Our Man In Ohio #2: Looking Secure

Oddly, when speaking at the high school, Obama wanted to know how many more questions he would take. Then he called out, “Where’s Reggie? Where’s the tall one? They are usually after me to close off!”
First time I’ve heard him refer to what I assume is one of the security detail. He’d already had to call for the school’s AV man, as they didn’t have a working mike for the audience at the start of the questions.
I love it when there’s a pause that allows him to break out into his smile. He teased a couple of the young men in the high school when their question could be taken the wrong way, and to soften the tease, assured the student he was only “messin’ with him.” This, too, allowed him to turn and smile at everyone.

hi nina! although i’ve seen black, asian, latino and women secret service agents here and there, it’s safe to say that by and large the visible secret service remains a mostly white male bastion, but part of this perception on my part may be that they really, really look like “white guys in dark suits,” the archetypical “men in black” or “G-men” of bad sixties movies and conspiracy theorists. But hey, the stereotypes are based in reality — it’s just that with the secret service it might be more noticeable — because none of them, while on this duty, at least, will go so far as to wear a lighter color jacket or a more flamboyant tie. One hopes that the truly undercover agents, who we don’t know who they are, reflect the greater diversity of the population as a whole.

In light of Benazir Bhutto’s recent assassination, it’s hard not to think about that sometimes while covering political leaders. In my career, I photographed Zoran Djindjic (later Prime Minister of Serbia), Željko Ražnatović (known as Arkan, the war criminal), Ahmad Shah Massoud of Afghanistan, Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Sayed Mohamad Baqir Al-Hakim — all of whom were later assassinated — and right at home in New York, City Councilman James Davis whose portrait I had done for the NYT was later killed inside City Hall by a disgruntled constituent.
Extreme violence is a fact of political life, and a reminder that all of that security is there for a reason, annoying though it may be in the normal course of things. In Obama’s case, with public speculation and concern for his safety, the highly visible Secret Service, and the awful spectre of 1968, it is sobering to remember that with great passion and promise may also be great risk. Nobody worries about the security of Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich, because we know they weren’t going to win.