Outside the Beltway

Do we place too much importance on performance in presidential debates?

Barack Obama wrote two bestselling memoirs before becoming president. Both of them are hot items at Foggy Bottom.

Quite improbably, Herman Cain remains at the top of the GOP field.

Rick Perry seems to be picking up where Sarah Palin left off.

And, the week closes out with another round of rumors about New Jersey’s Governor.

The grass is always greener on the candidate not running (or something like that).

Stephen Hill, a US soldier serving in Iraq, was booed by some members of the audience at last night’s Republican debate.

Rick Santorum: naked partisan. (Although, really, this is more a post about the EC than it is about Santorum).

Of the institutions designed by the Framers, the electoral college is the one that deserves the least amount of defense if one’s defense is predicated on assumptions of the genius of said framers.

It’s not a given that we’ll have a massive recovery during the next presidential term but it’s a pretty decent bet. And the party in power will get too much credit for it if it happens.

No matter how weak he becomes, no President will ever be completely irrelevant to the political process.

Let’s see if there is evidence to support the assertion.

Did Speaker Boehner insult President Obama by snubbing his speech request? If so, so what?

A political scientist whose formula has correctly picked every presidential winner since 1984 says Barack Obama will be re-elected.

The US came a lot closer to something resembling a parliamentary system than most people think.

Her appeal is not her ideas, policies, or achievements but her personality and appeal to the red meat base.

Rick Perry declared, “One of the reasons that I’m running for president is I want to make sure that every young man and woman who puts on the uniform of the United States respects highly the president of the United States.”

Further evidence of Bachmann’s extreme views on homosexuality.

Does it matter which candidate the GOP nominates?

Steven Metz muses, “Scholars argue that too much political mobilization can make democracies dysfunction. Is that where the US is today?”

Speculation about Michele Bachmann’s health continues.

Thomas Ricks makes the case that JFK was the worst President of his century but his argument misses the mark.

Georgia Congressman Paul Broun has a radical suggestion: While we’re playing chicken with the nation’s debt, let’s cut $1.3 trillion from the debt ceiling!

The Senate Republican leader is running a shrewd political game. But what’s good for the GOP is bad for America.

The odds of history are against Michele Bachmann.

The normally loquacious Chávez has been almost silent since emergency surgery in Cuba on June 10th.