Archive for the ‘’ Category
The Crystal Ball Primer on Blue Dog Democrats
December 17th, 2009
Isaac Wood, House Race Editor
How does a group where the majority of members voted in favor of health care reform get in the liberals’ doghouse? Just ask the Blue Dog Democrats. The Blue Dogs are a coalition of 52 fiscally conservative U.S. House members who have made headlines for their ardent negotiations with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Although [...]
December 17th, 2009
Larry J. Sabato, Director, U.Va. Center for Politics
The Crystal Ball’s Tweets of the Week is a look back at the highlights of the past week in politics in snippets of 140 characters or less. To get this analysis as soon as news breaks, follow University of Virginia Center for Politics Director, and Crystal Ball founder, Larry Sabato on Twitter by clicking [...]
December 10th, 2009
Larry J. Sabato, Director, U.Va. Center for Politics
The Crystal Ball’s Tweets of the Week is a look back at the highlights of the past week in politics in snippets of 140 characters or less. To get this analysis as soon as news breaks, follow University of Virginia Center for Politics Director, and Crystal Ball founder, Larry Sabato on Twitter by clicking [...]
A stirring speech, but an unearned reward
December 10th, 2009
Larry J. Sabato, Director, U.Va. Center for Politics
Obama’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech gets an A, no questions asked. It’s an incisive, practical take on just war theory that serves President Obama and, more importantly, America well. Good for him, and good for the speechwriters, too. But I would still argue that, maybe for the first time ever, the receipt of the [...]
The Parties Fashion the 2012 Presidential Nominating Process
December 10th, 2009
Rhodes Cook, Senior Columnist
Not far removed from the shouting, sniping, and long elbows the two parties regularly display on Capitol Hill, the Democrats and Republicans are actually working together on something important–an overhaul of the presidential nominating process for 2012.
Just down the hill, at the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican national committees, the two [...]
December 3rd, 2009
Larry J. Sabato, Director, U.Va. Center for Politics
The Crystal Ball’s Tweets of the Week is a look back at the highlights of the past week in politics in snippets of 140 characters or less. To get this analysis as soon as news breaks, follow University of Virginia Center for Politics Director, and Crystal Ball founder, Larry Sabato on Twitter by clicking [...]
Gazing deeper into the Crystal Ball
December 3rd, 2009
Larry J. Sabato, Director, U.Va. Center for Politics
As the most recent Crystal Ball ratings showed, Democrats are benefiting from the equal split of Senate seats up in 2010. Even though Democrats have a large majority of senators, it just so happens that both Democrats and Republicans are defending 19 seats each in the upcoming midterm election, which makes it exceedingly difficult [...]
December 3rd, 2009
Alan I. Abramowitz, Senior Columnist
Editor’s Note: Senior columnist Alan Abramowitz is concerned about the Senate from a progressive prospective. He has offered this commentary, with which liberals will surely agree and conservatives will beg to differ.
A few months ago, many progressive Democrats were elated when Al Franken was finally declared the winner of the disputed Senate [...]