Outside the Beltway

The enthusiasm for Tea Party candidates likely helped the House Republican wave. But it also likely cost the GOP four Senate seats that it would otherwise have won — and thus the majority.

She didn’t gain national prominence until late August, and she’s going to most likely lost by a wide margin tonight, but Christine O’Donnell received more coverage from the media than any other candidate running in 2010.

Ezra Klein argues that Sarah Palin’s Twitter account isn’t very popular. But that misses the point.

Unnamed Republican leaders are lined up to ensure that anybody but the former VP nominee is the party’s 2012 standard bearer.

National Republicans are reportedly abandoning Joe Miller’s Senate campaign at the last minute out of fear that only Lisa Murkowski can stop Alaska’s Senate seat from falling into Democratic hands. That could have a serious impact down the road for relations between inside-the-beltway Republicans and the Tea Party.

We’ve been talking about the 2010 elections since, oh, the day after the 2008 elections.   Now, it’s time for final predictions.

The Alaska Supreme Court has approved the state providing a list of certified write-in candidates to voters who ask for help.

A Hayes Research poll has Joe Miller in 3rd place in Alaska. They’re the only ones showing that and have a very poor track record.

Karl Rove unloaded what may be the beginning of the GOP Establishment’s effort to cut a Palin Presidential bid off at the knees.

Thanks to races in as many six states that may be decided by absentee and write-in ballots, we may not know the outcome of the 2010 Elections for several weeks after Election Day.

Sarah Palin is causing headaches among fellow Republicans regarding her 2010 endorsement activities.

Jonah Goldberg observes, “It took 410 days to build the Empire State Building; four years to erect the Golden Gate Bridge. The Pentagon took two years; the Alaska Highway just nine months. These days it takes longer to build an overpass.”

Voters head to the polls in thirteen days, and current indications are that they’ll be handing a big victory to the Republican Party.

Lisa Murkowski, who lost the Republican primary, may be on the verge of winning re-election as a sore-loser write-in.

The story about the private security guards who “arrested” a journalist at a Joe Miller campaign event just keeps getting stranger by the day.

Honors go to YahooNews and/or AP for “Levi Johnston wants to be mayor; has no platform.”

Don’t ask Senate candidate Joe Miller questions he doesn’t want to answer else his security team might cuff you.

Polls show the Republicans easily retaking the House but falling short in the Senate. But 2006 showed us that wave elections can produce shocking outcomes.

The Alaska Republican says he won’t answer questions about alleged misconduct as a public official, deeming it “personal.”

If Sarah Palin isn’t running for President, why is she comparing herself to Ronald Reagan ?

Thomas Friedman engages in some early speculation about a serious third party presidential run. As usual, such speculation ignores the basic structures of American politics.

Even with some key seats trending Democrat, Republicans are primed to take over both Houses of Congress come November 2.

Yet more signs that Sarah Palin is quietly positioning herself for the opening moves of a White House run after the mid-term elections are over.

The Republican Leadership is treating Lisa Murkowski very differently than the Democrats handled Joe Lieberman in 2006.

While Sarah Palin is viewed unfavorably by half of likely voters, they nonetheless think her views are more like their own than President Obama’s.

A US military platoon was apparently able to target innocent Afghans for murder. Without senior commanders suspecting a thing.

Could Mike Pence make the leap from the House of Representatives to the White House ? It’s possible, but history and the likely GOP field in 2012 suggest it would be very difficult.

Is Sarah Palin running for President in 2012 ? It’s looking more and more likely that the answer might be yes.

While it will be difficult, the idea that Lisa Murkowski could win a write-in bid to retain her Senate seat is not at all implausible.

Lisa Murkowski is the worst kind of sore loser candidate, willing to screw over her party’s voters and her own donors to keep her seat