Can the ‘black Jesus’ escape an assassin’s bullet?

Excluding the sneaking suspicion that the American electorate has collectively lied to the opinion pollsters for fear of appearing to be racists, it seems that only one thing can now prevent Barack Obama’s date with destiny: an assassin’s bullet.

This might sound alarmist, but drive past Obama’s £1 million mansion in the affluent Chicago suburb of Hyde Park – one of the few mixed neighbourhoods in a city still shockingly segregated four decades after Martin Luther King based his civil rights crusade here – and you realise how seriously the threat is taken.

To the anger of his neighbours, who can no longer park in their own driveways without being subjected to airport-style vetting, the house is protected night and day by a dozen armed officers with ‘Secret Service’ emblazoned on their bulletproof vests.

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The road, off-limits to all but local residents, is blocked by huge concrete slabs which detract from the eye-catching display of pumpkins that Obama’s wife Michelle and two young daughters have laid around their front gate for Halloween.

Is an audacious attack really expected? Given that Obama has an unprecedented level of protection for a Presidential candidate, it is clear the authorities believe his life is in danger.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Since Obama entered the race, 500 death threats have been intercepted, and though many have been almost laughably half-baked, about a dozen were sufficiently serious for the suspects to be traced and questioned.

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