Outside the Beltway

Robert Bork, the controversial jurist whose failed Supreme Court bid ushered in a new climate in American politics, has died at 85.

Democrats are approaching an “Electoral College lock.” Republicans are trying to pick it.

Thinking about scandal in a comparative historic context.

Many conservatives are living inside of a media bubble and they’ll continue to have problems until the consciously decide to break out of it.

An attempt to lay down some basic groundwork for discussing this story.

Questions about why the Obama administration pretended the attacks on our Embassy in Libya were a spontaneous reaction to a video rather than a coordinated terrorist attack are gaining steam.

Public distrust of the media is at an all-time high. It’s easy to see why.

The weird tale of Thad McCotter’s nominating petitions just got a heck of a lot weirder.

Both campaigns seem to be focusing on an argument that the voters don’t want to hear.

Reporters covering the 2012 election are letting the campaigns control what they report to a disturbing degree.

It’s never a good thing when an Administration is investigating itself.

There’s no evidence that Fast & Furious, whatever it was, was a conspiracy to lobby for tighter gun control laws.

America’s Drug War has caused more problems for Mexico than Fast & Furious ever will.

Issa, Holder, and a little Madison.

Is there any legal merit to the Administration’s invocation of Executive Privilege?

Neil Munro acted like a jerk, but Barack Obama needs to be more open to questions than he has been.

The President’s Cabinet is less a Team Of Rivals and more a Team Of Managers.

Optimism sells. Someone should remind the GOP of this fact.

We need a lot less fake empathy in politics.

Far from being deterimental, there is a case to be made that SuperPACs have actually expended democracy during this election cycle.

The truth about a Second Obama Term is that it likely wouldn’t be all that remarkable.

Mitt Romney made a suggestion about how to fix our campaign finance system. It’s a good idea.

Looking back at the Electoral College results of the modern era–and ahead to November.

There aren’t many glad tidings at the White House these days.

Questions have been raised about whether it is proper for Elena Kagan to hear the Affordable Care Act lawsuit.

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

Far from being an existential crisis, the recent rise in public distrust in government is easily explained.

It never ceases to amaze me how many smart people manage to believe, against all evidence to the contrary, that their political philosophy has massive support.

Watching the news and reading the op-eds makes it clear: America is doomed.

One foreign policy analyst argues that President Obama should look to Nixon’s Vietnam withdrawal strategy for ideas on Afghanistan.

An ex-CIA agent says that someone in the Bush White House tried to use the agency to “discredit” Iraq War critic Juan Cole.

Is the war in Libya illegal?

Can a candidate appealing enough to the base to win the Republican nomination beat Obama?

The Nixon Center has gone from one of the most controversially named think tanks in Washington to yet another blandly named one: Center for the National Interest.

The legendary columnist David Broder has died.

Republicans begin to discover that defeating an incumbent President isn’t an easy task.

A new set of polls from Gallup show that President Obama is still looking good for re-election.

The House has voted to repeal the broken system of financing presidential elections.

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

Has WikiLeaks changed journalism forever?

According to a new Gallup poll, President Obama is not only less popular than George W. Bush, but the only president from the last half century less popular is Dick Nixon.