I’m saying the threat of left-wing violence is a drop in the bucket compared to organized, armed groups like Aryan Nations and similar splinter groups. These guys organize themselves in paramilitary fashion, arm themselves with heavy weaponry, and form clandestine networks for the purpose of eventually starting a race war in the US. Sure there are left-wing whackjobs out there, but in terms of armament and organization they are nowhere nearly as dangerous as the right-wingers. And when I say right-wingers I’m not talking about Joe the Plumber, I’m talking about Adolf the Idaho Neo-Nazi, just so we’re clear on that. These guys aren’t within the pale of normal Republicans though they probably both voted for McCain.
You seem to be differentiating between assination by US wackos and general assassinations, which is a distinction not made by the OP.
In any case:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/11/georgia.grenade/index.html
Right, and I was responding to a post other than the OP, so there you go.
But to answer the OP specifically, why do Republican types keep saying that Obama will be assassinated in short order? Because they know perfectly well what kind of groups live on their fringe.
I’ve heard a lot of echoing of this sentiment, but I’m not sure I agree.
It seems to me as though McCain was/is simply refusing to dignify that crap with a response unless absolutely necessary. Why should he give any attention or voice to obvious freakshow hatemongering zealots?
(FTR I’m an Obama supporter.)
I agree.
You still have left whackos, e.g. Sheehan, but they’re not violent.
- Because he, Palin and their campaign have obviously been playing up the “Obama’s a terrorist/not really an american” angle
- Because his supporters have been saying some awful crap about Obama to his face (and to be fair to McCain, he has stood up on some occasions. Palin, not so much - or at all, really).
And because they are hoping for it to happen. The leadership will cry crocodile tears and make a few speeches about bipartisanship, and dance with joy in private.
My mom is an Obama supporter, but she’s terrified that he’s going to be assassinated. I didn’t get it until I realized that she was an adult when MLK and RFK were killed. It doesn’t feel all that distant to her. I suspect a lot of folks who remember the turmoil and assassinations of civil rights leaders in the 1960s feel the same way.
Why would ‘the leadership’ do so? Wouldn’t that just mean that Biden would be president…and the Dems STILL control the house and senate?? How would that (or the sympathy and backlash this would engender) help ‘the leadership’ exactly??
I disagree with the others about left wing vs right wing whack jobs, but I don’t want to derail the thread with a digression into who’s nut jobs are worse. I think the Secret Service is more than up to the challenge of even the supposed hard core right-wing gun toten’, bible thumpin’, snake handlin’ neo-Nazi tyupes…
-XT
Sigh. Maybe because there has been an attempt on every modern day president?
From the ‘forked’ thread:
Tom Metzger - Director, White Aryan Resistance; former Grand Dragon of Ku Klux Klan. “The corporations are running things now, so it’s not going to make much difference who’s in there, but McCain would be much worse. He’s a warmonger. He’s a scary, scary person–more dangerous than Bush.”
Rocky Suhayda - Chairman, American Nazi Party. “White people are faced with either a negro or a total nutter who happens to have a pale face. Personally I’d prefer the negro. National Socialists are not mindless haters. Here, I see a white man, who is almost dead, who declares he wants to fight endless wars around the globe to make the world safe for Judeo-capitalist exploitation, who supports the invasion of America by illegals–basically a continuation of the last eight years of Emperor Bush. Then, we have a black man, who loves his own kind, belongs to a Black-Nationalist religion, is married to a black women–when usually negroes who have ‘made it’ immediately land a white spouse as a kind of prize–that’s the kind of negro that I can respect.”
*
Not Aryan Nation but still, dayum!
Still, I see him on an open stage with tens and even hundreds of thousands of people all around him. . . so easy to take a potshot. Yeah, I worry a little.
It’s Obama’s popularity that they resent so much. We have had our share of snide swipes re “the Messiah” and Obamaniacs on this board from the conservatives. He has a real referential power and that scares the GOP to hell, and they wish they had it. Now you all (Reps)know how most of us felt about your obeisance to Reagan-a man with dementia. :rolleyes: Obama is more than pretty speeches and one liners. And thank God for that.
I actually agree with Der Trihs on this one–the GOP leadership would clutch a few Kleenex and privately rejoice. Obama stands for real change and a different way in Washington (I sincerely hope). Biden, while a good guy, is more of the same old politics. The GOP knows how to fight Biden–and win. They are (painfully) obviously unaware of how to fight Obama.
Because as eleanorigby says, they apparently can’t handle him. And because it’s the leadership and Republican public figures in general who will bother to hide their joy. I expect that there will be open celebration from the rank and file.
Well, you certainly sound optimistic about it. I need you to clarify something for me, though: are you saying that almost every attempt at Presidential assassination has failed because the would-be assassins simply didn’t want it badly enough? The efficaciousness of the Secret Service had nothing to do with it? Nobody except Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy have had sincere enough political opponents?
Actually, you have a point: Jackson, Roosevelt, the other Roosevelt, Truman, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and the other Bush have really never done anything very controversial.
When I worked for the DNC, I talked to a couple of Democrats who were voting for McCain because they were afraid that Obama would be assassinated if elected. The mind boggles.
Anyway, some of us find Sen. Obama to be an inspirational figure and a good example for the nation and its children, and wish you all would stop talking about him like he were a dead man walking.
First off, if so many people really wanted him dead for being a successful black man, he would be under a constant barrage of gunfire; he’s been a successful black man for most of his adult life.
Secondly, the Secret Service operates with ruthless efficiency and nearly unfathomable skill (they’ve already foiled at least one attempt), not to mention that any modern President would receive extremely quick and high-quality medical attention immediately after sustaining any serious injury. Remember that Reagan was successfully tore the fuck up and lived to tell the tale thanks to prompt medical attention, and that was 20 years ago.
Thirdly, for every person who would give his life to kill Barack Obama, there are ten of us who would give our lives to save him. Remember that Carter was saved by a bystander assailing the gunman. I think some comedian said that “every n____ in Compton would die for that motherfucker”–that’s not far from the truth. I’m not from Compton, but I know I would.
I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion. There are always going to be nutters who happen to intensely hate the President for all kinds of weird reasons, whether or not he happens to deserve it. Since it’s so popular to claim a hatred of Bush now even among those who actually support his policies, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were a massive contingent of thoroughly unbalanced people who have gotten it into their heads that they have a duty to rid the world of GWB.
Oh, come on. He’s done everything in his power to get people to hate and fear Barack Obama. The hatred and the fear are the intended direct effects of his campaign tactics.
McCain complains about the media, but you know, he really has his cake and eats it too. His campaign pushes all the right buttons to get their base to board the hate train en masse–then, when they get out of control, he gets to defend Obama from the angry mob. Centrists think he’s a humble and fair-minded guy and the right-wingers get pissed off at him but vote for him anyway because they’re still afraid of the Negro. Oops, I mean “Muslim”. That seems to be the idea, anyway.
Well, I think this is pure out of the ass conjecture on your part, but I see where you are coming from on this. I’m not sure if I agree or not…I doubt there would be OPEN celebration from anyone not on the lunatic fringe for the assassination of a US president…just like I doubt there would have been OPEN rejoicing in the streets from the left had Bush gotten himself whacked. Only those on the fringe would ever celebrate the death of a President…IMHO of course.
I’m not a Republican…nor do I play one on TV (nor do I VOTE for Republican’s).
-XT
Sigh right back at you. How many modern-day Presidents have been assassinated?
What you don’t see is that the Secret Service has mapped out every single vantage point with a sight line to where he’ll be standing, and they have highly trained killers watching every single one to bust a cap in whoever’s stupid enough to occupy one of them. It’s not the 1960s. Really, if it were that easy to take a potshot, Bush would have a head like Swiss cheese by now.
I remember all three of the civil rights assassinations; I have to pull over if Abraham, Martin and John comes on the radio when I’m driving.
This is not some only-the-good-die-young drivel, as suggested elsewhere; people get murdered for changing the balance of power.
Obama supporters over 40 have been worrying about assassination since Iowa.
And thank you for demonstrating that the politics of hatred are truly bipartisan.
OK, that’s just absurd. Yes, there is some risk (hopefully very small) that Obama will be assassinated. But there’s exactly one person who’s in a position to decide whether that risk is worthwhile, and he made his decision long ago. If Barack Obama thinks it’s worth the risk of assassination for him to become President, then who are we to second-guess him?
This is a false statement - Reagan did not have dementia during his term of office.
As to the OP, didn’t Obama mention one of the death threats he supposedly received during the debates? (It was one that the Secret Service found no credible evidence had occurred, IIRC.). That’s a bad idea - it gives the nutjobs ideas.