Barack Obama is probably one of the most protected people

in the world. But is it enough? …

 

 

Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates

American Authorities Must Protect Obama

 

"The threat to the Democratic candidate cannot and should not be taken lightly. Obama is leading in all the opinion polls and his White House victory appears imminent. This makes him all the more vulnerable to threats from extremists like the Ku Klux Klan. The U.S. authorities must do everything possible to protect him."

 

EDITORIAL

 

October 30, 2008

 

United Arab Emirates - Khaleej Times Original Article - English

In the run up to the U.S. Democratic Convention, when it was abundantly clear that Hillary Clinton had lost to Illinois Senator Barack Obama, she rejected calls to concede defeat saying, "what if something happens (to Obama) before the convention or the election?"

 

Although Hillary’s remarks were typically opportunistic and insensitive, they exposed a dark aspect of U.S. history. Prominent and promising politicians have always confronted a clear and present danger to their lives. In fact, the more popular a politician, the more vulnerable he or she is. The arrest of two White supremacists this week for planning to kill Obama at one of his electoral rallies underscores this reality.

 

From Abraham Lincoln to John F Kennedy, and from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, U.S. presidents have either fallen victim to an assassin’s bullet or come dangerously close. Of course all politicians, especially those in power, take a certain degree of risk thanks to the nature of their profession. In the United States, however, this threat has expanded by alarming proportions. Several social and political factors are though to be behind the phenomenon.

 

Paul Michael Schlesselman and Daniel Gregory Cowart, the two

neo-Nazis who this week were accused of plotting to kill Obama

 

The most prominent of these of course, is the country's dangerous gun culture. The world’s most powerful democracy is also one of the most insecure, thanks to the abundance of easily available firearms. There are simply too many guns in the United States - the highest per capita anywhere in the world.  

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

But the threat to Barack Obama, the first African American candidate that too many Americans, has a name that sounds like Osama, is rather unique. He's not only the first Black man - even if his mother was an all-White, all-American girl - to have a serious chance of reaching the White House. But by many ill-informed and semi-literate Americans, he's also seen as a Muslim.

 

Due to an extremist fringe, Obama, who has captured the imagination of the vast majority of Americans and the world with his unique background and uplifting message, faces a threat to his life for these very reasons. In other words, Obama’s popularity has become his biggest vulnerability.

 

This is what happened in the case of another Democratic presidential hopeful, Robert Kennedy, and an even more charismatic member of that clan, John F Kennedy. Martin Luther King Jr, the irrepressible civil rights activist and African American leader who played a crucial role in Obama's own intellectual evolution, also fell to an assassin’s bullet. All of which is why the threat to the Democratic candidate cannot and should not be taken lightly.

 

Obama is leading in all the opinion polls and his White House victory appears imminent. This makes him all the more vulnerable to threats from extremists like the Ku Klux Klan. The U.S. authorities must do everything possible to protect the first African American candidate. The United States must ensure that this part of history doesn't repeat.

 

READ ALSO:

 

Excelsior, Mexico

Obama Assassination 'Would

Leave Road Paved for McCain'

http://worldmeets.us/excelsior000012.shtml

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US October 31, 7:33pm]