Threats against Obama

[Paul Smathers]

The MSM is making a big deal out of the alleged threats against Pres. Elect Obama. Where was this same media when similar threats were made against President Bush? The Left’s blogs were full of calls for the death of Bush and Chaney. Even today you can see this. The MSM praised a movie depicting the assignation of the president. Some of the pundits were vocal in their dreams that the movie would become reality.
It is apparent that the left does not support free speech now that they are in power. Especially speech that does not agree with their radical agenda. They said nothing about the display of Sarah Palin being lynched but scream racism when the same thing happens to the Lord Obama. Why should this surprise anyone? The Left has been screaming Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press for years. At the same time their actions; i.e.: burning of college conservative magazines and shouting down of conservative speakers on college campuses; professors failing students whose political ideology disagrees with their; calls for the firing of conservative professors who dare disagree with the Left while claiming “Intellectual Freedom” for people like William Ayers, prove they DO NOT really support Freedom.
I wonder if the Left will consider this post a threat. It would not surprise me. Their history shows that anytime one speaks out against them that person is either accused of threating speech or hate speech. Their history shows they refuse to debate the reality of a subject but use name calling and “feelings” when the facts do not support their beliefs. Look at the difference in their treatment of Bush and Obama. Look at their religious support at Al Gore and his Global Warming fairy tail. The facts do not support their theories in either case so they use name-calling and misdirection in an attempt to discredit those who dare to call them to task.
The Left thinks of themselves as intellectuals and calls the Right bumpkins who they like to compare to the old Know Nothing Party. In reality it is the Left that best illustrates that party. It is the Left that is closed minded. It is the Left that attempts to silence any disagreement with their radical agenda. I am NOT calling and NEVER will call for the silencing of the Left. I believe in Freedom of Speech. I have fought to keep this nation free. I may disagree with what the Left says, but I will continue to support their right to say what they want. I just wish they would give me the same consideration. History shows this is a hollow desire. The Left has never really supported freedom. They only support those who march in LOCK STEP with them. They consider everyone else dangerous. In that I agree with them. The Right is dangerous to their beliefs. When people use their brains instead of their emotions to compare the beliefs they invariably support the Conservative position.
If you depend on the MSM for your news you will never hear both sides. Hell, even their division of the nation into blue and red states proves their bias. The color red has always been used to depict Communist contras like Russia and China. Were the MSM to be honest they would have called the conservative states Blue and the liberal States. The MSM knows this. They did not do it by accident. They are experts in using speech to distract those who think with their emotions instead of their brains.
The time is long past to call them to task for their LIES. The time for Americans to start using their brains is NOW before it is too late (if it is not already too late).

[Wayne Robbins]

The American public just elected a black president. But what does the "story" become? Threats to harm him.

There are no more idiots out there now who are a threat than there were before the election. Just more MSM focus on perceived addititional racism.

Nothing new here.

[JeffS]

Some of what I write here might seem slightly counter to what others have written in this thread but before I do so, I wanted to point out that the premise of Bush getting the volume of threats and the simple MSM ignoring of such things is quite true in my eyes. Most Presidents get threats and probably a shocking volume of them and to the extent that there can be no doubt about the danger of the job. With the emotion that President Bush seemed to illicit, I'm guessing he got greater than his fair share of these threats.

That said, I'm not particularly comfortable with being dismissive of the threats against President-Elect Obama. I'm Not even certain that the threats against previous Presidents and even Mr. Bush can be compared to that which would be received by the President-Elect.

The context within which he receives his threats has a history that no other President can claim, that the portion of his ethnicity that is African American was the victim of some pretty deplorable acts. Some even institutionally accepted. That, of course, is racism. Hanging from trees, burning crosses and bombed churches. Very potent stuff and stuff that was from not that long ago.

Realizing that these kinds of acts are largely in the past and the people that harbor such hate are becoming fewer and fewer, it does not make that any less real or that the threat of such a thing should be dismissed with that of the standard threat that goes with being President. The hate that comes with racism seems more like a hate that has a history of action taken. It is a special and insidious kind of hate and one that, if I were in Obama's shoes, would be very fearful of.