Outside the Beltway

Can a candidate appealing enough to the base to win the Republican nomination beat Obama?

Rather than fighting over the remnants of the FY 2011 budget, the GOP should make a deal and get ready for the bigger, and more important, battle ahead.

The next week promises to be a battle between John Boehner and the Tea Party over whether or not compromise is a good idea.

Like all Presidents before him, Barack Obama is asserting the right to virtually unfettered discretion when it comes to military matters.

Ten days after sending American forces into kinetic military action in Libya, President Obama addressed the nation to explain “what we’ve done, what we plan to do, and why this matters to us.”

Donald Trump, who may or may not be running for President, is continuing his strange obsession with the birther myth, and reminding Republicans that two years of silence in the face of lunacy may come back to bite them.

Obama is visiting Brazil and Chile while American fighting men join the coalition against Libya.

There are many opportunities to go to war. Here’s a guide for choosing between them.

Did President Obama pull off a diplomatic masterstroke? Or is he muddling through?

There’s still time for Sarah Palin to burnish her political reputation. But she probably won’t.

President Obama is once again catching flak for his leisure activities.

If the Republicans need their own Bill Clinton, how about Mark Sanford?

It’s springtime in Washington, when the buds start to grow on the Japanese Cherry trees, and political hacks come out of their holes to criticize the President for golfing.

The Nixon Center has gone from one of the most controversially named think tanks in Washington to yet another blandly named one: Center for the National Interest.

Mitt Romney starts his 2012 run as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. But, in reinventing himself yet again, the “authenticity” issue that troubled many of us in 2008 looms again.

Republicans begin to discover that defeating an incumbent President isn’t an easy task.

Egypt takes another step towards constitutional reform.

President Obama’s decision to decline to defend Section Three of the Defense Of Marriage Act on appeal was a proper and appropriate exercise of his authority as President Of The United States.

The Constitutional Reform Commitee has finished its work and will report its recommendations to the military.

Calls are coming from both sides of the aisle for the U.S. to do “something” about the situation in Libya. It would be better if we didn’t get involved.

Since Barack Obama took office, federal taxes have been lower for pretty much everyone.

The American right has become infected with the notion that Barack Obama isn’t just wrong, but evil. That won’t be healthy in the long run.

Republicans won the right to govern Wisconsin. What does that mean for Democrats?

President Obama isn’t unbeatable in 2012. but it’s clear even now that he’s going to be a far more formidable opponent than many Republicans seem to think.

Michael Medved wishes that conservatives would stop implying that the President of the United States wants to destroy the United States.

Newt Gingrich is very popular among young conservatives. But two ugly divorces will keep him from being a contender for the presidency.

A few thoughts/historical examples, as to why I am guarded in my optimism on Egypt.

Ellis Goldberg, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington and an expert on Egyptian politics, has a pessimistic view about the likelihood that the military is interested in democratization.

Was Mubarak’s speech last night in defiance of the military?

So, what are the constitutional provisions for presidential resignations in Egypt?

The media are wildly exaggerating the heckling at a gathering of conservatives.

Oddly, the Democratic Party seems to be responding to the 2010 midterms by moving further left.

Rep. Jane Harman is leaving Congress to become president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Ronald Reagan would have turned 100 today. Here are some thoughts on his legacy.

One Republican Congressman is calling on President Obama to stand firmly behind our “friend” in Cairo, even though there’s little evidence we can trust him.

Thirty years after the hostages were freed from captivity in Iran, the United States still hasn’t figured out how to deal with the Islamic Republic.

Today’s Foreign Desk includes comments on Brazil’s floods, developments in Ivory Coast, and Silvio Berlusconi’s sex scandal.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was greeted with protests from some EU parliamentarians when he addressed them as its rotating president of the European Council.

Sarah Palin was “interviewed” by Sean Hannity last night. I doubt she helped herself.

The American media and Sarah Palin have developed an odd symbiotic relationship, and it’s unlikely to change anytime soon.