Outside the Beltway

Ted Cruz surges to a lead in the latest Iowa poll, setting up a seemingly inevitable showdown between the Texas Senator and Donald Trump.

As we deal with the fall out from the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, we need remember the years after September 11th, 2001 and avoid holding an entire religion responsible for the actions of fanatics.

The no-fly list is a flawed, arbitrary mess that has kept innocent people from flying for years. Using it to deny people rights recognized by the Constitution is, quite honestly, insane.

Donald Trump’s speech yesterday at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition was as bizarre as anything else we’ve seen from him.

Yesterday, the British Parliament debated the expansion of that nation’s military strikes against ISIS. For more than a year, our cowardly Congress has failed to even hold one debate or vote on America’s role in that conflict.

Chris Christie has gotten the endorsement of the biggest newspaper in New Hampshire, but it’s not clear that this will have any impact on the race.

Polls are quite useful in the right circumstances, but knowledge, complexity, and timing all have to be taken into account in determining what they are telling us.

Hillary Clinton’s recently announced policies toward the ISIS fight are as incoherent and misguided as President Obama’s and those of her Republican opponents.

The United States and Europe are giving everything the perpetrators of the Paris attacks hoped for.

Republicans insist that uttering the words “Radical Islamic Terrorism” is somehow important in the fight against ISIS and other terror networks, but it is entirely unclear what doing so would accomplish.

Republicans haven’t really moved beyond the legacy of George W. Bush’s failed Administration as much as they’d like to think, but it doesn’t seem to be hurting them very much.

A Federal Judge has ruled that the N.S.A. metadata collection program is unconstitutional, but it’s unclear if the ruling will have much of an impact.

President Obama’s executive action on immigration suffered another setback in court late yesterday.

A new poll shows that Democratic voters are less engaged in the 2016 campaign right now than Republicans are, but that probably doesn’t mean that much for next year.

Ben Carson and his supporters would have you believe that he is being subjected to unprecedented and unfair scrutiny. That assertion is completely false.

In a new book, former President George H.W. Bush is highly critical of two of his son’s closest advisers in the White House.

Because that’s what White Houseses do.

With only a handful of opposition, Paul Ryan was easily elected the 62nd Speaker of the House.

Paul Ryan is blasting the process that led to the new budget deal between the GOP and the White House, but one suspects he’s secretly quite pleased with the fact that it makes his job-to-be a lot easier.

Republicans seem to be thinking that Hillary Clinton will be an easier General Election candidate than the evidence suggests she is likely to be.

Once the Republican frontrunner, Jeb Bush is now floundering and dealing with donors worried that they may be backing the wrong horse.

After an eleven hour day on Capitol Hill, it was Hillary Clinton 1 House Benghazi Committee 0.

Whether they like it or not, it’s becoming quite apparent that Republicans may have to get used to the idea that Donald Trump really could be their nominee next year.

John Boehner let loose on the “false prophets” on the right yesterday, and he’s absolutely right.

The Republican candidates for President took to the stage last night for a debate that seemed to last forever and accomplished nothing.

To listen to many of the Republican candidates for President, it would appear that the lights have been turned out on Ronald Reagan’s shining city on a hill.

A Federal Judge has ruled that part of a lawsuit filed by the House of Representatives can go forward, but the legal battle is far from over.

A trial court Judge in Oregon is the latest public official to refuse to do his job.

Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kimberly Davis was found in contempt of court and jailed for her refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

None of the top eight candidates in current polls have made a previous bid for the nomination.

Jeb Bush’s campaign has been in a rough patch for several weeks at least, and now he’s lost three top fundraisers.

Joe Biden may want to run for President, but does anyone else? It doesn’t really seem like it.

Even if Donald Trump isn’t the Republican nominee in 2016, he could still end up causing real harm to the party’s chances of winning the White House and holding on to the Senate.

Another poll shows that most Americans, and even most Republicans, support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

It’s a Donald Trump debate, where the facts are made up and the truth doesn’t matter.

President Obama’s confrontational approach to opponents of the Iran Nuclear Deal ignores legitimate questions.

A Federal Appeals Court has dealt a setback to Texas in the battle over its Voter ID Law.

Lindsey Graham recently retired as a colonel in the Air Force Reserves after 33 years of service. He missed most of the last twenty.

A long standing policy against gay Scout Leaders has been repealed.

Polling in three battleground states shows Hillary Clinton slightly trailing three top Republicans, but it means far less than you might think.

Ohio Governor John Kasich looks good on paper, but his campaign seems as though it’s unlikely to get out of the starting gate.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker will be entering the race for President later this month, but it’s unclear if his recent turn to the hard right will help him or hurt him.

Chris Christie is in the race for the Republican nomination, but it’s tough to see how he has a plausible path to relevance.

The events of the past two weeks could allow the Republican Party to move forward.

In an ordinary year, Ohio Governor John Kasich seems like he’d be a perfect candidate for Republicans in an era when winning the Buckeye State is essential to winning the White House. But things are far from ordinary in the GOP.

Andrew Sullivan, perhaps the man most responsible for putting the notion of marriage equality into the national debate, has come out of his blogging retirement to weigh in on yesterday’s historic ruling.