Outside the Beltway

As we approach the fiscal cliff, there are signs that House Republicans may not be as rigid as they were the past two years.

Any chance that the Affordable Care Act will be repealed died with the re-election of Barack Obama. But, there are other fights to come.

If you’re a white Southerner who gets most of his information from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, you probably don’t know a lot of people who voted for Barack Obama.

If we elected presidents by a national telephone survey using Gallup’s likely voter screen, Mitt Romney would be a happy man.

President Obama seems to have given away the store when it comes to the defense sequestration cuts.

Why is Romney bragging on education policies a Democrat would love?

Some interesting movement in early post-debate polling.

Last night’s debate was rough and tumble, but it’s unlikely to change the state of the race.

The Presidential race seems to be returning to the state it was in before the political conventions.

This campaign has gone to the birds.

Mitt Romney has gotten a bump in the polls from Wednesday debate, but it’s still too early to say if it means anything.

The biggest surprise of the Presidential race to date is the fact that Mitt Romney has lost the edge he once had on economic issues.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game (more or less, anyway).

The arguments of the people claiming that every single poll showing Mitt Romney is unfairly biased do not stand up to scrutiny.

Newly released statistics indicate that the economy is slowing down and in danger of slipping into a recession.

Understanding public opinion is tricky.

Republicans think they found the smoking gun of the 2012 election. They’re kidding themselves.

Seth Mnookin laments a series of embarrassing failures in science writing in recent months but rejoices in the rich dialog that followed.

Several recent polls suggest that Mitt Romney is losing the advantage he had over the President on economic issues.

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.

If the first round of post-convention polling is correct, President Obama may be pulling away from Mitt Romney.

President Obama didn’t blow the doors off the Time Warner Cable Arena last night, but he didn’t need to.

The President and his supporters say that Congressional Republicans will temper their rhetoric in a second Obama term. Don’t count on it.

The American public doesn’t think we can afford to cut any category of government spending, even imaginary ones.

Do fiscal conservatives realize they’re being sold a bill of goods?

I give it a C+/B- (adequate, passing, nothing exceptional).

Left with a choice between their hawkish foreign policy and their supposed commitment to fiscal conservatives, Republicans will, without fail, spend the nation into debt.

Signs are brewing that the Chinese economy is slowing down significantly.

Congress and the American people have a choice to make between two not very palatable options.

Both campaigns seem to be focusing on an argument that the voters don’t want to hear.

There is much to critique in Washington, but the nexus of the governance problem at the moment is the GOP.

Mitt Romney is showing signs that the negative attacks from the Obama camp are getting to him.

The combination of falling oil prices and increased exports has the US trade deficit at its lowest point since December 2010.

A Pro-Obama SuperPAC is out with what may be the most despicable ad so far this election cycle.

While Washington dithers, business owners are starting to worry.

Moderate Republicans in the House are starting to become more assertive in voicing their frustrations with how Congress is operating.

The President’s former Budget Director joins the ranks of those calling for Postal privatization.

Between the polls and the state of the economy, It’s rather obvious why the Obama campaign keeps trying to change the subject.