Today’s video of the day comes from The Daily Show, where the show’s experts provide a very apt comparison of George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

A Tale of Two Coaches
By Dave Zirin 

The flop-sweat had not even dried on Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning’s star-crossed brow before what will become the most endlessly thumped story of Super Bowl XLI hit the wires: For the first time in history, the head coaches of both teams are black.

No question this is a significant milestone. No question Colts helmsman Tony Dungy and Bears coach Lovie Smith deserve praise for shattering one of sports’ most formidable glass ceilings. No question this moment is particularly sweet for Smith, who remains the NFL’s lowest-paid head coach.

But the tenor and tone of the early coverage has provided fuzzy cover for NFL hiring practices that continue to look like they’re overseen by Strom Thurmond.
AP sports columnist Nancy Armour praised Dungy and Smith for keeping their noses down and working hard instead of “whining about life being unfair.”Sports Illustrated’s Jeffri Chadiha threw more laurels at Dungy, saying that what is “impressive about him is the way he’s opened doors for other minority coaches in the league over the last 11 years.”

Even Barack Obama weighed in, using the coaches’ accomplishment to burnish his own image as America’s Most Unthreatening Model Minority: “You know, what makes it even better is that they are both men of humility, they are both men of God…it is a wonderful story, not just for African-Americans but for all Americans to see men like that who are good fathers, who are good leaders, who do things the right way, succeed.”

For the rest of the story, click here.

By Keith Boykin 

The big political story of the past few days is Barack Obama’s relations with black America. On Thursday, the Washington Post published a new poll that showed Hillary Clinton does significantly better with black voters than Obama does. Black Democrats in the poll chose Clinton by a 3-1 margin, 60 percent to 20 percent. That apparently has sped up a flurry of media interest about Obama’s relationships with blacks.

In the past few days, both the New York Times and the Boston Globe have contacted me to find out what Barack Obama was like when we were in law school together. Here’s the official story.

I attended Harvard Law School for 2 years with Barack. He graduated in 1991. I graduated in 1992. We were not close friends, but we were both well known on campus for entirely different reasons. Barack was something of a celebrity on campus even in law school. That’s because he was the first black student elected as president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. I, on the other hand, was a campus activist, deeply involved in the movement for faculty diversity.

For the rest of the story, click here.

Today’s photo of the day comes from Washington DC, where hundreds (not tens!) of thousands of citizens gathered on Saturday to protest the war in Iraq. In addition to everyday people, celebrities and politicians like Jesse Jackson, Tim Robbins, Jane Fonda, Susan Serandon, and Maxine Waters spoke and marched in solidarity with the anti-war movement. While I was disappointed at the lack of young black and brown people, I was even more dismayed to see that Dennis Kucinich was the only presidential hopeful that showed up at the event.