Did the Secret Service fail Bush? Could they fail Obama?

December 15, 10:08 PMDC Corporate Ethics ExaminerJim Cunningham

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Four seconds.

I timed it with my own watch while watching the video over and over today. Four seconds - that’s how long it took, between the time he first drew attention to himself, and when he was finally reached by Secret Service agents. Iraqi police reached him first.

“This is a farewell kiss, you dog” is what he yelled before he threw his shoes, according to and translated by an MSNBC News Producer, Gazeed Balpeez (sp?), who was sitting three seats away from him.

The Secret Services appears to have been asleep at the switch. The excuse, it seems, is that they weren’t worried because everyone in the room had been screened for weapons.
 

Donovan said, however, that agents on the scene knew that everyone in attendance had been screened for weapons and that they appeared to have taken the "appropriate level of action." No shots were fired as Bush's Secret Service detail joined Iraqi police in taking the shoe thrower into custody.”

But since when did the Secret Security descend to resembling nothing more than airline security screeners for the President? The Secret Service is trained to, and is supposed to, physically shield the President from threats. Those two shoes were thrown about once second apart. At the very least, an agent should have been standing between the President and that second shoe.

Patrick J. Lennon, another former agent, said that after he saw the video, his impression was that the agents seemed to react more slowly then he would have expected. "I thought they would have responded after the first shoe," Lennon said.”

Agent Ed Donovan, who seemed more concern about the possibility of the Secret Service over reacting, had this to say:

"There doesn't appear to be any over-reaction" on the part of American agents, Donovan says, confirming the Secret Service agents who poured into the room did not draw their weapons.”

I believe the Secret Service failed President Bush. And if they could fail to protect our President in Baghdad, of all places, what if they fail Obama? Protecting the President Elect is already a difficult task to begin with. The threats against him are unusually high, something that has been documented by the Secret Service themselves.

Four seconds is a long time to react. With the special challenges that protecting Obama will present, I hope they’re prepared to do be at their best – and I hope that’s better than they did by leaving Bush out there to dodge shoes like red rubber balls in a fifth-grade PE class.