# Chance Obama will be Assassinated? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 22, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chance-obama-will-be-assassinated/438758 "2008-02-22T19:13:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chance-obama-will-be-assassinated/438758/21 "2008-02-23T14:36:32Z")
[QUOTE=Tapioca Dextrin] Or Charlie Manson [/QUOTE] I would not like to see Charlie giving a speech at the funeral of a foreign head of state. Sharpon would be a much better choice. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chance-obama-will-be-assassinated/438758/22 "2008-02-24T04:57:06Z")
Another earlier thread: [Would President Obama be at extra-high risk for assassination? - Great Debates - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=451440) ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chance-obama-will-be-assassinated/438758/23 "2008-02-24T05:50:08Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] All modern presidents have had genuine assassination attempts against them [/QUOTE] Was anybody ever charged with the attempted assassination of Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, or George W. Bush? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chance-obama-will-be-assassinated/438758/24 "2008-02-24T05:55:36Z")
> [@](#): > > May 5, 1979: Ten minutes before Carter was about to speak at the civic center mall in Los Angeles, Raymond Lee Harvey was arrested carrying a pistol. He later told authorities that he and another man were hired to create a diversion so that Mexican hit men armed with sniper rifles could kill Carter. Charges against him were dismissed for lack of evidence. > > September 13, 1994: Frank Eugene Corder, a 38-year-old truck driver from Maryland, committed suicide by crashing a two-seat, propeller-driven Cessna 150 aircraft onto the grounds of the White House. He apparently tried to hit the building. The plane touched down on the South Lawn and crashed through the branches of a magnolia tree planted by Andrew Jackson before coming to rest in a crumpled heap two stories below the Clintons’ bedroom. At the time, President Clinton and his family were sleeping at Blair House, while repairs were being made to the ventilation system in the White House residence. Corder had no ill will toward Clinton and may have chosen the White House as a crash site for the publicity value. > > October 29, 1994: Francisco Martin Duran fired at least 29 shots with a semi-automatic rifle at the White House from Pennsylvania Avenue, outside the south lawn, thinking that Clinton was among the men in dark suits standing there (Clinton was in the White House Residence watching a football game). No one was hurt and Duran was sentenced to 40 years in prison. > > May 10, 2005: While Bush was giving a speech in the Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia, Vladimir Arutinian threw a live Soviet-made RGD-5 hand grenade towards the podium where he was standing and where Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and their two wives and officials were seated. It landed in the crowd 61 feet (18 m) from the podium after hitting a girl, but did not detonate because of a chance malfunction in its detonator. Arutinian was arrested in July 2005. He was convicted in January 2006, and was given a life sentence. From [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Presidential_assassination_attempts#Jimmy_Carter) . ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chance-obama-will-be-assassinated/438758/25 "2008-02-24T05:59:02Z")
[QUOTE=Boyo Jim] I would not like to see Charlie giving a speech at the funeral of a foreign head of state. Sharpon would be a much better choice. [/QUOTE] That much I can agree on, but the thread is about the likelihood of Obama being assassinated. I’m fairly sure the Senator from Illinois would be dodging a regular [helter skelter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helter_Skelter_%28Manson_scenario%29) of bullets if he stood next to Mr. Manson for any length of time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chance-obama-will-be-assassinated/438758.md?page=1)