Charlie Cook Quotes (37 Quotes)


    The most classic case of the Peter Principle I've ever seen in American politics. In a business where eloquence and rhetoric is important, he is a man of no talent whatsoever.

    I wouldn't want to stand between Chuck Schumer and anything he really wanted.

    The president looks terrible. The administration is kind of playing catch-up now.


    It can't hurt the president to remove himself from the current context of scandals, miscues and partisanship and put him in a statesman setting.


    The risk is enormous to Democrats. Even talking about censure or impeachment threatens to really agitate the Republican base.

    Playing at this level, it's ... a much faster game, and I've seen improvement (in my game). They've been on me about my play defensively down low, and I've made improvements there, and they're using me on the penalty-kill more and more.

    I think the leadership conference will be the first major cattle show before the 2008 election, and it should be pretty much mandatory attendance for any candidate seeking election in 2008.

    By an eight-point margin, voters are now more likely to call themselves Democrats than Republicans there was no gap in self-identification a year ago.

    It's a good place to talk about politics and sports.

    The visuals coming out of Hurricane Katrina suddenly took issues he was pushing and put them front and center,

    Usually you jump up a little bit, then there's a settling back down of a few points after that,

    It's too far out to extrapolate. But for now, House and Senate Republicans are pretty much joined at the hip with the president. When he falls in the polls, it's not good for them.

    Right now Mississippi is at the top ebb of the sort of power curve and Louisiana is in a bit of a slump.

    I felt bad about the fumble. I didn't see a defensive back come up from the side, and he got the ball out of there.

    The last vestiges of the strength he got from his handling of 911 are gone.

    There's certainly a sense of foreboding among Republicans that this is the big one. This is the one that could really catch on.

    Those who landed in Rhode Island or Utah, I doubt will stay, ... But those in Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Dallas or Houston are more likely to stay because it is not such an alien culture. And of those who come back, what will the mix be More African-Americans More whites You could argue either way.

    By almost every relevant measurement, national polls indicate that Republicans are at least as bad off as Democrats were at this point in 1994, before suffering devastating midterm losses.

    The president has to go on national television and tread water for an hour, while trying to make it look he's swimming the butterfly stroke.

    They need a win. With the exception of the confirmation of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, they haven't had a break all year. Just pulling off one of these would slow down the snowball a little.

    We know that there's a hurricane coming, and it's going to hit the Republicans in November. We're just trying to figure out how big this thing is.

    They know they have horrible problems and they came up with the least risky move they could make.

    I think if McCain-Feingold goes down, Sen. McCain will still be a force in the Senate,

    I think people have a sense that right now Democrats are completely powerless in Washington, that they're just sort of bystanders. But there's a danger of Democrats' looking always like they are carping. It's important for them to articulate some kind of vision.

    The quickest, simplest, easiest thing a home-owner can do is to create a defensible space around their home.

    A lot of members of Congress just like to hear themselves. They want to issue a press release back home. They want to make a little bit of a splash in the local papers, local TV stations, (but) most of these things aren't going to be enacted into law.

    If Democrats want to argue that the administration misrepresented and distorted the prewar intelligence, OK, that's one thing. But if they push the argument that they have been duped, fooled and victimized - well, to a lot of independent swing voters, they're just going to come across as weak.

    I think President Clinton would have liked to have traveled a lot in early '93 and reconnect with people, ... But the fact is, the administration was so disorganized and they were so unfocused that he didn't have the luxury of being able to travel.

    All political roads lead to Ohio in 2006. First, there is almost no way Democrats can get control of the Senate back without beating DeWine. Second, it's going to be one of the best chances Democrats have to pick up a governorship, and a big governorship, not just any old governorship. And third, it's the state with the most vulnerable Republican House seats in the country.

    Republicans are having a truly horrible year. With barely 13 months to go to the midterms (elections), the party's troubles are mounting.

    The guy is an animal, and I'm saying that in terms of fund-raising. If there's ever been this big of a disparity between the Republican and Democratic senatorial committees, particularly with the Democrats in the minority, I can't remember it.

    He'll be a force, but obviously it will be a blow if his signature issue goes down in flame.

    A less visible part of the damage done by Katrina may be what's happened to the President's approval rating.

    Today, the playing field is tilted in favor of Democrats. It doesn't mean it will be tilted as much or even in the same direction next month, let alone a year from now, but that's where it is now.

    The exemplary focus, discipline and execution that was so prevalent during (Bush's) first term is sorely lacking.

    Anything that focuses media and public attention on Iraq war casualties day after day particularly something that is a good visual for television, like a weeping Gold Star mother is a really bad thing for President Bush and his administration.


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