Obama laughing in the face of adversity?

Obama is a funny guy. That’s one of the reasons so many of us like him.

On the campaign trail we saw brief glimpses of his humorous side but he never really loosend up always wary of the  fact that one overblown joke could cause him the presidency Obama kept his self-deprecating, dry sense of humor in check.

But over the past few months as Obama has become increasingly comfortable with the presidency and his role as president and unfortunately as the situation has become more and more dire he’s started to lighten up and it’s not uncommon for him to crack a joke during a national press conference or address and admitedly most of the time his jokes or observations are witty and funny.

But on Thursday during his appearance of  “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno a characteristically self-deprecating joke about his bowling skills left a lot of families and people hurt. Then during an interview with “60 Minutes”, which aired yesterday, Obama joked about some aspects of the American economy likening his humor to ‘gallows humor’.

After he said, ” The only thing less popular than putting money into banks is putting money into the auto industry,” noting that, ” There’s got to be a little gallows humor to get you through the day.” Obama’s first statement was dead on but it’s no laughing matter. Detroit one of the US’s largest cities and the capital of the world’s auto industry is on the brink of collapse and Obama is joking about it?

Call me bias if you want (I lived in Detroit for over two years and I have a special fondness for Ferndale and Royal Oak MI) but I don’t get the joke.

Obama is the person charged with fixing all our problems and if he doesn’t make substantial headway in achieving many of them he’s going to be a one term president. And with everything he’s dealing with he’s probably suffering from  a ‘contact high’ brought on from being so close to all these disasters but frankly with the most powerful country currently on its knees and our collective suffering becoming a bit too overwhelming for even the strongest and the brightest among us I’m in no mood to laugh.

I admit I’ve never been one to laugh in the face of adversity, (I’d probably jump kick it..lol) so forgive me if I can’t laugh it off. And maybe if I lighten up I’d be able to see the humor in all of this like President Obama.

So what if Obama smokes cigarettes?

Obama is still smoking. You know it and I know it and if you believed that he really had quit that smile he gave on Meet the Press yesterday was a dead giveaway that he hasn’t.

According to him he’s tried to quit and he’s ‘ fallen off the wagon a few times ‘, code words for, ” You know I do, but you just wouldn’t catch me…” lol

But people, is it really a big deal that he smokes?  Don’t we have bigger things to worry about?

We’re losing our jobs and our homes. Our country is falling apart, state by state, figuratively and physically  and we’re worrying about whether or not the man at the wheel, the President of the United States gets a bit of satisfaction from puffing on a cigarette?

Gimme a break!!!

Smoking is a digusting habit and Obama obviously tries really, really hard to quit for his own health but I for one am not going to be worried about whether or not he lights up in the White House. I’m more worried about whether or not I’m going to have a job next year and if I’m going to be able to get a student loan for law school.

And if you don’t have more important things to worry about, good for you, you’re definitely one in a million but the press et al shouldn’t try to convince me that Obama’s smoking is one of the things that I should lose sleep over ’cause he isn’t (believe me he’s more worried about Detroit collapsing) I’m not and I’m sure millions of my fellow Americans aren’t going too either.

***UPDATE*** As of March 1, 2010 Obama is still smoking..and the world is still turning!