Colleague, michael holt. Michael holt is the professor of American History here at the university of virginia. He was educated at princeton and learned his ph. D. At Johns Hopkins university. With time offer visiting professional ships at cambridge, yale, stanford and other institutions. He has been at the university of virginia since 1974. He has written widely and deeply about 19 century political history. For many years his writing focus on the years before the civil war. Both the political crisis of the 19 fifties has become the standard for advanced college courses. His 1999 book, the rise involve the american w. H. I. P. Party, draconian politics in the onset of the civil war, was the runner up for the lincoln prize, his most often described as magisterial. And that is not just because of his 1296 heft. More recently, he has written of the reconstruction period following the war. By one vote the disputed election of 1876, it tells the story of americas closest election which perh
Thank you so much for being here today. My name is candace and i work with some of the events here. I want to welcome you. I just wanted to go over a few logistics. Make sure your cell phones are on silent. We are recording this event this afternoon and we also had cspan here with us today. Not having any interruptions would be great. We will have an hourlong presentation here which the half will be for questions. We had one microphone on the side here. If you would wouldnt mind using that for your questions then we can pick up on the recording. Then finally, we typically ask that you fold up you your chairs at the end of the event. If you could leave them where they are today. I am so pleased to be welcoming candice hooper. We will see her new book lincolns generals wives. This book but as a detail and lively account of four women during the civil war using letters memoirs in the extensive travel reports. The group biography of Jessie Fremont, Nelly Mcclellan, julia grant each married
news woman extraordinaire, healthcare expert. i was saying yesterday i was suspicious of this insurance company thing and sure enough reporter jacki schechner nosed up some interesting information. we re going to talk about all of that. aren t we cub reporter jacki schechner? good morning. good morning everybody. a survey released last month has president obama up seven points over mitt romney. the same poll released last night has the two much closer than that. president obama up 45 to 44. it is the economy that is helping mitt romney close that gap. the president s approval ratings have dropped, too. they re now to 47%. the same as they were in early january. and now 63% of those surveyed think we re on the wrong track. independent voters are especially sour on the president at the moment. his approval amongst independents has gone down by 13 points. congress faring even worse. 70% of americans think congress has done more harm than good when it comes to fixing our econom