At this moment, Drudge is touting the fact that Obama thanked his drug-dealer instead of his mom in his high school yearbook. Other right-wing organizations have picked up on the report from David Maraniss's new book, Barack Obama: The Story, and are using the fact that Obama smoked weed in and after high school in order to attack Obama in this campaign.
I have to think this might be the most misguided political attack possible, and here are my reasons for so thinking:
1. The majority of the electorate in 2012 will be composed of Baby-Boomers and GenX-ers. Baby-boomers will neither be surprised nor shocked to find out that someone was smoking pot in high school and college in the 1970s. Hence, this news will mean nothing to them. For GenX-ers, many either positively want laws criminalizing marijuana lifted, or they are indifferent to marijuana and its effects. In fact, I would say that there is only a very small percentage of my generation that is even ambivalent to such laws; even less that actually want to continue to spend government funds prosecuting the war on drugs and keeping marijuana illegal.
2. For Obama, any deflection away from the economy is a positive. The more time the GOP spends harping on Obama's high school hi-jinks, the less time it is spending offering solutions for the economy. I imagine that Obama would consider that a "win".
I have to think this might be the most misguided political attack possible, and here are my reasons for so thinking:
1. The majority of the electorate in 2012 will be composed of Baby-Boomers and GenX-ers. Baby-boomers will neither be surprised nor shocked to find out that someone was smoking pot in high school and college in the 1970s. Hence, this news will mean nothing to them. For GenX-ers, many either positively want laws criminalizing marijuana lifted, or they are indifferent to marijuana and its effects. In fact, I would say that there is only a very small percentage of my generation that is even ambivalent to such laws; even less that actually want to continue to spend government funds prosecuting the war on drugs and keeping marijuana illegal.
2. For Obama, any deflection away from the economy is a positive. The more time the GOP spends harping on Obama's high school hi-jinks, the less time it is spending offering solutions for the economy. I imagine that Obama would consider that a "win".
