blogging the beltway

(The Root) — It’s been a long, winding road to the Republican presidential nomination for Mitt Romney (remember the days when Herman Cain and Rick Santorum were front-runners?). But upon winning the Texas primary election on Tuesday, the former Massachusetts governor finally reached the magic number of 1,144 delegates needed to clinch his party’s nomination…

(The Root) — President Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom to 12 honorees on Tuesday for their contributions to peace and culture and other significant public or private endeavors. The president described the recipients of the nation’s highest civilian honor as individuals who have inspired, enriched and changed people’s lives. “What sets these men and…

(The Root) — A coalition of 43 Catholic institutions — including the University of Notre Dame, Catholic University of America, the Archdiocese of Michigan and the Archdiocese of New York — filed 12 lawsuits around the country this week, opposing the Obama administration’s requirement for insurance plans to cover contraception without a co-pay. While churches…

(The Root) — On Saturday the board of the NAACP endorsed marriage equality in a vote by the 64-member body. On Monday the civil rights organization’s chairman and president held a press conference to clarify what this position means exactly. Laying out the organization’s guiding principles of political, educational, social and economic equality for all…

(The Root) — It’s been an eventful couple of days in the world of voting rights, with a variety of political and legal factions ramping up efforts to protect access to the polls. From Congress to the courts to the Obama campaign, here’s the latest election-protection news you need to know. A Bill to Modernize…

President Obama has affirmed his support for same-sex marriage. In a taped interview on Wednesday with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, to be aired in full on the show’s Thursday broadcast, Obama said that he is no longer standing on the issue’s sidelines. “I had hesitated on gay marriage in part because I thought civil…

UPDATE 5/9/2012: The results are in, with the races going largely as expected on Tuesday night. Follow updates below. Tuesday’s primary races may be inconsequential where the presidential candidates are concerned, with Mitt Romney expected to easily trounce Ron Paul in North Carolina, Indiana and West Virginia. But will results in some of the local…

On Saturday President Obama and the first lady will hold their first official campaign rallies of the season at stops in Columbus, Ohio, and Richmond, Va. Although the president has spoken at re-election fundraisers for several months now, this weekend’s rallies at Ohio State University and Virginia Commonwealth University mark his first non-fundraising events of…

More than 7.4 million college students, including 1.5 million African Americans, with subsidized federal Stafford loans could see their interest rates double in July unless Congress reaches a compromise on keeping them down. Since President Obama started pushing the issue two weeks ago, both sides of the aisle now agree that it’s a bad idea…

After winning just two states in the long GOP presidential primary race, Newt Gingrich finally called it quits on Wednesday, announcing that he would suspend his campaign. “But suspending the campaign does not mean suspending citizenship,” Gingrich said before supporters in Arlington, Va., explaining that putting the race behind him now lets him return to…