Outside the Beltway

Thanks to a combination of good intelligence and fast action, it looks like the U.S. and UK avoided a serious attack on airliners last week.

215,000 people attended the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” compared to 87,000 for “Restoring Honor.” Even if you believe the numbers, they don’t tell us much.

Did President Obama degrade his office by appearing on “The Daily Show”? Or is that notion a relic of a bygone era?

Remember that $400 tax cut President Obama gave you? Neither do 90 percent of Americans.

President Obama and the Democrats are charging the Chamber of Commerce of funneling foreign money into ads for Republicans. It’s a desperate move unlikely to work.

Despite early rumors that she would be fired when she proved not to be worth $16 million a year, Katie Couric has hung on as anchor at CBS. But her contract’s up in May and CNN seems to be the highest bidder. If not the only bidder.

Responding to the rant that got Rick Sanchez fired, Slate’s Brian Palmer investigates the question, “Do Jews Really Control the Media?” His short answer, “Maybe the movies, but not the news.”

More than ever before in the past, Fox News Channel will be the exclusive medium through which many of the candidates for the 2012 Republican nomination communicate with the public. And that’s a problem.

What’s so wrong with saying that America will survive even if al Qaeda manages to hit us again ?

This handshake on August 14, 1980 in Madison Square Garden put an end to the public contest between President Carter and Senator Kennedy, but now the former President has decided it’s time to reopen old wounds.

Sarah Palin had a very good track record in her primary season endorsements, but it’s not at all clear that she will have much of an impact on the 2010 General Election.

The political fight over the extension of the Bush tax cuts took a very interesting turn today.

Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally raises, yet again, the tiresome fight over crowd estimates and their political significance.

The New York Times realizes that most Republicans just don’t care that Ken Mehlman is gay. Surprise, neither do most Americans at this point.

The Obama’s are vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard again this year so, of course, it’s time for people to say stupid things about Presidential leisure activities again.

Glenn Greenwald asks, “Why won’t the Pentagon help WikiLeaks redact documents?” For the same reason we don’t negotiate with terrorists.

Senate Republicans want to rethink the 14th Amendment’s automatic citizenship for people born in the U.S.

While Congressional Democrats are being careful not to dance on Charlie Rangel’s grave, President Obama is showing no such compunction.

A new poll claims that the health care reform law is now supported by a majority of Americans. Don’t believe it.

Daniel Schorr’s journalism career ended far too early, lasting a mere eighty-one years.

Charles Rangel, who recently stepped aside as Chairman of House Ways And Means Committee, is facing ethics charges.

Sarah Palin tweeted, and took the wrong side in a story that doesn’t even deserve to be a controversy.

The President likely has some very bad poll numbers on his mind this morning.

Attorney General Eric Holder said today that the Federal Government retains the option of suing Arizona a second time if the state’s new immigration law is enforced in a discriminatory manner.

The latest bad idea from some conservative pundits ? Sarah Palin for Chair of the Republican National Committee.

Honest pollsters should deposit their raw data with the Roper Center to improve transparency.

President Obama continues to suffer politically as a result of the oil spill crisis.

The White House and Rahm Emanuel were quick to deny the reports that he has a plan to leave the White House.