Outside the Beltway

The expectations game will be especially tricky this year.

The ongoing pathetic attempt to create a scandal around Hunter Biden.

The two parties learned different lessons from the last contested election.

Up is down. Down is up.

A desperate re-election gambit that has no impact on the outcome.

Less Trumpy Trump still Trump.

Same endless song, different verse.

He has the largest lead of any challenger since modern polling began in 1936.

No, our topic infectious disease expert did not endorse President Trump.

The world’s worst COVID manager is now the world’s worst COVID patient.

A national nightmare that may not have changed many minds.

Whether the delusions of a madman or a deliberate scheme to poison the waters, there’s cause for concern.

President Trump is historically unpopular and has consistently trailed Joe Biden. He could still win.

What is more concerning, speculation and war games, or the words of POTUS?

Trump basically confirmed all but one aspect of the Atlantic story.

The Toddler-in-Chief strikes again.

The latest FNC poll has more good news for Biden.

An uncharacteristic misstep by a seasoned pro.

The Republicans are putting on quite a show.

I’ve been thinking it wrong for years.

Preying on the fears of old white people is good business.

It’s much easier to fund bad information than good.

Framing matters.

Comparisons with 2016 all work against Trump’s re-election.

A non-exhaustive tour of Trump’s utterances on the pandemic since January.

If you are wondering why masks are political, look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The longtime Fox News host has re-emerged at an unusual spot.

The Paycheck Protection Program protected some interesting paychecks.

A marked rise in shooting deaths is going largely unnoticed.

The crowd for DC’s fireworks celebration was small but weird.

Joementum.

Racial and xenophobic rhetoric and Covid-19.

President Trump is behind 14 points in the latest NYT poll.

The state of American debate is not strong.

The vagaries of our Presidential election mechanism gave us a surprising result in 2016. That’s unlikely this year.

Presidents have appointed loyalists since time immemorial. Has this one gone too far?

Wrongheaded thinking about the pandemic won’t go away.

A sober assessment of President Trump’s plan to get the country running again.

Another allegation of Biden misbehavior that is another category altogether.

The presumptive Democratic nominee says, “They aren’t true. This never happened.”

Who can keep count?

Cable news “experts” frequently aren’t.

The President is issuing dangerous statements.

Critics of the modeling and of the data analysis are being too simplistic.

It would be laughable, but the White House might be interested.

Trump’s approach from the beginning has been reality-denying. It makes it difficult to take anything the administration proposed seriously.

We are governed by the petty and myopic.

Despite our poor showing against COVID-19, we have the best infrastructure in place.

Social distancing is a lot easier when you’re affluent.

It is hard not to see this as a politically driven move.