Earlier this year the Obama administration enjoyed a few chuckles after pronouncing Rush Limbaugh the de facto head of the Republican Party. This comment made for good copy and, if it did not come back to haunt them, the proverbial nail in the coffin to a Republican Party reeling from...

Growing up in as a young black male in New York City one of the recurring questions on the racial litmus test pertained to my love of baseball. There was a period of time when there wasn't a stat or obscure fact that I couldn't cite. When friends and...

The first time that Henry Louis "Skip" Gates' name actually registered in my mind was when I saw a Vibe Magazine profile of Harvard's African American Studies Department. Dubbed the "Dream Team," the article included a picture of Gates standing alongside fellow professors Kwame Anthony Appiah, Lani Guinier, Cornel West...

When former senator Tom Daschle strode into his confirmation hearing last month accompanied by Bob Dole, the cast of 30 Rock, it was clear why he had chosen N.E.R.D.'s "Rockstar" as his entrance music. Having been one of the first democratic bigwigs to put his cajones to el viento...

The serpent played tricks run game like the Knicks
Build you up just to lose the championship

-Lauryn Hill

As a Knicks fan I know that the headline above is supposed to be my worst nightmare. It would mean that everything that Donnie Walsh and his staff have done...

During last months forum with pastor Rick Warren at Warren's Saddleback Church Barack Obama identified Clarence Thomas as the supreme court justice who he would not have appointed. Obama went on to cite Thomas' thin legal record at the time of his appointment, and not their differences in opinion as...

It's sort of ironic considering the scrutiny Mitt Romney underwent during the primaries for being a Mormon that John McCain's campaign has recently been coasting in spite of the fact that McCain has two wives. Indeed, as the McCain/Palin ticket -- the political world's real life version of Big...

Political scientists will have a field day this September explaining how a candidate who won primary contests in California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas failed to secure her party's nomination. The lessons learned and questions resulting from this Democratic primary contest are some of profound ones posed in decades....

When Lee Camp submitted his list of potential VPs for Obama a few weeks back he neglected to include one prominent figure who's sure to start her meteoric rise once the polls close tonight and senator Obama clinches the Democratic nomination: Kelly Ripa.

Once Clinton concedes, Obama will have...

When I first met my mother I was a few months from being five years old. Before I could call out "mummi," and show her that I recognized her, prove to her that the son who she left behind in Haiti four years earlier was still hers, one of my...

The teacher in me is starting to get uncomfortable watching pundits blasting Hillary Clinton and John McCain's proposed gas tax holiday. Denunciations of this plan revive memories of seminar sessions when a group of students seeing that one one of their more confident classmates has erred proceed to gang...

Most people, Senator Barack Obama supporters in particular, are likely to assume that Reverend Jeremiah Wright's resurgence can further damage Obama's chances at "electability". However, there is a strong case to be made that senator John McCain will also suffer from Wright's reemergence.

Having already garnered his party's...

A year and a half ago I could not go to a news site or open up a newspaper without finding a story about Sean Bell and Barack Obama. One, Sean Bell, representing a persistent nightmare, a dream deferred if you will, that haunts black men in this country. The...

Barack Obama was correct in his suggestion that once people start losing their jobs, they turn to God and guns. Contrary to what Hillary Clinton and John McCain are suggesting, Obama is not "elitist" and "out of touch" with "average Americans." His elitism and aloofness comes across the strongest in...

This decade has been marked by a growing awareness of and appreciation for organic foods. Rising obesity rates have prompted many Americans to review their eating habits and adopt regimens featuring fewer processed foods. America's healthy eating renaissance corresponds with what everyone freely refers to as a green movement that...

A few weeks ago, I spotted a sign at a local bookstore reminding patrons "circulate your money within your community." Written in white letters atop a green backdrop, this sign clearly promoted two forms of behavior: first, support of independent bookstores, and second, capitalizing on our current fixation with anything...

Last night I had the pleasure of attending Edwidge Danticat's presentation at the second annual Toni Morrison Lecture at Princeton University. The title of Ms. Danticat's presentation was "Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work." Ms. Danticat delivered an exceptional lecture layered with allusions Albert Camus, Sophocles, and Toni Morrison....

I'm about to sound like my Dad when he starts waxing nostalgic about ten cent tokens, but I cannot help it on this one. When I was in my salad days New York's Governor's office was a serene-alright-dull place. Sure Mario Cuomo was often lauded for his diplomacy and regularly...

When friends ask me why I'm supporting Barack Obama I enjoy saying it's because of his name. As a fellow former black kid with a funny name, I believe there are certain invaluable lessons that one learns while growing up in this country with a "non-traditional" American or Anglo-Saxon name....

Something peculiar happened during my most recent hotel stay. Rather than simply telling me for future reference that I can use the computerized kiosk as she checked me in, the desk attendant walked me over to said kiosk, and proceeded to show me and a fellow straggler how to use...