President Obama signed into law Monday one of the strongest anti-smoking bills in the history of the United States.

And we applaud him for doing so. Smoking is widely known to be associated with severe health risks and ultimately, in many cases, those health risks wind up being health problems.

All too often those problems must be paid for with taxpayer-funded healthcare plans such as Medicaid and Medicare.

Few adults will argue that smoking isn’t a nasty, unhealthy habit and one that can be especially difficult to break.

But as Obama’s pen signed the bill into law, we couldn’t help but wonder how many cigarettes he had smoked already that day.

The president openly admits he’s not proud of his addiction to cigarettes, but he comes off slightly hypocritical as he bashes the tobacco industry of which he helps fund by his own habit.

Obama is an excellent role model for many, many youth. He’s intelligent, articulate, well educated, physically active and family focused.

But that one nagging habit of smoking seems to tarnish, slightly, his position as the role model in chief.

We hope he will soon become a very public role spokesman for the benefits of being a former smoker instead of a closet one.