Officials Express Concern for President's Safety

As a follow-up to my post yesterday (Saving America by Hating Americans), I give you this report from ABC News' Brian Ross and his investigative team -- Fear for Obama's Safety Grows as Hate Groups Thrive on Racial Backlash:

Experts who track hate groups across the U.S. are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric targeted at President Obama, especially as the debate over health care intensifies and a pattern of threats emerges.

The Secret Service is investigating a Maryland man who held a sign reading "Death to Obama" and "Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids" outside a town hall meeting this week. And in New Hampshire, another man stood across the street from a Presidential town hall with his gun on full display.

Los Angeles police officers apprehended a man Thursday after a standoff with him inside a red Volkswagen Bug car in Westwood, CA -- the latest disturbing case even though officials said the man had mental problems.

"I don't think these are simply people who are mentally ill or off their rocker," Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told ABC News of those behind the threats. "In a very real sense they represent a genuine reaction, a genuine backlash against Obama."

"It's certainly a scary time," said former FBI agent Brad Garrett, now an ABC News consultant. Garrett says the Secret Service "cannot afford to pass on anyone," and he thinks "they really do fear that something could happen to [Obama]."

Garrett said right wing media comparisons of Obama to Hitler "legitimizes people who are on the edge to go do something or say something." "Say something" isn't as worrying as "do something."

"While officials told ABC News that the President's daily threat matrix has yet to reflect a sharp increase in threats," the report tells us, "White House officials privately admit deep concern and have told the Secret Service to keep security tight, even if Obama objects."

This comes after a report that death threats against President Obama are 400% more numerous than those that were directed at then-President George W. Bush.

Keep that in mind the next time you hear some wingnut say that Obama wants to kill grandma or that he's destroying the country with socialism or that he's some kind of a racist monster. These people are playing with fire and they deserve to be called out on it.