RUSH: Here comes Charlie Cook. Charlie Cook is the dean of inside-the-Beltway Washington political operatives. Charlie Cook supposedly bipartisan, nonpartisan, supposedly his data, kind of like Nate Silver, you can trust these guys. They’re not beholden to anybody out there, other than the truth.
And so here comes Charlie Cook yesterday, maybe the day before. Not sure. He’s got his prediction. In fact, it’s not a prediction. It’s absolute. It’s a tweet. “This race is over.” Charlie Cook makes it official. Yesterday, day before, this race is over. Biden will win by double digits. Biden will take over the Senate. That’s done. The only unknown, says Charlie Cook, is by how many seats the Democrats will win the Senate. (interruption) Do I buy it? No, I don’t buy it. I don’t buy it.
“How can you not, Rush? Why would people risk their reputations?” I can’t answer that for you, but I can get close. Charlie Cook’s reputation doesn’t matter. He doesn’t care what you think of him. He cares what the people who pay him think. He cares what the Washington establishment thinks of him. Charlie Cook knows his customers want Trump to lose and big.
Charlie Cook knows that everybody in his circle of friends and business, his network, they all hate Trump. If he’s out there predicting Trump wins, he’s got big trouble. And Charlie Cook surveys the ground. He sees everybody else that does what he does is predicting the same thing. Biden in a landslide, unstoppable. So what’s in it for Charlie Cook to go against the grain?
And then — I’ve mentioned this before. I went back four years ago. Four years ago yesterday, October 13th, 2016, Charlie Cook tweet. It says: “Take a close look at the new Fox poll released tonight. This race is over.” October 13th, 2016. Four years ago, Charlie Cook tweeted, “This race is over.” The cherry on top was the Fox News poll released October 13th, 2016.
It’s the same damn thing this year. Polls come out, October 13th, 2020, Charlie Cook, “This race is over.” Biden will win by double digits. The takeover of the Senate is done. The only decision out there now is how many seats the Democrats will win. The question is, why would we believe Charlie Cook this year when he was so totally, drastically wrong four years ago?
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RUSH: To Joshua in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Welcome, sir. It’s great to have you here. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. How you doing today?
RUSH: Good, sir.
CALLER: Glad to hear it. I just want to let you know that my wife and our children, every night you’re in our prayers. We’re praying for a speedy recovery for you, sir.
RUSH: Thank you very much. We appreciate it, sir.
CALLER: Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure. We appreciate all you do. Hey, I love it when you give the statistics and the numbers of how bad Biden is gonna beat Trump, I just love it. It makes me smile every time. It reminds me so much of when they said Hillary was gonna win in a landslide and I just love it. ‘Cause part of it is I think it does a couple of things. I think it’s gonna help bring out more people for Trump. And I think it just makes the Democrats squirm. And I love that.
And then another real quick point. A very intelligent man I listen to often says that polls are meant to dictate public opinion, not to reflect it. And so that email that you read earlier kind of makes me wonder, you know, that there may be some validity to that. What are the Democrats gonna do when they lose to the president?
RUSH: Well, it’s a very serious question. You have the numbers that you’ve cited, and we got these people that believe these things, and what happens when they don’t pan out, then, yeah, could be hell to pay out there ’cause they do, those polls, they sure do. They’re made to shape opinion.