Outside the Beltway

The GOP doesn’t have a charismatic superstar waiting in the wings. That’s okay.

Voters in New York State may help move the budget debate on Capitol Hill.

Fox News chairman Roger Ailes has come to regret the direction he took the network after the 2008 election.

Wall Street says raise the debt ceiling. The Tea Party says no. What will the GOP do?

Newt is looking a bit toasty to me (not that that is a surprising position to take).

All signs are that Michele Bachmann is running for president. What impact will she have on the race?

No, Ron Paul is not a viable candidate for president.

With Huckabee out, the right side of the GOP primary base may end up divided. And that will help Mitt Romney.

Newt Gingrich says the coming presidential election will be the most important since the Civil War.

Romney wants to make a federalism based argument for why his MA health care bill is good, while the PPACA is tyrannical. However, just saying that is not an argument.

How much of public opinion is about tribal political identification and how much is about the actual policies themselves?

The Tea Party Mascot Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

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

New rules for the 2012 primary open the door for a Tea Party candidate to take the GOP nomination.

David Brooks declares Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Mitch Daniels, and Jon Huntsman the only serious candidates for the Republican nomination.

The Pew Center is out with a new political typology.

Republicans seem to have realized that the Ryan Plan’s Medicare reforms aren’t going anywhere.

There are signs that the Ryan Plan isn’t playing well with the public.

Why are many of the top Republicans are sitting out the race despite a seemingly vulnerable incumbent?

If you look at the Tea Party’s impact on state politics, you see it really isn’t much different from the Religious Right.

The Fickle Finger of Fate Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

Sarah Palin was back speaking to a Tea Party crowd yesterday, but it just doesn’t seem like matters anymore.

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

Will the Ryan Plan ever be voted out of the House?

To borrow a phrase: budgeting is the science of muddling through (with an emphasis on the “muddling” far more than the “science.”

Is our current economic situation the result of massive government intervention? The Randians certainly think so.

The GOP seems to be telling President Obama that revenue increases are off the table. That’s a huge mistake.

Donald Trump has been surging in polls of Republican voters recently, but that doesn’t mean much of anything.

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