she didn't need 5 corporate jets. [ farrell ] one hundred million for herself. fiorina never cared about our jobs. not then and not now. [ boxer ] i'm barbara boxer and i approve this message. >> this is "the chris matthews show." [captioning made possible by nbc universal] >> double jeopardy? could the democrats lose the the senate? history says they will. every time the house of representatives has flipped since world war ii, the senate's flipped too. copying clinton? the republicans are cheering for veto.

side find common cause? greatest election ever. 50 years ago richard nixon beat kennedy. let's live the excitement. >> with us today john heilemann, his best seller, "game change" is just back in paper back. norah o'donnell. helene cooper from the "new york howard fineman. senate should the w because every time house has flipped since world well. the senate has as to make it happen republicans need to pick up 10 seats from the democrats in the senate. we see four likely g.o.p. indiana, arkansas, north dakota and wisconsin. all four are widely expected to go republican this time with democrats losing those four seats. mitch mcconnell's already counting four out of the 10 for

a majority. he holding -- he is holding them. your calling that race. >> i think tumey's going to win that race. for a long time pennsylvania's is a blue state. always been fool's gold for republican to suggest that game. polls suggest that he's going to win but this is part of that big wave. >> the democrats are going to try to win, michele obama is going to rally women voters and young voters. >> i think it still goes republican. out on a ng depo go limb and say it's possible for siesta. trying to come to the center. he's pretty far to the right.

you have to realize that most pennsylvania voters are in the middle. >> so right now tumey? >> no. . now sestak. chris: let's go to west virginia with you, howd?ar the governor is not a popular governor. tough race for him? this is one that the democrats can hold on too. i know west virginia, i spent a lot of time there i think racy is a big businessman. gave them the money but not the lift he needs in west virginia. >> the underliing popularity of mansion, he's an incredible popular guy. i think he's going to hold that seat. >> joe mansion is well liked. >> you have four mansions. [laughter] ok.s: norah.o to illinois with pick up there.

it's giannoulias who's got banking problems. >> yeah, this is president obama's old senate seat so it would be a devastating seat to lose there. but i think the republican mark kirk has the problems besides his problems with his imbelishments. army.asn't in the that's great stuff. chris: i forgot i was not in the army elft >> we're out in the midwest. and i think midwest is disaster territory. takeover, simplify but it's try. chris: it's gotten rustier. three kirks or four kirks? >> one said that this is -- they said they're trying to decide piece of garbage are they

going to pick up. >> i think looper is going to win. chris: so you're going to call for -- >> for buck. >> i'm not sure that the republicans can win this even though buck has a lot of tea party support. i think it's too close to call. chris: you're not ready to make a pick? >> i'm not going to make a pick. >> i think be net can do this. chris: you're smiling howard? smiling in pain? >> i didn't know how to answer. chris: i'm not sure this isn't dills qualifying you because anybody can say i don't know. >> i did not say i don't know. i think it's too close to call. if you're forcing me to make a decision, i'm going to say that the democrats hold on to that seat. >> my reasoning on it is region.

colorado is a left coast state it's sort of trending that way. chris: let's go with bennett. let's go to washington state where patty murray has had a tough race defending her seat someone who's not a tea partier. totally ton is a democratic state. it's very hard for me how patty murray actually loses it. >> i think she's an u.n. popular incumbent. over 50% in myen poll. sign.at's a bad i think republicans will take that. >> i now for the first time, i think patty murray is going to lose that race. she's going to be a surprised wave casualty. chris: is this related to martin rossi? >> look, the mom in tennis shoes may win because of the male-in vote.

enough it will be close counting it -- chris: what are you calling? >> i just said the mom in tennis shoes will win because of the male-in vote. thank you. male-in vote. thank you. chris: let's take a look at nevada. has been fighting gonse a true tea partier who believes in second amendment remedies -- >> i -- i think that the republicans will take this -- again, just because harry reid is such an unpopular incumbent. a week ago thursday there were 10 hours of advertising in one day in that state. >> can i just paint a picture -- we're at this alley in las vegas with obama and harry reid. this was a crowd that was so pumped up and ready to go out

there and vote. and harry reid came up on stage and it just died. chris: john, it's your call, nevada? >> i think sharron angle will win. chris: norah? >> i think sharron angle will win. chris: connecticut where dick bloom men that has the lead over mcmahon. gotten huge ve because they took on tea partiers. rand paul also leads the waony.at squea where joe miller is

being threatened. i'm not sure how it's going to work. >> i think alaska is the most fascinating state in the country. it looks like lisa could win a right-wing candidatey. and joe miller the pale-in senator has had a series of problems. you think it's pretty much done for rand paul and marco rubio? do we agree they look pretty strong. >> florida could be a surprise -- chris: yeah, with chris coming week.e in the when john f. kennedy was elected, it was a cliff hanger p and here's the nbc news coverage. >> got the filter, got the blend. news election central, jeff huntly and david

brinkley. >> senator kennedy cast his vote today at branch public library. somebody was standing outside holding saying "the landslide begins here." we'll see about the accuracy about that later in the evening. >> we're all waiting in this room to see who will be the next president of the united states. building is a national guard army. it is about a mile and a quarter from where the senate lives. he has two speeches. one if it's yes. the other if it's no. eli hughes wonders which he'll give. nixon e now with the party in los angeles, california. >> vice president nixon himself returned to the hotel. he's up in his suite. he returned here about three quarters of an hour ago. he had gone to lunch. >> religion may be playing a bigger part in today's vote --

may have played a bigger part believe. and the protestants are not supporting him as strongly as he might have expected. >> on the lower part of manhattan island this is what the computer is saying in the projected elect tral vote. nixon, according to the computer says he will come out 174. and kennedy with 355. chris: that kennedy inevidentibilities held for several hours. 3:00 a.m. vice president nixon went to talk to supporters. board here, at the while there are still some results still to come in, if the present trend continues, if mr. kennedy, senator kennedy will be the next president of the united

tates. got closer during the night. were waiting in their home. they sat and that hoped. and it still remained a cliff hanger at 4:30 in the morning. >> lead is narrowing. in the electoral vote, kennedy still has by the best ed to recall judgment of nbc's victory desk, kennedy has won 268 electoral votes and he's still one number short with the number put him over. >> four minutes until sunrise here in the east. 6:31 eastern time. wait for the sun rise, we might take a look at our total boards and see what the figures show now. on total popular vote for president. they show this. show kennedy's lead down to

just about 700,000. the tightest, the smallest it has been all night. 29,050,00 for nixon. 29,100,00 fer kennedy. the nbc victoryes dtk has just given california to kennedy and that gives him the electorate. there are are some of the reporters, policemen, secret servicemen. the white lincoln right there. >> there's the white lincoln just blind the three. there he is. there he is. the next president of the united states. assure you that every degree of mind and spirit that i po says will be devoted to the long-range interest of the united states and to the cause

of freedom around the world. so now, my wife and prepare for a new administration and for a new baby. thank you. chris: actually the lead fell only by 100,000 and nixon ended up carrying california. 50 years ago this week. when we come back a day after this election, what will the new obama look like? will he change his attitude? scoops and predictions.

chris: welcome back. take a after they beating, president's come back to react and barack obama will have to try to put a good face on the pasting that they're expected to get. while the republicans leaders

claiming that the key to getting their help is this -- here's what mitch mcconnell has to say. >> if president obama daws clintonian back flip, if he's willing to come our way, it's not going to be easy. >> i don't know what the president is likely to do or not do all i know is that republicans are going fight for a smaller less costly and more accountability government in washington and to the extent the pr esident wants to work with that on that type of an agenda, i'd welcome them chris: is he going to work with them? >> i think president obama really well. there are a few free trade pacts that the republicans really want. something on

education. definitely e -- and on foreign policy he can work with the republicans. but on the big issues like social security, once the debt commission reported comes out is a huge issue. is betting that the republicans are on the wrong side of that. that's where you can see some ugly fighting. how can they have some kind of deal on debt reduction? >> the liberals who will be left are planning to -- to sew as much -- as many republicans for them as much as they can. the democrats are going to push deficit in the beginning of the new congress. chris: you have made a good point of studying his thinking. going to be like bill

clinton? >> no. it's funny because two of the biggest things that you see in the book, he is a stay the course guy. he's careful about putting together a plan and sticks to it even though there are people that want him to change course. can baner bring in the republican party together? will that rank in file want to cut deals with the democrat? >> no, i think they're going to make it very difficult. >> can you imagine if he did what bill clinton did in 1994, 1995, got together on tax cuts and creating millions of new jobs. obama did something tlikehat -- >> chris: the tea party has an alter native out there.

>> there used to be blue dogs. now there's the tea party. it used to be -- there was a budgetary middle of democrats in the 1990's that bill his presidencylt , really -- chris: what happens? >> i think there's going to be a gridlock. then they run by the republicans run by mitch mcconnell. >> the other party was he demonized them like crazy. took advantage of newt gingrich's extremism to make republicans look bad. obama can play that part of the game -- come back, scoops and predictions.

chris: welcome back. john, tell me something i don't know. to talk a little bit about governorships. to esday night it's going be a wreck for democrats in the industrial midwest. pennsylvania straight to iowa, the way pluns are going to show all those governorships. chris: again, economics is

driving politics. >> sarah palin is going to claim big wins. she may suffer biga big black eye which is that lisa murkowski gets the win. >> i think the white house are flank. you talk about officials talking about what happened with edward kennedy. th're preparing to see -- chris: are they afraid of a challenger? democratic challenger? yes. >> fascinating. there's a debt ceiling, $14 trillion is going to have to be raised in early spring and the democrats are going to say, fine, you republicans are in charge now. you dot. i get the tea party to vote to raise the debt ceiling. chris: government shutdown. do the republican king makers think sarah palin could beat

barack obama? be right back. >> the "chris matthews shows" brought to you di sh

chris: welcome back. sarah palin is again talking

about running for president. and our big question -- do the big republicans, te elected leaders in washington, the governors and party leaders, do they think she can beat barack obama? >> in the absence of a huge double dip catastrophe recession, the answer is no. that's why they're looking for a bunch of republican governors to try to get her to stop her. chris: norah o'donnell? >> no. >> no. look at karl rove. >> rove is the king to feel king makers. chris: thumbs down on her. what a great battle before her and what she calls the boys club. that's the show. thanks for watching.