Outside the Beltway

The debate over whether the PPACA’s individual mandate is a “penalty” or a “tax”seems rather pointless.

Three swing state poll results should be raising some real concerns among Team Romney today.

If not Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, who might the Democrats have to choose from in 2016?

Jonathan Chait makes an astute observation about the media’s role in meme generation.

The crack investigative team at BuzzFeed is living up to its name with a story headlined “Did President Obama Just Make A Blowjob Joke?”

The arguments behind the Paycheck Fairness Act do not hold up to scrutiny.

Bill Clinton is the latest Democrat to defend private equity, and Mitt Romney’s business record. It would appear this meme is on its last legs.

An Internet meme that Robert Mugabe has been named UN Tourism Ambassador is untrue.

Figuring out how much of the opposition to a black president is based on racism is . . . complicated.

A North Carolina teacher screamed and cursed at students for criticizing President Obama.

The “Clinton-Biden Switcheroo” Scenario is the pundit’s fantasy that will not die.

The people who gave us the “war on Christmas” are now touting an upsurge on black-on-white crime.

An object lesson in the problems with our intellectual property laws

Another example of Republican foreign policy taking precedence over fiscal conservatism.

Mitt Romney has a big problem. People don’t seem to like him very much.

Phony wars on Stay At Home Moms, dogs, and Osama bin Laden. The Obama campaign is pointing at the shiny object, and the right is falling for it.

Last week, an absurd campaign became even more absurd.

Thanks to a media that focuses obsessively on irrelevancies, we now have a permanent political silly season.

We need a lot less fake empathy in politics.

Picking the wrong target.

The Romney campaign is pushing back on the “Republican War on Women” meme with this infographic on “Women & The Obama Economy.”

Facts are stubborn things.

Once again, the punditocracy seems to have misread the voting public.

The Etch A Sketch meme isn’t nearly as powerful as those pushing it believe it to be.

Yesterday, Rick Santorum started to demonstrate that his campaign has run out of a logical reason to exist.

Yesterday, the campaign silly season got particularly silly.

No, the Obama Administration is not plotting to nationalize the economy in the name of some “national emergency.”

Some Republicans seem intent on repeating the mistakes of 2008.

Republicans continue to harp on the fact that the President uses a TelePrompter.

If you listen to the punditocracy, you’d think that there’s actually a doubt as to who the GOP nominee will be.

Disturbingly large percentages of Republicans still don’t think the President was born here.

Is it fair to single out the most powerful man in radio’s commentary for attention?

A legal dispute exposes an open wound.

Rick Santorum’s views on the role of religion in public life are built on lies about American history.

Rick Santorum would do well to listen to the words of the last Catholic to be President of the United States.

In order to succeed on the right today, you have to do more than just say the President is wrong. You have to say that he’s evil.

An odd meme’s developing that Mitt Romney’s campaign is in financial trouble.

The Obama Campaign is being criticized for agreeing to play the SuperPAC game like everyone else does.

US society cannot so easily be placed into a maker/taker divide

Is the presumptive Republican nominee too handsome, too rich, and too pompous to win the hearts of ordinary Americans?

We won’t have Rick Perry to kick around anymore.

Tim Tebow has been at the center of a culture war battle, but he seems to have a more balanced view of the whole thing.

If the Right clings to the belief that President Obama isn’t just wrong, but evil, it will likely end up handing the election to him.

How far should the press go in challenging assertions by politicians?

A Washington Post fact check calls this “true but false.”