Political analyst, commentator Bob Beatty to present at Cook Series

Dr. Bob Beatty will be the presenter for Cloud County Community College’s Cook Series on Thursday, Feb 15, at 7 p.m. in Cook Theatre in Concordia.

Beatty will present “The Iowa Caucuses and the 2024 Presidential Election,” his 30-minute documentary on the Iowa caucus followed by a discussion about the 2024 Presidential race. A question-and-answer session from the audience will follow. All Cook Series events are free and open to the public.
 
The Iowa caucus continues into 2024 as a throwback to another era. Every four years presidential candidates from one or both political parties descend upon Iowa and crisscross the state making their case to voters. Beatty, an Iowa caucus expert, has been travelling there for more than 20 years studying this unique phenomenon of personalized campaigning. By using original video footage and photos featuring more than 50 presidential candidates, he shows where and how these candidates reach Iowans and the connection they try to make with the voters who can ignite or torpedo their presidential dreams.
 
He will also explore and examine the state of the 2024 presidential race, from the primaries through the general election.
 
Beatty is a professor and chair of the Political Science Department at Washburn University. He earned degrees from Carleton College, the University of Kentucky, and Arizona State University.
 
Since 2000, he has been at Washburn. His prior academic experience has been at Arizona State University; Academic Sinica, Changchun, China; Guest Professor of Political Science, U.S. State Department – 2017, 2010, 2009, 2007; and guest professor lecturer in Bulgaria, Hong Kong, China, Mongolia, Ireland, Russia, UK, Paraguay, and Japan. He has been leader of Study Abroad programs to Cuba, Japan, Ireland, United Kingdom, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
 
Beatty has produced political documentaries that have aired on state and national television. Documentaries include The British Political System, The Kansas Governor, North Korea: Inside the Hermit Kingdom, and Red State/Blue Governor: Kansas’ Kathleen Sebelius.
 
Since 2004 Beatty has researched and interviewed Presidential candidates and campaign operatives. He has written the books See How They Run: The 2020 Presidential Candidates in Iowa and See How They Run: The 2016 Presidential Candidates in Iowa.
 
Beatty has also attended fifteen presidential debates since 1996 and four national party nominating conventions (2008 and 2016) as observer, scholar, and reporter for KSNT-TV and The Topeka Capital Journal.
 
Concerning Kansas politics, he maintains the website (kspolitics.org) and youtube (kansaspolitics) channel dedicated to the collection of more than 1,000 Kansas political TV ads from 1968-2022.
 
His interest in global communist and post-communist politics has led him on research visits to North Korea, Cuba, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and countries of former Yugoslavia. In addition, he has observed parliamentary candidates in the United Kingdom elections of 2001, 2005, 2010, and 2017.
 
Service interests and activities include political analyst and consultant for KSNT News; monthly columnist for the Topeka Capital Journal; and International Election Observer for the 2017 UK election and the 2009 Mongolian presidential election.
 
Other career accomplishments include moderating 25 TV/radio election campaign debates since 2002, including debates for Governor, US Senate, and US Congress; hosting “I’ve Got Issues,” a public affairs program on Kansas public television station KTWU;  serving on the US Fulbright Scholar UK Awards Review Board; Research/Curriculum travel grants for Japan, South Korea, North Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Israel, Ireland, UK, Cuba, Mongolia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, former countries of Yugoslavia; receiving the Ned N. Fleming Excellence in Teaching Award (Awarded to two Washburn faculty deemed most outstanding for given year); authoring Democracy, Asian Values, and Hong Kong: An Evaluation of Political Elite Beliefs; and being an annual guest lecturer at the Godzilla and Friends Film Festival.
 
This year marks the 31st year of the Charles and Marian Cook Series at Cloud County Community College. The Cooks were travelers who wanted to bring the world to those who could not travel themselves. More than 80 events have been presented through the sponsorship of the Cook Foundation and the Division of Humanities, Social Sciences and Business at Cloud. It was always Marian Cook’s wishes that all Cook Series events be free and open to the public.
 
For more information, contact Brenton Phillips, dean of Humanities, Social Sciences and Business at Cloud, at 785.243.1435, ext. 244, or by email at bphillips@cloud.edu.