One would have thought that the president’s public lot would have been greatly eased by a public sympathy for the pain of the events of the previous days but this was not to be.  The first blast came from the TV news.  They came close to blaming the president’s policies for creating the environment that brought the attack.  They came close to blaming him for his family’s plight.  The liberal press was more virulent than the conservative talk show hosts.  He cringed as he watched.  He would have expected Hannity, Limbaugh and Regan to hammer him.  They didn’t.  They were actually sympathetic.  His so called friends on the left were devastating placing all of the blame on him, none on the man who carried out the attack.  Hannity blasted his policies but was very specific that they were not a valid reason for an attack.  He wondered if his wife and daughters would believe this if they saw it.  What if they believed he was somehow responsible?  Could he convince himself it was not the case?  Would he hate himself for what had happened?

The second attack was directed at Sandra.  The National Daily speculated that the reason she was not hurt was because the attacker knew she was a lesbian and he spared her.  The respopnsible conservative talk shows avoided it but others picked up on this and it became the fodder for the day for several of the less responsible wannabees who had were trying to outdo Rush, Beck and Hannity.  It was interesting that both the left and right could agree on something if it was destructive.  There was even a veiled question that she might even be involved in the shooting or had helped him.  After all, how could a lightly armed and untrained man defeat the most stringent protection and shoot the president’s family without inside help?  The paper reported that she was living with a known lesbian during the time she was working at a 911 center in Pennsylvania.  This hit the press and the stories implied that she should be removed from guarding the president along with anyone else in the secret service that was gay.  They were too big a risk to have at the president’s side.  After all, it was obvious; gays could not be trusted.  The media that had just a few days before been almost totally pro-gay performed an overnight one hundred eighty-degree-turn.  One of the gays had struck at their sacred liberal leader.  At this time there was a shortage of agents, with injuries and the task of guarding the first family at the hospital.  Sandra and some of the other agents guarding the president’s family were actually living in a room at the hospital rather than going home so they could get more sleep time.  This was necessary to keep enough people available.  She read the article and went straight to the SAC at Walter Reed.  She thanked him for his confidence and offered to resign for the good of the force.  She quickly learned that the president had given orders that any attempt to resign by any agent because of the reports was to be denied and he was to be informed immediately and personally of their request.  Within an hour Sandra was called to the phone.  The president was on the other end of the line.  “You can resign if you like and I probably wouldn’t blame you with what you have been through but before you do I’m going to personally ask you to stay on.  Call this a vote of confidence, whatever, I don’t care if you are gay or not.  I know how much you mean to Jaci.  I have confidence in you, your ability and your integrity and that is more important to me than anything else.  I’m sure you did your best to protect the gals, and they know it.  There is no lack of confidence there.  Nobody else matters.”