Outside the Beltway

A clear victory for the Obama campaign in an Ohio Court, but will it stand on appeal?

Over two days of speakers, not a single Republican has mentioned the Tea Party.

A legal setback for the Texas Voter ID law, but not much of a political setback for Voter ID laws in general.

I question the timing of the Republican Convention.

It’s official.

The political convention we know is a 19th Century relic. It’s time to modernize it and make it a lot shorter.

Mitt Romney’s forces won a rules change that will allow future nominees to have more say over their conventions. While this strikes me as a no-brainer, some conservative activists are up in arms.

As its convention begins, one has to wonder what has happened to the Republican Party.

The GOP is set to approve rules changes that will impact the 2016 primaries, and beyond. They’re a good start.

A pre-Convention look at the Electoral College map finds Mitt Romney in the same tight spot he’s been in for months now.

American politics has been reduced to a charade where all people do is yell at each other.

Wherein a National Review piece leads me to think I am the OTB alpha blogger.

Congress and the American people have a choice to make between two not very palatable options.

Maybe the real problem this year isn’t that the campaign is unduly nasty, but that it’s incredibly petty.

National Republicans aren’t at all thrilled with Todd Akin right now.

Whether or not it’s proper to call the FRC a “hate group,” the persecution complex being displayed in the wake of Tuesday’s shooting is absurd.

We have met the enemy, and it’s most likely us.

The weird tale of Thad McCotter’s nominating petitions just got a heck of a lot weirder.

At some point, however, using the bad actions of the past to justify worse actions in the present has to stop.

Yesterday it became clear that the Presidential campaign is headed into the mud.

A victory for the proponents of Voter ID Laws in Pennsylvania.

Both campaigns seem to be focusing on an argument that the voters don’t want to hear.

Mitt Romney has effectively rebooted his campaign by picking Paul Ryan, but he’s also handed the President a powerful weapon.

A Federal case in Virginia is testing the boundaries of what constitutes protected speech in the digital age.

In my adult memory, the American South was a one-party Democratic region for all but presidential elections. Aside from minority set-aside districts, the reversal is near complete.

President Obama still has the advantage in the battleground states.

Mitt Romney and other top Republicans are not taking part in the latest round of the culture war debate over same-sex marriage, for good reason.

The Obama campaign is challenging an Ohio law that gives members of the military three extra days to vote. They have a very persuasive argument.

There are still three months or so go. The race is incredibly tight. And, voters are starting to really dislike both candidates.

It would be nice if people who make authoritative decisions had some idea what they are talking about.

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

The Koch brothers will spend more money in this election cycle than the entire McCain campaign did in 2008.

Get ready for the battle over the Bush Tax Cuts to start up yet again.

What does the US Constitution actually provide in terms of guidance for governance?

The number of Pennsylvania voters without required photo IDs exceeds Obama’s 2008 margin of victory.

The GOP’s arguments about the impact of ObamaCare on Medicare are dishonest and hypocritical.

However, he and his party have hardly taken over.