Outside the Beltway

Have gubernatorial elections become more nationalized?

Afghanistan’s outgoing President says that his nation doesn’t need American troops to stay after the end of the year.

Does one Special Election in Florida tells us anything about nationwide trends? Probably not.

More on the pending referendum and some thoughts on elections in authoritarian contexts.

Why do dictators feel the need to pretend that they have the consent of the people over whom they rule?

Calling anyone a front-runner in a race where we’re still two years away from anyone casting votes is silly. Nonetheless, Rand Paul is an interesting guy to watch for those wondering if the GOP has actually changed.

Crimea is more divided than Russia would have the world believe. Plus: the Crimean government has no legitimacy at the moment.

Young voters reject political parties to a greater extent than other voters, but on policy issues they trend Democratic

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has been forced out of Kyiv—and possibly out of power entirely.

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

Kevin Faulconer proves that Republicans can win in California, but not if they follow the path laid out by the party’s far right wing.

Don’t expect much out of Congress for the rest of 2014, or for the two years after that either.

Another day, another delay

John Boehner explains quite succinctly why nothing big is getting done in Congress.

The President’s sixth State Of The Union Address was fairly low-key.

Republican leaders continue to say stupid things. They may still retake the Senate in November.

In case you needed a further reason to dismiss Jerome Corsi (and some general thoughts on what Corsi represents).

After eight years in a coma, Ariel Sharon has passed away.

Is 435 the right number?

Former SecDef Robert Gates is among those who believes that the Iraq War unduly diverted attention from fighting the War On Terror.

There are more self-identified Independents in the country than at any time in the past two decades, according to a new Gallup poll. And it’s mostly at the expense of the GOP.

The Iraqis need to learn to govern themselves, and conservatives blaming President Obama for renewed violence need a history lesson.

A Federal Judge in New York upholds, for the most part, that state’s new gun control law.

Has Speaker Boehner breathed new life into immigration reform in the House? Maybe.

The New York Times Benghazi report raises as many questions as it purports to answer.

Ted Cruz continues to act as if he hasn’t learned his lessons from the shutdown debacle

The year that will soon ended will go down in history as the year that the same-sex marriage debate changed forever.

Nearly six months later, it’s hard to find any good in the July military coup in Egypt.

Another Federal District Court ruling on the Constitutionality of the NSA’s data mining program, this time more favorable to the NSA.

So far at least, the 2014 elections do not appear likely to be a political earthquake on the scale of 2006, 2008, or 2010.

Vladimir Putin seems to be getting a lot of love from cultural conservatives in the United States.

The likelihood of any action on gun control in 2014 is extremely limited

The PPACA has had a rough 2013, and 2014 could be even worse.

For a year that seemed to start out so well, 2013 has been among the President’s worst of this five years he’s been in office.

David Brooks thinks that the problem with American Government is that the Presidency isn’t strong enough.

Gun control has faded as a political issue as the memory of Newtown has faded, and that was entirely predictable.

The Tea Party hit another new polling low, but that really shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

Time to start talking about lame ducks?