Althouse: In Dallas.

February 22, 2008

In Dallas.

Dallas.

32 comments:

rhhardin said...: You get to do that once.

Checking keeps people from trying.

But if you don't check late, then bad guys will come late next time; so you have to check forever after.; 2/22/08, 7:03 AM
Tim said...: "How can you not be concerned in this day and age," said one policeman.

Yeah, I suppose that's true, if you think of "this day and age" going back to Ford Theater in April 1865. That this happened in Dallas is, well, odd.; 2/22/08, 7:11 AM
The Drill SGT said...: I'm surprised at the SS taking such obvious direction from the campaign. I thought that once you signed up for SS protection, you bought into the whole package including that the SS called all of those decisions.

Maybe the SS has 2 standards, one for the President, VP and Speaker, etc. people really in the chain of command and another set of rules for folks that would just be an embarassing whoopsee? canidates, family, ex-pres etc.; 2/22/08, 7:17 AM
EnigmatiCore said...: "But, he added, the turnout of more than 17,000 people seemed to be a "friendly crowd.""

Good Lord. Whoever in the SS gave that order is helplessly naive, or insanely evil.

Unless the SS was taking direction from the campaign, in which case it was just helplessly naive.

I guess if we don't hear Obama's campaign complaining, it would suggest the latter-- that this was as they wanted? If so, jaw droppingly naive.; 2/22/08, 7:26 AM
Joe M. said...: It must be a plot by The Establishment to encourage the assassination of the Messiah who threatens their failed policies of corruption. But nothing can stop the revolution now.; 2/22/08, 7:44 AM
Joe M. said...: Sorry, that should be "Revolution." Obama just need Gratuitous Capitalization of His Words, doesn't He?; 2/22/08, 7:44 AM
Joe M. said...: Damn. *needs*. I'm just not on today.; 2/22/08, 7:45 AM
Palladian said...: I've already seen, among supporters of Obama and the media, quite a bit of fantasizing about Obama being assassinated, as if it's inevitable.

Of course moves like this one in Dallas of all places don't inspire confidence that something terrible won't happen. In the last seven years I've seen more than enough gleeful anticipation of the assassination of the current President from surprisingly mainstream sources. Such talk puts violent ideas into deranged and angry people's heads.; 2/22/08, 7:46 AM
KCFleming said...: Mr. Obama, you certainly can't say that Dallas doesn't love you.; 2/22/08, 7:53 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Such talk puts violent ideas into deranged and angry people's heads."

Yes, that's exactly what I'm thinking. I hesitated even to do this post. The idea that thousands of people seemed "friendly"... it's so easy to imagine that statement in a report of a terrible event.; 2/22/08, 8:00 AM
Fritz said...: Start the conspiracies! Anyone that believes this planted story is a fool.; 2/22/08, 8:02 AM
Palladian said...: Yes, it's the large-scale equivalent of "he was always so friendly, a nice quite neighbor who kept to himself."; 2/22/08, 8:02 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: The Secret Service cannot order anyone to do anything. They advise, sometimes strongly. If the person they are charged with protecting refuses to take their advice, there is nothing they can do. Even presidents have clashes with the Secret Service.

Harry Truman used to drive his detail crazy. He figured out how to disappear for awhile, causing a frenzy of activity. He would just go out for a walk by himself.; 2/22/08, 8:08 AM
Fritz said...: This will not deter us from his wife's exposing their radical leftist hate America meme.; 2/22/08, 8:10 AM
Bissage said...: Well, no harm no foul. Nobody got assassinated so it was okay to curtail the weapons screening.

But just you wait and see.

Soon an airplane will crash into the Reunion Arena.

And it will collapse inexplicably . . . as if by controlled demolition.; 2/22/08, 8:11 AM
Joaquin said...: This is just TOOO GOOOOD!
Oh yeah! Vantage Point opens today.; 2/22/08, 8:18 AM
Charlie Eklund said...: Welcome to Dallas-Fort Worth, where the only conspiracy we have today is the same one we had in 1963;a conspiracy of dunces.; 2/22/08, 9:14 AM
Mortimer Brezny said...: We all know that if someone drew a gun on Obama he would just say, "These are not the droids you are looking for," and the gunman would weepily shuffle over to register as a Democrat and vote for Obama in the Democratic primary before he was carted off to jail.; 2/22/08, 9:23 AM
The Drill SGT said...: The Secret Service cannot order anyone to do anything. They advise, sometimes strongly. If the person they are charged with protecting refuses to take their advice, there is nothing they can do. Even presidents have clashes with the Secret Service.

there are some exceptions to that.

1. I'd argue that if a candidate accepts SS protection, there is an agreement that you follow their rules, else the SS is left holding the PR bag if something happens, like this thing in Dallas.

2. my understanding, and documented on 9/11 by Cheney is that in times of crisis, the SS doesn't listen to arguments. they go to full auto drill mode. as I understand it, when the FAA reporting a plane headed for DC ( the shanksville plane), Cheney was grabbed under his arms by 2 NFL (SS) linebacker types and literally lifted off his feet as they hustled him to the WH sit room / bunker.

On a different note, in the last years, we had a lot of BDS stalk of shooting Bush, including plays and movies. On the Obama front, the same folks who talk of him, being shot are the same angry leftists that wanted to pop Bush. I don't hear Rush or anybody else saying anything stupid like that.

All of the talk of violence comes from the war types. I guess they haven't gotten over those weatherman roots.; 2/22/08, 9:39 AM
Beldar said...: So for how many more years do the people of Dallas owe collective guilt over the JFK assassination, as you view their culpability, Prof. A?

I'd agree that this is remarkable and blogworthy. That it happened in Dallas in particular, isn't. It would have been a bad idea anywhere, certainly including Madison or NYC.; 2/22/08, 9:46 AM
The Drill SGT said...: Beldar,

I'd split the difference.

It was a dumb idea in general Madison or Dallas.

It would be more of a story if the police in Dallas weren't the ones outraged. as it is, I think they lessen the story. I think Althouse's headline is overblown ultimate, so maybe I agree with you.

Ann, I think it deserves an Obama tag, not a Texas one. and I'd change the headline to "When Appearances Matter More than Safety"; 2/22/08, 10:16 AM
KCFleming said...: Given the numerous JFK-Obama parallels already drawn, it's hard not be a little shocked about this because of the history.

That is, it was stupid, but especially there, just because of the symbolism, which always matters.

Dallas has no remaining guilt, not any real guilt (now or then), but even so, the association with a Presidnet's assassination won't be forgotten anytime soon.; 2/22/08, 10:56 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Beldar: The police in Dallas were obviously unhappy about it and vigilant. The Secret Service supposedly ordered the laxity. (If anything happens to Barack Obama, the conspiracy theories will aim at the Clintons.) But I'm afraid Dallas will always have the reputation as the site of a presidential assassination. I don't think people blame the people of Dallas, but you have to realize that your city will always be associated with the assassination.; 2/22/08, 11:00 AM
hypatia 370 said...: Perhaps there was something prescient in your post about the potential for tragedy when presidential politics visits Dallas. Reported by DallasNews.com:
11:03 AM CT A Dallas police officer died Friday when his motorcycle struck a pillar on the Houston Street viaduct as he was escorting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to a rally in Oak Cliff. Following the rally, Mrs. Clinton said she was "devastated" by the officer's death.
And the sadness continues:
It's official: Bush library coming to SMU!; 2/22/08, 11:19 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: Oi.; 2/22/08, 11:21 AM
Anonymous said...: In Combined Operations and Command are they sure that the decision came from the Secret Service?

Looks like a hierarchy problem...

One problem with a campaign is the change of entities and states, not to mention venues.

The continuality and situation is always in flux making standardization of procedures and communication hierarchy a nightmare.

Shit. A Dalls police motorcycle officer who was injured while riding alongside Hillary's motorcade has died.

Same thing happened in Hawaii, with the Presidential local detail.; 2/22/08, 12:12 PM
Anonymous said...: Four children.!

shit.; 2/22/08, 12:13 PM
blake said...: Aw, come on.

What could possibly go wrong?; 2/22/08, 1:55 PM
Beldar said...: Actually I live in Houston, Prof. A, but you're right that it was my Texas pride prompting my comment, and I plead guilty to having a chip on my shoulder on this topic.

But your two-word title and one-word post only make sense if one presumes that there is something especially dangerous about Dallas to Barack Obama, something like: "For goodness sake, of all places in the world, Obama obviously needs extra-tight security there, what kind of idiot could let this happen there?"

If this incident had taken place in Los Angeles, I very seriously doubt you would have written a five-word post, entitled "In Los Angeles," whose sole body text read "Los Angeles."

But that, of course, is exactly where Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was murdered in 1968, in the hotel in which he'd just made his victory speech. Two presidents (Lincoln and Garfield) have been assassinated in Washington, D.C., with Reagan very nearly and most recently becoming another. McKinley was slain in Buffalo, N.Y. Failed attempts were also made on Jackson and Truman in Washington; FDR in Miami; TR in Milwaukee (post-presidency, during his run for a 3rd term); and Ford in Sacramento and San Francisco (both during a single month). Not one of these other cities or states acquired the stigma that has dogged Dallas and Texas.

I agree with you that some people will always reflexively and negatively associate Dallas with the JFK assassination. I just wouldn't have predicted you to be one of them. The stigma that the city has suffered from the JFK assassination is and always has been unjust. It's far from the worst slur or slight that I've seen or read this year, this month, this week, or even today, but I think your post tends to perpetuate that unjust stigma, regardless of whether you intended or foresaw that it would.; 2/22/08, 8:14 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I don't mean insult the people of Dallas, only to say that the name is a reminder of the things that can happen and security should be kept up.; 2/22/08, 8:24 PM
Beldar said...: Graciously stated, and fair enough. :-); 2/22/08, 9:13 PM
Trooper York said...: And the Beldar stepped out of the shower...and he realized that the entire conversation was really a dream.; 2/23/08, 9:45 AM