On Feb. 9, a member of Congress took an important step in attempting to educate the nation about an important slice of history relative to the White House. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) sent a letter to President Barack Obama to suggesting that the latter find a way to commemorate those...

In American politics, it's often not what you say but who you are that matters most, and no one better exemplifies this tradition than Barack Obama. His background and perhaps moreso his foreground -- that which we see when we look at Obama -- has been an endless source of...

The White House must draw the right conclusions from recent dismal polls.

President Obama's popularity is at its lowest point since taking office. A Gallup poll has him at a 41 percent approval rating. Although other polls have him closer to 45 percent, none is encouraging.

The polls...

The regime of 87-year-old strongman Robert Mugabe has sought to preempt the types of protests that have shaken autocrats in North Africa and the Middle East. Yet, a constellation of internal and external events may finally bring an end to the more than 30 years of one-man rule.

Elections are...

The sesquicentennial of the start of the Civil War has unleashed a cacophony of voices from across the South and outside the region, including elected officials, Civil War reenactors, and professional neo-Confederates, spreading falsehoods and myths about that pivotal time in U.S. history. They contend that the conflict was barely...

On December 15, 2010 the National Park Service inaugurated its new exhibit, "President's House: Freedom and Slavery in Making a New Nation" at the Liberty Bell Center pavilion in Philadelphia's Independence Park. The pavilion has been built on the site where the third home for U.S. presidents once stood, following...

Juan Williams should have been fired -- by NPR and Fox News. And a preponderance of evidence and a logical benefit of the doubt indicates that it is Clarence Thomas who should apologize to Anita Hill. However, in the bizzaro world of Williams and Thomas, presided over by the likes...

As he faces a critical juncture in his presidency, it is perhaps useful for President Obama to reflect upon an obscure but relevant anniversary. On October 17, 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt officially changed the name of the president's residence to the "White House." Significantly, this occurred on the day after...

The Shirley Sherrod controversy, like the Van Jones incident one year ago this month, demonstrates the power of the right-wing media to rock the Obama White House when it comes to racial matters. On July 19, 2010, conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, who has a long history of producing carefully doctored...