McCain meltdown
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Joe Klein
TIME Magazine columnist
John McCain said this today in Rochester, New Hampshire:
"This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign."
This is the ninth presidential campaign I've covered. I can't remember a more scurrilous statement by a major party candidate. It smacks of desperation. It renews questions about whether McCain has the right temperament for the presidency. How sad. Read more
Italian Vogue: Black is the new black
Program Note: In the next installment of CNN's Black in America series, Soledad O'Brien examines the successes, struggles and complex issues faced by black men, women and families, 40 years after the death of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Watch encore presentation Saturday & Sunday, 8 p.m. ET
We devote several days on the blog to smart insight and commentary related to the special.
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We devote several days on the blog to smart insight and commentary related to the special.
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Lola Ogunnaike | BIO
Pop Culture correspondent, CNN's American Morning
I have never wanted to learn to speak Italian until this very moment. I just finished flipping through the latest issue of Italian Vogue and I’ve been rendered speechless (which seldom happens).
This issue celebrates the black model and all the big gals of the past and the present are on full display—everyone from Iman to Chanel Iman.
Pioneers like Alva Chinn, 80's darlings like Veronica Webb and Karen Alexander and newbies like Jourdan Dunn. They come from as far as the Sudan (Alex Wek) and as near as California (Tyra).
Some, like the infamous Naomi Campbell, don’t even look human, they look utterly other worldly. With all the cell phone throwing and temper tantrums, it’s easy to forget that Campbell is one of the best to have ever graced the runway. This magazine more than reminds you. More importantly, it reminds you that black women come in all shades, their hair in all textures and they are not to be forgotten.
William S. Cohen: Why Americans can't get over race
Program Note: In the next installment of CNN's Black in America series, Soledad O'Brien examines the successes, struggles and complex issues faced by black men, women and families, 40 years after the death of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Watch encore presentation Saturday & Sunday, 8 p.m. ET
We devote several days on the blog to smart insight and commentary related to the special.
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Watch Bill and Janet Cohen talk about their diverse backgrounds and life as an interracial couple in America.
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Editor's Note: William Cohen is a former Republican senator and defense secretary in the Clinton administration. His wife, Janet Langhart Cohen, is a former TV journalist, model and author. They are the co-authors of "Love In Black and White," a memoir about race, religion and their experiences as an interracial couple.
William S. Cohen and Janet Langhart Cohen
In 1835, Alexis DeTocqueville, in his seminal work, "Democracy in America," prophesied that the abolition of slavery would not eliminate racial prejudice, which he declared was "immovable."
Sen. Barack Obama, in running for the presidency of the United States, is challenging DeTocqueville's bleak assessment of the human heart. It remains unclear whether the Illinois senator is on a hopeless mission, or whether the American people will decide to make history by breaking with it.
Ghanian slave castles: Where beauty and brutality co-exist
Program Note: In the next installment of CNN's Black in America series, Soledad O'Brien examines the successes, struggles and complex issues faced by black men, women and families, 40 years after the death of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Watch encore presentation Saturday & Sunday, 8 p.m. ET
We devote several days on the blog to smart insight and commentary related to the special.
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Roland S. Martin
CNN Political Analyst, AC360° Contributor
It is truly stunning to look out into the Atlantic Ocean and see the beauty of the beach and waves along the coastline of this Ghanian fishing town, and then listening to them crash onto the shores below the Elmina Slave Castle.
But if you close your eyes, you can also hear the banging of chains and the rustling of the feet of slaves – bunched in groups of 400 women and 600 men – as they are held in dark, small, cramped and poorly ventilated spaces, not knowing whether they will survive this horrible ordeal and return to their tribes in this West African nation.
It's hard to fathom how such unbelievable brutality, and breathtaking beauty, could co-exist.
Firestorm over a campaign to understand Islam
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Mary Snow
CNN Correspondent
A campaign to promote better understanding of Islam using ads in New York City subway cars has sparked controversy, with one tabloid paper calling it "Jihad Train" and a congressman saying the campaign should be stopped before it starts.
Really?
We wanted to check with the source of that controversy - an imam promoting the campaign who had also served as a character witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind sheik convicted of being mastermind behind the 1993 plot to blow up the World Trade Center.
This imam, Siraj Wahhaj, was named as one of 170 unindicted co-conspirators in the plot. And he allegedly called the FBI and CIA the "real terrorists."
So, what's this man doing, claiming to promote "understanding?"
We went to ask him.
Iraq's shifting position - on U.S. troops and politics
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Morgan Neil
AC360° Contributor
After Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki met with Barack Obama on Monday, his spokesman dropped a bombshell: Iraq had a vision, Ali al-Dabbagh said, that most US combat troops would withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2010.
Here in CNN's Baghdad bureau, producer Jomana Karadsheh caught Dabbagh by phone as he boarded a plane with Maliki heading for Germany. Yes, he told her, the Iraqi Government's "vision" is that most US combat troops would be out of Iraq by 2010.
And, he added, this was nothing new.
Well, not so fast.
FULL POST
Reading the McCain VP tea leaves
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Dana Bash
CNN Political Correspondent
It's VP tea leaf reading season, and a Republican source who attended a small private meeting with John McCain, Tuesday, in New Hampshire tells CNN that the Republican candidate dropped a serious hint about Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.
The GOP source said "out of the blue" McCain told the gathering that he thinks they are "really going to like" Pawlenty.
Coincidently a McCain aide says Gov. Pawlenty was at McCain headquarters in northern Virginia today. He was apparently in town already for another meeting. FULL POST
Morning Buzz: Hello Dolly....
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Morning folks...
A quick program note..CNN Presents BLACK IN AMERICA tonight from 9 to 11 pm eastern. The two hour documentary is hosted by Soledad O'Brien. AC360 will be LIVE at 11 pm eastern. We will do a BLACK in AMERICA post-game show...we will look at issues of "colorism" in the black community, solutions to the high drop out rate, issues of many black women choosing to be single, and being biracial and talk about them with Soledad, Roland Fryer, Michael Eric Dyson, and Tara Wall...
We will also cover some other news at 11 pm tonight....Residents on the South Texas/Mexico border are bracing themselves for Hurricane Dolly. Wind and rain can be felt on South Padre Island as I write this morning...Currently a category 1 storm with 85 mph winds, but it is now gaining strength and expected to be a category 2 when it makes landfall in a few hours...Dolly is expected to dump up to 15 inches of rain, cause widespread flooding and possibly spawn tornadoes...So in typical CNN fashion we are flooding the zone. Gary Tuchman is in South Padre Island, Susan Roesgen in Brownsville, Texas and Chad Myers will be at the helm in the CNN Weather Center.... We will have all that the storm leaves behind tonight...
