Dave Wasserman, house race editor of the Cook Political Report, kicked off the 2009 Virginia Young Democrats Convention with a few (rapped) words on Charlie Cook who then took the stage to discuss our impressive wins in 2008 and where we can go from here. In September of 2002, a young state senator from Illinois came through their offices and Cook confessed he told his staff there's “no way he’s gonna make it.”
Cook described 2008 as a perfect storm of politics. Bush had terrible job approval rating. Half the votes party needed to win had to come from people who already thought he was doing a terrible job. The Republicans eroded their core value of competence and the country was hungry for change.
Then again, we all lived and know it. But it sure was nice to hear Cook's tidbits he picked up from his Republican friends such as one Congressman who asked was Sarah Palin "A stroke of genius or just a stroke."
