Outside the Beltway

Some thoughts and questions as we finally hit the start of the process. (And the return of the Toast-o-Meter)

The final Des Moines Register poll before Caucus Night shows Donald Trump leading the GOP field, and Hillary Clinton with a narrow lead over Bernie Sanders, but much of the final outcome will depend on who shows up for the respective party caucuses.

Politics makes strange bedfellows, but come on.

More email headaches for the Clinton campaign, but it remains unclear if any wrongdoing occurred.

Thursday’s debate without Donald Trump drew fewer viewers than might have been expected, but it’s unclear if that’s because Donald Trump wasn’t there.

An anemic end to 2015 raises concerns about the health of the economy going forward.

Another icon of popular music has passed away.

Without Trump, the seventh Republican debate largely focused on Ted Cruz, who doesn’t seem to have done himself any favors. Donald Trump, meanwhile, will likely not pay any price at all for skipping the last pre-Iowa debate.

Last night’s Republican debate had a different feel with the absence of a certain bloviating narcissist.

Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen are leaving after a dispute with their chief investor.

Many analysts are making the argument that Marco Rubio is the GOP’s best hope to win the General Election in 2016. That may be true, but before he can get there he needs to find a way to win the GOP nomination.

The first debate after the Iowa Caucuses will have fewer participants than past debates, and there will be no undercard debate.

With mere days until voting starts, the possibility of Donald Trump running the table in the February primaries and caucuses, or nearly doing so, is more and more likely.

Chris Cillizza thinks “Rush Limbaugh totally gets Donald Trump.” I disagree.

Donald Trump takes his war with Fox News Channel up a notch, saying he won’t participate in Thursday’s Republican Presidential Debate.

“Tom, can you get me off the hook? For old times’ sake?”

“Can’t do it, Sally.”