Running for president isn't just a long, arduous struggle anymore, it's downright dangerous! Proof of this can be found in hundreds of online death threats made against GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney that are receiving far less coverage in "mainstream" news outlets than when Barack Obama faced similar hostility while campaigning for the White House in 2008.
One example of the disparity between the coverage of the 2008 and 2012 campaigns is the multitude of death threats posted on the Twitter social website against the former Massachusetts governor since the second presidential debate on Tuesday.
Most of the reporting on this situation is being provided by a number of right-leaning websites, including Twitchy, Infowars, PrisonPlanet, The Blaze and Breitbart.
Twitchy has compiled a list of some of the most outrageous and vulgar postings from people who fear that the Republican leader might actually win on November 6, including a tweet posted by Alyece Johnson in which she says: "Romney make me wanna hop through the tv & just assassinate his ass."
"If Romney wins this election, he might as well wear a shirt that says 'Assassinate Me Bitch,'" was posted by a person with the screen name Gotta___Love3it.
"Y'all ready to assassinate romney?" asks Paper Habits. Apparently, Weston Sebree is ready since he states: "I'm gonna murder Romney right now--."
Meanwhile, Bri Mack states: I would bail anyone out if they was just to murder romney right now."
I'm down RT went so far as to state: "I hate Romney's voice ... , somebody assassinate him now pls."
Many of the threats came from people who believe that if Romney is elected, he'll do away with the food stamp program (which isn't true), and that's why Judith_bossinx3 shouts: IF ROMNEY GES ELECTED AND TAKES AWAY MY FOOD STAMPS IMA SEND SOMEONE TO MURDER HIS ASS."
And Mark Garcia takes a bipartisan approach to the situation. "Give me a rifle I'll assassinate both Romney and Obama."
Meanwhile, Paul Joseph Watson, editor and writer of the PrisonPlanet site, posted an article in which he claims:
The George Soros-funded Obama campaign front group ThinkProgress has accused Infowars of "race-baiting" after a story focusing on how Obama supporters were threatening to riot if Obama lost the election went viral as a result of being posted on the Drudge Report.
In addition, Watson noted that if the tables were turned and conservatives were making death threats against Obama in these numbers, it would be a national news story.
However, the major networks have remained completely silent on this disturbing trend of Obama supporters threatening to resort to violence if their candidate fails to secure a second term.
And Joe Newby of examiner.com was also dismayed that the national media has been silent regarding the online threats made against Romney.
The closest this story has gotten to mainstream media coverage is an article on MSN.com, a subsidiary of MSNBC, which is entitled: "Twitter idiots make chilling death threats against Romney."
Interestingly, the limited coverage regarding the threats against Romney doesn't compare to the reporting done when Obama was running for president back in 2008.
Because of fear that white supremacist or other racist groups might attack the African-American candidate, Secret Service protection was assigned at the very beginning of his campaign in 2007, when he was still the junior Senator from Illinois.
That fear ended up having a basis in fact. Jerry Blanchard, an accountant from Charlotte, North Carolina, was indicted for threatening to kill Obama during a July 15, 2008, breakfast at a local Waffle House restaurant.
Two customers contacted the Secret Service, and agents questioned Blanchard, who denied making the threats but said he believed that Obama was the "Antichrist" prophesied in the Bible.
On August 27, 2008, Nicholas Riccardi of the Los Angeles Times reported:
Federal authorities Tuesday downplayed what they said were threats made by a pair of men arrested here over the weekend processing rifles, super scopes and an alleged desire to kill Barack Obama.
The story was also covered by the New York Times that day under the headline "Officials See No 'Credible Threat' to Obama in Racist Rants" and the New York Post claimed the would-be assassins had "a seething hatred of Barack Obama."
It's not difficult to see that the threats against Obama in 2008 were taken seriously and reported in several "mainstream" news outlets, but the same people who breathlessly condemned those "assassins" are not concerned that a presidential candidate can be threated with murder by thousands of people online.
Finally, John Nolte of the Breitbart website has claimed that the "corrupt media" is ignoring the Romney death threats for two reasons.
"First off, they just don't care about death threats against Republicans," he said. "What you have there is a sort of depraved indifference.
"Secondly, reporting on death threats against Romney will make him a sympathetic character, and three weeks from an election, there's no way in the world the media will allow that to happen," Nolte concluded.
It's important to take into consideration the fact that the threats are being made by people of all races who make up a fairly small proportion of the people in this country. On the other hand, these comments are real and not fakes, which says something unflattering about Obama supporters who may find a Secret Service agent knocking on their door sometime soon.
