Outside the Beltway

With mere days until voting starts, the possibility of Donald Trump running the table in the February primaries and caucuses, or nearly doing so, is more and more likely.

With less than a week to go before voting starts, Donald Trump continues to dominate the GOP race, with Ted Cruz the only candidate even close to looking like a viable challenger.

Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio have won the endorsement of the Des Moines Register, but it’s unclear how much this will help their respective campaigns.

The flagship of the American right is leading the charge against Donald Trump, but it’s not likely to work.

Marco Rubio’s campaign strategy depends on a lot of hope, and no small degree of ignoring reality.

Sarah Palin is back, and she’s endorsing Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for President.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal in what is guaranteed to be a high profile case heading into the 2016 elections.

With almost no sign that he’ll be able to turn his campaign around, many of Jeb Bush’s top campaign donors are looking to jump ship to other candidates.

With less than three weeks to go before voting starts, the Republican candidates for President clashed in their most contentious debate so far.

The attacks on Ted Cruz’s eligibility to be President have no legal merit, but they appear to be having an impact with at least some Iowa voters.

Ten American sailors detained by Iranian forces late Tuesday were released early today, something that seems to clearly demonstrate the value of diplomacy.

President Obama’s final State Of The Union Address was largely a recognition of the fact that his time on the world stage is quickly coming to an end.

There are signs that Ted Cruz’s rise in the Hawkeye State will be short-lived.

Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina are the biggest losers in the lineup for the latest Republican debate on Thursday.

With under a month to go before voting starts, the race for the GOP nomination looks about the same as it did before Christmas.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both released strong fourth quarter fundraising reports, as did Republicans Ted Cruz and Ben Carson.

Jeb Bush and Chris Christie have spent the holiday week taking aim at Marco Rubio.

Mike Huckabee says he’ll drop out if he doesn’t finish in the top three in Iowa. He should probably start packing his bags now.

As we head into Christmas, there doesn’t seem to be much peace on Earth or good will toward men among Ben Carson’s advisers.

In a new Gallup poll, Republicans say they want a “conservative” as their Presidential nominee, but they may regret what happens if they get the kind of hard-right conservative they seem to be thinking of.

Donald Trump remains firmly at the top of of the GOP field in what is likely one of the last polls of the GOP race for 2015.

Fox Business Network has announced its criteria for the next GOP Debate, and it looks like Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina, and John Kasich will be kept off the prime time stage.

A political cartoonist for The Washington Post crossed a line and, rightfully, got condemned for it.

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are surging in state polls as we head toward the holidays.

We won’t have Lindsey Graham to kick around anymore.

After making a big deal about voting against the budget bill passed yesterday by Congress during the last debate, Marco Rubio ended up missing the vote altogether.

The first post-debate polls of the GOP race have more good news for Donald Trump.

Marco Rubio has been getting a lot of love lately from both conservatives and so-called ‘establishment’ Republicans, but his seemingly meager ground game in early states is raising doubts about his campaign.

Donald Trump displays some appalling ignorance about an important part of America’s military, but his supporters are unlikely to care.

The Fifth Republican Debate, and the last of 2015, was marked by expected clashes between the candidates, and one that never happened.

Previewing the fifth Republican debate, and the last Republican debate of 2015.

A pair of new national polls shows a new trend in the GOP race heading into the final debate of 2015.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul got a break today when CNN included him in the prime time debate on Tuesday even though he fell short of meeting the criteria.

Ted Cruz surges to a lead in the latest Iowa poll, setting up a seemingly inevitable showdown between the Texas Senator and Donald Trump.

Rand Paul is likely to miss the main stage for next Tuesday’s debate, so his campaign is already calling on CNN to change the rules.

The quadrennial fantasy of a brokered convention, which American politics has not seen since 1952, is rearing its head again, and it’s no more likely now than it was when we talked about this four years ago.

Notwithstanding the hopes of many Republicans, Donald Trump continues to be the person to beat in the race for the party’s 2016 Presidential nomination.

The Director of the F.B.i. told Congress today that the San Bernardino shooters were apparently radicalized much earlier than previously believed.

Donald Trump continues to have a commanding lead in the Granite State, but it’s unclear whether he can translate poll support into votes when the primary rolls around.

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have mostly avoided attacking each other, but if the polls are any indication that detente may be about to come to an end in the Hawkeye State.

Donald Trump’s plan to bar all Muslim immigration to the United States is being widely condemned by his fellow Republicans and others, but the proposal probably won’t hurt him politically in a Republican Party that is deeply bigoted against Muslims in general.

The no-fly list is a flawed, arbitrary mess that has kept innocent people from flying for years. Using it to deny people rights recognized by the Constitution is, quite honestly, insane.

Donald Trump just keeps leading in the polls, and Republicans keep arguing that it can’t last.

Donald Trump’s speech yesterday at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition was as bizarre as anything else we’ve seen from him.

For good reason, many Republicans are worried about the prospect that Donald Trump could end up winning the Republican nominee, but they don’t seem to have a plan to stop him.

The latest national poll of the Republican race shows Trump continuing to lead, Ben Carson fading, and Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio rising while the rest of the field is stagnant or sinking.

Marco Rubio is telling conservative Christians in Iowa and elsewhere what they want to hear on same-sex marriage. It just happens to be complete and utter nonsense.

Chris Christie has gotten the endorsement of the biggest newspaper in New Hampshire, but it’s not clear that this will have any impact on the race.

Polls are quite useful in the right circumstances, but knowledge, complexity, and timing all have to be taken into account in determining what they are telling us.