The number of death threats Obama is receiving is 400% higher than the number Bush received. It’s also stretching an understaffed Secret Service to its limits trying to keep track of them all:

Since Mr Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of In the President’s Secret Service.

Some threats to Mr Obama, whose Secret Service codename is Renegade, have been publicised, including an alleged plot by white supremacists in Tennessee late last year to rob a gun store, shoot 88 black people, decapitate another 14 and then assassinate the first black president in American history. […]

Who knew there were so many pissed off progressives? But seriously, isn’t it about time we lay the blame for this where it belongs: at the feet of people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the entire cavalcade of right wing pundits, talk show hosts and related hatemongers? Yes, an African American President was bound to come in for some level increased threats considering the racial animosity many feel toward any black man, much less a successful politician who overcame great odds to win the Presidency. But the rate and number of these threats is also a direct result of the hateful, racist and eliminationist rhetoric on conservative radio shows, TV shows and blogs. No doubt a white Democratic President like Hillary Clinton would be receiving a similar level of invective directed at her, and perhaps her gender would have resulted in similar threat levels had she been elected, but no one can argue that the attacks, lies and calls for “revolution” from the lunatic fringe have been given far too much airtime on supposedly mainstream news outlets including CNN and MsNBC. This isn’t just a Fox News issue, though they have been the worst of the worst, as you would expect.

One hopes that such a high number of threats combined with the greatest animus I’ve seen directed toward any US President in my lifetime, doesn’t result in actual attempts on the lives of President Obama and his family. We already know that the hatred spewed on the airwaves by these bloviating haters and racists (I’m looking at you Rushbo, and you Pat Buchanan, and you Billo the Clown and yes, of course, you too Glenn Beck) have been at least partly responsible for atmosphere of intense hatred that led to the murders of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas, the members of the Unitarian Church in Knoxville, two policeman in Pittsburgh and the African American guard at the Holocaust Museum.

And this is even more worrying:

nstead of bringing in more agents – instantly identifiable because of their bulky suits, worn over bullet-proof jackets, and earpieces – the Secret Service directed agents to work longer hours to cover the extra load and to miss firearms training, physical fitness sessions and tests.

“We have half the number of agents we need, but requests for more agents have fallen on deaf ears at headquarters,” a Secret Service agent told Kessler. “Headquarters’ mentality has always been, ‘You can complete the mission with what you have. You’re a U.S.S.S. agent’.”

That seems incredibly stupid and short sighted thinking to me. Mr. President, I hope someone has a talk with whoever is in charge at the Secret Service soon, because I don’t think this attitude is appropriate for our first African American President in an age when any nut can get a gun without a background check at a gun show. And any nut can get a job on the airwaves calling for your head to roll.