END THE WEEK ON A HAPPY NOTE – AT 7:33 P.M. ET:  Political prognosticator Charlie Cook has some very good news for Republicans:

...Mr. Cook, who is editor and publisher of a newsletter that bears his name, and who stands as perhaps the most respected crystal-ball gazer in politics, now says it more definitively than ever: Republicans are on track to win back control of the House of Representatives, claiming their most coveted prize of 2010.

"I think Republicans are going to get the House back," he said flatly in a conversation taped for WSJ.com's "Big Interview" segment, which will be posted on the site Friday morning.

To be precise, Republicans need to win 39 Democratic seats to get control of the House, and Mr. Cook's current estimate is that they are in line for a 35- to 45-seat gain. "But frankly, I think we're being very conservative with that," he added. "The odds of it being higher than that range are a lot better than lower."

And...

The basis of his analysis is simple: This doesn't look or feel like a normal midterm election. "There are two kinds of elections," he said. "There's sort of the Tip O'Neill all-politics-is-local, and then there are wave elections. We're seeing just every sign in the world that this is going to be a wave, and a pretty good-sized wave."

COMMENT:  From his mouth to you know whose ears.  But we're ten weeks from the only poll that counts.  Work, work, work.

August 20, 2010