Outside the Beltway

Stephen Walt doesn’t expect Obama’s foreign policy to change along with the names on the org chart.

Prejudice and negative attitudes towards obese individuals is becoming a global norm, not just an American phenomenon.

Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson is running for president.

There’s still time for Sarah Palin to burnish her political reputation. But she probably won’t.

It’s understandable that the President feels defensive about gas prices, but that’s no excuse for trying to sell the public a bill of goods.

Egypt takes another step towards constitutional reform.

Haley Barbour is making all the moves toward a 2012 Presidential run, but his stand on immigration issues could pose a problem in the Republican primaries.

Ron Paul has won the CPAC straw poll for a second straight year. But YAF has voted him off its board over his opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The blogging of Mark Levin’s magnum opus continues.

Once again, the frontrunners for the 2012 GOP nomination aren’t looking very good at all.

The last thing that Haiti needed was for a former dictator to return, but that’s exactly what has happened.

150 years ago, President-Elect Abraham Lincoln was presented with a chance to avert Civil War. He passed it up, and we should be glad that he did.

House Republicans want to do away with the increasing number of “czars” in the White House.

Cory Booker, Michael Bloomberg, and Chris Christie have been in the news this week due to the political fallout over their handling of the East Coast blizzard.

A capsule look at the world situation as 2010 draws to a close.

The Presidency has lost the aura of mystique that used to surround it, and that’s a good thing.

Bernie Sanders took to the floor of the Senate yesterday to rail against President Obama’s tax cut deal. It was history in the making, but it’s not clear that it actually accomplished anything.

What will Republicans think of a candidate for President who admitted to smoking marijuana as recently as two years ago?

Let’s keep our eye on the ball, people.

Would troops to Mexico help in the drug war?

Is the current media environment a problem for proper political discourse?

As impressive as Republican gains in this week’s elections were at the national level, they were even more so in state legislative races. Which means Republicans are in position to consolidate and expand upon their recent gains.

He’s the darkest of dark horses right now, but Gary Johnson stands as the heir apparent to Ron Paul’s surprisingly energetic 2008 run for the GOP nomination.

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson To Launch Presidential Bid In February?

Venezuela have reached a series of agreement on energy. Should the US be concerned?

Will a Republican-controlled Congress bring about the third Presidential Impeachment in American history? Jonathan Chait thinks it’s virtually certain that it will, I’m not so sure.

President Obama told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, “Long before America was even an idea, this land of plenty was home to many peoples. The British and French, the Dutch and Spanish, to Mexicans, to countless Indian tribes. We all shared the same land.”

The Governator Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels appears to be quietly putting together the beginnings of a campaign for President of the United States. Don’t count him out by any means.

Both Congress and the Obama Administration have stepped up enforcement of immigration laws–at immense cost to both the budget and the courts.

Governor Brewer walks back he beheadings claims.

The idea that we are in the middle of an illegal immigration crisis is not supported by the evidence.

It’s beginning to look like initial reports that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill had been “cleaned up” may not be true after all.

Again, despite the rhetoric of some, the US does continue to enforce laws relevant to the border and, indeed, enforcement has been on the rise.

According to a new poll, 87% of border residents feel safe.

While it is true, as Jacob Sullum puts it, On Drug Policy, Mexico’s President Has a Bigger Vocabulary Than Ours, it is also true as the headline at Gancho puts it he has Problems with the Legalization Debate (specifically in terms of popular opinion in Mexico).