[QUOTE=fessie]
That’s really surprising, I remember reading that IL Senator Durbin had requested protection for Obama back in May.
[/QUOTE]
Well, I talked to the head organizer of the event thing, and he said secret service wouldn’t come until he was more popular. He had some dudes, but that didn’t stop him from wondering about freely. Hell, I was part of the security forces - when he was leaving the rally, I helped keep his motorcade from being overrun from the crazies.
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
Does GWB ever make a public appearance under any other circumstances?
[/QUOTE]
Sure. What, you think he never, ever goes anywhere? Nobody’s untouchable. The Secret Service does their best, but there are limits to what you can do with the resources you have.
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
Does GWB ever make a public appearance under any other circumstances?
[/QUOTE]
I don’t know how any of us would know that. But if you think you know the answer, then show us how you know.
[QUOTE=RickJay]
Not that I wish ill on Mr. Obama, but I think two things have to be borne in mind here:
It is flatly nuts to think it at all logistically possible to screen every person who’s going to be within shooting distance of him at a public appearance,
People are probably underestimating how difficult an assassination attempt is – there’ve been more failed attempts than successful ones, and
If you did invest a huge amount of time and effort into this, to the point that you could actually screen everyone, you’d have to severely curtail the number of people who could hear him speak, which no politician wants, and Mr. Obama ESPECIALLY doesn’t want, since public speaking is one of the things he does best.
[/QUOTE]
That is about the answer that I was going to give. I was selected by the SS do photo ops with Bill Clinton, Tipper Gore, and many more when I was in college. The event was very similar to this one and at about the same stage in the candidacy as this one. This was a couple of hours before the event started and I had to stay near the SS all the time and I got to see what they do. They have snipers positioned to take anyone out, they have agents in plain clothes all over the place and they have very quick cover and escape plans. SS agents are guarding for their own lives too because they might have to take that bullet and nobody wants that.
It would be extremely hard to hit a candidate from 50 yards with a pistol. That isn’t even that easy standing in a field with an open target let alone in a crowd with agents all over and the potential for a bystander to disrupt the whole thing. Even if it took two seconds to pull a pistol out, point, aim, and shoot, that is way more than enough time for it to be thwarted. I would guess that both candidates were wearing bullet-proof vests and that makes it even harder still. A recognized threat from anywhere in the area will simply result in agents throwing the candidates on the floor as fast as possible and covering with their own bodies and then using a fast escape plan.