AUDUBON — Barack Obama did something no other presidential candidate has managed during the Iowa caucus campaign season: talked about the subject of his own past illegal drug use in a winning way.

Speaking to a crowd of some 400 people in a high school gymnasium during a recent campaign stop in this southwest Iowa town of about 2,200 people, the Illinois senator was asked about President Clinton’s legendary argument that he tried marijuana but didn’t inhale. An audience member asked him,”Unlike other presidents, did you inhale?”

“I did,” Obama said. “It’s not something that I’m proud of. It was a mistake