Plagued by perceptions that he’s too elite and can’t relate to white working class voters crucial to his Presidential hopes, Barack Obama announced today his plan to immediately resume his pack-a-day cigarette habit.

Addressing reporters while puffing away in the doorway of the Chicago high-rise that houses his campaign headquarters, Obama unveiled his new slogan, “Smoke You Can Inhale In.” 

The presumptive Democratic nominee also revealed an advertising deal he struck with Marlboro, in which Obama will break the last remaining color barrier in America, by becoming the first black Marlboro Man. 

The McCain campaign wasted no time in mocking Obama’s “flip-flop” on his nicotine addiction, and immediately ran a series of ads claiming that Obama was really smoking French cigarettes.  A second McCain ad, contradicting the first, sought to subtly play the “race card” by asserting that Obama was actually sucking on Newport Menthols –  the brand most favored in the African American community — and depicted Obama as nothing more than a celebrity, like Smokey Robinson.

The McCain camp also put out a press release stating that Obama’s smoking was a bit “presumptuous” and “arrogant,” by seeking to associate himself with a former President who also hailed from a ”Hyde Parke.”

President Bush also jumped into the fray, stating that “John McCain is the only candidate capable of continuing our policies of ’smoke and mirrors,’ and ensuring that the entire world goes up in smoke.”

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BLOGWORTHIES:

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