[My childhood was ] spiritual than religious.

The published record will show that many in Chicago have mixed feedback on the President's [Barack Obama] role as organizer.

I don't know how many off the record conversations I've had with African-American leaders who would not be quoted and refused to make their sentiments public.

People have been unhappy for a long time about the two-party system.

Indeed, as soon as he took office, Senator Mitch McConnell announced that his top priority was to deny President [Barack] Obama a second term.

This is a column collection, or as one colleague called it, "history in real time," recounting my perspective on the highs and lows of this presidency from an African-American perspective. More than simply a column collection, the book has a substantial introduction that frames the [Barack] Obama presidency, explores the way Obama was treated by the political establishment and also how this first black president treated "his" people. In the epilogue, I use numbers to tell the story of African-American gains and losses during this presidency.

President [Barack] Obama's pick of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education was abysmal.