Outside the Beltway

Yesterday, cable news networks, and most especially MSNBC, showed their profession at its most pathetic.

Donald Trump just keeps leading in the polls, and Republicans keep arguing that it can’t last.

The November Jobs Report was good, but there still aren’t signs of the kind of stronger economic growth we need to see.

No, there really haven’t been 355 ‘mass shootings’ since January 1st. Not unless you’re relying on completely unreliable data.

For good reason, many Republicans are worried about the prospect that Donald Trump could end up winning the Republican nominee, but they don’t seem to have a plan to stop him.

Marco Rubio is telling conservative Christians in Iowa and elsewhere what they want to hear on same-sex marriage. It just happens to be complete and utter nonsense.

A Dallas man was kicked off a flight home from New York City because he had unknowingly cut off a flight crew member while going through a revolving door. This seems like a case of discretion gone way too far.

Blaming political opponents for criminal acts they clearly didn’t commit or advocate isn’t a political argument, it’s demagoguery.

Given his rhetoric, it’s fairly clear that Donald Trump is drawing from a poisonous political well. So there’s no point in failing to acknowledge reality.

The 2016 election cycle is seeing “scientific” online polling become more prominent, but it’s unclear just how reliable it is.

Polls are quite useful in the right circumstances, but knowledge, complexity, and timing all have to be taken into account in determining what they are telling us.

Protests by students at Princeton are causing some people to finally pay attention to some inconvenient truths about America’s 28th President.

The GOP “establishment” isn’t planning to take on Donald Trump directly and instead relying on Republican primary voters to come to their senses. They may be waiting for something that will never happen.

France’s President has spent the week trying to forge and agreement on an anti-ISIS policy, but the two nations that matter the most also disagree the most.

Happy Thanksgiving! Don’t forget to start a political fight with your family!

A former staffer for the House Select Committee investigation the attack in Benghazi is suing the Committee for improper employment practices, and Chairman Trey Gowdy for defamation.

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.

A potentially big complication in an already complicated situation.

Two months after seemingly promising to remain loyal to the Republican Party, Donald Trump is again refusing to rule out an independent run for the White House next year.

A new poll taken in the wake of the Paris attacks finds Americans increasingly fearful of ISIS attacks in the U.S., opposed to the admission of Syrian refugees, and not very confident in President Obama’s ability to deal with the ISIS threat.

Disturbing reports over the weekend that American leaders may not be getting the kind of unbiased intelligence analysis about ISIS that they need to make decisions.

In the news from the campaign trail and in the polls, there are clear signs that Ben Carson’s days as a top contender in the GOP Presidential race are coming to an end.

Even as the focus of the Presidential race shifts to national security, Donald Trump continues to lead the race.

Different criteria than in the past, but there may not be much of a change in the participants.

After thirty years in Federal Prison, Jonathan Pollard is a free man. Make no mistake, though. Pollard is not, and never has been, a hero and he deserves to be remembered as nothing but the criminal that he is.

Donald Trump’s demagoguery and disdain for individual liberty enters a new phase.

Not surprisingly, a new poll shows that most Americans are at the very least skeptical about the Administration’s plans regarding Syrian refugees.

To a large degree, the narrative you believe will govern the 2016 elections depend on which party you want to see win. But what’s the most likely outcome?

Even the people hired to advice Ben Carson on foreign policy seem to recognize that he is clueless on the subject, and has no apparent desire to educate himself.

In the wake of the attacks in Paris, some people have argued that American solidarity with France, in contrast to seeming disregard for tragedy elsewhere, is something we should feel bad about. That argument is ridiculous.

Hillary Clinton’s attempt to explain her relationship with Wall Street and banking interests makes it sound like she’s channeling Rudy Giuliani.

The initial responses of the Republican candidates for President to the attacks in Paris are about what you’d expect, but it’s far too early to tell what impact the events of the weekend will have on the race for President here in the United States.

A Saturday night debate wasn’t likely to get much attention to begin with. A Saturday night debate in the wake of a major terrorist attack, and a major football game for Iowa’s premier college football team, likely got even less attention. That’s probably good news for Hillary Clinton, and bad news for her two remaining rivals.

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

Reports of at least up to sixty dead, a hostage situation, and attacks at multiple locations in Paris.

A new poll provides further evidence that Hillary Clinton’s path to the Democratic nomination looks to be clear.

Increasingly concerned by the rise of Donald Trump and Ben Carson and the failure of any establishment candidates to click with voters, some top Republicans are reportedly turning their lonely eyes to Mitt.

A new Gallup poll shows public approval of Congress once again approaching historic lows, but it means far less than anyone thinks.

Donald Trump likes to tell people that he’ll never be beholden to special interests because he’s self-funding his campaign. So far, though, that doesn’t really seem to be true.

New York’s attorney general has ordered DraftKings and FanDuel to stop taking entries in his state, ruling that they constitute illegal gambling.

A Federal Judge has ruled that the N.S.A. metadata collection program is unconstitutional, but it’s unclear if the ruling will have much of an impact.

Rolling Stone faces yet another legal headache over last year’s story about a campus rape that never took place.

Give Jeb Bush a DeLorean or a TARDIS and he’ll be traveling back in time to Hitler in no time!

Candidates who have been excluded from tomorrow’s Fox Business Network are complaining, but their complaints ignore the fact that polling is the best objective criteria we have to determine debate eligibility.

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

The investigation continues, but the consensus seems to be growing that Metrojet 9268 was taken out by a bomb.

America’s much touted international coalition against ISIS is, essentially a Coalition In Name Only.

A much stronger than expected October Jobs Report suggests that the Federal Reserve is likely to move on interest rates, and raises questions about how economic issues will play out politically in 2016.