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  • The Root's Talented Ten: Addisu Demissie

    Addisu Demissie Age: 28 Hometown: Atlanta, Ga. Campaign Positions: Deputy Field Director, State Director (Hillary for President); Get Out the Vote Director—Ohio (Obama For America) Campaign Turf: Iowa, Nevada, Connecticut, Indiana (Hillary for President) Ohio (Obama for America) New Washington Gig: National Political Director at Organizing for America Addisu Demissie has a thing for playing…

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  • The Root's Talented Ten: Michael Blake

    Michael Blake Age: 26 Hometown: The Bronx, N.Y. Campaign Positions: Deputy Political Director, Constituency Outreach Director Campaign Turf: Iowa, South Carolina, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan New Washington Gig: Deputy Associate Director for Intergovernmental Affairs; Office of Public Liaison Mike Blake is the kind of guy who, no matter what the emergency, speaks slowly…

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  • The Root's Talented Ten: Elizabeth Wilkins

    Elizabeth Wilkins Age: 25 Hometown: Washington, D.C. Campaign Positions: Field Organizer, Field Director—Michigan Campaign Turf: Chicago, South Carolina, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan New Washington Gig: Policy assistant, Domestic Policy Council Elizabeth Wilkins’ yearning for government service is probably genetic. Roy Wilkins, the 1960s head of the NAACP, is her great-uncle, and her father Roger, now…

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  • The Root's Talented Ten: Joshua DuBois

    Joshua DuBois Age: 26 Hometown: Nashville, Tenn. Campaign Position: Director of Religious Affairs Campaign Turf: Chicago New Washington Gig: Executive Director, White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Throughout campaign 2008, detractors accused Obama of harboring a messiah complex. If Hollywood ever adapts the jeers into a feature film, Josh DuBois would play John…

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  • Washington’s New Black Pack

    Read the washingtonpost.com Live Online discussion on WASHINGTON’s NEW BLACK PACK with The Root’s Dayo Olopade. ***** Barack Obama’s historic presidential victory has marked a significant expansion of responsibilities and visibility for people of color working in politics. From the Justice Department to the United Nations to the new Office of Urban Policy, Obama has empowered…

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  • The Root's Talented Ten: Alexander Lofton

    Alex Lofton Age: 24 Hometown: Seattle, Wa. Campaign Positions: Border State Director, Regional Field Director, Field Director—Georgia Campaign Turf: South Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio New Washington Gig: Southeast Regional Director, Organizing for America Long after the confetti had been cleared from election-night parties, Alex Lofton was still at work. Or “redeployed,” as he likes…

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  • Iraq Let America Be America Again

    I spent the afternoon that the war in Iraq started in a mosque in Paris. When the news of the invasion broke, my group, taking tea in the café within the compound, fled. We had already tried to shed our American accents—tensions had been running high for the previous months, as a Metro bioterror scare…

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  • AIG Builds Moat to Thwart Populist Outrage

    As if Wednesday’s public Congressional flogging of AIG head Edward M. Liddy weren’t enough, pitchforks, frothing mouths and Molotovs are still a concern for the insurance giant. A leaked AIG internal memo suggests the corporation has finally noticed the outrage (from Barack Obama, no less!) directed at its brazen pillaging of the US Treasury. And AIG is not the kind of company…

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  • Courage Under Fire

    On Sept. 14, 2001, Congresswoman Barbara Lee took a stand. In the hectic, fear-filled days after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, she was the only member of the House of Representatives to vote against the Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Terrorists. Lee, now serving her sixth term, has been one…

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  • Pitchforked Mob Hits Capitol Hill, AIG Boss

    Five months into his tenure, embattled American Insurance Group CEO Edward M. Liddy—who has become a public pinata in the wake of news that multimillion dollar bonuses will be paid to executives of his flailing, bailed-out corporation—had the misfortune of being scheduled to testify before the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored…

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