Outside the Beltway

Michele Bachmann raised more money in the First Quarter of 2011 than any other Republican. Which means that she’ll have to be taken seriously if she decides to run for President.

Politicians in office have a nasty habit of behaving completely differently than they promise on the campaign trail.

The race for the 2012 Republican nomination is missing the one thing that GOP nomination battles have almost always had, a frontrunner.

The Libyan rebels probably aren’t strong enough to defeat Gaddafi on their own, and the no-fly zone isn’t going to be enough either. Which means this operation is going to be far more extensive than President Obama is willing to admit publicly.

Operation Odyssey Dawn has resurrected the eternal battle over what limits there are, and should be, on the President’s ability to use military force without Congressional authorization.

Is Libya a war? Hell yes, Libya is a war.

There are many opportunities to go to war. Here’s a guide for choosing between them.

With minor exceptions, all of the potential candidates for the GOP nomination in 2012 seem to have accepted the idea that defense spending, and the Bush-era interventionist foreign policy, are off the table when it comes time to talk spending cuts.

Republicans are starting to sour on Sarah Palin, meaning that they’re finally starting to catch up to the rest of the country.

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is beginning to more like a real candidate for President. She won’t win, but she will be entertaining.

The CNN Effect has given away to Twitter Standard Time.

Intervening to “help” the Libyan revolt is very tempting, but it’s a temptation we ought to resist.

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

Four Senators who just happen to be up for re-election next year are silently looking for alternatives to the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.

Sarah Palin spoke about Ronald Reagan last night, but seems to have forgotten the optimism that is part of The Gipper’s legacy.

The home mortgage interest deduction benefits Democrat-voting states most! Is the fix in?

It’s straw poll season already. First up, New Hampshire where things turned out about how you’d expect them to considering Mitt Romney lives there now.

Didn’t we just talk about this?

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.

Mitt Romney has hired my wife’s boss as his pollster.

By this point in the last presidential cycle, there were already 14 major party candidates who had publicly announced. There are zero today.

Rumors are floating that Rudy Giuliani is thinking about running for President again. All of America asks, Why?

Was John McCain’s place of birth as big an issue to the fringe left as Obama’s has been (and continues to be) to the fringe right?

New polling shows that Mitt Romney is well behind the Fox News candidates for 2012.

What’s up with McCain and DADT?

WikiLeaker Bradley Manning has been held “under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture” for seven months and counting.

Despite the Defense Department releasing its study showing that the effects of allowing gays to serve openly would be minimal, Senator John McCain isn’t convinced.

The prospective Republican field for 2012 is dismal. Then again, it always is.

The Pentagon has spoken. Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell would not cause any real harm to the military, they have said. Now, the ball is in the court of the United States Senate.

Israelis and Palestinians don’t agree on much these days, but they do agree that Barack Obama hasn’t helped the peace process at all since coming to office.

Democrats are now confident that they have the votes in the Senate to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but do they have enough time?

The incoming freshman of the 112th Congress say that they won’t repeat the mistakes that Republicans made when they gained power sixteen years ago, but some of the advice they’re getting virtually guarantees it will happen if they aren’t careful.