Politics
-
Why Bono, Madonna and Brangelina Cannot Save Africa
Traditional proverb: Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime. In Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working And How There is a Better Way For Africa, former Goldman Sachs and World Bank employee Dr. Dambisa Moyo adeptly posits…
-
Damon Weaver: In His Own Words
Remember Damon Weaver? The Florida fifth grader who worked tirelessly — and sadly, unsuccessfully — to get an interview with Barack Obama during the presidential race? Well, the POTUS has yet to sit down with The Root’s favorite cub reporter. Still, this 10-year-old student journalist from Canal Point Elementary in Palm Beach, Fla. has been fairing rather well on…
-
South African Discomfort
I recently went to the venerable old Market Theater in an increasingly populated downtown Johannesburg. It had been all but abandoned after the end of apartheid. Now the city is coming back, and white people are coming back, and they (along with a healthy number of blacks) are coming back to the Market Theater. But…
-
Polarization We Can Believe In
Even in politics, things are often exactly what they seem. So it should have been reasonable to dismiss as fiction recent reports that Barack Obama is the most polarizing president in recent history. There is nothing in our experience to support that; based on the president’s personal favorability rating and his high job approval numbers,…
-
Obama's Lifeline to Pakistan
The Obama administration’s new policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan plans to hurl a lifeline to the government of Pakistan. It outlines increased counterterrorism and counterinsurgency assistance to Pakistan’s security forces to “disrupt, dismantle and destroy” al Qaeda and its allies operating in safe havens in Pakistan. Further, the policy recognizes an urgent need to balance…
-
What’s Up With Waxy Michelle?
No doubt about it, Michelle Obama’s on a roll right now, coming fresh off her triumphant G-20 It Girl World Tour: Hugging the Queen. Swarmed by schoolgirls in London. Air-kissing Carla Bruni Sarkozy. The Daily Beast’s Tina Brown asks, “Is Michelle the New Oprah?” and compares her to Princess Di. She’s been dubbed the hugger…
-
Swagger a Little, Reassure a Lot
Read the washingtonpost.com Live Online discussion on OBAMA’S FOREIGN POLICY DOCTRINE with The Root’s David Swerdlick. ***** That irresistible beat you hear off in the distance is either the sound of an all-night discothèque in Istanbul shutting down at sunrise or the hum of Air Force One coming in for a landing as President Barack Obama—leaner, browner…
-
Scrutiny of Obama Splits Blacks
Jeff Johnson knows how to make his audiences squirm. The young, black radio and TV political commentator waits for the discussion to turn to the topic being talked about ceaselessly, incessantly, ad nauseam: the meaning of the barrier-breaking election of Barack Obama. Then, in his laid-back style, he says, “The real issue for me is…
-
Nothin' But a G20 Thang
The condensed history of the Western world goes something like this: Achilles slays Hector, Charlemagne conquers Saxony, Anne Boleyn, Martin Luther, Waterloo, May Day, Versailles, The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and Queen Elizabeth II hugs Michelle Obama. Can you say “road trip”? Halfway through their trip to the G20 summit, NATO and beyond, it’s safe…
-
Did Black Power Birth Obama?
April 4, 2008—the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 slaying in Memphis—provoked endless conversations about the way forward for black politics and whether it was King who truly prepared the nation to elect Barack Obama as the first black president. This year, the topic has moved beyond musings about what is possible for…