Ben, you are certainly correct when you say "It (smoking addiction) can happen to anyone." As a bartender, I can recall two women saying they did not smoke regularly until they had cigarettes while drinking. There is a woman in the neighborhood who had every reason not to be smoking (impressionable children, limited opportunity at work) who is smoking close to a pack a day and said she first tried one less than a year ago. She was and remains a non-drinker. On vacation about 3 years ago, there was this rather tall woman about 30 seated in an all-night pancake house. She smoked and looked good at it. We left the kids in the room under the supervision of our 15-year-old daughter. An apparent old friend sees her and says you've lost a lot of weight. 90 pounds, this looker says. The friend pointed to a cigarette in her hand and asked if that was a part of it. She grinned and shook her head as if to say yes. Her mouth said it was a strict diet. But, tending bar, I bet I have at least 10 regular customers who look like real smokers and only smoke some of the times they drink. They are non-smokers 99 percent of the time. The VP nominee seems to fit there.
