EdStrong Blog, December 16, 2007.
 * Patrick J. Buchanan, "Hardball or Dirt Ball?" The Conservative Voice, December 18, 2007.