Speaking of government and with the 2008 national elections not so far away, there are some candidates for the Presidency who are smokers, or know one:

• On the Democratic side, wunderkind Senator Barack Obama of Illinois is a cigarette smoker who says he wants to quit and is reportedly trying.
• Fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton is married to a smoker (you remember him, don’t you?), but while living in the White House, she enforced a no-smoking policy inside the building that sent her husband/President outdoors when he was actually smoking his cigars.
• Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani of New York is a well-known and long-time cigar lover.
• Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado is a cigar smoker of the first stripe and was part of a dust-up over smoking in his office with an aide to a Representative in the next office. Tancredo continues to smoke and enjoys Perdomo Reserve cigars among others.
• Undeclared but possible Republican candidate Fred Thompson of Tennessee is a cigar smoker as well and reportedly has a preference for Cuban cigars . . . when he can get them. He’s been shown smoking in many of his film and television appearances and had a cigar in hand in his brilliant video retort to a challenge by filmmaker Michael Moore to a debate.

On the other side is the possible independent candidature of billionaire ex-Republican Michael Bloomberg, currently the Mayor of New York. A former smoker, he is virulently anti-tobacco and not only pushed through the New York smoking ban, but promised $125 million of his own fortune to “help” push the anti-tobacco message worldwide.

Listing Courtesy of CigarCyclopedia

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