Outside the Beltway

House Democrats defied President Obama on an important trade deal today, thus arguably marking the official beginning of his lame duck status.

It will be some time before sanity prevails in the GOP, but slowly but surely Republicans seem to be becoming less socially conservative.

Hillary Clinton is a deeply flawed candidate who might not even make a very good President. But that doesn’t matter in the race for the Democratic Nomination, and she’s probably going to be the next President anyway.

Some analysts are wondering if Jeb Bush might just forgo investing serious resources in the Iowa Caucuses.

Hillary Clinton hasn’t taken questions from reporters in three weeks. Because she doesn’t need the media as much as most other candidates.

A new poll has some bad news for Jeb Bush in the Hawkeye State, which leads to the idea that maybe he shouldn’t waste too much time there to begin with.

Former President Clinton doesn’t seem to get it. Or, does he?

Hillary Clinton’s political and personal baggage is likely to be a bigger problem for her than whomever her Republican opponent ends up being.

Harry Reid made outlandish claims about Mitt Romney during the 2012 election. He probably knew they were lies when he made them. And he doesn’t care.

Two weeks after the email story broke, there’s no sign that Hillary Clinton is losing ground in the 2016 race.

Polling indicates that the American public opposes the GOP position on DHS funding, but that’s unlikely to change many minds on Capitol Hill.

Even leaving aside the fact that it is far too early to be making such assessments, the idea that Rand Paul is the front runner for the Republican nomination in 2016 fails the logic test.

An adviser close to Hillary Clinton is talking about expanding the Electoral College map in 2016, but even without such an expansion the GOP faces an uphill battle.

The White House is now leaking out details of what seems like an inevitable decision by the President. How it plays out politically, though, is the big question.

Two weeks after it seemed to be tightening, there are signs the battle for control of the Senate may be moving in the GOP’s direction.

The chattering class is chattering about the President’s vacation again. It really is quite tiresome.

Our non-competitive political system.

Rather than being a bad thing, negative campaigning is an essential part of our political system.

Public faith in government institutions is at all all time low.

At least on Capitol Hill, the political middle is dead and buried.

Politics, media, and the attention span of the average American haven’t really changed as much as we think.

Thanks to favorable polling numbers and candidate selection, winning the Senate may very well be in the GOP’s grasp.

Ted Cruz keeps putting his own party in difficult situations, mostly because he has only his own ambition at heart.

At least initially, Chris Christie did what he needed to do to address a story that threatens to overwhelm his political future.

Will a couple closed lanes on the George Washington Bridge end up being a problem for New Jersey’s Chris Christie going forward?