Barack Obama gets a challenger in the 2004 Illinois Senate race Episode 35: “Mr. Keyes Goes to Illinois” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above have access to new episodes of this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser:...
Barack Obama
Obama enters the current debate over voting rights
Here is Obama at USA Today: When I spoke at John Lewis’ memorial service two years ago, I emphasized a truth John knew better than just about anyone. Our democracy isn’t a given. It isn’t self-executing. We, as citizens, have to nurture and...
Colin Powell: “What if Obama WAS a Muslim?”
RIP Obituary. This October 2008 is a nice window into Powell’s politics:...
President Joe Biden responds to the DACA decision
Yesterday a federal judge in Texas ruled that the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program, or DACA, is illegal. DACA is Barack Obama’s 2012 program that protects the so-called “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as...
What Obama and Biden thought about Trump’s election
Over at The Atlantic, Caroline Mimbs Nyce interviews Edward-Isaac Dovere, author of the upcoming book Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats’ Campaigns to Defeat Trump. Here is a taste: Initially, President Obama seemed pretty restrained when commenting on the 45th...
Obama on UFOs and aliens “When it comes to aliens, there are some things I just can’t tell you on air”
This is hilarious:...
Obamacare sign-ups surge
Here is Margot Sanger-Katz and Sarah Kliff at The New York Times: Nearly one million Americans have signed up for Affordable Care Act coverage during the first 10 weeks of a special open enrollment period the Biden administration began in...
Episode 3: “The Audacity to Hope”
Barack Obama’s pastor is known for three sermons. In this episode, we put them in historical context. Episode 3: “The Audacity to Hope” (our fourth episode) dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this brand new narrative...
Chicago’s DuSable Museum is getting Kamala Harris and Barack Obama hate mail
Here is Patrick Elwood at WGN-TV: The president and CEO of the DuSable Museum of African American History went public Tuesday with news of a series of threatening letters that began after the Capitol insurrection and shortly before the Biden/Harris administration took...
National politicians respond to the Chauvin verdict. Do you see a pattern here?
In case you still don’t know, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of the murder of George Floyd. Here is how Twitter is responding: As of 8:43pm on Tuesday evening, April 20, 2021 the following national politicians...
The second episode of “A History of Evangelicals and Politics” podcast is here!
Episode 1: “The Religious Making of a President” (our second episode) dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this brand new narrative history podcast. In this episode I talk about the differences between my conversion experience...
What happens when you watch “The West Wing” during the Biden era?
Damon Linker explains in his column at The Week: The West Wing is what you get if you take the outlook of the most committed Democrats during the two terms of Bill Clinton’s presidency, add an overlay of rhetorical grandiosity derived...
Sarah Obama, RIP
If you are like me and fell in love with “Granny” reading Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father, this is sad news. Here is CBS: Sarah Obama, the matriarch of former President Obama’s Kenyan family has died, relatives and officials...
Do Democrats have an immigration policy?
It doesn’t look like it. Here is a taste of David Leonhardt’s piece at The New York Times: . . . In recent years, however, a growing number of immigration advocates and progressive Democrats have become dissatisfied with this combination....