Barack Obama has a problem. It is a problem that might get him barred from employment in 20 states by employers, even for the most menial low-paying job. But yet it is a pastime enjoyed by millions nationwide and it is perfectly legal.

His problem is that he is a smoker. Although he has done a good job cutting down, according to Men’s Health magazine, Nov. 08 edition, “There have been a couple of times during the campaign when I fell off the wagon and bummed one, and I had to kick it again.”

Many anti-smokers see smokers as weak, self-destructive and willfully ignorant. Many employers see them that way also. Smokers now and in the past have always been some of the best people for the job, period. Consider what World War II would have been like without Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, both smokers and the very best men for the job at hand at the time. Yes, that was a different era, but a good man or woman that is right for a job, regardless of smoking status, will never go out of style or lose value.

The city of North Miami Florida in 1995 banned the hire of smokers, was sued, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The city won the right to do so. In 2003 they changed their policy because they couldn’t find enough qualified applicants without considering smokers and they also saw no lowering of health care costs.

I have seen Obama really beat up in the media because of his smoking status, but the same freedom that gives the media the right to pass judgement gives Obama the right to smoke, or quit if he so chooses.

Smokers are just like the nonsmokers, there are very good and very bad people in both groups.

Obama and smokers in general should only be judged by who they are and what they bring to the job’s requirements. Is Obama the right man for the job, regardless of his smoking status?

Will the anti-smoking Democrats deny him the job if he doesn’t quit, just like the way they have worked so hard to do to the common folk?

– Dave Pickrell, President and founder, Smokers Fighting Discrimination, Inc., P.O. Box 5472 Katy, Texas 77491

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