Outside the Beltway

A new Gallup poll shows President Obama beating Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical 2012 Democratic nomination fight. Nobody should be surprised by that.

The Obama White House is asserting that the President has the authority to issue assassination orders against American citizens, and that no Court has the authority to review his decision. If that doesn’t worry you, it should.

More than ever before in the past, Fox News Channel will be the exclusive medium through which many of the candidates for the 2012 Republican nomination communicate with the public. And that’s a problem.

President Obama’s approval is at its lowest point to date, matching President Clinton’s in 1994. It’s 14 points higher than his predecessor’s.

Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the iconic HOPE poster, is disappointed with President Obama.

According to a new book from Bob Woorward, American policy in Afghanistan is the result of a decision making process that can only be described as chaotic at best.

One Republican analyst thinks that President Obama could learn a few leadership lessons from Vito and Michael Corleone. In order to do that, though, the President would need to stop acting like the weakest of the Corleone brothers.

For the moment, the Tea Party movement is helping pull the GOP out of a slump that seemed like it would continue for a long time. Will it last, or will the movement end up doing for Republicans what the left has done for Democrats ?

This handshake on August 14, 1980 in Madison Square Garden put an end to the public contest between President Carter and Senator Kennedy, but now the former President has decided it’s time to reopen old wounds.

Robert Gates has been a reluctant Secretary of Defense but his impact at the Pentagon has been tremendous.

Democrats are sending some of their candidates to the Death Panels.

The Obama’s are vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard again this year so, of course, it’s time for people to say stupid things about Presidential leisure activities again.

America’s mission in Iraq is shifting from an active combat role to a smaller security presence. But the war that gripped our attention for years is now off the radar screen.

Sarah Palin’s decision to jump to the defense of “Doctor” Laura Schlessinger has many Republicans confused as to what her plans for the future are.

If the President looks worried, he has a pretty good reason.

As many American soldiers have died in Afghanistan under Obama as under Bush.

Barack Obama has significantly widened his predecessor’s global war on terrorism, even if he’s no longer calling it that.

Jon Stewart and “Senior Black Correspondent” Larry Wilmore eviscerate Maxine Waters’ claims that she and other corrupt members of the Congressional Black Caucus are being investigated for ethics charges because she’s black.

Colombia has sworn in a new president. And so begins the Santos era as the Uribe era heads for the history books.

U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker today declared California’s Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional, thus opening the latest front in the gay marriage wars.

The American military is on a mission in Afghanistan that the public is increasingly starting to question.

In the first entry in this series we looked at a basic question of democratic theory. In this one, we look at whether the EC ever worked as the Framers intended.

Democrats have not figured out how to use President Obama during the upcoming Mid-Term campaign, if at all.

The Electoral College is the worst way to elect a President, except for all the others.

Massachusetts will become the latest state to join the National Popular Vote movement, a compact wherein states throw their Electoral College votes to the nationwide winner once enough states agree to ensure that outcome.

Barack Obama was a big hit on college campuses in 2008. Two years later, those same young voters seem to be having second thoughts.

It would appear that the only people who have confidence in the United States Congress are the people who work there.

Among the other lessons it teaches us, the Shirley Sherrod incident shows that the Obama Administration is seemingly becoming weaker by the day.

Will a debate over foreign policy tear apart the GOP ? Probably not.

Reports of Barack Obama’s political death are greatly exaggerated and wildly premature.

Should outrageous people like Pamela Gellar be invited to spread their message on national television?

The President likely has some very bad poll numbers on his mind this morning.

Is it really too much to ask that when people try to make arguments based on our country’s founding documents that they at least understand the passages that they are quoting?

A new poll shows that Americans have some odd ideas about the Constitution, and how to change it.

One can be an elite and not be elitist and vice versa.

A survey of historians ranks Obama as the 15th best president ever, ahead of Ronald Reagan and behind Bill Clinton.

The most shocking news about Larry King’s retirement announcement was the realization that he was still on the air.

Senator Robert Byrd has died at 92, after years of poor health.

Contrary to popular belief, Adolf Hitler didn’t come to power by democratic means or because of his ability to whip the public into a frenzy.

If the trend continues, 2010 will mark a record number of conservatives for the Gallup poll since it began asking the question in 1992.

Another poll brings bad news for the White House.

Is it time to elect a President that doesn’t have that “lean and hungry look” ?

Americans on both sides of the aisle throw around words like “tyranny” and “fascism” about our system. But there are constant small reminders we are under the rule of law.

President Obama is following the example of his predecessors in abusing his power to enact his preferred policies. Has he gone too far?