Outside the Beltway

A federal judge poses an interesting question in a case over Obama’s contraceptive mandate.

When someone kills himself after being bullied, we rightly condemn the bully. Should we condemn his victim, too?

40 years after Roe v. Wade, support for the decision is still strong, but the effort to restrict it continues apace.

40 years later, the public continues to support the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade.

The Tea Party guys had a bad year.

The bizarre dynamics of Virginia politics.

The GOP’s image problems continue

Robert Bork, the controversial jurist whose failed Supreme Court bid ushered in a new climate in American politics, has died at 85.

Charlie Crist, run out of the Republican Party, is now a Democrat.

Possibly a big week for the Supreme Court.

Guess who’s back?

Judging by the record of the past decade and a half, movement conservatism has accomplished very little.

The GOP’s problems extend far beyond immigration.

Believing the maker/taker dichotomy.

The Republican Party needs more than outreach to Hispanics to become a viable national party again.

Republicans are trying to figure out what went wrong. Will they learn the right lessons from their loss?

The impact of outside spending on the election turned out to be far less consequential than many had feared.

President Obama easily won re-election last night, carrying virtually all of the battleground states. Meanwhile, abortion, gay marriage, and recreational marijuana also won big.

The GOP’s hopes of taking over the Senate in 2012 have all but slipped away, but there is another option.

David Brooks tries to “describe what being a moderate means” in a way that most Americans would find puzzling.

A recent poll has Obama and Romney tied among women. Another gives Obama a 33 point edge.

Days after “Friday Night Lights” author Buzz Bissinger endorsed Mitt Romney, the writer and producer of the acclaimed television spin-off is accusing the campaign of plagiarizing the show’s catchphrase.

Seriously, how did this guy ever get elected to Congress?

Whether Mitt Romney wins or loses, the GOP needs to evolve or be doomed to minority party status.

A new round of polling has Obama in the lead and shows reasons why Romney’s supporters should be concerned, but it’s unclear how long any of this will last.

Hey GOP, Lt. Sulu has some questions for you.

Ann Romney dodged questions from a reporter seeking her personal opinions on hot-button social issues. Good for her.

Depending on what time you watched any of last night’s proceedings in Charlotte, you got a very different experience.

Condoleeza Rice’s first trip onto the political stage was very successful last night. Where will she go from here?

The political convention we know is a 19th Century relic. It’s time to modernize it and make it a lot shorter.

The Republican Party has apparently solved all of the nation’s real problems and decided it can waste time on nonsense.

Mitt Romney’s forces won a rules change that will allow future nominees to have more say over their conventions. While this strikes me as a no-brainer, some conservative activists are up in arms.

As its convention begins, one has to wonder what has happened to the Republican Party.

NYT executive editor Jill Abramson is shocked that her outgoing public editor thinks her paper “virtually bleeds” a “kind of political and cultural progressivism.”

The former Republican governor of Florida says his former party is so extreme that it holds positions he held two years ago.