Jumping on The Choomwagon

I wasn't even going to read this, but after I saw about a million references to The Choom Gang on the twitter, I did. And I'm passing it on to you because I love you all and want you to be aware of all internet traditions.

It seems our President smoked a lot of pot in his youth. As did I. We had similar silly rituals around the process. And we both rode around in a friend's red and white VW bus. In fact, I was often the designated driver of Tim's bus because everyone else was too trashed to drive. Our bus actually didn't look this good. And we didn't call it the Choomwagon.

I also had my own car that my gang dubbed The Spacemobile. That wasn't so much because we drove around smoking pot in it. We didn't, though I certainly ferried around a lot of stoned hippies in that car. Mainly it was because of the dashboard. It really did look just like a spaceship, especially with the push button tranny. I really loved this car.

Meanwhile, didn't read any of their posts, but judging from the headers, the usual wingnuts seem to think this is a damaging revelation. But I don't see how the fact that the president basically had the same childhood as nearly everyone I know over the age of fifty is a problem. We all grew up to be responsible, sober adults despite the teenage experimentation. If anything it humanizes him and underlines his common man creds.

The only possible reason this might hurt Obama is that his administration's drug war policy has been dismal, particularly on marijuana. More specifically medical marijuana. Busting dispensaries and whatnot in states where it's been legalized, especially when he promised not to, hasn't won him any friends in the drug reform community. It's not so small a voting bloc that it should be thrown away lightly. In a close election, it could make the difference between losing and winning.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]