Our guests today are Drew Zambelli, Doug Garr and AF Cook from Virginia.  Our subject today is the upcoming presidential election, the outlook for the Congress in 2009 and their predictions on who will win and what will Congress look like. Also our guests will give their views on the battleground states and what to watch for on election night!

Download | Duration: 00:52:37

Andrew J. Zambelli, Ph.D. is a market research consultant with over 30 years experience He has extensive public policy and political experience having served as Director of Communications and Chief of Staff (Secretary to the Governor) for Governor Mario M. Cuomo of New York.  He has done polling, communication strategy and campaign management for scores of legislative issues and political candidates on the national, state and local level.  He has been a delegate or alternate to three Democratic Presidential conventions.
 
Dr. Zambelli received his Ph.D. in psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and postdoctoral-training at Columbia University and is a life-long resident of Westchester County, NY.

Doug Garr, a graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications has written for magazines, newspapers, and CEOs of companies like, JP Morgan, Hewlett-Packard, and Network Appliances. He has written books on Lou Gerstner of IBM, investing, and Silicon Valley. He wrote economic speeches for former Governor Mario Cuomo, and he is currently working on two new books. He has a life-long interest in politics.  Doug grew up in Westchester County and now lives in NYC. Mr. Garr was a guest of The Advocates on July 23, 2008 talking about political campaigns since FDR.

A.F. Cook is an author, sometime blogger, and average American citizen whose recent book, “Democrats in the Red Zone: an Independent voter’s take on the game of political perception” was published in November 2007. Cook wants Democrats to be savvier about how they play the political perception game. She believes Republicans retain an edge in their understanding of American cultural biases, and that Democrats must sharpen their rhetoric and cultivate more mainstream perceptions of their constituencies to gain an upper hand.

In a direct challenge to the organizational culture of the Democratic Party in particular and liberal culture in general, Cook asserts that such a strategic shift will only occur when barriers to inclusion based on class and educational credentials are broken down within those two cultures. Cook believes that America’s voting majority — especially football fans — detests one trait even more than dishonesty: pretentiousness. In her view, the impact of Sarah Palin’s nomination as the Republican Party’s vice presidential candidate clearly illustrates this reality. Ms. Cook lives in Virginia, which she calls a “red state going purple,” and she was a guest on The Advocates on both January 2nd and September 3rd of this year talking about politics.