Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he once used pot and cocaine. Why will he be allowed to run for President?

Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he once used marijuana and cocaine. Obama wrote about his past drug use in his memoir, "Dreams of My Father," published after he finished law school. Now, he's thinking of running for President in 2008. Obama will now be filing papers to create an exploratory committee to investigate a possible presidential bid. He wants to become President, to become one of the most powerful men in the United States and, perhaps, the world. Look at the "Help Wanted" section of any major newspaper in the United States and you'll see that a majority of potential employers state that a drug test and/or backround check will be required prior to being considered for employment. In other words, if you've been using illegal drugs and/or have a criminal past that shows you once did and/or you admit, during the interview, that you once used illegal drugs, they do not want you and they will not hire you (unless the manager happens to be a family friend/member). Basically, Obama won't and/or can't be hired as a police officer in any U.S. city, will never be employed as a cable installer, and he can never work at an aviation training company—just to name a few career jobs he'd be disqualified from ever getting due to his prior drug use. Using cocaine eliminates people from ever becoming a DEA or FBI agent. If I'm understanding this correctly, Obama can become our President, our Commander-in-Chief during times of war, yet he can't even be hired as a security guard for a major armored truck company? Fact: A person who is convicted of a felony cannot run for President of the United States. Obama once used cocaine, which means he committed a felony. If anyone is convicted as a felon in the United States, under almost all state constitutions, he or she would lose the right to vote and the right to hold elected office. Yet, we may be on the verge of electing a felon, albeit an unconvicted felon, to the Presidency of these United States. So, my simple question is, from a strictly legal—not moral—standpoint: why will Obama, who has admitted he once used illicit drugs, be allowed to run for President of the United States?

Public Comments

1. Because he's black. If a white Republican did that, the liberal media would be all over that guy.
2. Oh come on - give me a break. I'd ONLY vote for someone who's taken drugs. Who else would be able to deal with these boneheads in the government. FP
3. wow your crazy....
4. If he's never been convicted of using illegal drugs, nothing about the past drug abuse would show up in a background check. Clinton smoked pot. Even the FBI has eased it's past drug abuse restrictions. He didn't say he continues to use, he said he'd used them in the past. In regards to your reference to drug screening for jobs, that would be current abuse, not past, unless it's recent enough to show up in a pee test. So, I don't see a legal issue here.
5. He didn't say he was convicted, right? If not convicted then he can run. Look at George Bush, he smoked pot and also got a DUI (when he hit a woman while driving drink). Companies are allowed to do whatever they want to with drug tests, since they are privately owned they can make rules regarding specific things (some won't give you health coverage if you smoke). So I think your question is leaning to the morality issue. People can admit to using whatever drugs, if they get charged and convicted then it is a different story.
6. So he wasnt convicted of it-Kennedy used qualaludes while in the White House, Bush was a former alcoholic, Goodness know what else some of them might have done. He can I am sure pass a drug test now and a background check will find no conviction. Are you perfect? Lived the perfect life huh? Well most of us havent and any one who expects politicians to be perfect is out of their ever loving mind.
7. clinton was allowed to run (although he 'didn't inhale') bush was allowed to run also. why should it be any different for obama? EDIT in response to your additional details. it doesn't matter if he admitted to drug use or not, he has to be convicted of the crime first. also, i'm not positive, but depending on the amount he had could it just be a misdemeanor.
8. Remember he's from the same state as kennedy. Those people have got tobe drinking soemthing that idles their minds. Here is an unknown with little education, little political experienced black/white mixed who denie shis white side, gets voted into the senate form a state which is 90% white. The guy is a fruitcake in my very valuable opinion.
9. Because our current president has said he has used drugs and has a record for DUI. If you tried to get every politician who used weed out of Washington, it would take care of the office crunch on Capitol Hill. Its the same stuff, a janitor can't smoke a roach and get job at Home Depot, but the rich and famous, well, they are different. And now you know exactly how different.
10. These are the only qualifications for the office of President of the United States: 1) You must be a natural born U.S. citizen. 2) You must be at least 35 years of age. 3) You must not already have served two terms as President. Those are the Constitution's only qualifiers. Our system trusts the voters to choose the best person. If the voters don't want someone who has committed crimes in the past, they don't have to elect someone like that. Bill Clinton smoked pot when he was younger. George W. Bush snorted cocaine and got arrested for driving drunk; Vice President Dick Cheney was arrested twice for driving drunk. So the voters don't seem to care about people's reckless behavior in the past. Senator Obama understands this and that's why he was able to admit his past drug use.
11. show me a president who didn't smoke pot?
12. Seems you're more full of your own answers than anyone else could be- this would be more appropriate as a blog. Go to Yahoo 360.
13. Chill, BigD. He probably didn't inhale either. You're talking about an entire generation, most of whom, myself included, have indeed apparently committed a felony
14. Anyone is allowed to run for the US President. Obama shouldn't be judged differently. He confessed in his book about using cocaine and that confession will comeback to haunt him. Obviously he won't get far in the primaries. Yet he's trying. Got to give him credit for trying. He's very charismatic and very bright. Although he has only served two years in the US Senator his future is bright and the fact that he's running for President gives him more credence in the Senate. Yet, he has hardly no chance of winning. The media might differ with me, but I don't think he has a good chance of being on the Democratic ticket. I think the favorite right now is US Senator Joe Biden, who has over 20 years of congress experience.
15. Who cares?! If you still live in a world where you think no president has EVER done drugs, then no, he shouldn't be allowed to. I'm willing to bet that the majority of presidents have done drugs in some form. No one is pure...maybe the Pope and Dali Lama, but that's about it.
16. Bush did cocaine, and drove drunk. what the hell are you talking about?
17. I hear you, and I'm with you, but understand that our last President was allowed to keep his office While Currently Using Cocaine, so the users among us thought, and loved him for it! Most of us have done something stupid, destructive or illegal in our lifetimes, and when I'm hiring somebody or voting for somebody, what's important to me is, what is their attitude Now?
18. If he didn't jump behind the wheel under the influence and run down your grandmother on the sidewalk, I fail to see what business of yours it is whether he used drugs or not. Granted, his being a black democrat probably has something to do with the media's blind eye ... but I'm more concerned with his statist desires than his alleged drug use.
19. Don't You Think Your Being A Bit Critical? I Mean No Ones Perfect And We've All Made Mistakes In Our Lives, And I Think Obama Would Be A Decent President ( Much Better Than What We Have Now, If You Can Even Call Bush That). So What Hes USED Drugs As In Past Tense. Plus Those Were His Collage Years. I Think Everyone Fooled Around In That Time Of Their Lives. Get Over It! He Wouldn't Even Be Considered As A Candidate, If He Was Still Using Drugs.
20. OK now here's the ANSWER: Because the average white America has been pounded for so long by false accusations of racism that he (or she) will jump at a chance to vote for Obama (whose mother was white by the way) so they can say SEE, THIS PROVES I'M NOT A RACIST. Its the same reason so many Republicans were begging Colin Powell to run in 2000; he had the GOP nomination for the asking but his wife didn't want him to get shot.