Bill Clinton: October 29, 1994
Francisco Martin Duran fired 29 rifle shots at the White House from a fence overlooking the north lawn, thinking that Clinton was among the men in dark suits standing there. Clinton was in the White House Residence watching a football game. No one was hurt; Duran was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
George W. Bush: May 10, 2005
While President Bush was giving a speech in the Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia, Vladimir Arutyunian threw a grenade towards the podium where he was standing near President Mikhail Saakashvili. It landed in the crowd 61 feet from the podium after hitting a girl, but did not detonate because of a chance malfunction in its detonator. Arutyunian was arrested in July 2005. He was given a life sentence.
Presidential deaths strongly considered to have been assassinations:
Zachary Taylor: On July 4, 1850, President Taylor was diagnosed by his physicians with cholera morbus. Cholera, typhoid fever, and food poisoning have all been indicated as the source of the president's ultimately fatal gastroenteritis. A snack of iced milk, cold cherries and pickled cucumbers consumed at an Independence Day celebration might have done him in. By July 9, Taylor was dead. In 1991, with permission from his descendants, Taylor's body was exhumed and an autopsy conducted. Observers noted that Taylor's body was recognizable as the 12th President — his brow ridge remained intact. Investigating deliberate poisoning, scientists detected traces of arsenic, but determined the quantity of arsenic present was several hundred times less than there would have been had he been poisoned with arsenic. Assassination theories have not been put to rest. Michael Parenti in his book, History as Mystery, speculates that Taylor was assassinated and that his autopsy was botched.
Warren G. Harding
In June 1923, President Warren G. Harding set out on his "Voyage of Understanding," to meet ordinary people and explain policies. During this trip, he became the first president to visit Alaska. Corruption rumors circulated; Harding was shocked by a message he received in Alaska detailing illegal activities previously unknown to him. At the end of July, while traveling south from Alaska through British Columbia, he developed what was thought to be severe food poisoning.
The President's train proceeded south to San Francisco. Arriving at the Palace Hotel, he developed pneumonia. Harding died of either a heart attack or a stroke at 7:35 p.m. on August 2, 1923. The formal announcement, printed in the New York Times of that day, stated that "a stroke of apoplexy was the cause of death." He had been ill one week. Physicians surmised that he had suffered a heart attack, but this diagnosis was not made by Surgeon General Sawyer who was traveling with the presidential party.
Mrs. Harding refused permission for an autopsy, which soon led to speculation that the President had been the victim of a plot, possibly carried out by his wife. Gaston B. Means, noted in his book The Strange Death of President Harding (1930) that the circumstances surrounding his death implied he had been poisoned. Several individuals attached to him would have welcomed Harding's death, as they would have been disgraced in association of Harding's "imminent impeachment." Although Means was later
discredited for publicly accusing Mrs. Harding of the murder, enough doubts surround the President's death to keep reputable scholars open to the possibility of murder.
One sidenote to presidential assassinations and deaths in office is Tecumseh's Curse whereby presidents starting with William Henry Harrison
who were elected in a year ending with a zero were assassinated or died while in office. The curse presumably ended with Ronald Reagan.
Popemobile Needed by Obama?
Pope Benedict XVI's Mercedes for his U.S. tour sat for several days at the Beltsville, Maryland training headquarters for the U.S. Secret Service, having been shipped from Rome two weeks earlier. It has a six-foot-tall glass enclosure built to showcase the pontiff, and is a custom Mercedes ML 430 donated to the Vatican in 2002. The car has no markings, other than the Vatican coat of arms on each door and license plate "SCV 1," an acronym for the Vatican's name in Italian and the number of the Holy Father's place in the church hierarchy. Pope John Paul II pleaded with journalists to stop using the term in 2002 because he thought it sounded "undignified."
The seat from which the pontiff will bless crowds is upholstered with white leather and has bars for him to hold while standing. The windows are double-pane bulletproof glass, introduced after a failed assassination attempt on the late pontiff in 1981.
Popes of past centuries would be transported the same way any dignitary would: in a carriage with horses. Benedict's Mercedes has a 272 horsepower engine, a full climate-control system, and a full stereo system with a tape deck. Papal drivers don't exceed 10 mph along the parade routes, giving the pontiff enough time to interact with the crowds hoping for a glimpse. The vehicle's security features include armored side panels and undercarriage.
[On June 6, 2007, a German man tried to jump into Pope Benedict XVI's uncovered Popemobile as the pontiff began his general audience. The Pope was not hurt and did not even appear to notice that the 27 year-old man had jumped over the protective barrier in the square and had grabbed onto the white Popemobile as it drove by. At least eight security officers who were trailing the vehicle grabbed him, and he was arrested.]
CONCLUSION: OBAMA MOST CERTAINLY DOES NEEDS A POPEMOBILE!
At the very least, during certain events with enlarged crowd contact, Obama would be wise to require vastly increased physical protection, including a series of vehicles whose design would be patterns after the designs used for the Popemobiles.
America can ill afford to even consider the kind of tragedy and its implications if this brilliant man, so deserving of the Presidency, is not massively well protected during the rest of the campaign as Presidential candidate, and even more so during his Presidency, to the absolute best of our abilities as a Nation, regardless of what fiscal resources this requires.
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