Outside the Beltway

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.

Public support for the war in Afghanistan continues to plummet, but will that hurt the President when 2012 rolls around?

Ten days is not a lot of time for constitutional reform.

President Obama’s new budget involves nothing less than a thumb in the eye of anyone who hoped he would seriously address federal spending in his first term.

Hosni Mubarak may hang on to some semblance of power longer than many expected in the middle of last weeks chaos, mostly because there are few other alternatives right now.

Is the only possible motivation conservatives could possibly have for calling out the lunatic fringe a desire for the acceptance of liberals?

The Egyptian army has publicly ruled out a use of force.

Revolutions don’t happen over a weekend.

If you watched last night’s State Of The Union Address, you wouldn’t have had any idea just how serious a problem we’re facing.

Republicans in Idaho are talking about resurrecting the foolish and discredited idea of nullification as a weapon in the fight against ObamaCare.

We won’t be able to solve our fiscal problems until the American people grow up. So far, there are no signs of that happening.

There is a problem with political rhetoric in this country, but telling people to be nicer to each other isn’t going to cool it down.

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 new poll shows that the American public is discontented, nervous about the economy, not entirely sure they can trust the new GOP majority in Congress, and has no idea what it wants from Washington. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

More on the No Labels label problem.

Has anyone told Mike Bloomberg that “No Labels” is, well, a label?

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he isn’t running for President, but he’s sure acting like a guy who’s at least thinking about it.

As things stand right now, the dynamics don’t look good for President Obama in 2012

The Chairmen of the National Debt Commission have released a draft report for consideration. It’s got some very good ideas, but it’s most likely Dead On Arrival.

While Matt Yglesias is right that talk about “Realignment” after a single election is ridiculous, there have indeed been realigning elections in U.S. history.

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 growing number of cell-phone-only households gives Democrats hope that the polls are undercounting them.

A call for ideological purity in the Democratic Party in today’s New York Times demonstrates that Democrats can be just as foolish as Republicans.

54% of Americans want an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans. The question remains as to what kind of third party they want.

A group of conservative activists is planning a last minute ad blitz that could help put several Republican challengers over the top.