In article iWCid.365126$D%.160998@attbi_s51,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:

And one other thing I thought of (un-related)... Doesn't it bother anyone
that the Bush campaign REQUIRED people to sign an oath of allegiance
before allowing them into his rallies. Actually, that one issue would
have prevented me from voting for him. That was absolutely deplorable.

That bothered me a lot, too, until I spoke with a guy I know who was
involved with security for the presidential visits to Iowa.

He explained that the security issues surrounding the president -- and the
untold number of threats against him -- meant that the Secret Service
required that he be kept away from impromptu, unknown crowds as much as
possible.

Sadly, with the country at war, there are more nutcases than usual who have
pronounced their willingness to assassinate the president. Recording the
names and phone numbers of everyone admitted to a rally (and running
security checks on them) was just the most visible way they kept Bush safe
throughout the campaign -- and the Democrats played that up big politically.


Just reading the subject lines in some of the newsgroups confirms Jay's
last paragraph. We see nutcases calling for assassination, impeachment,
all kinds of vicious names, etc.

Also, the recent campaign brought out the worst in both sides of the
election, with a lot of hard feelings to go around. It is enough to push
some unstable personalities over the edge.