An unscientific study (we conducted ourselves) has proven 61% of all U. S. presidents smoked tobacco or are still smoking it. We have compiled pictures and information from various
presidential websites, historical societies and a very helpful article
we dug up from an old issue of Cigar Aficionado (we also stumbled across an interesting compilation of political cigar boxes at Cigar History) to discover more presidents than not take part in one of America's favorite (though fleeting) past times: Smoking.
This
shouldn't come as a suprise. Several presidents of the last century
were notorious smokers who lit up constantly in the White House even
while regulating tobacco themselves (like Spitzer's crusade against
prostitution,--we'll get to Clinton in a bit). As the legendary story
reveals John F. Kennedy gave orders to Press Secretary Pierre Salinger
to round up as many Corona cigars (JFK's favorite) before signing the
Cuban trade embargo. Salinger later reported 1,200 Coronas in his
possession. It was not until the Clinton administration when an
absolute no-smoking policy was implemented in the White House and
Hillary happily removed all the ashtrays from the premises. So where
might Barack Obama sneak a smoke? It's rumored that Willie Nelson fired
up on the White House roof when invited to spend a night, though we
doubt it was tobacco he was smoking.
The Smokers:
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