blogging the beltway

(The Root) — Though there is no official contest for first lady, that doesn’t stop the media from covering the unofficial campaign for the role, with first lady Michelle Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech last night in Charlotte, N.C., being framed as reply to Ann Romney’s RNC address. Yet whether or not a spouse can…

(The Root) — When first lady Michelle Obama takes the podium in the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, N.C., tonight, among her challenges will be to reassure voters, particularly those who voted for President Obama in 2008, that the leader who sometimes seems to be a little too inside his own head or willing…

(The Root) — The final night of a political convention is supposed to be the most predictable. The party nominee comes out, officially accepts his nomination and then delivers a speech that he hopes, at its best, boosts his candidacy and at its worst, doesn’t hurt it. Well, the final night of the 2012 Republican…

(The Root) — The first rule of medicine is “do no harm.” You could say this is the first rule of giving a political speech, too. It’s harder than it sounds, particularly when you are speaking on behalf of someone else. History is littered with instances in which someone who was supposed to help a…

(The Root) — At the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday, The Root briefly caught up with Jonathan Burks, deputy policy director for Mitt Romney’s campaign. He sat down with us for a conversation about his candidate’s views — and how Romney differs from President Barack Obama. In a wide-ranging discussion, Burks brought…

(The Root) — We caught up with Florida Rep. Allen West at a luncheon for African-American Republicans, organized by young black conservative Stephen Lackey and co-hosted by John Daniels Jr., a black Harvard Law School classmate of Gov. Mitt Romney. West has drawn fire for once alleging that President Obama wanted Americans to “be his slave,”…

(The Root) — Everyone knows that the most important parts of any book, movie or TV show are the beginning and the end. Those are the parts people tend to remember most vividly after the last page has been turned or the credits have begun to roll. The same can be said for political conventions.…

(The Root) — Though Ann Romney was billed as the leading lady of tonight’s Republican National Convention, like many leading ladies she came close to having her spotlight stolen by a younger, up-and-coming starlet. Thirty-seven-year-old Saratoga Springs, Utah, Mayor Mia Love had the GOP crowd on their feet with her feisty speech about freedom, entrepreneurship…

(The Root) — Next to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the most widely touted African-American speaker at this week’s Republican National Convention is a man best known on the national stage for his passionate support of President Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. What a different four years can make. In 2008, then-congressman…

(The Root) — Oprah Winfrey recently admitted that she received some of the most vitriolic and racist criticism of her career for supporting Ellen DeGeneres when she came out as a lesbian in 1997. Winfrey had guest-starred on the well-known episode of DeGeneres’ sitcom in which the comedian let the world in on her sexual…