Barack Obama – Secret Service codename Renegade – is now the most guarded man on the planet.
Even when he goes to the loo, bodyguards stand outside it.
And when he travels by motorcade there are a dozen identical cars – so potential assassins won’t know which one he is in.
The President-elect will also have to get used to handing his glass to a Secret Service agent every time he has a drink outside the White House. The agent carries a small bag in which to pop the glass and later he destroys it.
The idea is to ensure that no unauthorized person has access to the Presidential DNA, but it is not clear how an enemy would use it.
Obama will be given a set of panic buttons: One for his pocket, one on his desk and one beside his bed. They are credit card-shaped and simply have to be squeezed to summon a posse of agents.
At one time, the President and Vice-President were given three-inch-high models of the Washington Monument to put beside their beds. They had simply to knock them over to summon the guards.
But the models were abandoned after Vice-President Dan Quayle – noted for being clumsy – knocked his over late one night while making love to his wife.
In seconds, the door burst open, the lights went on and Mrs Quayle was thrown out of bed to the floor as bodyguards flocked around her husband to ensure his safety.
Read more about how life changes once a resident of the White House.
Before anyone gets up in arms about Mr. Obama recieving extra-special treatment (“because he’s black” – sic), please be aware that a lot of that stuff’s been standard for YEARS, and Mr. Bush also enjoys at least many of those same securities.
Suddenly, dissent isn’t the highest form of patriotism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94N1TkuLWss
He got secret service “special treatment” for the last two years,he was just a Senator,Hillary got it as a former First Lady just as all First Ladies should have it
“The idea is to ensure that no unauthorized person has access to the Presidential DNA, but it is not clear how an enemy would use it.”
The DNA could be used to identify any illness the President might be hiding and therefore be subject to blackmail. For example, a President hiding cancer, lymphoma or AIDs during a critical economic or military standoff might be at a severe negotiating disadvantage. Even a genetic predisposition towards a critical illness could be exploited by extortion.
Forgot to add Alzheimers to that list. Remember the stories toward the end of Ronald Reagan’s term that eventually turned out to be true that he was suffering from the beginning stages of Alzheimers.
Not good when you’re facing down a Cold War adversary like he was….
Guard the “Presidential DNA”? Clinton left it all over, wherever he went!