Charlie Cook

Charlie Cook talked about his political analyst career of more than 30 years and his label by some as “the oracle” of national politics. He explained the purpose behind his comprehensive political newsletter, Cook Political Report, which began in 1984 and tracks every congressional race in the country. He talked about his success in picking up election trends fairly early, citing the Republican takeover of the House in 1994 and 2010 as examples of wave elections that he predicted early in the election cycle. He explained his mistake in 1985 of predicting the election of a woman as president before a minority. He told the story of an Indiana House election in 1984 between Frank McCloskey (D-IN) and Rick McIntyre (R-IN). The Democratic majority in the House chose to seat their own candidate without holding the contested race over again, a single event that he believes started a “downward spiral” in the civility of politics in Washington. close