Obama’s done well again. He’s still a long way off actually getting into the White House, but he is now probably the front runner for the Democratic Nomination.

Which means that he will be exposed to even more idiocy from random nutters. Today’s nutter is lefty writer, Doris Lessing. She thinks that Obama might be assassinated if he was elected President:

Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, said a first black American president would not be tolerated by some.

That would be Doris Lessing, noted authority on Presidential Security and Safety, of course. It is a determined conspiracy theorist who starts using phrases like "They would murder a black president" not just before the assassination, but before the poor fucker actually wins the nomination to run for President.

But the point, whilst technically correct, is so mindless that it makes me want to punch the wall with frustration. Of course Obama might be targeted. Of course there will be racist yokels in the US who will want to take extreme action against a black president. But dontcha think that this might have occurred to someone in the US anyway? Like, say, errr, the Secret Service. You know, that specialist organisation that has been in existence since 1865. And has been learning (sometimes through mistakes) since 1865 how to protect the Commander in Chief.

Sure, Kennedy was assassinated whilst under Secret Service protection. Now the Secret Service thinks twice before letting the President be driven very slowly down the street in an open top limousine. Yes, Reagan was shot in the chest, but since then the Secret Service is wary of letting the President wander out of buildings and also encourages their agents not to take their eyes off the crowd*. Sure, the resourcefulness of potential assassins should not be under estimated. Likewise, the resourcefulness of the Secret Service shouldn’t be underestimated either.

The US President is probably the most protected person on this planet. So whilst there should be a number of concerns about Obama becoming President, like his lack of policies on everything bar attacking Pakistan, the risk of a potential assassination shouldn’t be one of them. Sure, there are a fuck load of nutters out there, waiting to shoot. But there is also a service designed and committed to stopping them.

*This happened in the Reagan assassination attempt – you can find the footage on you tube somewhere. I can’t be arsed to look it up. Sorry. But if you watch it, the Secret Service Agent walking towards the camera takes his eyes off the crowd for a moment. Which happens to be the same moment as Hinckley taking out his gun and starting to shoot.