Outside the Beltway

This is a strange disconnect between Sarah Palin’s popularity within the Republican Party and her popularity with the nation as a whole. One wonders if the GOP notices, or cares.

Of the five countries that use the death penalty the most, only one is a democracy.

The odds that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will be repealed anytime in the near future are fairly close to zero thanks to the results of last Tuesday’s elections.

Virginia Senator Jim Webb is the last of a dying breed of Democrats, but his party may need him if it wants to remain competitive anywhere outside of a Blue State.

Rasmussen polls were biased toward Republicans by 3 to 4 points. Rigged results? Or screening error?

Pundits and partisans constantly overreact to the momentary mood expressed in a single election. The Republicans have already rebounded from 2008. The Democrats will recover from 2010.

The GOP is headed for big gains on Tuesday. The only question now is how big they’re going to be.

Gallup’s final pre-election poll gives Republicans a 15 point advantage over Democrats, compared to only 5 points in 1994.

Political columnist John Heilemann thinks he’s come up with a scenario that would put Sarah Palin in the White House, but his assumptions don’t add up.

Republicans greatly fear the government — when Democrats are in power. And vice versa.

A new Gallup poll shows President Obama beating Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical 2012 Democratic nomination fight. Nobody should be surprised by that.

Once again, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin are at the top of the field in the GOP 2012 race, but that may not last forever.

Public trust in Congress is at an all time low, again, and the public doesn’t trust either party to fix things.

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

Tonight’s topics: The Gallup poll and the vanishing 10-point Republican lead, whether we overreacted to 9/11, Mike Castle and the RINO/DINO problem, income inequality, and the retirement of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.

According to Gallup, there was a ten point move in the public’s preference on the Generic Congressional Ballot between last week and this week. What’s more likely is that Gallup is making a mistake somewhere.

According to Paul Krugman’s latest column, the massive destruction of World War Two was actually good for the U.S. economy. Sadly, there are people who consider him an expert.

Another political analyst is out with a 2010 prediction that should make Democrats very nervous.

Republicans now have the largest lead in Gallup’s Generic Congressional Ballot poll that they’ve ever had.

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 signs point to 2010 being an even worse year for Democrats than 1994.

America’s obsession over the fate of the Burlington Coat Factory in Lower Manhattan, and a general rise in anti-Islamic rhetoric, plays right into the hands of the people that are actually our enemies.

If the President looks worried, he has a pretty good reason.

The poll numbers look grim for the President, but it’s still far too early to be making predictions about the 2012 elections.

Conservatives seem very eager for Hillary Clinton to get back on the campaign trial, but it’s not going to happen.

Holland became the first NATO member to pull out of Afghanistan. How long before the rest follow?

The American military is on a mission in Afghanistan that the public is increasingly starting to question.

It would appear that the only people who have confidence in the United States Congress are the people who work there.

Democrats have opened up a 6 point lead in the Gallup generic ballot tracking poll, their first statistically significant lead of the cycle.

Elena Kagan may be smiling because her confirmation is assured, but she doesn’t have as much public support as previous nominees.

When it comes to opinions about Sarah Palin, there is a striking difference between Republicans and Americans in general.

Presidential approval ratings at the 18-month mark don’t tell you much about re-election prospects.

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

If the trend continues, 2010 will mark a record number of conservatives for the Gallup poll since it began asking the question in 1992.

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