Ben Macintyre: Assassination ... the most grimly familiar tale in US history
[Ben Macintyre is a columnist writing for The Times newspaper.]
A few months ago Doris Lessing, the novelist and Nobel laureate, was discussing the life-expectancy of Barack Obama, should he win the race to the White House: “He would probably not last long, a black man in the position of president,” she mused. “They would kill him.”
Lessing was roundly criticised for insensitivity, but in the light of the arrests in Colorado yesterday, her remarks now seem grimly prescient.
When I heard that a group of men had been arrested on suspicion of plotting to kill the Democratic presidential candidate in Denver, my first reaction was not shock, but rather a thudding sense of déjà vu - for the narrative of presidential assassination has become deeply embedded in American culture, the most grimly familiar story in American history.
Mr Obama has been stalked by the possibility of assassination since he declared his candidacy. After all, Colin Powell, the last African-American to contemplate running for president, pulled out because his wife apparently feared his assassination.
Every few weeks during the campaign, the possible threat to Mr Obama has bubbled to the surface, often inadvertently. Hillary Clinton was savaged in May for remarking: “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”
Mike Huckabee, a former contender for the Republican nomination, apologised after joking, in a speech to the National Rifle Association, that a sudden noise offstage had been Mr Obama diving to avoid a gunshot. The boxer Bernard Hopkins was blunter: “They won't let him become president, but if they do, it will be for a short time, maybe less than a month.”
The colour of Mr Obama's skin, obviously, makes him a target, but beyond the violent racism that still festers in the sump of American society is the extent to which the long and bloody tradition of presidential assassination looms over US politics. There have been at least 17 assassination attempts against presidents, and four of the 43 presidents were murdered in office.
The alleged would-be assassins arrested this week do not strike me as historians. They are unlikely to be conscious of following in the footsteps of John Wilkes Booth, the killer of Abraham Lincoln, and less likely still to recognise the name of Charles Guiteau, who murdered James Garfield in 1881. But they will most assuredly know of Lee Harvey Oswald, the enduring role model for the disgruntled American assassin...
Read entire article at Times
A few months ago Doris Lessing, the novelist and Nobel laureate, was discussing the life-expectancy of Barack Obama, should he win the race to the White House: “He would probably not last long, a black man in the position of president,” she mused. “They would kill him.”
Lessing was roundly criticised for insensitivity, but in the light of the arrests in Colorado yesterday, her remarks now seem grimly prescient.
When I heard that a group of men had been arrested on suspicion of plotting to kill the Democratic presidential candidate in Denver, my first reaction was not shock, but rather a thudding sense of déjà vu - for the narrative of presidential assassination has become deeply embedded in American culture, the most grimly familiar story in American history.
Mr Obama has been stalked by the possibility of assassination since he declared his candidacy. After all, Colin Powell, the last African-American to contemplate running for president, pulled out because his wife apparently feared his assassination.
Every few weeks during the campaign, the possible threat to Mr Obama has bubbled to the surface, often inadvertently. Hillary Clinton was savaged in May for remarking: “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”
Mike Huckabee, a former contender for the Republican nomination, apologised after joking, in a speech to the National Rifle Association, that a sudden noise offstage had been Mr Obama diving to avoid a gunshot. The boxer Bernard Hopkins was blunter: “They won't let him become president, but if they do, it will be for a short time, maybe less than a month.”
The colour of Mr Obama's skin, obviously, makes him a target, but beyond the violent racism that still festers in the sump of American society is the extent to which the long and bloody tradition of presidential assassination looms over US politics. There have been at least 17 assassination attempts against presidents, and four of the 43 presidents were murdered in office.
The alleged would-be assassins arrested this week do not strike me as historians. They are unlikely to be conscious of following in the footsteps of John Wilkes Booth, the killer of Abraham Lincoln, and less likely still to recognise the name of Charles Guiteau, who murdered James Garfield in 1881. But they will most assuredly know of Lee Harvey Oswald, the enduring role model for the disgruntled American assassin...