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Inauguration Madness – The Arrival
I made it! After a long and germ-crazy bus ride from Chinatown in New York City to the heart of D.C.’s Chinatown I finally stepped into the beautiful madness. The bus ride was pretty somber. I guess 3am travel will silence even “Obama-giddy-I-took-off-work-and-I-dare-anybody-to-say-anything-I’m-about-to-celebrate-our-first-black-prez” troopers. But once all 57 passengers stepped onto H and 5th Streets…
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Kid's Inaugural
Miley Cyrus-fever has made its way into politics. Last night, the tween idol had a performance, along with other young stars at the Disney Kids’ Inaugural. MTV notes Cyrus as the kickoff act, but Jamie Foxx got the crowd hype with an Obama cheer, complete with beat box. Malia and Sasha Obama were in attendance.…
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The Root Had a Ball! test
Speaking with the Speaker: The president-elect sits down with Nancy Pelosi before a meeting with his top economic advisers to discuss his plan for a stimulus package.
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King and Obama
On what would have been his 80th birthday, Martin Luther King Jr. must be smiling from whatever heavenly vista he was rewarded for giving his life for black justice and American freedom. Forty years after King was gunned down in Memphis, Barack Obama rode the promise of change into the White House. It’s as if…
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We Had a Ball!
Larry King went live from the event and got a chance to get the back of a lot of random heads. The Daily Beast is right, though, Obama didn’t show up. But many other did — Spike Lee, Oprah Winfrey, Natalie Portman, Diane von Furstenburg and, oh yes, Damon Weaver — and it’s hard to…
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Pragmatism and the Presidency
Henry Louis Gates Jr. and John Stauffer in today’s NYT: “UNTIL a martyred John F. Kennedy replaced him, Abraham Lincoln was one of the two white men whose image most frequently graced even the most modest black home, second in popularity only to Jesus. Perhaps none of his heirs in the Oval Office has been…
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Has King's Dream Come to Fruition?
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation conducted a survey last week about race relations. They phoned 798 whites and 332 blacks and asked if King’s “I Have a Dream” vision has been fulfilled. Meaning: do we, as multi-varied Americans, believe race is no longer an issue in Obama’s America on the eve of the Grand Inauguration? And…
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Still 'On Fire'
On Election Night 2008, a jangling, inter-ethnic mob in Washington, D.C. toasted Barack Obama’s presidential victory, stopping traffic at 14th and U streets—the same crossroads where, 40 years earlier, in April, Bobby Kennedy had signed autographs at a campaign rally, and where Stokely Carmichael and other members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee had crouched,…
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Why I Don’t Work on King Day
I don’t work on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. A few years ago, I just stopped doing it and decided to take a personal day instead. The federal holiday occasionally falls near my birthday or sometimes, like this year, on my birthday. It took years for me to arrive at my decision. As a journalist,…
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'Welcome to Washington'
The welcome was offered by President-elect Barack Obama on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Sunday afternoon. After laying a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden joined the celebration on the National Mall. It’s chilly, but it feels good in Washington, D.C. with 48 hours until…