Lessons from the UK: Can Obama use the drugs issue to his advantage?

Here's the latest story about the Barack Obama bandwagon - his admissions about drug use. As the Washington Post puts it:

Obama has become the first potential presidential contender to admit trying cocaine.

Given that the admission was made in a book published 11 years ago, a book that has sold in huge numbers, the Post article seems more an acknowledgement of the speed of the bandwagon (because it shows that even an old Obama story is news) than a threat to its motion.

But the story may still take off, there's no rule about these things. And if it does, will it stop Obama or even make him falter?

Rumours of cocaine use didn't stop David Cameron becoming leader of the Conservative Party a year back, of course. But that was different, wasn't it? Cameron refused to acknowledge ever having used the drug. He was also a politician of the right, less likely to be suspected of excessive tolerance of illegal behaviour. In any case, America is a different place, with different attitudes. In the UK, politicians acknowledging past marijuana use has become a common place occurrence. In America it hasn't.

However, there may still be a lesson that Obama can learn from Cameron. The latter turned the cocaine rumours to his advantage. He used them to make him seem more media savvy (he handled it well) and to make him seem more robust (he refused to be pushed on the question of use). The story also ended up making him seem more like other young people, a real person who partied like other young people (even if he didn't). In all, what could have been a disaster became a net positive.

Obama can also use the story. He can make it his story, weaving it into his tale of his rise against the odds. He can show his identity with young black America and his courage at overcoming mistakes.

Handled right, this story could be a plus.

Comments

[Barry R]

We're getting close in America to where these kind of revelations are passe'. I think Obama sparkles like JFK did in the 60's. The '08 election is going to be a barnburner, but as for cocaine use---well it just seems all the walls are falling. When the last one is down and there are no more rules, what then??

[Tom]

So, if they get rid of Section Five of Article II of the Constitution, Pete Doherty is in with a chance at the big job after all?

[Julian Justice]

I think that in this society, where illegal drugs are as commonplace as alcohol, we need to detach ourselves from the negative stigmas attached to the sale and use of drugs, and focus on the fact that people will still do them, regardless. Focusing on why people do them may be more fruitful in understanding the users and thus helping them to stop using. So, I feel that having people in power who understand drug use, and may have been around drug use in college or university, is something that is beneficial to creating effective policy. The motorway speed restrictions were set by someone who didn't even drive, and are now one of the most abused laws, on a daily basis.
Serious issues need serious approaches, and if having such experience will help solve the problem then so be it. Anyway, not many can be worse than Georgey Boy!!

[John Mcvie]

You have it right there. "Handled rightly, this story could be a plus".
Great.Well done. Talk about "spin!!". Give me a break!

[Scott Benowitz]

I remember back in 1987 when Douglas Ginsburg, who had been nominated for an open seat in the U.S. Supreme Court by then President Reagan, withdrew himself from the nomination, a decision which political analysts have generally attributed partly due to the widespread criticism he was reiving in the U.S. media at the time in response to his admission to his occaisional (and very infrequent) marijuana use in the 1960's and in the 1970's- Many newspaper writers throughout the U.S. at the time were speculating that the time may not be distant when such admissions would not bar candidates from becoming elected to offices-
Five years later, the then governor of Arkansas admitted during the 1992 campaigns for the primary elections that he had smoked marijuana (although somehow without having inhaled it) during his college years, and he went on to win the nomination for the 1992 Presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket- He then won the subsequent general election and was reelected for a second term in November of 1996-
Four years later, the governor of Texas, after publically admitting to his having used cocaine as well as marijuana (not so infrequenlty) during his college years, as well as having once been arrested for driving while intoxicated in Maine during the early 1970's then went on to win the nomination for candiate for the Presidency on the Republican ticket- George W. Bush is currently serving his second term in office, meaning that we have not had a U.S. President since 1992 who has not admitted to having experimented with illegal narcotics when they were younger-
In the U.K., in 2003 or 2004 I believe that the members of the House of Commons decided unanimously to not answer questionnaires about their use of cannabis during their youth years-

[Nick, Washington D.C]

Barack Obama will not be President. It's not going to happen, however much the press in England would love it. The only person less likely to be President is Hilary Clinton. If that's the Democrats ticket, John McCain can start picking out furnishings for the Oval Office.

When that turns out to be true, you can maybe add "racist, woman-haters" to fat, stupid, loud, ignorant, earth-polluters as the English media's default view of Americans.

There is one hope for that Clinton/Obama ticket though: See if The Guardian can organise a letter-writing campaign telling voters what b*stards they are and how everyone hates them, unless they vote the way they're told by the British media. Could work?

[John Reid]

I seem to recall in the Carry On Films where a tapping of the nose with the index finger meant that person nose a thing or two. Then we have the camera never lies with suspects interviewed for the media and the footage is studied by experts. In Carry On Dave goes to India on webcameron, in the scene where he is in the taxi, Dave is seen rubbing his nose as though he nose something we don't. Of course, it may be argued that it was a perfectly innocent scratching. I suspect that it was product placement, in the same way that Coke is shoved in front of our faces in films. My understanding is that cocaine can be detected months or even years after use in the hairs on the head. Perhaps, Dave would like to subject himself to such a test to kill this rumour?

[Gabor Kovacs]

John Reid: Clearly Dave wouldn't. Maybe John Reid would I I think a hair can still be found on his head).

And if I rub my chin, does that mean that I chin a thing or two? Perhaps I missed the irony. Perhaps I didn't.