First lady: The president has kicked the habit

WASHINGTON (AP)

President Barack Obama finally has kicked the habit, Michelle Obama said Tuesday.

"Yes, he has," the first lady told reporters at the White House when asked whether her husband had finally done what millions of Americans can't seem to do and quit smoking. "It's been almost a year."

She offered no details on when he quit or, more importantly, how he quit, "because he never smoked a lot" and she never saw him light up.

But Obama is known to have chewed nicotine gum to help. After his first medical checkup as president last year, the White House physician said in a statement issued after the exam that Obama should stick with "smoking cessation efforts" - the use of nicotine gum.

One in five adults, or 46 million people, still smoke, and tens of millions more are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke. Although the smoking rate has dropped dramatically since 1964, when the first surgeon general's report declared tobacco deadly, progress has stalled in the past decade.

The government had hoped to drop the smoking rate to 12 percent by last year, a goal not only missed but now pushed to 2020.

"He's always wanted to stop," the first lady said, explaining that daughters Malia, 12, and Sasha, 9, are getting to an age where he wants to be able to look them in the eye and deny it should they ever ask him whether he smokes.

Mrs. Obama said Tuesday that she was proud of her husband, but hasn't pressed him for details.

"I haven't really poked and prodded him on this," she said. "When somebody's doing the right thing you don't mess with them."