I recently found myself wondering whether you can place bets on this in Vegas. Probably not – even in Nevada, there’s got to be some kind of law against placing bets on a potential crime, for obvious reasons. But I wouldn’t be surprised if some bookies are giving odds on the q-t.
Probably. Serious LW violence in America went out of fashion with the Symbionese Liberation Army. The worst of it we’ve seen in the past decade is a bit of random property destruction at GATT/WTO/World Bank/IMF protests. The Oklahoma City bombing, OTOH, wasn’t all that long ago.
GWB was subject to an assassination attempt while visiting Rep. of Georgia in 2005.
Lurking on Free Republic, BTW, I find some posters are openly terrified of an Obama presidency. Racism is only hinted at, but they view him, or purport to view him, as the second coming of Lenin or something. It’s quite astonishing to watch, even if you’re familiar with FR. Which does not mean any FReepers are potential assassins, of course.
Lurking on Stormfront is more interesting. The “White Nationalists” believe America has long since been taken over by blacks and Jews anyway, and who’s POTUS isn’t very relevant – except for the hope that the spectacle of a President Obama might finally cause whites to wake up to the danger and start a racial revolution.
Does anyone have Obama in the Celebrity Death Pool?
There’s ELF. But I think the racists and right winger out-gun us lefties mostly.
Not quite. Richard Nixon was targeted by Samuel Byck, who tried to hijack an airliner, intending to crash it into the White House. Byck shot a Maryland police officer and two pilots in trying to carry out his harebrained scheme; the cop and one pilot died. And David Hinckley followed Jimmy Carter around for several months during the 1980 campaign before being arrested in Nashville on weapons charges. He only later chose to target Reagan. The Secret Service spotted Hinckley on Carter rally and public-event footage when they went back and looked.
I’m afraid that Obama is probably at a greater risk because of his skin color. There are still, alas, some hardcore racists in the U.S., and many of them have guns. I hope and pray that the USSS will be very much on its toes.
I hope the USSS, unlike some federal agencies, has been vetting its applicants these past seven years on standards other than their politics.
It’s real embarrassing to get shot by one of your own bodyguards. (Or because they were intentionally negligent, amounts to the same thing.)
But I’m sure it has, not really too worried there.
Secret Service agents are justly renowned for being willing to sacrifice their lives for their protectees, if necessary, regardless of party, ideology, skin color, etc. The President is the President, and I think any USSS agent will strive to protect him (or someday her). I haven’t heard even the most virulent Bush critic complain that USSS standards have slipped in the last seven years, and I have no reason at all to think that they have. Indeed, out of sheer self-preservation, Bush or any other President would take a hands-off approach to USSS procedures, I’d think.
Hmmm. Now you’ve got me thinking of watching Dave and In the Line of Fire again…
There has been a bit of a racism scandal in the Secret Service recently, but I also believe that the agents would approach their jobs the same for any President.
When I think about it logically, using the same arguments you all are bringing up (and my husband’s - that the people who really hate BO are too old to make the effort 
), I know that Obama isn’t at any more risk than any other past President, and is quite possibly more secure given the levels of security that are in place now compared to a couple decades ago. Even so, my heart was absolutely racing after his speech on Tuesday night when he walked through the crowd shaking hands.
Bush had Cheney as insurance against assassination. Given the level of Hillary hatred on the board-- and around the internet-- maybe Obama SHOULD choose her as VP. [/red herring]
Rent Nick of Time while you’re at it.
There’s a plot to assassinate a governor – and even her own bodyguards are in on it.
While I think the number of whackjobs who would want to try it is going to elevated, I also think the security is much better now than it used to be. It’s certainly exponentially better than what MLK had.
And it seemed to me that the SS guys were pissed off with that situation. One person in the crowd had his Obama poster snatched from his hand. Shortly thereafter, SS moved the crowd back.
I was happy they did.
I got a little nervous when the camera showed the crowd applauding and waving signs – except for one (white) guy who just sat on his hands with a sour look on his face. But I reminded myself that nobody could have got into that hall without being searched for weapons. (Right?) Maybe dude was a genuine supporter just suffering a spell of heartburn or something.
Only if she gets picked for VP. 
Because Bush is a Republican. Democrats get anthrax letters in the mail, not the Republicans. It’s right wingers that kill doctors that perform abortions. It’s the right wingers that went around during the Clinton years with bumper stickers saying “Where’s Lee Harvey Oswald When You Need Him”, and had a Congressman ( whose name escapes me ) implying that Clinton would be assassinated if he came to the Congressman’s home state. The Oklahoma city bombing was by a right winger, as pointed out. It’s the Right that tends to threaten and indulge in political violence in this country these days.
I don’t personally think the odds are that high, but I wouldn’t be all that surprised if someone tried, because killing your political opponents is simply more acceptable to the Republicans. And because they are simply less moral people, or they wouldn’t be Republicans in the first place.
As pointed out above, there has been an assassination attempt on Bush. As well as Ford and Reagan, but not Johnson or Clinton or Carter.
Yet all the hate speech in this thread and others seems to be coming from - well, you.
Regards,
Shodan
Clinton had a few, the most memorable being the guy who crashed his Cessna into the Whitehouse, and the guy who sprayed the Whitehouse with rifle fire.
Can you provide some of specific examples of “hinted racism” you’re referring to in your post. You know, in the spirit of fighting ignorance, and all.
-LC