Outside the Beltway

The old have most of the money and power in our society, a trend that is accelerating.

There will be no more GOP candidate debates. That’s not necessarily a good thing.

The GOP has sold its soul.

2012 may be the last chance for the current Republican Party to win the White House.

The Republican debacle of 1964 offers some lessons for the current cycle.

This is no way to pick a Presidential Nominee.

The popular notion that the United States military is monolithically Republican is mistaken.

If Romney loses in November, it could be the start of a bitter fight insider the Republican Party.

Getting to the heart of last night’s moment of kabuki theater.

Senator Jim DeMint demonstrated clearly today what is wrong with Washington.

Last night was the high point of Ron Paul’s 2012 campaign for the Presidency.

A record number of Americans don’t consider themselves a member of either party.

Virginia has helped winnow the Republican field. You’re welcome America.

Several candidates did not submit a completed application on time to qualify for Virginia’s Republican primary ballot.

Ron Paul is surging in Iowa. He’s in 3rd place in the national polls and has been for most of the race. He’s not Mitt Romney.

The former Speaker has the biggest lead of any candidate thus far in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Italy’s new government is comprised exclusively of un-elected experts.

Gary Johnson is right to be upset that he’s been excluded from debates, but he shouldn’t get the government involved.

Are America’s political parties become irrelevant?

Well, maybe not so brief…

Neither political party is resonating with the public right now, and neither is acting in the manner the public would like.

Like clockwork, the arguments for creation of a third party are popping up again.

When the old rules don’t apply anymore, the system breaks down.

The cable networks and the political parties will tell you otherwise, but the 2012 isn’t quite as important as they’re saying.

It’s not a given that we’ll have a massive recovery during the next presidential term but it’s a pretty decent bet. And the party in power will get too much credit for it if it happens.

We often conflate intentionality with design. However, even designers may not fully understand how what they have created will work.

Is America’s political system to blame for our current problems?

Upon further review, S&P’s downgrade of the United States bond rating . . . still makes no sense.

The immediate reaction among the political class to the debt downgrade was the play the same old stupid games.

The main issue driving the downgrade appears to be lack of faith in the political parties to act responsibly and compromise over entitlements and revenues.

I got your broken right here: the presidential nomination process.

By insisting on perfection in the debt ceiling debate, the Tea Party has made itself irrelevant to the process.

Once again, the primary scheduling race is getting ridiculous.

One of the GOP’s staunchest media allies isn’t too impressed with their Balanced Budget Amendment.

I’m continually shocked when demonstrably bright and accomplished people fall in love with authoritarian states.

The vast majority of the seats in the Virginia legislature will not even be contested this November.

For the first time, a majority of Republicans support creation of a third political party. Does it really mean anything?

The Pew Center is out with a new political typology.

Congress is coming back to Washington and gas prices continue to rise. Expect a lot of demagoguery, but very little in the way of solutions.

Standard & Poor’s didn’t believe the Obama Administration’s argument that Washington would be able to fix the deficit. There’s no reason they should have.

One of the Tea Party movement’s favorite Senators used the dreaded c-word.

Francis Fukuyama: “In the developed world, we take the existence of government so much for granted that we sometimes forget how difficult it was to create.”

Whenever I despair at the current state of the Republican Party, I remind myself that things aren’t much better across the aisle.

Paul Ryan unveiled an ambitious plan to cut the deficit today. The question is whether it will be the beginning of a debate, or an opportunity for Democratic demagoguery

Politicians in office have a nasty habit of behaving completely differently than they promise on the campaign trail.