Secret Service bolsters protection plan

(NBC) - Protecting the president is a job done by the Secret Service for more than 100 years, and this year, with America's first black president set to take office, the agency could be facing its most difficult challenge.

President-Elect Barack Obama 's inauguration will be a historic one for the country. It also likely will be the most difficult task ever for the men and women who protect the nation's next president.

"President-Elect Obama has had more threats against him than any other president-elect in history," said safety expert Clint Van Zandt.

The Secret Service is an agency that has guarded the American president for over 100 years, and its members' job is to blend into the crowd, keep watch and, if necessary, protect the commander in chief with their lives.

"You're trying to read body language on a thousand faces simultaneously [to] which face is saying, 'I'm the man. I'm here to hurt him,'" said Zandt.

Agents train at the secluded Secret Service Academy, 25 miles northeast of the White House. The regimen is intense and realistic, training that is needed to protect the most powerful politician in the world.

"It's really an enormous job," said former Secret Service agent Bill Pickle.

Pickle was a Secret Service agent for 26 years and ran Al Gore's detail during the 2000 campaign. Pickle said agents know the next four-to-eight years will be a challenge.

"The fact that this is a very historic election is not lost on the Secret Service," said Pickle. "We have our first black president. It's an exciting time."

It is exciting and potentially dangerous. Though Obama's ethnicity helped inspire voters during the campaign, the law enforcement community fears it could draw people who are not ready to see a black man in the White House. With the addition of a struggling economy and differing opinions on America's wars, it does not make things easier either.

"All these things kind of form a catalyst for people who are intent on creating mischief to do mischief," said Pickle.

Experts said the president-elect will have at least one advantage when he steps into the White House in January- he has already established a relationship with the Secret Service after months on the campaign trail.

"I understand from talking to the agents and the folks over at the Secret Service now that the President-Elect Obama is just great," said Pickle. "He understands the dangers. He understands what he's getting into."

For obvious reasons, the Secret Service will not say what specific measures will be taken to protect the Obama family. The president-elect's new limousine delivered to the Secret Service this week offers a glimpse.

It features heavy armor that is at least 5 inches thick, bulletproof glass, tires that will run even on flat and a completely-sealed interior to ward off a chemical attack. This is just one indication that agents know this detail will be different, and it is another aspect of change ushered in by the nation's 44th president.

According to sources, the Secret Service will likely be increasing the number of agents assigned to protect the incoming president.