<p>I know that I am not the only CC poster who is completely freaked out by the security breaches at the White House. I can hardly believe what I’m hearing. And part of me is wishing that all of this had been kept secret - terrorists are watching this, too, and now they know how vulnerable the Obama family and the White House are.</p>
<p>Even before the recent events, I was wondering about the competence of the SS. I was disturbed by the shoe-throwing incident when President Bush was spared potentially serious injury not by the SS but by his own (amazing for his age) reflexes. How was it that the man was able to take off his shoe and throw it, not once but twice? </p>
<p>I am horrified and appalled. The whole situation with the fence jumper is terrifying. He got all the way into the White House, overpowered a secret service agent and was only stopped by someone who wasn’t on duty. Now it is being reported that on his recent trip to the CDC in Atlanta a man with a gun got into the elevator with the president. on the one hand this stuff has to be known, but on the other hand it has always been important for the looney tunes to think they could never get near the first family because the secret service is impregnable. And now someone might be emboldened to think he could succeed. </p>
<p>^^ And, worst of all, he (or they) could very well succeed. I have the feeling that the only thing coming between the Obamas and tragedy is the reputation of the SS - now deteriorating.</p>
<p>Why does Congress bother to question the SS director? She should have resigned.
It looks like the White House was only protected by less than 5 SS agents. What if a dozen bad guys storm in at the same time?</p>
<p>I have been particularly worried about Obama’s safety because he’s black and the world is filled with crazy people. If the SS isn’t doing its job, I am really, really worried.</p>
<p>Does anyone else remember how during a trip Obama took to some foreign country the interpreter for the deaf turned out to be signing gibberish, and it later turned out he had a serious mental condition?</p>
<p>Are we just hearing about more things, or has the SS really deteriorated?</p>
<p>I heard this discussed on NPR, and they said that the SS has had its funding cut and was having morale/organizational problems after having been transferred to Homeland Security from its original home. Apparently they are demoralized, and agents frequently work 6 days per week.</p>
<p>I found the scandals in recent years pretty shocking. It really made me wonder whether the SS was serious about protecting Obama. What kind of people are they recruiting? Are they inclined to be right wing? Are they inclined to be racist? I certainly hope not.</p>
<p>Popcorn time. Btw, the director is an Obama appointee if that helps. And, some of the harshest critics are those right wingers. Weird huh? But, it is a screw-up. </p>
<p>I am sure I pay a lot more attention to the right than you do and I can tell you that from the blogs, to the newspapers to the columnists, this is a huge story and there is universal shock and horror about the threats to the president and his family. I would really like to know where you think you are seeing people on the right who are unserious about that. Are you hearing that on MSNBC and HuffPo? </p>
<p>I haven’t seen anything but shock and outrage from all points on the right/left spectrum. What worries me is that it will take time to fix this. In the meantime, the Obamas are exposed, and so are dozens of people who work in the White House. </p>
<p>I don’t think the SS was doing much better for the Bushes. </p>
<p>And it gets worse. Apparently, the head of the secret service didn’t admit how bad the breach of the White House was. It was a whistleblower. Ms. Pierson said that this is her responsibility and it certainly is. She needs to resign because she has failed at her core mission. The entire right wing media is seething over this because, of course, political disagreement is vastly different from being uninterested in the safety of our president and his family. After all, Mr. Obama is president of the United States, not chair of the Democratic Party. It makes my blood run cold to think how soon after the girls left the White House that the whacko was able to get in.</p>
<p>I think that everyone in Congress is even more horrified because the girls are there. The gunshots came when only Sasha and her grandmother were in the residence. </p>
<p>I wish they’d hire a private security firm or bring in the military immediately while they try to reorganize the SS. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. </p>
<p>I ask you, Cardinal Fang. One would think this could be one issue that the entire legislative branch could agree on… Although, frankly, I can’t imagine why she didn’t resign and come clean immediately so that the failures could be assessed and corrected. I guess she thinks she is. Ore important than the job of the secret service.</p>
<p>We sometimes disagree, zoosermom, but this seems so obvious. This woman has bungled. She took responsibility-- well, so what? If she can’t get the job done, and she obviously can’t, they need to find someone who can.</p>
<p>Right. It’s not a question of policy preferences. If a member of the first family is, God forbid, injured then what? Ms. Pierson has lost the confidence of the American people and surely the first family, so she needs to go and should have enough pride to not have to be fired. This has been a thing in the right wing media since it happened and there is absolutely universal outrage and horror. I think the conservative coverage has been much more substantive. Mrs. Obama has always said that her girls are the last thing she thinks of at night and the first thing in the morning, I bet she doesn’t sleep so easily after this.</p>