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Tweets of the Week

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 here.


1:19 PM Nov 7th: The quirks and strange turns of history fascinate me. On this day in ’62, Richard Nixon gave his “last press conference” after losing CA GOV.

1:22 PM Nov 7th: Precisely 10 yrs later, on 11/7/72, Nixon won his 2nd term as POTUS in a massive landslide, 49 of 50 states. Who’d have thunk it?

1:31 PM Nov 8th: 2010: Some have been too quick to dismiss ’09 results. We learned plenty last Tuesday, not least which party is energized and which isn’t.

2:28 PM Nov 9th: Thought it was hard for the House to pass health reform? Dems have 40 votes to fritter away there. In the Senate, Dems have no extra votes.

2:30 PM Nov 9th: How do you fashion a plan that will please Leiberman, 4-6 moderates, and 50+ liberals–and then will pass House again?

2:31 PM Nov 9th: Get ready for Hill sausage-making like you’ve rarely seen it. Personally, the legislative process made me a vegetarian many years ago.

1:22 PM Nov 10th: New PPP survey in ME shows Olympia Snowe could be vulnerable in ’12 to GOP primary challenge. She has neg job approval of 40 percent/46 percent among Rs.

1:23 PM Nov 10th: Among Dems, Snowe has 60 percent approval. Much can change before ’12 but switching parties may occur to Snowe. We’ll see.

2:26 PM Nov 11th: Notice that most ‘party trial heat’ polls for 2010 have moved a few points in the GOP direction over the past few months, esp. since 11/3/09

2:32 PM Nov 11th: The effect of current polls has a practical impact now. Many possible candidates for U.S. House are in final stage of decision-making.

2:35 PM Nov 11th: Don’t forget the 5,753 seats in 46 state legislatures up in 11/10–not counting special elections. The key feeder posts to higher offices.

2:36 PM Nov 11th: Personal note: Happy Veterans Day to our vets. We first think of the vets in our families. My late Dad spent 4 years in uniform in WWII.

2:37 PM Nov 11th: Dad was a shutterbug. I spend part of each Veterans Day looking at the hundreds of photos he left me from UK, D-Day, Fr., Belg., Germany.