Outside the Beltway

I liveblogged and tweeted my instant, mostly snarky, reaction to the CNN foreign policy debate. Here are some more fully formed thoughts.

I’ll be liveblogging tonight’s Republican national security debate over at RealClearWorld along with a solid team of foreign policy analyst

Thomas Ricks posts several recommendations for fixing the Army. Most of them are really, really stupid.

We’re running out of excuses.

Last night, most of the leading Republican candidates for President acted as if Europe was on another planet.

Barack Obama wrote two bestselling memoirs before becoming president. Both of them are hot items at Foggy Bottom.

Should we be outraged over the manner in which Muammar Gaddafi died? I’m not losing any sleep over it.

Gaddafi is dead, but it was still wrong for the United States to get involved in Libya.

The BBC is reporting that rebels claim to have captured the ousted leader of Libya.

Herman Cain’s foreign policy consists of little more than deliberate ignorance.

This is looking less crazy, less sudden, and less an exercise in presidential whimsy than it seemed.

One thing is clear: anyone who tries to make cheap political hay over the LRA is a fool.

Some information on Joseph Kony and the LRA.

Obama is trying to get into Guinness under “US President with Most Simultaneous Wars”

Rupert Murdoch’s publishing empire is being rocked by a second scandal, this one a scheme to inflate the circulation figures of the Wall Street Journal.

Are the worries about China overtaking the United States realistic?

Ahead of his big foreign policy speech, Mitt Romney has unveiled his “Foreign Policy and National Security Advisory Team” which “will assist Governor Romney as he presents his vision for restoring American leadership in the world and securing our enduring interests and ideals abroad.”

A major backer of Republican and Libertarian causes is under fire.

President Obama explained his position on the Palestinian statehood resolution today, but one wonders if anyone listened.

The short-lived national unity spawned by the attacks of a decade ago was re-kindled for a few hours as former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush joined with Vice President Joe Biden to honor Flight 93.

Measuring our progress a decade after the 9/11 attacks

The Western fetish for turning cheap, efficient food into expensive, inefficient fuel is threatening the food supply–as is the European superstition against genetically modified foods.

Steve Clemons highlights former first lady Laura Bush’s continuing work in promoting education and international engagement.

Reports are coming out of Libya that paint the Libyan rebels in a very unkind light.

What are the contours of “mainstream” religious thought in today’s America?

Success in Libya does not make the American mission any less unjustified than it was on the day President Obama announced it.