Outside the Beltway

Basically, the answer is that nobody really thought there was much of a risk that a plane could be shot down.

Ed Klein says he has “Democrat sources” who Obama wants Warren to continue his mission to “transform America into a European-style democratic-socialist state.”

Eleanor Clift reflects on her “final issue after 50 years at Newsweek.”

Bill Clark, who served as National Security Advisor and Interior Secretary under Ronald Reagan, has died at 81.

One of the nation’s papers of record is changing owners for the first time in 80 years.

Kids born to over-35 mothers tend to be taller and thinner.

Matt Yglesias has a smart push-back against the lamentations of the decline of journalism.

Do we ask too much of our leaders?

How he went from Juicebox Mafia member to the most important young journalist in DC.

Old Man’s war, a sci-fi novel about the distant future published in 2007, features Newsweek magazine, which went out of business in 2012.

Alex Pareene’s annual hack list omits an obvious candidate: Alex Pareene.

The scandal now surrounding David Petraeus should lead people to reassess his past record.

As is often the case with sex scandals, pretty much everything ever written about General David Petraeus takes on an ironic double meaning in hindsight.

Like the men who came before him, Barack Obama has vastly increased the powers of his office. Someone should have asked him about that last night.

Newsweek is joining US News in getting out of the printed magazine business, leaving Time as the last old American newsweekly standing.

Not surprisingly, television and reality don’t really coincide.

A culture of fact-checking, of honesty, is as important as the actual fact-checking.

Mitt Romney is no more of a wimp than George H.W. Bush or John Kerry.

The major you choose in college will have an impact on your future.

The Washington Post prematurely posted that Rick Santorum was dropping out of the race on its news wire and Bloomberg made the story viral while the Post was verifying its accuracy.

Andrew Sullivan wants the Catholic Church to give up its hatred of homosexuals. There’s another alternative.

Conservatives are rejecting Andrew Sullivan’s Newsweek essay out of hand, but they ought to pay attention to what he’s saying.

CBS accidentally admits that they are giving less attention to some of the Republican contenders.

America’s journalists are far more liberal than America.

Of the eight shots in the Sarah Palin cover shoot, all eight feature her in sweatshirts and similar togs. Not exactly presidential.

It was a largely fruitless weekend in the debt negotiations.

Another sad chapter in the slow death of a once proud magazine.

Is it appropriate for news organizations to decide that the people don’t need to hear from certain political candidates?

Some French politicians and intellectuals seem offended that Dominique Strauss-Kahn is being treated like a common criminal.

There’s not much movement in the President’s job approval numbers.

If you look at the Tea Party’s impact on state politics, you see it really isn’t much different from the Religious Right.

It is waaay too early to be putting much stock in polling for 2012 (either in terms of X v. Obama or GOP v. GOP).