* In 2005, Bob Herbert authored Promises Betrayed: Waking Up from the American Dream, a book that laments the plight of racial minorities and castigates the U.S. for its involvement in the Iraq War. The book received critical praise from such notables as Henry Louis Gates Jr., Marian Wright Edelman, Bill Moyers, and Barbara Ehrenreich.
* In 2014, Herbert published Losing Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America. This book describes how the “great promise of America” has been compromised by bad foreign policy decisions, persistent unemployment and poverty, income inequality, declining unionization in the workforce, disintegrating infrastructure, and political gridlock in Washington. Moreover, the author alleges that the “winner-take-all” U.S. economy discriminates against poor minorities, and he denounces America’s “profoundly debilitating” military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
* In a July 2008 article, Herbert criticized Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for pledging to bolster President George W. Bush’s program of investing taxpayer dollars in faith-based initiatives. In Herbert’s view, Obama, by so doing, was compromising his leftist ideals and “lurching right” for the sake of political expediency
* In an August 2008 column, titled “Running While Black,” Herbert condemned the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain as being racist, accusing the Arizona senator of exploiting the fears of white voters. In particular, Herbert slammed a McCain ad that featured glimpses of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, meant to point out that a celebrity persona (such as Obama’s) was not, in itself, a qualification for the presidency. Herbert wrote: “The two highly sexualized women are shown briefly and incongruously at the beginning of a commercial critical of Mr. Obama…. [The ad was] designed to exploit the hostility, anxiety and resentment of the many white Americans who are still freakishly hung up on the idea of black men rising above their station and becoming sexually involved with white women…. Senator McCain is the head of a party that has viciously exploited race for political gain for decades.”
* Herbert shared President Obama’s wish to ban offshore oil exploration, stating that “lifting the offshore restrictions would risk serious environmental damage to the U.S. coastline over the next several decades while having no significant effect on the price of gasoline at the pump.”
* Herbert has received a number of awards for his work in journalism, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ award for distinguished newspaper writing, and the Meyer Berger Award for coverage of New York City. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers presented Herbert with its “Champion of Justice” award, which is given annually to “individuals who — through legislative, journalistic or humanitarian pursuits — have staunchly preserved or defended the constitutional rights of American citizens and have endeavored to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime.”