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.

Latest Articles

Interview: Daniel Ellsberg

Courage under fire
"By ordinary standards of presidents, Obama is a decent man. But those standards aren't good enough."
By CHRIS FARAONE | February 09, 2010

Ask a Black Woman: Harry Reid edition

Diverse City
Just in time for Black History Month, another installment of "Ask a Black Woman," thanks to JT in Portland who in early January asked me: What's your take on the Harry Reid thing?
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | February 03, 2010

Impeach John Roberts

The Chief Justice lied
It is time for an enterprising and courageous member of the US House of Representatives to file articles of impeachment against the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, John Roberts. The charge: lying under oath.
By EDITORIAL | February 08, 2010

Is there 'hope' in Hollywood?

Three controversial (and sure to be Oscar-nominated) films tackle race in the age of Obama
Buoyed by President Barack Obama's campaign slogan, many had hopes for change after his election.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 29, 2010

Oscar predictions 2010

With 10 Best Picture noms, is Oscar up in the air? Our critic predicts.
After years of shrinking audiences and low-grossing Best Picture nominees, the Academy this year is hedging its bets.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 29, 2010

Revenge of the Idiots

Letters to the Boston editor, January 29, 2010
To my fellow Massachusetts Democrats: please don’t blame Martha Coakley for this shocking defeat.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | January 27, 2010

Department of conjecture

Letters to the Portland Editor, January 29, 2010
The Haiti disaster will not serve to turn a state from toss-up to safely Republican as the George W. Bush Administration's calculated response to Hurricane Katrina did in Louisiana.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | January 27, 2010

Starting to clear Maine’s broadband backlog

Mapping the Internet
The biggest obstacle between Mainers and more, better, faster broadband Internet access is actually a very basic one: there's a lack of information about what kind of Internet service is already available where.
By JEFF INGLIS | January 27, 2010

Free speech for me, but not for thee

Freedom Watch
Last Thursday's Supreme Court opinion striking down corporate campaign advertising restrictions might as well have been divorce papers in the rocky marriage between the political left and the First Amendment.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | January 29, 2010

Rainbow Nation

The US isn't the only country exploring its complex racial history. South Africa prepares for its moment in the sun.
After a torturous history of being treated like second-class citizens, the black population in this country stunned the world by pulling off the unimaginable: voting a black man in as president.
By LANCE GOULD | January 28, 2010

A wake-up call

Ranting about money and media; musical musings; and notes from the road
Some months back, Judge Richard Posner, a prolific author and longtime leading figure in the laissez-faire-oriented Chicago school of economics published his latest tome, a little bit of conservative heresy titled A Failure of Capitalism .
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | January 27, 2010

Trying times for Obama

Tough times for the nation
It was only a matter of time before President Barack Obama turned into a deficit hawk. But it is a measure of the desperation sparked by Scott Brown's election to Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat that Obama hatched before the conclusion of the 2010 congressional elections and unveiled a spending freeze.
By EDITORIAL | January 27, 2010

Obama's year two to-do's

What Have You Done for Me Lately Dept.
This week marks the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama's inauguration. Can you believe it?
By MIKE MILIARD | January 20, 2010

Covering a tragedy

How does a small local paper cover the world's biggest story?
The earthquake that ravaged Haiti on January 12 posed a major challenge for the Boston Haitian Reporter , the lone English-language outlet focused on Boston's sizable Haitian community. The quake and its aftermath were of vital interest to the Reporter 's core audience, but local, national, and international media were already tackling the story with resources that the Reporter simply didn't have.
By ADAM REILLY | January 20, 2010

Aftershock

More than 1500 miles from the epicenter of the Haitian quake, its effects rippled through Boston's teeming Haitian community
From the second that the Richter scale registered at 7.0 in Haiti, a desperate grief rippled through Hyde Park, Dorchester, and other corners of this region, which is home to the third-largest Haitian population in America.
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 20, 2010

What’s next for Cicilline?

After a couple of tough years — and some jabs from Buddy — how bright is his political future?
Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline rode into office seven years ago as the fresh-faced anti-Buddy. Bleach for a soiled City Hall.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 21, 2010

Tea-bagger Brown triumphs

Obama must rally independents
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley may be a good person and a dedicated public servant, but thanks to her gut-wrenching loss to tea-bagging Republican Scott Brown in the race for the US Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy, Coakley is now — quite rightly — a figure of local scorn and national derision.
By EDITORIAL | January 20, 2010

Does Scott Brown’s victory mean doom for RI Democrats?

Fallout
Republican Scott Brown's stunning victory this week in the race for the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts has created something approaching panic in the ranks of Congressional Democrats.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 20, 2010

How Brown won

While Massachusetts Democrats assess blame for who lost the Senate seat, the truth is that Scott Brown won it
As the Massachusetts US Senate election unfolded yesterday, all that the pols and pundits wanted to talk about was how Martha Coakley managed to lose the race. And there is plenty there to dissect. But there is another part of the story, and that is how Scott Brown managed to win it.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | January 22, 2010

Hail Mary pass?

Nothing says Super Bowl Sunday like an anti-abortion ad; Ripping Rush; and more
Phillipe and Jorge noticed an interesting tidbit in the sports section of the New York Times recently.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | January 20, 2010

It's lonely at the top

Behind closed (and padlocked) doors
Big business and the military-industrial complex in the Obama White House
By MIKE PREVOST | January 20, 2010

Ah, it's cool, Harry

Idiot Box
Making up is hard to do
By MATT BORS | January 20, 2010

Finally, a GOP gubernatorial contender!

Robitaille gives it a go. Plus, voter unrest, Reid puts his foot in it, and more.
Speaking of the GOP, it appears the party has a candidate — at last! — for the gubernatorial race, provided he doesn't wimp out like Rory Smith did when he realized he was in a no-win, not-ever situation.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | January 13, 2010

Coakley for Senate

She has the talent and gumption to tackle the future
When Massachusetts voters go to the polls on Tuesday to elect a successor to the late Senator Edward Kennedy, they face a choice that is as clear as the difference between black and white.
By EDITORIAL | January 19, 2010

Menino's promise

Realizing his pledge of flexibility is the key to Boston's future success
Boston's political tribes checked their traditional hostilities at the door this week when they trooped into Faneuil Hall for the inauguration of Mayor Thomas Menino, who took the oath to serve an unprecedented fifth term.
By EDITORIAL | January 06, 2010

It will not be a dull year!

The governor’s race, gambling, drama on Smith Hill, and more is on tap in 2010
The New Year is shaping up as potent dope for the political junkie.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 06, 2010

Up in Smoke in New Hampshire

Live Fried or Die Dept.
President Barack Obama has championed a platform that pledges commitment to a green economy. But this probably isn't what he had in mind.
By VALERIE VANDE PANNE | January 06, 2010

Booked solid

A hefty season of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry
The holidays are over — time to hit the books.
By BARBARA HOFFERT | January 04, 2010

Lite at the end of the tunnel?

Fun and games in post-apocalyptic Hollywood
If you had enough of the end of the world with 2012 , you might be relieved when it comes to 2010.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 04, 2010

Grumpy World

Happy? Not us! Plus, Pawtucket pride, saluting the navy, and a New Year’s toast.
P&J were strangely drawn to the story by Linda Borg in the Sunday BeloJo on the exceptionally low marks the Biggest Little received in a happiness index conceived by what we suspect are a bunch of elite jickies from across the pond for the journal Science (which is, after all, headquartered in Cambridge, England).
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | December 30, 2009

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[WORDS] Dwayne Raymond's "Mornings With Mailer"

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