Addressing Cenk's question of why Obama is so hard-right on the issue of pot legalization, I agree with Bill Maher's take: Obama does not wish to go down in history as the president that legalized pot. It would tend to advance the stereotype of black people as being big pot smokers. In Obama's mind, it's enough being the first black president as well as the first president to ever address health care in a meaningful way. Federal pot legalization is an issue he's happy to let a future president tackle.

And the degree to which he's opposed pot legalization (by raiding more head shops than Bush II) is simply meant to undercut that stereotype. Like a "see how black I'm not" kind of thing.

I've been saying this about Obama before Maher. There's no way he would ever jump on any legalization bandwagon. Time will tell though. While he may not actively support, he could just as easily not be active in fighting it, letting it progress naturally under it's own momentum. I hope this will be the case.

Which makes Obama complicit in the Drug War that ruins peoples lives. I've seen it first hand young black children who have a little weed on them put in jail, taken out of school for years forgotten by society. You'd think Obama, who was a young black pot smoker would have some idea of what the drug war is doing to the black community.

He doesn't want to be the president that legalized pot, fine. But we know the consequences and their serious and long term. He's a bastard, just like all the rest.

What Will The Feds Do About "Legal" Marijuana? has been added as a related post - related requested by PlayhousePals on that post.