blogging the beltway

(The Root) — On Wednesday the Obama administration unveiled a new strategy for its drug policy. The location of the rollout was noteworthy. It took place at Johns Hopkins University, located in Baltimore, a city so ravaged by the effects of drugs that it served as the backdrop to the hit television show The Wire,…

(The Root) — Largely overlooked amid the wall-to-wall coverage of the Boston terror attacks was some intriguing and potentially important political news. Former President George W. Bush weighed in on speculation regarding his brother former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s presidential prospects, saying that he hopes his sibling runs for the nation’s highest office in 2016.…

(The Root) — Wars and tragedies have a tendency to define a presidency, fairly or not. Lyndon B. Johnson’s disastrous handling of the Vietnam War ultimately overshadowed his extraordinary advancement of civil rights. President Franklin Roosevelt’s status as one of America’s most beloved presidents was solidified with his leadership during World War II. President George…

(The Root) — When President Obama said, “This was a pretty shameful day in Washington,” after the Senate defeated a bill that would have expanded background checks for those purchasing firearms, he expressed the sentiments of many Americans, perhaps up to 90 percent of them. That’s the number of Americans that polls show support universal…

(The Root) — Though we are still waiting for answers regarding the culprit and motives behind the Boston Marathon attack, one thing we do know is this: It is impossible to avoid comparisons of this tragedy to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. There were instant similarities — most notably the shock, followed immediately by the…

(The Root) — Having previously shared my thoughts on the first couple’s close association with hip-hop’s first couple, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, I vowed not to address the issue again, since I’m not a fan of treading over the same territory in my writing. But I relented today at the behest of a TV producer. While…

(The Root) — The days when some speculated that the first black president or vice president would be a Republican now seem as much of a distant memory as the days when cellphones were considered a novelty. But not too long ago, black Republicans including Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice were among the party’s most…

(The Root) — Recently, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer drew the scorn of some of the very women who had been celebrating her rise as one of the most powerful women in America. The reason was her comments about her unwillingness to wear the label that some of those women celebrating her sport so proudly: feminist.…