Wondering who might be behind the non-public registration, Glenn Reynolds links a site which asks a very disturbing but mis-phrased question:

Is it true that the Left will kill Obama?

The buzz all over the 'net is that if it looks like the Republican challenger is going to win in 2012, the Left will make it like some racist white guy kills Obama. Or towards the end of a second term.

People say that Obama is no good to the Left as a normal ex-president; that they would get a lot more emotional/political leverage out of him by having it like some "racist supremacist white guy" or "anti abortion christian" kills him.

The question "Is it true that the Left will kill Obama?" cannot be answered as it is phrased. Whether something that has not happened will happen cannot be answered as true, because it has not happened. Nor can it be a matter of opinion -- not matter how inflammatory the subject matter. To illustrate, try asking yourself the ridiculous question, "Is it true that it will snow in Chicago on Christmas Day?"

So my first reaction is to wonder whether there's an inconsistency between having the smarts to set up an anonymous web site while being unable to see (or later correct) a major logical error in the basic premise of the site.

At the bottom, there's a poll:

YES, it makes sense that the left would kill Obama to get political leverage. 90.2%

NO, politicians aren't that soulless and calculating. 9.8%

Moreover, the poll has not changed, and looking at the source code for the pages, I see no evidence of a counter, or any meter of Java script that might record visits to the results pages for "YES" and "NO" votes (both of which look like the same page). I'm not knowledgeable enough to declare it a fraud, but I think it might be possible that no records of votes are being kept, and that this is not a poll at all.

Hell, it's not as if someone couldn't set up a real poll. It's as easy as 1,2,3. For example, here's a poll on the legitimacy of the above poll which I just set up:

Note that the poll does not determine the legitimacy of the poll. It cannot. It only counts the responses of whoever clicks on the answers. Not even a scientific opinion poll could determine whether the other poll is legitimate. Polls cannot determine what is true; they can only request opinions.

Another problem is that even people's opinions are always affected by confirmation bias:

Confirmation bias (or myside bias[1]) is an irrational tendency to search for, interpret or remember information in a way that confirms preconceptions or working hypotheses. It is a type of cognitive bias and a systematic error of inductive reasoning. This bias in information processing is different from the behavioral confirmation effect (also called self-fulfilling prophecy), in which people's expectations influence their own behavior.

So, I think that the purpose of the "Is it true that the Left will kill Obama?" website is to promote among conservatives the idea that if Obama is killed, "the Left" will have been behind it.

The biggest problem I see with that is the way it tends to set up conservatives to start pointing fingers before an event has happened, when it might never happen. This is not to discount the awful, horrible possibility of it happening, and I pray that it never does, because short of a nuclear attack, an assassination of President Obama would be the worst thing that could happen to this country right now.

I hope whoever created the website is acting alone, OK?

I think the most important thing to avoid is the notion of collective guilt. There are innumerable nuts running around with all kinds of grievances, real or imaginary, and any one of them could go off and try to do something dramatic. Absent a proven conspiracy, such an action should not reflect on anyone else, much less "the left" or "the right." Collective guilt is irrational and (I believe) profoundly evil, and it is the sort of thing that can lead to civil war.

We don't need another one. That is why I am against revolution, for (as I said earlier in an email to M. Simon) I think a revolution would would not be a revolution, but would become bloody civil war, resulting in the victory of totalitarianism. Many people would die in the process.

It does no more good for "the right" to be blaming "the left" than vice versa. I say this now, and I would say it in the horrible event of an assassination.

What I think is also important to remember is that blaming "the right" might not be an entirely effective strategy even for those evil, soulless, and calculating politicians on "the left," because "the left" is no more monolithic than "the right." Don't forget, many on the left already think that it's a foregone conclusion and a no-brainer that "the right" is actively plotting to assassinate the president.

But -- and this is an important but -- they also think that assassinations do not occur unless they are allowed to occur. In that respect, I found an interesting post by a Bush-hating leftie who of course assumes that only "the right" would kill Obama. The way he pleads with everyone not to let the assassination happen reminded me that regardless of the political proclivities (real, fake, or alleged) of whatever nutcase might pull the trigger, an assassination would inevitably be seen -- especially by Obama's supporters -- as having been the product of official acquiescence, if not outright assistance:

Normally, when any President is assassinated, the nation goes into a state of shock followed by a deep mourning period depending on his popularity. If President Obama is assassinated, once the shock wears off, instead of a deep mourning of a President, Black America is likely to rise-up and uncontrolled rioting is apt to break-out in cities across the nation. Even though President Obama hasn't lived up to his campaign promises, he is still a symbol to Black America that "The American Dream" is alive and well - and is a symbol of black pride throughout the United States.

I would advise those who harbor such thoughts that assassinating President Obama would bring consequences to this nation that would make the Watt's riots seem like a walk in the park. Some of our major cities which have large black populations would be devastated with rioting and property damage that would reach billions of dollars, and any economic recovery that we're all hoping for would vanish, replaced by death and destruction on a magnitude never before witnessed in the United States. There's no doubt in my mind that such a despicable act would result in a declaration of Martial Law, further diminishing the civil rights of a nation that each day, loses more of our liberties and freedom.

To President Obama, it may be time to begin ratcheting-up your personal security - maybe even to the level that President Bush had in place. It's becoming obvious that racial hatred and bigotry is still alive and well in this nation, and sadly, those within the GOP are playing the race card to inflame their base;with as much talk that's going around about assassinating President Obama, if it continues, I have no doubt that some nutcase will consider himself a patriot for ridding America of a black President - and at all costs, that's a scenario that must be stopped before it gains much more momentum. There are people in this nation whose racial hatred was ingrained in them since childhood, and undoubtedly consider Obama's Presidency to be the beginning of the end of their principles and beliefs.

The fuse is already lit; it's tantamount to our survival as a nation that President Obama receive the same amount of security and protection that previous Presidents have enjoyed. If Obama is assassinated, then it was orchestrated and planned at the highest levels - just as was the case of JFK, only this time, we won't be fooled, and know that a breach in security was allowed to facilitate such a dastardly deed - and believe me, if such a despicable act is allowed to happen with current security technology - and the Secret Service aware of the clear and present danger to his life, the fallout from such an act will irreparably scar this nation and it may be one that will forever doom us to a loss of our liberty and freedom - and make the Bush years a welcome respite to what would befall our nation for decades to come."

That's why I don't think promoting anticipatory conspiracy theories is a good idea.

Collective guilt is bad enough, but does it have to be imposed for something that hasn't even happened?