Outside the Beltway

Where do we stand after 224 years?

The economy continues to drag the President down.

Public disapproval of Congress continues to fall.

James Carville has some advice for Barack Obama. It boils down to “be like Bill Clinton.”

Of the institutions designed by the Framers, the electoral college is the one that deserves the least amount of defense if one’s defense is predicated on assumptions of the genius of said framers.

Last week’s opinions from the Fourth Circuit provide an avenue for the Supreme Court to avoid an early ruling on the individual mandate.

Allocating Electoral Votes by Congressional District is an idea whose time has come.

Top Democrats are starting to voice public concerns about 2012.

A Wisconsin DOT official sent out a memo telling DMV staffers not to volunteer the availability of free voter identification cards.

Is the GOP race really down to just two men at this point?

It never ceases to amaze me how many smart people manage to believe, against all evidence to the contrary, that their political philosophy has massive support.

The bloom is off the rose for some of the President’s most ardent 2008 supporters.

A political scientist whose formula has correctly picked every presidential winner since 1984 says Barack Obama will be re-elected.

The Romney campaign may be finally starting to pay attention to Rick Perry.

Ensuring the integrity of the voting process is a worthy goal, not evidence of discrimination.

Her appeal is not her ideas, policies, or achievements but her personality and appeal to the red meat base.

The Atlantic has published an essay I wrote yesterday morning titled “Libya After Qaddafi: Lessons from Iraq 2003.”

In the book he released last year , Rick Perry advocated far reaching changes to the Constitution.

The U.S. and its allies are calling on Bashar Assad to step down, but there’s little we can do when he says no.

Do we have a new frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination?

Comparing Bachmann and Palin in regards to managing the media.

The Ames Straw Poll is like the first scrimmage of NFL training camp.

The Twitterverse and the Democratic National Committee are having a field day with Mitt Romney’s declaration that “Corporations are people, my friend.”

The second round of the rolling Wisconsin recall elections was held yesterday. The Republicans are still in charge.

Any politician telling you that solving our problems will be easy is lying to you.

A political science-y response to the question of whether the system is broken.

The primary calendar is going to look very different next year.

The immediate reaction among the political class to the debt downgrade was the play the same old stupid games.

The agenda of the Tea Party movement doesn’t necessarily coincide with what voters say they want from Washington.

Does it matter which candidate the GOP nominates?

House Republicans are being criticized for utilizing a tactic they learned from Senate Democrats.

The reviews are in on the debt negotiations, and the public isn’t happy.

A somewhat surprising First Amendment decision arising out of the 2010 Elections.

Now that America’s political leadership have probably averted a self-inflicted global economic calamity, it’s time to assess the winners and losers.

Much like bills named for dead children, there’s a very high likelihood that any bill with “protecting children” and/or “pornographers” in the title is a) a very bad idea, b) a very stupid idea, c) of dubious Constitutionality, or, as here, d) all of the above.

President Obama and Congressional Republicans have the outline of a deal to raise the debt limit past the 2012 elections.

It’s another Friday of drama in the debt ceiling crisis.

By insisting on perfection in the debt ceiling debate, the Tea Party has made itself irrelevant to the process.

And you thought the bad economic news was over.

Steven Metz muses, “Scholars argue that too much political mobilization can make democracies dysfunction. Is that where the US is today?”

Their mouths were moving, but nothing of substance was coming out.

European leaders have put another Band Aid on the Greek sovereign debt crisis while America’s leaders are trying to stave off a self-inflicted financial default.

Some on the left are upset with the President, but does it really matter?

President Obama is polling at 46.8 percent, below the level needed to win re-election.

The House Republicans are functionally insane.