Chicago, IL – I saw the president-elect on Thursday — six different times, for a total of 71 seconds.
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We didn’t speak, but he did grin and wave at me.
At least I think it was at me. It could have been the Secret Service agents standing behind me, all toting automatic rifles, who are a constant and imposing presence around Barack Obama. Or someone else in the group of 11 reporters and photographers, huddled together near the motorcade’s black SUVs, who on this day make up Obama’s “protective press pool.”
From 6:30 a.m. (when I joined a crew of reporters in the van) to 5:59 p.m. (when we pulled up outside Chicago’s Fairmont hotel), my duty was to jot down anything of interest and fire it off on my BlackBerry to other reporters.
No tidbit was considered too small or too vague: “As of 7:27 a.m., there is no press conference or briefing scheduled for today. (However, this may change.)”
When Obama arrived at a gym, the photographers jumped out of the van to snap pictures.
When he slipped back into an SUV to go home and get changed before a security briefing at the local FBI offices, the photographers had to dodge dozens of people intent on snapping their own shots with their cellphone cameras.
I wrote: “The president-elect left the gym wearing a black zip-up jacket, a gray T-shirt, black gym pants, white/striped tennis shoes, a black Sox (go Sox!) baseball cap and sunglasses.”
We drove. We sat. And we waited: Out on the street as Obama’s motorcade drove into a secure entrance far from our prying eyes. On an underground ramp as he walked into an office building. In a hotel conference room as he had meetings and took calls and made decisions.
We drove some more. We sat. We waited.
Some of the Windy City’s motorists, it became clear, did not seem to understand that A) the Chicago Police Department car that trails the president-elect’s motorcade is serious about having traffic pull over when the officers inside flash the lights and hit the sirens, and B) it’s not a great idea to cut in front of a black SUV filled with heavily armed Secret Service agents.
When the motorcade pulled off a highway and onto city streets, a couple in a tan sedan tried to drive around the motorcade.
The Secret Service agents cut the car off immediately and aimed their weapons at its occupants. The driver slammed on the brakes, and he and his stunned passenger threw their hands into the air. Then, the driver appeared to understand what was happening. (“Your pool reporter could see him mouth ‘Obama.’ “)
When Obama would walk to and from his vehicle, no one yelled out questions. Some reporters who have covered the campaign for months say they learned that it often didn’t pay to shout out a question.
What sort of answer could you get from such a rude delivery? A monosyllabic one, it turned out. When Obama was leaving a downtown high-rise, I asked — loudly — how his meetings went.
“Good,” he said, before slipping into an SUV and heading home.
i wonder if every pres-elect gets this kind of attention/protection/paranoia
Just wait till this guy gets his own internal police. Like the republican gaurd of Saddam Hussain. This is scary
way to go!
Proud Obama supporter.
i would think that he would have a private gym built he has enough money…
M.Richter
Wow.. did you think long and hard before you made that comment?? how immature one can get never ceases to fascinate me. But then again, what else could we expect from an uneducated being. I dont even know you so we wont go personal here, but hey that comment?? sometimes I feel that people just cant wait to add a comment to a new story so they shoot their mouth off without thinking, just like you did.. and hopefully that is what happened, because if I am wrong and you did think before you wrote then OY VEY stay out of public office or any public position because we wouldnt want BIGOTS like you bearing any influence on the community.
I did not vote for Obama and I am worried about his experience to be a good president. That being said, he is the President Elect of our country and he deserves to be protected to whatever extent the Secret Service thinks is approporiate.
There’s a Reform temple on the street where Obama lives. People going to services have to show ID
“Black Panthers” Are you that big a moron? Every president elect gets that kind of coverage. and the pictures of the agents clearly show they are white. the people in the frum community need to wake up, Mccain lost, Obama won, live with it. If he does as bad a job in office as many of us think he will kick him out in 4 years, it’s the great thing about living in this country but this bigotry needs to stop.
All presidents get this kind of treatment, because there are always crazies out there who want to get in the history books by attacking the president.
Today, the Secret Service is authorized by law to protect:
* The president, the vice president, (or other individuals next in order of succession to the Office of the President), the president-elect and vice president-elect
* The immediate families of the above individuals
* Former presidents and their spouses for their lifetimes, except when the spouse remarries. In 1997, Congressional legislation became effective limiting Secret Service protection to former presidents for a period of not more than 10 years from the date the former president leaves office
* Children of former presidents until age 16
* Visiting heads of foreign states or governments and their spouses traveling with them, other distinguished foreign visitors to the United States, and official representatives of the United States performing special missions abroad
* Major presidential and vice presidential candidates, and their spouses within 120 days of a general presidential election
* Other individuals as designated per Executive Order of the President
* National Special Security Events, when designated as such by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
Am I the only one who realized this article was intended to be humorous?
“If you’re going to argue, make a coherent argument, otherwise keep quiet!”
-Yoily Voily
Look, Obama’s heavy security is not that unusual at all. For example, one time a high-ranking member of Homeland Security was visiting his sister in my parents’ neighborhood. The Secret Service blocked off part of the street and they had black SUVs on the watch for intruders. This guy was of course very important but NOWHERE as important as Obama is.