Charlie Cook: Many Are Afraid To Say It, but This Is Not a Close Race

[DFW]

70. Charlie Cook is usually spot on, but there are additional factors to be counted in

The Republicans respect Charlie Cook as much as we do. That is a nice compliment to Charlie, but to us, it should be a BIG warning sign, and no message of comfort.

If they know they will lose (note to Republican trolls--to you, that's "loose&quot , they have two choices: take their lumps and improve their message next time, or.........

CHEAT. Specifically, and in no particular order:

Prevent legitimately registered voters from voting
Pre-program electronic vote-counting machines to give Republicans an edge, with trained hackers standing by, if necessary
Harass and intimidate voters in heavily Democratic areas, to frighten them away from polling locations
Decrease the number of physical locations where citizens can vote--drastically, if possible.
Make millions of robocalls providing voters in heavily Democratic areas with false information about place, time, date and eligibility to vote. In some instances, have live people do this if they are sure of not getting traced.
Install corrupt election officials to suppress votes for Democrats and make them vanish, or else find "inadvertently misplaced" boxes full of Republican votes if needed (Waukesha County in Wisconsin, e.g.).
Facilitate the ability of corrupt Republican Secretaries of State to falsify close election results and tip them in their favor (Florida in 2000, Ohio in 2004, Georgia gubernatorial in 2018, and MANY more).
Ally with a corrupt Attorney General to enforce "laws" that inhibit voting rights, and to suppress efforts to increase voting.
And, of course, the latest innovation: dismantle the Postal Service in Democratic areas, so that absentee ballots either arrive too late for voters to mail them in, or make sure they arrive too late to be counted.

Since Republicans have no inclination to better serve a majority of the population, let alone improve their message and goals to reflect this, they prefer to cheat using combinations of the above tried and proven methods of cheating.

It is no longer a question of "if," but "to what degree?" I think even Charlie Cook would agree with that. I'd love to ask him, but trying to get a hold of him during an election year is about twice as difficult as catching the Road Runner in a cartoon.