The Washington Post, which, along with the rest of the MSM, has refused to probe Barack Obama’s use of cocaine and other illegal drugs during his youth has nonetheless spent months investigating non-candidate Cindy McCain’s abuse of prescription painkillers nearly twenty years ago. In a front-page story the Post re-hashes details of Mrs. McCain’s acknowledged past addiction to painkillers, taking much of its information from a disgruntled former employee of one of Mrs. McCain’s charities, Tom Gosinski, who kept a journal in the early 1990’s detailing his suspicions about Mrs. McCain’s drug use. The Post apparently tracked Gosinski down in May. Although “initially reluctant to tell his story,” the Post says:

He eventually gave several lengthy interviews and provided The Post with a copy of his journal. He subsequently cut off contact and asked that his name not be printed, saying he became frightened by the prospect of facing the McCain campaign on his own.

Gosinski’s fear was apparently short-lived, the Post reports.

On Wednesday, he said he had changed his mind. He appeared at a news briefing in Arlington set up by a Democratic Party consultant. Gosinski, a registered Republican, said that he sought help orchestrating a single media event because so many reporters wanted his story, but that he has had no contact with the Obama campaign or the Democratic National Committee.

So, now that the Post has devoted more than 2,500 words to Cindy McCain’s painful story (and apparently several other media outlets are pursuing the same story), when can we can expect a thorough examination of Obama’s youthful drug abuse? In his first autobiography, Dreams from My Father, Obama admitted that he used cocaine–or “blow” as he referred to it–”when you could afford it,” as well as “pot” and “booze,” though not “smack”:

Junkie. Pothead. That’s where I’d been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man

But Obama has never clarified precisely when he started using illegal drugs, or when he stopped. Have Post reporters been dispatched to interview his high school and college classmates? Have they tracked down friends to inquire how extensive Obama’s drug use was, how he obtained drugs, or whether he ever provided them to others? Have reporters ever bothered to ask Obama these questions directly?

The media devoted considerable resources in 2000 trying to validate unsubstantiated rumors that then–candidate George W. Bush had used cocaine years earlier–and printed the allegations even when proof was lacking. But Barack Obama’s admitted drug use is apparently off limits.

Maybe Obama’s youthful drug use isn’t relevant to whether or not he’d make a good president. But I don’t think we can possibly know until we learn more about it, which we never will if it’s up to the MSM.

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 8:33 AM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.