OBAMA SUPPORTERS FEAR FOR HIS SAFETY

The New York Times has brought to the forefront a concern that many supporters of Barack Obama are thinking about in hushed tones. Is security properly protecting the Illinois senator as he moves through the campaign?

The article points out several Americans who fear that the presidential hopeful is in constant danger of being fatally wounded. Jeff Zeleny writes: "In Colorado, two sisters say they pray daily for his safety. In New Mexico, a daughter says she persuaded her mother to still vote for Mr. Obama, even though the mother feared that winning would put him in danger. And at a rally here [in Dallas], a woman expressed worries that a message of hope and change, in addition to his race, made him more vulnerable to violence.

"I've got the best protection in the world," Obama told the paper, reprising a line he tells supporters who raise the issue with him. "So stop worrying."

But those who lived through the spring of 1968, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated in a span of two months, are a little more apprehensive about Obama's well being. Still, Obama says there's no need to worry. In fact, he rarely brings up the issue at all.

"It's not something that I'm spending time thinking about day to day," he said. "I made a decision to get into this race. I think anybody who decides to run for president recognizes that there are some risks involved, just like there are risks in anything."


Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, wrote Secret Service officials in January to express concern over Obama's safety and to ensure that he and the other candidates were offered adequate security.

"The national and international profile of Senator Barack Obama gives rise to unique challenges that merit special concern," Thompson wrote, according to the Times. "As an African-American who was witness to some of this nation's most shameful days during the civil rights movement, I know personally that the hatred of some of our fellow citizens can lead to heinous acts of violence. We need only to look to the assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and 1968 presidential candidate Robert Kennedy as examples."


Obama has had Secret Service guarding his every move since May 3, the earliest a candidate has ever been provided protection. (He reluctantly gave in to the insistent urging of Senator Richard J. Durbin , Democrat of Illinois, and others in Congress.) As his rallies have swelled in size, his security has increased, coming close to rivaling that given to a sitting president.