(Commentary) In November, I heard Gary Gallagher, UVA professor of history emeritus, speak at the 158th commemoration of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address at Gettysburg National Military Park. Gallagher’s initial point was arresting: He’s wearied by people remarking that our current context is unprecedented and insufferable, and it’s not. Why, compared to the darkness of the Civil War, our darkness is a pittance.
National party leaders, operatives and analysts are watching closely for clues about what works and what doesn’t. “You could make the argument that Pennsylvania is arguably the most important presidential swing state now,” said Kyle Kondik, an election analyst at Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia. With Florida, in many eyes, shifting reliably into the Republican column, Pennsylvania has the most electoral votes of any other battleground.
“I think the Republicans should be good in VA-05 at least for the early part of this decade,” said Kyle Kondik with the UVA Center for Politics. “If you have a pretty Democratic-leaning environment in a future election, the district may be competitive.”
Political analyst Larry J. Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics, encouraged NASCAR to reject the plan. “‘Let’s Go Brandon’ is nothing more than a rude middle finger to President Biden by Trump supporters – and there’s no question NASCAR fans are disproportionately pro-Trump,” Sabato wrote in an email exchange. “For the most part, NASCAR has admirably tried to disassociate itself from partisan and racist nastiness, so let’s hope they do the right thing and nix this sponsorship deal. . . . This is not the image NASCAR should want to project.”
As a new governor with no previous political record, Youngkin begins with a blank slate, but observers already are making comparisons to past governors. “[Youngkin] seems like a throwback to old business governors like John Dalton, or a modern version is Bob McDonnell,” says political analyst Larry Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics.
Those comments seem to suggest the state GOP is following the tenor of Youngkin’s campaign, says Larry Sabato, founder and director of UVA’s Center for Politics. “I can already tell from the comments that Todd Gilbert and others have made that [Republicans] clearly want to keep a lid on the crazier ideas,” Sabato says. “Youngkin got elected by corralling the crazy. My sense is they’ll adopt the most palatable agenda possible.”
“The nutty far-right (you know who) wants a ‘national divorce’, i.e., secession,” tweeted Larry Sabato, director of the UVA Center for Politics. “Pray tell, what will we do with the nuclear weapons? God forbid the loony right should get even one bomb.”
One political expert said Reid should get credit for a history-making political development. “Aside from his irreplaceable role in passing Obamacare, Reid’s biggest impact may have been in strongly encouraging Barack Obama to run for president,” said Larry Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics.
“The public is increasingly judging Biden relatively negatively. His approval rating is underwater, and strong disapproval is significantly higher than strong approval,” Kyle Kondik, an analyst at UVA’s Center for Politics, said.
(Video) UVA Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato discusses the Democratic House members not seeking re-election next year and what it means for the party.
(Podcast) Marc Selverstone, chair of the Presidential Recordings Program at the Miller Center of the University of Virginia, explains the background of the LBJ tapes.
(Transcript) William Antholis, who heads UVA’s Miller Center, discusses the challenges that many presidents have faced in their first year in office.
“This kind of cap and trade regulation is now used all across the world,” says Bill Shobe, a UVA professor of economics. “It’s used in China, in the European Union, in New Zealand, and California is using a similar program to reduce its CO2 emissions.”
Although people have occupied Central Virginia for at least 11,000 years, Professor Jeffrey Hantman, anthropologist and former UVA professor, proposes that the Monacans became a recognizable, unique cultural group around 1000 AD.
Former VRS trustee Edwin Burton, the longest-serving trustee in the commonwealth’s history, said the new CIO should be reasonably knowledgeable about most of the fund’s asset classes, but not necessarily an expert in any of them. Burton, a University of Virginia economics professor and co-author of a book on behavioral finance, said someone with a background that strongly emphasizes one particular asset class will likely be biased toward that asset class when a balanced approach is needed.
“Money feeling strange in 2021 is based on a decade of money slowly feeling strange for lots and lots of different people throughout the world,” said Lana Swartz, an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia who focuses on money. “We’re at a stage where the government and financial institutions are revealed to be less dependable than we ever imagined they would be, so why not YOLO?”
Dr. Bernard Beitman, a UVA visiting professor and former chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has spent his career researching coincidences and says about a third of us notice them regularly. In his book “Connecting with Coincidence: The New Science for Using Synchronicity and Serendipity in Your Life,” he says that there are personality characteristics and situations – if a person is religious or spiritual, or if they are actively seeking meaning in life – that make us more likely to experience coincidences. \
“What’s happened in Charlottesville over the last few years is an outlier,” said Charles Hartgrove, the director of the Virginia Institute of Government at the University of Virginia. “That (type of turnover) is not typical of what we see in most Virginia localities, cities, counties or towns.”
Another question to consider is how our personal health data is being stored and used. Margaret Foster Riley, a health privacy expert and professor of law at the University of Virginia, raises a few red flags about this growing trend. “Sometimes you’ll see companies will assert that they’ll never sell or use your data improperly but what’s unclear is what happens in a succession context,” she says, noting that your data might not be protected in a bankruptcy or acquisition (both common with startups).
Dr. Lorna Breen’s sister, Jennifer Feist, and her husband, Corey, started the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation to reduce burnout of health care professionals and safeguard their well-being and job satisfaction. Corey Feist is also the CEO of the UVA Physicians Group. When asked if Breen suffered from burnout prior to COVID-19, Corey Feist replied, “I know the practice of medicine is very hard. She was getting her MBA because she was trying to improve the system and advance her career. In my experience, doctors are getting their MBA and exploring alternative careers because the day-to-day cli...