Outside the Beltway

Bill Clinton walks back his comments about extending the Bush Tax Cuts in the most unbelievable manner possible.

None of the cable news networks did particularly well last night.

Bill Clinton is the latest Democrat to defend private equity, and Mitt Romney’s business record. It would appear this meme is on its last legs.

The John Edwards trial is over. This should be the end of the matter.

The New York Times finds some infighting among old Republican foreign policy hands.

Alan Simpson is imparting wisdom to his fellow Republicans. I doubt they will listen.

Rick Santorum is urging Mitt Romney to go all-in on opposition to same-sex marriage. Not surprisingly, this is bad advice.

Further thoughts on Ron Paul’s game plan, assuming he has one.

Americans are ridiculously fat and getting fatter by the nanosecond.

What seemed like a diplomatic success has begun to unravel very quickly.

My first piece for The New Republic, “Why the Obama Administration’s Drone War May Soon Reach a Tipping Point,” is up.

Wolf Blitzer just observed that the fact that the president has to take these “extraordinary security precautions” to enter Afghanistan proves how far we still have to go in Afghanistan.

Five suspects have been arrested in a plot to blow up a Cleveland bridge.

Once upon a time, Jimmy Carter was everyone’s favorite former president. Not so much these days, especially among other former presidents.

Lt Gen Benny Gantz says Iran “is going step by step to the place where it will be able to decide whether to manufacture a nuclear bomb. It hasn’t yet decided to go the extra mile.”

Last week, an absurd campaign became even more absurd.

Fox, Rasmussen, and Gallup show Romney slightly ahead of Obama. I’m willing to call it a trend.

Why have so few Republicans stood up to condemn Allen West?

Thanks to a media that focuses obsessively on irrelevancies, we now have a permanent political silly season.

Picking the wrong target.

The George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case takes yet another bizarre turn.

The jobs picture–and thus the overall economic forecast–becomes much gloomier with the release of the March Labor report.

The race is over, Rick Santorum just won’t admit it.