“Who will take the House and by how much?” began journalist and political blogger Ana Marie Cox at her Oct. 26 convocation speech.  Proceeding in a “frequently-asked- questions format,” Cox replied to her own query: “I’ve been in Washington long enough to know that the only predictions that anyone remembers are the ones that are spectacularly wrong…Republicans by fifty!”

Washington insider meets stand-up comedian, Cox employed her trademark sarcastic, witty humor in her lecture.  The founding voice of Wonkette.com, Cox made her name as a political blogger.  Currently, she is the Washington editor for Time magazine and Time.com, and has recently published her first novel, Dog Days, a political satire of Washington, D.C.  Her talk, “A Primer for the Midterm Elections,” explored issues at the forefront of the upcoming elections.

“How have the netroots affected the mid-terms?” asked Cox.  “Not as much as we’d like.”

“Netroots,” a term that refers to grassroots political activism organized through blogs and other online media, has become an increasingly popular campaign strategy, especially in the area of “get-out-the-vote.”

One example of the growing power of netroots activism was its contribution to Ned Lamont’s unexpected primary victory over incumbent Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman in Connecticut this year.

“Netroots has pushed the debate among Democrats further to the left,” said Cox.  “I think most Americans would be pretty shocked that Hillary [Clinton would be seen as] too conservative — if she were to run for president.”

Clinton warranted a round of questions all to herself.

“Is [House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi] a canary in the coal mine for a Hillary Clinton canvassing?” Cox asked herself first.

 “No,” she responded. 

Cox disagreed with the current widely-held theory that Pelosi as Speaker of the House could be negative for the potential Clinton 2008 campaign. In her opinion, Pelosi and Clinton offer distinct enough platforms that any negative popular opinions of Pelosi would not reverberate on to Clinton.

Citing a recent poll, Cox explained that “compared to what everyone expected…[Clinton] has the highest name recognition of any potential ’08 candidate, right or left. Not only that…she has the lowest number of people who [don’t] have an opinion on her.” 

“Good luck,” Cox added sarcastically.

Cox also noted that a Democratic majority in either one or both houses after this election cycle would greatly impact the viability of a Clinton ticket in 2008.

“If [Democrats] can get together legislation that people want…then hello, Hillary,” she said.

Discussing Clinton’s talent for consensus “across the aisle,” Cox wondered whether Clinton could make a more lasting impression as Senate Majority Leader, a position that has never been filled by a woman.

Assuming that Democrats do win either one or both houses, Cox claimed that maintaining a governing majority would be relatively simple.

“The bar is very low for the Democrats,” she said. “Basically they have to do the stuff people want them to do and not do the stuff that they don’t want them to do.”

Although she predicted Democratic victory later this month, she did not attribute it solely to strength within the party. According to Cox, “Part of that has to do with luck and mismanagement on the Republican side.”

Citing the sophisticated voter recruitment strategies employed by the Republican Party, she also warned that a Democratic victory in the midterm elections should not be considered a given.

On the all-important issue of the war in Iraq, Cox had yet another succinct discussion with herself.

“Is this election a referendum on the war?” she asked. “Yes,” she responded. “Next question.”

Polls show that the war in Iraq is the most important issue for voters, followed by the economy and terrorism.  Cox suggested that this distinction between the war in Iraq and the war on terror indicates that Americans no longer associate the former with the latter. 

“The Bush administration has lost that,” she said.

Cox also entertained less frequently-asked questions from the audience.  She responded to a self-proclaimed “radical environmentalist” that a Gore ticket in ’08 is not very likely:

“Don’t go sit in a tree until it happens,” she said. “You’ll get hungry.”