blogging the beltway
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Does Video Prove Romney Wants to Lose?
(The Root) — Sometimes a presidential candidate’s behavior is so outlandish during a campaign that you have to assume the person doesn’t really want to become president, but instead is secretly hoping that his wacky behavior will be found out so he’ll have an excuse to throw in the towel and find something less demanding…
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Could Gay Marriage Spur Black Voter Drop?
(The Root) — Next to the Obamas and former President Bill Clinton, there was one other elected official whose speech captivated the crowd at the Democratic National Convention: Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.). No one could blame the other speakers for claiming that he had an unfair advantage, though. After all, as a practicing Methodist minister,…
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Black Leaders on GOP Poverty Summit
(The Root) — On Wednesday and Thursday, just after the release of the Census Bureau’s 2011 findings on income, unemployment and health coverage, members of Congress’ Republican Study Committee — including African-American Rep. Allen West from Florida — gathered on Capitol Hill to launch an anti-poverty initiative designed to “publicly advance conservative solutions on poverty”…
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Why Unions Could Cost Obama the Campaign
(The Root) — While a teachers union in Chicago has dominated headlines nationwide because of a strike affecting 400,000 students, the union influence in another story with national implications went largely overlooked. This week, Michigan, which had been touted as a swing state this election cycle because of the discontentment of white working-class voters, lost…
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2011 Poverty Numbers: How Did Blacks Fare?
(The Root) — In recent weeks, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West re-upped their efforts to highlight what they say is poverty’s absence from the national political agenda, telling The Root in advance of their Poverty Tour 2.0, “Poor people have not in any way been a priority in the Obama administration … and of course…
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Michelle Obama to Keynote CBCF Dinner
(The Root) — A Democratic source has confirmed exclusively to The Root that for the first time ever, first lady Michelle Obama will give the keynote address at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Phoenix Awards on Sept. 22. With her husband tied up on the campaign trail, the first lady will be taking his place…
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Did He Deliver? Grading Obama's DNC Speech
(The Root) — On Thursday night President Obama was tasked with delivering the most important speech of his tenure in office. With polls showing the 2012 presidential election increasingly close, many experts intimated that he needed to hit a home run just to stay in the game. Though widely hailed as one of the greatest…
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Clinton's Latest Moment in Black History
(The Root) — The same week that a controversial new article landed former President Clinton in the headlines for allegedly making a remark that could be interpreted as racially insensitive about President Barack Obama, the man once described as “the first black president” grabbed the front pages again, for possibly saving the Obama presidency. This…
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Can the President's Convention Speech Save his Campaign?
Last week’s Republican National Convention provided a powerful reminder that while most political speeches are rarely memorable, the really bad ones tend to be unforgettable. Actor Clint Eastwood’s primetime conversation with a chair—who he referred to as the invisible President Obama—became an instant twitter hit, with @InvisibleObama becoming a twitter handle before night’s end. (At…