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'The Eyes of the World Are Watching'
Picture this: the soon-to-be former President Bush’s motorcade is driving down the pothole-ridden streets of Africa, passing by dozens of tar-skinned locals standing along the road-sides with huge, welcoming smiles, holding signs which read “OBAMA 08.” It’s the exact scene that was captured in a photograph my friend emailed me about two weeks ago. By…
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A 'Wire' Addict on his Jones
My name is Steve, and I’m an addict. David Simon is my dealer. He got me in the early days with the five-part HBO mini-series, “The Corner,” and now, I’ve moved up to a full hour in front of the television, every, single, solitary Sunday night. Nine p.m. Sharp. I don’t answer the phone. I…
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Mission Aborted
Sergio Vieira de Mello is not a person that most of us would have known about had he not died in a vicious terrorist attack against the United Nations office in Iraq in August of 2003. In fact, the engaging Brazilian who became first United Nations Special Envoy to Iraq, would likely have been forgotten…
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The GOP's Next (Black) Idea?
Concerned that Republicans haven’t tried hard enough to reach out to black voters, Bruce Bartlett, a former advisor to President Ronald Reagan and treasury official under President George H. W. Bush, suggests a shocker: Republicans should come out in favor of reparations for slavery. Republicans for reparations? Bartlett makes the suggestion in Wrong on Race,…
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Redemption Along the High Road
The high road is a hard road. Barack Obama is often compared to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. because of his soaring rhetoric and charismatic grace. But on Tuesday I night I realized that Obama is more like King in another way: He is leading a 21st Century non-violent, political campaign. Over the past week…
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Will the Carrots Run out in Russia?
Dmitri Medvedev, a 42-year-old former first deputy prime minister, was overwhelmingly elected to succeed Vladimir Putin as president of the Russian Federation on Sunday, March 2. The election result was no surprise. Sunday’s contest was just a formality. Months ago, Medvedev secured the one vote that most mattered most, that of President Putin himself. The…
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Could an Obama Win Backfire on Blacks?
Abigail Thernstrom, the conservative commentator on race in the U.S., once called me a member of the “doom and gloom” contingent among black political scholars. So, that probably makes me overqualified to make this assertion, but here goes. An Obama presidency could seriously backfire on African Americans. It is true that should Barack Obama become…
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A Clay Moment
As Clay Davis, my favorite character on The Wire, would say, “sheeeeeeit!” Yesterday’s election results have given me the blues. I was hoping that Barack Obama would knock Hillary Clinton out of the race and lock up the Democratic nomination. Instead, Clinton’s big wins in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island have set us up for…
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Groundhog Day for the Dems
Somewhere between Texas and Ohio on Tuesday night the Democratic political groundhog saw his/her shadow and decreed at least another six weeks of campaigning. After crucial wins on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton said she was staying in and Barack Obama, somewhat comforted by his lead in delegates, will have to wait a while before claiming his…
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The Last Dance
The King is dead. Long live the King. King Nando’s death on February 2 didn’t get much media attention. There was just a brief mention on Billboard’s web site. His last hit records were heard on stations that catered to Latinos in New York and Puerto Rico in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and…