Sharpshooters on the roof, Updated

Obama came to Clemson University sometime before the South Carolina primary, and my son went to hear him speak.

His first and most-lasting impression? The sharpshooters on the rooftops that he spotted around the area where Obama was speaking.

This is a kid who's probably never seen weapons like that in person. His nearest reference to that kind of firepower is from video games. And he was amazed to see those guns panning the crowd at his school.

Which gave me the opportunity to explain to my son: Merely standing before us and offering himself to us as a Presidential candidate is an act of courage on behalf of Barack Obama every day he's on the campaign trail.

Death threats came early, we know, judging by how early the Secret Service stepped in to try to protect him. I suspect, the death threats come in greater numbers for him than any Presidential candidate before him.

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And yet, he still stands before us. He stands before us with his wife and with his daughters by his side. Think about that.

Think about what it would take for any of us here to believe so strongly in the need to change our country that we could handle constant death threats. That we could handle the danger inherent in our campaign not just to our spouse, but to our children?

Think about Wing-Nut radio show hosts who feel free to joke about the possibility of him being assassinated. Didn't a Fox News person make some kind of reference to assassination, too?

And the good Rev. Mike Huckabee? How funny. That sound? Someone shooting at Obama. That was within the last week, right?

Apparently, it's still OK in this country to many people to joke about shooting and killing a black politician.

And yet, Obama stands before us, offering himself to us.

Think about the stadiums, 15,000, 30,000, 50,000, 75,000 people. And how many in Oregon this week?

There's no way to get them all through metal detectors. We've seen reports of the Secret Service getting a certain percentage of people close to the stage through screening with metal detectors, but no way they can get everybody through.

And yet, Obama stands before us, a humbling act of courage day after day.

He was standing before crowds of people today when Hillary Clinton added her two cents about the possibility of his assassination, and he'll stand before even more crowds of people tomorrow and he next day and the next. With his family.

To take jokes from Republicans and wing-nut radio hosts is one thing, but to take it from a Democrat is something else. And to take it from a person claiming to be fit to be President, is something else entirely.

A woman who is also a mother, who knows what it's like to try to raise and protect a child in the White House, to have a husband who I'm sure got a lot of death threats of his own, who stood before huge crowds and generated horrific amounts of irrational hatred from the Republicans... Think about that?

She knows what it's like to need the kind of protection Obama has. For her daughter to need it and her husband to need it, and it has to be even worse for Obama, a black man who dares to think he can break through hundreds of years of racism in this country and be President.

She has a better idea of that fear than most any of us could have, and yet she said it anyway.

Oddly enough, my 16-year-old daughter and I were talking politics one night this week, and she said in her honors English class, they got onto the subject of Obama one day, and a girl in her class said, "There's no sense in voting for him. They'll just kill him anyway."

And the girl was black. A teenager.

The idea is out there in a big way. I've heard a few African Americans interviewed who say they don't want to vote for Obama because they don't want him to be killed. They don't want to help put him into a position to be shot.

The fear is everywhere, and it's huge.

His courage to stand before us, day after day, despite the fear is amazing and humbling.

We should all honor his courage, and if we don't, shame on us.

Shame on you, Hillary. I am ashamed to call you a Democrat today, to have people know you're a Democrat. I'm ashamed as a woman to have a female candidate acting this way. I expect better from women candidates than men. I expect a more human approach. Shame on you as a mother and as the wife of a former President.

And know that I did not start out angry at you or being ashamed of you. I voted for your husband twice. I love the idea of a woman President, one I could be proud of. I always thought you were a brilliant, disciplined, careful woman until some point in this campaign when it became obvious to me that you're not.

You've made my impression of you worse with nearly everything you've done since... the South Carolina Primary, I guess, when Bill started in with his "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice..." Especially when someone brought up the fact that after the whole Monica Lewinsky news broke, which had to be one of your husband's darkest hours, Jesse Jackson came to the White House to talk to him and try to help him through it. What kind of person turns on a friend who helped him through his darkest hour?

I am ashamed of you. I'm angry at you. I just want you to go away and be quiet for a long time, and I am not alone.

To me, Barack Obama seems to be everything you are not.

UPDATE: Some people are saying I'm accusing Hillary of advocating violence toward Obama. I am not.

I'm saying some things should be off-limits to us as decent people, especially people saying they're qualified to lead us. We've seen assassination crap from Republicans and Wing-Nuts, but I want Democrats to be better than this. Much better.

I think Hillary, in a very matter-of-fact manner, maybe coldly, maybe calculatingly, pointed out once again that something very bad might happen to Obama, and that if it did, she could still become President.
It's obvious she's thought about it. I think it's the last real hope she has left of being the nominee.

Does she wish for it to happen? I don't know, but she sure does want to be President, doesn't she? And the way she talked about it today says to me that she's just thinking about herself and what she wants. If Obama dies, she wins. She said it today, using other words. Remember, I could still win, and here's how.

I think the danger to Obama and his family is greater than it has been for anyone else ever. He's gotten closer than any African American to winning, and there's still a lot of hatred out there.

As a candidate, the wife of a President and a mother, Hillary should know this all too well and common decency, to me, says that she doesn't touch the assassination talk ever under any circumstances. No matter what.

I think at the very least, she should honor the courage he's shown as a candidate and the very real dangers he and his family face.

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