Outside the Beltway

Nicholas Katzenbach, a central figure in the civil rights fights of the 1960s, has died.

Mitt Romney is being rightfully ridiculed for trying to take credit for saving General Motors and Chrysler.

Mitt Romney has a big problem. People don’t seem to like him very much.

Optimism sells. Someone should remind the GOP of this fact.

The White House is playing a game that few people are buying.

Ron Paul’s supporters are racking up delegate wins at party conventions in caucus states, but it won’t matter in the end.

If we taught the Federalist Papers more rigorously would that lead to a shared view of the constitution?

Another bizarre conservative rant about the President.

The New Yorker’s John Cassidy sees “Good and Bad News for Obama” in Nicolas Sarkozy’s defeat.

Did Joe Biden misspeak, or drop a hint that he shouldn’t have?

Our psychological and cultural biases make evaluating information and arguments rationally next to impossible.

The Libertarian Party has chosen another former Republican politician as their Presidential nominee.

Phony wars on Stay At Home Moms, dogs, and Osama bin Laden. The Obama campaign is pointing at the shiny object, and the right is falling for it.

Elizabeth Warren’s Senate campaign stumbled badly this week.

When Dan Drezner tweeted “I’m not going to read anything dumber than this today,” my inclination was to scoff. He actually undersold it.

Once again, the jobs market appears to be slowing.

Obama has an advantage in what is likely to be one of the most important states in November’s election, but the race is far from over.

The argument that Barack Obama hasn’t been vetted is simply absurd.

What seemed like a diplomatic success has begun to unravel very quickly.

Ruthlessly avoiding fights that aren’t worth the risk is shrewd leadership. But Romney still needs to show he can fight and win.

Based on the postmortems, it certainly seems like the Romney campaign threw Richard Grenell under the bus.

The GOP’s response to the Obama campaign’s Osama bin Laden ad has not been helpful.

My first piece for The New Republic, “Why the Obama Administration’s Drone War May Soon Reach a Tipping Point,” is up.

Parties are in politics primarily to win the vote of the median voter, not to join together and sing Kumbaya.

Richard Grenell’s time as Mitt Romney’s foreign policy spokesman lasted less than a month. The fact that he’s gay appears to be the reason it ended.

Osama bin Laden’s death provides Barack Obama with an important political shield during the upcoming campaign.

Wolf Blitzer just observed that the fact that the president has to take these “extraordinary security precautions” to enter Afghanistan proves how far we still have to go in Afghanistan.