Larry J. Sabato: LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR MANIA – From “Fifth Wheel” to Powerhouse (July 30, 2009) In the mid-nineteenth century, a delegate to a Virginia constitutional convention argued against the office of lieutenant governor, calling it, “the fifth wheel of a wagon, and much more useless.” Worse has been said about the vice presidency over the centuries. Franklin Roosevelt’s first VP, John Nance Garner, declared his position was not worth a pitcher of warm spit....

Larry J. Sabato: ARE THE TOP JOURNALISTS INSIDERS OR OUTSIDERS? Something truly astonishing appeared in a Washington Post column on July 25, 2009 (click here to view). It was written by Frank Mankiewicz, former press secretary to Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) and the man who is perhaps most widely remembered for announcing RFK’s death in June 1968. Mankiewicz was also the political director of Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern’s losing 1972 campaign. The column contained...

Isaac Wood: HOUSE SCHEMES AND PIPE DREAMS – The GOP’s list of 70 House targets debunked It’s a game both parties play: pretend that this will be the year you go on the offensive in places where your candidate is, in reality, as likely to win American Idol as the November general election. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) dutifully played their part on July 31, sending an e-mail to friendly political action committees outlining 70 purported U.S. House “targets”...

4:42 AM Aug 6th: The left and right are the same, in flooding town meetings and being obnoxious. It’s OK when their side does it, wrong when the other side does. 4:44 AM Aug 6th: Passion can be a good thing in politics, but leaders must channel it, lest it degenerate into pure rudeness and nastiness. MORE: Larry J. Sabato: Tweets of the Week 08/13/2009 Larry J. Sabato: Tweets of the Week 08/06/2009 Larry J. Sabato: Tweets of the Week

I want to see all rabbis, priests, ministers, imams, and other spiritual leaders publicly denounce this murderous attack on a group of gay teenagers and their friends. No matter what you think of homosexuality, we can all agree that shooting children is a grossly inappropriate way of expressing one’s opinion. If the shooter is a Jew (not yet determined), he did not get the message of Tisha Bav (Jewish holiday observed last Thursday) about Sinat Chinam (baseless hatred which caused the destruction...

UPDATE: J POST: Three people were killed and 14 people were wounded – two seriously, three moderately and the rest lightly – in a shooting at the Bar Noir, a center for youth run by the Tel Aviv gay community, on Saturday night. ============================================================== Ynetnews: 2 killed in Tel Aviv shooting GLBT activist says shooting that killed 2, wounded 10 at gay community meeting place in central Tel Aviv was ‘deliberate act against gay community’ ...

Rhodes Cook: THE VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION – CLUES FROM THE PAST It is often said that the past is prologue. In that regard, this year’s gubernatorial candidates in Virginia–Democrat Creigh Deeds and Republican Bob McDonnell–share a bit of common history. They ran against each other for state attorney general in 2005, a race that ended as one of the closest statewide elections in Virginia history. Following a recount, McDonnell emerged the winner by a margin of just...

Larry J. Sabato: Tweets of the Week 1:24 PM Jul 16th: Today the Richmond Times-Dispatch apologized editorially for its role in Massive Resistance. Late but welcome and heartfelt. Worth reading. 8:42 PM Jul 17th: Just returned from Massive Resistance event. Absolutely moving. Some wounds are still there after 50 yrs. Will air on C-SPAN–see listings. 8:48 PM Jul 17th: Appropriate that Cronkite died when we are commemorating 40th anniversary of moon landing. He was our guide and his enthusiasm...

Larry J. Sabato: Tweets of the Week The Crystal Ball’s new feature, Tweets of the Week, showcases some highlights from the past week in politics. Read more analysis from University of Virginia Center for Politics Director, and Crystal Ball founder, Larry Sabato on Twitter here. 9:54 PM Jul 10th: As the author of “A More Perfect Constitution,” I’m delighted that both CA and NY have serious efforts at constitutional revision underway. 5:49 PM Jul 11th: The term “kabuki...

Larry J. Sabato: FIFTY YEARS LATER: REVISITING THE LEGACY OF MASSIVE RESISTANCE The following article is the unedited version of a commentary piece as submitted to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Fifty years have now passed since the dark days of Massive Resistance, when public schools in some Virginia localities were shuttered rather than integrated. Virginia has had an overall proud and constructive history; yet except for the original sin of slavery, Massive Resistance is the most indelible stain...

Breaking News Alert The New York Times Friday, July 17, 2009 — 8:14 PM ET —– Walter Cronkite, Iconic Anchorman, Dead at 92 Walter Cronkite, an iconic CBS News journalist who defined the role of anchorman for a generation of television viewers, died Friday at the age of 92, his family said.

Death toll now at least 6 people, at least 4 of whom are foreigners. CNN Breaking News: An explosion tore through the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in south Jakarta, Indonesia, witnesses told local media. CNN Video BBC: ‘Fatal’ blasts hit Jakarta hotels At least four people have been killed in two separate explosions at luxury hotels in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, reports say. The country’s Metro TV reported that one blast hit the Ritz-Carlton and the other, the Marriott Hotel. At least...

Alan I. Abramowitz: Do Americans View Both Parties as Too Extreme? According to the Gallup Poll, many Americans today view both major political parties as too extreme ideologically. In a survey conducted from June 14-17 of this year, 46 percent of Americans said that the Democratic Party was “too liberal” while 42 percent described its political views as “about right” and 8 percent said it was “too conservative.” In the same survey, 43 percent of Americans saw...

Larry J. Sabato: Tweets of the Week A new Crystal Ball feature, Tweets of the Week, will showcase some highlights from the past week in politics. This commentary is just a sampling of the analysis (and, yes, sometimes humor) of University of Virginia Center for Politics Director, and Crystal Ball founder, Larry Sabato who can be found on Twitter by clicking here. July 8: With Madigan gone, Gov. Pat Quinn (D) breathes easier. Senate race still anybody’s game–except for joke occupying...

Laugh in Tune! Listen to the Capitol Steps’ 4th of July Show on your local NPR station or online! Tune in to hear Mark Sanford, Joe Biden, Arlen Spector, and several Somali pirates as we perform our July 4th radio special in front of a large audience in a confined space. Get local broadcast info now. Hear what’s in store on this promo clip. Find a Station or LISTEN ONLINE.

Rhodes Cook on THE GOP: POISED FOR ANOTHER QUICK COMEBACK? The current state of the Republican Party is a good-news, bad-news situation. The good news is that the GOP has gone through several debilitating elections over the last generation and each time has recovered quickly. The bad news is that the conditions may not be as ripe this time for a fast Republican comeback as they were after the elections of 1964, 1976 and 1992. The presidential election of 2008 is the fourth since 1964 that has left...

Larry J. Sabato on OFF-OFF YEAR ELECTIONS: They Seem Important at the Time. People who live for politics appreciate what real votes in real elections mean. It’s pure heroin for junkies. There is no cold turkey like the one between the end of a presidential election and the midterm election that occurs two full years later. The presidential high–the flood of votes in all fifty states for the Electoral College and the thousands of contests for every other office under the sun–is...

Larry J. Sabato on THAT WILD AND WACKY SENATE: Some Updates on the Upcoming 2010 Senate Showdown. So much has happened recently in many of the 2010 Senate contests that you would think we were in the middle of the election year. We’re still seventeen months out from Election Day, yet the battles are turning white hot in many states. Let’s take a look at what has occurred in recent weeks in more than a dozen states featuring the big showdowns of ’10. For a comprehensive outlook...

Dale Eisman on Virginia Gubernatorial Rematch: Will 2009 reflect past trends or overturn them? Barack Obama owes his presidency in part to his campaign’s mastery of the internet. A corps of online Obama enthusiasts helped him identify and mobilize previously-hidden groups of voters–particularly those under 30–and build an historic fundraising apparatus. In much of the country, Republicans were left with a clear majority only among older and rural voters, those least likely to have...

Between sex scandals and celebrity deaths, let us not forget the citizens of Iran. Suffering does not go away when we do not see it. New York Times: In Tehran, a Mood of Melancholy Descends — TEHRAN — An eerie stillness has settled over this normally frenetic city. In more settled times, the streets are clogged with honking cars and cranky commuters grousing about the lack of decent parking. — But on Saturday, few cars and relatively few people were on the streets…. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/world/middleeast/28iran.html José...

The New York Times: The World Health Organization has told its member nations it is declaring a swine flu pandemic — the first global flu epidemic in 41 years, news services reported. The move came after an emergency meeting with flu experts here that was convened after a sharp rise in cases in Australia, which reported 1,224 cases on Wednesday, and rising numbers in Britain, Japan and elsewhere. In a statement sent to member countries, the W.H.O. said it decided to raise the pandemic alert level...

Alan I. Abramowitz on Who’s Afraid of Big Government? Not Us Barack Obama has been pulling the wool over the eyes of the American people. At least that’s what some conservative pundits are claiming. Despite his current popularity, commentators such as Michael Barone, Dick Morris, and Karl Rove are predicting that Mr. Obama’s approval ratings will come crashing down to earth once the public understands what he’s really up to: dramatically expanding the role of government in...

Alan I. Abramowitz on Back to the Future for Obama: Comparing the 2004 and 2008 Presidential Elections Barack Obama’s victory in the 2008 presidential election represented one of the most dramatic shifts in political power in American history. In terms of both style and substance, the contrast between Obama and George W. Bush is perhaps as great as that between any incoming and outgoing presidents in the modern era. Yet the historic nature of this election should not blind us to the high degree...

Barbara A. Perry on Supremely Representative: Should the Nation’s Highest Court Look Like America? The U.S. Constitution is utterly silent on qualifications for members of the federal judiciary. Theoretically, a justice does not even have to be a lawyer, but, in practice, all 110 justices in the Supreme Court’s 220-year history have been attorneys. With no constitutionally mandated selection criteria, presidents have been free to determine the standards by which they choose nominees....

Dahlia Lithwick on Why Do We Talk About Judges This Way? Nobody in America believes the judicial confirmation system works. Not the senators who eat up precious questioning time with windy speeches about pet projects back home; not the interest groups who scour every sordid instant of a nominee’s background for evidence that they are unfit for the bench; and not the American public, whose experiences of constitutional interpretation and judicial philosophy are reduced in a few days on C-SPAN...