Politics
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Cory Booker: Criticism of Him 'Overblown'
(The Root) — Friday was a busy day for Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker. In the morning, New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg announced that he would not run for re-election, and that evening NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous remarked at a star-studded dinner that Booker might be the one to follow in President…
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Obama's Sit-Down With Chicago's Young Black Men
(The Root) — Before his public remarks touting the newly announced “Ladders to Opportunity” initiative at Chicago’s Hyde Park Academy on Friday, the president had another, more intimate event planned: a private roundtable with 16 students enrolled in an anti-youth-violence program called Becoming a Man, or “B.A.M.” In Obama’s hometown, whose reputation for gun violence…
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Obama: Family and Community Can Help Stop Youth Violence
“Ladders of success” and “marriage” were the catchphrases of President Obama’s speech on Friday regarding gun violence, family values and the economy at Chicago’s Hyde Park Academy. During his speech, the POTUS said that government alone can’t provide a solution to the gun-violence problem in the Windy City, because when a child shoots another child,…
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Herman Cain Joins Fox News as Correspondent
Daily Show host Jon Stewart and political comedians everywhere are thanking the heavens following Fox News’ announcement that Herman Cain will join the channel as a pundit. The former Republican presidential candidate who kept the 2012 campaign trail interesting, to say the least, will bring his personality and knowledge to Rupert Murdoch’s company, reports Shadow…
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Patrick Gaspard to Be Named New South African Ambassador
President Obama has selected former adviser and labor organizer Patrick Gaspard to be the new ambassador to South Africa, Politico announces. The move, first reported by The Washington Post, is the latest in a reshuffle of Obama’s team and appointees. Gaspard has been the Democratic National Committee’s executive director since 2011, after serving as White…
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Chris Dorner: A Question of Race?
(The Root) — Fugitive and suspected murderer Christopher Dorner may have been found dead in a burned-out cabin in Big Bear, Calif., on Tuesday evening, ending a weeklong manhunt. However, for many the story of the former Los Angeles police officer and Navy reservist gone rogue isn’t a clear-cut one of death and destruction but,…
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FLOTUS to Young Black History Visitors: I'm Here for You, I Believe in You, I Love You
As part of the White House’s Black History Month celebration, the first lady hosted a group of children for a screening of Beasts of the Southern Wild on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports. The cast of the film was in attendance, but in her remarks to her young guests — 80 middle and high school…
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Rubio Repeats a Failed Message
(The Root) — Time magazine tells me that Marco Rubio is “the Republican Savior.” If his response to Barack Obama’s State of the Union is any indication of his potential on the national stage, then Hillary Clinton should start practicing the oath of office tomorrow. It was not merely a weak response; it was, in…
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Rubio's Big Moment Fizzles
(The Root) — Washington Post commentator Jonathan Capehart summed up the Republican Party’s strange demographic quandary on his blog the other day: It’s a party of “white people” that is about to be led by people of color. Among the Hispanic and Asian-American politicos emerging as potential future standard bearers for the GOP are Ted…
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Union President on Labor and Black History
(The Root) — The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is America’s largest union, and Lee Saunders is the first African-American president in its 80-year history. According to Saunders, while AFSCME’s members are only 16 to 18 percent black, its ties to the African-American struggle for economic equality run deep. On the 45th…