Secret Service and other authorities said they were treating the plot very seriously , but acknowledged it did not appear to have moved to an advanced stage . Authorities said there did not appear to be any formal assassination plan and said they were unable to immediately assess how capable the men were of carrying out the attack . Federal authorities told the Associated Press they did not believe Schlesselman and Cowart had the means to carry out their threat . Barack Obama did not have any campaign appearances planned for Tennessee . One federal law enforcement official told the AP that plans did not include Obama 's schedule or a specific time and place for the assassination because , " I do n't think they had that level of detail . " Authorities said they made several mistakes during their planning , including drawing too much attention to themselves with their car markings . Authorities also felt their inability to carry out a home robbery together indicated they would be unable to carry out a sophisticated assassination plot . When asked whether the alleged threats were real , Daniel Cowart 's lawyer , Joe H. Byrd , told reporters , " White top hats and tuxedos ? You tell me . " Fred Fielder , police chief in Helena – West Helena , Arkansas , said the alleged plot in Tennessee particularly concerned him due to the fact that 66 percent of the city 's 12,200 population are African American ; he said to reporters , " Predominantly black school , take your pick . " Mark Potok , director of the Southern Poverty Law Center , described the plans and weapons arsenal as frightening , but said , " With the part about wearing top hats ... it gets a bit hard to take them seriously . " Nevertheless , Potok said " the reality is , they might have walked into a black high school and killed 20 , 30 , 40 people before anybody knew who they were " . An editorial in '' The Daily News Journal '' in Murfreesboro , Tennessee , said the plot emphasized a dark undercurrent of racism still alive in the United States , but said their chances of actually killing Obama were " almost nil . Their plot was so disorganized they appear to be candidates for ' dumb criminals ' , not calculating assassins . " Despite initial concerns about the plot , the Obama campaign was not immediately notified of the alleged plot ; an Obama aide told ABC News , " They were given no heads up . " Concerns were already strong about possible plots against Obama due to his status as the first African American presidential nominee for a major political party . The senator had been receiving Secret Service protection since May 2007 , which was the earliest for any candidate , and authorities had already foiled an alleged assassination plot at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver , Colorado
2008 Democratic National Convention
2008 Democratic National Convention
Barack Obama assassination plot in Tennessee