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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.

12:20 PM Aug 17th: 2010 “X” Factor: Shortest possible general election. Late Labor Day (9/6) + early Election Day (11/2) = just 58 days, 1 wk less than some.

11:24 AM Aug 17th: A week can matter in close races. If ’68 POTUS race had gone on a wk more, HHH might have beaten Nixon. Same for Ford over Carter in ’76.

11:25 AM Aug 17th: Trends were less clear in 1960 JFK-Nixon and 2000 Bush-Gore, but with another week, who could say?

11:30 AM Aug 17th: Short ’10 election means: candidate sprint + few local TV slots for non-political adverts + sped-up news cycle + daily spending orgy + …

10:22 AM Aug 18th: Just for UVA tweeps: Look closely at new U.S. News college rankings. Stop the happy talk. Disturbing trends. UVA at top of public U’s but…

10:25 AM Aug 18th: We’ve slipped to #25 overall (public & private together). Why? Dramatic state $ cuts. We’re #64 in financial resources, lowest of top 25.

10:27 AM Aug 18th: Private $ isn’t substituting for public $ loss. UVA is 37th in alumni giving; 78% gave 0. This must change. We alumni must step up & do more

11:07 AM Aug 18th: Crystal Ball update on missing “anti-incumbency wave” in primaries. As of today: 309 members of Congress renominated, only 6 defeated.

11:10 AM Aug 18th: In House, 295 incumbents renominated, 4 lost (99%). In Senate, 14 incumbents renominated, 2 lost (87.5%). Again, as of TODAY.