O Was Cig Man on Campus
Cynthia R. Fagen, New York Post, December 18, 2008
Taken during a 1980 photo shoot by Occidental College pal Lisa Jack, the snapshots show that the freshman was already showing off the quiet confidence of a future president.
“He was very charismatic even then,” Jack recalled of the brief encounter at her off-campus Los Angeles apartment.
“He was really cute. What else does a 20-year-old girl remember?” she told Time, which published the rare shots in its year-end issue that names the president-elect 2008’s Person of the Year. “He was a little nervous,” she said. “You can see he’s just posing, initially, and as the shoot goes on, he starts to come out.”
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In some of the black and white film frames, Obama, who called himself “Barry,” sports a straw fedora at a rakish angle and takes a deep drag off a cigarette.
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During the campaign, Obama admitted he still liked to sneak a smoke every now and then. But he has since sworn off the habit, promising to keep the White House a smoke-free zone.
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