Obama still a smoker!

In a Meet the Press interview with Tom Brokaw, our President-elect couldn’t give a straight answer about whether he had managed to quit smoking.

Noting that the White House was a no-smoking zone, Brokaw asked Obama, "Have you stopped smoking?"

"I have," Obama replied, smiling broadly. "What I said was that there are times where I have fallen off the wagon."

"Wait a minute," Brokaw interjected, "that means you haven't stopped."

"Fair enough," Obama said. "What I would say is that I have done a terrific job under the circumstances of making myself much healthier. You will not see any violations of these rules in the White House."

In a country where cigarettes are responsible for one in five deaths and smoking costs billions of dollars in health care, Obama has been under pressure to set an example by giving up his reported two-decade-old habit.

Obama was often seen on the presidential campaign trail chewing Nicorette gum, which helps ease the craving for nicotine. He has tried several times to quit and in an interview with Men’s Health magazine in October, Obama says he bummed cigarettes “a couple times” along the campaign trail.

Obama's advice for those trying to kick the habit? "Eliminate certain key connections -- that first cigarette in the morning, or after a meal, or with a drink," he said. "If you can eliminate those triggers, that should help."

Though he admitted that he smoked a few times while he was running for prez, he added a disclaimer saying, “I figure, seeing as I'm running for president, I need to cut myself a little slack.”

Sorry Obama but that’s no excuse. About one out of three young smokers will eventually die from a tobacco related disease. And, every year cigarettes leave about 31,000 kids fatherless. That’s reason enough to quit but if you need more, we’ve created a petition just for you Mr. Barack! Please, please, please, quit the stinky habit and set an example for us all! Sign the petition here!