Politics

Two years ago, I sat with college sophomores at Princeton University to discuss their professional futures. My pitch was for public service, federal government service to be exact. I was leading the university’s Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative, and I faced a youthful, academically accomplished group with hearts that embraced the ideals of service…

Read the washingtonpost.com Live Online discussion on MICHAEL STEELE AND THE GOP’s FUTURE  with The Root’s deputy editor Terence Samuel. ***** Oh, what a difference a black president can make. If there was any doubt that President Barack Obama’s victory last November had completely transformed American politics, affirmation came Friday when Republicans—for the first time—elected…

We are now two weeks into the presidency of Barack Obama, and for many of us, the new reality is still what one blogger described as a “fragmentation bomb,”  which keeps exploding in unexpected moments. It’s Obama’s smiling face being printed everywhere like currency. Malia’s twists. Visions of Grandma Robinson getting pampered by White House…

The GOP stands poised today to elect its first black party chairman and/or its first black female co-chairman at its annual winter meeting in Washington, D.C. Whatever happens, most black people will hardly care because most blacks simply do not care what Republicans do. Ninety-six percent of us voted for President Barack Obama, and more…

A few days ago I was speaking to a group of parents and their children about managing money in a recession. I remembered speaking with this same group a few years ago, and I couldn’t help but notice how the young people’s attitudes have changed. A teenage girl in the group remarked about the “totally…

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…