Outside the Beltway

The tributes to the troops you see during N.F.L. games were most likely bought and paid for with your tax dollars.

For reasons only he can understand. South Carolina’s senior Senator will be entering the race for the White House early next month.

Once again, only six or seven states are likely to matter.

The Baltimore Police Department will finally be under the Federal microscope. But it took the death of Freddie Gray for it happen.

Jeb Bush told a group of supporters that his brother is his top Middle East policy adviser. This strikes me as being a bad idea.

Two Republican candidates for President say that Republican elected officials should simply ignore the Supreme Court if it strikes down bans on same-sex marriage.

A Federal Appeals Court has ruled that the N.S.A.’s data mining program is illegal, but its ruling may not have a very big impact.

Break out the sweater vests, Rick Santorum is getting ready to enter the race for the Republican Presidential Nomination.

So far at least, there’s little evidence in the polls that Hillary Clinton has been hurt by the news reports about the financial dealings of the Clinton Foundation.

A new poll has some bad news for Jeb Bush in the Hawkeye State, which leads to the idea that maybe he shouldn’t waste too much time there to begin with.

And some thoughts on how a small number of voters can influence major office-holder behavior.

There must be something odd in the water in the Lone Star State, because a bizarre conspiracy theory seems to have taken root there.

In a move that is clearly designed to have an impact in the General Election, Hillary Clinton came out in support of broad immigration reform in Nevada yesterday.

Mike Huckabee’s back, but the 2008 magic is gone.

It’s complicated. And probably not a scandal.

Former President Clinton doesn’t seem to get it. Or, does he?

Two men were killed last night before they could carry out what appears to be a planned attack on an anti-Islam event in Texas.

Aides to Governor Chris Christie apparently think there’s still a way he can run a credible campaign for President, but it seems unlikely.

Carly Fiorina, who flopped at Hewlett-Packard and in her lone previous political campaign, wants to be the leader of the free world.

Ben Carson is running for President.

The sources of new immigrants to the United States are changing, but it’s unclear if that will have any impact on the political debate over immigration reform.

Two of Chris Christie’s closest aides were indicted in connection with the Birdgegate scandal today, a third plead guilty, and Christie’s Presidential ambitions are pretty much dead.

Big news out of Baltimore and, perhaps, the beginning of justice for Freddie Gray.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are talking about fundamentally changing what it means to be an American, and it’s a bad idea.

Rand Paul bucks Republican orthodoxy on Iraq, Libya, and negotiations with Iran.

Vaccination has eliminated a disease that used to be a serious threat from the Americas.

The Clinton Foundation’s foreign donations continue to be a problem for the Clinton campaign, and the story isn’t likely to go away any time soon.

In a marked departure from recent cases, the Supreme Court rules that states can impose significant restriction on solicitation of campaign contributions in judicial elections.

Economic growth slowed significantly in the first three months of 2015, but it’s not clear what that means going forward.

The N.F.L.’s league office is giving up its tax exempt status, but that means far less than the headline implies.

Bernie Sanders is running for President. He’s not going to win, but he’s not running because he thinks he can win.

There is no excuse for last night’s rioting in Baltimore, but that should not deflect attention from the problems with that city’s police.

Congress can’t really do anything to stop a nuclear deal with Iran, and John Boehner knows it.

Far from being a positive, Hillary Clinton’s time as Secretary of State provides ample material for those who would attack her over the next eighteen months.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is insightful and eloquent. He’s wrong in this instance.

Pot, meet kettle.

Even for political junkies, the thrill seems to be gone.

Another poll shows that Republicans are largely out of step with public opinion on the question of whether businesses should be free to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings.

49 “experts in governance and democracy” to call for nonsensical reforms to the presidential debates.

A series of mini-scandals point to the conflicts of interest around the Clintons.