Will the 'Drug' Card Be Played Against Barack Obama?

Cinco de Mayo would lose its punch without the adornment of a piñata, as would Christmas without its tree. In a similar sense, the holiday that is Political Season-otherwise known as a the lead-up to the general Presidential election, would be only a phantom of itself without its characteristic mud-slinging festival, a festival that usually lasts about a year, or until there is no more mud to sling (in which case, mud is fabricated from thin air and slung, for the sake of slinging).

This year, there has already been a good deal of mud going around. There was the anti-Hillary Apple Computer-mimicing ad, the John Edwards anti-Catholic blogger backlash, the Romney-is-not-a-real-Christian movement, and the Joe-Biden-shouldn't-say-articulate episode.

But what about Barack Obama? He is a unique case, in that he seems to be playing all of his cards right. He has tried to avoid slinging mud at others, and is campaigning with charismatic conviction. Is there a chink in the armor somewhere? Anywhere?

There just might be, or at least, there might be in the eyes of those who wish to defame him, or perhaps in the eyes of those that think what he did really was wrong and worth calling to attention. Obama has admitted to cocaine and marijuana use as a youth. Unlike Clinton, who claims to have not inhaled, Obama says he did inhale because "that was the point." He is not shy about what he describes as a troubled past, but in doing so, gives his opponents easy cheap shot fodder. The question is the extent to which they will use this fodder, the effect it could have if spun out of context, and even more interestingly, whether this is even something Obama should be ashamed of.