Barack Obama

Bookmark this page to stay up to date on ThePhoenix.com's latest coverage of Barack Obama. ThePhoenix.com endorsed Obama prior to the Massachusetts Democratic Primary. Columnist and political consultant Steven Stark has been covering the horse race in his Presidential Tote Board column since February of 2007, and also in an accompanying blog. In March of 2007, Stark was among the first to predict, while Hilary Clinton was still firmly ahead in the polls, that the odds favored an Obama nomination. In September 2007, in a widely-circulated essay, Al Giordano cursed Obama for making him (and other dyed-in-the-wool radicals) care about presidential politics again, while offering an eerily prescient examination of Obama's revolutionary fundraising techniques. More recently, Steven Stark examined the Obama camp's cautious approach to the DNC, and argued that the convention could actually hurt Obama's visibility. ThePhoenix.com's David S. Bernstein is in Denver covering the Democratic National Convention. You can follow his live updates, Talking Politics blog posts, and columns at our Election 2008 homepage.

Kennedy, Catholic Church, and Politics of Compromise

Reform Dept.
US Representative Patrick Kennedy's confrontation with Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin over abortion and health-care reform has soaked up quite a bit of ink.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | November 18, 2009

Governor Ghoul

Sinking to new lows
Phillipe and Jorge are coming late to this fight, as last week’s column was already filed when the announcement was made that Governor Donald Carcieri — Governor Ghoul to you — had vetoed a bill giving domestic partners the right to claim the bodies of and make funeral arrangements for the people with whom they shared their lives.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | November 18, 2009

Taking gay rights to Obama

All Politics Is Local
You might have seen Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll, seniors at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, around town in the days leading up to November 3.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | November 18, 2009

We're killing the oceans

Is it too late to save the seas that sustain us?
I meet world-renowned undersea photojournalist Brian Skerry at Legal Seafoods, across from the New England Aquarium, where he's the explorer in residence. He orders a chicken Caesar salad.
By MIKE MILIARD | November 18, 2009

Ladies' man

In his race for US Senate, Michael Capuano is using well-known women to battle the race's female front-runner.
Early last week, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government announced suddenly that Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, would speak at a forum that Friday afternoon.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 18, 2009

Interview: Leonard Nimoy

Hot Vulcan
If Leonard Nimoy’s acting work had been limited to that deliriously crazy music video for “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins,” he’d probably still be celebrated by a lot of us.
By ROB TURBOVSKY | November 16, 2009

Has Obama peaked? No, he hasn't

Obama’s days of greatest power and popularity lie before him. But be warned: he might not do what you want with it.
Barack Obama's popularity should not be judged by the day-to-day, media-driven vagaries of politics — nor by the wishful thinking of his opponents.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 12, 2009

Narrative truth

Krzysztof Wodiczko’s war story at the ICA
For the majority of us Americans, Iraq and Afghanistan are a series of news-data points — number of Americans killed today, number of car bombs, spending tallies, estimates of civilian deaths.
By GREG COOK | November 11, 2009

Easy Ed strikes again

More propaganda from Achorn. Plus, legislative musings and more.
It’s always easy for Ed. That’s “Easy Ed” Achorn, the Other Paper’s deputy editorial pages editor who is the equivalent of a right-wing P&J.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | November 11, 2009

Review: Within the Whirlwind

Emily Watson faces her accusers
Those eager to compare the Obama administration to a Communist dictatorship might check out this story based on the memoirs of the poet Evgenia Ginzburg.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 11, 2009

After the Question 1 vote

Regrouping
Last Tuesday, Maine became the 31st state to put same-sex marriage to a public vote — and to have it lose.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | November 11, 2009

Biker gang

‘Procycle 2009’ at Machines with Magnets
You’re looking over the handlebars of a bike, down the narrow canyon between a pair of city buses heading right at you.
By GREG COOK | November 12, 2009

Courthouse bomber to speak about social change

Censorship averted
After it was initially canceled, a controversial talk by a radical activist will go on Thursday at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Ray Luc Levasseur, who grew up in Sanford, Maine, and became a radical in part due to his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam, will talk on campus in connection with a symposium on “social change.”
By RICK WORMWOOD | November 11, 2009

Has Obama peaked? Yes, he has

Yes, he made history. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from there.
To listen to some pundits, Barack Obama's public image began taking a serious beating when the off-year election returns came in a week ago. Or maybe it was the undeserved Nobel Prize, his approach to the war in Afghanistan, or when he revved up his pursuit of national health-care reform.
By STEVEN STARK | November 12, 2009

The Quiet Storm

In this desperate downtime, is Deval Patrick regrouping, or cluelessly steering a sinking ship?
In recent weeks, Governor Deval Patrick has been receiving some of his best press in a long time — which is to say, he’s gotten very little coverage at all.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 04, 2009

Conservation in Copenhagen

Going Green
In about a month, representatives from almost 200 nations will converge on Copenhagen, Denmark, for what could be the most meaningful meeting on climate change, ever.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | November 04, 2009

Menino, again

Plus: Latino gains, same-sex defeat, and a buzz for pot
At a time when Americans are racked by anxiety about the uncertain future of a weak economy, Boston voters handily returned Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to an unprecedented fifth term.
By EDITORIAL | November 04, 2009

Recalling genocide

Artist Statements
Painter Stephen Koharian has international relations on his mind when he’s in his studio.
By JEFF INGLIS | November 04, 2009

Difference of opinion

Peter Canellos reinvents Globe ’s editorial page. Plus, Tom Menino’s campaign gets late-breaking help from the Banner and Herald .
It’s been three months since Peter Canellos replaced Renée Loth as editor of the Boston Globe ’s editorial page.
By ADAM REILLY | November 09, 2009

Intentions gone south

Letters to the Boston editor, November 6, 2009
Erica Corsano’s bigotry overrides some of the interesting things one might actually take away from reading her article about South Boston.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | November 04, 2009

For Mayor: Vote Flaherty + Yoon

Boston District City Council: Henriquez, Ross, ciommo, LaMattina
Boston’s mayoral candidates are running campaigns that are variations on a theme.
By EDITORIAL | November 04, 2009

Judging the Judge

Committee Doubting Thompson. Plus, The Bish, Rush, and more.
After reading Sunday’s front page BeloJo story, “Support for R.I. Judge not unanimous,” your superior correspondents have to suspect that everything — absolutely everything — is thoroughly politicized.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | October 28, 2009

Harvard ‘ACT UP’ show gets rise from right-wingers

Tea Baggers Meet the Tea-Baggers Dept.
Taking a detour from directly bashing President Obama, right-wingers are now hot and bothered by a Harvard art exhibit. And they have an Obama administration foil toward whom they can channel their bile.
By GREG COOK | November 02, 2009

Can the Rhode Island tea party brew a revolution?

The movement strives to be a coherent force for change. But is it just blowing steam?
The Rhode Island Tea Party, local wing of the national uprising against all things Obama, has some reason for hope.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 21, 2009

Review: Astro Boy

Partisan politics rain down like meatballs
Five-year-olds who attend MoveOn.org rallies in between tee-ball and bath time are sure to love the new David Bowers–directed interpretation of Osamu Tezuka’s flagship character.
By CHRIS FARAONE | October 21, 2009

Rhode Island’s pride is showing

Finally, some good ‘news!’ Plus, Brown slips, the Patriots slide, and more
There was much to-do and flexing of cultural muscles and civic pride as Our Little Towne placed in the top 10 in many prestigious categories in Travel & Leisure magazine’s 2009 survey of “America’s Favorite Cities.”
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | October 16, 2009

Afghanistan: Just say no!

Plus, Obama and the Nobel
The idea that the war in Afghanistan has reached a critical junction, a “now-or-never” moment that requires an additional 40,000 troops to win, is rubbish.
By EDITORIAL | October 14, 2009

Interview: Bill Maher

Bill Maher's new rules to live by
"If liberals act like pussies, then they are pussies."
By CHRIS FARAONE | October 15, 2009

Course correction

Out of school and out of work? Don’t enroll in a grad program just yet — adult-education coures could do (and land you) the job.
So it unfolded on Facebook, the story of this down-on-his-luck recent graduate in possession of a bachelor’s degree in the liberal arts from a respected area school.
By VANESSA CZARNECKI | October 14, 2009

Orthodox caveman

Maine’s GOP is suffering from a muddle in the middle
Wanted: a right-wing wacko to run for governor of Maine.
By AL DIAMON | October 14, 2009

Today's Event Picks

[WORDS] John Buntin: L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City