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.

Some analysts are already suggesting that Russia’s two month old intervention in Syria is becoming a quagmire. That seems to be a premature judgment, but it’s not accomplishing much more than anything the West is doing.

NATO is extending full membership to the tiny nation of Montenegro, and there doesn’t seem to be a good reason why they’re doing it.

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.

France’s President blames ISIS, vows response, as death toll from Paris terror attacks stands at at least 127.

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

President Obama has apparently come to the same realization as many of his predecessors, that trying to craft a legacy by single-handedly bring about “Middle East Peace” is largely a waste of time.

Another day, another military escalation in the Middle East.

Marco Rubio is taking heat for missing a lot of Senate votes since he started running for President, but he’s not really any worse than other legislators who have run for President.

President Obama is reportedly considering a plan that would put American forces much closer to the ground war in the war against ISIS.

Several recent nominees were flailing at this point in those cycles.

With Russia now launching its own airstrikes in Syria, it’s become obvious that U.S. policy in the Syrian Civil War is irrational and contradictory. And Russia’s policy isn’t any better.

The U.S. is set to ramp up its contribution to dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis, but there’s a lot more we can do.

The final effort to block the Iran Nuclear Deal failed in the Senate yesterday, meaning that the deal will now move forward.

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

Once again, Donald Trump is succeeding because he is saying things many Republicans agree with.

Reports are circulating that the Obama Administration is considering releasing Jonathan Pollard, and many are seeing it as an effort to placate Israel in the wake of the Iran deal.

Despite his remarks about John McCain, Donald Trump is likely to be around for some time to come.

There are mutual embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time in 54 years. It certainly took long enough.

Donald Trump stuck his foot in his mouth again.

A Republican political consultant says Hillary Clinton is in danger of losing the nomination.

For the first time since 1961, there will soon be an American Embassy in Havana, and a Cuban Embassy in Washington. It’s well past time that this happened.

Another step forward toward ending a U.S. policy regarding Cuba that was outdated twenty years ago.

Hillary Clinton is a deeply flawed candidate who might not even make a very good President. But that doesn’t matter in the race for the Democratic Nomination, and she’s probably going to be the next President anyway.

Marco Rubio is the latest Republican Presidential candidate to have a problem giving a coherent answer to a few simple questions about the Iraq War.

Another step forward for U.S.-Cuban relations.

After months of resistance, the White House will allow Congressional review of any deal with Iran, but it may not hamper negotiations much in the end.

Talks in Geneva have reached a framework agreement regarding Iran’s nuclear program that, if it’s complied with, appears at first glance to be about the best deal available under the circumstances.

The Republican frontrunner claims he doesn’t read America’s most important newspaper.

After nearly 20 years in office, Harry Reid announced early today that he would not seek reelection in 2016.

Senate Republicans have done more harm to the goal of stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons than they have done good.

Some Congressional Democrats are considering skipping a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a Joint Session Of Congress.

My latest for The National Interest, “Obama’s Paris Blunder: Part of a Much Bigger Problem,” has posted.

Some are criticizing the President for not going to Paris for yesterday’s rally.

President Obama’s decision on Keystone XL is apparently to delay things long enough so he doesn’t have to decide at all.

An American freed from captivity, and potentially huge changes in America’s diplomatic and trade relationship with Cuba.

Columbus, Philadelphia, or New York City (well, Brooklyn really)?

A surprising change at the top of the military’s civilian chain of command.

A massacre is about to unfold “a stone’s throw” from Turkey’s border.

U.S. troops will be in Afghanistan for at least the next three years.

The former Virginia Senator is talking about running for President.

While the world pays attention to Syria and Iraq, Yemen is once against lurching into chaos.

Despite the President’s assurances of an international coalition, the rest of the world doesn’t seem all that interested in joining the fight.

The United States is, in fact, doing the exact opposite.

A glimmer of hope in Gaza is quickly snuffed out.

Hopes for a temporary respite in the Gaza conflict faded away today.