Outside the Beltway

Public support for the war in Afghanistan continues to plummet, but will that hurt the President when 2012 rolls around?

President Obama is once again catching flak for his leisure activities.

As gas and oil prices rise, the pressure is increasing to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It’s a dumb idea.

Former French president Jacques Chirac is being tried on corruption charges stemming from misconduct as mayor of Paris.

Mike Huckabee apologized for saying Barack Obama grew up in Kenya, explaining only that he meant that the president isn’t a Real American.

Republicans begin to discover that defeating an incumbent President isn’t an easy task.

The last American veteran of a conflict which ended nearly a century ago has died.

Opposition to marriage equality is no longer the wedge issue it used to be.

President Obama’s decision to decline to defend Section Three of the Defense Of Marriage Act on appeal was a proper and appropriate exercise of his authority as President Of The United States.

It’s a Republican meme that President Obama has “apologized” for America repeatedly. The one problem with the meme is that there aren’t any facts to support it.

Since Barack Obama took office, federal taxes have been lower for pretty much everyone.

The American right has become infected with the notion that Barack Obama isn’t just wrong, but evil. That won’t be healthy in the long run.

In a new Gallup poll, Americans rank Ronald Reagan as America’s Greatest President.

President Obama isn’t unbeatable in 2012. but it’s clear even now that he’s going to be a far more formidable opponent than many Republicans seem to think.

You don’t have to be Admiral Akbar to suspect that the President’s refusal to deal with entitlements in his budget proposal is a trap for the GOP.

Ron Paul is poised to win the CPAC Straw Poll. So what?

The House has voted to repeal the broken system of financing presidential elections.

Anti-government protests raged in Egypt for a second day, and nobody seems to know where they’re headed.

Once again, it looks like efforts to reform the Senate’s filibuster rules have fallen victim to that old devil politics.

After a fairly bad 2010, Barack Obama is starting off 2011 in a very good position.

Sarah Palin’s unfavorability ratings continue to climb. And there’s very little room for her recovery.

There is a problem with political rhetoric in this country, but telling people to be nicer to each other isn’t going to cool it down.

House Republicans want to do away with the increasing number of “czars” in the White House.

Andrew Sullivan makes a rather bizarre charge offhandedly: “Who among the neocons would have thought that one of George W. Bush’s final legacies would be bringing pogroms, bombings and genocide to Christians in his new zone of freedom?”

What’s up with McCain and DADT?

The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is a sign that the political ground is shifting. Will the GOP take notice?

Are Marco Rubio, Haley Barbour, and Mike Huckabee the favorites to win the White House?

A new poll shows that the American public is discontented, nervous about the economy, not entirely sure they can trust the new GOP majority in Congress, and has no idea what it wants from Washington. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

A Federal Judge in Virginia has handed the first legal defeat to the President’s health care reform package.

Republicans were largely silent during the Bush Administration as spending went out of control. Will they do that again?

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he isn’t running for President, but he’s sure acting like a guy who’s at least thinking about it.

President Obama is already taking heat from the left for his compromise on tax cut extensions, but will it actually hurt him in the end?

According to a new Gallup poll, President Obama is not only less popular than George W. Bush, but the only president from the last half century less popular is Dick Nixon.