Outside the Beltway

Stephen Hill, a US soldier serving in Iraq, was booed by some members of the audience at last night’s Republican debate.

Rick Santorum: naked partisan. (Although, really, this is more a post about the EC than it is about Santorum).

President Obaama’s poll numbers are lower than where Reagan and Clinton were at this point, but not by very much.

Yes, Barack Obama is running for a second term.

We won’t solve our fiscal problems by soaking “the rich.”

The economy continues to drag the President down.

James Carville has some advice for Barack Obama. It boils down to “be like Bill Clinton.”

Of the institutions designed by the Framers, the electoral college is the one that deserves the least amount of defense if one’s defense is predicated on assumptions of the genius of said framers.

The President’s jobs push isn’t doing much to help his job approval numbers so far.

It’s not a given that we’ll have a massive recovery during the next presidential term but it’s a pretty decent bet. And the party in power will get too much credit for it if it happens.

Top Democrats are starting to voice public concerns about 2012.

President Obama’s approval ratings are at an all-time low. Only 33% of whites and 48% of Hispanics approve. He’s still at 84% among blacks.

Mitt Romney’s jobs plan is detailed, but it doesn’t seem to be impressing anyone.

With most of the public looking at the future and not seeing anything good, the President is suffering

No matter how weak he becomes, no President will ever be completely irrelevant to the political process.

Let’s see if there is evidence to support the assertion.

The bloom is off the rose for some of the President’s most ardent 2008 supporters.

The last time black unemployment was this high Barack Obama was fresh out of college. Now, he’s in the White House.

Did Speaker Boehner insult President Obama by snubbing his speech request? If so, so what?

The White House is still smarting over the fact that they got burned by John Boehner, again.

How a six hour long dispute over scheduling demonstrates yet again that Barack Obama isn’t up for the fight.

A political scientist whose formula has correctly picked every presidential winner since 1984 says Barack Obama will be re-elected.

The US came a lot closer to something resembling a parliamentary system than most people think.

Is America’s political system to blame for our current problems?

It’s a shame that Duverger’s Law doesn’t come with criminal penalties.

More examples of fantasy Reagan.

Her appeal is not her ideas, policies, or achievements but her personality and appeal to the red meat base.

President Obama is back on Martha’ Vineyard for a ten-day vacation. The usual suspects are upset.

Some Republicans apparently still aren’t satisfied with the 2012 field.

Political journalists are asking clumsy, ignorant, and intolerant questions. Film at 11.

Rick Perry will need to get past Michele Bachmann before he takes on Mitt Romney. But, really, how hard could it be?

Rick Perry declared, “One of the reasons that I’m running for president is I want to make sure that every young man and woman who puts on the uniform of the United States respects highly the president of the United States.”

Further evidence of Bachmann’s extreme views on homosexuality.

While most of the Republican field was at the Iowa State Fair, Rick Perry was in South Carolina shaking up the field.

Rick Perry’s entry into the race could quickly turn the 2012 GOP fight into a two man race.

The Obama re-election campaign is preparing an extraordinarily negative campaign against Mitt Romney.

Texas Governor Rick Perry got lousy grades as an undergrad at Texas A&M. Does it matter?

Does it matter which candidate the GOP nominates?

Once again, the debt ceiling deal is raising questions about the President’s leadership.

Congress failing to raise the debt ceiling would involve abrogating an enormous amount of power to the Executive.

And you thought the bad economic news was over.

Steven Metz muses, “Scholars argue that too much political mobilization can make democracies dysfunction. Is that where the US is today?”

Barack Obama’s biggest enemy in the debt negotiations has been himself.