Back in the time of Bobby Kennedy's assassination there was a surmise as to how it could have been managed by those in power who were opposed to him while keeping their hands clean.

(While it's ridiculous to believe that Sirhan Sirhan acting alone killed him, that's not the point of the post.)

It was suggested that the way to do it was to reduce his level of security and just wait for someone to assassinate him. Simple, and in the case of controversial people quite deadly.

There's no doubt that the people who are most opposed to Obama are also people who are attracted to such things as assault rifles and violence as vehicles of conflict resolution.

I'm probably oversensitive, and my belief that Obama has about a 50 - 50 chance of surviving the first term may well be paranoia. On my limited behalf I remember where I was when Kennedy was killed, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. With all three of those there was a polarized, isolated and extremely hostile element of our society who felt hopeless and saw their power slipping away.

Arf