The Obamas: Refusing to give in to the haters after years of threats and abuse

[GMDino]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-obamas-refusing-to-give-in-to-the-haters-after-years-of-threats-and-abuse/2016/03/31/c3dc2310-f775-11e5-9804-537defcc3cf6_story.html?tid=sm_fb

Quote:The most popular license in America now?


A license to hate.

And one of the most popular targets is President Obama, the country’s first African American commander-in-chief.

It’s no secret that America’s first family has received an unprecedented number of threats over the past seven years.
But the fever pitch of hate and bile toward the president and his family have taken an even sharper tone thanks to the primordial swamp that is the current presidential campaign.

It’s impossible to utter a single word about the White House, the first family or the president without a blast from the fire hose of haterade.

I can see it in my email inbox.

A column about the White House Easter egg roll?

[A bittersweet farewell to the Obamas at their last Easter egg roll]

“Go back to Kenya,” a reader (one of scores who said similar things) spat in response.

“So when is Obama to be killed?” another emailer wondered.

This was in response to Easter eggs, remember.

But that doesn’t matter. It can be school lunches, children’s books, dresses or kids going off to college. The trolls are there, ripping everything Obama to shreds.

A USA Today story about plans for their younger daughter’s school days prompted this gem:

“The first thing that Trump needs to do is call an exterminator and someone to cleanse the Whitehouse of their presence,” spewed a citizen of Hateville.

Ah, there’s the name. Donald Trump.

The front-runner for the GOP nomination may have something to do with the ramping up of the hate-o-meter.

His drumbeat as a birther from way back — demanding the president’s birth certificate long after the issue had been settled and re-settled — and his racially charged, violence-tinged rallies have given a strain of Americans license to hate out loud.

[The ‘Trump Effect’ is contaminating our kids — and could resonate for years]

Disagree with Obama’s politics and policies, sure. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

But there is a viciousness, a racist edge to the hate-speak that echoes the darkest days of American history.

And as Trump publicly mulls punishing women who have abortions, prattles on about his hand size and stages a nasty fight with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) over who has the hotter wife, he’s reminding a lot of Americans of what they admire about Obama.

Last week, Obama’s approval rating edged up to 53 percent, according to Gallup. His predecessor had a 32 percent rating at this time in his presidency.

For someone who has been attacked the way Obama has, for a father and husband who has endured verbal assaults and physical threats to his family, the president’s demeanor has been dignified.

There have been dozens of people indicted on charges of threatening to harm him since he took office. In 2011, a gunman fired at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. from Constitution Avenue and at least seven bullets struck the White House when Sasha Obama and her grandmother, Marian Robinson, were home. Three years later, a fence jumper armed with a knife actually made it inside the mansion before being tackled by an off-duty Secret Service agent.

Sources in the security community told Washington Post reporter Juliet Eilperin that when he took office, Obama received triple the number of threats that previous presidents faced during the election and his first year in office.

Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center have seen huge jumps in threats against the president and the formation of hate groups during the past seven years.

Scary stuff. Yet while partisan politics deadlocks a crucial Supreme Court nomination and election-season rancor flares on both sides of the aisle, the Obamas refuse to give in to the ugly behavior and rhetoric around them.

The insults aren’t met with insults. The bile is not returned with vile responses.

The first family looks forward, past the haters. They embody the respect that the highest office in the land deserves. And they are teaching a powerful lesson in class and civility to a country that sorely needs it.

When I see a post about how we need "class" brought back to the White House I think about how the Obama's have to handle themselves with all this crap coming at them every day.

They are as classy as it gets.

[*jason*]

I actually heard  those shots at the White House....  I was standing outside a bar on Pennsylvania Ave.  It was the Friday night before Veterans' Day.

[fredtoast]

I am sure all presidents get threats.  But Democrats are such pusses their threats don't seem as scary.

[StoneTheCrow]

Heavy is the head. I hadn't heard about the shots fired. Either my head was under a rock or it should've been way bigger news.

[*jason*]

(04-03-2016, 12:11 PM)StoneTheCrow Wrote: Heavy is the head. I hadn't heard about the shots fired. Either my head was under a rock or it should've been way bigger news.

Obama wasn't there at the time or it would have been a bigger story nationally.  It was a big story in DC. I guess there are always a lot of tourists in Washington, but it was amplified that weekend.  It was Veterans' Day on Saturday, and Maryland was playing Notre Dame at the Redskins' stadium.  The whole Occupy movement had a camp set up just up the street from the White House.

[Rotobeast]

(04-03-2016, 11:59 AM)fredtoast Wrote: I am sure all presidents get threats. 

This.....

Dubya got plenty.

[*michaelsean*]

I guess getting shot (Reagan) doesn't compare to having shots fired when you aren't even there. It's amazing how people forgot the absolute vitriol thrown at W.

[GMDino]

(04-03-2016, 11:59 AM)fredtoast Wrote: I am sure all presidents get threats.  

(04-03-2016, 08:07 PM)Rotobeast Wrote: This.....

Dubya got plenty.

(04-04-2016, 09:22 AM)michaelsean Wrote: I guess getting shot (Reagan) doesn't compare to having shots fired when you aren't even there.  It's amazing how people forgot the absolute vitriol thrown at W.

I believe the article is based on:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-new-dynamics-of-protecting-a-president-most-threats-against-obama-issued-online/2014/10/07/a525ef6c-4b11-11e4-891d-713f052086a0_story.html

Quote:During Obama’s first run for the presidency, the issue of clearest concern was his race, which made him a magnet for threats from people who thought it disqualified him from the office.


As Obama nears six years in the White House, the number of overtly racist threats have subsided but the threats in general continue. Today, the dominant theme of grievances against the president is government overreach, according to current and former Secret Service officials, as critics suggest Obama is abusing his power and trampling the Constitution.

Brian Leary, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said the agency has adjusted to the fact that most threats against the president now occur online.

“The capability is there, and we have to evolve with technology as well,” he said, adding that the number of threats against Obama “did spike a few months after the [2008] election, but they declined back to a level that is consistent with his predecessors, and they still are.”

Other sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Obama received triple the number of threats than previous presidents during his initial candidacy and first year in office. That number has declined significantly since then, they said, but is still elevated compared with Obama’s predecessors

The ability to "threaten" the POTUS is much easier now than in even 2008.

Now if you want to compare people making jokes about W vs ones about Obama...no doubt.  W was seen as dumb and people made fun of that at his expense.  But actual physical threats?  I bet Obama is well in front of him in that category.

[Rotobeast]

(04-04-2016, 09:43 AM)GMDino Wrote: I believe the article is based on:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-new-dynamics-of-protecting-a-president-most-threats-against-obama-issued-online/2014/10/07/a525ef6c-4b11-11e4-891d-713f052086a0_story.html



The ability to "threaten" the POTUS is much easier now than in even 2008.

Now if you want to compare people making jokes about W vs ones about Obama...no doubt.  W was seen as dumb and people made fun of that at his expense.  But actual physical threats?  I bet Obama is well in front of him in that category.

Of course it has to be his race.
It couldn't have anything to do with him being an arrogant prick.

[GMDino]

(04-04-2016, 12:04 PM)Rotobeast Wrote: Of course it has to be his race.
It couldn't have anything to do with him being an arrogant prick.

Well given he's the first black president...and the emails that were quoted....

[*michaelsean*]

(04-04-2016, 12:15 PM)GMDino Wrote: Well given he's the first black president...and the emails that were quoted....

I'll bet Reagan would exchange a bullet in the lung for mean emails.  And wasn't there some movie that depicted the assassination of W?

[*michaelsean*]

And according to the story, Obama received more threats the first year in a time where it's easier to threaten the President, and the threats have leveled off to normal levels since then. What exactly is the story?

[*Nately120*]

(04-04-2016, 12:47 PM)michaelsean Wrote: And according to the story, Obama received more threats the first year in a time where it's easier to threaten the President, and the threats have leveled off to normal levels since then.  What exactly is the story?

The story is that Obama is a drama queen and he's lucky no one with a gun thinks shooting him would impress Jodie Foster.