Lost in the fervor over the Colin Powell endorsement on MTP Sunday, was a story that seemed to be on the front pages of political sites I frequent, the story of Michael Signator. The so-called "mystery man". (I didnt realize he was in that movie). Follow me below on why, as an African American male, I think Mr. Signator is important.
The story on Politico says
Technically, Signator's job is to provide "supplemental security support" for Obama's presidential campaign and also to coordinate the Obama family's personal and campaign schedules
and it offers a little background on the genesis of the Obama/Sigantor relationship
A police officer in a suburban Chicago town, Signator met Obama while volunteering for his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign, which eventually hired him as Obama's driver.
Now of course, the media has to feed the beast so they scour the campaign groupies (i.e., campaign-embeded reporters) to find out "who is Michael Signator?"
Pool reports have characterized Signator as, among other things, a "friend," a "longtime aide" and a "former bodyman."
Im running with the idea that Signator's ONLY job in this campaign is to supplement the security provided by the US Gov't by the Secret Service protection he recieves. This job was necessary at the start of the presidential campaign, post-Obama nomination. It has become increasingly more necessary given the hate-spewed rallies of Unstable/Unable and the rhetoric spewed by its attendees from the "Pro-America" parts of the country.
Kill Him, Terrorist, Socialist. Thats the moderate stuff. Not to mention this, this, or this.
We've already heard the Secret Service is willing to go against protocol and basically not do their job, when it comes to following up with an investigation. Even though, the video has been played ad nauseum for 2 weeks, the Secret Service claims that its "unfounded". I didnt know audible claims of wanting to kill the man who most likely will be the next president are not high on the to-do list for the Secret Service. Maybe if that screamer wouldve hacked Obama's email at the same time, they wouldve looked into it.
I, like most African American males, grew up thinking could we have an african american in the white house? As I have grown and witnessed this election, the questin has evolved to, "will America ELECT an African American president?" Im happy to say it looks that way, but I fear given the sheer hatred, contempt, fearmongering, and in some cases, racism, some folks cannot and will not accept an African American leading the nation, no matter how many people of their own race vote for him.
So does Obama need Signator, youre damn right!!! The Secret Service has shown, at least now, that its willing to put party over the man with the non-investigation of the rally screamers. Can they be trusted? Maybe, but failing your first test doesnt show much promise. Can we really say, with certainty, that one of these people wont act upon these claims of Kill him and terrorist if Obama does win? Not with these McPalin crazies running lose clinging to their religion and guns. And if elected you can bet, given the tone of the rallies getting into the McCarthy zone, some of those guns might be pointed at Obama. Obama is clearly taking no chances.
So I say if Obama needs a bodyman, supplemental security, whatever. Given the environment borne out of the final weeks of the McCain campaign and McCain's supporters, I say he'd be stupid not to. IMHO, he needs to call the guy who hooked up Saddam with body doubles and supersize that order because given the hate that is going to come out of the "Real America" following this election season, the chances of something awful like this happening is increasing every day with each dropping of "Real America" or "socialist" spoken by Palin at a rally stop.