How and Why Obama Got Secret Service Protection

The Department of Homeland Security has extended 24/7 Secret Service protection to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama. Under federal law, Secret Service protection can be provided to "major" presidential and vice presidential candidates within 120 days of the general presidential election. To be given protection sooner requires special consideration. No previous persidential candidate has been given Secret Service protection this long before an election.

How? MSNBC reports that Obama requested protection, and that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff authorized it based on the advice of the congressional advisory committee. That's the same congressional advisory committee that decides who is and who is not a "major" candidate. The committee is made up of the Speaker of the House, the House minority leader, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, and one additional member selected by the other members of the committee.

Why? Civil Liberties Guide Tom Head comes right out and says what you may be suspecting already. That Obama has been the target of threats from white supremacists. "Although neither the Obama campaign nor the Secret Service has confirmed or denied the presence of actual threats," he writes, "it seems unlikely that there have not been any." As Tom reminds us, Rev. Jessie Jackson was also given Secret Service protection at the start of both of his presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988.

The only other 2008 presidential candidate presently under Secret Service protection is Sen. Hillary Clinton, who as the wife of a former president, has been protected since 1992.

Congress first directed the Secret Service to continuously protect the President of the United States after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. Today, protecting the president against a wide variety of threats remains a key duty of the Secret Service.

Also See:
Secret Service Protective Law
Threatening the President