Outside the Beltway

Are our columnists learning? (I think you know the answer).

Are some of us more American than others?

Thanksgiving is a giant contradiction, just like America

Our present-day politics reminds us that the “unfinished work” of democracy is never fully complete.  

Gil Scott-Heron, most famous “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” has died at 62.

Former Serbian commander Ratko Mladic has been arrested for alleged war crimes committed in the 1990s.

Jon Huntsman made his first stop in New Hampshire as he explores a presidential bid. So far, so good.

Newt Gingrich says the coming presidential election will be the most important since the Civil War.

In a column about American Exceptionalism, a newspaper columnist makes a bizarre historical analogy.

Arizona’s so-called “Birther Bill” seems to violate several provisions of the Federal Constitution.

President Obama’s budget speech was light on specifics, but that’s because it was really the opening salvo of the 2012 campaign.

A day after apologizing for an odd comment about the President’s upbringing, Mike Huckabee now feeds into the conservative myth that Barack Obama isn’t a real American.

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

The in-dash CD player is being rapidly phased out.

The Obama Justice Department says it can look at phone records without warrants or judicial oversight.

Thomas Lowry fraudulently altered the date of an 1864 pardon from Abraham Lincoln to make it look like it was written on the date of his 1864 assassination.

As noted recently, whites are leaving the Democratic Party in droves. Some black Democrats think it’s time to take affirmative action.

Martin Luther King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech was, like a political stump speech, crafted and polished over months and years of delivery.

150 years ago, President-Elect Abraham Lincoln was presented with a chance to avert Civil War. He passed it up, and we should be glad that he did.

It was, perhaps, inevitable that someone would attempt to draw a comparison between Saturday’s shootings in Arizona and the Oklahoma City bombing, but the two events really don’t have anything in common.

Christopher Hitchens explains how to make tea.

The National Football League’s decision to postpone last night’s Eagles-Vikings game due to weather is receiving a lot of criticism, but they made the right choice.

Those who argue that tariff increases, and not slavery, were the key reason for secession have some basic problems with the historical sequence.

The Presidency has lost the aura of mystique that used to surround it, and that’s a good thing.

150 years ago today a group of men gathered in Charleston, South Carolina and made one of the gravest mistakes in American history. They should not be honored for it.

President Obama and the GOP have reached a deal on extending the Bush tax cuts that gives the GOP virtually everything it wanted.

Here’s my plan for creating a budget surplus of $126 billion by 2015 and $592 billion by 2030.

The white, Southern Democrat is a dying breed.

The British press takes a look at America’s Midterm Elections.

The Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear ended up having a point after all, but it’s not one that anyone is likely to take to heart.

To the extent that these faux debates are a measure of competence to hold the office in question, Sharron Reid’s holding her own against the veteran incumbent demonstrated that she was up to the task. Or, at least, as up to it as Reid.

In his farewell speech on Friday, Rahm Emanuel said that the Obama Administration had faced tougher times than any previous President. That is a fundamentally absurd idea.

The effort to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell suffered a setback in the Senate today that likely delays any further moves on the issue until after the midterm elections.

White America is within thinkable distance of a moment when it will no longer be the majority.

For most of the year, a GOP takeover in the Senate seemed beyond the realm of possibility. That’s no longer the case.

Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally raises, yet again, the tiresome fight over crowd estimates and their political significance.

Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin held a rally on the National Mall, but at times it sounded more like an old-time religious revival than a modern political rally.

The Tea Party is coming to Washington, D.C. on Saturday for a Glenn Beck rally and one travel guide is warning them to stay away from certain parts of the city. Subtle racism ? No, it’s common sense.

Sarah Palin’s decision to jump to the defense of “Doctor” Laura Schlessinger has many Republicans confused as to what her plans for the future are.

The competition for 25 Greatest Americans was steep. Only 3/4 of Mount Rushmore made the cut.