Charlie Cook: In Mid-Terms I Don’t Think You Need a Message

‘I think President Trump’s approval ratings and the intensity of his disapproval has been very, very steady’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
COOK: "I think President Trump's approval ratings and the intensity of his disapproval has been very, very steady. I suppose two or three more quarters of 3% gdp growth, you know, maybe picks up a little bit. Frankly I don't see -- I think would take a black swan event for this to change the dynamics, but where I disagree with a lot of people is theyou have to have a message. In mid-terms I don't think you need a message."
TOOD: "Usually don't. Do you?"
COOK: "2020, a problem for Democrats. Here, this is just not being Donald Trump party, not being in control of Congress. They can be against stuff and still have a really, really good election. The thing is Doug Jones, what -- what were, was his policy -- he was not -- Roy Moore. He wasn't -- he wasn't Roy Moore nap was sort of the gist of it."
TOOD: And it worked. Another fascinating aspect about the president's approval rating, this atmosphere. Because the economy is humming. And it's probably with a little bit of a boost with this tax cut short term. Debate whether this could sustain anything long term, but it's clear there's a lot of indicators that 2018 will have more economic good news. Is it just -- has trump wiped out that as a, as an opportunity for him to sort of gain political credit?
COOK: "The fascinating thing is during the Monica Lewinsky affair, during impeachment, you know, people were not inclined to nominate president Clinton for husband of the year, but the economy was good, and voters didn't want to rock the boat. They didn't want to throw him out of office, and it ended up hurting Republicans in the mid-term election, but this is very different. To have the lowest job approval rating for any newly elected president in history at a time of really good economic growth, 4.1% unemployment, never seen anything like this before, but could a sustained growth move him up a little bit? But, you know, what we've seen is, when you've had presidents that had approval ratings under 46% going into Election Day, a mid-term election, the average is a seven-seat Senate Ross and loss and 40-seat house loss. Not those numbers bought 24 or more seat gain for Democrats in the house, majority? Yes. Would it be a two-seat, could it were be two seat? Absolutely. So -- you know, sure. Ten months, ten and a half months is a long time."

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