Tag: University of Virginia

Lawrence talks to the University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato about the latest news in the 2020 Senate campaign, with a focus on the best chances for Democratic pickups. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc MSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth analysis of…

The prospective candidates mostly lack political experience, but they have ambition – a trait that is celebrated at Emerge Virginia, part of the Emerge America national training program for Democratic women started in California in 2002. Over the next several months of training, Copeland will help connect the trainees with party leaders, elected officials and the sprawling network of Emerge alumnae – many of whom are now positioned to help other women climb the ladder. In early 2017, Copeland received a text messagefrom Jennifer Boysko, an old friend and alumna of a previous Emerge Virginia program who was, at the time, a member of the Virginia house of delegates. She learned that Spanberger was already considering a run for Congress, so Copeland encouraged Dart and she decided to give it a go. You can’t.” After the original Year of the Woman saw a wave of glass-ceiling-smashing and barrier-breaking women were elected to Congress in 1992, progress toward gender parity essentially plateaued. Debra Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, thinks the female-led activism and momentum generated by big gains for women in the Trump era are signs that 2018 was not an outlier – but neither was it “mission accomplished”. “We had a record number of women running, but we need to see more, because we know that when women run they win at the same rate as men do.” In 2020, more women are running for president than ever before. Before 2018, the voters of Virginia’s 7th district had never elected a woman – or a Democrat – to the seat. “One of the lessons we learned in 2018 is that no matter what has historically been the case we cannot judge what voters want because we’ve now been proven wrong multiple times.” As the afternoon waned on the first day of Emerge Virginia’s candidate training, communication coach Courtney Knapp asked for a show of hands of those who had ever been told they were “too” emotional, “too” abrasive, or “too” ambitious. “We are en fuego, ladies,” High told them.

President Donald Trump defended North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un when confronted Thursday about American college student Otto Warmbier, who died days after he was repatriated from the pariah state with brain damage. “He tells me he didn’t know about it and I will take him at his word,” Trump said of how he could continue calling the young dictator “my friend.” Trump said he has talked to Kim about Warmbier, and that Kim “feels very badly.” “I don’t believe that he would have allowed that to happen. It just wasn’t to his advantage,” Trump added. “Those prisons are rough, rough places and bad things happen.” The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, was touring North Korea when he was arrested for allegedly stealing a propaganda sign. He was sentenced to fifteen years hard labor. North Korean officials have said Warmbier suffered a brain injury after contracting botulism, a form of poisoning, but U.S. doctors found no evidence of the condition. After Warmbier’s death, Trump vowed to press North Korea on its abysmal human rights record. But as Trump has sought to seal the denuclearization of North Korea in talks with Kim, the issue has been relegated to the back burner. Human rights was not on the agenda at either of the summits, although in Singapore Trump briefly said the meeting wouldn’t have happened without Warmbier.

Public opinion polls show more Americans blame President Donald Trump than opposition Democrats at the moment, and to some the standoff is already serving as a likely blueprint for the 2020 presidential election battle. "Trump is losing on this, Congress is losing on this, and then federal workers, who are without pay, are losing on this," said Jim Kessler of Third Way, a center-left public advocacy group in Washington. Wall or bust President Trump remains adamant about funding for a wall along the southern border, a key campaign promise from 2016. On Thursday, the Senate will vote on competing proposals to end the shutdown, one from the White House and Republicans, the other from Democrats. "We, the Coast Guard, the Border Patrol and other folks that make this country safe and secure, we don't get that much money; but, we should be paid for it," Gosman told reporters. "Public opinion polls, I think, are more against the president than against the Democrats," said Fortier. A new poll Wednesday from Morning Consult/POLITICO found that 54 percent blamed President Trump and congressional Republicans for the shutdown, while 35 percent blamed congressional Democrats. Overall, the president's approval rating has suffered during the shutdown, dropping from an average of around 43 percent last month to around 40 percent this year. A new CBS poll also found that by a margin of 71 to 28 percent, voters believe that money for a border wall is not worth shutting down the government. "And both sides will have to give something.

David M. O’Brien in 1986. Claudine O’Brien David M. O’Brien, a scholar and author who dissected the Supreme Court’s internal machinations and ideological dynamics, treating it as a political institution as much as a legal one, died on Dec. 20 at his home in Charlottesville, Va. His daughter Sara O’Brien said the cause was lung cancer. Dr. O’Brien taught politics at the University of Virginia for almost four decades. “David came to realize that behavioral science was a better window into the justices’ thinking than the cases and statutes they would cite in an opinion,” Ronald K. L. Collins, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law, said in a telephone interview. “Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics” by David M. O’Brien. He said that he came away from his time at the court “with a sense of how political the institution is in terms of its operation — not in terms of bargaining and logrolling so much, but how political ideas and political ideologies really are very much alive at the court.” “Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics” by David M. O’Brien. Aware that moving too quickly could provoke a violent reaction in the South, they determined that “separate but equal” schools were unconstitutional but did not order immediate desegregation. He noted, for example, that Justice Felix Frankfurter knew more about the court than any other member, but “proved a divisive influence because of his personality, because he was so petty, because he was so backbiting, because he was so persistent and insistent on his own views.” While extolling the virtues of being a team player, Dr. O’Brien said, Justice Frankfurter “turned out to be a lonely dissenter.” Dr. O’Brien said that Chief Justice Burger did not like “Storm Center” “because it portrays the justices as individuals with different judicial philosophies that often conflict.” As a result, he said, while many justices leave their papers to the Library of Congress, where researchers have easy access to them, Justice Burger, who died in 1995, left his to William & Mary Law School and imposed a moratorium barring access until 10 years after the last Justice who served with him dies, or 2026, whichever comes later. He met his future wife, Claudine Mendelovitz, there, and they married in 1982.

While the data firm Cambridge Analytica and questions of data privacy propelled Facebook into the headlines in recent months, Facebook has been under the critical eye of media scholars for years. “The sad conclusion to my book is that the problem with Facebook is Facebook,” declared Siva Vaidhyanathan, the Robertson Professor of Media Studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia, during his opening remarks at the first of this semester’s Berkman Klein Center Luncheon Series, which was co-sponsored with the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. The event, moderated by Nicco Mele, director of the Shorenstein Center, revolved around Vaidhyanathan’s latest book, “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.” Vaidhyanathan cited the sheer scale of Facebook, with over 2 billion people, along with its underlying engagement and promotion algorithms and its precise, targeted advertising system, as central to Facebook’s problems with disinformation, surveillance, and data sharing that have been associated with the platform. According to Vaidhyanathan, the crux of Facebook’s issues stem from the idea that Facebook is a political tool, although, he said, those at Facebook would likely disagree. Yet Facebook’s intention is likely not to cause harm or to have a negative impact. One attendee at the luncheon, a former Facebook employee, pointed out during the discussion that the company has features to encourage people to register to vote, and to vote on election day. “Having Facebook reminders for people to register to vote and to vote might move things a little bit, marginally,” he said. “But it doesn’t address the problem that there is an active force to undermine democratic participation in this country and in many, if not most, countries right now.” Despite his concerns with Facebook, deactivating individual accounts is not the solution, Vaidhyanathan argued. What sort of media ecosystem do we need, do we deserve, to be able to operate responsibly as citizens in a democratic republic?” he asked. In this short Q&A, media scholar Siva Vaidhyanathan talks about how Facebook has changed journalism and how reporters can do a better job covering Facebook and its influence.

(CNN)The 2018 election is in 105 days. And the playing field continues to tilt toward Democrats. House seats in Democrats' favor -- eight of which went from a "leans Republican" rating to a "toss-up." That means that of the 36 races rated as "toss-ups" by the Center of Politics, 34 are held by Republicans. These moves are broadly consistent with how other non-partisan handicappers see the current state of play. The Cook Political Report carries 34 seats that are either "toss-ups" or lean toward party that doesn't currently control the seat; 31 of those are GOP districts. Inside Elections sees 26 Republican-held seats in serious jeopardy as compared to just 5 for Democrats. Even though President Donald Trump narrowly carried the seat in 2016, Lamb leads Rothfus 51% to 39% in a new Monmouth University poll. Add it all up -- and throw in the weight of history that suggests the President's party loses, on average, 33 seats in midterm elections -- and you have a devil's brew for Republicans. "Time is running out for Rs to turn things around."

For the first time this cycle, the University of Virginia's Larry Sabato said Democrats are the favorites to retake control of the House in the fall. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis…