That this is true in this country after everything that we have been through is really appalling.
"Leonard Pitts, a syndicated columnist in Washington: McClatchy-Tribune Newspapers
Published May 8, 2007
Not Rudy Giuliani, who is a supporter of abortion rights.
Not Tom Tancredo, who is a hard-liner on immigration.
Not John Edwards, who is a critic of the war in Iraq.
Only Barack Obama, who is black.
No other presidential candidate, no matter his or her polarizing positions, has felt it necessary to seek protection from the Secret Service. But last week we learned that Obama has sought and will receive that protection, the only candidate ever to do so this early in the process. Only one other candidate even has a Secret Service detail: Hillary Rodham Clinton. And that's because she's a former first lady.
You know who else required early protection? Jesse Jackson, when he ran for president in 1984 and '88.
Neither Obama's campaign nor the Secret Service will comment on precisely what went into the decision to assign a detail to the senator, beyond saying it was based on no specific threat. But one need not be a seer to divine the reason. Put it this way: The darker the candidate's skin and the more serious his candidacy, the earlier he seems to need protecting.
All of which adds a telling dimension to the ongoing debate about Obama and blackness that has percolated for months beneath the surface of his candidacy.
On the one side, you have earnest white people insisting that, because his mother was white, Obama is not really black, but "biracial."
On the other side, you have earnest black people insisting that, because his heritage does not trace to slavery, Obama is not really black enough -- that is, not black in a cultural sense.
Apparently, however, he is both black and black enough for whatever individual or individuals unnerved his handlers enough to seek Secret Service protection."
"Leonard Pitts, a syndicated columnist in Washington: McClatchy-Tribune Newspapers
Published May 8, 2007
Not Rudy Giuliani, who is a supporter of abortion rights.
Not Tom Tancredo, who is a hard-liner on immigration.
Not John Edwards, who is a critic of the war in Iraq.
Only Barack Obama, who is black.
No other presidential candidate, no matter his or her polarizing positions, has felt it necessary to seek protection from the Secret Service. But last week we learned that Obama has sought and will receive that protection, the only candidate ever to do so this early in the process. Only one other candidate even has a Secret Service detail: Hillary Rodham Clinton. And that's because she's a former first lady.
You know who else required early protection? Jesse Jackson, when he ran for president in 1984 and '88.
Neither Obama's campaign nor the Secret Service will comment on precisely what went into the decision to assign a detail to the senator, beyond saying it was based on no specific threat. But one need not be a seer to divine the reason. Put it this way: The darker the candidate's skin and the more serious his candidacy, the earlier he seems to need protecting.
All of which adds a telling dimension to the ongoing debate about Obama and blackness that has percolated for months beneath the surface of his candidacy.
On the one side, you have earnest white people insisting that, because his mother was white, Obama is not really black, but "biracial."
On the other side, you have earnest black people insisting that, because his heritage does not trace to slavery, Obama is not really black enough -- that is, not black in a cultural sense.
Apparently, however, he is both black and black enough for whatever individual or individuals unnerved his handlers enough to seek Secret Service protection."
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keep your women and thier toes inside!