>> rose: welcome to the programment tonight a look at the midterm lookions and what comes after, doris kearns good minute, tom brokaw, gillian tett and al hunt. join me with a conversation about the future of the country. and bob costa from "the washington post" takes us inside the washington party as it looks at the future but first a look at the results as of 11:00 p.m. this tuesday night. going to mark halperin and john heilemann and their broadcast currently in progress. >> slightly weird state of alaska remain open. >> the polls in alaska will close at 1:00 a.m. eastern time. we're being watched not just a bloomberg but other viewers for this election night update at 11:00 p.m. eastern time where polls have closed everywhere but

alaska the polls have closed. first of all one of the biggest contests in the country with scott walker bloomberg politic is reporting that's the apparent winner. the republicans win the two big races this wis and florida. that's major news not just for scott walker and rick scott but for chris christie the governor of new jersey. >> if the democrats would have been able to win those races would be a big blow to chris christie. he holds those seats. >> a lot of other governor races we'll be talking about where there's still no projected winners. but in the senate the situation is coming into focus and it's all good news or almost all good news for republicans. their magic number to get the majority was six. they currently are at five. they picked up republicans, they picked up democratic held seats in west virginia, arkansas south dakota, montana and colorado, beating two incumbents in arkansas and colorado and there are a lot of democratic seats

left. the big news for republicans is it appears they're going to hold all of their currently hold incumbent seats three the republicans tried to put in the seats becoming the majority leader won his seat in georgia. it is now being reported by bloomberg politic that david purdue is winning that race without a run off over michelle nunn and finally john in kansas the projected winner there is pat roberts the incumbent. democrats put in an effort to try to put republican seats in play and they knew it wouldn't be good and it would come up short. >> while the wins pile up for republicans a lot hopes on those races. thought georgia is guarantee a run off. it's a little bit of a surprise michelle not a very strong candidate but didn't have enough to send that thing. >> you can see right here michelle nunn giving her concession speech in georgia.

our colleague will bring some of that to you. let's keep running through the results for the evening. in kansas pat roberts aptz to be headed toward re-election and that is big news. in terms of senate races republicans get their opinion pick up they need for six. virginia much closer than anybody thought. >> yes. much much closer. a race between mark warner and ed gillespie. no one expected that race to be close. it's poor close. right now mark warner has a slight slight lead with virtually all of the vote in. that race may trigger a recount. the other race that we have not mentioned is louisiana senate race going to a run off. no one got close so that will be a race that gets fought in overtime in december. >> the polls in north carolina closed at 7:30 that's many hours ago and yet there's no projection of that race. another democratic held seat where democrats are trying to hold off tom.

no projection there, 90% of prevince. tom slightly ahead in the raw votes. that's another opportunity where the republicans could pick up the last seat this need for the majority. iowa though is probably at this point the most likely one to fall next. very little of the vote, joany hearns the republicans. all the indications are from the exit polls and the reporting and the governor's race where terry the republican was re-elected easily. that may be before the night is over the seat that falls from democratic hands to the republican hands. >> to be abundantly clear at this point given what we just reported, it's the case that all republicans need to do in order to get to the magic number of six at this point is they need to win either north carolina or iowa or alaska. those are the three races that are still outstanding which means they only need one out of three to get the six and they could end up winning all three of those. in alaska the polls haven't closed there yet. >> bloomberg telling you the

definitive winner is pat roberts. republicans will in fact hold of their incumbent held seats. they've been playing offense for the most part but that means they're successfully. kansas, kentucky and georgia, those are the three races that democrats really put a challenge in, south dakota as well. republicans aren't going to lose any of those it appears. that means they need to pick up or one as john said from louisiana, virginia, nor care, iowa and alaska. if they pick up any one of those seats they win the major that and i suspect that will happen before 1:00 a.m. when alaska turns to poll closing there. there are lots of other governors races but let's stop there for a moment and go over to our panel. >> let's just be clear. one of the things, on the high side, the if the republicans were to win all of those races the ones current -- >> six, seven, eight nine ten. >> put aside louisiana because it's an overtime they could end up plus nine. >> all right. we were going to talk to our analyst but let's hold off

because we'll be joined by someone who is a national figure about to take over the new congress a pretty important committee chairmanship, paul ryan going from budget to ways and means. he doesn't like to talk about the publicly because he likes seniority senior and there's still one on that seat. here is paul ryan, the nominee for his party. congressman ryan they told me you were there. i don't see you yet. >> i am here mark. >> thanknk you for joining us,e appreciate it. so this is a big night. your friend scott walker gut re-elected your friend chris christie is having a right good night and your colleagues in the senate is having a good night. i'll ask you the inverse of the question i asked steve israel which is what do you think the reaction to be tonight in terms of what he does and what agenda he pursues? >> he should not try to go along -- >> rose: that was mark halperin and john heilemann of

bloomberg politics. doris kearns goodwin, tom brokaw, gillian tett and al hunt coming up. >> rose: what are the results of these midterm elections challenges and opportunities facing our country remain constant. tonight we look beyond the horse race to ask this question. where america the economy is

growing at its fastest pace in a decade and unemployment is at a six year low. frank has written in the "new york times" we're living through and pronounced pez missal. when majority of adults don't think their kids will have as many opportunities as they did. pessimistal in the national arena is pronounced as the spread of ebola and isis is of great concern to the american people. an increasingly aggressive russia and china. joining me is doris kearns goodwin. she's a presidential his -- his torian. albert hunt is here and gillian tett managing editor of the financial times i'm pleased to have all of them here. i say this from the beginning this is not a program that's going to look at the election results because we don't know what they are.

we're talking about the country and where it is because those will be the issues that whoever wins the election will be facing. we'll try to reach into what had led us to these places where they look at a campaign and the electorate is described as sullen in bad mood tom. i begin with that because you have spent an enormous amount of time reaching out and looking at america and where it is. >> i thought about my own life john i was born in 1940 right before the john and it was about big ideas in my lifetime mobilizing for the war gi bill of rights kennedy saying we're going to go to the moon the civil rights act, nixon saying we'll open relations with china, ronald reagan staring down the soviet union and the cold war ends without a shot being fired and you go to silicon valley, that's ada big idea, be disruptive. find new ways to do something that's unconventional. we're trapped in a lot of little ideas in this country at the moment and they don't seem to be

serving anybody particularly well. you don't have anybody with an over a arcing race. ronald rake had a vision about restoration and american spirit. people back east who has not been in california like i have been, i says i don't know watch, this guy knows how to get at the american people. that's missing. now misterm elections are about local issues but we don't have in my judgment the big idea the country longs for something that will bring them together and excite them again about the american idea. >> rose: that person in the bull pit doris is the president. regardless whether the senate is republican or democrat and the house will certainly be republican, the president is at the whitehouse and he has the bullet pulpit. and it is his responsibility, is it not, to offer this leadership and to take the lead in trying to set the tone for the final

two years of his presidency. >> i mean there's no question that the president sets the tone as to whether the electorate remains grumpy in the doldrums as it is now feeling there's nothing much can change. fdr once said problems are created by human beings and can be solved by human beings and the electorate doesn't have a senses of connection to solve these problems. the question isçh the bully pult itself less a strong force as it once was. at the time of lincoln, you wrote a speech, you heard the words over and over again by teddy roosevelt and the mass newspapers were printing every word he did and his colorful phrases. fdr is on the radio. 80% of the audience is listening. a construction worker is saying i'm going home he's going to be there. and jfk and three networks are covering the speeches full.

now you've got a fragmented audience before the president finishes giving a speech somebody is criticizing it, breaking news comes in and we vjn]:páion about anythingd we a lack of big ideas but there's a lack in the electorate of paying attention. we know money is poison and we're doing nothing about it. the most expensive mid election in history and that's a horrible thing and we just announce it. somewhere we've lost our mow joe as a citizenry and we're a part of that. >> rose: albert. >> i agree and i think it may even be worse than tom said. i was out of bed, this is the most conopportunity free election i ever seen. the republicans basically ran totally against barack obama who last i checked wasn't on any ballot today. and the democrats ran for older women they were going to lose their medicare, for younger women they were going to lose contraception. neither was going to care. there was no talk about the war

or immigration or infrastructure. any of the big issues. i think doris makes a good point and i think the republicans have been nothing but negative. i blame obama a bit. if you look atf where we are today versus four years ago, i mean the stock market has gone up 50%. unemployment has been cut by 40%. we're doing better than almost any other western economy. i mean we're not doing great. there are people who have been left behind but the country has made a lot of progress the last four years economically at least. i imagine if fdr was there today doris, i can't imagine that he wouldn't be out there telling people we are really back, we are doing thing, we are moving, americas can do. one doesn't get that sense with this president. >> he would be singing happy days are here again. absolutely. >> but the critical issue is that fdr did not exist in the era of social media. and what a change with social media is not just a fragmented

conversation, it's a lot of, perts and trust and authority. the edelman group looks at who people trust in the western world. and what's very clear is this idea of vertical axis people looked up for authority with sort of wisdom and inspiration is basically crumbling. people today have facebook friends. they go from a vertical world of trust to horizontal world on trust. >> rose: institutions across the board. >> absolutely. this is basically anti-establishment election and we're seeing that right across the board. what's frightening it's also recipe for braver volatile fragmented politics. you get flash bulbs where people coalesce around a sij issue to make a protest. trying to build any kind of rational broad base political platform is very hearted and that technological jeannie bottle. >> rose: it's a pessimistic idea but couldn't charismatic leadership and i don't want to

be too phenowith charismatic leadership but following jimmy carter there was ronald reagan. there was someone notwithstanding a different time but it was power of leadership. even though it's about washington a well and grid lock, it is the president who is at the core of that and getting blamed for the grid lock. >> absolutely. we're blaming far less embracing an entire political platform. it's single issue politics that's driving it in. >> rose: go ahead. >> i was going to say. a little comparison. imagine if bill clinton had been in office and the gains al ticked off had been made abo the stock market, he would have been all over the countriment when the president came back from his re-election and wanted to reach out to congress what did he do. he took them to dinner at the jefferson hotel. i couldn't believe that. i didn't know anybody in washington whose knees don't

buckle when they walk in the whitehouse. and then come out of the west wing with their arms around him. but he was off to the jefferson hotel. a lot of us also has to do with the fact that he gets hammered 24/7 by fox news on the right and human radio in this country. i was listening to talk radio and he's saying obama's voters are people who live in excrement. that was his phrase.fv they expect us to lift them out of excrement. i'm not going to lift a hand. that was the kind of language that was going on. at some point that penetrates. i think he's been an imperfect president in lot of ways. you look back moving the line in syria, not catching out how the roll outof obamacare or affordable care act was not going to go well when we knew about it. and being kind of uncertain. you know the most telling thing about the last election for me

is when which he edged up losing to romney. he's preparing them sitting off in the corner and says guys this is not who i am. if that's not who you are, why are you running for president. >> tom i think you can argue modern -- >> rose: one second and we'll get right to you. >> the policies have worked. the stimulus worked. it got us out of that terrible time. the affordable healthcare act, the jury's still out but so far the early returns are good. a lot more people are covered than before. we don't have the kind of inflation. >> rose: the deficit. >> it has come down. so i think the policies are working better than the perception. and some of that i think some of that has to do what he conned validate. that bully pulpit may not be the signs during fdr but it's still there. >> i said that to a guy in california, a doctor going out to tennessee. he looked at me and said he had

nothing to do with it. that's what he's fighting against at this point. he was at fault when it wasn't working and they didn't manage it very well in my judgment. >> rose: doris? >> it is the president's responsibilityaú÷ to set the narrative really and to tell the story. and i think that's somehow the gap between what you are just saying has happened to the economy, happened in our deficits, has not been felt by people inside. part of that is what is magic about leadership. i mean, one of the times fdr said to orson wells, he said you know orson you and i are the two best actors in america. i'm not sure who is one and who is two but you have to be theatrical. everybody wants somebody there. if we're going to feel joy about politics, you need to feel that and it's a really hard time to be president. i have no doubt it's not as much fun as it was but it certainly wasn't fun in world war ii when somebody said to fdr how can you

get up every morning. he says who wouldn't want to be president, greatest job in the world. >> rose: do you remember when bill clinton's counting down to the last days in office. >> i don't want to go, i want to be here. >> rose: and ronald reagan said i don't know how you can do this job if you weren't an uber. >> there's a north end tiffany about president obama that doesn't want to project that side of himself but it may be part of the responsibility of being a leader. >> no matter how much you want to act right now the reality is the economy that's standing most middle americans are not seeing that. >> rose: why. >> income inequality. very simple. lots of the gains have gone to a tiny marion two. what we're seeing right now is a fascinating experiment in modern politics. can you create a feel good feelingáwhen actually a tiny minority was taking the gain. >> rose: but he said at one point he didn't want to stress

income inequality because he would be awe excused of class warfare. >> americans are concerned about income equality both on the right and left. they blame different factors for it but it's out there. to ignore it is ignoring what voters are caring about right now. >> rose: hillary clinton is talking more and more trying to get her hands around it. >> trying to get a retraction. let's not let the republicans off the hook. this year we lost one of the greatest statesman, howard baker. he backed the panama canal treaty. he was opposed by three quarters of misare party, unpopular president and the only reasonable it got to the senate was because of the howard baker. i cannot imagine a republican leader in the senate doing that today. mitch mcconnell if he wins re-election maybe he will grow in the job but he's certainly no howard baker. >> nor can you imagine the institutional loyalty people

used to feel to the senate or the house. it went beyond party. they were proud to be part of an institution so now that's gone too so that whole political culture in washington has changed. they don't stay stowing, they don't drink or play poker anymore. they're tribal enemies looking for the interest groups to support or win the next election. we still have to come back to money. nothing's going to change in this system until two things happen. until money is lessened in politics until the gap between the rich and poor and mobility is changed. mobility is what the dream is about if you're born in the lower quintileí7 and you don't have a chance to get out that's everything we stood for that's being undone. and we know this is happening and nothing's happen to change it. >> two things charlie i was going to say. about kids are not going to do as well as they did. there's an earth limit how well you can do economically. the american dream has always been my children will have better lives than i will. that trans lates into better

jobs, higher paying and a bigger house. you can't go anywhere in america now that there aren't houses for sale that are $700,000 or a million dollars. rentals are going up like this because people can't afford to buy a home which has always been a cornerstone of the american dream. we can't overlook the impact that that has. it's gone way up, lower class worker pay is staying pretty static. there's a skill set issue in this country and the absence of the kind of jobs that the people i drew up could always get. they worked in the warehouse, they were forklift drivers and they were the people who could live on that kind of a wage. that doesn't happen anymore with what's going on with the stock market and improving economy. >> rose: tell me why the u.s. is leading the coverage is it not. >> yes. >> rose: why are is employment rate down below 6%. all of the numbers the republicans were attacking the

president for, for not having gotten to those numbers. why aren't there pay offs for beginnings of the economic recovery. >> in terms of voter perception what's going on, the reality is if you look at the numbers most of the gains right now in terms percentiles. and unfortunately -- >> rose: getting richer -- >> exactlywhen it comes to earning wages right now. >> rose: isn't there something normal which we can expect will not be there because of technology delivering efficiency and people found out they could do with less. >> one of the biggest challenges right now is not so much international exhibition although that is out there it's really about what economy it's call digitization. what you're seeing on digital network replacing more and more of the jobs that americans do. if you're optimistic you say this is like the culture revolution.

and guess what the agriculture work was knocked out in the next generation they found new jobs in manufacturing in cities. hope that will happen again this time. if you think about it every time you go to an airport today, think how many times you swipe a bar code. think how often you use computing technology to get stuff done. all the people used to check your tickets, travel agents, used to be humans. now it's basically computers and digital networks. those are the people who are essentially losing their jobs and that's why middle class is saying they're not there right now. >> i was listening to rob fortman the other day the republican senator from ohio who i think is one of the more reasoned republicans wanting to get something done, a sense guy everybody likes him. we're going to a job creation act and lower corporate taxes which people on the democratic side need to do to kick start the economy. my immediate thought was but how are you going to deal with the democrats. what are you going to give them. are you going to give them an

example, immigration reform. mitch mcconnell has been running, i'm going to get rid of affordable care. he's not -- >> he changed his mind and says maybe i won't get rid of it. >> rose: or maybe i can't. >> so we never know what's going to happen once they get back there but the early indications are that ted cruz's of the world, rand paul to a lesser degree and a more nuance degree we've got to change this peert because the brand sucks at the moment and he's going on talking with other groups. it's very hard for us to sit at this table with four people voting saying this is what's going to happen. we don't know but all the markers are that they're going to retreat and it's going to be beginning tomorrow morning about the whitehouse. that's the surprise coming out of this election. how can we get the white house back. they no they can't govern and pursue their agenda without 1600

pennsylvania avenue. >> rose: that means the window of the opportunity for the president to do something because the nation's attention and the political community's attention shifts to the race for 2016. so the president has a window of opportunity but not long. >> not very long at all. >> how muchfully he moves in two directions. not only trying to work with the congress trying to get something done with immigration for example or climate control but also executive orders. he's going to have to have a double strategy. they're going to scream and yell he's acting like a king and dictator but he can use the executive order power to deal with federal procurement, to deal with immigration to some extent. and that poweran he's just got o keep going. it's important we keep together thing now that people's energy in the white house is diminishing, they're starting to send their resumes around, they want other jobs. i remember in lbj's couple months he said don't dare send your resume around we're here until the final moment we've got a lot of governing to do. he is got to keep racing until

it's over as yogi berra said it's ain't over until it's over. >> i think tom's scenario is the most likely we're going to have constant confrontation. there's a chance though, a shawl chance there could be some rather big things done. doris mentioned immigration reform. everyone would say how can you do immigration reform with a republican congress that you couldn't do before. because it's in a republican's party's interest. presidential elections are different than mid terms. they don't want to be known as the anti-immigration party. you have to dial back the senate bill a little bit but not much. >> rose: they didn't do anything before the midterm election because they didn't want the president to be able to say here's the democratic party to be able to campaign immigration reform. >> there are other potential business friendly moves they could take, looking for example at the whole question of tax reforms, corporate tax reforms. >> rose: if in fact the republicans are prepared to raise taxes. >> absolutely or trade. trade in particular because the republicans are much more

sympathetic oddly enough doing trade deals with europe and asia. >> rose: people suggested it may well be possible that the president better be able to deal with the senate majority leader is mitch mcconnell, then with harry reid because that was how÷ you would know this. harry reid brought the president in on trade did he not. >> he did. >> rose: the democrat didn't -- >> a long time republican operative his credentials are absolutely gold plated in orals of being right of the center. i said what's the best outcome for you he says mcconnell gets beat and we still win the senate. they can't take the party into the middle age until they move aside mitch mcconnell to get in and refine some of his other

positions. he needs a personality transplant that's not likely to happen. >> rose: bob dole once said to me he said the best job in washington other than the president is to be the senate majority leader when the president is held by the opposite party. >> and he got things done. >> rose: and he got things done. >> if you were together trade, immigration, tax, procurement, that's quite, infrastructure too, that's quite a bundle of actual potential action you may see in the next couple years. maybe that's too optimistic but let's not write off congress next year. >> rose: is it an interesting idea because the deficit has been reduced and because therefore it's less of a weapon for the republicans to argue with, it will be more amenable to agreement on the budget or is that ... >> wishful thinking that's crazy at

all. i think needed to show the electorate come 2016 that there was a more conservative position and they are the pier -- party that can get things done. >> we haven't talked about the reduction of the influence for the tea party. this is not a good year for the tea party. and the republicans learned asking about how to deal with the tea party. they got their candidates in and kind of sleight of hand fashion but removed them from the party. we have rand paul and others saying we've got to change our brand, we've got to change the way we deal with the country. >> rose: when we sat down you mentioned the fact when the president came to office in 2008, he had a commitment to end two wars, afghanistan and iraq. now we find that a test for the united states again in isis. tell me how you think the country feels about this and did it change because of the

beheadings number one. and two, because there was a new fear that this somehow was a threat they hadn't seen before. >> i think the country ons two minds. they were terrified by the threats of isis eye -- isis pr them. we talked about this beforehand. the war has not been an issue at all in this campaign. we're talking about what congressmen like to call the blood and treasure of america. it gets set aside as they get and collect more treasure to spend on their campaigns for re-election. the fact is charlie it'sd@ still less than 1% of the population that goes in the military and pays a terrible price and their families. 99% of this country. go on with your lives, do whatever you like to do you don't have to pay a price of any kind. going to war is a big idea and unless you get everybody involved in that big idea then it becomes a burden falls

entirely on those volunteers who are fighting the war. >> tom, congress and fighting going to campaign before they voted on this war is the most irresponsible abdication since vietnam. >> this war is going to define in some fashion president obama's presidency frankly. he's committed the united states to the war with good reason. isis is a highly financed very sophisticated military machine moving at will across the middle east. it terrifies everybody in the west and it scares the heck out of everybody. >> rose: to win on the battlefield notwithstanding american -- >> the tragedy is at least today it's a considerable worth position than it was six years ago. >> rose: doris go ahead. >> i was going to say the short term republican and democratic support for isis removal after the beheadings is not necessarily a long term commitment to as we said sending

in troops or carrying out this war if it's going to be a much greater proposition than we think it is right now. that isolation in the sense of disillusionment of iraq and afghanistan is still out there. a narrative again is going to have to persuade people if this is a longer range commitment what is necessary and we have to right now. >> rose: do you think this president has the capacity to change or is he so confident in himself or so fatigued by it all he wants to go home. >> rose: i hope it's not the latter. one can imagine after today's results if it does become clear that the senate has now gone to the republicans if that happens it does give him a fresh start to think again what do i do with my next two years. that's the one good thing elections do, they let you reboot yourself in a certain since. i do think these going to have to do that to figure out his strategy for the next two years. it may have tush executive

orders, it may have to be agreeing. if they leave both houses they have to do something. they can't keep obstructioning if that's a verb. obviously he can veto. let's hope sometimes it gives you a little push in the ass and you change what you were doing and you figure out a different strategy. >> rose: what do you think, al? >> i think he can. >> i agree with doris. i think he can. i don't know if he will but i think he can. >> rose: is it within him to want that? >> i suspect it is. people talk lets have changes at the whitehouse. that doesn't matter. it's his attitude, it's his approach. that's what really matters. to some extent that depends on what the republican approach is and their approach depends on what his is. it really is symbiotic to a degree and i think there's athlete a chance that both will do what doris just numerated and get some things done selectively while still fighting on a lot of

other things. >> rose: what wouldz you advise the president to do? >> i would advise them to get out and look at america again and really look at some of the exciting things actually happening in the grassroots of america. if you want to be optimistic about american political processes today don't look at washington. look at some of the experiments that are happening actually on the ground. >> rose: with tom brokaw's song. he has, one of the bold moves he could expand his inner circle. >> everybody in washington talks about all the business leaders who deal with him and other people who talk with him it's become more constricted all this time. and a bold move would be to reach out to the middle somewhere or find some conspicuous american man or woman who could come in and say here's a new way of looking at it mr. president and not make it a constitutional law seminar but in fact make it a big political movement of some kind. i thought that they missed an opportunity for example when they were trying to fight back

against the recession which those people were there at the time said look we misread that, we went for affordable care because we thought the recovery was going to be a v. it turned out to be a hockey stick, it went down and stayed down. if they talked to a lot of other people who were involved in america's business they would have said this is fought recovering in the same way you think it is. no one at this cabinet in the beginning or in the whitehouse had any real hands-on experience of dealing with the economy. that was the number one issue. now it's a little fuzzy around the edges why people are not happy with the economy. i think it has a lot to do with getting middle class jobs back. pay for my kid to college and own a house. i'm not looking for three houses. >> rose: listen to this tom. this is a washington post today what went wrong for president obama election 2014. special reading what the president said with respect to the issue of mandate talking

about the 2012 election, i've got one mandate to help middle class families and families that are working hard to try to get into the middle class. he said that at a news conference on the east room on november 2012. he acknowledged the days of presidential overreach in the second term but he put forward an expansive leg see building agenda, a major fiscal deal immigration reform and action on climate change. two bruising years later he's registered progress only on addressing climate change. >> i think that pretty well sums it up. i don't know anyone, well i do some people actually, who wish the president ill. i mean we all want the president to succeed for a variety of reasons. we want the country to have strong leadership and move people forward. some of the most prominent businessmen i know say look i'm a republican i wanted him to succeed it's good for my business and my children and they feel more and more separated from him in terms of the opportunity for him to

succeed. because there is still this gap. he was not a born politician. he came up, we all know how he came up. brilliant constitutional lawyer and goes to the state senate for not very long does a walk through of the u.s. that and then he's a chosen man in the election that he won in the first pass. sam ray burn was right it helps to run for senate or run for the sheriffs, you have some experience. >> rose: doris. >> remember what happened after 2012. i was going to say after 2012, he did move toward using the bully pulpit on gun control. he did everything you would hope he would have done right. he mobilized people hurt by it. he made speeches and said this is important. majority of the people wanted something done. it's overwhelming and it still didn't work because of the special interests. >> that's a tough one to take on even with the emotional content of it. when you look at the nra and their lobby and their adherence that are out there.

man you're up against a high brick law. i own guns and i know how me 3u8 feel about it. john, the senator from montana went back right after they started talking about gun control and said walked into a tracker in northern montana and old ranchers had one 33 and he said you're going to take away my 33 and he said that's not what the discussion was about and in their minds it was and that intent across gun country. >> rose: what does it look like in terms of 2016 right now. >> totally completely unformed muddle on the democratic side obviously hillary clinton who i think most people think is going to run as prohibit life favorite. never something anything quite like it. i have no doubt on i thought would be the republican nominee. i've been wrong. now i have no idea who will be the republican nominee many he'll not even -- i'm not even sure who is going to run. >> i've rolled this out a

the unforeseen will occur. and i don't know what it is. it could happen to hillary or hand paul or cruz any of these people. i talked to somebody earlier today about jeb bush and started to get a little more buzz because he's leaning forward. can he suffer fract size in the republican primaries and win in the general and can the republican party reform those early debates and the kinds of primaries that they have so they played in a broader population rather than just a true believer. i don't know. >> the electorate is lining them like a teenager going nay. have a buick clinton rematch yet again sums it all up. it's back to the future. >> rose: we've done that. >> exactly. >> rose: can you ask this question. does america get the politicians that deserve. does the american public deserve, demand better debate,

better dialogue, better candidate or are they simply part of this process of which campaigns are won on small issues. >> i think a combination of the two. if you look at the last election cycle for example, mitt romney wasn't imperfect candidate not running in the campaign but his credentials were terrific in terms of representing the republican party. he had been a very successful at bain capital, he was the governor of massachusetts, he was the kind of guy who could say he fits all the criteria. obama running for a second term african american as a democrat was primarily a liberal philosophy. you put those two people together and say that's a good representation of candidates from each party.w% i don't know where you go find other candidates. we've had experiences in the past where people surprise us, harry truman is a perfect example. others were enormous disappointments. we had high hopes for them. it is not the s.a.t.'s plus the litmus test where you can say

that person deserve to be in the whitehouse they have to earn their way in there. >> rose: doris. >> i think the problem is the way we evaluate our candidates when you think about those debates, who has the better zink against somebody else, who has a better ad on television. these people have come from leading somewhere and we should be looking at their leadership traits. how did they build a team, how are they expanding the inner circle how do they mobilize support among constituents, how do they keep track what's goin. how do they acknowledge errors in themselves. we never talk about those things in a way we should. it's not like we're dealing with people who just stepped on the scene for the first time. instead ware distracted. we're just not activist people or even journalists is not as activist. they used to be on a train with these guys. they knew what they were like, they could talk about him as a character. now they don't see him in a some way. they live in a bubble. if i was own i would get out,

get on a whistle stop tours, don't come off until you really figured out what's going on in the country and mobilize them what you want them to do. >> doris there's anthropology n it. we can draw a customized drink and if we don't like it we reject it. people are treating everything in their life the same way. they,% want causation to basicay customize what they want and if they don't like it they are like a teenager and go huh again. >> she's complaining about bringing the young reporters up having a briefing forum. the guy saying all they want is an exclusive quote and tweet it as quickly as possible and go to the back of the bus and figure out what gym they would get to after they get off the bus. al hunt has been around long

enough to write one of these pieces. >> 102. >> we're going to have something in february i think, a celebration of the new hampshire primary and at the museum in washington. we remember those days tom, i mean you go talk, and go to the bar not to drink but to talk to politicians and you got to know them better. they were exposed to questions that were good for them. that doesn't happen anymore. >> rose: thank you, tom. >> the higher we flew the less we knew. in other words once the planes took the slice of train. >> as your mother would say, well done charlie. >> rose: thank you. thank you very much doris. great to see you. >> you're welcome. >> rose: we'll be right back. stay with us. coverage of midterm elections joining us from washington is robert costa. he's a national political reporter for "the washington

post." i'm pleased to have him back on this program. he's especially relevant to what -[e are talking about this evening looking ahead because he has for "the washington post" spent a lot of time, extensive interviews with the people who will shape the congress and shape the country over the next several months after the election. i'm pleased to have him back. bob, tell me what you found, tell me what's the take away from these series of important interviews that you have done. >> my colleague phil rucker and i sad down and wrote four to 5,000 words for "the washington post" on wednesday and it really looked at the tensions behind this midterm election and you have to start at the top with the president of the united states. how did he work with the senate democrats starting after he won re-election in 2012. there has been a disconnect between those two camps ever since. >> rose: in what way? >> well you saw that the president has an infrastructure and a final network that was

very successful in 2012. and one of the key parts of our piece is we look at how senator reed read and others were frustrated with the whitehouse for not doing enough. yes they raised money for democrats. there was an expectation for more from these vulnerable encumbent and it's never felt like the president was an gamed as he could be. that was something we kept hearing as a chorus behind the scenes. >> rose: in all these conversations where these themes emerged, my i'm -- emphasis nos on the future not a debate that might or might not have taken place and what necessarily brought us to the point that influenced the election results. i'm interested in how3m do peope who will still be in power look at what they have to do in the future and how do they assess the possibilities regardless of whether they control the senate

or not. but in terms of shaping the next two years of the obama administration. >> at the core of our story is a look at the republican party. a transformed republican party by these midterm elections. we saw in the 2010 cycle a lot of tea party fire brands such as senator mike lee and 2012 senator ted cruz. there was a certain kind of temperments coming out in cycles. we see a republican party that's conservative but had a governing temperment we've seen in the past. you see shelly and john boehner and tom in arkansas. these are conservatives but they have more inclination to govern. that will perhaps enable congress to chain in 2015. we sat down with paul ryan who is likely to be chairman of the ways and mean committee and he said he's going to go to go president in january should it be a republican senate and republican house and talk about

tax reform. something possible in divided government to cut court rates and individual rates. that's the kind of mentality republicans have now. can we get beyond the battle and do something in the final two years. >> rose: they believe or they're in the mood those like paul ryan will clearly be there and chair an important committee that they are prepared to have series negotiations with the president and give the president an opportunity to come to the table ask express his own interest and then work out right. and there's an appetite among republicans because so little has gotten done since republicans took over the congress and how in 2011, we've is an very little done legislatively. and paul ryan, mitch mcconnell, these are the leaders john boehner. boehner had an appetite in 2011 and 2012 to do a grand bark and that fizzled. can they come back in some way. paul ryan mentioned immigration. when they sat down with senator

mcconnell they said something could be done on tax reform and trade issue. he would like to explore this. the balance for republicans as much as they want to get legislation down and craft policy they're still looking ahead to 2016 and the political issues and they want to pressure the president. the question is how far do they do that without alien ating the whitehouse. >> rose: are you auntistic notwithstanding what happened in the past four years or the past two years that something can be hammered out because there are new candidates coming, new representatives in the house and in the senate coming to washington and because they realize that people in fact in this election ran not only against the president but they ran against washington. >> i'm more optimistic as a reporter because when we sat down with senator ted cruz of texas, he talked about wanting to have a more aggressive

concertainive agenda in 2015. yet we pointed out in the 2014 senate primaries most tea party challengers were defeated. mississippi. cochran was saved in his seat. because tea party fire brands did not win primaries this time around that means the composition in congress is different and we will see some loud voices like cruz push for a certain kind of strategy. those at the top those at leadership positions have a different minute tality. >> rose: what do they say they expect from the president? >> we heard this across the board. not only from republicans but senate democrats and house democrats. they want to see an attitude change. they want to see engagement with the president. a lot of times when you spoke to the whitehouse they brushed aside the idea the president needs to have a beer or coffee with more congressman. they don't think the president has handled congress appropriately, has the relationship necessary to pass

sweeping legislation. and the republicans and democrats in congress tell me when they work with the whitehouse they're going to mention the president's legacy to try to get him off his chair in the oval office and come work with congress to talk to the president that so little has gotten done he needs to do this for his own legacy for his record. >> rose: the republican party and they understand some of the electorates suggested they're bound to have tonight comes from the fact that it was about the president and about washington ask not necessarily about all the virtues of their candidates. but they understand that the republican party has had coming out of 2012, has had a real problem in terms of brand identity and they as ron paul expresses often have to reach out more to groups that have not supported them as much. >> it's ar great point. on the demographics front in terms of reaching out to black voters, women voters young voters republicans feel especially at the republican national committee that their efforts in initiatives were more

effective this time around. but on policy there's a lot of disappoint on the republican side that the party never fully articulated an agenda as it did in 1994 with the contract in 2010 with a pledge to america. so they may win to tonight but do they have a mandate to make major conservative, a major conservative push in earlier 2015 not so much. it's just not there. they made a broad critique as a president, it was not a specific critique or an idea logic one. >> rose: what can you tell us about john boehner. >> john boehner has had one of the most difficult experiences as a speaker the last several years but he will enter this new congress in power. surprising turn of events. boehner will have an increased house majority. we're going to see the house republicans likely pick up anywhere from five to ten seats. that means if you were thinking about challenging boehner for the gavel it's going to be difficult. we spoke to jeff from texas boehner's chief rival, he says he will not challenge boehner for the gavel.

he will have more sway and influence because having won these seats. >> rose: what about kevin mccarthy. >> he's a californian who is called the dude by a lot of his friends in the house because he has an easiest going way. he wants to modernize the party in outreach to young voters. he has day ties in silicon valley so does senator rand paul. look for mccarthy to be the silicon valley connection to try to get the party moving forward on technology and on its policy agenda. >> rose: do those people who aspire to bec- president in the republican party understand that in order for them to run, they have to run on something positive that whether it is producing taxes, whatever they view it as but this is a time for the republican party in terms of the next presidential election to have something that they can say is what we stand for. >> and they're still trying to get beyond the legacy of president reagan. there's still a turning debate within the party. what is that going to be.

they felt like romney's message in 2012 on jobs fell flat. there was no policy agenda this year with the mid terms. there's an active debate not within congress but in iowa new hampshire with whoever runs to appear. we stalked with governor christie. he talked about the party having a new vision talking about leadership rather than taking pot shots at democrats. you'll see a competition on tht front as well. >> rose: what do you see as far as the leadership in the house and senate. >> the leadership would like to do something on tax reform but if that fades and the president and the congress can't work together, i think the leadership would like to do something on immigration because they look at the changing map of the country, the changing electorate and they feel like yes the tea party wing of the congress does not want to do anything. if the republicans don't address immigration it could cause some problems in the future in even

small ways. >> rose: bob rasta i -- costa thank youdn for joining us. visit us on pbs.org or charlierose.com.

the following kqed production was produced in high definition. and their buns are something i have yet to find anywhere else. >> i'm not inviting you to my house for dinner. >> breaded and fried and gooey and lovely. >> in the words of arnold schwarzenegger, i'll be back. >> they knew i had to ward off some