Critical decisions after 9/11 led to slow, steady decline in quality for Secret Service

[JDDavis]

2. Good question, Ryan Fitzsomething!

Basically, everything the federal government does declined in effectiveness under Bush/Cheney.

I also think the demands on the Secret Service increased with Obama campaigning and being elected.

Compared to Bush, Obama makes almost weeklypublic appearances somewhere, and often more than one in a week with large crowds. Contrasted to Bush and Cheney, it's not that hard to provide security to a president who spends 7-10 weeks a year hidden away in rural Texas, or Cheney in an "undisclosed location", hunting.

Add to that, the prolific number of Republican primary candidates who expect to be covered, at least a dozen last time around. Then we have the universal availability of email to virtually any nut out there who wants send an email to threaten Obama.

And now Congress is holding up more funding for the agency? Good luck seeing an expansion of funding during the next 2 years with Republicans controlling both houses.