I'd be wearing Kevlar if I were him.
Security apparently stepped up for Obama By Chuck Goudie
January 17, 2007 - This was day two of the Obama watch, a little more than 24 hours since Democratic Illinois Senator Barack Obama announced that he was taking the first step toward a run for the White House. In this Intelligence Report: how to protect the man who would be America's first black president.
Two and a half years ago, Senator Barack Obama was an unknown to many people in Illinois and most people outside Illinois. On that July day in Boston, when Senator Obama aroused the Democratic convention and the nation, the I-Team interviewed Obama on a Boston street corner. He had no advance men, no armed guards, no security detail, and no handlers surrounding him, but most important, he had only a candidacy for the US Senate, not the presidency.
This week, that has all changed. On Monday, even before he posted the website video announcing that he was forming a presidential exploration committee, Senator Obama had increased the level of security around him. As he toured Martin Luther King Day events in Chicago, Obama seemed better insulated than he had a few weeks ago.
To those closest to Obama, that security is paramount.
"There have always been crazy people in the world. There always will be crazy people in the world. But he's made the decision that he's not going to let the threat of that stand in the day way of what he wants to do. That's a courageous position for him to take. It's a tough decision to make," said Valerie Jarrett, Obama adviser.
For now, Obama will have to use campaign funds to pay for his own security. Under the law, he is not entitled to Secret Service protection. That is reserved for "major presidential and vice presidential candidates," usually the party nominees, and only "within 120 days of the general presidential election." The Secret Service will also protect the spouses of such candidates during that time.
There was a time that only presidents, and then ex-presidents and their families, received door-to-door, wall-to-wall, bumper-to-bumper protection. But then, in 1968, When U.S. Senator Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed while campaigning for president, the law prescribed Secret Service details for the major candidates as well.
Just as there are regular threats against President Bush and the first family, since Barack Obama's name was being publicly discussed as a presidential contender in 2008, there have been threats against him, largely form white supremacists organizations via the internet, leading his top advisors, colleagues and confidants to rally around him and urge that he take great precautions.
"There are risks associated with any public endeavor and that's true for any candidate," said David Axelrod, Obama political strategist.
Senator Obama is no stranger to being at the center of a security net. While in Africa last year he personally had to help scatter a rowdy crowd of followers and supporters for their own safety and his. And a year ago, while the I-Team was traveling with him in the Middle East, he was well-protected by the American military in Baghdad, and then in Israel by American diplomatic security officers as we traveled to the West Bank for a meeting with Palestinian leaders.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=investigative&id=4946102
