Examples of Presidential Assassination attempts in American History - Attempts against President Obamas Life

Nov 11,2008, Schoolchildren chant "Assassinate Obama" on an Idaho schoolbus. Certainly not a threat to our leader but where and how was this thought planted in their heads, what type of parents or educators are they exposed to?

Feb 10, 2008, British Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing,said: "He would probably not last long, a black man in the position of president. They would kill him."

Unfortunately, this statement unlike most is not made by an ignorant redneck and is not racially motivated, merely a cynical view of our possible future.

How many assassination attempts on Obama? Do you predict?

Death threats and idle talk about assassination attempts should not be taken likely by popular culture, media and society.

A Quick History:

Presidents slain while in office:

• Abraham Lincoln
• James A. Garlfield
• William McKinley
• John F. Kennedy

Although you may be unfamiliar with this information, Two other Presidents should be on the list

• Zachary Taylor

• Warren G. Harding

In academic and scholarly circles both Presidents are accepted to have been the victims of poison plots. Zachary Taylors remains were exhumed and found to have substantial levels of arsenic and Warren G. Harding died of symptoms attributable to poisoning at a time when his impeachment seemed certain.

In 1981, Ronald Reagan was shot and saved by quick emergency surgery.

When one calculates, 43 unique office holders and 6 successful assassination attempts,

6 / 43 = 0.139534884 or 14% - 16% if Reagan had not received modern life saving medicine.

A sitting President has a 14-16% chance of being killed in office, surely this is not the stuff of jest.

In addition, 20 attempts to kill sitting Presidents are accepted and documented. Ranging from Andrew Jackson being saved by two pistols misfiring to a small plane divebombing the Whitehouse during the Clinton Presidency.

So keeping in mind that our new head of state is mortal and despite the Hollywood scenario of an invincible Secret Service, assassins, lunatics, zealots, fame-junkies and wing nuts can break through and injure our leaders.

Recently, 20-year old Daniel Cowart of Bells, Tennessee, and 18-year-old Paul Schlesselman, of West Helena, Arkansas were arrested with five guns in their possession by the ATF in Tennessee.

According to an ATF affidavit, one of the weapons in their possession was a FASI .308 caliber high powered rifle which they intended to use in the planned attempt while wearing white tuxedos and white top hats they also intended on massacring 88 + 14 youths at a predominately black high school.

They were apprehended on the evening of 10/22/2008 due to their vehicle drawing attention, as they had covered it with racist graffiti. Its not likely that these two fools would have been successful but they were armed and stocked with masks ropes and ammunition.

08/25/2008 , On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, 3 men, also with high powered rifles, scopes and masks were arrested in connection with a plot to assassinate Obama. These men Adolf, Gartrell, Johnson could also be considered skin-heads or white supremacists. A sizable quantity of methamphetamine was found in their possession. Official charges for attempting to assassinate a Presidential candidate were not made, as it was determined that their drug addled, racists brains and claims did not constitute a significant threat.

08/02/2008 , Raymond Hunter Geisel, was detained in relation to threats against the then Senator Obama, stating "if he gets elected, Ill kill him myself". He was found with a small arsenal of weapons and ammunition. To be fair he apparently threatened the life of George Bush also, so he is an equal opportunity nutjob. He is being held on federal charges as it is a federal crime to threaten the life of a Presidential candidate. It does appear that he is simply a lunatic and a gun nut who made no real motions towards acting on his supposedly jestful remarks. There does not seem to be any connections to white supremacist movements.

So are the white supremacist/neo-nazis/skinhead groups out to get Obama?

It would seem like an easy connection, a dark skinned candidate for President (His ethnicity being half Kenyan/half White American according to Wiki), would rankle the racists, but in the course of my research, I came across a rather vocal Supremacist Leader, David Duke. As a former Grand Wizard of the KKK and the administrator of Stormfront.org a racist/supremacist themed bulletin board with a massive following whos position seems to be that (his opinion) the inevitable downfall of our country under Obama leadership will only help their cause by driving white people into their flock. Apparently, the government is setting up the Neo Nazis / Skin Heads / Bigots as the patsy for their (Government) schemes.

Without giving any authority to what I would consider a vile man, that one point is valid, crazy rednecks with guns dont kill Presidents. People in power who choose to look away, not properly secure areas or not install metal detectors kill Presidents.

If an assassination attempt was to be successful, It would be because those people with influence allowed it to happen. I have no idea who those people with influence are but surely big money, banking interests, political families have all sorts of controls and manipulations that we the common citizens can not understand.

I had planned to include samples of comments from all over the web on blogs and bulletin boards with large readerships and respectable followings, references to Ted Nugents antics, allusions of Hillary Clintons intentions during campaign speeches etc. but it came to a point where I dont want to repost or glamorize the colossal amount of ignorant, hateful language and positions that I came across.

In an attempt to bring some lightness to this morbid account, I would like to point out that among the so called assassination attempts we had one Cowart, one Hunter and one Adolf. Ive seen many stories relating to the coincidences relating to assassins and serial killers names. So parents please be a little more careful with your naming traditions.

As a country it really seem like we have to put a huge effort into better education at all ages including adult education and community education.I really believe at a personal level that better exposure to cultures and the world could really dampen the quantity of prejudice in our universal mind.

Without getting into a hunting argument, Real men dont need high powered rifles and scopes to kill anything, they should not be legal. If you want to hunt, then be good at it, track, get close...scopes are for assassins and pussies who sit in trees killing bucks for sport from football field distances because they dont have the education to spark up a conversation with a woman