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Lessons for Obama in Adrian Fenty's Defeat
If one thing is clear this election season, it’s that voters — black, white or otherwise — won’t hesitate to call out the “arrogance” of their African-American elected officials when they see it. The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd reported this week that her Republican sister isn’t really unhappy with what President Barack Obama has…
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How Obama Lost The Islam Debate
Don’t blame preacher Terry Jones for the last week’s Quran burning debacle. He was the crackpot in that drama — he was just doing his job. Blame former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for Muslim-baiting by stoking the public’s fears about “creeping sharia.” Blame Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf for waiting a month too long to defend…
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What Glenn Beck Forgot About Martin Luther King Jr.
It looks like Fox News’ Glenn Beck has developed a man crush on the wrong black icon. If he really wanted his audience to get in touch with a martyred ’60s-era religious conservative who espoused a sort of anti-government, pro-Second Amendment platform, he should have planned this week’s Restoring Honor rally for Malcolm X’s birthday,…
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Of Mosques and Martha's Vineyard
If you pay only fleeting attention to the news, here’s what you’ll take away from this week’s headlines: “Obama Backs Ground Zero Mosque; Heads to Martha’s Vineyard.” Even though President Barack Obama is prosecuting two wars, battling nearly 10 percent unemployment, boosting border enforcement by $600 million and literally swimming in the Gulf of Mexico…
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How Shirley Sherrod Could Save America
David Swerdlick is an associate editor at The Root. Follow him on Twitter.
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Andrew Breitbart's Tea Party Hypocrisy
Congratulations, Andrew Breitbart. You might have just cost the Tea Party my vote. Last week when I wrote ”How the Tea Party Could Get My Vote” for The Root, I said what should already be pretty obvious: There are plenty of African Americans who enjoy conservative talk radio, who bristle when paying their income taxes and…
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How the Tea Party Could Get My Vote
In a lot of ways, I could be a Tea Party recruit. I’m a middle-class guy who grumbles every time I pay my mortgage. I’m a fan of paying state and local taxes for things I can see — traffic lights and libraries — and annoyed by federal income taxes that seem to get spent…
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Obama's Summer Homework
President Barack Obama did the most CEO-like thing he’s ever done on Tuesday: He under-promised and over-delivered. And if he plans to get reelected in 2012, that’s what he’ll keep doing. Having lowered the bar for himself by first taking a by-the-numbers overnight visit to the Gulf Coast and then delivering a hum-drum national address…
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Super Tuesday: Ladies' Night or the GOP's New Diversity Strategy?
The consensus emerging from Tuesday’s primaries is that there’s no real consensus. Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter called it for women: ”With only six women governors, 16 women senators, and 74 women in the House, female candidates are fresher for voters looking for change.” TIME’s Jay Newton-Small says pragmatism won: ”If Washington wasn’t quite the winner tonight,…
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Is the Gulf Spill 'Obama's Katrina'?
In Thursday’s press conference on the federal government response to the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama was asked what he thought of criticism that his administration has reacted slowly to the crisis. His response was, “I’ll leave it to you guys to make those comparisons.” Why? Leave it to anyone…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
