Outside the Beltway

President Obama likes to go back to his Hawaii home town and live like a regular guy for a few days.

Streets in New York City like this one on Staten Island went unplowed for days thanks to a work slowdown by sanitation workers, which raises the question of what Public Sector Unions should be allowed to do.

As they did last year, several top social conservative activist groups are boycotting next year’s Conservative Political Action Conference over the extension of an invitation to a gay conservative group, and nobody seems to care that they won’t be there.

President Obama and Hillary Clinton top Gallup’s lists of Most Admired Americans.

There’s plenty of good news for Barack Obama in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

The battle over the individual mandate is really just nothing more than the latest round in a batter that has been ongoing for 221 years.

Are Marco Rubio, Haley Barbour, and Mike Huckabee the favorites to win the White House?

As things stand right now, the dynamics don’t look good for President Obama in 2012

Even though it will likely be unsuccessful, a primary challenge against President Obama could end up harming him enough to hand Republicans the White House in 2012.

According to a new Gallup poll, President Obama is not only less popular than George W. Bush, but the only president from the last half century less popular is Dick Nixon.

Incoming House Speaker John Boehner plans a radical overhaul of how Congress spends our money.

Meghan McCain doesn’t know what a “blue blood” is but doesn’t want to be called one.

The prospective Republican field for 2012 is dismal. Then again, it always is.

Former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough wants the GOP to stop kowtowing to Sarah Palin and her acolytes. He’s right.

After 1 1/2 years in office, President Obama has yet to grant a single request for a pardon or clemency, continuing a thirty year trend in which the Presidential pardon power has nearly fallen in to disuse.

Israelis and Palestinians don’t agree on much these days, but they do agree that Barack Obama hasn’t helped the peace process at all since coming to office.

NATO-Russia cooperation on missile defense is a welcome step forward.

The battle between social and fiscal conservatives continues, with the SoCons now saying that criticism of South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint is now considered evidence of ideological impurity.

Virginia Senator Jim Webb is the last of a dying breed of Democrats, but his party may need him if it wants to remain competitive anywhere outside of a Blue State.

Peggy Noonan argues that Tuesday’s elections shows that Americans want to be led by accomplished grown-ups and will reject people who seem empty or crazy.

In my former home state of Alabama, Republicans won every major contest, save the one House seat specifically drawn to ensure a Democratic victory.

If the polling is anywhere close to accurate, a Republican wave will come crashing down today, repudiating the first two years of the Obama administration. What does it mean?

Another poll confirms that Sarah Palin continues to be viewed negatively by the majority of American voters, but that doesn’t seem to matter to supporters who seem have a degree of adulation usually reserved for celebrities than serious politicians.

A call for ideological purity in the Democratic Party in today’s New York Times demonstrates that Democrats can be just as foolish as Republicans.

The “Ronald Reagan” that many of today’s conservatives wish today’s Republicans were more like didn’t actually exist.

If Sarah Palin isn’t running for President, why is she comparing herself to Ronald Reagan ?

If the Republicans win back Congress in November, it will be largely unearned. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no incentive for change in American politics.

Once again, Washington is abuzz with rumors that Hillary Clinton will be replacing Joe Biden as the Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee in 2012.

Arnold Schwarzenegger predicts President Obama’s re-election. Historically, that’s the safe bet.

Support for the Tea Party is at record levels but that movement does not have a coherent policy platform. Can the energy be harnessed to good use?

A Vanity Fair piece imagines what John Lennon’s life would have been like had he survived an assassin’s bullet.

Is Sarah Palin running for President in 2012 ? It’s looking more and more likely that the answer might be yes.

Conservatives have latched on to a few words in a decade-old article by Democrat Chris Coons in their efforts to boost the candidacy of Christine O’Donnell in Delaware.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels appears to be quietly putting together the beginnings of a campaign for President of the United States. Don’t count him out by any means.

Christine O’Donnell has become the latest star of the Tea Party movement, and her primary battle with Mike Castle the latest battleground over the future of the Republican Party.

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

The nation’s 2nd smallest state is becoming the biggest battleground between the Establishment GOP and Tea Party insurgents.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is superbly qualified for the presidency. But our system virtually assures that he won’t be a serious contender for the job.

The competition for 25 Greatest Americans was steep. Only 3/4 of Mount Rushmore made the cut.

A Southern Baptist Democratic president hated by conservatives is largely responsible for the rise of the American craft brew industry.

The Democrats are pulling a trick from the Reagan playbook for the fall campaign. They might want to rethink that.

A growing number of conservatives are in dismay about the state of their movement.