(Afro) — Spending nearly eight years laboring Inside the Beltway as a communication strategist, Melanie N. Roussell has reached a critical position that could make or break the reelection chances of President Barak Obama. As chief spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the former press secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing must carefully craft messages about the commander-in-chief. Roussell said she’s ready. Roussell got her first taste of politics as a senior at Florida A&M University, a historically Black college in Tallahassee, Fla., when she got involved with the Bush vs. Gore 2000 election. The FAMU graduate, then a member of the school’s Student Government Association, said there were 500 reported cases of voting disenfranchisement in which students were turned away from the polls or told they couldn’t vote, even though they had current registration cards.
