Politics

Written by Perry Bacon Jr. Can the so-called birthers help President Obama win re-election? In an interview with ABC News last week, Obama, who has generally avoided talking about the 2012 election, suggested that continued questions about his background from Republicans such as Donald Trump would hurt Republicans in next year’s elections. Some conservatives have…

For reasons that are truly beyond us, there’s no end to the long parade of cartoons and emails about President Barack Obama or members of his family, and it’s very tempting to say, “This time we won’t report on it; it’s beneath us even to give the idiots who create this trash a platform.” But…

Thanks to Donald Trump and his fellow Birthers, who continue to claim that Barack Obama is a foreign-born Islamist enemy of America, we know what it takes to create a villain for the conservative lunatic fringe. The process involves deadening the brain. Now, through the example of Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan, auteur of a new…

In an interview this morning with ABC News, Obama finally addressed Donald Trump and Birthers who believe he wasn’t born in America. “I think that over the last two-and-a-half years, there’s been an effort to go at me in a way that is politically expedient in the short term for Republicans,” Obama said. President Obama…

Calling all Washington, D.C., public and charter high school students! The White House recently announced that it is accepting applications for its D.C. Scholars Program. The program gives high school students an opportunity to receive real work experience and an inside look at the White House’s operations. While the program isn’t paid, program participants pair up with a mentor, attend weekly lectures…

There’s a great scene in Pulp Fiction where Vincent, John Travolta’s introspective contract killer, complains to his bathrobe-clad heroin dealer about an unknown scoundrel who “keyed” the pristine paint job on his vintage Chevy Malibu. The wistful coda to his woeful tale is this: “It’d been worth him doing it just so I could’ve caught…

The White House is still dealing with the fallout from congressional budget negotiations that barely averted a government shutdown: angry progressives speaking out around the country, D.C. Mayor Vince Gray getting arrested during protests, and hundreds of thousands of Washington, D.C., residents feeling the sting of political betrayal. In order to end the budget stalemate,…

David Swerdlick is an associate editor at The Root. Follow him on Twitter. 

“It’s all about education,” said Dale Crosby. “I don’t think everyone understands what the Republican Party is about.” In between listening to speeches from undeclared presidential candidates, Crosby was explaining why he was one of the very few African-American delegates at the Spartanburg County Republican Party Convention in South Carolina on Saturday. “We are not…