president is the ultimate abilityof the countries to go to war. >> i would like to commend airing the information from the writers on greece and the military. it was excellent information. andave death levels international -- depth and nuance. that ptsd can climb and can be trylved if you continue to various interventions. history onamerican c-span is one of the best

programs. i wish we could do it more than once a week. >> continue to let us know what you think about the shows that you are watching. or send us a tweet. or follow ussage on twitter. last week, the annual washington ideas forum. we heard remarks from mike farman on what he is doing to work on trade. this is 15 minutes. >> thank you. told secretary kerry went on longer than planned. this is going to be a staccato interview.

thank you for joining me. midst of a big trade negotiation in the pacific and across the atlantic. trade investment talks. you still don't have fast-track negotiation authority. i don't think there has been any significant trade deal in u.s. history without fast-track. what are your chances of getting fast-track after the midterm? authority's,otion congressnism by which gives us the marching orders how to work with congress, and what process they would use to approve an agreement. the key thing is is that trade policy more than any other area of policy is one where the executive and congress needs to work closely together.

we have been consulting with congress through these negotiations. we've had more than 1500 meetings with congress on tpp. congress has significant input into our negotiations. when in a cream and comes out they will be able to be comfortable with -- when an agreement comes out they will be comfortable with it. this has brought by bipartisan support. >> this is one area where the republicans are more in tune with the administration and democrats. are you secretly hoping for a republican victory? >> our position is well-established on that. you have other speakers on politics. all i would say is this is an area that we need to work bipartisan on all these issues.

we are working closely with democrats to ensure that the trade agreements address our interests and our values. tpp is going to have the strongest labor and environmental provisions of any trade agreement in history. the first agreement to take on the issue of state owned enterprises and make sure that when they compete with private firms they do so on a level lighting field. the first trade agreement that establishes rules for the digital economy, and brings in certain disciplines for the real economy. all of this is about unlocking opportunity for american workers and farmers, businesses of all small -- all sizes who need these rules to navigate the global economy. >> to pin down the fast-track, by when are you going to need it? issue foring is an congress to consider. the key thing is we move forward with congress on a basis where we have bipartisan support.

>> the big one before you now in terms of your agenda is the transpacific partnership. you have after the midterms in 10 days from now, the big aipac summit. do you expect it to conclude a deal there without fast-track? is that something that is realistic? >> no. we do not expect to have a final agreement at aipac. it will be an opportunity but all of the tpp leaders will be present. it is an opportunity to have conversations with each other about tbp and outstanding issues to get it done. >> what are the sticking points? you have the japanese, the u.s. conversation about agricultural access to the japanese market. yet intellectual property. what are the things that are tidying -- tying the negotiators down most strongly?

the outset issues fall into categories, market access. agricultural issues with japan and with canada. we are making good progress with japan and hope to engage with canada soon. we have issues with japan in autos. intellectual property rights, state owned enterprises, labor and environment. we just completed a couple of days ago, so we are making progress closing out issues, and ironing out differences of the remaining issues. you do need ultimately to have a strong majority for the american public opinion behind you for the trade deal in this environment. it's particularly tough. do you think that you are doing

enough to convince the american people of the benefits of these kinds of deals, and what is the koran cement -- core argument about tpp? >> it starts with the economics. 95% of the world's consumers outside of the united states, 80% of the purchasing power, for our ability to grow here, create good jobs, export related jobs pay more, we have got to be engaged in international markets. our market is already quite open. we don't use regulations as a barrier to trade. that is not true around the world. this is how we shape the global economy, how we strip reducezation and barriers just proportionally to help increase exports from american workers and farmers helping to grow jobs. that is the first part of the

argument. the second part is it is finally important that we are proactive in helping to set the rules of the road for the global trade. that starts in the asia-pacific, the fastest-growing region in the world where there are multiple models about how global trade ought to be conducted. we think it is important to have a priest to the top with the strong environment. >> this is about china. >> this is about ensuring that is a strong rules-based system that shows our interests and values. that is a we are trying to achieve through tpp. is strong strategic importance, a key part of our rebalancing strategy towards asia. we aren't pacific power. tpp is a way in which the u.s. will be embedded in this region economically with broader spillover affects. obama campaigned on an and -- environmental standards. can you describe exactly what

we're talking about? >> when senator obama was running for president he said he wanted to renegotiate nafta, taking labor and environmental issues which were literally sideshows, and pulling them into the center of nafta, having strong obligations, taking them subject to the binding this peds, that exists for all the other provisions. that is what we are doing through tpp. not just in regards to candida and mexico, but establishing that as the standard for this region and for the global economy. >> i know you talk to all the players here at home. unions, they are happy with this? >> we have a lot of contact with in the labors movement. the have had input in the agreement, in the labor chapter and other elements, the state owned enterprise chapter, the

rules of origin. i won't put words in their mouths but we certainly have work to ensure that this agreement raises the labor standards and it is good for americans. >> and to get the backings of the unions. >> i'm not going to put words in their mouths. we are working to ensure that this has the strongest labor and environmental protections ever, and everything we are doing is about helping to drive production and manufacturing in the united states. when you look at the factors we have in the united states, it is a great market. we have strong rule of law, entrepreneurial culture. we have abundant source of affordable energy. when you layer on top of that tpp we will be at the center of will give ushat unfettered access to two thirds of the global economy. that makes the u.s. the production platform of choice. the place where investors want to put their next factory to serve the u.s. market, to shift

all over the rest of the world, and that will drive job creation good jobs. >> in bringing china into higher , if you can does both in the pacific and the atlantic, we are talking two thirds of the world economy. china is not going to be able to pick and choose, pick people off bilaterally. you've got a european commission, a new president of the european commission. the luxembourg prime minister. blanke a little bit of a side last week by moving the portfolio of the siding the investor state relations dispute settlement that can is an out of the hands of the new trade

commission, the swedish trade commissioner, into a political court, his vice president, a dutch socialist. that took you by surprise. my question to you, is the european commission decides not to include investor state dispute settlement in the tti p talks, is to tip worth pursuing? the appointment of the new commissioner. we are looking forward to them getting seated. we see this as a fresh start in the negotiations. state,gard to investor investor protections generally, the united neither states nor the european union want anything to do that will constrain the ability of our government to regulate in the public interest. worked for we have other negotiations, tpp and otherwise, to raise the

standard, to make it clear that governments can regulate in the public interest and that -- >> the political debate says this is a chart for multinational states to get around government. >> that is correct. we think it is important government is able to regulate and we have safeguards to ensure these procedures are used appropriately. we can dismiss frivolous claims, award attorney fees, make it transparent so that you -- so that labor unions can participate. >> they can observe the hearings. >> they can submit briefs. >> that is not what most people think in europe. they think this is a chart he for multinationals to trample on democracies. >> i think that is why we need to make it clear what it is, and what it isn't. that applies to a number of things. there is mythology of what it is we are trying to negotiate. it is important we are proactive

about getting the correct story out there. none of us want to compromise the ability of our governments to regulate. and all this think that investment protections, isd us fundamentally gives investors abroad the same rights we give foreign and direct investors in the united states. rights that will not be subject to discriminatory robert trade treaty, and that is what is part of a high standard trade and investment agreement. we agreed that would have the highest standards of any agreement we negotiated in this area. p without that clause worth having? >> i'm not going to negotiate here. i'm looking forward to seeing her counterparts. it is hard to imagine a standard have the that doesn't high standard of investment protections as well. that means raising the standard.

europe has 1400 agreements that have isds in them. the u.s. has 40. the most active users are european companies. >> luxembourg originated a lot of these. >> perhaps so. i think it is important to look out there,sations take them seriously, but it is important we recognize that we get it. we don't want to compromise the ability of governments to regulate. at the same time we see making sure that there is nondiscriminatory regulation, it doesn't have arbitrary impact on investors. we know investment feeds jobs back at home. those are key parts of a high standard agreement. terms of your expectation for a european deal, and your

expectations for a pacific deal, what time frame are we talking about? january, february? >> the substance of the negotiation ought to drive the timetable. we just came out of this ministerial he. see the final agreement is being crystallized. we can see where this is heading. we are closing out issues, making progress on market access. we have a ways to go and we are not going to live by an arbitrary deadline. we are focused on getting it done. >> and with europe, and if you put the edward snowden stuck behind you, you have had snafus in dialogue with europeans, does it draw line under some of the difficulties you've had the dialogue? >> we worked hard with the old commission as well. my counterpart has been a good partner in this. the new commission gives us an opportunity to start fresh and layout a work plan for the

coming months, and make progress. >> thank you. [applause] >> throughout campaign 2014 sees brennan -- c-span has brought .ou 140 debates tonight watch c-span's live election night coverage to see who wins, who loses, and which party will control the house and senate. victoriesee candidate and concession speeches in some of the most closely watched senate races throughout the country. we want to hear from you with your calls, facebook comments, and tweaks. -- tweets. >> back to the annual washington ideas forum cohosted by the atlantic and aspen institute.

this is 25 minutes. >> we are a few weeks from the election. this makes a lot of people on this couch happy. i feel we are at the point where it is before christmas and the presents under the tree. i shake the presents with both of them saying what is inside. i'm going to take us away from the present piece of this. i know we talk a lot about these numbers getting thrown around. that there is a chance of the senate taking over. the first question, a different number. the number of 68%, people who

said they are paying attention to this election. it is down 10 points. people said they are not heated to this election. you now than in the last two midterm elections. we can start this way. i have my theories about why people aren't engaged. i am curious about what you think about it. what it tells us about this election and what to expect. >> i think it is largely the result of cynicism. you always have lower turnout in the elections but fewer people engaged as a function of the fact that they look at washington, d.c., and they see nothing getting done. a lot of mark including it doesn't make a difference. you are seeing this among and dependent voters where the the

likelihood of valid has dropped significantly -- the likelihood of voting has dropped significantly. public for compromise, hoping for solution. they are the people who are especially turned off as result of what they see as an action. i'm happy to talk more about the causes of inaction but that is the perception, the inability to get things done has reduced the focus in this midterm. >> you are obviously the chair of the nga for a year. this is two years ago. governors are supposed to be different. they are not part of this mess in washington. is there a sense that the governor's race is different? or is it still frustration going on at statehouses seem to be more polarized than they have been in the recent past? >> governors are different. i think we are different because

we are generally not measured on whether we give a great speech or the quality of our rhetoric. are we making the economy better. people are frustrated washington isn't getting anything done and their voice doesn't really count. that they are drowned out by the big money. that the appeals half nothing to do with their own lives. it has to do with this negative vitriol about the other person. one of the big lessons as people are more interested in themselves than they are the candidates. a lot people would say they are not hearing anything worth telling. >> you are on the trail all the time. you must hear about this. the fact is a lot of people who would be the compromisers that

you're out there campaigning for, they are the most vulnerable. if they lose, who is left? >> we work together a lot. we have the core of our middle party of four election. everyone is on the bubble. it is going to make it more difficult if they are not able to get anything done no matter who was in leadership. you have to have the moderate middle. i think people upset from this stand went. when you spend this much money trying to tell us who we should be for, most of it negative, they like to think you care about my state, why don't you do something, show me you care. don't just scorch the earth. it has turned people off. they are saying no human being can be that bad.

nobody can be as bad. i think people are just fed up with it. they think it has been taken out of their hands. they have little to do with the outcome because there is so much control. >> in 2016 it is the more moderate republicans that are up in the senate, folks from blue states. is the expectation we are just when is he thing in 2016? will you say this person says they are moderate but they are not? >> i don't do that. i know the ones i work with. the republicans i work with, you have susan collins. she will get reelected. you have down to lindsey graham, lamar alexander should get reelected. i'm a democrat saying this.

you have to have that certain core. mark ryerson get ready elected. these are solid people, and we can work with them. you can at least come to some agreement. when you lose that ability to have some conversation, most of us come from an area where you are guilty by association. they think you must agree with them. this town was built by conversation. when you can't have people saying we are going to talk about these issues, that is what is at stake. >> i know you 10 -- you pendant op-ed about if republicans took control of congress. we're going to focus on confidence and getting something done that the public wants to see done. is that really truly possible

given the way that this campaigns have been run, vitriolic, that the metal is more likely than not to be gone. you're going have really conservative and really liberal. you have a culture where one side says it is our way or the highway, no compromise. >> it is critical we get things done. i'm optimistic. we serve on the energy committee together and work on issues of energy. i addressed that in the op-ed. the 60% number, the other number, people think the country is seriously heading in the wrong direction. i've been in 17 states with our candidates. that is what i am hearing around the country that concerns we are in the wrong direction very let's look at the bills that passed the house with significant numbers of democrats voting along with republicans on energy, train just to the health

care law, on education, on jobs and the economy. get people back to work, to get people with more money in their own pockets. >> you said republicans work to repeal obamacare. that seems like a nonstarter. that is an issue that be on the fact that the president is not going to go along with that, democrats are going to go along with that. it seems like we're going to start from that premise, i don't how you will be able to get that. >> there will be a vote on that. we will take care of the parts of the health care among that have been damaging. the secretary of commerce was out here talk about take-home pay. that has hurt so many workers across the country, as school district me universities cut

hours to below 30 hours a week. that is cutting into people's paychecks. this employer mandate. 30 democrats voted to delay or repeal the employer mandate because they know it is hurting the economy. i am looking at things that have passed the house with overwhelming bipartisan support and get those to the president's desk. >> let me just say the point you have suggested is absolutely true. how you run a campaign determines impart your ability to govern, whether you are willing to make compromises necessary. right now we see scorched-earth campaigns. what disturbs me most about the

polling data is that if you ask democrats and goals whether they are interested in compromising to get things done, you have 60% who say yes. when you asked the same question of republicans and tea party republicans, you get very and republicans, you get very different answers, less interest in in compromise. that is why you have candidates running on the republican side in a who were saying when it is in on these issues. when they get elected you are going to deliver no compromise, deliver continued stalemate. and the senator raise the issue of bipartisan support. in of bipartisan support. an we have a bipartisan and immigration bill passed by the senate with a big vote. we haven't even had a vote on that. and that is an issue majority of the country supports. >> the incoming majority leader in the house, kevin mccarthy, quoted saying we have to prove we can govern, we are going to reach out.

he says we have a different approach. are you optimistic about that? >> i'm a natural optimist. >> you are going to bridge both chambers. >> i saw his comments. i welcome that. hopefully >> you believe him? let's i believe his intention. the question is whether he can deliver even the that so many in his caucus, especially on the tea party side, a number of the current republicans are being placed by people further on the right and more invested in no compromise. again, i welcome intention. there are lots of things the public clearly supports moving forward on parade we would like to at least get a vote on them in the house.

>> this is why i'm glad to be a governor. >> just so we can at least get stuff done. that is exactly what people are looking for and it is what they hold us accountable to. >> what we're seeing at the legislative level. congress may be dysfunctional that leaves of the legislative level governors would in most its have to deal with one body or both that were of a different party. now you have one party controlled legislatures that we have seen in recent history. tell me about how that works. we're seeing some backlash. a lot of states where there is an agenda on the left and the right that is party saying, and we're seeing voters feeling as frustrated with their state government has what is happening in congress. >> i was elected in 2008. begin aggressive or in the minority in the house. we have had a majority in both chambers. that brings with it its own blessings and difficulties. part of what we always have to

do is make sure we are focused on where the people want us to be focused and not to over interpret any mandate. most the things we have to deal with as the governor are not securely partisan. creating better jobs and improving schools, making sure we do for health care. these are not democratic or republican issues. one of my responsibilities is to keep the legislature focus on what matters. >> how does the governor do that? it seems in some of the states, where the legislature one-party control decided they wanted to push the governor, and now they are feeling the backlash. have you say to the legislature i know you have the vote during -- the vote. >> you use the bully pulpit and remind people of history. these things go in cycles. i remind the legislature there were two times in the last 40

years when the democrats had a super majority in both chambers as well as having the governor's office. within two years it was totally reverse. that has happened a couple of times. the voters tend to keep us honest read our job is to make sure we stay honest and focused on what the people expect in the near term. >> i can speak from both sidestreet when i decide to orally i thought i know how it works, you never put the opposing side in a difficult position where you embarrass them and they can defend themselves. they only give you one shot at that. you mislead them and put them where they can't go home and

then themselves they will never be with you again. i had super majority of the house in the state senate. i had republicans i worked closely with because i needed them to get some things done. with that being said i never would have let them beat up on publicans. -- republicans. i can control it because i have the budget. i can say we are going to play the same. we are going to have some politics but take care of virginia first. i'm not seeing that. i'm being as was full -- i'm being as respectful as i can. i haven't seen for the sake of the country we are going to do this, take a tough vote in a tough vote, and is going to help the country. >> there has been -- we don't want to just pick on what the republican leadership has been doing. in terms of the lack of votes. cq came out and found there were 18 legislative votes.

have you change that? do you think that will get there? [indiscernible] >> the democrats now in the senate believing no matter what we do, with intentions from the republican party, our main objective is to get rid of them. everything they do is premised on that. that was said four years ago. if you intention is to filibuster everything emily to get them the right to do that. we have earned the right to make a full of ourselves. [laughter] we have. let's give john a chance to

filibuster all night long and let the american public -- and on the other hand, it is easier for me to go home and explain what i voted for then what i didn't vote on. let's wear each other out. let's make the process work. let's vote on the keystone pipeline whether you like them or not. i can at least explain that. [applause] >> do you think this is what the republican-controlled senate would look like? pat toomey says i know that this is not the agenda necessarily of the republican leadership that i want to put an amendment out there, i would like to see that amendment, you think that what happened? >> we need regular order.

barbara mikulski past many, harry reid not allow a vote on one of those. they have been 2000 amendments introduced in the last year. 20 votes. you talk about alaska, he has been in the senate six years. he has never had a roll call vote on an amendment with his name on it on the floor of the united states senate. no senator elected in 2012, 2 years ago, elizabeth, has not had a single vote on a single amendment on the floor of the united states senate with her name on it. these are senators who offered hundreds and hundreds of amendments and harry reid says no. he has type the senate in knots to protect his members from having to take any votes on anything of substance. only president comes out and says it is my policies that are on the ballot and they vote with me, that to me makes this a referendum much more on the

president and his policies and the fact that nothing it's them with a democrat-controlled senate, which is why i had the editorial to but the republicans back to regular order where we will have votes on amendments and deal with budgetary issues, appropriations, and nominations. as secretary of commerce at here, she got confirmed 98 to one. sylvia burwell. she was from west virginia. capable, confident. competent. she knew what she was doing. 80 votes. there is bipartisan support for mainstream people. it doesn't matter who, i have one agenda for the country pretty get some trade going. harry reid five years in a row set we need trade. the next day he said not in this

senate. >> basically, as parents, you take care of your children. they become teenagers, they go to college. they are 30 or 40 years old now. let them make some decisions. [laughter] >> so harry reid is a helicopter parent. >> let me just say to be fair to harry reid, he would accept the following deal in a second. vote up or down majority on anything in the senate, up or down majority vote on anything in the house. in the house we have not had a vote on minimum wage, immigration reform, equal pay for equal work, a vote on lots of things the american public overwhelmingly supports. majority vote in the senate, majority wins. majority vote in the house, -- he would accept that. >> even on bills that would embarrass the white house?

what the people are to vote in the senate do so for those that need bipartisan support. to keep things getting done. not things on one extreme or the other. which is why for treaties you need 67 votes. you need 60. the idea of nominations was to be 3/5 so you had nominees like the secretary of commerce. >> we haven't had a vote yet.

>> the surgeon general was nominated during the ebola crisis. harry reid can't get 51 because this nominee is so off the mainstream. >> you just made the best argument why a how should vote on every bill that comes out of the senate. [applause] they have to get that super majority. the bills you mentioned in the house, yes you have some democrats. we don't have that requirement. they don't meet that test. the immigration reform is exhibit a. it met all the tests. speaker boehner won't let it come to a vote. because of the differences between the senate and the house that you described there is no excuse not to have a vote in the house. >> let me just say >> one

positive thing. for all those people who say that it doesn't matter, can you give us some optimism, whether -- the state or anywhere. >> the most underreported story , thed health care, incredible progress being made in states across the country to transform the way we deliver and pay for health care. i think the implications are going to be profound and in the end what really matters to communitieseir home , it is that work. are laboratories for democracy. we are going to learn from each other. we don't care if it is democratic or republican.

all we care about is what works. >> we are still the hope of the world. we have to start working together. --my dad was in the bottle said think godad you live in america. >> there we go. well done. >> throughout campaign 2014 c-span has brought you more than 130 candidate debate from across the country in races that will determine control of the next congress. watch c-span live to see who wins, who loses and which party will control the house and senate. coverage begins at 8:00 eastern. you will see candidate victory and concession speeches. we want to hear from you with

your calls, facebook comments, and tweaks. >> we are going to talk with jessica taylor, the campaign editor to talk about midterm elections. good morning. good morning. guest: good morning, pedro. host: tell us what factors into your thinking. guest: i think republicans started out with the better edge. democrats were defending double the number of seats republicans were. and republicans have exceeded -- republicans have succeeded -- two of the closest races tonight are going to be in iowa and colorado. these are democratic held seats that they have successfully made competitive. we see joni ernst in iowa, cory gardner leading senator mark udall and colorado. those are the early ones i am

watching to see whether it does tip to republicans. we are also watching to see how to see how north carolina and new hampshire go, whether it is close. that will tell whether it is a good night for republicans, a great night for them, or whether democrats hold on. right now republicans are favored to pick up the seats that they need tonight. wait is nothing for us to -- there is nothing for us to do but wait for the returns to come in. goes say north carolina towards kay hagan. where do you go from there? guest: democrats have a really good ground in north carolina that they have talked about. democraticof all incumbents, has been the one who has been able to hold on. she has held her own and she has icceeded in making this -- think it is because she is

running against state house speaker thom tillis, who is head of a very unpopulated -- who is head of the very unpopular state legislature there. it may be what saves her. if she hangs on, there is still a chance for democrats to minimize the losses, or if they -- it isto do well still very close. the fact that we are still talking about democrats still having a path to majority on with the fact, that they have run smart races across the country, people like hagan and mark pryor in arkansas, they have held on. on,ink if kay hagan holds it will not be a bloodbath for democrats. they are certainly not out of the woods yet. that theheard earlier president cut a radio ad for senator hagan. talk about that.

president who gets the vote or not as far as people heading to the polls today? like: for some incumbents hagan, they have had to do this delicate dance. they need the president to help them. this is the african-american vote. they need their base voters to turn out if they win. that is why there are calls for hagan targeted at specific voters. and then you see the same thing in georgia where michelle nunn is in a close race with republican david perdue. she must have the african-american voters turn out for her to win. i think it is telling that the day before the election -- there were questions even earlier whether she would appear alongside him. too closet be seen as to the president, criticizing

where she has to. there are still slices of the bays where he is still popular, and that is core democratic voters, especially african-american voters. host: new hampshire -- where does it currently stand? what are your thoughts about what might happen in that senate race? guest: this is an early one that will tell us whether the polls have been accurate or not. the republicans expect a late surprise. new hampshire is a state that whetheritionally gone there is a wave or not. this one is much closer than democrats like. former senator scott brown from massachusetts, they tried to paint him as a carpetbagger or a political opportunist. i am not sure that will work. he has a shot tonight, certainly . i still give shaheen the edge,

but if polling is really close, this is one we have to watch for a couple of hours. it is a good night for republicans, but if shaheen puts it away early, that is a good night for democrats. host: jessica taylor experienceis piloting in 2003. he gave advice to private citizens. >> ok. now we are going ahead with the second part. this is brian binnie. he is a private astronaut. he flew spaceship 110 years ago -- spaceship 1, ten years ago.

spaceship 2, richard branson is working on. this guy, i've got a ticket on spaceship 2. he was going to fly me. he has gone to xcorp now. i want a warm welcome for brian binnie. [applause] >> thank you. i'm in the private side. i don't take your tax money. we do business our way.

i'm working on our fourth spaceship. i have pictures of my private career post military, available with a business card at the back. it has been 10 years now since the x-prize flights. coming up on 11 years. i have written -- is c-span running? get this on screen. i have written a book about the experiences of the program. they were a lot of blogs they came out at the time that told pieces but the fun stuff is in here.

i kept thinking if i could just find myself in a city that has some expertise in books, publishing, editing, managing, and i could find myself in a group, a crowd of people that might actually enjoy reading what it is like to explore a brand-new private spaceship, then i thought here is an opportunity. with that said, i'm going to pass these around. if you think -- i think there is enough for everybody in the room. if you're in the book is in this, my business card is on the back. please take one.

>> i just handed them out. >> off they go. >> that is all i had to say today. [laughter] >> to move on to our next presenter. brian is not only a great aviator, he is a friend of mine. i guess you would say in full disclosure, he wrote the forward to one of my books call the right stuff. i took brian in a car at 200 miles per hour as a passenger. he has the right stuff. was that scarier? >> spaceship 1 wasn't as scary. the vehicle itself.

200 miles per hour is faster than any of the designs. it was curious that it actually took and on the mobile -- an automobile to get my attention on the runway there. >> we 10 years ago remember first of all many of us never thought the rise was going to be one because there were so many competitors. all of a sudden with a couple of months to go you guys fly it into space. then you do it again but you do it twice within two weeks. it's fun 35 times and looked dicey to us on the ground. then you had to go and finish the job. you had to fly it again within two weeks to get the $2 million. talk about that a little bit. i know there is pressure.

richard branson is there. you had to make it happen. >> you know, what i want to talk about is -- i will get back to that but walt's comment about cell phones, i'm not a cell phone kind of guy. one day i was flying a plane. the only requirement was to have a commercial glider rating. if you start to think about it, it seems like it is a pretty low bar flying wise. i doubt that in the foothills -- i am out there in the foothills and i am practicing this baby airplane glider.

it weighs as much as i do. the plane takes us up over the mountains which are 8000 feet and then get released. immediately i get things that are 1500 feet per minute. just making a turn. i'm coming down like a brick. the stick is swinging back and forth trying to keep the wings level. i decide today is not the day to be flying this thing. i start aiming back towards the field. i may be pointing that way but i am still flying this way. there is no place to go.

at some point you have to give up and say today i'm not going back, i'm going somewhere else. where that somewhere else is -- i don't know. i ended between [indiscernible] in this baby airplane that has no canopy on it. eventually it makes a sharp term. this is where the windmills are. 3000 windmills can't be wrong most of the time. today was one of those days. i'm getting pretty low. i'm running in between these flashing blades of these windmills. i'm looking for a place to park this airplane.

they have these access roads that run up and down the valleys. i find i've got 50 feet, 20 yards of road in the right orientation that is relatively flat. i have that much altitude. i did for a little bit of scarcity. it is that kind of turn. the thing settles my sling onto this access road. and i go, hey.

i made it. how about that? i didn't break anything. that is when i realized i was still flying. what's your point is after that -- >> your point is after that, it was going to be easy? >> the point is i am stuck in this little airplane, i can't get out because if i get out it will just fly away, essentially. i am sitting there. it is a sunday morning. the adrenaline gets through and starts to calm. for once in my life i go if i had a cell phone -- [laughter] >> the punchline. >> i could call someone. after that event i broke down and joined the cell phone generation.

>> spaceship one. that day. that was a lot of pressure. >> it was a tremendous amount of pressure. i hadn't flown the vehicle in 10 months. my flight was on a monday morning. the night before sunday night was the first airing of the discovery channel program called the black sky. there were two parts. the race to space, which was focused mainly on all of the effort it took to get to mike's first flight back in june. that was being played out on

national tv. when it broke between segments instead of going to commercial, a cnn reporter was at bert's house and mohave and would interview bert and say, how do you -- first question was who was the pilot? bert wouldn't answer. miles push more and said how do you think it is going to go? i don't how many of you know bert. when he has an audience, a crowd, he knows how to work it. he has the world stage here in his hand. his response, i'm at home up and down listen to this.

his response is not only are we going to hit a home run, we are going to hit a grand slam. that was the quote. no pressure. i'm thinking, as if the bar isn't high enough, here is bert making it even that more difficult. three things have to happen. you had to get above the carmen line, 100 kilometers. >> that is considered he >> that is the new definition of space. walt would barely be awake by that point. that was one big deal. that was the $10 million part.

we also had richard branson who wanted to invest in spaceship number two. he had a multimillion dollar contract ready to go should we demonstrate not only can we get to get there without doing these twists and tumbles. >> which mike had done. >> we kind of thought we figured out what was causing that particular problem, which gave me -- so, thursday night was when it was announced i was going to be the pilot. up until that point, the clever management way of doing business, not unlike george

abbey at nazareth or the way the chinese have conducted their programs, they leave it until last minute to tell you who is the crew. on thursday night i find out i'm going to be the guy. all the work i have done to date, to keep my hand in the game on the outside chance i might get an opportunity to fly this little beast of an airplane, now it is out the window because we need to change it. the way it was changed was, it was subtle. it is quite entertaining. it took a lot of orchestration between myself and mission control at the time, run by doug chiang.

get the nose pointed 60 degrees as quickly as you could get that happened. within 10 seconds. we took 50 seconds or so to coast from 60 degrees to 80 degrees. in the final endgame, the last 20 seconds, we would be pulling on the vehicle to get up to 87 degrees. which would in the vernacular, keep an angle of attack across the tales, which mean you had better control, which meant this rocket motor on the backend doesn't try to knock you off

course. the rocket motors that we flew back then, that we fly now, that x core flies, they are not steered for you. we are fixed in space. they have a blade of nozzles toward the end of the burn. they have a thrust line. it skews off, and now you are in

the upper atmosphere aerodynamically trying to counteract that thrust of symmetry. we figured we could fly to 150,000 feet before having to shut them down to avoid the rocket overwhelming the vehicle. we found we could do a little bit better than that. my flight, i got up to 213,000 feet before shutting the motor down, which is somewhere between 10-12 knots indicated airspeed. there is a new procedure, it worked great.

there was no expectation that it should. we only had six powered flights of the vehicle total. this was the sixth fly. the previous five had presented problems, difficulties, situations we hadn't anticipated or thought about, understood, and to go back and say this doesn't make sense, we have to change that, there is no reason to expect that this sixth flight that was critical not only for my personal sanity but for that of the team, for that of the company, of richard branson, for the hopefulness of the future of commercial manned spaceflight,

that would all work out. we scooted out past the carmen line, past the old x 15. >> almost 70 miles. >> which doesn't sound like much but maybe in the city, 70 miles is a lot. for my house it doesn't even the ballet and -- doesn't even get me to los angeles. that is what we were doing. >> i know that weight was a big deal. there was an anecdote that your mother-in-law spilled a 16 ounce soda on you before you went on. [laughter] >> you've got to love your mother-in-law.

at the time i was 50 years old. if your mother-in-law wants to give you a hug in your mature years and life, after the error of marrying her daughter, then you take it. it is about this time of year. it is cool in the morning. she had come from the local mcdonald's. she had a cup of coffee and she is the same personality as the mother and everybody loves raymond. so she pushes her way out of the crowd. i'm on my way out. she comes up and says, let's hug. except there is this cup of

coffee. she is approaching me and i am wondering what the game plan is. her arm sweep around me. it becomes that there is no game plan. it all just flows down the front of my flight suit on to my t-shirt. now i am just wet. that coffee is hot. [laughter] >> but it weighs something. >> it was heavily sugared, vanilla flavored by the way. anyways, a about a pound. we had a rule of thumb that we would kill grandmother for a pound. >> they had to make this

altitude. >> one pound additional weight is 500 feet. mike on his first attempt had just made it by 400 feet. >> a cup of coffee would have stopped them. >> i was reminded by our chief aerodynamicist, that i was now wearing an extra 500 feet. it was on that note that they close the spaceship door. off we go into history. >> is that in your book? >> my mother-in-law is now one of the most famous mother-in-law's in the world

because she knows i tell the story. it is all true. it couldn't have been more disconcerting. it was not a big cabin. as soon as the door closes the aroma just overwhelms. that is how we went to space. >> ok, so you are up there and you have seen these pictures. you are a fighter pilot and this stuff. when you got up that high, explain what you felt when you solve that? walt was too busy with his stuff to have any emotion. did you have any?

70 miles above the earth? >> shame on you, walt. i'm here to tell you, it is the most fabulous ride in the world. writing a rocket motor -- riding a rocket motor it's the senses, because that rocket motor went off like an angry bull, like someone slapped the gate open, and you are just trying to hang on for eight seconds. except, you were hanging on to this thing for a minute and a half. it is thundering, shaking kind of experience. we had a gauge that would, we were not sure we would be able

to read. the flight controls go from light off the mothership to within eight seconds you are supersonic and the control forces are so high. you think you are moving the stick but you are not affecting anything. then you have to transition to electric trams to control the trajectory. the in game, you're back to flying like an airplane again because the motor wants to adjust the thrust line on you. the magic, and i do mean this, the magic is when you finally turn the motor off. read wonderful things happen.

they happen in a blink. the shaking goes away. in the case of patient 1, the shrieking sounds, this big nitrous tank that is 10 feet behind you imaging itself making all kinds of -- it is like a possessed cat behind you. and, then you become instantly weightless. even though you are strapped in, the tension goes away. your limbs, your legs have no weight. your sense of right side up no longer matters. when the motor is burning you are paying attention to the

instruments. after, there is nothing much you can do to affect the trajectory of the vehicle you are on. then you get to look out the window, and there is this view you have never appreciated or never seen before. from a hobby, if you have ever been it is one of the most dreary, disappointing -- >> godforsaken places. >> but the view is spectacular. you have the pacific ocean, the mountains, weather patterns they normally only show you on the evening news. of course, the void that is

space. separating these extremes is this then blue electric curtain of light. that is the atmosphere. it is the first time you get to appreciate and realize that you are now in space, in a spaceship. that sounds cool to say. i cut the grass, i went to space and a spaceship. you have worked to actually get there. you worked pretty hard physically just to get there. so everything your body feels is wow.

and everything you see with your eyes just because they're so much more dynamic than any camera or video is, you take in this vista, is wow. i've told the marketing people at virgin this for years. that they're all going to be out of jobs as soon as they get into business. because it's an experience that's going to sell itself. it doesn't need to be -- you don't need to be coerced into this. people that come out from having had that experience are going to be doing the marketing for them. >> what you just described, i have a ticket on virgin galactic spaceshiptwo. when it flies, will i feel the things you felt?

i obviously will be a passenger. i wouldn't be a pilot. but will i feel that rocket burn and the shuddering and shrieking and all that, is it going to be similar? >> absolutely. it might be more intense for you because, as a passenger, you're not in control of anything, you're just, you know, along for the ride. anybody can tell you, in an acrobatic kind of airplane, there's a huge difference between whether you're making the control inputs to the airplane or sort of reacting to what somebody else is doing. and so i think you become a man of god very quickly. >> i already am. but. >> if i was orchestrating the spaceship, i would have a five-second countdown light

after separation from the mothership. and that was the time between they arm the rocket motor and they fire it. >> like a drag racer when they take off. >> in those five seconds, your life is going to be changed profoundly. and then off you go. and it's such a compressed experience. it's not like, you know, you're not days in space, you haven't spent an entire career working your way up the competitive

ladder to get there. but you still get all the same benefits, the view, the weightlessness, the experience of riding a rocket motor. in spaceshiptwo, we'll see how it plays out. but it's got a pretty big cabin so you can unbuckle your seatbelt and then you can wrestle with the other -- >> while they're puking? >> well, i don't think puking's going to be a problem. as long as you can reference an outside window an there's plenty of them, you'll do just fine. >> i'll remember that. >> and that's just getting up there. there's still the ride back down which is an entirely different experience in itself. >> what's that like? >> i liken it to, if you're driving a car and it's starting to rain and you get a little splatters of rain drops on the

wind shield and if you're driving into the thunderstorm, then the intensity of that rain just, you know, continues to grow. re-entry is very similar. where the rain is actually the noise of the atmosphere against the -- in spaceshiptwo's characters the belly of the vehicle. and you can actually sort of hear it go from a pinging sound to one that just grows and grows in intensity, as the noise level grows, so does the g levels that you feel on your body. but unlike riding a rocket motor, and this is strange to articulate, but it is buttery

smooth. you are just getting heavy. so it's like going over niagara falls. you're on your way down, there's nothing stopping you and it continues until the vehicle is in a thick enough atmosphere that once again it's subsonic and once the vehicle is subsonic in this funny configuration, the vehicle just doesn't quite know what it really wants to do. it's sort of in a confused state and so you put the tails back down, you become a glider and now you've got your 10, 15

minutes to breathe again and look at your passenger who's sitting across from you and sort of mentally trying to assimilate to all that has just happened to you in the last hour or so. the majority of the flight on the virgin side of the house is just climbing up underneath the mothership, which is probably from passenger standpoint where the co-pilot is going to have to have a degree in psychology or stress management or stuff like that. the concept is different in that from get-go you take off on the runway, under rocket power, there's four motors, you light them off is he sequentially so

you don't get the big jolt. you take off like an airplane and just keep going. >> now i want to get to that. brian worked for many, many years for scaled composites and when spaceshipone was a success and richard branson invested his hundreds of millions dollars into virgin galactic and hiring brian, why did you go over to excorps which is a competitor of virgin galactic? >> my motivation, there were several levels to it. given our friends in the back of the room, i'll just say we had spent close to 10 years trying

to develop the rocket motor for spaceshiptwo. and i had read a book some time ago called design in nature. and this book makes the case that if you, for example, take the size, the heart of a rabbit and compare it to the size of the heart of a shark or a lion and an elephant and you plot them all out versus the animal's weight, they'll follow on a curve that is fairly predictable. i mean, there's always a little bit of noise in the data. but they follow this curve. and i just had the sense after 10 years of trying and crying and praying and saying, god, please show us the truth, light, the way for this spaceshiptwo rocket motor, that we weren't on

the curve. and that has been the holdup for spaceshiptwo. i'm not a rocket science guy. i felt like my contributions to the program had kind of run its course. here's excorps next door, they've spent their last 14 years of their existence building a rocket motor, a very different type of motor, one that's restartable, which is a remarkable, clever thing to do for a rocket motor. it's reusable, it's gas go, it's standard liquid oxygen and kerosene. >> which are proven fuels over the years. the apollo guys used it.

>> there' history out there versus these hybrid motors. and -- but now they're building an air frame around the proven engine and if you think about the world of airplanes, when you go to build a new airplane, you first find that the power plant that's going to make this thing work, then you build the airplane around it. you don't first build an airplane and then go, well, first my engine. and that's kind of the difference, if you will, between what was going on between spaceshipone and spaceshiptwo and excorps' now in a position where i think i can be a lot more use in terms of flight test planning, helping sign new

flight controls, take to layout, crew check lists, all that kind of stuff. >> now, when i drove you at 200 miles per hour in mojave, we made a deal and the deal was, i'll take you at 200 and you're going to fly me in spaceshiptwo. that can't happen now. so should i be selling my spaceshiptwo ticket and buying an excorps ticket? >> i'll just say this. sir richard branson has put an awful lot of his own money into making this program work. i believe it will work. it's just taking longer than anybody would have ever thought. >> tell me about it. >> but on the other hand, for --

well, you'd be in the quarter million dollar category at this point. >> i bought the $200,000. he raised it by $200,000 to $250,000 by now. >> you can get two rides for the price of one. >> at excorps. >> at excorps. >> i could save some of my 401-k plan. >> yes, you could. and we'll be sitting side by side. >> just like in the mcclarren, on the runway. >> you'll see what i see. you'll see all the instrumentation. you won't be in the back bumping elbows and knees. >> with angelina jolie or whatever.

>> if you're part of that flight, that might be worth it. \[laughter] >> you know, i need to know, you have this great anecdote about meeting the late neil armstrong and i think this really goes to the heart of neil's character. can you tell us about that time that you guys met? >> so, it was a rather bizarre the way it unfolded. because i didn't realize neil was anywhere near -- in town. but my wife and i were at disney land. and we had just finished dinner, had come outside and from about here to the end of the room, 20 yards away, whatever, there's neil armstrong. and he's standing by himself and there seems to be nobody around him. and i'm just thinking, wow. here's an opportunity to just say hi. and i point out to my wife, do

you know who that guy is? and there's a saying in life, you never want to meet your hero. because they will just disappoint you. and i had this concern that, you know, neil probably gets bombarded with all this kind of stuff and he's sort of a reticent guy. he's not the buzz aldrin -- >> there's the odd couple right there. >> but anyway, my wife, we went over, regardless, and under her encouragement, and i introduced myself and neil -- this was

2007. we had just had a rocket motor accident at mojave where we killed three people, sent three others to the hospital. so things were not going well. and anyway i introduced myself to neil. neil was gracious enough i believe to pretend to know who i was. >> he knew who you were. >> as it turns out his dinner party comes out of the restaurant and we all end up walking back to the hotel together and as i'm talking to him i just said, how bizarre is seemed in the world of glitter and fantasy land of disney land that we were unable to repeat what alan shepard had done 40 however long it had been, 45

years ago. which was -- >> suborbital flight. >> just a suborbital flight, a lob shot. he was the first guy to do that. in the mercury capsule. what neil said next just stopped me in my feet because he turns and looks at me and says, you know, none of this stuff is easy. it's all hard. it's all very difficult. just because you've done it once doesn't mean you can do it again. the only way you have a chance of succeeding, the only way you know you're on the right track is if you can come into work in

the morning and look at the guy across the coffee table from you and appreciate being there and then he used a word that i've heard out of burt's mouth for 12 years. he says, if you're not having fun, you're not -- you know, you're not doing it right. and you don't belong in the business. burt, since the day i met him, since the day i started working for him, always said, whenever he got anybody together, was, if we're not out here having fun, if we're not enjoying what we're doing, then we're not doing it right, we're not going to be successful, we're going to run

into problems and things will go badly. and here it was coming back on the heels of a tragic incident, but nonetheless now coming out of the mouth of neil armstrong. i was just blown away by it. >> one last question before i open it up to the audience. you mentioned burt. describe the genius of him. you worked with him. the guy is a genius. it's amazing what he's able to do. but what about him that makes him special? >> other than him being a smart guy, he latches on to things and he won't let go. and he will wrestle whatever it is until he has squeezed the life out of it, until he

understands every aspect off it and then he'll take that information and if it's in the world of aeronautics and airplanes, he'll apply that knowledge to the next vehicle he builds. burt had a common saying that, whenever asked what's your favorite aircraft, he would always say, the next one i'm going to build. burt and i were also golfing buddies and before i started working for him, for a couple of years, and burt was the same way in golf as he was as an engineer. he was tenacious.

he practiced. he was competitive. he had in his back pocket these laminated cue cards that would show the loft and carry of a golf ball that would show whether it was out of a sand trap. a 60-degree lofted wedge, a sand wedge or pitching wedge, whether it was a half swing or quarter swing, the face was opened or closed. it was all there. and that was sort of his nature. he went to extremes other people would not go to. but he was the man of great wit. he enjoyed having fun. he enjoyed pointing out inconsistencies in other

people's behaviors. i went one time with him to singapore. singapore's a little island nation just south of malaysia, if you've never been there. at the time they were doing a tremendous reclamation effort where they were basically pushing back the china sea so they can get more land. because they're running out of land, too many people. and burt was invited to talk to this rather large assembly, about a thousand people of bureaucrats, military types, students, you name it. and his comments to just sort of typify his thinking and his sense of humor was, he said, you'd be far better off, instead of this reclamation effort, putting these young men into the new f-16's that you've just bought from us and going and bombing malaysia to the north and getting your land that way. you motivate and tie the new

generation, you take advantage of hardware that you've spent good money on and you do it the old-fashioned way. before the crowd could sort of assimilate this -- oh, my god, did burt just tell us to go bomb malaysia -- you know, he had moved on to other subjects. that's the kind of guy he was. he was a lot of fun to be around. he currently lives up in idaho and he's working on the lake. he's building himself a sea plane. and he plans to turn the sea plane into one that he can fly

around the world without ever visiting an airport, without having to deal with the f.a.a., with whom he has -- >> mixed -- >> a checkered relationship. even though he's retired, he's not. and he's still out there having fun and he's still pushing boundaries and he's still challenging the way people think about conventional approaches to old problems. >> ok. we're going to open it up for a couple of quick questions. anybody have a question for brian? yes, way back there. >> hello. i have a question about burt's

relationship with peter. of course the x prize foundation. hearing you speak about burt's personality. peter has a larger than life personality as well. did you see that burt kind of went to the next level after he decided to take on the project? what was the relationship between those two men? >> you know, these are the kind of questions that -- if i'm writing it down after maybe the fifth draft, i'll get the words just right to where i can weasel my way through any controversy. but you're right. it was a strained relationship to say the least. but peter was bringing something to the table that was attractive. it gave paul allen about 40% of

his money back if we won this thing. it put mojave on the map because we had to become a spaceport to satisfy the requirements of the x prize. it was -- peter's side of the house, what he did, i think is still fairly brilliant. without his efforts i wouldn't have had my opportunity, for example, i don't believe the vehicle would have gone straight to the smithsonian and that would have been the end of it. i've never met anybody to out-big dog burt. >> even peter? >> even peter.

and burt's a big guy. burt's not, you know, if he stands up next to you, he casts a shadow and he starts sucking oxygen out of the room and peter's, you know, not a big guy. but sometimes it's the little guys -- >> the napoleon complex. >> that's right. it was an interesting battlefield. but it ended up being win-win. it all worked out good. >> one more question because we're a little behind schedule. anybody else have a question? right here. yeah, yeah. go ahead.

>> you're a test pilot. what kind of courage do you need to have in order to be a test pilot? >> it's not about courage. i'll go to what walt says. fear doesn't really come into play. alan shepard, also off the first suborbital guy, was a navy admiral and i think once he realized that he was going to receive his admiralship, he came up with a test pilot's prayer. and i believe this is one that most, if not all, live by. and it's a very simple one. and it's got nothing to do with fear or courage. it's, dear god, please don't let me --

>> f up. >> f up. [laughter] and -- what he really means by that, i think, is that there's any number of things that can go wrong. there's probably four or five reactions you can take or make that are incorrect that make that wrong thing worse and there's one maybe right thing and the prayer's really to say, in the event something starts to go askew, give me the wisdom and the knowledge to do that one right thing. and it wasn't about fear. it wasn't about currently. >> that's renata by the way. we're going to do our centrifuge

training a a few weeks at nasa. any advice? >> i've never been there. i think it sounds like a great experience. they don't start you off at nine g's or i hope they don't. >> but they do get you up to nine g's. >> they can if that's where you're head. if you're going to assimilate the spaceshiptwo profile, they'll do sort of a half g simulation, then they'll build up. >> yeah, we're going to do spaceshiptwo. >> i think they're great people there. and i'm sure you'll have good memories of coming out of it. >> all right, guys. let's hear a big applause for brian binnie. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute,

which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] more than 130a candidate debates from across the country and races that will determine control of the next congress. tonight, watch our live election night coverage to see who wins, who loses, which party will control the house and senate. coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern with results and analysis. you will also see concession speeches and victory speeches. throughout the night and into the morning, we want to hear from you with your calls, facebook comments, and tweeps. campaign 2014 election night coverage. >> we have a map showing where the polls are closing. you can find it on our facebook and twitter pages. the first polls close at 7:00

p.m. eastern and a last and alaska at 11:00 p.m. eastern. now what to expect from this morning's "washington journal." you, but we hear from political experts who will be watching what happens today. joining us via skype with "the washington post," is aron blake. good morning. your sense about whether the senate will be in republican-controlled? the big ones are three democrat states in particular. republicans win one of those, they are likely to gain the senate majority. the one republican seat that i think where all watching his kansas. thatpublicans were to lose , wedependent greg orman would not be sure what the majority is because he has not said which party he would caucus with if he joined the senate.

host: the kansas race -- greg orman in the kansas race. what determines whether he or pat either side believes that race is a done deal at this point. the question is whether the campaign has the kind of organization that can get voters to the polls. they obviously have no party organization behind them. the party generally handles that kind of thing. certainly people who are unhappy with senator roberts and the way he has been running his campaign , the question is whether that is enough to overcome a republican organization that has really rallied in the last few weeks here. in an overall sense, tell us about the ground gains for both sides. what are you seeing out there you go -- what are you seeing out there? guest: the democratic voters are

less likely to turn out. the obama coalition, african-americans, hispanics, young people, unmarried women -- these are all voting groups that are less likely to turn out in midterm elections then competing demographics. you never know whether or not it will work until actually it happens on election day. so democrats have been talking a big game about how their ground game is good, but it is a very difficult proposition right now given the amount of enthusiasm that is on the republicans' side versus the little enthusiasm that is on the democratic side. host: historically, what do midterm elections mean when it comes to turn out, and are those trends staying the same this time around? guest: it is pretty consistent. generally we will see a significant drop-off in midterms. it is pretty consistent when you

look at each individual demographic. instance, willor drop by a few points between the presidential election and the midterm, while some demographics, including young black women, for instance, will vote in 60% in recent presidential elections but only 30% in midterm elections. there could be very significant drop-off between presidential elections in midterms. that is why the so-called obama coalition, which i mentioned earlier, it is great for winning presidential elections, but a lot of the voters better replies upon are among the drop-off voters when it comes to midterm elections, which is why the democrats struggled so much in 2010 and why a look so difficult for them in 2014. host: tell us about the race that has surprised you the most so far. guest: definitely the kansas race. pat roberts was not supposed to be close to vulnerable this year. there was some question whether

he would have a difficult time mary. that never turned into -- whether he would have a difficult primary. when he won the race and came into the general election and these polls showed him in a tight race with this guy who nobody was paying attention to, greg orman, it was a shock to all of us. the fact that that has remained a close race over the last few months here definitely has to be the biggest surprise in the election cycle so far. host: a lot of attention is placed on iowa. do you see a small advantage, and what do you see occurring in that race? guest: that is the general conventional wisdom there, that early voting has been pretty good to republicans. polling has joni ernst with a small edge. there was a poll over the weekend that showed her up over seven points. at the same time, we saw another pollster, quinnipiac university,

which has traditionally been a pollster for republicans, and their latest poll has her up by only two points. the polling has been consistently showing her ahead, but anytime you are within the margin of error, there is nobody celebrating right now. it is not a done deal. there's certainly been a situation were democrats have not run the kind of campaign that they want. the candidates did not turn out to be the kind of candidate that they wanted. the comment that harkin made about joni ernst's attractiveness, which did not go over very well. i think republicans are other them stick -- i think republicans are optimistic about this, but it is not a done deal. what will we know tonight the condition of the senate is? guest: i think it is doubtful. and georgia, there

will be a runoff if neither candidate gets to 50%. surety in louisiana. in georgia, there is a 50/50 chance we will get to that point. then alaska is also a key race. polls do not close until theight, 1:00 in parts of state. that state also allows you to basically vote as long as your ballot is postmarked by today. they will count those. the problem is they do not count all of those votes until next week. those are three races that are unlikely to be decided even by tomorrow the idea that we're going to know whether the republicans have the majority is a little bit difficult to say >> aaron blake with the washington post. he is joining us on sk >> the midterm elections were a briefing.oday's

here's a 15 minute portion. >> afternoon, everybody. i apologize for that. let's get right to the questions. would you like to get started? looking at the president schedule today, he does not have anything to suggest that today's election day. i'm wondering if you know -- >> the president early voted. >> but the rest of the nation is still voting. did he not want to take a high profile on a day that looks like could go against democrats? the president today's focused on a couple of core american priorities. is secretary with of defense today and the weekly meeting he convenes the secretary hagel. he is sitting down with a drop or of the imf christine lagarde

to discuss a range of international economic issues -- he is sitting down with the direct or of the imf. his travel to asia and eventually g 20 in australia next week. he is convening members of his team who have been focused on is funding to the ebola situation. the president has a pretty full schedule today. it's an important part of his leadership in the country to be focused on these priorities. the president over the course of these last several months has spent a lot of time talking publicly about the elections. the president has aggressively made the case for democrats who share his view. policies that benefit middle-class family should be the priority. he has had the opportunity to make his case in a series of rallies to drum up support for democratic candidates,

governors, senators, even some house members. the president has aggressively made the case for democrats. the other thing that happens to be true when the president himself as a candidate on the operationsa time for to thrive and organizational energy focusing on turning out for their supporters. it's not really a day when those candidates on the ballot are hosting other big public events. is the president doing anything to mobilize voters, robo calls, calls to radio stations? is he doing anything like that? activities.o a few the president has taped a number of robo calls in supporting democratic candidates and i'm

confident many of those will be airing today encouraging people to get out and vote. i don't know of any specific presidentrviews the is doing today. i would not be surprised if he is doing some. i cannot in advance but after the election i would be able to provide more information on that. >> you cautioned us not to draw broad conclusions about the results of this election. these racesme of are in red states the president did not win. he has campaigned in seven or eight blue states where he did win and governor campaigns. i'm wondering if we can draw conclusions from the results of those races. if democrats were not to win in those races, would that be a reflection on the president's ability to mobilize his core

supporters? and ultimately assert his ability to command the bully pulpit? matter, therel are strong democratic candidates that are the top of the ballots in these governor races. we feel good about the chances of democratic candidates in ither being elected or being re-elected in states ike california and new york. but ultimately it's the quality of these candidates that will be the drive over their success in this election. there was ample opportunity for the president to raise money when his campaign apparatus expertise to benefit these campaigns. the president also had the opportunity to actually do some campaigning with some of these gubernatorial candidates as well. the president was looking to be supportive of these democratic