The most threatened President in US history, with what seems to be the least amount of protection.

Courtesy of Slate:  

When a man carrying a knife was able to jump the fence and sprint into the front door of the White House, many said it was symptomatic of larger issues with the Secret Service. A fascinating Washington Post piece today makes it clear just how true that is, recounting how it took four days for the Secret Service to even realize that someone had fired shots at the White House and that seven bullets had struck the upstairs residence in 2011. President Obama and his wife were out of town at the time but their younger daughter Sasha was at home with Michelle Obama’s mother. And Malia was expected back home any minute. 

When Oscar Ortega-Hernandez, a man who appeared increasingly paranoid about the U.S. government and seemingly obsessed with how President Obama “had to be stopped,” fired his semiautomatic rifle out of his car, Secret Service agents were quick to respond. But they were told to stand down, with superiors saying no shots had actually been fired. Even though agents seemed to know that was clearly not true—a pair of agents said they could smell gunpowder while another had heard debris fall from the Truman balcony—they stayed quiet, apparently out of fear of angering their superiors. In the end the conclusion was that two rival gangs had gotten into a gunfight near the White House lawn. 

It was only when a housekeeper found a broken window and a piece of concrete days later that agents began to realize what had happened. The president and first lady were understandably furious. Once the Secret Service actually started investigating, they quickly realized this was no small matter, finding $97,000 worth of damage. 

Mother Jones chimes in reminding us that President Obama has received three times as many threats as previous Presidents. Which of course is not surprising since virtually half of the country does not believe his presidency is valid, with a slightly smaller number not even believing that he was born in this country.

One would think that with the White House resident receiving this vast number of threats that the Secret Service would rise to the occasion and take extra precautions to ensure his safety, and yet there have been numerous cases, including the Colombian prostitution scandal, when it seems that this most respected of security forces seem to be simply phoning it.

I think it is time that somebody cleaned a little house, and perhaps made sure that the people who are the front line of defense in protecting the Commander-in-Chief took their job a little more seriously than those hired to protect clothing outlets in the malls of middle America.