to project great expectations onto a clean slate.

Obama beat Alan Keyes, for chrissake.  Obama could just as easily be another Jimmy Carter: great guy, smart guy, not very effective.

And speculating about whether or not a candidate is more or less assassinatable is like speculating about whether dogs have souls.  Talking about it has no effect on anything.

I hear you and your concerns.  They just seem to me to be beside the point.