Outside the Beltway

With the Vermont Senator holding a seemingly insurmountable lead in New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders and HIllary Clinton clashed last night in their most contentious debate yet.

Donald Trump continues to lead, while Marco Rubio surges, in the first polls out of New Hampshire since the Iowa Caucuses.

Ben Carson cut his campaign staff drastically just a month after raising more than $22 million. Another sign of a dead campaign.

Reports of discrepancies in the counting of ballots in the Democratic Caucus in Iowa reveal yet again why the caucus process is outdated and ought to be abandoned.

Clinton is a virtual lock for the Democratic nomination. Rubio is the most plausible Republican winner in a messy field.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination.

Despite media narratives to the contrary, I do not see this as a truly competitive contest.

Six months ago, there were seventeen candidates for the 2016 Republican nomination. Now, the race is effectively down to three candidates.

Hillary Clinton eked out the narrowest of wins in Iowa, but now she’s headed to New Hampshire where Bernie Sanders holds a seemingly insurmountable lead in the polls.

Ted Cruz won, Marco Rubio surged into a stronger than expected third place, and Donald Trump was humbled just a little bit, but he was hardly a “loser.” The race for the GOP nomination has begun for real.

With just over a week to go, the New Hampshire primary is being dominated by a bombastic New York celebrity and a septuagenarian Vermont socialist.

Fundraising in the final three months of 2015 largely reflected the state of the race itself, but some candidates are better positioned going forward than others.

Some thoughts and questions as we finally hit the start of the process. (And the return of the Toast-o-Meter)

The final Des Moines Register poll before Caucus Night shows Donald Trump leading the GOP field, and Hillary Clinton with a narrow lead over Bernie Sanders, but much of the final outcome will depend on who shows up for the respective party caucuses.

Without Trump, the seventh Republican debate largely focused on Ted Cruz, who doesn’t seem to have done himself any favors. Donald Trump, meanwhile, will likely not pay any price at all for skipping the last pre-Iowa debate.

Last night’s Republican debate had a different feel with the absence of a certain bloviating narcissist.

Many analysts are making the argument that Marco Rubio is the GOP’s best hope to win the General Election in 2016. That may be true, but before he can get there he needs to find a way to win the GOP nomination.

The first debate after the Iowa Caucuses will have fewer participants than past debates, and there will be no undercard debate.

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.

Thirty years ago this week, tragedy struck America’s Space Program.

With less than a week to go before the Iowa Caucuses, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are fighting a closely-pitched battle that will depend largely on turnout.

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.

We’re in another Presidential election cycle so it must be time to speculate about Michael Bloomberg again.

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.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed in the final debate before the Iowa Caucuses in the context of a race that has appeared to become tighter than it was before Christmas.

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.

Polling is continuing to show a tightening in the race for the Democratic nomination, even though most Democrats continue to believe that Hillary Clinton will be their eventual nominee.

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.

The Democratic race in Iowa and New Hampshire is tightening, according to new polling, but this still seems to be Clinton’s race.

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

Donald Trump is out with his first television ad, and it’s about what you’d expect.

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

Further signs that Ben Carson’s Presidential campaign, which has been in a death spiral in the polls for some time now, is in real trouble,

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

Donald Trump is drawing large crowds in Iowa, but at least some of his supporters aren’t sure if they’ll be showing up for the caucuses.

Former President Clinton is set to hit the campaign trail for his wife in the New Year, and that could make things quite entertaining.

Rand Paul is throwing a bit of a temper tantrum. It’s not very Presidential.

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.