(Samantha Appleton – The White House)
The couple, who were desperately trying to get on a reality television show the Real Housewives of D.C., were in fact, what Maureen Dowd of the New York Times called, “trompe l’oeil Virginia horse-country socialites: a faux Redskins cheerleader and a faux successful businessman.” Although they were not on the invited guestlist, the Secret Service just waved them in, because they were reassured by the couple’s confidant manner and insistence that they were invited as well as the pressure of keeping the lines moving on that fateful rainy evening. They weren’t suspicious of the camera crew the couple tried to bring along.
From this writer at least, the Salahis won kudos for this daring, insulting yet funny episode. If I may be personal and ineloquent for a moment, I worried for his safety last year when Barack Obama was running for election–he was a politician with charisma of John Kennedy and Martin Luther King who aroused polarizing feelings among the public. Then, he was elected and I said, ‘ok, now he is at least under some Secret Service protection’. Then this happened. But it was better that the breach was done by fame-seeking 15-minuters than by some scimitar-weaving Sirhan Sirhan.
Iconic Photos 
Dude, Sirhan (a Palestinian “activist”) was indistinguishable from the Salahi’s (he was on the board of a Palestinian “activist charity”). Or vice versa if you want to say it that way.
You shouldn’t feel better – the president was put at serious risk.
-XC
Obama was under Secret Service protection for months and months before the election.
Kudos for these disgustingly ugly attention whores who would flaunt decency for 3 minutes of infamy? They are the worst of American stereotypes that should be relegated to the rubbish bin of history. To hear them whine about how upset they’ve become over this shows how stupid and self-centered they are. It makes me want to throttle both.
Just so you know, presidential candidates started receiving Secret Service protection after the Robert Kennedy assassination in 1968. I know Obama had Secret Service protection from at least the end of 2007 when I saw him at an event at Georgia Tech.