Politics

Samuel Kass, the 28-year-old cook who served as personal chef to the Obama family in Chicago, will be cooking nightly at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, White House Social secretary Desirée Rogers confirmed for The Root. Kass, who will hold the title of assistant White House chef, is also the son of Robert Kass, Malia Obama’s former…

Two days before President Barack Obama’s inauguration, the Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy retired as pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington D.C., and in a strange way those two seemingly unrelated events may serve to chronicle a momentous shift that has taken place in black American politics. Black Democrats—the majority of black voters—have moved…

Subject: post inaugural state of mind You have explained the way I feel as if you are walking in my shoes. I believe those of us who witnessed this event will never be the same. It is difficult to find words to describe the experience. I flew home to the Dallas/Fort Worth airport through the…

Rush Limbaugh referred to him as “the next Ronald Reagan.” Newt Gingrich called him “far and away” the best possible running mate for John McCain. And Michelle Malkin has gone so far as to label him the “future of the GOP.”   Republicans are now desperately seeking their own Barack Obama—someone bold and transformative to re-energize…

The GOP has a problem. Well, two. One of them has just been inaugurated with an approval rating near 70 percent—but the other is going to be just as hard to fight. You see, as former Bush speechwriter David Frum put it on NPR, the Republican Party is the “party of white America.” And in…

The harsh sun was setting on the city of Aswan, an ancient trading hub in southern Egypt last week, but the city’s bazaar along the Nile still bustled with life. My wife and I strolled past old Nubian men sipping mint tea in brightly painted cafés. European tourists haggled over prices for straw baskets and…

I’ve tried to avoid the hype. I don’t wear Che T-shirts, and there are no pictures of Che Guevara on my walls. Although I spent 10 years researching the Argentine doctor-turned revolutionary, I don’t know if I’ll go see Steven Soderbergh’s four-hour biopic, Che, based on the real-life adventures of Ernesto “Che” Guevara. I know…

As the most visible and influential people in America right now, Michelle and Barack Obama have the unique opportunity to set the tone for our nation and remake our country’s landscape. That includes not just the nation’s wealth, but also Americans’ health. Of course, the Obamas are a successful, professional couple with young children. But they also face…

Read the washingtonpost.com Live Online discussion on THE NEW BLACK MANHOOD with The Root’s Marjorie Valbrun. Many Americans have undoubtedly had an Obama Meltdown Moment by now. It’s that instance when the unimaginable hugeness of the past year, the past few months and the past few days suddenly hits you and you say to yourself,…

My head aches. My legs throb. I want to sleep but can’t. I’m not hungry and don’t want to drink. But, boy, am I happy.  I’m no doctor, but I believe I’m suffering from one doozy of an emotional breakdown.  Even now, exactly seven days after the Obama family spent their first night in the…