Outside the Beltway

Vice-President Joe Biden’s motorcade has been involved in at least five crashes.

He’s the darkest of dark horses right now, but Gary Johnson stands as the heir apparent to Ron Paul’s surprisingly energetic 2008 run for the GOP nomination.

While Social Security has radically lowered the elderly poverty rate, it hasn’t eliminated it. Should we do more?

There’s some good news in the October jobs report.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner held a private, off-the-record meeting in comedian Jon Stewart’s office back in April. Speculation abounds.

Nancy Pelosi is strongly considering staying in Congress as Minority Leader. It’s her job if she wants it.

Rasmussen’s sample is biased because they’re polling on the cheap — using robocalls, which by law can’t dial cell phones, and otherwise cutting corners — rather than because of some agenda to propagandize for the GOP. The end result, however, is the same: Polls that can’t be trusted.

Politico runs this morning with the shocking revelation that Keith Olbermann is a Democrat.

Mitch McConnell made clear today that he’s targeting Barack Obama for defeat in two years.

“I’m terribly surprised that everyone everywhere on the political spectrum (here and there) is using Tuesday’s results as confirmation of the assumptions they’ve held all along.” – Josh Marshall

Now that the Republicans have control of the House, wheres the jobs? Why isn’t the economy fixed yet? Why do we still have a deficit? Why are we still in recession? Are Republicans secretly Muslim and trying to ruin our country?

The latest story being repeated by the conservative talking heads is the claim that President Obama will be spending $ 200 million per day on his upcoming overseas trip. The problem is that it’s not true.

Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina didn’t lose because of corporate baggage or resentment over how much they spent on their campaigns but because they were Republicans.

Will the incoming “Tea Party” caucus in the House and Senate force the GOP to reconsider its views on foreign policy? Don’t count on it.

Despite votes in the 2010 contest still being counted, polls for 2012 are already pouring out. They’re largely meaningless.

The Federal Reserve is injecting $ 600,000,000,000 into the economy, primarily in the hope that it will boost stock prices and, in turn, the economy. It might work, but if it doesn’t the consequences could be severe.

Ok, what strategy should Speaker Boehner pursue?

A longish NYT postmortem titled “Democrats Outrun by a 2-Year G.O.P. Comeback Plan” attributes Tuesday’s Republican victories to a January 2009 PowerPoint presentation. But structural factors were more important.

An NBC analysis shows Tea Party candidates winning only 5 of 10 Senate races and 40 of 130 House races, a success rate of only 32 percent.

If you believe that the United States is built on Judeo-Christian principles, why would you oppose the redistribution of wealth?

Tonight’s topic: Slow news day. We’ll figure out something.

Congressional Republicans and President Obama both held press conferences today that included talk of bipartisanship and working together. Don’t believe it.

Three of the Justices who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in Iowa have been removed by the voters. That strikes me as the beginning of a dangerous trend.

Last night’s election results stand as a mixed verdict on the Tea party and its impact on the Republican Party.

Rasmussen polls were biased toward Republicans by 3 to 4 points. Rigged results? Or screening error?

The Republicans are currently up 60 seats and, Jim Geraghty notes, “We’re still waiting on official calls or concessions in 11 House races; all of them feature Democrat incumbents.”

Republicans either lost or barely won a whole lot of races because their vote was split with minor party candidates.

Democrats won the governorship, all 10 House seats, and all statewide races in Massachusetts.

In yet another move designed to take the fun out of being a kid, San Francisco has banned the Happy Meal.

George W. Bush’s new memoir reveals that he briefly considered replaced Dick Cheney as Vice-President before the 2004 elections. His decision not to do so reveals much about the relationship between Presidents and Vice-Presidents in modern American politics.