Politics

Later this month, Michelle Obama will take an official state trip to South Africa and Botswana. “This visit to two critical countries will underscore that the United States has an important stake in the success of Africa’s many nations and underscore the historic connections between the American people and those who live on the African…

I was saddened by the news that Albertina Sisulu, one of the great leaders of the African National Congress had died at the age of 92. She was the widow of Walter Sisulu, the first secretary general of the ANC, a Robben Island prisoner and colleague of Nelson Mandela. She was a retired nurse and…

Earlier this week, Sarah Palin demonstrated why certain stars should never dabble in politics when she said the Republican Party platform is “best for America” because “[i]t’s all about respecting equality.” Never mind the document calls for etching discrimination into the Constitution with an amendment banning same-sex marriage. Well, yesterday, Palin was at it again.…

My old pal Paul Delaney, a fellow contributor to The Root, recently asked me what kind of speech I thought Barack Obama’s Republican challenger would make to a mainstream black audience during next year’s presidential campaign. It’s a good question because every four years, the GOP and its standard-bearer reaffirm their determination to go after…

During the 30-year fight against AIDS, several U.S. presidents have been faced with tackling the country’s HIV/AIDS epidemic — and according to the Black AIDS Institute and the NAACP, not all have risen to the occasion. In the report 30 Years Is Enuf! the two organizations graded five presidents from the last three decades —…

The day after Herman Cain won the GOP’s first 2012 presidential debate, I recapped it thusly: “Just minutes after the debate ended, an on-air focus group run by Fox News pollster Frank Luntz declared, almost unanimously, that Cain, the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO, was the debate’s winner. Their reaction: ‘He’s a problem solver.’ “ It…

It’s all about this business of “contesting.” And it’s about all of us. One thing we all know is that if Cornel West actually met Barack Obama alone in a room — and we can be sure this will happen one day, and likely more than once — he would embrace him and call him…

Don Lemon discusses black women and being gay on Black Voices: Don Lemon stands by his words in a new interview with Black Voices after being criticized for saying that being gay is “about the worst thing you can be in black culture.” Only about two weeks after coming out, Lemon discusses being “overwhelmingly surprised”…

Almost seven months after Republicans took control of the House, pollsters, politicians and advisers from both parties tell the Associated Press that President Barack Obama’s re-election in 2012 is likely. On the heels of launching his re-election campaign, Obama’s hopes of returning to the Oval Office have gained some footing amid slow, yet optimistic economic…