Politics

“On Obama” is a weekly column about Barack Obama and American politics. On the morning of Nov. 5, 2008, the day after Barack Obama’s election, I sat in the office of my Chicago apartment, filled, like most Americans, with a peculiar sense of hope. It seemed that in electing the country’s first black chief executive,…

When the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial was officially dedicated last October (after the ceremony’s original date was postponed in the wake of Hurricane Irene), it seemed to mark a grand finale. From Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity first hatching the idea in 1984 to Congress authorizing it in 1996 to the Alpha-established Martin Luther…

President Barack Obama(R) speaks with an employee as he tours the manufacturing facility at Master Lock, maker of security locks, prior to speaking on the economy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, February 15, 2012.

THE WHITE HOUSEOffice of the Press SecretaryFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEDAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FORWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2012 In the morning, the President and the Vice President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing in the Oval Office. This meeting is closed press. Later in the morning, the President will travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The departure from…

“All revolutions are impossible until they happen; then they become inevitable.” —Albie Sachs, South African activist and judge (1990) With a knowing chuckle, Peta Lindsay recalls this quote when I ask whether our country could feasibly adopt socialism. Then the 27-year-old, who is running for president of the United States on the Party for Socialism…

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden talk with former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, after the president signed H.R. 3801, the Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act of 2012, in the Oval Office on Feb. 10. This bill is the last piece of legislation that Giffords sponsored and voted on in…

Roland Martin doesn’t understand the nature of taboo. More specifically, he doesn’t get that prominent black people have a special responsibility to understand taboo in America. To wit: In American English, there are precisely two words that qualify as profane. I don’t mean the “bad words” that tend to have four letters, the most common…

In a new interview with Ebony, actor Samuel L. Jackson said that he voted for President Barack Obama only because he is black. “I voted for Barack because he was black,” Jackson confessed. “Cause that’s why other folks vote for other people — because they look like them. That’s American politics, pure and simple. Obama’s…

THE WHITE HOUSEOffice of the Press SecretaryDAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FORTUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2012 In the morning, the President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing and then meet with senior advisors in the Oval Office. These meetings are closed press. Later, the President and the Vice President will hold a meeting with Vice President…

A few minutes after introducing headliner Herman Cain at 2011’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., Niger Innis — son of civil rights leader Roy Innis and national spokesman for CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality — said that in his view, “The GOP is not for rich people — it’s for people who…