>> with all due respect to the democratic party, right now you guys have too many cooks. president obama tries to avoid looking like a lame duck, goes to the land of seeking duck, and gets his ducks in a row for attorney general nominee. democrats are coming to terms with the flogging they got last tuesday. what does president obama think his party's biggest weakness is? the standby of failure to

communicate. >> i think we have not been successful in going out there and letting people know what it is we are trying to do and why this is the right direction. this is a failure of politics we have to improve on. >> here is the mc chairman scholz. >> sometimes you work your heart out and you come up short. >> don't give up. focus and press forward. democrats like you do amazing things. you inspire me every single day. we know we are right on the issue. we are going to identify our mistakes, we are going to ask you for our best ideas. thank you again. you'll hear more from us. >> basically the democrats are right, they are just not good at persuading voters they are right. over the weekend and the past six years the democratic party has been hollowed out. what say you?

did the democrats have just a bad night last tuesday or was it an x essential -- existential crisis? >> they are in a dead of a crisis. not only did they suffer all these losses but since then you have had the presidents press conference, the scholz video the important column about the crisis in the party. the democrats are looking to harry reid and nancy pelosi to bring them back. they are going to be in trouble because the republicans have younger and more energetic leaders. >> one of the things that dan points out in his piece is one of the great benefits the party has is hillary clinton in the sense that they know who their nominee is in 2016. on the other hand the obama's and clinton's have taken up a lot of air space in the democratic party for a long time. if clinton wasn't going to run you realize quickly the

democratic bench is weak at this point. the party is thin on the ground in terms of leaders below barack obama, michelle obama, hillary clinton, and bill clinton. that is a bad place to be for the party heading into the future. >> if you look at how the white house has reacted publicly, the fear the democrats had an suspicion the democrats had at the congressional and state party level that the obama political machine exists for the service of one thing, barack obama not to build a democratic party, is true. if the president is going to be doing deals with the republicans, they are going to go into 2016 with or without hillary clinton in a tough place. >> for now we will switch to the next topic with the democratic party in sort of shambles. we now enter the lame duck session of congress. it could be exhilarating with a

flurry of legislation or it could be lame. the most controversial issue on the table is immigration, which john boehner suggests may poison the well. the question is will the president do it anyway? based on my reporting, the white house is bent on doing this. they will go forward by the end of the year, to this executive action. they feel as if they oh it -- owe it to hispanics, who are wary of the white house is foot dragging on the issue. they need to cement those hispanic voters in the democratic coalition going forward. >> let's see what the context is and how many people it affects. we will also see if the president delays the implementation date to give republicans a couple more months to move legislation. i don't think john boehner and mitch mcconnell are speaking for themselves when they said the president would be poisoning the well or lied in the match, and by the way it if you light a

match in a poison well, bad things are going to happen. [laughter] they are basically speaking for the congressional weighing of the republican party. the president backed herself -- himself into this. >> i did some reporting on the white house and it seems like when there is some discussion -- i don't think they are going to set a date as to when the implementation will be delayed. it won't happen until february or march. it takes a while for the executive gears to grind forward. it is still going to be many many months and tell any individual will put those regulations into effect. >> comprehensive reform or bust. that is what should be on the president's mine. >> we heard about the woman who president obama wants to be the next attorney general, loretta

lynch beat a prosecutor from brooklyn, she has an accomplished record. the gop has tossed a couple of brushback pitches. is this a good pick, a bad pick, or something in between? >> this is super brilliant. her story is incredible, her record is first rate. the president picked her on the merits. you couldn't argue for a better pic on the merits. "the wall street journal" editorial page raised some questions at this, but it is just a take on policy and on politics. republicans are going to confirm her. she is going to avoid the kind

of controversy that a lot of other potential picks would have brought with them. >> she doesn't have a personal relation with president obama, which is good from the standpoint of politics. i think you are exactly right, the white house doesn't expect this to go into the lame duck. they expected to happen when the new congress comes in. >> you think about other big appointments and nominations the president might make going forward, other cabinet departures or a supreme court nomination or two, you think about it, it is like a war. it is almost a matter of who was picked. it's going to give the country the ability to transfer out of the holder error, which has been controversial to say the least. she could be one of the greatest attorney generals we have had. >> well as fellow democrats do some midterm soul-searching, president obama is on the other side of the world in beijing, as far as physically possible away.

aside from wearing funny outfits, he is trying to secure a trade deal. brace yourself or policy discussion. can obama achieve something substantially there that would help him turn the page on the midterms? there are a couple of trade deals on the table. one has to be involved with china, the other is a bilateral agreement with china, both of them would be huge deals. both face some political difficulty at home and abroad. barack obama seems intent on trying to get them done. there is a 50-50 chance he will get at least one of them while he is there. >> a trade deal would be great for a bunch of reasons, not only because it is a new storyline for the media to cover, but something he can work on with republicans.

barack obama never been as outspoken or as an arguer-in-chief as bill clinton and george bush was. this is an economic theory that says we are going to do more business with china. that is something he has never been full throated about. >> coming up we will take advantage of the turmoil in the democratic party. we will be right back. ♪

>> we have two guests tonight. the first is stan greenberg. the second is the former bill clinton advisor who was more centrist. they are both legends of the democratic party. we hope we can get some musings on how the democratic party should go forward. let's start with stan greenberg. first let's get a diagnosis, what is wrong with the democratic party?

>> before i start with what is wrong, i agree with dan balls of the "washington post" on the long-term effects of losing that number of people down through the states and in the legislature. this is serious business. we should recognize that on election day hillary clinton would have won by six points in a presidential electorate. the dynamics are not going away because of this election or because of the bench. but for me the starting point of this is the economy. i think the president has been absent on the big structural economic problems facing the country. their groups did not engage and the reason why working-class voters did not vote for democrats is because they were silent on the economic issues facing the country. that is the starting and endpoint at addressing the problem. >> the economy is a big issue. we did not see democrats defending the affordable care act. going forward what is your advice to congressional democratic candidates in 2016?

should they start talking about how great the affordable care act is? >> absolutely. they should have done it in the last year. my advice earlier was instead of describing the change as minor it should have been described as transformational. this has changed the entire business model, how people get insured. my advice earlier this year is the president should embrace it, should give ross perot-type speeches talking about the health care changes because of it, and had he done that he would have been in a much better position for people to have a stake in the outcome of this election. >> a lot of democrats are looking at the presidential electorate in 2008 and 2012. the democrats have a strong position with minority voters. we don't need to worry so much about white working class of

voters. do you think the democratic party needs to focus on white working-class voters? , talk about what the democratic party needs to do for that subset of voters. >> the first step is to forget about the idea that we are dealing with white, working class voters. they are trying to address the blue-collar democrats, particularly in michigan. at that time women were nowhere near in the labor force as they are now. now they are 75% of the labor force, 75% of breadwinners. when you talk about we have to bring in white working-class you are dealing with -- working-class voters, we are talking about a large growing industries in sales and retail. as long as you don't have an old view of what the working class is. working people includes working

women and men overwhelming in service sector jobs who need a whole range of policies for their incomes to go up. that is where the targeting ought to be. >> is the democratic party's image with voters too liberal now? >> that is not even remotely the problem. the problems that the republicans have is we have ascended a trends, religious trends, and economic trends that they are fighting. so while those things were suppressed in this election let's remember what they did to suppress it. they achieved unity on immigration by coming out against the executive order on the dreamers. they unified and the party against the idea that the dreamers should have legal status. they voted for its repeal. that is now an across the line mainstream position of the republican party. they will die as a party with that position.

they used an intensity and turnout advantage in this election with a whole range of choices. what those have consequences. i think when we get further away from the election itself we will see a stake can address those. i don't think the democratic party has a liberal problem. they have a president who is continuing to try to persuade the country we are on the upswing, which is true on macro terms. but he needs to come to terms with the big structural economic problems people are living with. >> stan greenberg, thank you. now we will bring in the democratic leadership council. you heard stan greenberg say the party does not have a problem in looking too liberal. do you agree with that? >> i don't think labels are the problem. i agree with a lot of what stan said. i don't want to get into an argument as to whether we need to be liberal or centrist.

we are all on the progressive side. i think what stan said is very important, which is we need to have an economic message that talks so people go to work every day and play by the rules. we just didn't do that. for me the key of the democratic party is to have at economic growth agenda and upward mobility agenda, and to be on the forefront of government reform. if we want to have more government initiatives to help people, we also have to convince people the government works. it is the twin towers of growing the economy and creating an upward mobility path and reforming government that are keys for our party.

>> the big things you talked about, reform and an economic message to appeal to working-class voters and expand the party from being a northeastern liberal party associated with the old ways of doing things, does the democratic party needs that's now? doesn't need new ideas and doesn't need to come from outside the party structure and the white house? >> i don't know if we need a new dlc. of course the democratic party needs new ideas. people like my friends stan, we have figured out to many ways to micro market politics. we focus so much on turnout. we focus too much on turnout and not enough on what we say. yes, we need new ideas. they need to come from all over. i hope the white house has a bunch of good ideas. i hope the party structure does. but it is also good outside pressure for new ideas.

look, we have a real opportunity now to lay out an agenda for the future. that is going to be on the presidential campaign. i hope our candidates will lay out an agenda that is an agenda for the future, that convinces people that democrats are going to get ahead, which they are not convinced of now, and secondly the democrats will provide a government that will support them, work for them, and be efficient and effective. >> you have created a good segue to my next question -- there is no doubt in anybody's mind that bill clinton was a new democrat through and through.

do you think hillary clinton is a new democrat in the way her husband was? >> i think she is in the same basic framework that bill clinton did, with an emphasis on opportunity and personal responsibility, an emphasis on bringing everybody together. she is strong on national security issues. as she looks ahead, the framework and the fanatics are going to be similar. but the specific ideas -- this is a different world than it was 25 years ago. you need different ideas to talk to the working women, for example, that stan was talking about. i hope she will be an ideal candidate but i think she will also push the values and larger purposes then president clinton did. >> in the short term your party

will be defined by leaders in washington. nancy pelosi and harry reid, are they the best people to talk to the country about the democratic party being a party of reform? >> i'm not going to get into that kind of game. i don't play day-to-day politics anymore. but the democratic party over the next year will be increasingly defined by the presidential candidates. i hope in that arena we will see the party lay out an agenda that is going to be compelling to the american people. >> coming up, pop quiz. is this a picture from the presidential economic summit or a slumber party? the answer and so much more when we come back. ♪

>> as we mentioned earlier the leaders of the 21 pacific rim nations are in beijing for apec. there is a far more compelling story happening at the same time.

>> each year the leaders on earth gathered to take part in the transpacific regions fabulous events. welcome to the 22nd annual asia-pacific economic cooperation summit, red carpet live. we are covering the story that is in most walls, who wore it best? i am speaking, of course, of the tradition of world leaders are wearing ceremonial garb. this year a major controversy has already erupted on day one involving china's president xi jinping, russia's president vladimir putin, and president barack obama. that's right, the three most powerful leaders created the most ghastly economic faux pas they showed up wearing identical outfits. president obama shows up in the same thing. talk about getting caught purple handed.

it is an open secret among politicos that this american president doesn't particularly enjoy the pageantry of the asian summit. so much so that last year he sent john kerry to take his place. an actual president who relished the photo op was bill clinton who not curate the summit in 1993. the next year he displayed the stylistic audacity of lady gaga. it was a visit where the asian countries had to adopt to the apparatus of the midwest. they probably look silly back home. as dashing as bill clinton was his success was even more unrestrained gusto. take a look at george bush in 2008. have you ever seen a gringo where a peruvian poncho with such panache?

and check out those pajamas and that smile. what happened to that guy? when the leaders wake up tomorrow they will take part in another ceremony, a recession and family photo. hopefully this time they won't be wearing the same thing. john? >> thank you to mark there channeling robin leach. we will be right back. ♪

>> we didn't have room for this stunning photo bomb. that is andrew cuomo making a cameo at dunkin' donuts. >> a report on the war on women from tuesday is definitely worth the read.

>> you can find more on bloomberg.com. "taking stock" is coming up next on bloomberg tv.

>> hello, i am pimm fox. this is what i am taking stock of on this day, november 10, 2014. retail giant alibaba hopes to turn the equivalent of valentine's day, singles day into a global shopping day. in the first hour, alibaba processed over $2 million in online sales. >> so many people come for shopping. this is a clear indication we can give them what they want. >> and republican john mccain, arizona's senior senator on