Outside the Beltway

The First Daughters are approaching dating age and the First Papa has some thoughts on the matter.

The Emmys will honor Cory Monteith but not Jack Klugman or Larry Hagman. Where in that sentence you said “Who?” will tell us how old you are.

The Chain Gang Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

Scott Walker could be the GOP’s surprise candidate in 2016.

Bill Clinton is on Twitter for reals.

Emily DePrang looks back at “‘Baghdad Bob’ and His Ridiculous, True Predictions.”

Jokes aren’t funny if you have to explain them. Explaining how the joke got written can be marginally funny.

Mitt Romney won the debate last night, but it’s not at all clear that this will matter at all.

Not surprisingly, Romney campaigns staffers don’t seem to want to take responsibility for Clint Eastwood’s performance last night.

There’s a wee bit more to the “Progressive defended my sister’s killer” story that went viral yesterday.

Figuring out how much of the opposition to a black president is based on racism is . . . complicated.

Sure, he routinely uses gender-specific slurs against conservative women. But he’s not a misogynist!

Virtually everything Stephen Colbert is doing was legal before Citizens United.

Andy Rooney, best known to recent generations as the cranky old man at the end of “60 Minutes,” has died at 92.

My first piece for CNN has been posted at Fareed Zakaria’s Global Public Square.

The treasurer behind “Rick Parry with an ‘A’ for America” has left to work with Rick Perry

Rupert Murdoch was attacked by a man with shaving cream 2 hours into Parliamentary testimony.

The Stephen Colbert Super PAC that began as a satire has now been blessed by the real FEC. What exactly this means is not yet clear.

Daily Show host Jon Stewart spent 15 minutes on yesterday’s Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace trying to explain why he thinks Fox is a propaganda machine.

Don’t confuse moderation in tone with moderation in beliefs.

Sarah Palin has commissioned a film to bolster her reputation. This is very intriguing on a number of levels.

Stephen Colbert has been running an ongoing shtick in which he’s trying to start a political action committee, gets letters from his Viacom bosses poo-pooing the idea, and then inviting his lawyer on to explain ways to get around these concerns.

A comedian-turned-Senator makes some strong points about how America goes to war.

An aide’s compliment about the president “leading from behind” has generated controversy.

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried is the latest idiot celebrity to damage their career on Twitter.

A New York judge has sided with comedian Jerry Seinfeld in a bizarre lawsuit by a crazy woman who writes cookbooks.

Much like Jon Stewart, the late-night comedian went out-of-character at the top of last night’s show to talk about the shootings in Arizona.

Is Jon Stewart the next Edward R. Murrow? No.

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

Ezra Klein argues that Sarah Palin’s Twitter account isn’t very popular. But that misses the point.

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

Western athletes who’ve complained about the conditions at the Commonwealth Games are coming in for a firestorm of criticism.