Outside the Beltway

Sarah Palin isn’t running for President, and she hasn’t officially endorsed anyone, but that hasn’t stopped her from putting her thumb on the scale.

Have Americans divided themselves into what are becoming increasingly different cultures?

My latest for The Atlantic explains, “Why We Should Be Glad the Haditha Massacre Marine Got No Jail Time.”

One year later, Egypt’s revolution remains unfinished.

Why are all the candidates for president so awful?

We, as a country, need to remember that do not hold levers that allow us to move events this way or that

How far should the press go in challenging assertions by politicians?

The problem with Europe may not be the Euro, but the fact that there really aren’t any Europeans.

Rick Santorum’s foreign policy positions are troubling in many respects.

For a guy who says he dislikes “activist judges,” Rick Perry sure wants a certain Federal Judge in Virginia to be an activist.

Ron Paul doesn’t want to talk about his newsletters now, but he was pretty talkative 15 years ago.

How can we know what happens next in North Korea when we didn’t even know Kim Jong-il had died?

Gingrich has some pretty radical ideas about separation of powers.

After 3,193 days and more than 4,000 lives, the American war in Iraq is officially at an end.

With Gingrich surging in the polls, the pundit class has gotten out the long knives.

Time Magazine has chosen “The Protester” as its Person Of The Year. Let the outrage ensue.

Paul Krugman’s latest column, “Depression and Democracy,” is simply bizarre.

A revealing quote and some musing on Newt’s consistency.

There’s a little historical revisionism going on on the right.

How did Republicans get in this mess?

Public opinion on the Occupy movement has turned increasingly sour.

Apparently, we should be more like China. Or something.

The most disturbing part of Saturday’s debate came when most of the GOP candidates endorsed torture.

From across the pond, an observation that the way we pick Presidents isn’t really that bad after all.

Huntsman will gain little if any traction and none of the frontrunners really helped or hurt themselves.

My latest for The Atlantic: “For Europe, Some Fear a Conflict Between Union and Democracy”

Are America’s political parties become irrelevant?

It’s the 5% versus the 1% moreso than the 99% against the 1%.

President Obama’s surprise announcement Friday that all U.S. forces would leave Iraq in time to be home for the holidays has been roundly condemned. While there are real concerns about what happens next, there was no better alternative.

Yes, again with the EC.

There’s no consensus for European-style social democracy or a Randian libertarian paradise.

Protests at least loosely affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement were conducted around the globe yesterday.

Not surprisingly, the “Super Committee” to deal with the deficit isn’t making much progress.

With the advantage of hindsight, it’s clear that more creative strategies were needed. But they probably couldn’t have been passed.

My latest for The Atlantic, “Romney’s Realist Foreign Policy Is a Lot Like Obama’s,” has been posted.

Ahead of his big foreign policy speech, Mitt Romney has unveiled his “Foreign Policy and National Security Advisory Team” which “will assist Governor Romney as he presents his vision for restoring American leadership in the world and securing our enduring interests and ideals abroad.”

The Occupy Wall Street protests look more like a temper tantrum than a substantive protest movement.

Where should we look to understand the failings of the government?

Is money the only thing that matters in post-Citizens United American politics?