# Obama gets 400% more death threats than W did **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 5, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385 "2009-08-05T03:01:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/1 "2009-08-05T03:01:37Z")
An average of 30 a day. Story [here.](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5967942/Barack-Obama-faces-30-death-threats-a-day-stretching-US-Secret-Service.html) I Pit . . . well, I guess I Pit a substantial minority of the American people (because I don’t think most of these are coming from foreigners). I also Pit RW idiots who insist and insist that the left’s hatred for W was in any way comparable to this shit. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/2 "2009-08-05T03:17:13Z")
What do you expect? He is a racist, muslim, socialist gun grabber that pals around with terrorists, he doesn’t salute the flag, he wants to euthanize old people, and he isn’t even an American citizen. And I didn’t have to exagerate a single thing the RW has said. ETA: and those aren’t even fringe views. They come from the Republican VP candidate, the 2nd most viewed mainstream media news host, and several Republican US Congress people. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/3 "2009-08-05T03:40:39Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > An average of 30 a day. Story [here.](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5967942/Barack-Obama-faces-30-death-threats-a-day-stretching-US-Secret-Service.html) I Pit . . . well, I guess I Pit a substantial minority of the American people (because I don’t think most of these are coming from foreigners). I also Pit RW idiots who insist and insist that the left’s hatred for W was in any way comparable to this shit. So you missed the election campaigns… ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/4 "2009-08-05T04:09:08Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > So you missed the election campaigns… I understand some lefties were arrested for wearing T-Shirts :eek:, or driving with Bumpar stickkers :eek: :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Dr.Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Love)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/5 "2009-08-05T04:18:18Z")
I heard somewhere that children consistently underestimate how hard they shove/hit others in play, which explains why slight touches turn into fights so quickly. Politics is the adult version of this. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/6 "2009-08-05T04:24:37Z")
Disturbances in public meetings, threatening to blow up Gates and threatening to kill the president. These are examples of twisted conservatives who don’t respect the vote or democracy. sad ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/7 "2009-08-05T04:29:24Z")
Check out the Yahoo! Answers section on politics sometimes, for some reason that’s a hotbed of extreme right-wing-nuttery. It’s really quite insane. There he’s a far worse threat that Hitler commanding an army of gay dinosaurs to rape all Christian newborn babies. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/8 "2009-08-05T04:55:18Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > So you missed the election campaigns… No, I didn’t, and the left’s **completely justified** (if sometimes over-the-top and irrational, e.g., the “9/11 Truthers” – by no means all of whom are/were leftists) hatred of W and his Admin was in no way comparable to this shit. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/9 "2009-08-05T04:58:21Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I Pit . . . well, I guess I Pit a substantial minority of the American people (because I don’t think most of these are coming from foreigners). I say “substantial minority” because I think it’s safe to say that for every person who actually goes to the trouble of mailing or phoning in a death threat, there are dozens more, equally Pitworthy, who would be popping corks and dancing in the streets if Obama were actually assassinated. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/10 "2009-08-05T06:40:37Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > No, I didn’t, and the left’s **completely justified** (if sometimes over-the-top and irrational, e.g., the “9/11 Truthers” – by no means all of whom are/were leftists) hatred of W and his Admin was in no way comparable to this shit. Pro tip: do not insert 20-word parenthetical clauses in the middle of a sentence. It makes me want to send you a death threat. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/11 "2009-08-05T06:59:06Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Pro tip: do not insert 20-word parenthetical clauses in the middle of a sentence. It makes me want to send you a death threat. Priceless. At the moment, I’m working on a document that was written by four authors (though the task manager also had a lot of input), and of the four authors (and one task manager), none speak English as a native language (which isn’t necessarily problematic when it comes to writing documents), and all are technically trained (i.e., their degrees are in the sciences (though mostly in the social sciences)), which means that they are not quite versed in sentence construction (or paragraph construction for that matter), which isn’t as vexing as the fact that there are many sentences (and whole paragraphs) which have had all of their input (which can be quite a lot) so I am dealing with extraordinarily long sentences (and paragraphs) that tend to wander and include (or exclude, in the case of negative constructions) ideas and viewpoints from four authors (and one task manager), which, while normally very difficult, it seems as if none of them (including the freakin’ task manager) are aware of what punctuation does or how it fits into a sentence, so I’m working with many sentences (and paragraphs) that are very similar to this one (but not exactly), but are missing internal punctuation. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/12 "2009-08-05T07:30:19Z")
It’s almost as if a significant percentage of conservatives are violent, racist lunatics. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/13 "2009-08-05T08:04:53Z")
What sucks is that neither violence nor racism are conservative positions. Defining conservatism by dickheads’ views impedes otherwise fruitful political discourse. What really really sucks, is that a subset of conservative leadership (perhaps the most vocal, so it has the highest visibility) panders to these elements. This gets them funding and votes, but it also draws the association tighter and occasionally results in the election of a dickhead. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/14 "2009-08-05T09:16:02Z")
Sad part is the large number of these people may believe they are real ‘Americans’ and the democrats are Un-american. Threatening to kill the president of the US is pretty fucking Un-American in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/15 "2009-08-05T10:18:46Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#): > > Sad part is the large number of these people may believe they are real ‘Americans’ and the democrats are Un-american. > > Threatening to kill the president of the US is pretty fucking Un-American in my opinion. Isn’t it just a logical consequence of giving the citizens the RTKBA so that they can rise in armed revolt if they decide the government ought to go? That seems to be about as American as you can get. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/16 "2009-08-05T10:52:25Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > What sucks is that neither violence nor racism are conservative positions. Defining conservatism by dickheads’ views impedes otherwise fruitful political discourse. In the sense that conservatives tend to want to keep the social status quo and not embrace cultural changes, then racism in a traditionally racist society IS a conservative position. So is homophobia, so is sexism. ---
**Author:** ![Aquila\_Be](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a698b9/32.png) [@Aquila\_Be](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquila_Be)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/17 "2009-08-05T11:30:05Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > An average of 30 a day. Story [here.](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5967942/Barack-Obama-faces-30-death-threats-a-day-stretching-US-Secret-Service.html) I Pit . . . well, I guess I Pit a substantial minority of the American people (because I don’t think most of these are coming from foreigners). I also Pit RW idiots who insist and insist that the left’s hatred for W was in any way comparable to this shit. From your [LINK.](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5967942/Barack-Obama-faces-30-death-threats-a-day-stretching-US-Secret-Service.html) > [@](#): > > US President Barack Obama is the target of more than 30 potential death threats a day and is being protected by an increasingly over-stretched and under-resourced Secret Service, according to a new book. That’s 10,950 per year. > [@](#): > > Since Mr Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of In the President’s Secret Service. 3,000 to 10,950 is an increase of 265% not 400%. Perhaps Dubya was better loved?😃 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/18 "2009-08-05T11:42:36Z")
> [@Aquila\_Be](#): > > Perhaps Dubya was better loved?😃 Nah–his opponents just weren’t quite the antidemocratic moonbats that comprise such a large number of Obama-haters. Oh, and 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/19 "2009-08-05T12:00:19Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I say “substantial minority” because I think it’s safe to say that for every person who actually goes to the trouble of mailing or phoning in a death threat, there are dozens more, equally Pitworthy, who would be popping corks and dancing in the streets if Obama were actually assassinated. Good thing there aren’t any Dopers who start Pit threads whenever a prominent Republican dies saying “I’m glad he’s dead and I hope he suffered” and announcing that they want to dance or urinate on his grave. Because then you would have to Pit them too, or else be shown up as a hypocrite. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385/20 "2009-08-05T12:11:10Z")
Remember when Bush wanted to invade Iraq, and some of us liberals said we thought it was a bad idea and then some conservatives called us traitors? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-gets-400-more-death-threats-than-w-did/505385.md?page=2)