Politics

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

I wish William Julius Wilson were as evocative a writer as he is a thinker. Over the past 30 years, the legendary Harvard sociologist has done more than any other social scientist to illuminate the desperate plight of the poor. But he buries his brilliantly nuanced analysis in such flat, academic prose that his insights…

Looking at the radiant Michelle Obama smiling from the covers of every major magazine in America, it’s not hard to imagine that the unquestionably foxy Supriya Jindal could make a very elegant first Indian-American first lady one of these days. But she’ll never get that chance if her husband doesn’t tighten up his game. Republicans…

If there were ever a time for the average American to pay close attention to a president’s trip to an international summit, this would be it. Hopefully, this week’s G-20 summit in London will help to turn around the ailing global economy, but also, it may remind the American people—understandably preoccupied with domestic economic woes—that…

Does anyone still remember Roger and Me? Michael Moore’s 1989 film chronicled the filmmaker’s attempts to interview GM chairman Roger Smith, whose efforts to streamline and downsize had shattered GM’s hometown of Flint, Mich. Back then, shutting down plants, cutting benefits, and throwing workers on the proverbial street was depicted as the epitome of corporate…

It was a whirlwind affair. Europe’s love-at-first-sight attraction to Barack Obama grew quickly into a serious courtship in the weeks before and after his election. His inauguration signaled the promise of a healthy relationship: common interests, similar goals, mutual respect and a commitment to make it work. Consider this week the first major post-honeymoon dust-up.…