Nov 07 2008
Dead Reckoning
President-Elect Barack Obama’s relentless and tiring electioneering has ended in success, and now the hard part begins. Obama must now turn his head to running a country in the midst of one of the worst economic crises in its history, where unemployment levels are rapidly rising, the educational system is failing, foreign policy is driving wedges across the planet and to top it all off, he must contend with potential attempts on his life.
Already, two white supremacist skinheads were arrested in Tennessee over plans to go on a killing spree and eventually shoot the President-Elect. And it would be naive to think this was an isolated event. There will be more attempts: authorities know this; Obama knows this; in fact, the media virtually counts on it.
Of course, true to form, Paddy Power has even offered odds on it occurring. This morning they offer odds of 12-1, down from 16-1 yesterday, that Obama will not finish his first term in office due to assassination. This is disgraceful and should be discouraged. Now, where can I get a piece of this action?
Go on, people seem to be terrified to talk about it, for fear of being crass, but I remember a lot of talk around the time of Bush’s last ‘victory’ that suggested he was a bigger target than ever before. I would not be surprised if there is a successful attempt on his life. I sincerely hope it doesn’t happen, but odds are there will be numerous attacks. What do you think? Will he make it through the full term?
Sadly, I think it’s a huge threat. I think socially he will be laying low. What scares me is that with an inherent feeling like racism some of the people closest to him or in a position of law enforcement might be a threat themselves. The SS will have a huge job ahead of them.
It’s a huge worry and will be a giant step back for America if this happens. They are on the verge of making friends.
Call my conservative but I think PP should be ashamed for trivialising such an event in order to make a quick buck.
I’m off to withdraw money from my PP account.
Well it needs to be spoken about, in the right way. His security team, his family, his suporters need to be vigilant, and rightly so.
But PaddyPower offering odds on it? I think that’s disgusting.
To make money themselves, or to offer the chance to make money off the murder of anyone… sick.
I totally agree. In fact, I urge everyone to mail them. Not on.
Darren, have you got a link or source for that PP bit?
I have my Bob Geldoff underpants on today and I really fancy having a go at them if that’s true.
I can’t find it on their site (now) though.
@Debs It will truly test them. It will be a frightening time for anyone close to Barack too – they may just just as like targets.
@Lottie If I had money in my account, I would withdraw it too.
@Xbox Exactly. People seem to be afraid to discuss this very likely possibility and I think it’s is something that people should be aware of. There are many white supremacists with crazed intentions and the more awareness of this threat the better. PP, however, are just trying to exploit it. They seem to have taken it down now though, but apparently it is still available in the betting shops. Here is the Indo article on it.
@Jo Or like Lottie says, withdraw any funds and stop using them.