♪ t5# i'm cis matthews. good evening, i'm in new york again. let me start with this. a sixth roundrly in the fight. just afte to get those state by state results. some that hit me. obchamp, was not just hold higz own, he was winning. then theong rounds where he kept it up. i saw thi night

because i never saw icoming. i saw romney's big win in the first debate. i saw the president's sterling bipartisan work onsay. night, this powerful swing of suppt not just him but his party in natecross the country. our question tonigwh but i can't begin our usual political discussion tonight without a strong sad personal note.t night for ten hours straight fro 5:00n the evening till 3:00 in the3:00ing. i said that i w tropical storm beusts impact on this national campaign. it was a terrible thing to say, period.ause3? i was tired but the fact is i wasn't thinking of the horrible mess this storm has made of people's lives up here in new york and elsewhere.ou read the local newspapers that you know the horror this has reeked on

d people's lives. i grew up in the south jersey relatives living there still. i failed to see the new jersey,d other places around here. it is truly a horror up here. no, i was too deeply enes political, number and people and stakes and all focused on who left out the number one job of anyone on air, on televisor on the radio, to think about the lives, the real lives of people. their losses, their relatives and friends who decide in thisrt and sometimes destroyed. i said something not just stupid but wrong. in i should have said is how trouble how ty react t working lines and how people like to that.instead i suggested an end justifies means. somethid never believed in my life. bad is bad. good is good. there is no confusing the two.

i said something about something bad instead of saying people working together. , io steps to sw i'm sincere on this. i've heard from numbers of my family, own family who live near the areas hit. what in other peopleelieve me, determined to do what i can to try to help the peopl suffered, suffering enough hardship without hearing stupid stuff from me. i'm joined -- i'll talk about this perhaps later tonight and in the shows ahead. i'm political director, chuck todd, who's amazing, and "new magazine john heilemann. let's talk about this situation here. let's take a look at some of the facts. president obama wins by at least votes.yet, even notice, a night,

which has 29 electoral votes. right now the president leads popular vote across the country, obama leads by 2.8 chuck, this is something, i know you -- i don't know if you're money ball stuff going on now, but i have nhi what is the word, praise for people like nate silverman but more importantly the guys in plouffe and mussina. they seemed to have the numbers right and we were all the doubters. >> they had secret government study that was available toí the public calle the census and they seemed to understand it a lot better than the folks in the other polital party, on the republican side. you know, they knew this wasn't going to be easy. they knew there was going to be a fired up republican vote. they knew they were going to have some issues and sort of --

among some conservative white voters, among white men. they basically went about to try to not just reput together in 2e out how to maximize their vote in places!s where there was growth. demographically in their direction, particularly hispanics. i keep coming back to two counties in particular. orange county, florida, osceola county, florida. i do this because, you know, i'm hearing whispers. fi just think that apology was an unbelievable apology. as heart-felt as i've heard anybody do, when they feel as i they've done something they need to apologize for. >> i just shouldn't have said it. i know why i thought i said it, i shouldn't have said it. >> i commend you for it. i want tong sandy up for a reason because there's a lot of whisperimoives in the romney campaign, oh, if it wasn't for

sandy. that is not -- look at -- what happened in the state of florida, would have happened if the election had been september 6th, october 6th or november 6th. this was structural. this was demographic. this had nothing t do with any issue. no auto bailout. no sandy. no any other effects. and so any other excuse that some republicans make is whistling past their grave yards. >> you accept it's more about demographics, more latino10%,lm. a pretty good showing among white voters, about 39, about the levels of t five cycles. >> well, i mean, he dropped a litt 43% of the -- >> before him. >> yeah, around where gore and kerry were. you know, they were -- the peopleou mentioned david plouffe, jim mussina and jim axelrod -- particularly mussina and plouffe, i wrote about this, they saw this as a contest between economics and

demographics. the economics were going to be a headwind for president obama and the only way to win was focus like a laser beam on four groups. the rest of the campaign was just mood music for them. they were looking at african-americans, hispanics, collegeén educated white women d young voters in nine states. that was -- they had a year and a half before they had to engage with romney. a year and a half and a $1 billion to go out into those states and figure out not just in a broad way these were the groups they had to do well with but how do you move those people? >> how do you find out how to do it? >> some of the -- chuck said there was no issue -- they were able to talk to of people in those ind out what issues matter to them. the thing is the president did along the way. whether it was the dre act move in thespring, the gay marriage move. a lot of the things he was doing in term of policy and substance. the things they advertised on, how many college campuses he visited. -- every trip he took, every ad

th p on the air, every web ad, every piece of mail they sent was focused on those four groups in specifstates. they didn't care about 41 states of the country. they cared about those nine states and getting -- they knew for every turnout number what -- exactly the number of votes they needed from each of those groups to win t amazing. >> and they were -- this is something the romney campaign are smart guys. if you gave them a yearnd a half withnd a lot of money, they could have done the they had to fight a primary, deal with newt gingrich, rick santorum, rick perry and fight for 15 months before they look up in may and say, okay, now we have to open field offices. the obama field offices were there a year and a half. multiple ones in every one of these states and they were out there meeting these voters al o an individual basis. these weren't just numbers. they were human beings -- >> you can't get elected on the young vote. i looked at the numbers, and

these numbers of young voters were better than last time for obama. who would have predicted that. >> well, they went -- and they also -- they had time to change the makeup of the electorate. florida, they went and registered new voters. they wrej centregistered these . look at the state of ohio. all of the pollster conspiracy, polling conspiracy theorists would say no way democrats are going to have a party i.d. advantage of six, seven, eight points in the state of ohio. well, they had a seven-point advantage. that wasn't -- that didn't just happen. they went and got itdone. they went and did voter registration in specific places because the other thing i found interesting, c look at each of the nine battleground states and if you want to -- we have an easy way to do it, you look at the red and the blue, inside each stated, e counties, nothing you can't -- youan oh, look, th won this county. they didn't win that county that

time. they went in and found new voters.m >> everybody in america, how liberal, how diverse, you're looking at the way people divide up ethnically. african-american.orate was whi which has basically been constant since i was a kid, if i paid attention. 10%, short of that out of latinos, including people from puerto rico, domican republic, and asian and south pacific. john, this is the new world. do the republican party with their slight support among hispanics because position against illegal immigration, really tough on it, the lack of having in inroads in the african-american community, are they stuck asit out in effect the party can only win among whites? >> they're the party that right now they're a coalition and the

coalition that made 2010 happen for them was -- is aging white men. that is just demographically speaking, a disastrous position to be in. this is ascend ant coalition. you saw the white vote fell between 2008 and 2012. every one of those other groups, young voters, women, hispanics, asians, black vote was the same, but all the other ones went up a point or two. they're going to keep going up more dramatically as we head more toward a majority/minority country. the republican party must f it's not just a plausible governing party, but an existent party, not extinct party, it has to figure out how to get right with those groups. particularly hispanic. can you not be a nationally governing party getting 26%, 27% of the vote. you need to be up nre president in 2004 and hispanics are more important now. >> everybody who votes wants

something toappen. they want a impert country. here's something from mitch mcconnell. he put out a statement. he's still minority leader. he left no doubt republicans will not be cooperating. it reads in part voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president's first term. they have simply given him more time to give him the job they asked him to do together with the congress that restored balance. he's basically saying we won, you won. this is going to be a fight. i didn't see a lot of hope in that for negotiation. >> not only that, he started on a very -- hey, don't offer us anything that can't pass the house of representatives. >> what's that mean? >> well, that means we're starting from square one, apparently. johnoehner today, he wants to not have any grand bargain before the end of the year. wants to do this -- they're just buying time. it will be interesting -- i'll be curious to see how the white house now reacts.

you've got boehner and mccne is playing good cop, seems moreso. mcconnell has a political squeeze happening on him because he's re-election2014. two things he's worried about. one is a primary challenge. two, ben chandler, great grandson of happy chandler, lon lost. suddenly doesn't have a house seat anymore. you might be looking for something to run for in 2014. >> how about ashley judd? >> well, i've heard the ashley judd rumor. i've also heard her running for governor of tennessee, which democrats are trying to get her to run for. i think ashley judd wants to run for office. that's a serious piece of speculation that's been circulating in kentucky. but -- so mcconnell has to play bad cop here. how is the white house going to respond, push back on this? clearly boehner and mcconnell are trying to say, okay, we're

going to start in the most -- the most conservative position we can find, even on this day where es certainsentially our s and see how the white house reacts. >> a stunning morning, stunning morning the evening after,have . chuck todd, you'rehe best, so are you john heilemann. the book game change. stay tuned for the republican civil war. moderate republicans say it's time to move back to the middle, where the party becomes a white, their phrase, rural outwinger. time to nominate real conservatives, sit back and relax and enjoy the show. one he of of the republican lurch to the right is in the last two election cycles they've lost five senate seats that could have been easy +blay-ups, chip shots and they gained two. 55 members.

great billmahr is here. we'll take a look at winners and losers, including the pollsters. so you say men are superior drivers? yeah. then how'd i get this...

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welcome back to "rdball." soul-searching time in the republican party. they seem to fall in two camps.

one who say romney wasn't conservative enough is one camp and the others who say he's not a right winger. or the realists in the party who know the gop must become a big tent par if it wants to see success down the road.ckennan a. view from the far right. laura ingraham wrote on her conservativism cornciples demoralized middle class. charles krauthammer ted to move past mitt romney and look to the future of e gop. >> i think he did honorably well, came pretty close, but he was a man -- he's a northeastern liberal and that's not where

we're going. i'm optimistic because there was a very strong republican bench that did not enter the fray. all th about what ideology we're going to pursue is going to come from them. i think it will be a fairly reaganite and conservative one. >> this is an old argue, the fa right, self-described tea party, had won the argument until last night. >> well, chris, you just can't look at these results and come to any other conclusion that the republican party have to expand the tent.ategy of going after a shrinking demographic and trying to expand a shrinking degraphic is a death spiral. and that's what we experienced yesterday. so, you know, i think back to when i was a conservative democrat, kind ofd a progressive republican. it was george w. bush's compass that drew to supportand he had

education reform. those were the things that attracted me and millions of other independents and conservative democrats. so, until we start recognizing that we've got to have those kind of messages and policies, and greateri tolerance, greate diversity, theng nowhere but do >> on abc matthew dowd broke down the republican problems in publicans, they are -- the republican party is a m modern a and it just doesn't fit anymore. >> okay, that was pretty well said, i think. mad men, meaning early 1960sá the most, if not, the out there gay people and straight people all living together and having a pretty good life. >> like you did straight from charlotte to modern america and that's what

the democratic partyhat the republican party doesn'tingraha. you know, mark is right, w the i'm not sure. really thinkoing to be -- the his party, the nasty pundits like the li limbaughs, are going to say you another conservative. e and we >> this is what rahm emanuel said, they need a clinton moment. but rush limbaugh said sarcastically about the party becoming a big tent >> clarence thomas, herman cain, none of it counts. don't tell me the republican party doesn't have outreach. we do. but what are we supposed to do now? are we supposed to -- in order to get the hispanic or latino vote, does that mean open the

borders/ illegals? is that -- i want you to think about that. if we're not getting the female vote, do we become pro choice? do we start passing out birth control pills? is that what we have to do?well better than he did. how do you retort to that as a -- what i think is a more centrist republican, that you are? >> i find it prehistoric, chris. i think economic freedom and, you know, and giving people who immian get them productive tax-paying citizen rather than this notion of self-deportation and throwing up fences is the wrong way. i don't think that was the original annism. and i think the philosophy of republicans should be -- i mean, it's supposed toe

government out of your liveswhy notion of intruding on women's lives? it's con temporary to the notio of what a republican should i findlimbaugh's statements contrary to the bedrock. >> i know laura gram and her ra audience, they're the most indock trin. they're not really talking to those people. they're talking to the real rock-rbed conservatives. >> they want to drive those people out of the party. they want to drive people like mark out of the party. they are winning at this point. you and i have been talking about this since 2008. rush limbaugh emerged as head of the republican party in 2008 by saying horrible things about the president. now sten to the way -- he's -- he thinks latinos and he thinks illegals. he thinks women and abortion and birth control pills. this is a vision that's going to drive people away fro his >> i think there's a lot of

republican conservativism out there. the democrats need 't want putting teeth into immration law. they don't want to deal with welfare reform. there are a lot of jobs republicans do better than democrats. if they have to cut the they need partners. the two parties have a lot in common. they can cut deals that are good for the country and work down the center left and center right until they find common ground. i thinthe first case is the fiscal cliff. they have to do this one. this time they have to work together. we'll see if it's a good case of proving the bigger stuff can work by doing the smaller stuff. thank you, mark and joan walsh. i think we're woozy staying up all night long. up next, what's more colorful characters in u.s. house. we'll get caught up in alan west and michele bachmann and the rest of the usual suspects. this is "hardball," a place for politics. new prilosec otc wildberry

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back to "hardball." this is the side show the morning after. the common thread in this lineup of congressmen and women? joe west and alan walsh lost their bid and todd akin lost against claire mccaskill. west has yet to concede. nbc news projects his challenger patrick murphy will come out on top. here's a way they left their mark, including one from "hardball" itself. >> we need to let president obama, harry reid, nancy pi and my dear friend, the chairman of the democratic national committee, take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of

enslaving the intentrepreneuria will of the american people take it somewhere else, to the bottom of the sea, to the north pole, but get the hell out of the united states of america. >> first of all really rare. fitz a legitimate rape, a female body has a way to shut that e fe in right now. this pisses me off. too many people don't' listen. >> chris, do you support that? hey, chris. chris, chris, chris, chris, krishgs i love it, chris. >> well, all the same, some side show regulars there who beat their challengers, steve king of iowa and michele bachmann back in the game after being defeated in 2010. florida democrat alan grayson offered this as the health care solution back in 20 09. >> if you get sick in america,

this is what the republicans want you to do. if you get sick, america, the republican health care plan is this, die quickly. that's right. the republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick. >> and now to the round-up from the presidential race and some winners and losers. aside from the candidates and winners. well, the winners, guys who analyze preelection polls got it right, including nate silver, like many of his colleagues was 5 5 1 for 51, got them all. women, there will be 20 in the senate now. the u.s. senate. the highest number ever. also, the lgbt comnity and gay rights advocates generally, two states, maine and maryland, voted in favor of gay marriage yesterday. the measure's still too close to call in washington state, according to nbc news. and president obama's twitter feed after this post victory tweet made history as the most retweeted photo in history. angry money, those who dropped

hundreds of millions of dollars trying to sway the vote toward republican or two-time failed linda mcmahon, dropping almost $100 million this week,wn pocke two attempts she made to be elected to the senate. well, the president wound up losing north carolina where the dnc was held. that was a good place to have a convention. romney lost florida after republicans held their convention in tampa. wow, wrong locations there. karl rove, who had a one-man side show of his own going on last night as he became increasingly clear it did that the president had won. >> do you believe that ohio has been settled? >> no, i don't. it may be that barack obama wins the state, but it seems to me that, you know, you got a lot of votes yet to cast. we have another county called delaware, a good suburban republican county north of columbus. they've had 50 dhou votes cast.

we've had one instance where something was prematurely called. >> they said this is not going to be another one of those. >> maybe not. let the votes begin to show it. >> seems to be a very early call. >> i'm just saying in terms of public perception it looks odd for us to be making a call -- >> but you know how the science works. they know the counties and expected outcome -- the -- >> look -- >> the make jup of the remaining -- >> obama folks at headquarters in chicago, they're not listening to karl. >> he won the battle but lost the war. second terms are difficult for presidents. >> a rough night for mr. rove. when we come back, the one and only bill mahl will be with us. when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common.

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i'm sue herera with your cnbc market wrap. a post-election stock slide. the dow plummets 312 points. the s&p drops 33. the nasdaq loses 74. partly because of apple shares which slid nearly 4%, putting the stock down about 20% since mid-september. that also puts it in bear market territory. and a day after the election, the focus now shifts to the fiscal issues. fitch ratings says avoiding the fi and raise the debt ceiling would result in a downgrade, possibly as soon as next year. that's it from cnbc. we are first in business worldwide. now back to chris and "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." maybe the only people more

depressed than republicans today are comedians nail miss out on the xheedic potential of a romney administration and also lost old friends last night, todd akin last night, joe walsh, allen west. bill maher warned us about the risk last week. let's take a look. >> that's it. that's the election. it is your choice, america, because for me it's a win-win. if it's obama, america wins. if it's romney, comedy wins. >> well, last night america won, comedy lost, you might say. bill maher the host of "real time" an amazing television show. with bill maher on hbo. bill, karl rove has offered some material. is he the baghdad bob of the 2012 election, the last guy to admit something's new and something bad is happening? >> it was a little hitler's bunker, wasn't it? i wanted to rush in with a cyanide capsule there. i thought he was going to say, i don't want to live in a world without national socialism.

okay, mrs. gerbels. it gets to a bigger point, chris, that republicans have to start getting their information from a better source than fox news. i'm not kidding about this. i think this really screws them up. all year long we have had this segment on our program called dispatches from the bubble, wet put a republican in it. you know, with the rasmussen poll, they actually closed the last hole in the bubble. now they have their own polling. they believed it right up until the end. they were shocked by this election. they have to somehow fix the way they get information, because they only talk to each other. and they don't know what's going on in the real world. they were rudely awakened last night. >> what do you think it was like to be in that bubble with mitt romney in that time after it -- i call it the knockout, like the sixth round. all of a sudden midevening east coast time last night, it started to go in that direction, the democratic direction so powerfully. what do you think they were telling him when he's running around, this isn't supposed to

happen, you guys were telling me i was winning this thing? >> i mean, i think they were still saying, ye you have 12 divisions on the eastern front. i mean, until they actually heard the artillery -- i should stop with the -- >> i think hitler never works myself. it never works. you know that. anyway, look, dick morris -- let me give you a break. dick morris predicted a romney landslide last week. he said the polls were totally wrong. let's listen to mr. morris. >> in florida "the times" says obama will win by one but their sample has seven points more democrats than republicans. that poll is off by a factor of eight. so, instead of obama winning by one, romney would win florida by seven. in virginia, they have obama winning by two. but they have eight points more democrats than republicans and historically there's one point more republican than democrat. that's off by a factor of nine. romney wins ohio by -- wins

virginia by seven. >> okay. so you are standing by your prediction of a romney landslide? >> absolutely. romney will win this election by five to ten points in the popular vote and will carry more than 30 0 electoral votes. >> well, that didn't happen. i wonder about the way people use jargon to establish their preem unanimous. he says, not by eight points but by a factor of eight and a factor of nine. is that supposed to give you some sense that this guy has a new -- has a different kind of, whatever, i don't know, slide rule he's using? what is this anyway, your thoughts on mr. morris? >> i mean, last night was a victory for pot, for gay marriage and for math. you know, these people have denied facts and math. one of the big arguments they put forward for not doing anything about health care was, why are we messing around with the greatest health care system in the world? i don't know. maybe because the u.n. ranks it

37? outside of the bubble there are facts. i know they're not in the bible but can't we use them sometimes? i mean, i think this is what it's going to have to come down to. you know, when obama made that point in his victory speech last night about the little girl with leukemia, i thought, you kn yeah, i wish you had said that during the campaign. it really comes down to that. one party in this country are from the premise that little girls don't die from lieu keeeuf we can all prevent it. the other party says, no, we love unfettered capitalism. america has just decide, you know what, we are a modern country. i made fun of the democratic slogan, forward, one word, what is that? but at the end of the day, people who don't follow this very closely like we do just came down to, yeah, forward. yeah, you know what, i'm not crazy about him but let's keep moving forward. >> i don't think it was about him. i think it was the attitude

toward their country and the time they live in. donald trump took to twitter, trashing the election rurngz. this is what he said on twitter, in real he popular vote by a lot. he's talking about the president. and won the election. we should have a revolution this country. more donald trump tweeting. this election is a total sham and a travesty. we are not a democracy. and more, we can't let this happen. we should march on washington and stop this travesty. our nation is totally divided. well, later tonight mr. trump deleted all of his tweets. your thoughts. >> i mean, it doesn't deserve thoughts because these aren't thoughts. i mean, as soon as obama care really kicks in, they really need to get this man to a hospital. i mean, there is something going on here. i think it's that bovine thing. i don't know if -- mad cow, i don't know what you want to call it but the people in atlanta do amazing things with neurological workups. he needs one. this guy only two years ago was like apolitical, right? i don't even know what party he

was. i don't know if he knew what party he was. now he wants to march on washington? this is -- so it's not democracy when your candidate loses? >> yeah, that's the deal. >> this guy is just a clown. i mean, i can't believe nbc is inguy. >> i hear he's still looking for the college records of the president because he thinks somewhere in the transcript will be information on him being i fo this trail. anyway, let's take a look at some of the real -- well, let's say, colorful factors here of people. joe walsh and allen west are gone, as of last night. mourdock and akin won't get back in there. they're gone. here's what you tweeted, bill, last night about somebody else we know well, and i think we helped create her. i'm pulling for michele bachmann in minnesota. can't lose all the punch lines in one night. michele bachman >> well, she w by 500 votes, but, yeah, it's very hard to unseat any incumbents. that's one of the problems we have in this country, is that people are always complaining

about congress and they hate it and they give it a 9% approvang same people back in every time. >> you spent a million dollars dollars, which i never imagined giving anything like it, you give $1 million to the obama effort, obama superpac and the other guys, brothers gave a couple hundred million, and addelson, he gave a bunch, but he makes it eve h casinos in macaw. you know what i liked, the tv advertisement had nothing to do with results. people don't pick their president from 30-second tv ads. >> we don't know that. what i thought about giving the money early was defining mitt romney, letting people know who he was. especially in the swingg i twee night, since we've made these ten swing states the decider in this election, since they're the

simon cowells here who decide the singing contest, since obama basically ran the table in the swing states, shouldn't that be considered a mandate, chris? i'm asking you, chris. >> yes. yes, it should. >> okay. >> let me ask you about -- it's like your audience got to vote, like your view of world was out there. maine and maryland, perhaps washington will turn out, washington state, will actually -- voted for pro gay -- for same-sex marriages. it won't be the courts. it will be the people going to the voting booths. the marijuana thing developing. i wonder what it says when you can only have enough for, what, one person if you're stopped by a policeman and four and five people are in the car, do they divide it up quickly? i don't take it lightly but these new laws will be frisky to enforce, i would think. your thoughts. >> well, i can certainly answer your questions about one person and how you divide it up. but that's for another day, ag chris. as far as the laws themselves,

you know, i mean, fantastic. i went out and celebrated last night. this is really america moving nic is that the people who hate this, the tea party people who want to restore america and have the country go backward, they're always the liberty people. they're always talking about liberty and don't treadn libert. liberty is deciding what i put in my body, how i want to get high, who i want to marry, who i want to be with. this is actual liberty. they jus you can feel? >> yeah. actual freedom, yes. >> i've always -- i've thought about that a lot. by the way, i'm glad you finally said it. bill maher, freedom. it's when you were a kid and you got to leave the house around 10:30 at night, you'reá going out, you figured one of their parents would put their hand on your shoulder and pull you back and you kept going. that was freedom. nobody's pulling me back in the house at night. i'm going out. that was my first reality. thanks, bill. i love being on your show. up next, some other big

winners, we'll talk to joe donnelley, notre dame gu defeated richard mourdock. this is "hardball," a place for politics. 

mitt romney suffered the second worst home state defeat in the hit of presidential tion. romney lost massachusetts by 23 points last night. according to the smart politics blog, the only major presidential candidate to do worse6 in his home state was j

republican candidate. he won only about 19% of his home state of california in a three-way race, won by james buchanan. well, romney also lost the way, state that he was born in, michigan, plus california where he owns homes. we'll be right back. ♪ [ birds chirping ] are you sure you can fit in there? ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] around view monitor with bird's-eye view. nice work. [ male announcer ] introducing the all-new nissan pathfinder. it's our most innovative pathfinder ever. niss. tion that excites.

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it's just common sense, from td ameritrade. oh, hey alex. st ures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. welcome back to "hardball." in a series of hard fought races, democrat kept their seats. two more races have been called for democrats. project that joh tester of montana has won re-election. in north dakota, heidi heitkamp

beat rick berg. there are oth giving a 355 55t to 45 edge. joe donnelly won richard lugar's seat. mr. donnelly, congressman, i am so impressed. you gave up a safe seat in the house, you risked it all, put it all -- i guess you put it on blue, the democratic ticket, and you bet -- were you better off running against mourdock who ended up being little loosey goosy or would you have been better up against lugar? >> well, what i bet on was the

people of undindiana. we have commonsense and we're conservative but believe in getting things done and we are not extreme. what happened was this campaign came down to someone with very extreme positions and what i do the middle, the same place where senator lugar has been for the longest time, just trying to do commonsense things,d, you know, that made a lot of sense, that's that's where hoosiers were and we were very fortunate last night. >> you've been on the frontlines and there's nothing smarter than a candidate coming back from winning or losing an election. now, what do you know about the appeal of the other side? what is the main republican appeal to middle of the road voters? why would a person of sound mind vote republican? i mean, i really want you to stick your neck out now that the election is over. when you meet the people that you like and they say why, what is the best case they make?

>> the kind of republican senator lugar has been for years is making sure we ke our financial house in order, working hard for farmers and for agricultural community and for our rural towns. and so that's the appeal that so many in indiana have for the republican party and a big portion of the republican party has moved away from that and here in indiana, as a democrat, we have tried to fill that vote. we say, we want to focus on commonsense, on getting things done and focus like a laser on jobs. i was one of the folks who led on the auto fight along with sherrod brown and obviously president obama. that made a big difference in this race, too, chris. across that whole middle section of our state where we have a lot of auto plants and such, we did really well in that area. >> that's the reason ted kennedy got elected in massachusetts which is not as liberal as says it is. home state, focusing on a state

and what it needs. we'll be right back with more from senator-elect joe donly. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. y. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. ny. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. ey. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. ly. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. ly. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. , and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started; i can help you with the paperwork. umhis green line just appeaon my floor. yeah, that's fidelity helping you reach your financial goals. could you hold on a second? it's your money. roll over your old 401(k) into a fidelity ira and take control of your personal economy. this is going to be helpful. call or come in today. fidelity investments. turn here.

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welcome back to "hardball," we're back with senator-elect joe donnelly. let me ask you about this. what's the secret? come on, you must have learned something out there that we in the media never get right. >> a lot of it is constituent service. if you focus on the meat and