One of the things that amazed me in the John Adams series on HBO was that, as president, he walked down the street in DC talking to one of his friends as they walked. Nobody even knew who he was.
My how things have changed.
Just look at the Pope. It happens, people are nuts and want to kill you.
But I don’t think any President is happy that he has to be followed by 1000 armed officers and not be able to go somewhere unannounced. I also don’t think that the Secret Service is political, or that a President tells them ‘bring 300 extra people.’ Hell, if this article is correct they wanted to replaced 700+ windows during Bush’s 2003 visit.