Barack Obama visiting the University of Illinois in 2004. As you can see, he is not smoking.
On August 3, 2004, Barack Obama met with a small group of constituents at the University of Illinois. At that event, Kwame Ross took the above photo. You can find the original posting about the event (along with the above photo) on the University of Illinois news bureau website.
The same photo Shopped to make it look like Obama was smoking.
Recently some unknown Shopper swiped the photo, flipped it and inserted a cigarette into Obama’s mouth. It got passed around the internet under the guise that it was a legit photo, but it is nothing more than a composite Shop (someone just cut and pasted a cigarette into the photo). Admittedly at one time Obama was a smoker, but has since quit. Although there may be a legit photo of him smoking that will one day surface in the media, this is not it.
What I can’t figure out is – why did the Shopper flip it? This is an ok Shop, but what gives it away is that the cigarette looks a little washed out color wise as compared to the rest of the photo. Also, usually when one smokes it creates…uhh…smoke…and there is no smoke whatsoever coming from the cigarette or even hanging in the air around Obama.
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Eh, I think that’s weak. Who dangles the cigarette that far out of their mouths without having their hand there? Looks like he’s chewing straw or something