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AP, “Obama Has More Threats Than Other Presidents-Elect” (15 Nov ’08):

[I]n a Maine convenience store, an Associated Press reporter saw a sign inviting customers to join a betting pool on when Obama might fall victim to an assassin. The sign solicited $1 entries into “The Osama Obama Shotgun Pool,” saying the money would go to the person picking the date closest to when Obama was attacked. “Let’s hope we have a winner,” said the sign, since taken down.

Odds are very good indeed that the author of this sign was inspired by Jim Bell. Will the Feds come down as hard on the sign’s author as they did on Bell? Or have they developed some sort of sense of humor in the decade since? Either way, an enterprising Secret Service investigator might have a chat with AP writer Jerry Harkavy in Standish, Maine, “who contributed to this report,” to see if he snapped a pic of the sign. Harkavy might not like it, but a sign on public display is hardly a confidential source.

See also: “Assassination media.”