With this attempted shooting, we are in an unfamiliar political landscape. Only once before, on October 14, 1912, have we had an attempt to assassinate a presidential candidate this close to an election (Abraham Lincoln narrowly avoided a sniper’s bullet in 1864). In that incident, former president Theodore Roosevelt faced an older version of the indigenous American berserk when an assassin, motivated by a dream in which William McKinley commanded him to kill the Progressive Party nominee, shot him in the chest.
Guian McKee
