Politics

Barack Obama turns 50 on Thursday. Been there, done that, had the big birthday party. He was born in 1961, and like the president, I was also born in the slice of years between the very late 1950s and mid-1960s. We fall between the cracks of the baby boom generation and Gen X. We missed…

In the past few days, news of Rosa Parks’ “near-rape” has rippled through the media — in part because of a “newly found” six-page document in her own hand from the late 1950s, revealed by Guernsey’s Auctioneers. There are two problems with how the story is playing out, however: the casting of Parks as victim…

Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post warns that the debt clock ticks toward default as the nation’s leaders haggle over a deal. While it is good news that there is a framework for a debt deal, the dramatic events of Thursday night is a reminder that it ain’t over until it’s over. If the anger of progressives or…

The National Urban League wrapped up its annual conference in Boston this weekend, celebrating 101 years of existence. The news backdrop was hugely significant. President Obama and the Republicans wrestled with the debt limit on the cable networks and in the back rooms, with the likely outcome of further shrinking the already fragile social safety…

While some of the gridlock among policymakers today can be chalked up to principled differences in political philosophy, some political stalemates are the result of policies that defy common sense. This most often happens when politicians ignore basic realities in order to further their own ideologies. This behavior is frustrating in any instance but is…

CNN is reporting that President Obama and congressional leaders reached agreement on a measure that would extend the federal debt ceiling, cut spending and guarantee more reduction efforts. “There are still some very important votes to be taken by members of Congress, but I want to announce that the leaders of both parties in both…

Citing a recent poll showing a steep decline in the number of African Americans who believe that President Obama has helped the economy, Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune evaluates whether Obama is losing his voter base. It is only in comparison to today’s Republican Party, divided between its old-school establishment and its tea party…

Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts writes about NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous’ call to end the nation’s “war on drugs,” calling it a monumental sea change for the old-guard civil rights organization. See, this particular quake was not of the Earth, involved no shifting of the planetary crust. No, what shifted was a paradigm, and…