St Thomas o' Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury had been reluctant to take the job ... "On being offered the post, Beckett wrote to Henry that "our friendship will turn to hate". ... (years later) ... Henry(II) was furious when he found out what Beckett had done (invoked the Pope's authority over his). He is said to have shouted out "will no-one rid me of this troublesome priest ?" Four knights heard what Henry had said and took it to mean that the king wanted Beckett dead."

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My mother, who ran a small all day private school, stopped home schooling me when I was eight years old. By then she had already imparted to me some sense of the importance of "just words," and the dangers of intemperate speech. By then, never having yet set foot in America, I also already knew who John Wilkes Booth was.

It was only much later that I came to understand the two distinct notions that motivate the unique crime of political assassination. The criminal mind want's to have some hold, material or psychological, over the person for whom they have done a favor, maybe unasked but no one would believe that. The demented, either want the same, or to force their delusional megalomania upon the awareness of the whole world, which has ignored them ever since they gave up the infantile delusion of being the center of the universe.

These are the kinds of people who constitute a nightmare for everyone in public life, from Olympic figure skaters to mom and pop store operators who receive offers to put the competition down the block out of business. We don't need the Columbine or Virginia Tech massacre to remind us of the thousands if not hundreds of thousands of tortured souls out there who have long since lost all sense of right or wrong in their confused minds.

Ideas are funny things and of course some acts can be committed even in the course of denying or apologizing for them. Isaiah Washington's public denial of calling his co-star a faggot did more to get him fired than the purported original act. Every trial lawyer knows the strategy. "I'm sorry that slipped out, your honor, and I ask the jury to ignore my last remark." The Clintons have played that card over and over again.

The dread thought is that the damage may be already done. Indeed the power of suggestion wielded by leaders in high places is such that it can even originate notions in the minds of the impressionable that they would never have entertained otherwise. If there is one talent a presidential candidate needs to have, it is the ability to appreciate the power of suggestion and a leader's ability to inspire and invoke the best, and the worst, that lies or lurks in the hearts of man. (Having a daddy or spouse as a former president seems to have somehow by-passed that qualification.)

Should Senator Obama be forced out of the race, there is only one condition that would absolutely prohibit me from voting for Senator Clinton in the upcoming election, even had I the intention of voting for her in the first place. That condition would be if Senator Obama had been assassinated. Surely the Senator should have known that!