Newsweek's Sarah Ball Cheers HuffPo Take on Obama's Smoking: It's GOP's Fault

March 2nd, 2010 12:02 PM

"Wait, What? Obama Still Smokes?!"

That was the reaction of Newsweek's Sarah Ball to Navy physician Capt. Jeffrey Kuhlman noting ongoing "smoking cessation efforts" by President Obama in a publicly-released memo regarding the results of Sunday's physical exam of the commander-in-chief.

After going over a few takes from other media outlets about the story, Ball shared with readers of the magazine's The Gaggle blog her favorite headline:

But Huff Po's Andy Borowitz wins the Headline Award: OBAMA TO GOP: I WILL QUIT SMOKING IF YOU WILL QUIT BEING DICKS. 

I guess it's hilarious if you're a liberal journalist that thinks poor President Obama's biggest obstacle to passing his health care agenda has been the minority Republicans and not warring factions within the House Democratic caucus -- remember the abortion fight pitting pro-choice vs. pro-life Dems? -- and fence-riding Senate Democrats who produced boondoggles like the so-called Louisiana Purchase [Landrieu] and the "Cornhusker Kickback" [Ben Nelson].