I don’t see the halo above Obama’s head

I believe Sen. Barack Obama is right to have admitted to drug use, including cocaine, in his youth. It serves several purposes:

• disarming Republicans or journalists who want to snoop;
• if he’s prepared to admit to this, then it’s unlikely he has more skeletons in his closet.

And one of his campaigners gave a good response when it was raised privately by someone working for the Clinton campaign: ‘Senator Clinton’s campaign is recycling old news that Barack Obama has been candid about in a book he wrote years ago, and he’s talked about the lessons he’s learned from these mistakes with young people all across the country. He plans on winning this campaign by focusing on the issues that actually matter to the American people.’
   It actually sounds like the sort of line Bill Clinton used in 1992.
   However, I am worried on numerous counts. I would prefer a leader who had stronger principles as a young lad, showing that it is possible to not take a ruinous path. I have a problem with the prospect that young people will say, ‘Hey, I am smoking pot, and it works for me now, so dammit, I’ll just keep doing it till I have the realization Barack Obama did.’
   It takes the responsibility of refraining from drug use away.
   I admire Sen. Obama for owning up to his past and telling us the lessons he learned—but I do not think I would run for office if I had his history. Then, being drug- and tobacco-free, I cannot truly say I know how he thinks. Maybe this is a good way to remove a lot of the guilt and to encourage those who have taken drugs to get off them. Personally, however, I don’t see it.
   Sen. Obama comes across, image-wise, negatively to me—not because of the drug past but he just seems like yet another typical politician. As with Sen. Clinton or Mr Giuliani, he tries to say politically nice things.
   I think Americans might want a straight talker as their 44th President. I still don’t know what half of these candidates vying for their party’s nomination stand for based on their voting record or press statements. And when I do, they come across as hypocritical.