Is President Barack Obama still a smoker? Neither he nor his aides will give a straight answer.

As White House coverups go, the question hardly ranks among the most-pressing. But it came to mind yesterday when Obama signed into law sweeping new rules to restrict tobacco — without addressing his personal habit.

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post examines the matter in an article today — “Obama and The Burning Question. Tobacco Habit a Hazy Rumor Behind Official Smoke Screen.”

Farhi writes:

Super double special irony alert! President Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law yesterday, hailing it in a Rose Garden ceremony as “an extraordinary accomplishment” that will “save American lives and make Americans healthier.”

Well, let’s hope so. But doesn’t “healthier” start at home? Wouldn’t this be the same President Obama who still has a little tobacco habit of his own?

It’s hard to know for sure, because everyone at the White House acts like a kid caught smoking when the subject comes up, but it appears that Obama is the first president in decades to smoke cigarettes while in office…

Later in the article:

The White House offered a little more haze 10 days ago when reporters asked press secretary Robert Gibbs for an update on the does-he-or-doesn’t-he question. Gibbs wouldn’t say exactly. “I would simply tell you I think struggling with a nicotine addiction is something that happens every day,” he replied.

And later in Farhi’s story:

The president was no more specific yesterday as he signed a bill that will further regulate the marketing and manufacturing of cigarettes, including giving the Food and Drug Administration new powers to restrict the amount of tar and nicotine. Noting that one in five teenagers leaves high school as a smoker, Obama said: “I know because I was one of those teenagers. I know how hard it can be to break this habit when it has been with you for a long time.”

For a guy with a smoking past and maybe present, Obama’s blindingly white smile made reporters wonder whether they should be focused on the coverup and not the crime. So the question hung in the air for the assembled news types, all of whom are doubtless paragons of perfect health and fitness themselves. “Mr. President, how difficult has your struggle with smoking been?” shouted CNN’s Dan Lothian from the behind the rope line, as Obama worked the sweltering Rose Garden crowd a few feet away.

Obama turned his head toward Lothian, and then returned to working the line, without offering a verbal response.