Politics

  • Cindy Speaks. Bring It.

    I was starting to get very concerned about Cindy McCain. Up until this past Tuesday afternoon, when she took a not-so-subtle shot at Michelle Obama, she has been what some have dubbed the political “Stepford Wife.” Think about it. Mrs. McCain walks quietly and adoringly behind her husband as he campaigns. She is blonde, blue-eyed,…

  • Undecided in Paradise

    After living here for two years, I’ve grown accustomed to life in Hawaii. My attorney is Japanese. The woman who rings up my eco-friendly Martha Stewart pans at K-Mart is Filipino. The baggers at Safeway are aging Hawaiian ladies, and the young woman who takes my order at Jamba Juice is “hapa haole,” or half-white.…

  • Reagan Couldn't Win Either

    Can Obama be elected? Can he actually win? Is Bill Clinton right about the Obama fairy tale? I am sick and tired of these questions. Yes he can! Yes we can! Remember, a village in Texas has been missing its idiot for nearly 8 years now. If we can elect Bush president of the United…

  • Bush’s Real Legacy in Africa

    President Bush has traveled to the African continent on a trip billed as “an opportunity to demonstrate America’s commitment to the people of…Africa.” Yet Africans are likely to be as skeptical of Mr. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” as African Americans. Bush is frequently heralded as the president that has done more for Africa than any in…

  • The Bush Family's Slaveholding Past

    The image most people have of slavery involves a cotton plantation with a big white house, a black village where 300 people live in cabins and a cruel overseer in the wings. This was not the model followed by the ancestors of President George W. Bush when, 175 years ago, they enslaved about 30 people…

  • Who Died and Made Tavis King?

    Who put Tavis Smiley in charge? Over the past two months African Americans have emerged as equal partners in a multi-racial, intergenerational, bipartisan, national coalition led by the most exciting political candidate of the past four decades, who also happens to be the first viable African-American presidential possibility in our history. So why is Tavis…

  • With Friends Like These …

    Dear Mr. White: After reading your hypertensive response to my article, I could not help but wonder if the straw man would press assault charges. Having read your work on previous occasions, I will admit to being a bit surprised by that you took the tone of a feuding rapper at my suggestion that there…

  • The Democrats' Texas Hold'em

    -What is Sen. Barack Obama going to do about his Latino problem? No use pretending he doesn’t have one. The numbers don’t lie. Sen. Hillary Clinton crushed him among Hispanic voters on Super Tuesday, defeating him by 20, 30 and 40-point margins in places like Arizona, New Mexico, California and New York. Obama’s poor showing…

  • Secretary of 'Soul'?

    Quincy Jones, bandleader, composer, producer and Grammy-laden powerhouse of the entertainment world, was on CNN on Inauguration Day, getting personal and global at the same time. The much-traveled Jones had been back to his old stomping ground, Garfield High School in Seattle. There, he chatted up a group of students and discovered, to his dismay, that they…

  • The McCain Option? Pul-eeze.

    Memo to William Jelani Cobb.Re: Your proposal that “if Hillary Clinton receives the Democratic Party nomination, African Americans should consider voting for John McCain.”Knee-grow,  pul-eeeze!  Your column on The Root ranks as the most ridiculous political idea any Negro has put forth my since my brother-in-law decided to support Clarence Thomas on the grounds that,…