host: let's look at some of the headlines. we will have more analysis of the elections with gail russell chaddock and susan page. susan page has written about the district -- the disconnect. a look ahead of the new congress -- cantor on the rise.

since become the house republican leader. also, from the l.a. times, the state jobless fund is overdrawn. that is one of the issues that incoming gov. jerry brown will be facing as california deals with a $1 billion shortfall. the miami herald -- how will scott reid? follow the early clues. -- scott lead? follow the early clues. more on money issues for georgia. the boston sunday globe -- bruised but emboldened. deval patrick, his road map to a second term after winning reelection. he was one of the democrats able to be reelected. then there is this from the new by peters , a piece baker -- around of he be in a news for george w. bush. -- of tv interviews for george w. bush.

nbce'll be a special on tomorrow, a one-short interview with matt lauer -- one-hour interview with matt lauer. >> the main purpose is to have a data point for future historians. i do not care about perceptions at this point " in time -- point in time. i served. i gave it my all. i am a content man. book has been part of the transition process and to private life. it is a way to put the reader into the environment in which i had to make decisions. >> the book is called -- host: the book is called "decision points." the former president will also appear on the oprah winfrey show and will have a number of other appearances on the fox news channel, including an interview on friday with greta van susteren. whether the rest of the country is ready to connect with mr.

bush again remains to be seen, but after nearly two years of silence, he is imposing from self-imposed exile to defend his record and begin the process of defining his legacy at the moment when his successor is on the ropes. as he releases his new memoir, hits the television circuit, and prepares to break ground on his presidential center, mr. bush finds himself in an involving -- the balding place in american society. -- evolving place in american society. caller: he has put on his tan gallon hat and said, you are damn right i was for waterboarding. people on the right will think, oh, wow, he is a big guy. they still believe that nixon did not commit a crime. our problem was bush. he sent 4000 troops -- i am surprised there are not people protesting that their kids died.

he sent them to the wrong country to fight a war. he should be tried for treason. he is just dog meat. host: thank you for call. the book is called "decision points." the area code is 202. 737-0002 democrats. 737-0001 republicans. one of our twitter comments: bush gave the u.s. some of the republican ideology that destroyed u.s. like regulation of wall street and banks. look how well that worked. caller: i think george w. bush will go down in history as the worst president ever. he was the beginning of the end of america. i think intellect will be

determined on if you voted for him. if you were dumb enough to vote for gun for the second time. he plunged us into economic disaster. he lied us into a war that cost the lives of americans and foreigners. he will be the worst president in history. host: on our republican line, joe from akron, ohio. two years after george w. bush left the national stage. caller: there were so many contrasts between president bush and occurred president -- the kurd president. he was much more modest, less spiteful. he never record -- referred to democrats as "enemies." he was not then skinned or divisive. finally, he had convictions. i really miss him for that.

) next is derek from baltimore. the democrats' line -- host: next is derek from baltimore on the democrats' line. caller: i think he is one of the worst president in the history of the united states. ronald reagan was an awful president. when he took office, the national deficit was under $1 trillion. when he left, it was $5.50 trillion. yet, republicans are going to take care of the mess that they started. as far as our relationships with foreign countries, when bush was the president, he was awful. this guy is just walking around. the mess that he has left the country -- it is a shame that anybody would honor him as a decent president. he was an awful president.

host: this is from our twitter page. let's see if the republican noise machine can make bush ii into a cure the way it did for ronald reagan. -- a hero the way they did for ronald reagan. let's go on line and look at a couple of excerpts. on his preference in the 2008 election -- it had been john mccain. i believe he was better prepared to assume the global office amid a global war and financial crisis. i did not campaign forum, in part because i was busy with the economic situation, and mostly because he did not ask. i understood he had to establish his independence. i appreciate that he was worried about the polls. i thought it looked defensive for john mccain to distance himself from me. i was confident i could help, but the decision was his. i was disappointed i could not do more to help him. that is in the book titled "decision points." it will be in bookstores starting on tuesday. pat from st. louis.

good morning. caller: i am an independent from st. louis. i have a couple of comments. i do not like the way you set up the question because you know the democrats are still vibrate over bush. bush and reagan were great presidents -- it is too early to judge. he turned to a more democratic country. if barack can do that, he will be a success. look how many troops obama has sent into afghanistan. the war protesters? the war protesters are communists who come out to march and are paid by the, the country's -- the commie countries. the next time you have a democrat who calls them teabaggers -- i march with them today are not teabaggers. that is a sexual slur. you need to cut them off just like you would anybody that would say the n word. thank you. host: thank you for the call.

sarasota, florida. george w. bush two years later -- your thoughts? caller: good morning. i see there is a lot of anxiety about president bush. it sure contrast with obama in the white house, bad mouthing our country, running around apologizing for america. this is america. we fought real hard to be a country. we have a lot of convictions. president bush, even though you never heard him blame anyone for everything, he took responsibility. the fact is, let's talk about this -- if president clinton had gone and actually taken osama bin laden when he was offered up by saddam -- sudan and by the people, maybe he would have been taken care of. the fact that people want to blame president bush for 9/11 and all of these things --

president bush at least have the conviction to go, fight, and protect america, not hiding under his desk or apologizing or blaming somebody else. i will tell you, when hurricane charlie came to florida, president bush and jeb bush were in and holding hands and holding a gun like real people, not like john kerry -- holding them like real people, not like john kerry. barack obama keeps blaming everyone. barack obama was a member of the united states senate. his policies helped -- were part of the problem here. host: thank you for the call from sarasota, florida. here is the media of rollout. tomorrow night, the nbc program with matt lauer. on thursday, he will be interviewed by bill bradley at the national museum of a u.s. air force.

on friday, he will be interviewed by greta jon tester susteren. next saturday, a separate interview will air. he will be on cbs on sunday with jim axelrod. mrs. bush will be joining him for that interview. then he will be joined by jeb bush for an interview. on monday, november 15, and thursday, november 18, he will appear on the "jay leno show." george w. bush, two years later. caller: i think he did a great job of letting the fuse for the bankers to start looting profits back in 2008. if you remember the economic terrorism when he said that and needed to bail them out --

he really passed the baton to barack. all of the quantitative easing and all of this business -- how is it that a sitting president is head of the un security council? that is a direct violation. he cannot be president and head of the u.n. security council. if we want to talk about reason, the shoe fits on both feet. coast >> thank you for the call. the former president -- host: thank you for the call. former president will have some comments about that. caller: i voted for president bush twice. i pretty much like what he is doing. the thing i do not above the president is the fact that he did bailout the bankers. i understand the secretary of the treasury relies on him. but still, that is the one big

down check is that the president went along with that and put those guys -- left to those guys in charge instead of putting them in jail. in regard to the war and bush winning the election, i think the president did great. i just hope he is having a good time in retirement. host: thank you for the call. vinson from east haven, conn., welcome to "washington journal." caller: good morning, steve. i really think a couple things that he did that he left to president obama -- $1.20 or $1.40 trillion deficit. he vetoed every democratic bill the last two years he was in office, both house and senate. the afghanistan war, he should never have went to iraq because

it was no threat to us. thank you for this time. god bless you. thank you. host: thank you for your call. welcome tote, "washington journal." caller: thank you for taking my call. george w. bush -- actually, the book is really reflective of george w. bush. his work experience -- worst experience was kanye west calling him a racist. i mean, give me a break. that could not be that bad. when he had two wars going on and the economic chaos, everything else, and he was worried about something like that? it is actually really a true reflection of mr. bush.

the main thing is, in addition to the economic chaos, two wars and that -- two wars that were actually in the process, not ending or starting -- and he left all of that -- he'd made a couple of decisions. he left them. now we have president obama and he had to step in and try to sort all this out. host: this morning, this piece is in the "washington post which brac five myths -- washington post." five myths about george w. bush. george w. bush was an uninformed texas cowboy. nobody loved this more than bush

himself. he went to great lengths to depict itself as a down-home texan whom voters could relate to. reporters watched him climb into his sub and drawdown the rows of his -- suv and drive down the roads of his ranch. that was at odds with his upbringing. his family moved to west texas seeking to establish an economic beachhead in the region's oil industry. his grandfather served as a u.s. senator from connecticut. much of the writings included works by journalists such as bob woodward and it challenges this portrait of chaney running the white house. we see instead that bush, surrounded by political advisers such as karl rove, did not allow power to move too far away from his control. cheney opposed the decision to fire reinfeldt -- rumsfeld and

resented the fact that the president would not pardon "scooter" libby. he opposed the t.a.r.p. funding. next, down from ohio. -- don from ohio. caller: good morning. democrats -- the lord will teach you. george w. bush is a great christian man and 10,000 years from now, in the new heaven and a new earth, new jerusalem, the united states of america, the holy spirit will be singing george w. bush's song. i called obama this last business day, the white house, and i told him, i said, revelations 3: 19 -- 3:19. the lord loves those whom he

disciplines. in 2012 -- i told president obama that 202, 4, 5, 6-- democrats i am in your ear. i am in your face. host: next, a caller from florida on the independent line. caller: what a man to follow. the worst thing about president bush was the way he treated the tillman family. a genuine hero and they abused that whole family because of it. the 4000 people he killed in iraq -- our 4000 people -- plus the innocent victims he took care of their -- it does not hold a candle to what he did to that genuine american hero. if the gentleman that just talk to you believes in hell, -- hell,d to you believes in

he can go there and talk to him. host: george w. bush brings out his right after the midterms -- the ultimate power. good morning. caller: i have to make a comment about the guy that was ranting about the bible and all of that. that was one of the problems i had with president bush. in america, we do not want theocracy. we have all kinds of beliefs. what i want to say about george bush -- the biggest mistake in the running of this country was taking us to war attacking a country that had never attacked us, did not do anything, and then spending on the money we have. he drained our treasury. he drained our soul. he made a huge mistake -- i am sorry to hear that is the way i feel. he then -- i am sorry. and that is the way i feel.

he then get involved in that situation in florida. i did agree with him on immigration. i thought he was right on on that. he is from texas. people from texas are more lenient as far as immigration things, some of their feelings about their neighbors, the mexicans. one other point -- you did not hear democrats -- they won saying that bush was going to have a waterloo. this is the difference between democrats and republicans. democrats do not walk in lockstep. he will hear democrats criticize obama when it is needed. you do not hear right-wing republicans criticizing bush, no matter what he did. host: thank you. . person said, bush did everything poor -- one person said, bush did everything for political advantage.

from the new york times book review section, all of the president's memories -- we seem to be witnessing a renaissance in protests against political books. when sarah palin went on tour last fall to promote "going broke," command -- "going rogue ," a man threw tomatoes. when tony blair. in dublin to promote his memoirs, people threw eggs and shoes. george w. bush, whose "decision points" hits stores november 9, already comes with the secret service detail. none of today's protesters have anything on the committee to boycott the exxon's -- nixon's memoirs, a group that was every bit as real as the notorious committee for the reelection of the president.

among the items that they have, something that was made famous by saturday night live, is a t- shirt which is pictured here in the essay. it is called "don't buy books from crooks." ronald from wisconsin on our republican line. good morning. caller: they were talking about bush did so much to the country. they fail to realize that the poison gas is mass destruction and can kill by the thousands. host: thank you for your call. from the daily mail in london, a look at president obama's trip to india. india, indonesia, south korea, japan -- a four-nation, 10- day trip.

they go to extraordinary measures for obama's tour of the county museum. -- gandhi museum. the trick is estimated to cost $200 million. the white house is denying the cost. president obama and first lady michelle obama arrived in india's commercial hub on saturday, these after voters punished his democrats in midterm elections. probably not since the days of the pharaohs or the roman emperors has the head of state traveled in such pomp and fanfare as the president of the united states. danielle from lowell, massachusetts. george w. bush, two years later. what are your thoughts? caller: i am amazed. i am a student of the dumbing down of america. i have c-span on virtually around the clock for the last 10

years. i watched as the republicans sunk our country dry and pushed it off the cliff. mr. bush, like reagan, are a dumb-dog front for the gas and oil party. mr. bush added trillions to our debt, but did not account for it. he did it in off-balance sheet and run-style accounting, by $500 billion per year for prescription drugs. all that obama did was put it on the balance sheet again. mr. bush divided us one demographic group against another -- catholic against catholic, a veteran against a veteran employer against employees, the unemployed against the employed. lots of groups against gays.

the reinvention of him is only being done a little sooner than they did of reagan. and mr. reagan confused movie plots with history quite regularly. he slept afternoon -- every afternoon and stop work at 5:00. he launched his campaign in the place where the civil rights workers were killed. the increase the federal budget from $60 billion to $279 billion before bush i added another $110 billion. this is all fantasy and brainwashing. host: from our twitter page, doug. president bush was at the world series games. he threw out a pitch for the game two. where was obama?

not cutting taxes, that's for sure. this was courtesy of major league baseball. the president and former president joined together to throw out to the first pitch. from the new york times, plenty of work for the lame-duck -- the $4 trillion question. this refers to the bush-era tax cuts. permanent tax cuts would bust the budget. extending all of them would cost nearly $4 trillion over the next decade. $3.20 trillion to the middle class and $700 billion for the richest americans. there is no plausible level to offset the damage. the result would be chronic deficits and debilitating debt. we believe for the sake of this was sanity that any extensions of the bush tax cuts must be temporary and focused on consumer spending while the economy is weak. we support a one or two-year extension of the cuts for low, middle, and upper-income

taxpayers who spent most of their income. here is more from the for president interviewed by matt lauer. he was asked about -- the former president interviewed by matt lauer. he was asked about the t.a.r.p. program. >> you went with the t.a.r.p. program. all the people call this the bank bailout and a hate it. -- they hate it. >> the idea of spending taxpayer money to give to wall street and the banks -- a lot of people think they created the crisis in the first place. i can understand the angst. in my case, i was not worried about personal angst. i was worried about the economy going down. i believe t.a.r.p. saved the economy. >> if the same thing happen, would you do the same thing? >> absolutely, given the same circumstances.

people think for -- people forget about t.a.r.p. that we structure it so that people would be repaid with a really good rate of return. it turns out that is what happened. host: that interview will air tomorrow night on 8:00 p.m. at nbc. the book will be released on tuesday, officially. some experts have been released -- excerpts have been released. the title is "decision points" -- "decision points." this is the more of george w. bush. next is connie from dover, new hampshire, on the democrats' line. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a couple of problems with the bush presidency. one is the republican court was the first ever to use eminent domain to take private property and give it to developers. second, during the home prices,

-- crisis, they refused to support state people like governor eliot spitzer going after home mortgage fraud long before it became a problem. third, in terms of tax cuts -- when dick cheney was saying deficits still matter they were doing tax cuts, not realizing the law of diminishing returns. when kennedy did tax cuts, reducing rates, you could see some benefits. when you go from 39% to 34%, that is like somebody going on in a diet, then suddenly becoming anorexic. when you are anorexic, people do not think calories are -- limiting calories is a good thing. providing health care is a question of you that should be upheld. we need to build policies and find ways to make our values be

put into action. thank you for the opportunity to talk. host: the former president is back with his memoirs and the round of tv interviews. do americans see him differently now? that is our question. a caller from mesa, ariz., on our line for independents. caller: nearly two good years after a democrat promising hope unchanged enter the white house, unemployment remains at high levels, despite drastic expenditures. recovery seems far off. opponents in the gop and some of are split. democrats are split. was the president acting as boldly as possible or was he not

bold enough? they are caving in to big business. it is a midterm election that could decide whether the president and his program have a future. right wing democrats in the media accused of the white house of imposing socialism on america. the year was 1934 and the president was franklin roosevelt. what he faced was far worse -- far less than what president obama is now facing. los >> thank you. -- host: thank you. five myths about president bush. among the myths -- that he was an uninformed texas cowboy, a compassionate conservative, that dick cheney ran the white house, that bush left conservatism in ruins, and that he committed america to nation building. joe says, "at least bush loved

america." gene from decatur, ill. george of the bush, took years later, what do you think -- george w. bush, two years later, what do you think? caller: i'd think he was ok. , and it ispublic co due to obama. he steals from the poor and gives to the rich. thank you. never sweated the small stuff. unfortunately, he never sweated the big stuff either. he made sure he got time for his cherished work out. in his death we crafted and utterly selected new memoir, he is the president we wished him

to be -- compassionate, bipartisan, instinctive, independent, able to learn from mistakes, and a good dad who sang the yale fight song as a lullaby. after i finished reading it, i was ready to vote for the guy. the book lacks the vindictive or beepers tone of many political autobiographies. it is peppered with enduring personal stories. his mother called after a meeting and asked sarcastically, how is the first jewish president doing? when i look at the sad eyes of president obama, buried alive with his party beneath the key decisions and reckless spending and tax cut of his predecessor, i snap out of it. caller: let me turn off the tv. hold on a second. there we go. turn down the mute.

actually, what i am concerned about is this mythology that is building around the late -- note formerlate, but the president bush. he was going just a couple of days before i was so i for of -- sort of feel a connection with him. this whole business with the war -- incidentally, i think the people who, subsequently, after their service commit suicide -- i think they should have their place in arlington. there are 4000 american deaths attributed to this fiasco in iraq and pakistan. the business in iran is held undercover.

these people that return from that war after their tours of duty and subsequently killed themselves -- i believe they deserve a place in the arlington national cemetery. i will leave it at that. i hate the expression, but thank you so much for taking my call. host: thank you. why was george w. bush not impeached? coming up in about 10 minutes, we will look at the midterm elections. this is the cover story -- "shockwave -- a restless electorate upends washington." we will have gail russell chaddock and susan page. later, we will look at the 2012 campaign. the midterm is over. we will look at how the senate will fare in 2012. we will get the campaign of barack obama and the prospect of

maybe a third-party contender. that will be with stuart rothenberg. trish from texas. we are reflecting on george w. bush. what the you think? caller: i think he will go down as one of the worst president in history. i am from the area that he is. i know a lot of the same people that he did business with and whom he associated with. i am from about an hour and a half north of where he is from. he represents this area, but it makes me wonder what we are thinking of as people. he started a war for weapons of mass destruction. there was nothing there. he allowed people to have the ic -- to out a cia operative.

he basically did nothing. everybody lied. he changed it so that financial institutions could invest money that led to the housing debacle and t.a.r.p. i agreed with t.a.r.p., but it was only the thing to do to stop a depression. cheney did whatever he wanted. he refused to testify in front of congress. there were partisan. they did not work with the democrats. look at what he did as governor. he killed more people than carter. houston is the worst-polluted city in the country. he avoided the epa staff. he told oil refineries that they could let out any amount of gas they wanted and just pay the

fine. host: bush will not be confused with lincoln, but obama is no fdr. we see stability in political discourse, like good manners, it died in the 1950's. we see the liberal media and their love affair with bush, and republicans, -- bush and republicans. he acknowledge is that he authorized the tour to a people. he is a war criminal. he also cut taxes twice what he had two wars going on that were not paid for. no president has ever done that. bush was criticized for lack of regulation. that is absurd. congress did not oversee or enforce the regulations that were in effect. barney frank and his committee was soft on the fannie mae and freddie mac. caller: good morning. i love defending our president

bush. i was so proud of our president bush. i went through eight years of listening to democrats. there was an article from the san francisco chronicle. i forget the name. it was written on the last day of office. it summed it up precisely. the nine were out for george bush from day one. from -- knives were out for george bush from day one. what about what he did for our military. i have a personal friend who lost their son, he was from new jersey. he was the first killed from new jersey. he graduated from rutgers with a 3.8 grade point average. he could have been anything in the world that he wanted to be. because of 9/11, because he watched it personally, as we all did living here, he enlisted

in the marines and he was killed. president bush has met with that family at least four times. couldn't -- coincidentally, people would go down with goldstar families to washington, maybe go to arlington cemetery to see their sons' graves, their child's graves, and george bush would ask if they would like to come to meet the president. i do not think people know anything about what president bush did for these families. he hugged with them, cried with them, and woudl meet them at least -- and would meet them at least three times a week. so would vice president cheney. host: here is another expert from "decision points." as an obama when looked

increasingly likely, i started to think more about what it would mean for an african- american to win the presidency. i got an unexplained -- unexpected glimpse a few members -- a few days before the election. he came in for a farewell photo. one said, where is barack obama? i said, he is not here yet. on election night, i was moved by the images of black men and women crying on tv. more than one said, i never thought i would live to see this day. here is a comment from one of our twitterers. "let's hope another texas governor steps to the plate and runs in 2012." rick perry has been talked about potential 2012 candidate. carson on the democrats' line from washington state. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i will always remember president bush as the torture president. he is a mass murderer.

he is one of the biggest idiots in american history. thanks for allowing me to express that. host: mr. bush has said for years that he imagines history will ultimately appreciate his presidency. it will credit him with his combination of terrorism. he promoted freedom abroad. if iraq eventually improves, he will be perhaps credited with transplanting the idea of democracy to a once-hostile region. he recalled that he wants eulogized both ronald reagan and gerald ford, noting that both are remembered more warmly by the time they died. he hopes that he will be, too. good morning. caller: in order to find out what is going on with george w. bush, [unintelligible]

his daddy gave the ok to saddam hussein to invade kuwait. he gave the green light. saddam invaded kuwait. they wanted to assassinate him. saddam hussein used scud missiles. they shot at israel. we know that. host: bedford, va. -- george dodi bush, two years later, what are your thoughts? -- george w. bush not to go years later, what are your thoughts? -- bush, two years later, what are your thoughts?

caller: you brought out the george w. bush a punching bag -- host: i would dispute that. we are talking about a book that is about to be released. caller: the american people spoke on tuesday. that is the word. the people that vote are not going to get out of bed -- i work. i got out of bed this sunday morning on my day off. i work. i do not have time to call c- span and voice my opinions on everything that you all pull out of the woodwork. host: do you want to comment on george w. bush possible? -- bush's book? caller: the people spoke on tuesday. host: thank you for your call. here is another excerpt.

>> i cannot put a percentage on this. we have all learned the percentage is not zero. there have been over 4000 holes dug in the gulf, just in deep water. there was one blowout. now, those are not 50/50 odds. those are low odds. what i think people did not recognize is that, even though it might only happen once, it would have enormous consequences. that is why we are all legitimately concerned about driving down the risk that it can happen again. is it possible it could happen again? absolutely. when you have a known reservoirs, exploratory drilling, advanced technologies, and human beings involved, there is a chance that something could go bad. i think what we could learn and are already learning to some

extent, what happened with the deepwater horizon was a perfect storm of mechanical and human error. host: michael bromwich is in that new position was created following the explosion. he is our guest on "newsmakers." that is at 10:00 a.m. "d.c. after the shellacking." that will be one of our topics with gail russell chaddock and susan page. first, a look at the other issues and guests. >> reairs of talk-show programs begin at noon eastern on c-span radio. topics include the results and implications of this week's midterm elections. on "meet the press," chris kristi and jim demand on --

chris christy and jim demint. then mike murphy. week," with's "this senator-elect rand paul and congressman mike pence. also, a former cmb director and john podesta. fox news sunday begins at 2:00 p.m. with eric cantor, paul ryan, and darrell issa. at 3:00, tim pawlenty and rick perry, chris van hollen, and senator-elect pat to me. -- pat toomey. then, more talk about the elections with senate minority leader mitch mcconnell and house minority whip james clyburn.

that begins at noon eastern. 1:00 -- meet the press. 3:00 p.m. -- state of the union on cnn. listen for them all on c-span radio. on you ripho -- on your iphone, satellite radio, or online. >> it is harmless to make a start out of britney spears or cher. when one takes the notion of starting out into the national security realm, then lives are -- of stardom into the national security wrong, then lives are at stake. americans get wise. in that amount of time, case and may harm -- chaos and mayhem may come to reign. >> derek leebaert will critique

several foreign policy leaders tonight on "q&a." >> this weekend on afterwards hamilton.er nigel he profiles several presidents. he is interviewed by richard norton smith. that is this weekend on c-span2. >> "washington journal" continues. host: our sunday roundtable with gail russell chaddock and susan page. thank you for coming back. we want to talk about speaker pelosi and speaker-to-be boehner. let's talk about the congress piggy can see a lot of red in the flyover parts of the country. still a lot of -- let's talk about this congress. you can see a lot of red and fly

over part of the country. still a lot of blue on the edges. guest: they made some changes. it is talk about democrats been reduced to the party of the coasts. it is a real turn of events in just two years. host: when you look at states like ohio, michigan, wisconsin, there are republican congressional districts everywhere. guest: i spent a lot of time in ohio. it is a lot -- a fascinating state. i think this will be a wake-up call to republicans to deal with these new house members. cannot just think about social issues when you deal with the open wounds of unemployment in that region. i think that will focus republicans in a serious way on doing something with the industrial base. host: at the aftermath of the campaign begins to filter out, nancy pelosi is going to stay in

the house in a vie for a leadership position. guest: it was a little bit of a surprise. there was a lot of talk that nancy pelosi would choose not to seek the leadership again, perhaps even resign from congress. she talked to her supporters, among house members, and has decided to seek the democratic leadership spot. that creates a domino effect with those who were lined up behind her. steny hoyer is announcing he will run for the no. 2 position held by james khyber of south carolina. -- jim clyburn of south carolina. there is no question that nancy pelosi can hold the leadership if she wants it, but it was a little bit of a surprise that she chose to go that way. host: there is a tradition with sam martin and sam rayburn -- going back and forth between party leadership and speakership

in the 1940's and 1950's. guest: back in those days, speakers stayed a long time. recently, being senate leader or even speaker is not a guarantee of keeping your job. there is a lot more volatility in those races. host: he says he would oppose -- jim yarmuth of kentucky says he would oppose nancy pelosi. pelosi for minority leader. he urges democrats to ignore that man. they may even deprive them of hoyer of the number two spot. good for you. do not be intimidated by election returns. stand by your woman. house them -- guest: we saw more than half of the conservative, blue dog democrats, leave the democrats either by defeat or

choosing to retire. you have a more liberal caucus that is in tune with nancy pelosi's political philosophy. perhaps it is out of tune with the message that some democrats got from the election, that there is a need to bolster the center of the party. host: gail russell chaddock, you spend some time with john boehner before the election. you met his wife and traveled to his congressional district. what did you learn? guest: i was surprised of what little capital he has made out of his life story. when you think about being going in a -- born in a log cabin. he has a very compelling personal story. i think it has made it hard for people to make attacks on him to stick. it is not where he comes from --

the country club republican. it is hard not to let him in that sense -- like him, in that sense. you can target him for many things, but likability is not one of them. host: he has a weak beside set off by children, family, and speeches -- weepy side set off by children, family, in speeches on the floor -- and speeches on the floor. >> i have spent my whole life chasing the american dream. [cheers and applause] >> usa! usa!

>> a lot of you know i started out mopping floors, waiting tables, and tending bar at my dad's tavern. i put myself through school, working every rotten job there was. and every night shift i could fin. -- find. i poured my heart and soul into running a small business. [cheers and applause] when i came to washington without my core values of this great nation, i put my name forward to run for office. host: susan page. guest: i thought it was striking

-- the woman who lost, no tears, a very defiant speech. the man who won -- a lot of emotion. host: a lot has been made of his macho persona. his scrappy upbringing that included running cases of beer in his father's barn. he has another side in the form of quivering lips and wet lashes. he cries at annual golf tournament, talking about the good old days. he weeps as he watches a child give the pledge of allegiance. guest: he choked up during the interview i had with him, talking about a toughperiod in the education reform -- a tough period in the education reform bill where everyone was against him to the president strongly backed him at the last minute. there are a couple of things that are true about him. one is the tan. his skin really is that art and

always has been. -- that dark and always has been. the thing people say most often about him is, what you see is what you get. he is not a manufactured persona. host: you write about something like this. "there does not seem to be anybody in the white house that has any idea what it is like to wait -- like to lay awake at night and worry about money and worried about things slipping away." that is a quote from a retiring governor. obama is not bill clinton in the sense that he is not an extrovert. he does not gain energy by interacting with people. there is another quote saying that the president's message is missing the middle and that was missing in the midterm election campaign.

guest: this is something that president obama talked about in his news conference the day after the election. he had not gotten out enough. people did not feel like they knew him. he needed to do that more and find ways to avoid the isolation of the white house. when you lose big, there are a lot of people willing to tell you what you did wrong. one of the criticisms is that the white house has a lot of people who went to i believe schools and not many to went to state universities -- to ivy league schools and not many who went to state universities. they may not be good at connecting with the big part of america that did not go to ivy league schools. i think the exception is vice president biden who does have a connection with blue-collar voters. he has gone a lot of places like pennsylvania and ohio, where you have a lot of blue caller workers and middle-class -- blue-collar workers and middle-

class americans who have been struggling with this economy. the white house acknowledges that is an area they need to address. host: here is a map of the 2010 midterm elections. here is a map looking at the tough democratic landscape for 2012. we will talk to stuart rothenberg later in the program about that. there are 23 democratic seats and 10 republican seats up in 2012. >> people talk about the 2012 presidential election starting about a minute and half after number 2. the real impact will be on the senate side where you have a number of key moderates, ben nelson, bill nelson, jim webb has broken off with the white house on key issues. to what extent will they be looking at head and looking if the tide will still be around in two years? >> centre cornyn co is head of

the senate campaign committee for the republican side talked about their results and said he did not think they would win a majority in the senate this time around but maybe next time around. if you look at just the numbers, that seems like a real prospect two years from now that republicans will gain the senate. host: congressman bob menendez headed up the committee and 2004. there is speculation on who on the republican side will take that position. some have mentioned chuck schumer of new york. guest: can hardly a imagine anyone who is more needed or competence in that role. this is probably his strongest suit in terms of what he brings to leadership. host: the president is in india this weekend, part of a four nation tour of asia bread he sat down with steve croft on cbs' "

60 minutes." this runs about one minute. >> this defeat a reflection on your leadership? >> i think what happened over the course of two years is that we had to take a series of emergency steps quickly. most of them were in this first six months of my administration grade each of them had a big price tag. you have intervention in the banks, you've got the automobile bailout. you have a stimulus package. each one had a lot of zeroes behind it. people looked at that and said this feels as if there is a huge expansion of government. >> it was a huge expansion of government. >> what i did not express it -- expressly drive home because we're were in such a rush to get this done is that we were taking these steps not because of some

theory that we wanted to expand government, it was because we had an emergency situation and we want to make sure the economy did not go off a cliff. host: that interview airs tonight. guest: we have not seen all of this interview but what we have seen is very consistent what we heard in the news conference after the election. present obama said he had a communications problem. he said that the emergency times demanded a emergency measures bread he did not repudiate any policies. he did not say it wasn't a mistake to pursue health care reform even at the expense of an earlier focus on a jobs agenda of bread he did not say any of the bailout for a problem in terms of the policy itself. other people look at this election and see a different message. they see a repudiation of some of the policies that the president has pursued. that is not the way he sees it. in the exit polls, voters were pretty/americans were about

evenly divided about extending the bush-iraq tax cuts which we will see in the lame-duck congress. they were equally divided on whether to repeal or maintain the health care bill. if you look at the policy message of this election, it is a little bit of a muddle. host: we will get to your cop -- phone calls in a moment and you can join us on twitter or send us an e-mail. you brought up the exit poll results. one figure i want to share with you from the exit poll results -- among the independence, 28% self-identified independents voted in the election . 56% voted for the republicans. >> that was a big swing. guest: it was 8% two years ago swinging to 18%.

i think independents were obviously a target for republicans but especially on the issue of trust in government. it was not just what was communicated. it was not even what was done. it was the perception that republicans very successfully created government is out of touch and having no clue how to connect with businesses or jobs. i was struck by the number of car dealers running on the republican side. mike kelly and others and they said something like they will join this race immediately after the automobile belau. they told me to shut down my automobile dealership. if this can happen to mike kelly, this can happen to anyone. by the way, they don't know anything about cars. that showed that the people we have in government may be good at ely colleges but don't have any idea how to deal with

government. that is a very powerful message in this campaign. many of the business republican candidates took this pretty effectively to their electorate. host: another pennsylvania candidate was elected in 2006 or 2008 but was wiped away in 2010. guest: another a fact is that for the first and since 1978, the new congress will have fewer women than the previous congress had. we hope maybe that is just a hiccup. women are less than 20% in congress but we are seeing many of the women who were elected in 2006 and 2008 as democrats in tough competitive races and losing. host: patrick is joining us from

point pleasant, west virginia, independent line. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. a think -- a big thank-you to the young ladies. i love your discussion points. i think you touched on exactly where we are having changes in policies set in place 30 years ago, 20 years ago are being perceived by our younger generation and older generations as differently as when they were put in place. you have so well stated that. discussion this morning. i appreciate both of your publications. i am a big reader. i attended a small state college. i got an advanced degree at another state college. you are right on track. we have people who are out of touch and the media control of

the sound bites and the introduction of cable has changed the a rate of elections. i will just leave it at that, thank you. guest: patrick mentioned the role of young people. young people continued to support democrats by a big margin but they did not turn out. to vote. there was a different electra which happens with midterm elections often. this was more conservative. it was whiter and had fewer racial minorities. it was older and that was one big reason for some of the changes we sell. guest: there was interesting talk in colorado this saturday of the rally on the mall with stephen colbert/jon stewart from union activists who said the where are the young people

today? we need them more than ever. they are. in are it is not clear that that rally did not take people off the field on the day they were needed, according to the experts. host: 1 cable news reporter was suspended by the cnbc. bill kristol said that nbc should bring him back and keith -- keep keith olbermann. guest: as a reporter, you cannot contribute to political candidates and cannot go to rallies and take sides and is because that is a violation of your role as a journalist. anybody who saw the keys olbermann show was surprised he was contributing to democrats. he said there was no role from prohibiting him from doing this. given that his role is to be provocative liberal anchor, it seems to me there is not a

violation of the kind of journalistic code that would be if we contributed to candidates. guest: journalists weighing in on any matter of public trust, we are now below car dealers usually, it is something we have to be alert to build up a sense of public trust in what we do. host: from the national journal, you brought some of the numbers of the new congress pretty average age in the senate right now is 52 and for the house is 48. there is one member under the age of 40 and u.s. senate and 50 under the age of 40 in the u.s. house of representatives. the number of african-americans a letter to the senate is zero and seven and the house of representatives. the number of those with advanced degrees, 13 in the senate, 56 in the house of representatives and the number who have held previous elected office, 59 in the house, 11 in the senate. back to your calls,

massachusetts, republican line, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. pardon me if i see my little angry because i am a republican in massachusetts. [laughter] we did not partake in the wave that has come across the nation. people are finally waking up. host: some would argue that you began with the election of scott brown in january. caller: we did and we had hoped that people would finally understand. we hope nancy pelosi stays in charge of the democrats because we feel like we will kick their butt in 2012. when it comes to the economy, the reason it is not reacting and we have high unemployment is companies are afraid to hire because they have all this fear of health care and cost and the

unknown of taxes. if obama had taken care of the taxes first and given everybody the future of where we were going, the economy would have been kicking around. companies and corporations would have been all right. we would know what to expect. with the wave of republican victories, it is clear we need to get rid of this health-care host: we will talk about health care in a moment. the front page of "the boston globe," if there is one theme of all the states, pennsylvania, georgia, ohio where there are newly elected governors, the issue is pending deficits that the states are facing and california is the largest print guest: it is without the expectation of federal help they have gone in the last few years. there is no appetite for a big stimulus bill that might help states. we have seen layoffs and

cutbacks begin already in states from the stimulus money which has run outdeval patrick is the first african-american to be elected to a second -- second term since reconstruction. but there was a three-way race. guest: an interesting governor to watch is john kasich in ohio. he was a big part as a house member of balancing the budget at a national level it was easier because you can print money because you cannot do that in the states. it will be a test. in two years, all these republican governors will show that they can balance budgets without making constituents angry at how devastating to these cuts are a. the caller may be right.

2012 may be promising for republicans. if not, it could be a very powerful pendulum swing. host: let me go back to the earlier point about the gop to fight health care with first- rate pretty says pop republicans who will control the house but will remain in a minority in the senate concede that they do not have the votes for their ultimate repeal of the health care bill pardon they had hoped to use the power of the purse strings to challenge some of the main elements of the law. 14 democrats, especially those up for reelection in 2012, will defend the health care bill. guest: i think you'll see all sorts of votes on initially the repeal of health care reform. i suspect it might be even h1, the first vote they take up. if not, it will be attached to all sorts of measures going through. the capacity to simply slow things down, to have hearings on every aspect of it, you'll see

hearings on the senate side about what is positive about an hearings on the house side about a feature that would require businesses to fill out a form every time they spend more than $600. that is devastating to small businesses and probably the first casualty of health care bill. you will see dozens of examples of this republicans will pick apart access of regulation, access of the law, challenging democrats to defend it i. guest: they could choose to provide money for the up irs and that says you cannot use this to monitor implementation of health care law. you could do the same thing with regulatory agencies. you could make it difficult for the administration to get money to do planning for the future stages of the health care bill. you will see a push back by the administration to try to make

the case that there are good things happening and helpful to people with the implementation of the health care bill on things like banning prohibitions on using pre-existing conditions to keep from providing insurance or letting parents keep their young adult children on their plan until age 26. you will see the white house tried to make a more effective case that there are good things about this law that you don't want to see repealed. host: susan page and gayle ross chaddock. a note to steve -- if msnbc does not realistic keith olberman, could we see him on the cspan staff? [laughter] democrats' line is next. caller: i see the midterm election quite differently. i see it as the last hurrah of

white supremacy. the reason why i say that -- throughout this whole campaign and everything, you never saw black faces sitting in any of these chairs on any of these interviews on c-span. even today. i listened to the candidates that one and they are coming to me, very hard core segregationists. i might be off base but i have been watching this and i am a political junkie. you can look at the tea party and you say the liberals went for the republicans, some of the statistics say 50% of white voters went for republicans. this is nothing new in america. america has always been a rock solid white supremacist country. we know that in the next 50 years, the skin color will be a brown and black. this is the last hurrah for it. you never see these candidates

with anybody black, poor, sick, military. what message or they sending? get say the democrats don't a pretty democrats to get but the democrats came up against that old ugly face of white supremacy barry of host: we elected an african-american president and president george w. bush, as in his book what a historic milestone was for the u.s. caller: wow! you may have elected a black president but look around and you you see with him. guest: i would disagree with that caller. we elected a black president and his popularity and job approval rating are as good as or better than bill clinton at this point, or ronald reagan. republicans will have the first two african american members of their house caucus with the new congress that is the first set jc watts left congress for the

members of congress that their best for the african-american members of congress because they come from largely liberal and minority districts. they read this of the wave that hurt other democrats. -- they resisted the wave that hurt other democrats. it is true there are less african-americans than 2000 aids. they turned out stronger when obama was on the ballot. we think barack obama will be on the ballot in two years and that may encourage african-american participation to increase again. guest: there are as many as 14 very credible house candidates who are black republicans. it is not just tokenism and more. this is a strong recruiting area for republicans. i think there are some strong candidates prepare host: your earlier point about the health care bill, one dealer says that every time congress wants to repeal part of the health care bill, someone should operate on

the floor people who are helped by the bill. guest: i think that is exactly what we will see but not on the floor. we will see the case being made that some of the changes that have resulted from the health care bill are helping people there will be an effort to address the concern that people have about what will happen to their plan and their premium costs. these are big concerns that people had. the administration did not succeed in putting them to rest but they will have time to make their case again. we thought the health-care battle was over or settle for a time when it was signed in march but it is clear we will continue to debate this for the foreseeable future. host: he referred to that in his opening remarks saying he did not one re-litigate the past. guest: that will never happen because the republicans from the get go were focused and dismantling that bill. the number of pledges that were

signed in this campaign at local level in the virginia fifth district, the republican who won hurt, ended up having to sign a plan put together by the six tea party candidates who lost in the primary, committing him not just to repeal the health care but to take in every opportunity that existed tode- fund it. the battle lines are drawn on this one pair of host: obama's internet army motivated young people and would stick around to help him govern. today, what happens to net roots? two years ago, many people really believed that the on-line activists who helped elect barack obama would stick around and support him as he pushed through a sweeping list of progressive measures parent guest: it is hard to get these

first-time voters back to the polls when you don't have the excitement of a presidential race. the midterm electorate is much smaller and different, older and more white than the electorate in a presidential year. the other thing that happened is that there is disappointment with president obama armonk young peopl and a monthw let liberals. -- and among liberals. there was disappointment in the war and he has not yet succeeded in a repeal"don't ask, don't tell." there is a little sense of disappointment. i wonder about how much affect the rally on the mall could have had. i think die was cast with those of voters. maybe there were just been chanted. -- madrid they were j -- maybe they were disenchanted.

caller: our you doing this morning? can you hear me? if i want to ask the lady ies they thought the democrats got lucky on this election. if there would have been better candidates for colorado, delaware, and in nevada if those candidates to macy and as if they could have presented better candidates. and the republicans probably would have won those states, too. host: susan page? guest: did the republicans help -- did the tea party help the republicans or hurt them? mike castle lawsuit kristi the dollar in the primary.

-- mike castle lost to christianne o'donnell and the primary in delaware. on the other hand, the argument that the tea party people make is that they provided a lot of the excitement that generated candidates and issues and drove the electorate in places you might not have expected like ohio and pennsylvania and connecticut and help republican candidates generally part of the debate now is what was the effect of the tea party and a big part of the debate is, is the tea party going to be able to sustain itself in terms of support from people as the economy gets better and in terms of organization. ? tea party people i interviewed take pride in the fact that they don't have a national spokesman. they don't have a national organization. it is a loose network of local groups. that is a difficult thing to

sustain as a national political movement for host: republican line, good morning. caller: thank you for cspan. i would like to comment on barack obama as message "his word emergency." the message has been so negated. if you look a the time he speaks national, it is overwhelming by and president. if he would stop talking so negatively to one side of this electorate which is 75% of the electorate and try to bring some kind of bringing together a message of something positive about this country, that would be great. host: the interview points out that the president did say he might have come across as too shrill and the campaign trail there guest: it is difficult to distinguish between a president

who is in full campaign mode and how the president believes the washington part of the criticism i am hearing of him is that he does not talk enough to capitol hill. mitch mcconnell did not have a one-on-one meeting with him alone until july in the run-up to this election. if you're going to work with congress, the president seems more like lyndon johnson. he has regular phone contact with members on both sides of the aisle. you cannot be as isolated as this president has been or delegate to others. this is something he has to take on directly. host: senator tom daschle writes about this. he says to talk to the president and listen and he did not have the meetings -- and of meetings with president bush when he was the democratic leader. he said this president should renew the practice of having an informal discussions and leaders of the camp david. he said to throw a dinner party [laughter] guest: president obama did not

leave need a relationship with the republican party had big majorities in the house and senate. his effort was to appeal of a moderate republican or two like olympia snowe of maine to get a by pa as antina to his initiatives. that has changed now. he has to have a relationship with the man who will be speaker, john boehner, and the closer one with the republican caucus in the senate. we think there will have 53 democrats and two independents in the senate. that kind of margin means that you made relationships which he was not required to exercise his first two years in office. host: the election could derail u.s. efforts to mend ties with russia. forging a friendly relations with the kremlin, obama meets congress to sign off on three major policy changes -- and arms

control treaty that would reduce nuclear arsenals and resume inspections, a civilian nuclear agreement to provide greater cooperation, and the repeal of the cold war era trade restrictions on russia allowing them to w join theto. if this doesn't happen, prime minister put to good use thisp --utin could be skeptical about this president a guest: darren this is a huge issue. i wonder if they will resolve this and a lame duck session. there has been a long discussion going on a specially withjohn kyle on the senate side that could produce a compromise that senate republicans could follow at least to get the arms agreement through. i think it will be much tougher in the new congress. host: upstate new york, buffalo, caller: good: thank you for cspan paren.

susan go--- yourself. host: there is no reason for any of that discussion on this program. will move onto cardigan county, wales. caller: you're quite right, there is no room for that sort of language. with regards to the implications of the midterm elections -- there is a 5.5% swing to republicans. president-elect and was elected with a healthy majority. there was a 7.5% is willing to republicans. does this mean that barack obama is a one-term president? guest: history would say this is not determinant of what will happen in two years. think about president clinton who lost the house and senate in 1994 and came back in 1996 to

win the release and is true of ronald reagan in 1982. he suffered a big losses in congress on the house side and came back and won a big reelection campaign. two years later. it does not mean that barack obama is definitely going to win in two years. you have to see an improvement in the economy and some other things to happen, his connection with american voters being rebuilt. this is -- history would say this does not indicate what will happen in two years. guest: harry truman, a massive republican surge in his first midterm election and he came roaring back by spending two years describing them as a do nothing congress. there was some speculation among house democrats that the president might want this kind of switch to the republicans so he has an enemy and he does not have to go into 2012 just saying that we had democrats controlling both ends of pennsylvania avenue and could

not solve jobs. at least you can say that it is john major's fault. john boehner this fall. guest: you have patterns going both ways host: what would hillary do? this is about the 3:00 a.m. phone call from the 2008 campaign for it would employment have been lower under hillary clinton? back then, the hillary clinton populist appeal to white middle- class voters was not enough to overcome obama's and you adjustth vote but clinton's values were the ones that switch republicans on tuesday. guest: i ran into many people and strong democratic sections of western pennsylvania. i was writing a profile of man's a closet at ask them about -- i

was writing a profile of nancy pelosi and i asked them about her. "did hillary clinton further warm feelings about her still. she met a ridge to working-class democrats. guest: if whoever was the democratic president had to urgent jobs and set of health care as the big initiative on which the administration was so focused for two years, with the outcome of this election have been different? democrats may feel the health care bill is worth it and that even though it was difficult but over a long haul, it is a valuable pretty clearly cost them. it diverted attention from my focus on the economy when that was the issue that americans were most concerned about host: did one race surprise you to stay guest:? i'm surprised that harry reid

won so easily. i came back thinking that either of those candidates could have one variant of of the more so disliked by big parts of the nevada electorate. that surprised me. guest: i thought it p tomeriello would pull it out in a5 virginia with some of the most marvelous campaigning with splendid, a a hilariousdds. he is someone who came out of that raise a loser but certainly has a very strong career ahead in democratic ranks where he has achieved near god-like status is working in a conservative status and fiercely defending all the president's programs even the things that were unpopular party. host: we conclude with the

comments of george orwell, the democrats in denial there . when senator mcconnell had 41 votes, he had the money needed them. with 46 senators, he will always have 41 votes when he really wants them are speculation about whether president obama will change course is still real. whether he adheres to his agenda of relentless expansion to a government like cap and trade and rewards for democratic constituencies like stimulating the economy with trickle-down government spending that sustains a unionized public importeemployers. guest: that is an interesting argument. one of the most interesting interviews i had after the election was with grover norquist. i asked what he would expect? did he expect solid gridlock?

he said it is great. he said think of the things that won't happen and the new regulations that will not be implemented and the new spending plan that will not come to pass. we are used to thinking about and achieving met -- administration that legislates but we're about to see one that will unravel a whole different landscape. guest: the white house will be different next year. has been on offense two years with passing big problems to rescue the economy from a potential depression. they will go totally on defense. they will try to protect the health care bill to avoid rollbacks. i think there is no expectation on the part of the administration that they will be able to get big swings through congress now. host: what is next for steny hoyer may be in a race for the house democratic whip? guest: my assumption is that

everybody goes down a step in the latter. nancy pelosi becomes the minority leader and steny hoyer becomes the web. what would be the next step down? he is running for whip but these are politicians who have worked together for years so i assume there will be some adjustments. steny hoyer is backed by some of the more moderate democrats who lost a big last tuesday. some of his support has been eroded. guest: ed markey is supporting him and that says that we cannot afford the democrats to spend two years on one side of the spectrum and more. we have to have balance and that is what nancy pelosi and steny hoyer provided regardless of how she was demonize. it was a balanced partnership. there are progressive democrats who don't want to see them lose that. guest: the elections and -- and

then began again. the christian science monitor and usa today, their articles are available online on their respective web sites and thank you for being with us. a look back at the exit poll results and what it tells you about the state of the electorate in this midterm election. and the 2012 presidential race -- a look at some of those senate contests, "washington journal yaupon," but first, a look at the political cartoonists from around the country. ♪

♪ ♪ "washington journal" continues

host:. we want to mention a service -- a survey director. bagger joining us. we will dig into some of the numbers but let's begin with the broad overview. what the headlines from tuesday's election and what did the voters tell guest: you? it was a mixed message. . the expression of the voters' frustration with government in washington, we did not get a clear message out of the voters as to what specifically to do with the big issues that are on the plate going forward. this election was determined largely by a strong turnout among conservative. the exit polls showed that the percentage of the electorate was conservative and up to 41% compared with 32% four years ago ands dependent swung against

the democratic party voting almost 6-4 against them which is a reversal of what was four years ago. on the specific question such as what to do about health care, there was no majority for a. and a thing only 49% said health-care should be overturned. you had about 1/3 saying it should be expanded. there is a mixed set of messages coming out of republicans as to whether to deal with something like the deficit first or tax. this es. host: let's look at the numbers. voting by gender between male, female, democrats and republicans -- you can see that self-identified democrats, the male population, 42% of them voted democrats, 50% -- 56% of the men voted for republicans.

the women as to the republicans by 1% guest: 1 story is that republicans did better among women than they have done and a long, long time. the gender gap began around 1980 with the 1st ronald reagan election. consistently since then, women have been more supportive of the democratic party than man. this is an election in which you still see that gender gap but because the democrats could only get an even split among women, they got plastered overall because men supported republican so heavily guarded host: we also have a broken down by a sperry between 18-29, 57% voted for democrats and only 40% for republicans. in the three higher age categories, republicans got the edge and a significant edge among the elderly, almost 21

percentage points of those over the age of 65 voting for republicans. guest: we have seen all year in the polls that all americans 65 and older have spent the most rigidly support of obama -- the obama presidency. they are big part of the tea party movement and they turned out larger numbers and get a big share of their boat to the republicans. it is also interesting that young people continue to be the democratic party's best age group. this has its roots not in the obama election but all it back to 2004 when voters 18-29 war k johnerry's best age group. it was exaggerated to some degree in 2006 and 2008.

more young people but a republican this time than had been the case two or four years ago. a majority of them still when republican. a majority of them went for democrats. the democrats looking ahead a few years, the fact that young people seem to be sticking with them even though they have been hurt by the recession is a positive sign. host: this is courtesy of" mother jones." non-voters into as an aide swung 56% in favor of the republicans, ands dependent swung toward the republic -- ands pendant swung toward republicans -- independents swung toward republicans and rural voters and caplets -- and catholics as well. guest: catholics have been a

swing constituency. democrats and republicans have been battling over them. if you look at why catholics, they have been either marginally republican or more so in elections. in 2004, george w. bush made a calculated appeal to that constituency catholics are a very diverse and heterogeneous group. you have a growing share of the catholic vote is latino and they have continued to support democratic candidates. that help them somewhat among the overall catholic votes from host: we will get to your phone calls and a moment and your numbers are on the bottom of your screen. a lot p into theugh center -- a

link p to theugh centre it -- a lead to thepugh center is available on our website c- span.org,. we might have had cautious words from mcconnell and john boehner. guest: one of the most interesting findings is the fact that both parties have negative evaluations. if people were asked if they have an unfavorable opinion of both parties, over 50% of both parties said they have a negative impression of republicans and democrats this was an election that said we don't like the way things are going in washington bird we would like to see things change. it as to themudle in terms of who has power in the new congress and what they can do about it for it looks like it

will be a hard electorate to satisfy given the divisions we say. one other way to look at this is illustrated in very interesting chart about the trends and exit polls about "was in the new york times today." if you look at the democrats and republicans and liberals and conservatives, you can see the start degree of polarization and the voting. there was a wider gap between the votes of democrats and republicans consistently voted for candidates of their own parties and we have seen in any election since exit polling was tracked. the same is true for liberals and conservatives. that degree of polarization as to the difficulty that members of congress will have an bring the country together. host: you have gone through many numbers. what surprised you the most? guest: i was expecting that

conservatives would turn out at a high level in this election. i think i was surprised by the degree. i was some spots surprised by the 40% or so that said they agreed with the tea party. that is not the whole story for the exit poll also showed that only 22% said they were voting to send a message in favor of the tea party but this political movement which has been in the news all year really registered with many of the people who showed up. host: 20,000 voters who showed 2010.2008 did not vote i guest: that's right. it was a very different group of people who were more conservative, more republican and older garden host: democrat line from greenville, south

carolina paria. caller: good morning, cspan. i love your program. i am kind of baffled by people who did not have help from the obama administration. some would not have made it, republicans and democrats. the stimulus money goes to the states and cities. that would not have had. a happened. i want to see how the unemployed voted. guest: that question has come up a fair amount. it is very difficult to get a good reading of it. we do know that a significant minority if not about half of households in this country have been affected by layoffs or cutbacks in hours.

the reach of the recession has been a very broad. the exit polls included a question that asked if someone in your household had been laid off during the past year. among that group, the vote was fairly evenly divided, democratic and republican. many of the people who had been hurt by this recession perhaps unlike in the past when people the were damaged by the economy would vote democratic, this was a situation where the democrats are in charge said they will have to take the responsibility. host: marjorie connally brought down the numbers in ""the new york times." let me go through the headlines. groups that voted for the democrats, gays and lesbians, between the ages of 18-29, men between 18-29, african- americans, hispanic and asians. groups won by the republicans, women, men, all of those between

the age of 30-44 and senior citizens, whites in the south and all whites voting heavily for the gop. guest: the southern vote was quite interesting. many of the congressional losses that the democrats suffered occurred in the south partly because the 2008 democratic surge that obama brought with them allow the democrats to recapture some of those moderate to conservative southern seats. you have a lot of people in district or maybe obama won by only a little bit or maybe he did not win but the democrats were able to field a good candidate. most of those guys got wiped out. it was most of those members and you can see it in the exit polls. republicans and democrats split among white southerners and that was larger than it has been in exit poll history.

host: 42% of registered voters cast their vote on tuesday. independent line, good morning. caller: i wanted to ask the gentleman today, what certain areas do you go? do you go into low income areas? from what i see on television, i don't think that you go to all different types of areas. is it based on income, color, minorities? i don't think you go in the areas where it is low income or minorities or hispanic or african-american guest: let's make a distinction between the telephone service that most of the news organizations to the pugh research center conducts

and the exit poll. the polls that we do prior to the election call telephone numbers all over the country. we include cell phone spread oneself on call for every two land line calls for the celtics to make sure that we cover areas where you have many younger people, people who are renters rather than homeowners, african- americans, hispanics and other lower income groups that are less likely to have a landline .hone ver there is an effort made to cover all kinds of precincts including lower in calm ones and those that have concentrations of latino voters are african- americans. there's an effort to provide a random sampling of all possible precincts'. what happens is that elections as we have been talking about get determine the buyer who shows up and the polls are pretty clear that the lower

income voters did not turn out in very great numbers. that is always the case elections but it is especially true in off-year elections like this one. african-american turn out on the other hand looked to have been only down slightly from four years ago. it was down a good bit from two years ago but that is understandable, perhaps. latino turnout is hard to gauge but it, too, was probably flat it may have been up in some states where there were tea party races like nevada and california host: our guest is a former professor at george mason university and virginia commonwealth university. he has co-authored four books on polling and public policy. he is the director of survey research at the pew research center. those over age of 65 voted overwhelmingly for republicans. what percentage of the 65 and

older voters turned out in this election? do you have that number? guest: we don't have an actual turnaround number. " the new york times percentage for voters 65 and older is 35% agreed that is not the turnout. that is the proportion of the total electorate that was in that age group. that is higher than their share in the public. they turned out at a higher rate than voters under that age. that is the key in the election. host: charlotte, north carolina, republican line, good morning. caller: there was an article this morning on american. thinkercom which alluded to the awakening of the giant in the american electorate. i am a political scientist as well and i know where you are going with your data. i would like to think that we are americans now. we need to get past the black,

the white, the hispanic, the day or whatever and think as americans. this past election has been a great educational experience for the american electorate. i want to get your take if you think it is part of a new awakening where americans are starting to examine the foundations of what our country was built on and a implementation of other political ideologies and of this is somewhat of a conflict of the two. if you think that the great awakening is happening now where the american public is starting to become aware of the two different ideologies that are going on in the united states and that is why we are starting to see the awakening of the giant, the tea party independent position is coming out they are exerting their voting preferences. the piece is on line on the

american. thinkercom. it was an article about the awakening of a sleeping giant and how throughout our history, we awaken to the great cause of sobor whites, world war ii or whenever. the american public as kind of gone back to sleep but will they stay awake this time to continue what they have started on the recapture of the american fundamental dream of how we were found to host: it. thank you for sharing guest: there is a lot to disentangle. those of us to study public opinion have always been struck by the fact that american politics seems to swing back and forth between two very fundamental but in some was contradictory american values. a lot of what makes america you

make is the fact that we have had a strong commitment in this country to opportunity. with that, has come limited government, freedom to pursue your dreams, to go out and take risks and live with the consequences. we also have had a strong equipment -- commitment to equality and economic opportunity, equality of economic opportunity as well much of the debate in the last few years in this country has been over which of the two poles of this divide should be preeminent at one time in 2006 and 2008, the focus on quality was paramount. this year it was more a focus on freedom and individualism i don't see this as an awakening of one side or another it is more a part of a characteristic pendulum swing in american

politics that seems to accompany national conditions. i cannot prove that with the polling data but that has been our history. given the demographic changes that are happening in the country, i have a feeling that there is no giant that is being awakened and the other side will go away. i don't see that happening. host: you handle all the polling for the pew center varia. caller: thank you for taking my call. i live and a rich state. --i'm a democrat leaving living in a red states. there were questions on the ballot. there are questions that actually skewed the voting public. an aide read state is growing in number is in the coup plots clamber it the question that

prejudices' people for many of us did not bother to vote because we knew there was no point. is there any poll that is taken to reflect the people who just refused to vote? guest: yes, as i mentioned to a previous caller, we conduct our service with the general public and not just with voters. we ask a random sample of everyone 18 years of age and older many questions about where they think the country should be going, where it is, what they think about issues including health care reform. last week, we actually posted on our website, go to pew. researchorg, parknon de of- voters. these are people we did not think would show up to about this last week and a comparison with that.

what we find is a confirmation of some of what you are saying. many of the people who don't show up are more liberal, more democratic, they were supportive of the health care reform package, they are much more opposed to continuing the bush tax cuts for all income groups. you would have had a very different outcome on election day of everybody in the country had showed up to vote. you can see a bit of why this would be if you take a look at the. that piece 42% of the public turned out to vote. that means the majority of americans did not vote last week. their voices were not heard or they were heard by not being there. host: on your web site, there are many stories. a clear rejection of the status

quo, no consensus about future policies. republicans win big despite the party's low favorability. one of our viewers said the republicans will be on a short leash if they do not do what we sent them to do perry will replace them. is that simple. guest: you have ample evidence and the paul and from history looking back at the 1995 congressional session. you can go back to other congresses and you can make a change by voting one way or another. .

these with what is going on and the objective circumstances. we all know about the financial troubles and yet a democrat was elected.

.

>> and the writers know the exact alternative to it on the democratic side. what i hear from a lot of people on the democratic side is the democrats did not have consist

messaging this year, even from their own candidates in terms of defense of things congress had done. one the thing when we study public opinion is the public has attitudes and they have a point of view, but, leadership matters and unless you have a consistent message that says what we have done is good, we're going to defend it, you may not have public opinion following you. and the republicans and conservatives have had the benefit of a consistent message from the beginning. they didn't like what obama stood for and what he was going to do. it's easier for them to build a majority on questions where people maybe undecided or ambivalent. host: often what happens one caller will make a comment and that creates a rather robust

discussion. can you follow this on twitter this comment, $600 million to pump up the economy, steve, we just lost week. we have the fed doing whatever they want can and game over. that sentament was probably last tuesday as well >> there was an interesting find nothing the exit poll. the question of who's to blame for economic problems. barack obama, george bush or bankers were the choices. only a small minority picks the bankers. that turns some of our long-standing alignments in american politics around.

because the stereotype has been the banks were supportive of wall street. you but the democratic party has been associated with those policies because much of the bail-out of banks was implemented on their walk. began under george bush. they are holding the responsibility and a lot of people are blaming barack obama for having too close ties at wall street. host: as we listen to stella, as we look at the role the independents. seven of those democrats voting for republicaning. 2% of republicans voted for democrat. then you have the independent

vote. 38% voted for a democrat. 56% voting for a republican. stella, go he's, please. caller: hi. good morning. my comment is we need to understand this myth of ideaologies that seem to be driving the country at the extreme has really put a strangle hold on our whole political system, and the only ideology that really counts is the ideology of globalization. which brings me to my next point. the other color that matters is green. there's a systematic devaluation of the dollar, which is going to continue. which is setting the corporations up for capacity to continue developing their economies overseas.

we need to understand that the only ideology that matters is globalization, and also this talk about politics has really, and your guest before and this speaker here, whatever you read on the news or hear on tv about the grid lock created by this myth of ideology, um, is saying that our government is in gridlock and completely irrelevant. so if c-span really wants to be a service it this country, let's focus on the only ideology, globalization, the devaluation of the dollar and communicate to the american people that our way of living is going to be brought down, that inflation is going to

be giving us a double whammy and i doubt very much if there's going to be any tax relief and we're going to have a double whammy because the whole purpose is to bring the cost of living and the lifestyle, which we have been accustomed to, down because of globalization. guest: thank you, stella, the caller a point of view, the president has embarked on a lengthy overseas mission to our overseas trading partners. i think while post mothrtems wi continue about what washington is going to do. some of the conversation will shift to america's role in the world in terms of its trade. one the things the caller said, if you understood correctly,

trade is actually an issue that divides both parties constitu ct -- this is an issue that we at the pew research organization have been tracking, we're going to take another close look. keep your eyes peeled for that. >> host: >> with reference to that, robert rubin anyone, question mark? host: kevin is joining us from richmond, virginia, last call. caller: yeah, good morning. thank you for taking me call. mr. keeter, you made a really good point about the elector at.

the slogan of the government are the people. congress has a level of management that we have in place to do our running of the organization as a whole. the country itself. and our tax dollars are going towards failing out a management program that overspends for all kinds of different reasons. what i'm going to say in my view, because of things like continual government hiring and spending for a tax level we provide to bail out the deficit. every year, are and the loans that we're taking are causing us great concern about our kids and grand kids. guest: well, the caller

reflects what has happened over the last couple years. it's been brutal with our economy or the way in come congress went about doing its business. that's been part of the frustration and we will just have to sey where it goes dpr here. >> scott keeer with the pew organization. thanks for sharing you're view host: you're watching us on c-span sunday. if you want to listen to the guests and topics. in just a few minutes, stu will be ahead. >> reairses of sunday network tv talk programs begin at noon eastern time. the results and implications of

this week's midterm elections. first hear nbc's "meet the press". and senator jim demint of south carolina on what's next for the gop. then analysis of the midterm elections with mark, president and c.e.o. of the urban league and mike murphy. at 1:00 p.m., it's abc's this week. christiane amanpour, also omb director and john, president and c.e.o. for american progress. fox news begins at 2:00 p.m. then at 3:00 p.m., it's this , cnn's state of the nation. republican senator-elect pat

toomey and then face the nation from cbs. mitch mcconnell and house majority whip. that's replays of five network tv talk shows, beginning at noon eastern, 2 o'clock, fox news sunday and at four, face the nation from cbs. listen to them all on 90.1 p.m. in the washington d.c. area. or on your i phone, or x m satellito only at c-span.org. >> today on c-span's book tv. jonah gold berg. with your calls e-mails and

tweets. >> this year student camp video documentary competition is in full swing, make a 5-8 minute video on this year's theme. your documentary should include more than one point of view. up load your video before january 20th to win $5,000. the competition is open to middle and high school students. go only at student cam.org. >> host: we want to welcome by stu rothenberg. >> you nailed it. we want to look at 2012. what happened and why on tuesday? guest: well, the question was always exactly how big was it

going to be. and some of this is just guess work. when had the rate is 51-49. nobody can be sure who's going to win. it was clear to us and from the surveys that we were seeing and individual races, private staff that wasn't available because it wasn't released. most of the swing races would go for democratic incumbents and the undivided vote would going to the republican challenger. host: anything surprising? guest: some individual house races. new york. statton island. congressman mcmahon lost. not overall, there was some race that is i was agnostic on. like the alaska senate race.

my attitude is a distrusted the survey date a. this was not a shocking result. host: let me ask you to look at the tough landscape of the government. 23 democrats am ten republicans in the next election. guest: yeah the problem for democrats it's all cycleable. given the fact the republicans only had 41 senators to start with and the democrats 59. that has to mean, i'm not great at math that the next two senate classes are democratic. big majorities in those senate class says. host: senator john cornin said there was at least 46 senate republicans in the next

congress. guest: look, i think we have to see what the environment looks like in 2012. given the states that are up, the playing field, you have to think the democrats have to be worried about their senate majority. president obama did not do well in individual states or the places where the environment has shifted significantly. north dakota, nebraska, we're talking about florida, there are a lot of republican opportunities when we began this cycle, two years ago, or main the last 18 months ago. it looked like the democrats would be popular to gain shifts. things have shifted dramatically and could do the same thing. some of them will be under pressure to gain their

"independence". i think you can figure a lot of democrats will try to connect with the voters back home and demonstrate to them, they are not simply loyal soldiers in the obama army, but on the folks back home. it's a bad environment for them back in their state, they can run as independent democrats. host: when this race began, that was the race to watch. it was never even close when you follow the polls numbers from august on. guest: we were very conflicted on that race. i wrote something right after charlie chris changed parties. we thought republican voters will appeal away chris. and democratic voters would appeal away also. there would be some liberal to

moderate republicans who would stay with chris. rubio had clear advantage. charlie chris hung in there. and they moved the race to toss up category. you had a sitting republican forever. but i was waiting for the numbers to move and they didn't am probably a month after we moved it, exactly what i thought would happen. when it happened, it happened fast. the race blew open and for the final few months and wasn't even close. guest: delivering the republican address yesterday talking about the win tuesday and what it means for senate republicans. here's an excerpt. >> for too long. washington has taken our county in the wrong direction.

y though i'm a proud republican >> this is the truth. both parties are to blame. this selection american people said enough is enough. that message was loud and clear. we republicans would be mistaken if we read these results incorrectly. this is a second chance. a second chance for republicans to be what we said we would be. host: already been taughted as a vice presidential candidate. guest: things happen quickly i guess after barack obama things change. it would require an extended period of learning. before somebody like rubio could get attention. in this day and age. so much focus on celebrity here and now. host: let's look at republicans up for re-election and then

democrats bob corker of tennessee, warren hatch of utah. kay bailey huchinson. roger wiker. this is a list for republican senators up for re-election. could they face a tea party challenge? guest: for some of them. there's all the possibility are retirements. absolutely, you mentioned bob corker. i would almost expect it now because some of these, these republicans you have mentioned are not among the most conservative republicans in their party. even though maine is not the most conservative state and tennessee prefers a moderately

conservative republicans. mario baker there's an element that will say these guys are not conservative enough. it's likely some or all will get challenged. well, bernie is left to the democrats. for liber man, this is going to be challenging. a democrat that says, i don't need to have another word by by democratic lay low. we have to see what joe lieberman is going to do. in some respects, he was also the de facto republican candidate.

l lieber man got a lot of votes. host: let's go through the list of democrats. daniel akaka, jeff bingaman. sherrod brown. mayoria cant well, amy, herb. claire of missouri, bill nelson of florida, john tester of montana. and sheldon whitehouse guest: you can see whether it's nelson.

montana, normally, we would say republicans don't have a great time in wisconsin. another thing to consider is is retirements. we consider these cycles where people are going to retire. so that's another wild card. a lot of republican responsibilities. this is what the washington post looks like. sherrod and manz. guest: personally very popular. running even with the republican challenger. largely because of many west virginia, the focus of on barack obama. he managed to make it more of

himself. is he the guy he promised himself to be? >> 37 senate seats up this year. ema says, will bill nelson turn republican? guest: i never expect them to. i think somebody like bill nelson is going to have to demonstrate independence, and i would like for him to kind of be visible for staking out independents. >> stu, calling the election in how it happened. elliot is joining us on the independent line. caller: yes. good morning. since the republicans said they

wanted to repeal healthcare, i am wondering, when they speak about healthcare, it seems to have a negative. when you take apart the the individual facets like having their children be able to be covered until 26. 30 million people covered by insurance, there seems to be a very strong feeling people want the individual parts. where does did the media continually indicate to the public that healthcare is something the public doesn't want. the people do want it. the republicans are influenced by the fact they know people don't want healthcare. so i put the stimulus package. and yet, they realize they have taken the parts of the automobiles companies and there

are many republicans who are on record has asking for stimulus money because it will create jobs in their own areas. host: thank you, elliot. guest: i give many answer. many journals do distinguish between the healthcare bill and individual provisions. it's all true when pollsters ask go the stimulus. people don't like it. i think this is a very tricky position for the republicans. because to be extent that it appears they just want to do away with everything, do away with healthcare reform. democrats are going to point to the individual elements. i think it's tricky and the republicans are unwise if their attitude and for some it is, it's harder to emphasize reform are. they are under pressure at the

base to say let's get rid of it and start over again. my guess, steve and elliot, is that republicans will continue to push this rhetoric of let's reappeal it, let's element it. they understand they can't do it. so after they state that point, that play. they will back off and try to accomplish whatever they can. if anything. host: one of those republicans in leadership i should say is from virginia, 7th congressional district. featured front page. congressman eric kantor. soon to be the house leader. what does he face? guest: in terms of their views on process and washington change, they all agree on spending, taxes and on the

broad, cultural issues. a number of people elected this time, tea party folks, are more combative to compromise. means giving up on their principles when a lot of legislative process. host: ben is on the phone, independent line. good morning. caller: thank for having me on this show. i have a comment in regards to the way, or at least i as an independent voter see the dynamic between voters. they understand the responsibility they have been given in the second chances, in the second chance of gaining control of the house. when they got power back, one of first things the leadership did

was to announce to deny the president. to me, as an independent voter, this is a message that their top priority is not the well-being of the citizens, but rather the well-being of the party. they want to gain control for sake of having control. so each side can mitigate the other. but, it seems that politics is all about retaining the seat. getting the next election and both times i think more the republicans lately, but also democrats are listening to the people on their side that scream the loudest.

guest: ben, i think you're right in terms of this comment. and it's the comment of mitch mcconnell. i thought that was in politics, just the wrong thing to say. if you contrast that with soon to be speaker john boehner's performance on election night. i don't know if you saw the clip. this is not a time near celebration or cheering and partying. we have to get back to work. to work for the american public. this is a time for reminding everybody that there's business at hand. this was a much smarter response. look. those of us in washington who follow politics, we understand part of the republican equation is to deny the president a second term. they may, that may reflect a more cautious strategy than some of us expect.

i remember the democrats after their win in 2006. how far and how fast they were going to go and would they move to the left? i talk it to a number of senior democrats, they said. we're not going to be as dramatic as you think we are. you know what? because we know we don't control the white house. as long as we don't control the white house or public policy, we're going to be more cautious and demonstrate we're grownups. then we can push forward with with the agenda. i think that's what the democrats did and should be what the republicans do. host: one issue john boehner will face, to cut the lawmakers salaries. tom shaft saying, cutting the paychecks of members of congress would send the right message to voters.

guest: steve, it's all good to stick it to other politicians. members have families at home and they have a residence here. so, you know, it's complicated because the leaders need to keep morale up. but, boy, that's always a good thing to say. stick it to either of my fellow politicians or bureaucrat host: marry is joining us. welcome to the conversation. caller: hi. i just wanted to say, seems like obama 200 democrats were elected to change things. seems like everything was put on

overdrive and people are getting frustrated. i think it's the republican party. i'm a republican pco, the liberty group trying to take over the establishment seems to be still in control. now that the republicans have won a victory again. they are going to put boehner as speaker of the house. bail-out boehner. they are trying to go back to business as usual. even though with the republicans sending people to washington like graham and justin, it seems like the people are trying to send a different message to the republican party. but are they getting it? or are they, you know, going to keep up with their nation building and their destroying the dollar and business as usual? there's just going to be more frustration. did they get the results of

election or what do you see coming from the republicans? >> mary, that was a good question. there is a division i think in terms of party and how to proceed. step back and instead of just focusing on the tree, dem democrats, i guess it's 54-56 in the senate. i guess everything is decided except for alaska. so the republicans picked up six there. force force the president is the president. i mean, here's the, he has veto power. he has an opportunity to make the case to the american public and there's a significant part of the public, the country is still divided.

so, i think there's only so much this new group of republicans can do. but you're right. there's a division inside the republican party. the country is still divided. i know this is a huge election in the house and governor races, you get the sense the country is still evenly divided. now republicans have big wins. you have to distinguish between short-term policies and the broader distribution. i'm not sure the country knows where it wants to go. host: we could be back in the same position two years from now. i haven't heard anything but no. guest: i'm not that surprised, jan. the reality is the out party, it's wise to campaign not on your own agenda but your

opposite. they will tell you they have an agenda and have issued peoples on this. you're right, over the next few weeks and months, we will see what house republicans want to achieve. it will be interest whether they come out the box with the whole agenda. whether they will come out and say, mr. president, and harry reid, you go first. whether they're responding to a republican agenda. it will be interesting to so how the republicans will handle that. host: the conventional wisdom that nancy pelosi was going to step down the leadership and her

house seat. friday she said no. guest: yeah, this was the post election surprise. we always talk about an october surprise. i guess we should talk about the surprise after the election. it was surprising because this was such a rejection of particularly house democrats. i don't even want to get into a discussion whether it was about barack obama or nancy pelosi. you know things happen at a certain time and you stand back and say, this was the right time to go. speaker 70 years old. had significant accomplishments over the years. she can now look back and say, i did a lot. i just think it's a mistake. she's a -- she's is -- people have talked about her being radio active. she has high negatives.

still nancy pelosi from san francisco. they will use her to find democrats in the house. sometimes politicians and athletes have a hard time walking away. they want to walk away at the right time. problem is they can't walk away. it's going to cause huge problems. the number two might be squeezed out. this is a nightmare for democrats. host: bill crystal, now joining us on the democratic line. caller: i'm so happy to get through. host: we're happy too, mar lana caller: i will talk about

voting. the state representative, the state of ohio was going out and following the mailman for the participants. and asking them to vote. and offering them a hundred dollars. the lady said, i have to have, i have $175 for my medication. i'm a democrat, but the times are really bad. everybody is on welfare. i am, i think i'm going to take the hundred dollars. i really need it bad. so it's now, we're going back down to now, karl rove is -- he has the right to go out and get all these votes. i think now, if the voting was

today or tomorrow, it would be different. it would not be the same. host: thanks for calling. to segway into another discussion. we saw is outside money. this is a campaign, $4 billion. guest: and they were -- host: they were very active. there's more talk about opinion outside money. there's democrats that found money fundraising easily. i talked to democrat operatives. we lost the battle of outside money. he's in your corner. a major funder of democratic candidates and say. he decided he didn't want to

play this time. i'm not sure that was the republicans fault. well, money is a given. it's both parties will raise tons of it in the presidential year. it's hard believe we have a shortage. it steve, i'm not a reformer. i take it as a given. however it is. however it's there, i got to evaluate and see what impact it's going to have. it will have an impact in the second and third tier races particularly in the house. remember, a lot of the early republican outside money, american, what is the name of that? american future fund. was that it? it went to the early senate races. the wave really built not house. >> host: based on your handicapping saying he just called pelosi

brett favre. guest: that's a good one. willie mays. babe ruth. sought to hang on much after his best years. and yeah, brett favre, that's a good one. hos host:. from the washington post, we're talking about the 2012 campaign. as you can see, a garbage man cleaning up the votes. you about done yet? we have signs to put up. guest: steve, i saw that and really liked it. i shouldn't say this. gosh. don't we need a break? can't we take a little bit of a break? i think the american public needs to take a big sigh here. host: you have eight more

minutes. we have a friend from ocean side. go ahead, fran. fran, you with us? >> caller: good morning. am i on? host: you sure are. caller: i live in ocean county and do a lot of volunteer work. i'm finding that unless we have long-term care as a part of our medical program, that between that, unless we do changes in the 14th amendment, i think we will bankrupt our medicare program. and every other place that has medical insurance, they seem, they seem to have long-term care. instead half the people don't have it. they go into medicaid, which is costing a lot. if people come in and children.

their children automatically become citizens and become undermedicaid. are we going to have to make changes or will we make them? guest: first of all, ocean count is in the third congressional district. yeah, okay. entitlements. long-term commitments. government spending. it's interesting what they're trying to do at the uk with their relatively new prime minister. they are really going after government programs, the size and role of government. there are some people who will want us to do that here. particularly some of the tea party folks, many of tea party folks. again, here's where you have to be realistic.

we don't have a parliamentary system. we have checks and balances. one party controlling the chamber. we are going to have a commission to report on the entitlement issues. most americans want, fran, most americans want more benefits, more programs, more spending, but they want to pay fewer taxes and they want the budget to be balanced. they want us to be more fiscally responsible. something has to give and the politicians have not shown great bravery. host: predicting what will happen in 2012 races is like christmas. guest: we will do an outlook on

2012, steve, i think people don't understand what we do. i don't predict the future. i don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. so what we do is look at the data, the local polls. historical information data, from that, we kind of talk about what might happen at various scenarios. then candidates decide they're not running for re-election. we find out in the background that qualifies them. this is not like carnak and johnny carson predicting the future. this is analysis and causary and depends on changes circumstances. circumstances 18 months from now might be different. host: this is the list of senators up for re-election. and from vermont, of course the

recruiting process getting under way quickly for house and senate seats for 2012. dan is joining from salem, georgia, republican line. caller: yeah, good morning. i was fascinated the rhetoric on healthcare continues. i will show you and not list them all out. the provisions are really good. i think it's the other 2000 pages that have people concerned. and the other point i'd like to make is will the republicans take advantage of dems being the party of noses? host: which is what they write about republicans trying to block spending measures. guest: you know, dan, first of all, i felt you were clever and

insightful comments. but to just to elaborate on the healthcare thing, understand what is the republicans did a nice job in defining the healthcare bill has about bigger government, more spending, more interference and mandates. so while some people look at individual provision and say this is good. this is terrific, seems to me the democrats lost the larger war. we will see if they can redefine it. you look for another place to change the discussion. redefine the battle. we will see whether the democrats were able to do that. >> author and professor, h w brand. he's the author of "traitor in his class".

he begins saying, getting elect is difficult. only won't person won a second term when the economy was in dire shape. our last call, martha, from winston-salem, north carolina. caller: thank you. i want to say nobody admitted this is politics favoritism. they are not in existence. they are in the tea party. bo bo bomb -- obama is trying to help all party. god is the ruler. host: comment. let me ask you about the make up of the tea party. guest: yeah tea party folks are

conservative. there's amount of anger more than anything else. there's a democratic version of the tea party too. on the left wing. great anger and disgust with the establishment. i think it's going to be fascinating to see, how republicans coming to dc have to deal with the legislative process. even the most ardent tea party is going to deal with. how do you deal with raising a debt limit and appropriation bills that have to pass? it's easy on left and the right to be angry and against washington and complaint about the system here. it's a lot harder to govern. there will be a few that are stars and others who just