Is Barack Obama at risk of assassination?

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Is Barack Obama at risk of assassination?

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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/n ... ars22.html
Many Blacks Worry About Obama's Safety

By DAVID CRARY

AP National Writer

For many black Americans, it's a conversation they find hard to avoid, revisiting old fears in the light of bright new hopes.

They watch with wonder as Barack Obama moves ever closer to becoming America's first black president. And they ask themselves, their family, their friends: Is he at risk? Will he be safe?

There is, of course, no sure answer. But interviews with blacks across the country, prominent and otherwise, suggest that lingering worries are outweighed by enthusiasm and determination.

"You can't have lived through the civil rights movement and know something about the history of African-Americans in this country and not be a little concerned," said Edna Medford, a history professor at Washington's Howard University.

"But African-Americans are more concerned that Obama get the opportunity to do the best he can," she added. "And if he wins, most of us believe the country would do for him what it would do for any president, that he will be as well protected as any of them."

Clyde Barrett, 66, a longtime U.S. Labor Department employee now retired in Tampa, Fla., says he often hears expressions of concern for Obama's safety. One young acquaintance, Barrett said, declared he wouldn't even vote for Obama for fear of exposing him to more danger.

"To me that's a cop-out, where you can't take a stand and support someone because you fear for his safety," Barrett said. "I don't have any apprehension ... We've got to go ahead and persevere."

For many older blacks, the barometer for gauging hopes and fears is the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

But concern about Obama's safety transcends racial lines. He has white supporters who see him as an inspiring, youthful advocate of change in the mold of Robert F. Kennedy, and they are mindful of Kennedy's assassination just two months after King's.

Pam Hart, the principal of a multiracial elementary school in the Philadelphia suburb of Cheltenham, said she is struck by the contrast between some of the black students there, innocently excited about Obama's candidacy, and the more anxious perspective of older people who lived through the violence of the 1960s.

"My 70-year-old aunt _ every time I call her, she says she's really afraid Obama is going to be assassinated. She is so worried that history will repeat itself," said Hart, who is 40. "I understand why she's afraid, but I feel we live in a different world now."

Bruce Gordon, a New York-based business leader and former president of the NAACP, also feels the climate has changed dramatically _ as evidenced by the strong nationwide support that Obama is receiving from whites as well as blacks.

Gordon felt differently back in the mid-1990s, when Gen. Colin Powell was weighing a run for the presidency, and Powell's wife, Alma, was among those voicing concern about his safety.

"When Powell decided not to run, I said to myself, 'Good,' because I thought someone would kill him," Gordon recalled. "This time, I think that if, out of fear, we keep our most talented people from running for office, it will never happen.

"Yes, there's a risk, but I would never want it to be in the way," Gordon added. "In running, Barack Obama has to accept the fact that he faces a risk. And yes, we pray for him."

Obama received Secret Service protection last May _ the earliest ever for any presidential candidate. At the time, federal officials said they were not aware of any direct threats to Obama, but Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin _ who was among those recommending the Secret Service deployment _ acknowledged receiving information, some with racial overtones, that made him concerned for Obama's safety.

Obama's campaign, invited this week to comment on the concerns felt by many blacks, referred to a speech given by the candidate's wife, Michelle, to a mostly black audience in South Carolina last fall.

"I know people care about Barack and our family. I know people want to protect us and themselves from disappointment," she said, before urging people to cast fear aside.

"If you're willing to heed Coretta Scott King's words and not be afraid of the future ... there's no challenge we can't overcome," she said.

Obama himself, while acknowledging that his family and friends are concerned about his safety, has drawn a contrast with King.

"He didn't have Secret Service protection," Obama told TV host Tavis Smiley last fall. "I can't even comprehend the degree of courage that was required, and look what he did."

Sherry Miles, 45, of Madison Heights, Va., said she's had sobering talks about Obama's safety with her friends and her mother.

"People who want to bring drastic change bring a certain fear among those who don't want change," Miles said. "You look back at our history, and all of the people who tried to bring about change were killed or threatened."

Miles, who works for Virginia's Department of Mental Health, said she was troubled listening to a recent local radio show in which one female caller termed Obama "the devil" and falsely asserted that he was Muslim.

"It's ill-informed people like her who concern me," Miles said. "I'm very pleased that Obama is there, doing so well. But at the same time I'm fearful someone will try to hurt him."

Bryan Monroe, Chicago-based editorial director for Ebony magazine, said the risk faced by Obama "is in the back of people's minds," but that their worries are often superseded by excitement that he could win. Their No. 1 question, Monroe says, "is could this really happen in our lifetime?"

Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich, a former executive director of the Black Leadership Forum, noted that political leaders of any race face risks in a society where mass shootings and other violence by aggrieved or deranged assailants is all too common.

It is troubling, she said, to acknowledge such dangers at the very moment when Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are demonstrating the historic opportunities available to blacks and women.

"We cannot be crippled by fear. That's the overwhelming emotion in the African-American community," Scruggs-Leftwich said. "We have to do the American thing: We buckle up and keep going."
So what say you all? Is Obama in any greater danger of being assassinated because he's black? Have you thought about this at all, and if so, what conclusions have you drawn?

Myself, I drew the parallel with Bobby Kennedy, not with Martin Luther King Jr., but then I'm not black.
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Post by Fleet Admiral JD »

I actually had this same thought. We'd like to think that racism is gone in America, but really, you know that there's going to be some hick somewhere thinking, "I'm gunna get that durn nigger! White man should be mah president!"
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Post by CaptainChewbacca »

Well, if Bill Richardson is his VP we should be ok. I don't think he'll get killed, but I think someone will TRY.

How much Secret Service protection does he have ATM?
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Post by Spin Echo »

Aren't presidents normally considered at risk for assassination?
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Post by Coyote »

Guaranteed that no matter who is elected, some fucknuggets-r-us group will have it out for him or her. And I'm sure the Secret Service is quite prepared for them.
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Post by Sea Skimmer »

He’s at risk because he’s black and a gun grabber, but I really can’t think the risk is any greater then what Hillary faces for being well, herself, most hated women in America, and a gun grabber to boot. All significant presidential candidates have secret service protection by this point, but the most likely threat is a lone nut job with a rifle. Without extensive preplanning of every movement, something not very practical for a campaigning senator you just can’t really defend against that kind of thing. Luckily the same lack of long term planning means its hard to the shoot to plan too.
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Post by RedImperator »

This is the reason I'd like to find the swine that started and continue to circulate the rumors that Obama is a radical Muslim, that Obama is an al-Quaeda Manchurian Candidate come to hand America over to the jihadis, why I'd like to scoop up every grinning shitheel that sneers "Obama bin Laden" over the radio or the lunch table, and bend them over backwards and nail their ankles to their ears. Somewhere out there, there's someone--probably many someones--who listen to that drivel and are plotting as we speak to do their patriotic duty and kill Barack Obama before he can sell us out to the terrorists. You can't do anything but hope their own stupidity and the Secret Service are enough to prevent it, because I really don't want to think about what will happen if they can't.
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Post by FSTargetDrone »

I know the Secret Service is always out in force when the current president is out anywhere, but every time I see even the current president working the crowds, trading handshakes and such, I'm always cringing at the thought that there's someone in the crowd who's going to try something. I assume everyone is given at least a cursory search before getting anywhere near the president, but those outdoor situations (especially) still make me nervous.
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Post by Baal »

Half white, half Nigerian and grew up in Hawaii.

Yep he sure is African-American. :roll:
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Post by FSTargetDrone »

Baal wrote:Half white, half Nigerian and grew up in Hawaii.

Yep he sure is African-American. :roll:
To the people who have a problem with blacks, it won't matter "how black" he is, how much "African" blood he may have in him, so to speak. As far as they are concerned, he's black.
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Post by Baal »

FSTargetDrone wrote:
Baal wrote:Half white, half Nigerian and grew up in Hawaii.

Yep he sure is African-American. :roll:
To the people who have a problem with blacks, it won't matter "how black" he is, how much "African" blood he may have in him, so to speak. As far as they are concerned, he's black.

Actually I am talking from the other side. Blacks all across the country who are holding him up like he is a shining example of Black America when his life is really nothing like the life of the average black in America.

Personally I cant wait till he is President. With ears like his the caricature artists are going to have a field day. Even more bonus since he has shown himself to be very thin-skinned about them and takes offense easily.
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Post by CaptainChewbacca »

Would anyone care to speculate on what the public reaction would be if, sometime after he became the democratic nominee but before the general election, Obama was assassinated for racist reasons? Do you think there would be riots?
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Post by Big Phil »

Baal wrote:
FSTargetDrone wrote:
Baal wrote:Half white, half Nigerian and grew up in Hawaii.

Yep he sure is African-American. :roll:
To the people who have a problem with blacks, it won't matter "how black" he is, how much "African" blood he may have in him, so to speak. As far as they are concerned, he's black.

Actually I am talking from the other side. Blacks all across the country who are holding him up like he is a shining example of Black America when his life is really nothing like the life of the average black in America.
Thank the gods for that - he has very little baggage as a result, and lacks the chip on the shoulder entitlement mentality of many blacks in America. Nobody would be interested in him if he were just the latest black "leader" to emerge on the political spectrum bitching and moaning about racism. What makes him so compelling is that, at least for many non-racists, you halfway forget that he's black(ish) and just view him as an American.
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Post by Baal »

SancheztheWhaler wrote:
Baal wrote:
FSTargetDrone wrote: To the people who have a problem with blacks, it won't matter "how black" he is, how much "African" blood he may have in him, so to speak. As far as they are concerned, he's black.

Actually I am talking from the other side. Blacks all across the country who are holding him up like he is a shining example of Black America when his life is really nothing like the life of the average black in America.
Thank the gods for that - he has very little baggage as a result, and lacks the chip on the shoulder entitlement mentality of many blacks in America. Nobody would be interested in him if he were just the latest black "leader" to emerge on the political spectrum bitching and moaning about racism. What makes him so compelling is that, at least for many non-racists, you halfway forget that he's black(ish) and just view him as an American.

Very true. When I see him all I see is a very charismatic radical socialist. His pretty words pretty much swasy people before they realize just how much he would like to change things if given the chance.

Of course it wont happen. People forget that right now Congress is hated even more than Bush which means at best if Obama wins he has 2 years at best before he has to contend with a congress dominated by the GOP.

Which is fine with me. As far as I am concerned the Federal Government is at its best when power is split between the two parties and they pretty well neutralize each other for a long period of time.
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Post by Admiral Valdemar »

This was one of the first things that raced through my mind when I saw Obama first take to the political running for POTUS. I simply thought "This could go the way of Day 1 of 24". Although that fictional plot wasn't really racism motivated, it seems plausible that Obama's situation would mean open to more risk than if he'd been a white conservative.
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Post by Ritterin Sophia »

Baal wrote:Very true. When I see him all I see is a very charismatic radical socialist.
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Post by Surlethe »

To be honest, the possibility that the he might be at an elevated risk for assassination had not crossed my mind. This is probably because I'm naive and young; in my lifetime, no political figure that I can recall has been assassinated or the target of an attempted assassination, and certainly none that would have struck a public chord, like JFK or MLKJr. I wonder how many people my age, who haven't been exposed to virulent racism or assassinations, share my lack of concern?
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Post by Chris OFarrell »

It's an irony that the same base that so supported the current President may end up being a threat to the next. The Secret Service are going to have to do a 180 and throw half their gameplan out the window, redirect their intelligence resources...
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Post by Isolder74 »

Surlethe wrote:To be honest, the possibility that the he might be at an elevated risk for assassination had not crossed my mind. This is probably because I'm naive and young; in my lifetime, no political figure that I can recall has been assassinated or the target of an attempted assassination, and certainly none that would have struck a public chord, like JFK or MLKJr. I wonder how many people my age, who haven't been exposed to virulent racism or assassinations, share my lack of concern?
When were you born or have you forgotten the attempt on Ronald Reagan?
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Post by Darth Wong »

General Schatten wrote:
Baal wrote:Very true. When I see him all I see is a very charismatic radical socialist.
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What's Baal's idea of an economic moderate? Ross Perot?
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Post by GrandMasterTerwynn »

Isolder74 wrote:
Surlethe wrote:To be honest, the possibility that the he might be at an elevated risk for assassination had not crossed my mind. This is probably because I'm naive and young; in my lifetime, no political figure that I can recall has been assassinated or the target of an attempted assassination, and certainly none that would have struck a public chord, like JFK or MLKJr. I wonder how many people my age, who haven't been exposed to virulent racism or assassinations, share my lack of concern?
When were you born or have you forgotten the attempt on Ronald Reagan?
On that, we can safely say that Obama would be at risk of assassination . . . simply because he's running for office, and thus, highly prominent. The fact that he's the first racial minority with a serious chance of gaining a major party's Presidential nomination, and the White House to boot, is only icing on the cake. John Hinckley Jr. shot Reagan for the main purpose of impressing Jodie Foster. (He wasn't a shining example of sanity, but you don't have to be sane or have a political agenda to be an assassin.)
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Post by Elfdart »

FSTargetDrone wrote: To the people who have a problem with blacks, it won't matter "how black" he is, how much "African" blood he may have in him, so to speak. As far as they are concerned, he's black.
He's worse than black: He's the result of a communist plot involving uppity negroes and Da Joooooooooooooooooooooz! Think I'm being hyperbolic? Check this out:

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The Neo-Nazi er, National Review Online put this bit of racist paranoia on their web page:
Obama and I are roughly the same age. I grew up in liberal circles in New York City — a place to which people who wished to rebel against their upbringings had gravitated for generations. And yet, all of my mixed race, black/white classmates throughout my youth, some of whom I am still in contact with, were the product of very culturally specific unions. They were always the offspring of a white mother, (in my circles, she was usually Jewish, but elsewhere not necessarily) and usually a highly educated black father. And how had these two come together at a time when it was neither natural nor easy for such relationships to flourish? Always through politics. No, not the young Republicans. Usually the Communist Youth League. Or maybe a different arm of the CPUSA. But, for a white woman to marry a black man in 1958, or 60, there was almost inevitably a connection to explicit Communist politics.
Considering that Halle Berry was born in the 60s to black father and a white mother, is she part of this Godless-Commie-Negro-Joo-plot, too?

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Post by Darth Wong »

I love the way the asshole who wrote that piece acts as if some kind of special subversive reason is required in order to explain these white women marrying these black men, as if the idea that they would simply get together due to romantic and sexual attraction is inconceivable to him.
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Post by Surlethe »

Isolder74 wrote:
Surlethe wrote:To be honest, the possibility that the he might be at an elevated risk for assassination had not crossed my mind. This is probably because I'm naive and young; in my lifetime, no political figure that I can recall has been assassinated or the target of an attempted assassination, and certainly none that would have struck a public chord, like JFK or MLKJr. I wonder how many people my age, who haven't been exposed to virulent racism or assassinations, share my lack of concern?
When were you born or have you forgotten the attempt on Ronald Reagan?
1988. Reagan was president for all of the first nine months of my life; the assassination attempt in 1981 was certainly before my time. I'm sure the Secret Service does its job extraordinarily well, but I've never thought of a political figure as at any risk for assassination. Upon reflection, it becomes clear that of course political figures are at risk, but certainly, for anybody younger than 27 or 30, political assassination is something that just doesn't happen in the modern US.
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Post by GrandMasterTerwynn »

Surlethe wrote:
Isolder74 wrote:
Surlethe wrote:To be honest, the possibility that the he might be at an elevated risk for assassination had not crossed my mind. This is probably because I'm naive and young; in my lifetime, no political figure that I can recall has been assassinated or the target of an attempted assassination, and certainly none that would have struck a public chord, like JFK or MLKJr. I wonder how many people my age, who haven't been exposed to virulent racism or assassinations, share my lack of concern?
When were you born or have you forgotten the attempt on Ronald Reagan?
1988. Reagan was president for all of the first nine months of my life; the assassination attempt in 1981 was certainly before my time. I'm sure the Secret Service does its job extraordinarily well, but I've never thought of a political figure as at any risk for assassination. Upon reflection, it becomes clear that of course political figures are at risk, but certainly, for anybody younger than 27 or 30, political assassination is something that just doesn't happen in the modern US.
For anyone alive and old enough to post on the interwebs today, their parents were certainly alive for the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, and old enough to remember it. More than a few of them were alive for the assassination of JFK. A single generation separates us from Reagan, and two from JFK. Not enough time that the assassination of a notable American political figure should be inconceivable to young people today.

It is a far cry from the circumstances of anyone under 30 years old in 1962, for whom the last serious American political assassination would've been the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, and the attempted assassination of Teddy Roosevelt in 1912. Only the oldest parents of the 30 year olds of 1962 would have any recollection, and they would all have been babies or very small children at the time McKinley was assassinated.
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