Outside the Beltway

It may be Rick Santorum’s “turn” but he’s too harsh and extreme to win the nomination.

The return of a really bad idea.

President Obama may regret drawing a line in the sand over Syrian chemical weapons.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes uses a quota system to make sure his guests aren’t all white dudes.

Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum apparently talked about uniting to stop Romney during the 2012 Republican primaries.

Rand Paul’s filibuster has made him a darling among conservatives but it may not last.

The Hagel confirmation, like Obama’s election, was big news to some avid news consumers.

For the moment, Republicans appear to be blocking Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be Secretary of Defense but they don’t seem to know why they’re doing it.

Chuck Hagel will be confirmed, but the campaign against him tells us much about the current state of Republican foreign policy

For the New Year, how about challenging your ideas just a little bit?

While no official announcements have been made, President Obama’s second term national security team appears to be taking shape.

It’s just a few days until the 2012 campaign ends, and the jostling for position for 2016 begins.

The OTB gang give their best guess at the outcome of the 2012 presidential contest.

David Brooks tries to “describe what being a moderate means” in a way that most Americans would find puzzling.

The candidate’s meet for one last time tonight to talk about some of the most important issues in the world.

President Obama is keeping the conflict in Syria at arms length. That’s a good idea.

The argument that the United States should start assisting the rebellion in Syria has many flaws.

Too little, too late?

The Romney campaign seems to be responding to criticism by pretending it hears no evil.

Some Republicans are beginning to ponder what might happen to their party if Mitt Romney loses in 2012.

The Romney campaign is doubling down on bizarre foreign policy pronouncements.

An attack on Iran’s nuclear program would be far more complicated than a one-off attack.

President Obama didn’t blow the doors off the Time Warner Cable Arena last night, but he didn’t need to.

The GOP claims to be a party that favors limited government, but its foreign policy positions reveal this to be little more than a lie.

Today’s convention activities will include the opening salvos of an attack on the President’s foreign policy. This strikes me as a mistake.

A graph on public debt making the rounds is being used to misdirect rather than clarify.

Once again people are saying that 2012 is an election year akin to 1860 or 1932. Once again, they are wrong.

The Veepstakes doesn’t matter nearly as much as the media tells you it does.

Let’s leave Egypt to the Egyptians.

Mitt Romney believes he could take America to war without Congressional involvement.

Joe Biden says we can’t afford a president who has to learn foreign policy on the job.

If Mitt Romney loses, could the Establishment GOP manage to hold back the conservative backlash? Don’t count on it.

Mitt Romney called Russia our “number one geopolitical foe.” Is he right?

The odds are against anyone who challenges an incumbent President. So, how do you do it?

There are all manner of myths that are held by supporters of both parties. Debunking them is not the role for presidential aspirants.

Arizona’s senior Senator want’s to bomb Syria.

Yet another sign that international intervention in Syria is most likely never going to happen.

Mitt Romney’s statements about the planned early draw down in Afghanistan make no sense whatsoever.

Rick Santorum’s foreign policy positions are troubling in many respects.

Once again, Newt Gingrich speaks without thinking.

Newt Gingrich’s foreign policy vision leaves much to be desired.

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

The key to my understanding of Mitt Romney’s foreign policy rollout is the assumption “this is fundamentally a campaign document rather than a governing platform.”

Pundits love to speculate about new candidates entering the race and spicing things up. This will all be academic quite soon because filing dates in key states are fast approaching.

Despite all the negatives going against him, Mitt Romney may yet be the inevitable Republican nominee.

Borders Books is closing, because the free market works.

Tim Pawlenty’s foreign policy speech shows him siding with the hawks, and joining in the neocon distortion of Reagan’s legacy.

A few Republicans have picked up on John McCain’s criticism of critics of the Libya mission as being “isolationist.”