Captain's Quarters Comments - Latest Comments in Is This Helpful?

Re: Is This Helpful?

HongKongFluie von AH_C — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:43:02 -0000

Apostate at that...

Re: Is This Helpful?

HongKongFluie von AH_C — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:40:07 -0000

The Times makes it worse by releasing Obama's Secret Service code name, which has usually been considered confidential. Karl Rove recently refused to reveal his, and he no longer has Secret Service protection.

Don't you get it? The MSM motto is "If it bleeds, it leads". Sometimes, they have to jumpstart the bleeding so they'll have something to lead with.

Re: Is This Helpful?

quickjustice — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:59:39 -0000

Don't kid yourself: if anyone aggressively criticizes Obama, and he comes to harm, his critics will be blamed.

The left is using the "Obama might get assassinated" meme to silence his critics.

Re: Is This Helpful?

unclesmrgol — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:31:16 -0000

I think the fear is real, visceral, and is strong in the black community. We are only a few years removed from lynchings and killings associated with the civil rights movement. Of course, there are people trying to hype a fear that's already strongly there -- consider the recent claim that the Secret Service deliberately halted weapons screening by the local police at an Obama event (ostensibly due to the fact that the seats in the venue weren't filling as rapidly as they should due to the slowness of the screening process). Turns out it wasn't the Secret Service at all (at least according to the Secret Service, which stated that nobody from its organization had changed any aspect of the security practice in place for the rally). My guess is that, if it were anyone, it was Obama campaign wonks who didn't want his event to start late.

Watching that youtube of the woman who tried to sneak in to an Obama event be taken down by a Secret Service agent was quite an eye opener. The camera followed the agent, who went right back to his assigned duty still covered with the woman's molten cheese stuff.

Re: Is This Helpful?

krome — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:31:34 -0000

The MSM has to have something controvesial/scary/sensational in order to sell anything. It has nothign to do withthe public interest.

Re: Is This Helpful?

Phil Weingart — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:51:50 -0000

The most recent of your examples occurred almost 30 years ago.

Like I said...

(Unrelated to this topic, please visit my political blog, "Plumb Bob Blog: Squaring the Culture," at http://www.plumbbobblog.com. Thanks.)

Re: Is This Helpful?

galynn — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:15:15 -0000

If there is to be an assassination attempt, it is far more likely to come from Islamic extremists than from someone on the Radical Right. Afterall, to them, Obama is Muslim regardless of the religion he practices in the US.

Re: Is This Helpful?

The Fop — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:02:36 -0000

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel as though Obama is being packaged as an American Nelson Mandela?

Back in the 60s, Martin Luther King didn't have the benefit of having a love fest with the American people on shows like Oprah Winfrey. Mandela did.

And if the best thing anyone can say about Obaman is that he's a charismatic, inspirational speaker, then it seems to me, considering Oprah's endorsement, is that he's coming off as cross between Deepak Chopra, Dr. Phil, and Nelson Mandela.

Re: Is This Helpful?

Tom Maguire — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:58:25 -0000

Well, Barack has been outed as "Renegade" for a while - the WaPo had a story about this last June. Bush, FWIW, is "Tumbler" back from when he was a lad of 34 and Dad was VP.

From the WaPo:

<i.still, according="" to="" a="" secret="" service="" spokesman,="" all="" code="" names="" are="" chosen="" by="" military="" officials,="" suggesting="" that="" they="" should="" not="" be="" examined="" too="" closely="" for="" deeper="" meaning.="" the="" obama="" and="" clinton="" campaigns="" declined="" to="" comment="" on="" the="" security="" procedure="" (they="" are="" the="" only="" two="" candidates="" so="" far="" to="" receive="" official="" protection,="" and="" clinton's="" is="" a="" result="" of="" her="" status="" as="" a="" former="" first="" lady).="" these="" days,="" though,="" the="" code="" names="" have="" little="" to="" do="" with="" actual="" safety;="" instead="" they="" play="" a="" more="" ceremonial="" and="" logistical="" role,="" letting="" agents="" bark="" easily="" understood="" directions="" into="" their="" sleeves="" as="" a="" protectee="" is="" moving="" from="" location="" to="" location.="" "there's="" really="" no="" secrecy="" to="" it,"="" said="" security="" expert="" william="" h.="" pickle,="" who="" was="" the="" special="" agent="" in="" charge="" of="" gore's="" detail.="" according="" to="" pickle,="" the="" names="" were="" useful="" when="" radio="" and="" phone="" communications="" were="" unsecured="" and="" easily="" picked="" up="" by="" outsiders;="" now="" the="" military="" and="" secret="" service="" can="" communicate="" over="" highly="" secured="" lines,="" making="" a="" code="" name="" irrelevant.="" still,="" habit="" lives="" on.="" "it="" started="" out="" years="" ago="" as="" a="" security="" function,="" and="" it="" had="" a="" real="" security="" aspect.="" communications="" were="" limited,="" and="" it="" caused="" enough="" confusion="" to="" allow="" you="" to="" have="" a="" movement="" without="" people="" understanding,"="" pickle="" said.="" "anymore,="" though?="" it's="" really="" just="" for="" convenience="" --="" and="" tradition."<="" i="">

Hillary is "Evergreen" - I smell a Streisand song coming on...

Re: Is This Helpful?

Teresa — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:09:58 -0000

I don't believe some nut on the right will murder Obama, I think it is worth considering that some nut of any persuasion in this day and age will try to kill any of the candidates. And that Obama may be slightly more at risk than someone like McCain or Hillary because he attracts much larger crowds which are harder to check. People who want to bring attention to themselves by murdering someone don't pick Joe Schmo down the block, they pick politicians and celebrities to take out.

You may think liberals are stuck in the 60's, but we could easily point to assasination attempts on Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford and John Lennon for more recent examples.

Re: Is This Helpful?

Neo — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:40:45 -0000

All this talk comes now that it is clear that Obama's major opponent (and her husband) were never worth the price of a bullet, a fact that shielded them for so many years.

Re: Is This Helpful?

ParatrooperJJ — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:08:11 -0000

At least his code name is better than Jesse Jackson's - "PONTAIC."

Re: Is This Helpful?

biG — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:02:32 -0000

Could they possibly be warning a certain party away from attempting another Arkancide?

Re: Is This Helpful?

SkyWatch — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:56:20 -0000

The Secret Service has to do their best in accordance with the candidates desires. If the person being protected says ,"I going to drive thru the middle of this crowd with the top down and windows open" The SS can argue with them to try and change the persons mind but if the candidate says that is how I will do it the Service has to go along with it.

Re: Is This Helpful?

Phil Weingart — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:47:09 -0000

Yeah, I've heard people talking like this. It's a manifestation of the "America is Racist" meme among liberals. They actually believe some nut on the Right is going to try to kill Obama, simply because he's black.

Note, in particular, the reference in the New York Times story to 1968, when Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were gunned down within 2 months of each other. Are we really finding it surprising that some Democrats still think it's 1968? We've been saying for years that they're stuck in the 60s. This is not just a figure of speech: a large number of liberals really are stuck in the 1960s. It's how they rationalize their relevance; that was the time during which they really mattered, and, in their own minds, stood head and shoulders above the unenlightened rabble, so that's where they keep themselves.

(Unrelated to this topic, please visit my political blog, "Plumb Bob Blog: Squaring the Culture," at http://www.plumbbobblog.com. Thanks.)

Re: Is This Helpful?

hermie — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:41:52 -0000

This is a way to attempt to solidify the black community behind Obama, by bringing up the bogeyman of someone like a James Earl Ray skulking about; ready to kill the new MLK.

Re: Is This Helpful?

Teresa — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:33:57 -0000

I agree that speculation of this kind is unhelpful, but I question if the secret service is doing their job. The recent Drudge story about how they allowed 17,000 people into an arena in Dallas without searching people's bags or having them go through a metal detector seems extremely careless to me.

I took my daughter to see Sesame Street Live at the auditorium in our small city in January and our bags were checked and they passed a metal dectector over us. It seems to me that people going to see ANY candidate in this day and age should get that much scrutiny at least.

Re: Is This Helpful?

GarandFan — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:27:07 -0000

Odd, no big outcry or "hushed worry" about Hollywood using the current sitting president in an assassination story-line.