Outside the Beltway

The events of the past two weeks could allow the Republican Party to move forward.

In an ordinary year, Ohio Governor John Kasich seems like he’d be a perfect candidate for Republicans in an era when winning the Buckeye State is essential to winning the White House. But things are far from ordinary in the GOP.

It was a close vote, but Virginia’s Republican leaders did the smart thing yesterday in picking a primary over a convention in 2016.

The reaction of many of the GOP candidates to the decision in Obergefell v. Hodges is about what you’d expect, but there are a few interesting surprises.

Virginia Republicans are deciding later this week how they will make their choice in the 2016 Presidential Race. And they may end up regretting their decision.

As Governor Haley pushes the South Carolina legislature to take the Confederate Flag down, the movement moves beyond the Palmetto State.

More Democrats are calling themselves “liberal” than they have in years. Republicans, too.

Whether Republicans are ready or not, Donald Trump is coming.

To nobody’s surprise, Jeb Bush has entered the race for President.

Hillary Clinton opened a new phase in her campaign for President yesterday with a speech in New York City.

Mitt Romney decided not to run in 2016 but he’s very much in the race.

After 36 years, the quadrennial absurdity of the Iowa Straw Poll is dead.

Before the end of the month, the Supreme Court could issue a ruling that ends subsidies for the vast majority of people who bought insurance under the PPACA, and the political battles are already starting.

Iowa Republicans may be a day away from putting the Iowa Straw Poll out of its, and our, misery.

The American people don’t believe that liberty should be sacrificed in the name of security, but their leaders largely don’t care.

It will be some time before sanity prevails in the GOP, but slowly but surely Republicans seem to be becoming less socially conservative.

Even with a recent negative downturn in the polls, the reports of Hillary Clinton’s impending political demise are largely wishful thinking on the part of conservatives.

Turkey’s governing party suffered big setbacks at the ballot box yesterday.

He hasn’t declared yet, but Scott Walker is running for President, and he’s pandering to the most extreme wing of the Republican Party.

Yet another poll shows that most Americans support a path to citizenship, and that a majority of Republican agree with them.

Rick Perry is hoping to do something that hasn’t happened before in American politics, come back from a campaign that imploded.

Republicans running for President need to tread carefully in their responses if the Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage nationwide.

Once seen as a rising Republican star, Bobby Jindal’s impending Presidential bid now looks like it’s over before it begins.

The Iowa Straw Poll seems to be dying, and that’s a good thing.

The Senate returns tomorrow to try to pass an extension of the PATRIOT Act before it expires, but it may not be able to do so.

Rand Paul is out with one of his more forceful attacks on Republican hawks to date.

A new Gallup poll puts support for same-sex marriage above 60% for the first time ever.

What if they held a straw poll and nobody came?

Thwarted by the legislature, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal used his executive power to take action that seems directed more toward evangelicals in Iowa than anything happening in his home state.

Republicans could learn a few things from the Tory victory in the recent British elections, but they are in danger of drawing the wrong conclusions.

The largely conservative state of Nebraska seems to be on the verge of repealing its law authorizing capital punishment.

The Republican debate stage in 2016 is going to be even more crowded than it was in 2012.

The House has passed a bill that would place real restrictions on the National Security Agency’s data mining program. Now, it moves to the Senate.

As expected, the Republican-controlled House passed a bill that would ban most abortions after twenty weeks. It also happens to be completely unconstitutional and has no chance of actually becoming law.

Iraq seems to becoming a political headache for yet another member of the Bush family.

Jeb Bush will not participate in this year’s version of the Iowa Straw Poll.

For reasons only he can understand. South Carolina’s senior Senator will be entering the race for the White House early next month.

Jeb Bush told a group of supporters that his brother is his top Middle East policy adviser. This strikes me as being a bad idea.

The political outlook in the United Kingdom is as uncertain as it has ever been.

Two of Chris Christie’s closest aides were indicted in connection with the Birdgegate scandal today, a third plead guilty, and Christie’s Presidential ambitions are pretty much dead.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are talking about fundamentally changing what it means to be an American, and it’s a bad idea.

In a marked departure from recent cases, the Supreme Court rules that states can impose significant restriction on solicitation of campaign contributions in judicial elections.

Even for political junkies, the thrill seems to be gone.

Another poll shows that Republicans are largely out of step with public opinion on the question of whether businesses should be free to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings.

Ted Cruz and Steve King think the Court should be prevented from hearing any case involving same-sex marriage. Because they know they’re losing.