Outside the Beltway

FSU’s Jimbo Fisher offers interesting insights into the coaching profession.

Another day, another shooting spree in America.

Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy last night, becoming the first “freshman” to do so.

Want to teach political science for a living? Go to one of a handful of top schools or don’t bother.

In “Eyes on the Prize,” Chuck Culpepper looks at Saban’s first season as a head coach, with Toledo, way back in 1989-90. It seems that Nick Saban has been Nick Saban for a very long time.

Republican opposition to same-sex marriage is costing it yet another demographic group.

There’s been a bit of buzz of late about the fact that people in several states have filed petitions to secede from the Union. There shouldn’t be.

The Supreme Court has agreed to take on another big case.

More griping about poor analysis.

Demographics are not destiny; policy positions drive decision, ultimately.

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.

Utility crews from Alabama traveled to New Jersey to help get the power back on. They were turned away on account of not being unionized.

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

All eyes on Northern Virginia.

National numbers can overstate regional preferences.

Ten years ago starting today, John Allen Mohammed and Lee Boyd Malvo began a crime spree that kept the D.C. area on a knife’s edge for three long weeks.

Mitt Romney still has problems with Southern whites that could pose problems for him in states like Virginia and North Carolina.

A legal setback for the Texas Voter ID law, but not much of a political setback for Voter ID laws in general.

Mississippi is more conservative than Massachusetts is liberal.

Though still just a Tropical Storm, Isaac has the potential to be as dangerous as Hurricane Katrina.

Tropical Storm Isaac won’t be as much of a danger to Tampa as feared, but it’s still having an impact. That’s all because of bad scheduling ideas.

A black ‘Democrat’ who seconded Obama’s nomination in 2008 is endorsing Romney in 2012. It’s not a big deal.

In my adult memory, the American South was a one-party Democratic region for all but presidential elections. Aside from minority set-aside districts, the reversal is near complete.

Andrew Hacker argues that, while quantitative skills are “critical for informed citizenship and personal finance,” making kids master algebra to graduate high school has disastrous consequences.

The NCAA more than lived up to the hype of “unprecedented” sanctions.

Another study shows that voter ID laws negatively affect a lot of Americans.

Mitt Romney’s intransigence over releasing more tax returns is politically stupid.

As gas prices fall, the politics of fuel prices are changing.

America’s Drug War has caused more problems for Mexico than Fast & Furious ever will.

How dominant is the Southeastern Conference? It’s won more titles in the big sports since 2005 than all other conferences combined.

Byron York reacts to a CNNMoney story titled “Government wants more people on food stamps” by snarking, “And Democrats reacted angrily when Gingrich called Obama ‘food stamp president.'”

Today, the Supreme Court decided that mandatory life sentences for juveniles violate the 8th Amendment.

With two weeks left in June, the Supreme Court is likely to be in the news quite a lot.

The 1976 Pulitizer prize winner is phoning it in.

Health care is eating up 10 percent of the Pentagon’s budget and rising fast.

The phrase “American Taliban” is usually off the mark. However, sometimes it is closer to the mark than we might like.

The GOP has a serious problem with the Latino vote, and it may too late to fix it.

A new poll finds that adding Chris Christie to the ticket would fail to deliver New Jersey to the Republicans.

The Germans are taking this austerity thing a little far: their police fired only 85 shots at humans last year.

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