Book thrown at Obama’s head during rally; streaker also taints event

Vatic Note:   This happened during Viet Nam as well,   I can remember sitting in the College cafeteria of the college I was attending with streakers outside on the lawn with masks on, with writing on their bodies about the war and streaking across the lawn and in some cases, the really brave streaking through the cafeteria itself, with three security guards  chasing them and us harrassing the guards.   No one threw books at the President though, I believe it was Tomatos instead.   I believe for Bush Jr., it was world famous shoes that got thrown and resulted in a protected Iraqi since the publicity was so massive. 

Book thrown at Obama’s head during rally; streaker also taints event

http://www.examiner.com/american-politics-in-vancouver/video-book-thrown-at-obama-s-head-during-rally-streaker-also-taints-event
October 11, 2010, Mark Schenker, Vancouver American Politics Examiner

A book was thrown at Barack Obama’s head during his Germantown rally yesterday in Philadelphia, while a streaker also tainted the event that was supposed to rally Obama’s hardcore base  of predominantly black supporters. Few white people were to be seen in the crowd in the Germantown neighborhood of Northwest Philadelphia, known for its huge African-American population.

The tainting of what was supposed to be a pump-up rally of the last few vestiges of Obama’s remaining support in the country instead degenerated into something of a debacle, with the Secret Service now facing questions regarding their apparent laxity in security that actually allowed a book to narrowly miss hitting Obama’s head and a flabby streaker to disrupt the rally.

The launching of a book  towards Obama’s head is particularly significant because of the large African-American contingent in the crowd of about 18,000 people. African-Americans are still one of the only demographics in the US who haven’t completely abandoned Obama as he is being increasingly exposed as an inept commander-in-chief who has failed to turn around a struggling US economy.

In fact, according to polls, African-Americans are still gung-ho for Obama…almost as if…as if…they only watch MSNBC, read the New York Times, and get all their analysis from the likes of that extremely angry-yet-barely-watched Keith Olbermann and his radical buddy, Ed Schultz.

If a crowd of predominantly African-American people produces an individual disgruntled enough to commit a serious crime by injuring the president, then what does that say about Obama’s standing within the African-American community, one of his last bases of hardcore support?  Why, that just may signal that not all African-Americans are completely enamored with Obama after all, and some may even be angry enough to take action, even if that action is to criminally misbehave by launching a book at the head of the president!

On the other hand, it may not be totally out of the question that some African-Americans can be upset enough at Obama to hurl a projectile at his head in the form of a book that narrowly missed him. After all, there is motive to do so: the unemployment for African-Americans is actually up by almost 4% this year alone, and the same unemployment rate for Africa-Americans was actually lower under good, old G.W. Bush than it is now under Obama, as was the African-American poverty rate. Yet, almost 10% of all African-Americans still support Obama! Huh? Hmmmm…I wonder just why that could be…hmmmmm…I bet it has absolutely nothing to do with race, though, right?!

Rounding out the madcap debacles at Obama’s not-as-he-expected-it, pump-up rally (that also featured the black hip-hop group The Roots because I’m guessing Obama thinks that African-Americans only like hip-hop, or something crazy like that), a flabby streaker by the name of Juan James Rodriguez—a dear, 24-year-old local man—treated everyone at the rally to his birthday suit. Apparently, Rodriguez, clearly an ambitious and capitalistic young man, appeared naked in order to win a promised $1 million from a billionaire by the name of Alki David. The terms of David’s stipulation were that the streaker had to have the word "Battlecam" written across his chest to collect the reward money.

All in all, this pump-up rally that was to have been reminiscent of the fanatically out-of-control, 2008 Obama rallies ended up being a total debacle. What was supposed to be a rally that demonized Karl Rove and the Chamber of Commerce (while conveniently deflecting the economic problems in the country) instead devolved into an attempt to hit Obama in the head and another attempt by a streaker to collect reward money.

If this humiliating outcome that came from a rally of predominantly African-American, hardcore Obama voters is any indication of his popularity, it would appear that Obama has serious problems with his own base of support, which is to say nothing of the silent majority that will vote his Democrats out of Congress in less than a month.

Copyright © 2010 by Marc Schenker
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