Why I Quit Smoking – Obama

US President Barack Obama said on
Monday that he stopped smoking out
of fear of his wife, in an unwitting
admission captured by a loose
microphone.
The US leader, taking part in an event on
the sidelines of the annual UN General
Assembly on the importance of civil
society, was exchanging small talk at the
end of his remarks.
In a recording taped by CNN, Obama is
standing up after the event and asking
the man next to him if he had given up
smoking.
When the question is returned to him,
Obama, in a light-hearted tone with a
smile on his lips, said: “I haven’t had a
cigarette in probably six years. That’s
because I’m scared of my wife.”
Usually known for his fit figure and
healthy lifestyle, Obama has long had a
weakness for cigarettes and depicted
himself as a smoker in his memoir of his
youth, Dreams From My Father.
Obama’s smoking habit and his efforts to
quit became favourite topics in the US
media from the time he started his
campaign for the White House in the
2008 election.
In his first year in office, Obama
described himself as “95 per cent cured”
from smoking but admitted he has
occasionally “fallen off the wagon” in his
efforts.
In December 2010, then White House
spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Obama
had not smoked for nine months and
had been “stubborn” in trying to quit,
despite the stress of the job.
First lady Michelle Obama, a campaigner
for public health, has been open about
her distaste for her husband’s smoking
but said that he never lit up in front of
their two daughters.
In February 2011, she said that the
president had not smoked for a year and
that she was not giving him a hard time
about the issue.
“When somebody’s doing the right thing,
you don’t mess with them,” she said.
[AFP]