Nobel Winner: Obama Will Be Assassinated If He Wins

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - If Barack Obama becomes the next US president he will surely be assassinated, British Nobel literature laureate Doris Lessing predicted in a newspaper interview published here Saturday.

Obama, who is vying to become the first black president in US history, "would certainly not last long, a black man in the position of president. They would murder him," Lessing, 88, told the Dagens Nyheter daily.

Lessing, who won the 2007 Nobel Literature Prize, said it might be better if Obama's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton were to succeed in her bid to become the first woman president of the United States.

"The best thing would be if they (Clinton and Obama) were to run together. Hillary is a very sharp lady. It might be calmer if she were to win, and not Obama," she said.

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Comments

[FlowerGirl]

04:48 PM on 02/15/2008

I will vote for the person I believe to be best qualified to lead our nation out of the slough of despondency which our politics as usual has put us in. If he is brave enough to risk the fate Lessing sees for him, that doesn't disqualify him for me.

It should also be noted that any American president must have deadly enemies. And after Bush, anything like the same old stuff will attract more animosity. But Obama is not the same old same old. So maybe he won't attract any more than usual.

Despair is for weaklings.

[AceInTheHole]

07:38 PM on 02/15/2008

The fact that Ms. Lessing's outlook and obsevation, maybe influenced by the fact that she was raised in racist Rhodesia and the fact that senility is not uncommon in people her age. These two factors along with America's pinchant for producing maniacal racist and haters of justice and goodness, may account for some her paranoia, and maybe, justifiably so. But I hope that her observation is not proven to be prescient.

[HARMONIAMUNDI]

12:30 AM on 02/16/2008

Barack has expressed empathy for the suffering of the Palestinian people. This comment alone will qualify Barack for becoming a target of a Mossad assassination, likely BEFORE the Democratic convention is held. Of course, any assasination attempt by Mossad will have to be a "false flag" operation- such as a suicide bombing. On the democratic side, Hillary is Israel's darling, and, on the Republican side, McCain is "too good to be true." Truly a sad thought that our alleged ally (the ally that tried to sink the USS Liberty in 1967 killing 34 sailors, and the alleged ally that irrefutably had full foreknowledge of the 9-11 attack ["our purpose was to document the event"] continues to sabotage our nation at every opportunity.
I pray that Barack is wearing a state of the art bullet proof vest. And I pray that the Secret Service will be on highest alert every nano-second of the campaign.

[pmandelstein]

04:12 PM on 02/15/2008

This fellow is either racist or wishing for the worst to come out in people. Of course this issue has cross most of our minds as a possible outcome, but give peace a chance. He should be ashamed.

[KARE]

11:00 PM on 02/15/2008

Ms Lessings predictions are based on a non-american view of us. Lets hope she is wrong.

[ommyth]

03:19 PM on 02/15/2008

Ms. Lessing's instincts were tempered in the crucible of a time long past. She came of age in the late 1930s, an era not particularly renown for tolerance of any sort. Her literary works are deserved of praise, but her dire prognostication regarding Senator Obama is worthy only of our opprobrium.

[BC33]

03:00 PM on 02/15/2008

I think that would be the end of everything I believe if this happens. That would totally disillusion me forever. But I have to admit, I can see some racist hick capable of it. UGH!

[Tomswift59]

01:35 PM on 02/15/2008

Inflammatory remark. Call the Secret Service...

[thatvisionthing]

02:01 AM on 02/15/2008

As opposed to Irish Nobel Peace Prize Winner Betty Williams, who told an audience of schoolchildren in 2006 that she wanted to kill George Bush:

"I have a very hard time with this word ‘non-violence’, because I don’t believe that I am non-violent," said Ms Williams, 64.

"Right now, I would love to kill George Bush." Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.

"I don’t know how I ever got a Nobel Peace Prize, because when I see children die the anger in me is just beyond belief. It’s our duty as human beings, whatever age we are, to become the protectors of human life."

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/nobel-peace-prize-winner-wants-to-kill-president-bush

God bless her.

[InTheRiver]

09:44 PM on 02/14/2008

When he becomes the POTUS he will be able to keep the right wing nutjobs away like Team Bush/Cheney have kept the left wing nutjobs away. We should be confident that his handlers have learned from the right wing murder spree of 1960's. Our country hopefully has learned that killing our leaders will only serve to strengthen the enemies of this country assuming the enemies are foreign. What a great time to be alive to be able to have this dialogue in the open.

[kristin]

05:13 PM on 02/14/2008

As a 70 tear old, retired high school English teacher, I have long admired Doris Lessing. However, if I were 88, I hope someone would tell me that the comment I was about to make was irresponsible and uncalled for, would sound as if I were trying to inflame the situation and that just maybe my judgment at 88 was not what it used to be. Further, I would hope that the media would refuse to publish such an irresponsible comment, whether my age or something else was causing me to make such a comment. What a terrible last tarnishment of her legacy this may turn out to be.

Some of the comments I have read here confirm that Lessing and the media have CREATED a situation akin to crying fire in a crowded theater--totally irresponsible.

[NoRepresentation]

04:50 PM on 02/14/2008

If you want to see a riot that makes the 90's LA riots look good in comparison shoot him. If anyone were to kill this man first they would send Jim-Bob back into his trailer with bullets flying right behind him. If someone kills Obama I WILL BE A PART OF THE AFTERMATH. I will be a part of the carnage that will ensue. I will not let those who think they are in control, think such things any longer.

[insurersnightmare]

05:28 PM on 02/14/2008

Here's a little known fact that many here and elsewhere are missing: Check out your homeowner's or commerical insurance policies. Damage done by "civil unrest" (riot, looting, etc...) is NOT covered. We will all be on our own and without property and casualty coverage if Lessing is correct and the unthinkable happens. You can bet rioters would burn down homes and businesses, across the country, if such a horrible thing was to happen.

[belladawna]

05:54 PM on 02/14/2008

oh my god!! i'm having a flashback to what i said in a different post on rodney king riots and this exact theme!!! i hope it's these two together with hillary as presidential nominee.... i like obama a lot but it would be a better choice all the way around...

[Mark701]

03:27 PM on 02/14/2008

You know, I hate to admit this but I was thinking the same thing. Obama is a huge threat to alot of people but specifically southern whites and their evangelical offshoots. Worse, he's a threat to corporate power structure and the whole status quo. I pray to God nothing happens to him but fear for him

[morticia]

03:23 PM on 02/16/2008

Get A Grip! this is Trash!!it`s 2008 people.
it`s time to get evolved.

[KarenZipdrive]

03:16 PM on 02/14/2008

I think Doris Lessing was right on the money with her assessment.
While Bush has been an arrogant, deceitful, obnoxious liar as president, the types of maniacs who would attempt to assassinate a president probably voted for this monster.
I think both Obama as a black man and Hillary as a woman if elected will eventually find themselves in the crosshairs of an assault rifle that Bush & his cronies made legal for him to purchase.

[bigdaddyvike]

04:22 PM on 02/14/2008

From a British old woman. If Bush hasn't got it yet, Obama's got nothing to worry about. Period.

[kristin]

05:21 PM on 02/14/2008

As a 70 tear old, retired high school English teacher, I have long admired Doris Lessing. However, if I were 88, I hope someone would tell me that the comment I was about to make was irresponsible and uncalled for, would sound as if I were trying to inflame the situation and that just maybe my judgment at 88 was not what it used to be. Further, I would hope that the media would refuse to publish such an irresponsible comment, whether my age or something else was causing me to make such a comment. What a terrible last tarnishment of her legacy this may trun out to be. What a terrible indictment on the media for publishing her comment.

Only too many of the comments published here confirm my assessment that her statement was the irresponsible equivelent of crying fire in a crowded theater. Apparently, the media think only of making news, not reporting it responsibly, by publishing her comment.

[GhostofBillHicks]

03:07 PM on 02/14/2008

I was talking to my brother the other day about this very thing.
I could see someone assassinating Obama,it would be blamed on "white supremacist" like the ones that live out in the northwest.
You know "domestic terrorist".Then the government would have another excuse to clamp-down on more of our freedoms.
Hey,its not PARINOIA!! If you have'nt noticed in the last 7 years that ANYTHING is possible now.

[CalliDem]

02:02 PM on 02/14/2008

It is my fear that it could happen to either of them... terrifying that we live in a country that could bring this type of threat to the first African American OR woman president. While males have ruled this country for almost 350 years. They will not give up their power easily.

Sorry .. just reality

[johnnyjust]

01:32 PM on 02/14/2008

Barry/Hillary? Who'd carry the bags?

[ltfcrazy]

11:43 AM on 02/14/2008

Unbelievable that someone with those credentials would say that. I have thought about it as I'm sure most people have. Whether he's black or white he wants to CHANGE things. Change always draws fire, being black would just give the agents of intolerance a good smokescreen. At any rate a Nobel prize winner should not be putting that thought into the air. It's got enough traction without her help.

[jungfookid]

05:28 PM on 02/14/2008

I disagree. I think barack or hillary getting shot would be motivated predominantly by their non-male whiteness. Lots of candidates have been for change in politics. None of them were black or women.

[KARE]

11:05 PM on 02/15/2008

Whats up with the CHANGE usage, I thought you had all gotten over that. The only change is his ethnicity, politics will plunder on according to the constitution. He's a politition not a genie, if he could have made change he would have allready in the Senate.
At any rate, I hope the author is wrong.