from washington, the mclaughlin group. the american original. for over two decades, the sharpest vogeico, committed to providing service to its auto insurance customers for over 70 years. more information on auto insurance at geico.com or 1-800-947-auto any time of the day or night. if. for such a small if i live to a hundred. if social security isn't enough. if my heart gets broken. if she says yes. we believe if should never hold you back. if should be managed with a plan that builds on what you already have.

together we can create a personal safety net, a launching pad, for all those brilliant ifs in the middle of life. you can call on our expertise and get guarantees for the if in life. after all, we're metlife. guarantees for the if in life. issue one, speaker in waiting. >> i'm here to tell you tonight that our new majority will be prepared to do things differently. it starts with cutting spending instead of increasing it. [ cheers and applause ] reducing the size of government instead of increasing it. [ cheers and applause ] and reforming the way congress

works in giving the government back to the american people. [ applause ] and for all those families who were asking, where are the jobs? it means ending the uncertainty in our economy and helping small businesses get back to work. >> thanks to tuesday's republican sweep, john boehner is the soon to be republican speaker of the u.s. house of representatives, succeeding democrat, nancy pelosi. in january, speaker boehner starts his 21st year serving ohio's 8th district in the u.s. house of representatives. speaker boehner has been republican house minority leader for four years since 2007. this tuesday, congressman boehner won reelection, 66% to his opponent's 30%. the speaker-to-be is 61 years old, was born in ohio, second

of 12 children. congressman boehner holds a business degree. is married , is married with two daughters and is catholic. he served in the house of ohio representative. he was four years president of a small packing firm. that made him a e premier conse rating system, the acu, american conservative union out of a perfect 100 conservative rating, boehner scores 92. on the premier liberal rating system, the ada, americans for democratic action, the speaker- to-be gets a liberal zero. question, does boehner have the right stuff to lead the gop? pat. >> you saw that ada rating, of course he does, john. look, john boehner is a moderate conservative, but he's a conservative guy. he owes his speakership to the tea party folks. he basically agrees with them. his convictions are the same.

his political interests dictate getting around with them. he came through the newt gingrich purge. he has much more in common with the tea party conservatives and the conservatives in the house far more than he does with barack obama and nancy pelosi. i think we are headed for gridlock. >> barack obama, when he was in the senate, do you know what his ada rating was? >> he had the most liberal voting record. >> what was it? >> he was 100. >> right. >> he was more liberal than bernie sanders. >> do you want to respond? >> 100. kennedy the same, he got an 86. >> he did win an election with the largest majority the democrats have seen in some time and he's going to be your president for the next two years. john boehner is the perfect person to head that caucus in these times, because he is basically old wine in a new tea kettle.

he is not a strong ideologue. he is the antigingrich and he basically has the challenge of melding all these fiery new members with the corporate members that are going to be there. it's going to be a difficult task and the pledge to repeal obama care. to me, i think that's as perilous as the impeachment effort of clinton was when the republicans were in charge the last time. >> how do you think he'll get along with obama? >> i think they'll get along modestly fine. i don't see them having big -- let me answer the question. >> the perfect conservative or perfect liberal? >> i don't see them having deep discussions about policy, but i think they know how to cut deals and they'll operate a lot through surrogates on both sides. >> do you recall when obama was hanging out the name of boehner on some of his appeals and boehner was unknown? about two months ago? >> he tried to demonize

boehner. >> okay, boehner's yin side. >> we can celebrate when we have a government that has earned the trust of the people that it serves. when we have a government that honors the constitution and stands up for the values that have made america, america. [ applause ] things like economic freedom, individual liberty, and personal responsibility. listen, i hold these values dear because i've lived them. i've spent my whole life chasing the american dream. [ applause ] >> is boehner's emotional

extra version helpful or hurtful? >> i think it was great. hillary was a hero for showing a human side. john boehner lived the american dream. he came from nothing. midwest guy, 11 brothers and sisters and he is rising to being third in line for the american presidency. that is quite a story. if that's his first impression to most of the american people, i think it was a very good one. here's where his power lies. this is why strategically for the republicans to control the house and not the senate is very important. because the republicans led by john boehner, they are going to be the engine for real change coming up. all of these bills are going to be coming out of the house on obama care, on tax cuts, on cutting spending. they are going to be presented to the senate. the democrats and the senate will sit on it or try to kill it. if it makes it to the president's desk, if any bills make it to obama's desk, he will kill it. what they will be able to do effectively, john, is turn the tables on the democrats and make them the party of no.

>> you wrote the book on this. it was entitled train wreck, right? now you have it. >> we saw the engineer of the train that is going to wreck. >> you mea boehner? >> yes. real speakers don't cry. what was he crying about? i worked at my father's gas station. >> real men cry. real men cry. and this was a very emotional moment for him. >> another anecdote for obama's indifferent demeanor. >> i don't want to see obama cry either. i want to come back to monica's point. boehner is going to discover the same thing nancy pelosi did. they are going to get things done and they will be dead on arrival in the u.s. senate. two years from now, the american people are going to hit the clicker and say where are the jobs? where is the progress on this? where's the progress on that? he didn't get anything done. >> john -- >> change the language talking about cutting spending. i didn't hear anything about cutting the deficit. he is going to adjust to

reality because he's going to have a hard time fulfilling the pledges. >> he'll have a bigger problem with the deficit. it is the public debt, which is $13 trillion, is it not? >> bill has a good point. the country -- if they gave obama a mandate, i'm not sure they did in 2008, there's a new mandate. the country said we don't want to go over here, we want to go over there. how do you compromise? >> let's get into that. tuesday's election. >> republicans gained 60 plus seats in the u.s. house of representatives. the largest house victory in 62 years, since 1948. republicans now hold 239 seats, up from 178. democrats won 186 seats and ballots are still being counted in tees that could flip to either party. >> gop loss in '68.

>> they won a huge 80th congress, richard nixon in it, jack kennedy, lyndon johnson. >> republicans gained five seats, democrats maintained their majority, but their seats shrunk. if alaska remains in place, there will be 47. question, who were some of the big winners in this election psych until? >> harry reid and john brown. >> what about the others? >> you want some more? i think barbra boxer is a big one. people had written her off. you know, marco rubio in florida. >> do you think that whitman did herself in in california rather it be a clear victory? >> well no. jerry

and on television so long that people got sick and tired of meg whitman. >> what about the story of the hiring of the immigrant? >> that hurt her a lot. >> i think that hurt her a lot. >> jerry brown got 64% of the latino vote. harry reid got 68% of the latino vote. >> that video of that maid that she hired, she handled it. >> in addition to picking up a lot of seats and sweeping state houses and all of that, they did finally usher in a new generation of leaders and you do see some diversity there. three female governors, a cuban american, marco rubio. i think john casek is more old wine in a new tea kettle. governor of ohio. i think these are people who are going to shake the party for the future. >> the big winner was the tea party movement. it is actually mainstream america. >> the ones she endorsed and the ones that made it? >> some tea party candidates

did lose, but a good number of them did win. marco rubio, in big senate races. some of them did lose. but remember that the republican party's comeback is due in large part to the tea party movement because they reenergized the conservative base. and i would also say this, that the tea party movement now is going to have a huge impact on the republicans coming into the congress. and what happened is the direct result of the tea party strength was that the republicans were able to reverse the map of 2006 and 2008, reverse all of the democratic gains in the south, the midwest, and the mountain west, which is going to make 2012 much more difficult. >> you mean the tea party has to clear the appointees? >> no. that's not what i'm saying. the democrats thought they had gained permanent foot holes in these regions of the country. that is no longer true. >> john, the republican party was dead, written off, no

future as of 2008. it came surging back to a historic victory and the tea party is the single greatest -- >> going to destroy the republican party and split it right down the middle and it's going to be civil war and it's going to be fun to watch. >> tea party actually thinks -- >> okay, hold on. >> the tea party got elected on promises and buzz words and translating that into reality, their going to run into the same obstacles that obama did. and they are going to push the party so far to the right -- >> in 2012. >> do you want to make a point quickly? >> my point is that the tea party saved the republican party and they would not have had nearly the kind of gains without the tea party. we are talking about -- >> the tea parties go nuts and boehner stays in. >> we are talking about

issue two, the shalacking. >> i'm not recommending for every future president that they take a shalacking like i did last night. you know, i'm sure there are easier ways to learn these lessons. the relationship i've had with the american people is one that built slowly, peeked at this incredible high, and then during the course of last two years has gotten rockier and tougher, and you know it's going to have more ups and downs during the course of me being in this office. >> question, is president obama contrite enough to compromise with the incoming republican house majority? eleanor. >> he is going to look for common ground. i think that's in his dna. he also has to show fortitude in holding his ground and a lot of people on his side feel he didn't stand up to the republicans. he is now -- now the republicans are more visible. if they say no to more infrastructure spending or a payroll tax holiday or whatever

the white house comes up with to try to rejuvenate this economy. if they say no, the spotlight will be on him. common ground is fine, but confrontation is what we're going to see. > let me agree with eleanor. >> let him agree. >> what he should say, he should be willing to compromise, but we have beliefs that disagree with yours. we have half the government, you have the other half. they will have to fight on things. >> my fear is as a liberal, that he is too willing to compromise and he is too eager to compromise. he wasted too much time talking to the republicans in the first two years and he will get forge move on. >> how is he going to handle the jobs? >> look, 151,000 jobs. jobs are slowly coming back. he aught to push for a second

stimulous bill. >> it will be killed in the house. >> he pushes for it. as eleanor says, push for what is right. >> katie couric asked him, what's the story on jobs? he says why aren't you concentrating on jobs instead of healthcare. he said i did jobs last yeyear, i'm doing healthcare this year. this gets to answering your question. the question was, did obama get it? did he get the message that voters were trying to give him? i think he gets it, he is just rejecting it. the american people were screaming for jobs, he blew that first care on obama care. >> excuse me. >> entitlement that nobody wanted and that we cannot afford. there's nothing -- john, let me finish my point. >> 15 million people out of work, do they have the power, 15 million people to radicalize the nation? do you understand me? > excuse me. >> let her finish.

>> you have a very chronically high unemployment rate. you have a president who looked like right after the trillion dollar stimulous he checked out on the jobs issue. when you talk about compromise, there's nothing in this man's character. >> you can't ignore it. you may want to ignore it, he created more jobs -- my turn. he created more jobs in 20 months than george bush did in eight years. deal with it. >> that's not true. >> where are the jobs coming from? healthcare is a growing industry and so he has reformed that. and -- >> unfortunately, eleanor, the country decided on tuesday they don't agree with you. they don't agree with you. >> a smaller electorate than '08. that is a lot of older people, a lotted of the younger people didn't show up. it will be a different electorate in '08. >> exit question. on a political comeback scale

of 0 to 10, 0 meaning jimmy carter, no comeback, whatever. 10 meaning bill clinton, the comeback kid, rate obama's odds of pulling off a comeback by 2012 when he is up for a second term if he decides to run. pat buchanan. >> i would give him 6 out of 10 that he would win the presidential election in 2012. >> really? why? >> i look at the country and deep behind some of these polls. the young people, hispanics. >> who is out there? who is out there? >> there are plenty of republican candidates. >> i give him a plus and point out that jimmy carter had a good midterm election so he didn't have a comeback. he had a long, slow slide. >> i give him a 10 because there's nobody out there that can beat him. >> wait a minute. i don't think you want to put money on that. i give him a 3 out of 10 because there's nothing in this man's political temperment or character to suggest moderation. even this weekend he sat with

60 minutes and still believed that he has a communications problem. a salesmanship problem and not a policy problem. this week was a thundering folks, we took a step forward tonight to putting ohioans back to work. we are making it work better. >> ohio republican is john kaisik, repeat a republican. and this week he unseated the democratic incumbent, ted strikeland, the four year ohio governor and 20 year congressman. this is one of 11 governorships that the republicans picked up from democrats, bringing the tally to 29 governorships for the republicans. governors are powerful. they are powerful because state legislatures are granted the power by the u.s. constitution to curb

this is known as redistricting. >> what's the connection between redistricting and governor? >> it's quite powerful, john. in most states, not california anymore, where they have taken it away from the legislature. if you get both houses in the legislature and the governorship, you can draw the districts up and take all the democrats with about 90% democrats, and you get all the other districts with yourself at 60%. that's the way tom delay turned texas around and they are going to turn texas around again. >> the population of the congressional district is based upon the census. correct? >> right. >> it's a population component that determines the district. >> that's going to give -- >> when you get into drawing lines from that? >> you get four new districts going into texas, for example. >> they have to follow the population, do they not? >> john. you are confusing two things. number one, the number of people in the district is determined by the population. the shape of the district is determined by the politicians who drew the line.

i have to tell you a quick story. i was in a redistricting thing in california when i was working the legislature. the chair of the committee came in, asked my senator, do you like this? took a pencil out, erased the line and redrew the line. >> are they still governed by the total population? >> it tells you how many -- >> they also put it next to a city like cincinnati, and include that, can they move it into that? >> they can do anything they want. that's the evil of it and the power of it and by the way, the republicans, pat is right. after these elections, they elected 680 republican state legislators around the country. >> what's the veto power of the governor? >> in terms of what? redistricting? >> redistricting. >> the governors have tremendous influence in how these districts are drawn. governorships in pennsylvania, ohio, wisconsin, and florida, this is major. not to mention south carolina, which is also going to be

gaining a seat. so this is a tremendous impact going into 2012 and actually beyond and bill is absolutely right. 680 legislative seats went to republicans this year. that is historic. we have never seen that kind of thing. >> if you are going to lose big, this was the year not to do it. the democrats enshrined the republican -- >> john, red members of congress run by district and members of the legislature run by district. the longest lasting impact of this election are going to be in the redistricting, in the state legislature. >> and the biggest problem -- >> the governors also have power with their respective state. and they can express which candidate is most agreeable to them. >> they can endorse, but they can't change. >> they can endorse privately. pick up the phone, hey harry -- >> the problem -- >> i know that means a lot to you, harry. >> the problem that

progressives have is they congregate on the two coasts and the various big cities. all of the other rest of the country gets represented by the republicans and there are many more districts that are now republican. >> john, let me give you an example. >> we have to dispurse. >> republicans, for example, take an african american community, they will put the whole community into one district and the two or three districts around it will have no african predictions, pat. >> barack obama will be challenged in the presidential primaries of 2012 by an antiwar candidate by russ feingold. >> russ feingold has said he's not going to do that, pat. i hate to disillusion you. >> not what i hear. >> well, okay. i am sure he's confiding to people on the right because it would be a gift, definitely, to the republicans. i do think that the new

congress, the new republicanly empowered congress will consider infrastructure spending and aid to the states because they control a lot of the governorship. you have the whole midwest by job loss and democrats have a vested interest, because five democratic senators are up in 2012. the country needs it, both political parties need it. >> feingold was over taken by a republican who never run for office before, who had a wonderful white chalk board and on it he wrote the number of lawyers in the senate, 57. the number of businessmen was zero. he said they need a businessman. that resounded -- >> can i offer something here, too? i think feingold lost because he wouldn't take pack money. you can't be too pure. he needed more money and refused to take corporate money and there he is. >> you notice that feingold was also out of town on one of

president obama's visits. you remember that? >> the president was not popular and the votes he needed to win. >> he showed up at the university of wisconsin with obama, too. i think he was almost too pure for his own good. and i love him. >> you think in many races, the democrats were not comfortable with president obama being in their district? >> of course. he did not go where he wasn't wanted. >> i know that. was he a liability to candidates for the democratic congress? >> that's my point. he didn't become a liability. he didn't allow himself to become a liability. should i give my prediction? another winner, i forgot to mention in this time. christine o'donnell. i'll tell you why. because by the end of the month, she is going to have a contract with fox news is my prediction. >> there may be another angle to that. >> i want to pick up on pat's point. i think russ feingold is going to launch a primary challenge to barack obama in 2012. at the end of his concession speech on tuesday, he said onward to 2012.

i also think that opens up an opportunity for somebody else to challenge president obama, mainly hillary clinton. but my prediction is that democrat senator from nebraska, ben nelson is up for reelection in 2012. he will switch parties and become a republican. because if he doesn't, he's gone. >> what is this about hillary? >> hillary clinton will, oh, i get two predictions. hillary clinton, if somebody else enters the primary race against the sitting president, she will also enter and she will defeat. >> no way. >> i can't vogeico, committed to providing service to its auto insurance customers for over 70 years. more information on auto insurance at geico.com or 1-800-947-auto any time of the day or night.

if. for such a small if i live to a hundred. if social security isn't enough. if my heart gets broken. if she says yes. we believe if should never hold you back. if should be managed with a plan that builds on what you already have. together we can create a personal safety net, a launching pad, for all those brilliant ifs in the middle of life. you can call on our expertise and get guarantees for the if in life. after all, we're metlife.