Outside the Beltway

Donald Trump leads in the first of the final polls to be released before Thursday’s debate.

The first of a series of polls in anticipation of next week’s debate shows Donald Trump still at the top, with a surprise coming out of Ohio.

Low costs and regulatory barriers are attracting people to red states–thus turning them purple and blue.

In bringing Holocaust imagery into the debate over the Iran nuclear deal, Mike Huckabee has displayed the intellectual bankruptcy of his position.

His remarks about John McCain’s military service don’t seem to be hurting Donald Trump with Republican true believers.

Despite his remarks about John McCain, Donald Trump is likely to be around for some time to come.

Tragedy in Tennessee.

Donald Trump leads in a new national poll, but a deeper look at the numbers suggests that this Trump Bubble can’t last for very much longer.

A new polls seems to show that Republicans are still clinging to their opposition to marriage equality in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell.

Taxes on wine, beer, and spirits vary wildly from state-to-state and even within each state.

Donald Trump has gotten almost nothing but negative press since entering the race for President, but it doesn’t seem to be hurting him very much just yet.

In the wake of the latest Supreme Court decision, the Affordable Care Act seems to have become even more firmly established than it was before last week, and the prospect of repeal has become even less likely.

There’s a lot of pandering and outright nonsense in the wake of the Supreme Court’s legalization of gay marriage.

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.

Republicans aren’t going to like this one.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal enters the Presidential race today, but it’s hard to see how he even manages to become a plausible candidate.

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

Jeb Bush’s campaign launch seems to be going well so far, while Rand Paul and Ted Cruz (and Donald Trump) seem to be slipping.

A new North Carolina law allows government employees to decline to perform their jobs by claiming it violates their “religious liberty.”

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker isn’t officially a candidate for President yet, but he’s doing quite well in Iowa anyway.

Marco Rubio seems to be in lockstep with the extreme social conservatives when it comes to same-sex marriage.

The race for the Republican nomination is as tight as ever, and so far nobody seems to be emerging as a clear front-runner.

Robert Gates, the former Defense Secretary who now serves as head of the Boy Scouts Of America, has called for an end to that organizations ban on gay Scout Leaders.

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.

With 14 candidates vying for the Republican nomination, TV execs are scrambling to make the debates watchable.

Two Republican candidates for President say that Republican elected officials should simply ignore the Supreme Court if it strikes down bans on same-sex marriage.

So far at least, there’s little evidence in the polls that Hillary Clinton has been hurt by the news reports about the financial dealings of the Clinton Foundation.

A new poll has some bad news for Jeb Bush in the Hawkeye State, which leads to the idea that maybe he shouldn’t waste too much time there to begin with.

Mike Huckabee’s back, but the 2008 magic is gone.

Ben Carson is running for President.

Less than two weeks after entering the race, Florida Senator Marco Rubio is at the top of the GOP field in a new poll.

Former Hewlett Packard CEO, and failed Senate candidate, Carly Fiorina will be running for President for some reason.

The GOP race remains tight, but some candidates have benefited from their entry into the race more than others. Overall, though, Hillary Clinton continues to dominate.

After declining to run in 2012, Mike Huckabee’s entry into the 2016 race seems fairly certain.

His poll numbers are down, the GOP base is not hospitable, but Chris Christie still seems to be thinking about running for President.

A new poll suggests that the American public does not support laws that give religious exemptions to businesses that want to discriminate based on sexual orientation.

One freshman Senator seems to think that war with Iran would be easy, just like Republicans used to think that war against Iraq would be easy.

A bill pending in Louisiana seems likely to become the next national focus in the debate between marriage equality and claims of ‘religious freedom.’

Indiana’s RFRA will be amended to address most of the concerns of its opponents. That counts as a victory.

Arkansas, North Carolina, and Virginia may soon see the same battle over RFRA laws that is playing itself out in Indiana

The devil is in the details of what the legislature passes, but Indiana’s Governor has essentially conceded defeat in the battle over his state’s controversial new “religious freedom” law.

Rand Paul now says he signed the Cotton Letter to strengthen the Administration’s bargaining position.

Two weeks after the email story broke, there’s no sign that Hillary Clinton is losing ground in the 2016 race.

Senate Republicans have done more harm to the goal of stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons than they have done good.

The debate over whether kids need to be vaccinated against communicable diseases baffles me.

Scott Walker surged to the top of a new poll of Iowa Republicans, but Iowa is not a very good predictor of success in the race for the GOP nomination.