Outside the Beltway

Rick Santorum’s inability to stay away from the culture wars may have been his undoing.

Will the Obama Administration’s decision on contraceptive coverage by the Catholic Church have an impact in November?

Mitt Romney won big last night, Newt Gingrich was Newt Gingrich, and the race is coming to the beginning of the end.

Last night, South Carolina was Gingrich Country.

It seems that Saturday’s vote by evangelical leaders in favor of Rick Santorum was less than meets the eye.

A good night for Romney, a surprising showing for Ron Paul, and the first steps toward the end of the race for the Republican nomination.

A lesson in why the topline poll numbers are often only the beginning of the puzzle.

A new poll appears to show Newt Gingrich surging in New Hampshire, but there are several caveats to take into account.

Dick Morris has a penchant for counter-intuitive analysis. And for being wildly wrong.

The President’s jobs push isn’t doing much to help his job approval numbers so far.

Rick Perry is leading the GOP field in Iowa, but there are warning signs for Republicans as a whole if you look deeper.

The agenda of the Tea Party movement doesn’t necessarily coincide with what voters say they want from Washington.

Whatever happened to the GOP’s promise to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act?

States are racing to put obstacles in front of voters in the name of fraud prevention.

The Republicans are increasingly the party of white America. That’s short term good but long term bad for the GOP.

A new poll shows that the American public is discontented, nervous about the economy, not entirely sure they can trust the new GOP majority in Congress, and has no idea what it wants from Washington. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

President Obama is already taking heat from the left for his compromise on tax cut extensions, but will it actually hurt him in the end?

According to a new poll, the Tea Party movement, which is largely now the base of the GOP, is not completely in step with the views of American voters as a whole.

Within the first few months of 2011, Congress will be required to take another unpalatable vote to raise the debt ceiling. Already, some incoming Republicans are talking about waging an effort to block the vote. That would be politically, and financially, stupid.

The response from social conservatives to the call for a truce on social issues is about what you’d expect.

The incoming freshman of the 112th Congress say that they won’t repeat the mistakes that Republicans made when they gained power sixteen years ago, but some of the advice they’re getting virtually guarantees it will happen if they aren’t careful.

The GOP is being urged to avoid social issues and concentrate on reducing spending, shrinking government, and economic freedom. It’s a good idea.

Last night’s election results stand as a mixed verdict on the Tea party and its impact on the Republican Party.

The 2010 electorate was whiter, older, and more conservative than that of 2008.

The enthusiasm for Tea Party candidates likely helped the House Republican wave. But it also likely cost the GOP four Senate seats that it would otherwise have won — and thus the majority.

Exit polls reveal a shocking bit of information: voters aren’t happy with either party.