Secret Service team assigned to Obama

WASHINGTON — Although Sen. Barack Obama has been drawing enormous crowds and intense attention during his presidential campaign, friends say he has resisted the idea of a U.S. Secret Service detail for fear it would limit what has been a great part of his appeal: his ability to make a close connection with voters.

But those reservations gave way to security concerns on Thursday, when the Secret Service assigned a team to the Illinois Democrat — the earliest point in a campaign cycle at which the agency has ever taken responsibility for a candidate not already under its protection as an office holder.

Several congressional sources familiar with the situation say that there was no one specific event or threat that triggered the decision, but that a bipartisan panel of congressional leaders reviewed threats to Obama on Web sites and in letters before recommending special protection.

Obama declined to talk about the federal agents who accompanied him and who were posted outside his Hyde Park, Ill., home, a development that came after friends and colleagues expressed worry about his safety.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the colleague whose concerns set the Secret Service detail in motion, said he thinks the protection is a good idea and that Obama will "learn how to live with the limits" imposed by the presence of agents.

"I love this guy, and I never want to see anything happen to him," Durbin said of Obama. "He's making a great sacrifice for his country. Doing our best to guarantee his safety is the least we can do."

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, one of Obama's rivals for the Democratic nomination, has a Secret Service detail that is provided to all former first ladies.