LYING ABOUT DRUG USE NO ANSWER

It was one of the catch-phrases that defined the decade of the 1960s.
The refrain "Don't bogart that joint" was on a lot of lips in the
1960s. So were joints. The phrase was a hipster's way of admonishing
pot-smoking compatriots not to hog the doobie -- smoking a marijuana
cigarette and refusing to share it. Now, though, presidential
candidates or members of their staffs seem intent upon placing former
drug use on a par with murder, sedition and failing to rewind a videotape.

In the latest episode of pre-election reefer madness, a Hillary
Clinton staffer was dismissed this week for saying that Barack Obama
could not be elected president -- and thus shouldn't win the
Democratic primaries -- because he's admitted to teenage drug use.
Ditching the staffer was probably the right thing to do, but it also
guaranteed an extra news cycle for a story that might otherwise have
died a deservedly quick death. l l l THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME OBAMA'S
TEENAGE DRUG USE -- he's admitted smoking pot and snorting cocaine as
a disaffected teenager (hey, aren't they all?) -- has been targeted by
political opponents.

Recently Mitt Romney said, in essence, that it's better to lie to
young people than to be straightforward about past indiscretions. Of
course, being less-than-straightforward didn't hurt President Bush's
electability. I've read that as a candidate, he refused to discuss his
former drug use lest young people think it was "cool." Not to worry,
Mr. President. Little chance of that.

Romney, campaigning in Iowa last month, said of Obama's admission,
"It's just not a good idea for people running for president of the
United States .. to talk about their personal failings while they were
kids because it opens the doorway to other kids thinking, 'well, I can
do that, too, and become president of the United States.' ... I think
that was a huge error by Barack Obama. It is just the wrong way for
people who want to be the leader of the free world."

And what is the right way? What should Obama have said when asked
whether he'd partaken of the wacky weed or snorted some nose candy?
Should he have painted a picture of pollyanna-ish past that most
people -- especially the children for whom Romney professes so much
concern -- find unachievable, nay, unbelievable? Would the dude have
kids think that because they took a toke off a joint at a party when
they were 16 their potential to lead a productive life -- heck, to
lead the nation -- has been destroyed? l l l WHAT A CLOWN. That's how
we end up with generations of Americans growing up believing fairy
tales about a preternaturally honest young George Washington whose
gravest error in judgment was cutting down a cherry tree. Despite what
Romney believes, children, old and young, deserve honesty from their
leaders. "Honesty" doesn't mean going into excruciating -- or even
exhilarating -- detail. Had Obama gone on about how he and his buds
got blazed and had mind-expanding experiences -- followed by seven Big
Macs, a bag of Doritos and a Sprite -- then the criticism would be
legitimate. What he actually said was that doing drugs wasted a lot of
his time, and when he got serious about his life, he stopped it.

We'd all be better served if political candidates, when they got
serious about leading this nation, stopped lying to us.