Most of us thought about it, yet the always outspoken former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura said it out loud during a national radio interview last April when he warned Barack Obama to be wary of a potential assassination attempt. 

Well, as it turns out, the Secret Service arrested in Miami yesterday charging that he threatened to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, after finding weapons and military-style gear in his hotel room and car. 

A Secret Service affidavit indicated that Geisel never took steps to carry out any assassination so he was charged only with threatening Obama.and was ordered held at Miami’s downtown detention center without bail Thursday by a federal magistrate.  

The general public’s response has been that it was just a matter of time before the first Afro-American to be a nominee for the presidency would be threatened with assassination given the racial attitudes in this country. 

It is Governor Ventura’s belief that the government would target any independent politician who got close to the White House stating, "I believe very strongly that if an independent candidate and rogue like myself were to get into the President’s race legitimately, and the polls looked like he had a chance to win, that candidate would either be physically assassinated or would be assassinated credibility-wise or in some manner by our government because I do not believe they would ever allow a true independent or a citizen to become President of the United States,"  

"I say this in all seriousness - watch out Barack Obama," he added.  

Ventura is not the first to warn of a potential future assassination attempt on Obama - British Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing said Obama would be taken out if he became President in February.  

"He would probably not last long, a black man in the position of president. They would kill him….he would probably not last long, a black man in the position of president. They would kill him," Lessing told a Swedish newspaper.

She said it would be better if Mrs Clinton, 60, became America’s first woman president with Obama as her running mate, inferring that no one would assassinate Hillary only to have Obama take her place. 

One Democratic analyst said: "Suggesting Obama is in danger if he wins the election in November is not only divisive, it is insulting to the American people."  

Yes, it is insulting however that does not discount that the statement is also very sad….but true!

Princeton University political science professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell raised assassination fears saying: "For many black supporters, there is a lot of anxiety that he will be killed. It is on people’s minds.

TV host Harry Smith caused an outcry, asking Ted Kennedy, brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy: "Sometimes agents of change end up being targets. Doesn’t it make you at all fearful?"

Black presidential candidate Jesse Jackson received death threats during his campaigns in the Eighties and former Secretary of State Colin Powell ruled out a White House run after his wife feared he would be killed.

It is our opinion that anybody that hasn’t considered the notion that is in danger, only because he his black, is either in denial or hasn’t given the matter any serious thought. Yes, the President of the United States will always be a target to some for their political stances or a because of a specific action taken, but to dismiss the the factor of racial bigotry is both reckless and not rooted in reality.

Barack Obama is a brave man for many reasons but do not think that just because he publicly dismisses the potentiality of assassination that it is not something he admits to in private or in the quieter recesses of his mind.

AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE:

New Details: Man held for alleged Obama assassination threat - Raymond Hunter Geisel is being held on charges that he threatened to assassinate Sen. Barack Obama. MIAMI, Florida (CNN) — A man was being held in Florida on Thursday on charges he told classmates at a training seminar that he would …

Secret Service arrests Fl. man for Obama assassination threat - Secret Service arrests Fl. man for Obama assassination threat.

Obama Assassination Threat Leads To Imprisonment - MIAMI (AP) — A man who authorities said was keeping weapons and military-style gear in his hotel room and car appeared in court Thursday on charges he threatened to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. …

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