straight to washington. >> i know that if we can do this in trenton, new jersey, maybe the folks in washington, d.c. should tune in their tvs right now, see how it's done. >> and close call in virginia. democrat terry mcauliffe squeaked by republican ken cuccinelli to win the race for governor. now each party is learning the voter impact of the government shutdown and the rough health care rollout. >> this race came down to the wire because of obama care. that message will go out across america tonight. >> at a time when washington was often broken, just think about what virginia has been able to accomplish when we work together. >> round two, hhs secretary kathleen sebelius is back on capitol hill tampering expectations, admitting the tech

team faces an uphill battle to meet its end of the month deadline to fix the health care site. but the problems go beyond the glitches. the president's broken promise if you like your plan, you can keep it, continues to haunt the white house. >> i'd just like to ask you a simple true or false question. is that statement on the white house website true or is it false? >> sir, i think the statement is -- >> is it true or is it false? and good day, everyone. i'm kristen welker in for andrea mitchell. both republicans and democrats woke up this morning with a win to brag about, but what do the victories by chris christie and terry mcauliffe mean for political battles around the corner? joining me now for our daily fix, chris cillizza and

"washington post" editorial columnist ruth marcus. thanks to all of you for being here this afternoon. chris, i want to start with you with the big takeaways. you had chris christie, mcauliffe winning last night. what were your takeaways? who were the big winners and losers? >> the most obvious big winner is chris christie. i thought not only did he win a margin we have not seen a republican win in the better part of the last 25 years in new jersey, but i also thought the speech that he gave his victory speech afterward, which i guarantee you is very carefully crafted and his advisers knew the national media was listening in on. i thought it was quite good. thought it showcased if you like chris christie, why you like him. he was blunt. he communicated, i thought, very clearly. so i think it was a very good night for him, not a big surprise. i think virginia -- look, you're always a winner when you win, right? so terry mcauliffe is a winner. you look inside the numbers, and

it's very muddled. ken cuccinelli won among voters who thought the economy was most important issue. he won among voters who thought health care was the most important issue. he lost terribly among voters who thought abortion was the most important issue. my one takeaway there is that terry mcauliffe's campaign to paint ken cuccinelli as overly concerned with social issues like abortion, contraception worked quite clearly and worked very well in northern virginia in particular. >> and i want to delve deeper into virginia in just a moment, but ruth, turning back to chris christie, does last night's big win put him on stronger footing for a national election? and what happens in a primary? that gets more complicated for him, doesn't it? >> yes, it does. but it absolutely puts him on stronger footing. he is the republican governor who won in the off year, not the republican want-to-be governor who lost in the off year, which was a very unusual situation in virginia. i think there are seeds, though,

of worry for governor christie. what you mentioned, which is there is going to be a difficult road to navigate in a primary in a state that's outside new jersey or states that are outside new jersey, but also i think we saw those flashes of temper in this campaign that i really continue to wonder how that is going to play on the national stage where there's both more spotlight and more pressure. >> is that something that he's going to have to temper, ron? >> yeah, and it's not just the temper he shows publicly, but it goes to his whole temperament. how disciplined will he be? how will he respond to crisis? it's a real concern. >> people are making comparisons to george w. bush in 1998. has chris christie tapped into what the republicans should look for as the model for winning in 2016, ron? >> i would think so, if you just look at what he did in new jersey, which is a democratic state. he just won with 60% of the vote. he is trying to do the george bush model. that is really roll out the

numbers, especially with parts of the voting electorate that no other republican can really touch and say, okay, you might not really like everything about me, but at least i can win. there's a big difference between being a bush and a christie. you know, he's got a ways to go. >> essentially, it's a sort of george bush model wl a dose of bill clinton populism. >> that's an interesting point. >> i'll be with you until the last dog dies. here's governor christie really embracing my role is to help this state recover from sandy. that's a pretty powerful message. >> you just ticked off both bush and clinton. >> that's okay. i can cope with it. >> i want to delve back into virginia. social issues, ruth, were obviously a big factor here. 20% of voters said abortion was their number one issue. mcauliffe really trounsed cuccinelli when it came to women voters. have republicans not learned the lessons yet of 2012, which is that you need women voters to win and that women voters care

about these issues? they're not going to go too far to the right on these issues. >> they were dealt a hand with -- or they dealt themselves a hand with cuccinelli and record that was it was difficult for him to run away from. one of the most interesting factoids i read this morning really talked about the ability for mcauliffe to demonize cuccinelli on the issue. terry mcauliffe won among women generally, but if he had won among married women -- if he'd won among unmarried women only at the rate he won among married women, we'd have governor cuccinelli this morning. that really made a difference. >> there's something else going on. it's very reflective of the rest of the country because it is a swing state. look at the fact that about 53%, 54% in the public in virginia doesn't like obama care. 52%, 53% of the public in virginia, according to exit

polls, think government is doing too much, it's too big, which is kind of linked to obama care. and about the same percentage disapprove of barack obama. i think you saw that plague out too. >> cuccinelli brought up obama care in the final days. it really served him well. you saw him closing the gap there. good point. chris, i want to bring you back in. first of all, how big is an issue of obama care moving forward, and then more broadly, are republicans going to make any misstep by mcauliffe an issue against clinton should she decide to run? >> well, the answer to your second question first is, yes, of course they will. look, terry mcauliffe cannot -- actually, probably more accurately, the clintons cannot delink themselves from terry mcauliffe, even if he was the governor of, let's say, my home state of connecticut, which is not going to be a swing state battleground in 2016. he's the governor of what we know will be a swing state in 2016. so yes is the answer. you know, i don't know the answer on the first really

because i think that what we do not know as it relates to virginia, what we do not know is the obama coalition, kristen, can what barack obama did in 2008 and 2012 -- terry mcauliffe, there are a lot of signs in the exit polling that this was a race that ken cuccinelli could have won. as i said, he won economy voters. he won independents by nine. there was a lot of signs here that this virginia is not sort of a democratic or moving democratic stronghold. >> all right. chris, ron, and ruth, thank you so much for your insights this day after election day. and joining us now live from capitol hill, wyoming senator john brasso, chairman of the republican policy committee. thanks so much for joining me this afternoon. >> thank you, kristen. thanks for having me. >> i want to the start off with the victory in new jersey, chris christie. as we've just been talking about, he seems to have solved a lot of the gop electoral

problems, grabbing a majority of hispanic voters, also big returns among women, african-american voters. on papers, he's the kind of winner your party seems to need, but do you think the more the conservative republicans see him as a major part of your future? do you think conservative republicans are not ready to embrace him? >> i think all republicans and conservatives want to win the presidency three years ago. that election is still a long ways to go. we'll have a spirited primary contest. clearly, the disappointment and disgust around the country with this president's health care law, i think, is going to be a driving issue through the 2014 election. i think it'll continue through 2016 as more and more people are hit with sticker shock as a result of the president's health care law. people are going to continue to lose the coverage that they like and aren't going to be able to keep in spite of the president's promises. and the website is just the tip of the iceberg. there are so many problems with

his health care law that i think it's going to ripple through not just the 2014 but also the presidential election in 2016. >> and senator, we're going to get to health care in just a moment, but i want to keep it on the issue of the republican party. when you look at what happened last night more broadly, in virginia virginia, in alabama, were voters really sending a message to the tea party that they're rejecting the tea party, that it's too far right for them? >> i think voters were sending a message that they are focused on the economy. they are focused on the health care law. and they want people that can actually govern, people who will show they're responsible and deal with the problems facing the country. we want to nominate those folks and then they'll win elections. >> if you look at the breakdown, 48% of voters say they blame republicans for the government shutdown. a lot of people are saying ken cuccinelli lost last night in part because of that. ken cuccinelli had cruz out stumping for him.

so did he not learn lessons from the shutdown, and is it time to take a different tact? >> well, i thought it was important to keep the government open. actually, i voted against the shutdown, voted to reopen the government. i think that the president was eager to have a shutdown so he could blame republicans for it, but i think that it's important for us as republicans and conservatives to show that we are responsible and can govern responsibly, which is why i think the health care law, to see this incredible overreach by the president and the complete mismanagement and incompetence in the website but also the continuation of the problems that lie underneath this tip of the iceberg are going to continue to cause problems for the democrats in future elections. >> and senator, obviously to all these points you're making, health care will continue to be a major issue that republicans bring up, but does your party run the risk of having that messaging backfire if this website starts working and if

folks start getting health care and saying they like it, they like this legislation? >> well, the president has promised a couple things. first, he said that if you like what you have, you can keep it. they know that's not true. he said that the website would work easier than amazon. that's not true. and he said that the cost, which is a key issue for people, he said would be cheaper thank most people's cell phone bills. people are getting hit with sticker shock. they're realizing that they're out-of-pocket costs are going to be higher, not just in terms of their premiums but also in terms of deductibles, in terms of co-pay. and the whole issue of fraud related to this website, security risks, people having identity theft, even in hearings today in the finance committee, the secretary sebelius, she said that convicted felons could be hired by the government as navigators and we're going to have american citizens giving their name, address, social security number, financial information to people who are convicted felons because they

are permitted to be hired as navigators. >> senator, just to push back on a couple of your points, 5% of people are going to have to potentially get new plans. the government says many of those folks will get subsidies. >> that's 15 million americans. >> right, but we are hearing from people who are saying they are thankful they have health care coverage. so what does your message run the risk of backfiring if more and more people like this start to come forward? >> we now have stories from every state of people who have had insurance that they like, people with cancer, people who have had care who are losing that care because of the health care law, losing their insurance because of the mandates of the health care law, and the president promised the american people, if you like what you have, you can keep it, period. now he's blaming -- and this was the other night in boston along deval patrick, the governor of

massachusetts blaming the victims of obama care, blaming people who had insurance who have now lost it, blaming cancer patients because of the failures of their own law. the president needs to quit doubling down on the dishonesty and come forth and tell the american people that he misled them. he intentionally misled the american people and what he told them just wasn't true. >> all right, senator barasso, we're out of time. we'll have to leave it there. thank you so much for your time this afternoon. >> thanks for having me. >> well, all eyes were on the races in new jersey and virginia, but there were many other headlines and quite a few firsts from election night. in boston, the people of bean town elected state representative marty walsh to replace the city's longest serving mayor. voters in detroit elected the city's first white mayor in four decades. mike duggan will be tasked with bringing the motor city back

from the financial brink. and new york city will have its first democratic mayor in two decades. earlier today, he met with michael bloomberg, who held on to the mayor's seat for the past 12 years. i'm sure they had plenty to talk about at their meeting today. perhaps the new mayor elect can teach him a few moves. take a look at the de blasio family's celebratory smackdown dance from last night. check it out. [ cheers and applause ] my customers can shop around-- see who does good work and compare costs. it doesn't usually work that way with health care. but with unitedhealthcare, i get information on quality rated doctors, treatment options and estimates for how much i'll pay. that helps me, and my guys, make better decisions. i don't like guesses with my business, and definitely not with our health. innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

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let us pray. eternal god, every good and perfect gift comes from you alone. lord, give our senators the

wisdom to trust you in the small things. we pray in your sacred name. >> and that was a prayer said earlier today on the floor of the u.s. senate. legislatures from congress all the way down to local towns opened sessions with prayer, but the supreme court heard arguments today about whether the small town of greece, new york, goes too far. not because it opens town board meetings with a prayer, but because of the kind of prayers that are being said. joining me now is nbc's justice correspondent pete williams, who is live at the supreme court. pete, good afternoon to you. what is the latest from the supreme court, and based on what you heard today, is there any indication the court is ready to change on this? >> reporter: well, the supreme court, based on today's argument, is certainly not going to say that local government cannot open its meetings with a prayer. you just played a little bit of what happens in congress across the street here. that was a big point of argument

today, that this has been something that the founding fathers approved of. there have been paid chaplains since the first session of congress. 30 years ago the supreme court ruled that elective prayer is okay. but what two women who are suing over the town of greece's practice say, their prayers are almost exclusively christian. that was in essence government endorsement of a single faith. their lawyer said it's also different in a small town council when you're there asking for a zoning approval or asking for some policy change. you're there basically asking for something. if you decide not to participate in the prayer, if you sit it out, you're risking alienating the people you're asking for, for something in return from. so there's an element of coercion here. and that argument seemed to appeal to the court's liberals, but whether the court's majority is ready to go that far didn't seem very likely. it's certainly clear, and it was obvious from the argue, there's no simple answer to this question. several of the justices said

there's no way to come up with a nonsectarian prayer that is acceptable to all faiths, whether it's christian, jewish, muslim or nonbelievers. justice scalia said what's a prayer that appeals to a nonbeliever? it may simply be the court is going to overturn this appeals court ruling, which struck down the practice in the town of greece and basically come down to nothing more complicated than we've been doing this for 200 years and we might as well keep doing it. >> and pete, to that point, what are the broader implications, and could this reset standards for our understanding of the separation between church and state? >> reporter: well, that's what a lot of people were hoping. frankly, the supreme court's rulings on religion and government are all over the map. on whether you can have prayer in school, whether you can have menorahs in the town square, whether you can have ten commandments on the town hall. the rules that the supreme court

has used in these cases are all over the map. many people were hoping maybe today there will be a reset and the court will say for once and for all what the rule is. after today's argument, i'd say the odds of that are pretty slim. >> pete, one more quickly. as you pointed out at the top, this is the first time the supreme court has heard a case on prayer in 30 years. so it's significant for that reason in and of itself, isn't it? >> reporter: well, a lot of people thought it might be that, the court would revisit its ruling in 1983 involving the nebraska legislature when the court upheld legislative prayer, when was led by a paid presbyterian minister. but i don't think -- first of all, it's quite clear the supreme court, as i said before, is not going to stop local governments from leading prayers. that's a given, i think. the question is, would the court come up with some sort of a test to say, well, the prayer has to be nonsectarian, you have to give some kind of guidance to the local chaplains who give prayers that they can't endorse or denigrate any religion.

you know, urge them not to lead people in prayer, to stand or bow their heads, but just to give a prayer. there are some justices of the court who were clearly interested in going there, but i'm not sure there's a majority for that. >> all right. pete williams, thank you as always. >> reporter: you bet. the washington redskins are struggling this year with a 3-5 record, but off the field, the fight over their team name is heating up. yesterday the d.c. city council voted unanimously for a resolution urging the home town team to change its name. the council is just the latest group to call for a mascot change. the indian nation is leading a national campaign against the team's name. earlier this month, president obama weighed in saying the team should consider changing it. the debate is echoing across the country for schools that also have native american mascots. in wisconsin, for example, just yesterday the state legislature passed a bill that would help protect those team names. opponents say the bill is

inherently racist. governor scott walker says he has not yet decided whether he will sign the bill. we'll be right back after a quick break. there are cameras,, police, guards...ds us. but who looks after us online, where we spend more than 200 billion dollars a year. american express can help protect you. with intelligent security that learns your spending patterns, and can alert you instantly to an unusual charge. so you can be a member of a more secure world.

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it doesn't? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast-acting antihistamine. oh what a relief it is! despite being outspent by an unprecedented $15 million, this race came down to the wire because of obama care. >> all the polls said tuesday night would be an easy night for terry mcauliffe, but his opponent and analysts across the country think problems with the rollout of obama care kept that race close. new york congressman and democratic congressional committee chairman steve israel joins me live. thanks for joining me. >> thank you for having me on. >> i want to start on that point. congressional democrats had a lot of political momentum after

the shutdown. it looked like terry mcauliffe was going to win by a fairly reasonable margin last night, but he really just eked out a win. a lot of people think if ken cuccinelli had had a few more days to hammer the president's rocky rollout of his health care website, that he could have won. so how concerned are you about the political liability of the health care law in the 2014 races? >> well, first of all, cuccinelli tried to make this a referendum on the affordable care act, continuing this obsession with repealing it and defunding it. he couldn't seal the deal. this was a referendum on whether you embrace the ted cruz, john boehner, ken cuccinelli approach to government, which is shut down, slow down, crisis, inflicting pain on the economy in order to achieve partisan objectives. democrats were able to run on that, and that did seal the deal. moderate voters do not embrace

the ted cruz, john boehner agenda. they know obama care needs to be fixed and improved. they do not want it defunded and repealed. >> but chairman, how large of a political liability could this be in 2014 and 2016? obviously as you heard, republicans are not giving up on this line of attack. >> well, it wouldn't surprise me they won't give up. they've tried to repeal and defund the affordable care act nearly 50 times. they were willing to shut down the government in order to do so. that doesn't surprise me at all. number one, this has to get fixed. it needs to get solved and fixed sooner rather than later. everybody ununderstands that. secondly, every poll i have seen goes with this. when a voter, particularly an independent, swing voter, has a choice between a democrat who wants to fix and improve the affordable care act and a republican who's obsessed with repealing and defunding the affordable care act, about 54% in the swing districts would

vote for a democrat who wants to fix and improve it. so let's get focused on fixing and improving and end this obsession with who do we blame and rooting for failure. >> i want to talk to you about alabama now. we saw the tea party candidate lose there to a more establishment republican, bradley burn, in a congressional special election primary. so what do you make of that race? is that a message that the tea party is no longer a major political force, or do you still consider them to be a very strong political force? >> well, they are a strong political force. the civil war within the republican party continues to rage. in fact, there was another casualty of that civil war just today in new jersey. congressman john runyon, who described himself as a moderate republican, said today he will not seek re-election. the civil war within the republican party continues. and those who consider themselves to be moderate republicans, even though their voting records may not prove

that, but those who consider themselves to be moderate republicans representing moderate suburban, independent districts see the handwriting on the wall. if you're a moderate republican running in a moderate republican district and you are embracing john boehner's agenda, then it creates a very difficult path towards re-election. that's why about 14 republicans have bailed out on john boehner in this congress alone and announced they would not run for re-election. >> well, let's talk about what happened in new jersey. chris christie won a convincing victory in a blue state. is he potentially the candidate to beat in 2016 now? do you need to start directing your attention toward chris christie? >> well, i'm directing my attention at the 17 seats that we need to regain the majority in the house of representatives and end the shutdowns and slowdowns, the crisis and the infliction of pain on our economy. i will say this. chris christie, for whatever his reasons, motives, he actually did well by campaigning against john boehner. when the house republicans

refused to pass hurricane relief aid, chris christie was one of the first guys out there saying that's crazy. when they shut down the government for two weeks, chris christie actually said that's not a good idea. i think that's very instructive to us that the only way you can win as a republican is to run against republicans. >> i want to ask you one more about health care. as you know, president obama has been on defense all week about the promise he has made saying if you like your plan, you can keep your plan. he heads to texas a little bit later on today to talk about health care. hhs secretary kathleen sebelius testifying on the hill. how has the administration been dealing with this in your opinion? does the president need to change his messaging on this? >> well, what's important is that we fix this. when something goes wrong -- and things go wrong. things went wrong with the medicare prescription d plan that george bush rolled out. things went wrong with medicare when it was rolled out. there are two things we can do as a country. we can spend all our time figuring out who to blame, or we

can spend all our time figuring out how to fix it. i would prefer for the administration and for congress on a bipartisan basis to come together and figure out how do we fix this? >> and can i just get your thoughts really quickly on illinois legislature approving same-sex marriage, panotentiall becoming the 15th state to do so? >> i am just so thrilled. this is one of the great civil rights issue of our time. slowly state legislatures are doing the right thing and ending discrimination against people based on who they love. >> all right. congressman steve israel, thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. well, politics is the story of the day for our neighbors to the north, where a scandal is dominating headlines all over canada. toronto mayor robert ford says he will not step down after his stunning admission yesterday that he smoked crack. in a news conference, ford apologized but said he would leave his political fate up to the voters. listen to what he said.

>> i feel like a thousand pounds have been lifted off my shoulders. folks, i have nothing left to hide. i was elected to do a job, and that's exactly what i'm going to continue doing. you really love, what would you do?" ♪ [ woman ] i'd be a writer. [ man ] i'd be a baker. [ woman ] i wanna be a pie maker. [ man ] i wanna be a pilot. [ woman ] i'd be an architect. what if i told you someone could pay you and what if that person were you? ♪ when you think about it, isn't that what retirement should be, paying ourselves to do what we love? ♪

well, a day after his

landslide re-election victory, new jersey governor chris christie is back to business as usual. christie met with students at the jose freshman academy in union city today, a town that helped deliver christie the election. he's speaking to the assembled students and reporters now in the governor's first news conference since september 18th. that is about to get underway momentarily. chris christie easily won re-election as new jersey's governor, building up solid support from republicans and some democrats in an otherwise very blue state. with this win, will he spend more time on the national stage as the chair of the republican -- or he will actually spend more time on the national stage as the chair of the republican governors association, but the question is, will his message and his popularity translate in the rest of the country, or will the gov have to tweak his jersey attitude? charlie cook is an msnbc political analyst and the founder of the cook political report. he joins us now live. thanks for joining us, charlie.

we appreciate it. >> thank you, kristen. >> so what message do you think christ christie's big win will send to the rest of the gop and the rest of the country? has he basically found a blueprint for winning in 2016? >> i think governor christie's big re-election win says to republicans, if you down play social cultural issues that you could find a nice spot where you're moderately conservative but not too far on economic and simply don't talk too much about cultural issues, that that's a way to go after and peel off some democrats and win the share of independents. >> well, he is going to chair the republican governors association. that's going to give him a chance to stump nationally, essentially, four states up for grabs in the 2014 election. what type of message and posturing will he have to have there? will he stick to sort of the chris christie we know who gets into fights with teachers or will he have to adjust that sort of brash attitude that new

jersey residents love but might not play in the same way across the country? >> well, the chairman of the republican or democratic governors association, it's really more of a mechanical job, not a spokesman job. so it's going to be -- it would give him an opportunity to meet with the republican party's biggest donors around the country and to sort of lay a groundwork should he run for president. but as a -- you know, it's not really that high a visibility a job. so -- and each of these states, the governors races, they're not about him. they're about whoever the republican nominee for governor is. so i wouldn't focus so much on what his -- what kind of persona he's projecting as chairman of the rga. >> if he does throw his hat into the ring in 2016, is he going to have to dial some of that chris christie-ness back a little bit to appeal to some of the voters across the country who aren't from new jersey who might not understand that brash side of him? >> well, there's no question

that he's got -- that governor christie has a very high testosterone level. that's sort of what makes him so interesting for a moderate. but the thing is, i think that's one of the least of his problems. the first question is, can a party that seriously considered michele bachman, herman cain, rick perry, newt gingrich, make a move in one election cycle over to someone who's, you know, fairly middle of the road like chris christie? that's a tough question. the second one has to do with some of the revelations or some of the reports that were in the new book "double down," the mark halperin book, is whether there really was stuff in the mitt romney package on christie as he was considered to be a running mate. you know, whether any of that stuff -- is it true? you know, is it a fair

characterization? you know, those are the kind of things that if they were all what they are purported to be would be a real problem if he ran for president. and if they're exaggerated, blown out of proportion, not so much. so, you know, to me, the sort of attitude thing is tertiary behind those two factors. >> charlie, i want to pick up on your point about the republican party more broadly. if we look at all of the results last night from alabama, also what happened in virginia, does it suggest that the tea party wing is losing the civil war we've been talking about and the more moderate branch of the republican party is winning out? >> i think -- first of all, i wouldn't draw too many conclusions off of an odd-year election. the fact is, you know, alabama first district special election, you know, it's one out of four in 35 districts. yeah, the establishment won by four points. but there are going to be a lot manufacture fights between now and then before this is settled.

this is like a fort sumpter. for virginia, the fact that cuccinelli did lose by a less margin than expected gives the tea party or more conservative republicans some out where they could say, well, if the party had just gotten behind him earlier and more. if governor mcdonald didn't have legal problems. it's not -- you know, maybe a lesson ought to be learned from it, but i kind of doubt if that lesson will be learned from it. >> all right. charlie cook, as always, thank you for your insights. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> and we want to rejoin that event now. let's listen in live to governor chris christie addressing his second-term priorities, including education in his first news conference since being re-elected. >> so you know, we're going to continue to work together, do the same things we've done before. it's produced a good result that the people of new jersey seem pretty happy with. if that's the case, there's no

reason to fix it if it's not broken. i think the public came to that conclusion. so it's my job now to make it happen. that's exactly what i intend to do over the course of the next four years. so even though i've been extraordinarily available on the trail to answer all people's questions and allow them to talk to me during the times when we had no availabilities, i know there's been a bit about the fact you haven't had me behind the podium to answer your questions. so here you go. and for those of you -- [ laughter ] obviously, the students behind me have seen me before doing this. so for the uninitiated, we answer good questions. so i hope you have some good ones this morning. we'll go to an out of towner first. kelly, you've been following me around for a week. what do you have? >> you said you want people

around the country to watch what you've accomplished here. are you prepared to make any adjustments to your personal style, to tone down your brashness to appeal to people beyond new jersey? >> no. >> none at all? >> listen, no. this is who i am, kelly. you're asking me at 51 years old now to become a different person. >> just to adjust. >> listen, i adjust all the time, which i think folks who watch me all the time notice. i'm not a one-trick pony. and i have the ability to be able to read a situation and to conduct myself for the way i think is most effective. that's what governs what i do. i'm not here to put on a show. i'm here to win. and i define winning in everything that i do. it's not just about last night. it's about on a particular issue, on a particular vote in a legislature. what i attempt to do is express myself in a way that i think will be most effective to be able to govern. that's what the executive's job

is. but fundamentally, i'm not going to be changing who i am. you know, i think the verdict from last night is that at least in new jersey people like who i am and like the way i govern. so i'm going to just continue to be that way. i have no responsibilities other than the responsibilities i have in this state. to the extent that anybody, as i implied last night, can draw from. i'm willing to talk about it. as to the fundamental part of your question, no, i don't see myself changing any time soon. that's why i used that line to end the speech last night about what my mother used to tell me as a kid. you know, be yourself and you don't have to worry tomorrow to try and remember who you pretended to be yesterday. that's what my mom used to tell me and my younger brother and younger sister. she drilled it into us for years. this is me. some people's cup of tea, maybe not. that'll be for other people to decide. right now the only people i have to worry about pleasing are the

people who live within the confines of this state. and that's, from last night, i think i'm doing okay. dana. >> you told the kids in the classroom just a bit ago that you're not running for president, but everybody's talking about you running for president. the question is, how do you keep that from becoming a major distraction over the next couple of years as you govern the state of new jersey? >> yeah, i don't get distracted very easily. it takes a lot to distract me. and i think the way it won't be a distraction is i simply won't let it. listen, one of the things you saw in 2010 and 2011 was that there was enormous speculation about me running for president then. and i would get asked about it almost at every press conference, even though the entire time i was saying, no, i'm not running. until finally i had a press conference to once again say i wasn't running. i've gone through this before. we achieved a lot during that

time. so it's not new to me. i've had the speculation about me before. if it comes again, it comes again. i think that's nothing but good for the people of new jersey because they wouldn't be speculating about somebody who wasn't doing their job well. so if they're speculating about me, that means i'm continuing to do my job well. if i'm doing my job well, that's good for the people here. so i've never seen it as a distraction. and i've said before, i don't see it as a burden either. you have to have a huge ego, right? oh, please, it's such a burden for you to be speculating about me being the leader of the free world. stop, i'm so burdened. i mean, you know, that's a pretty huge ego to be complaining about that. it's complimentary. it's flattering. and i have no problem with it. but i'm going to be really clear about this. i have a job to do. i got re-elected to do a job last night. that's the job i'm going to do. i'm not worried about all this other stuff. if the time comes where i change my mind and i decide i want to do something else, i'll tell the people of new jersey i want to do something else. but this is what i want to do.

that's why i ran for re-election. luke. >> you've had a relationship with leaders in the legislature -- [ inaudible ] >> no, they tried to elect barbara buono and i'm not mad at them either. it's their job. they held fundraisers for her, campaigned with her. she lost. i won. they have to deal with me. they won, i have to deal with them. that's the way it goes. this is practicality. elections have consequences. and those consequences cannot be i didn't get my way, therefore i'm taking my ball and going and holding my breath. people made a decision. in new jersey, they have decided they want divided government. we can sit around and debate why

that is, but that doesn't change the circumstance. so my job today is to do that. the good news is, i got four years of experience dealing with it. so it's not like i'm coming in cold to it like i did four years ago. i know how to do this. and by the way, so does steve. so i'm not concerned about it at all. and, you know, we'll do the best we can, but steve and i talked about this this morning. elections are elections. we do what we have to do. he campaigned hard for his folks. i campaigned hard for mine. and then people decide. and they've made their decision. and they've made their voices clear and now it's time for us to go to work. we'll do it. so i have no concerns about it at all. >> how do you see the dynamics

changes nationally for any republican vying for office, you as well? >> you know, politics, i can't speak to how it will translate nationally. i don't know if it would or wouldn't, for me or anybody else. but sometimes i think people make politics too complicated. it's not that complex. it's about person relationships. at the end of the day, it's about the existence or lack of personal relationships in terms of getting things done. and i mean personal relationships first and foremost with the voters. you have to make a personal connection with people you want to support you. second, with the people that you work with every day in your own circle. you have to have a group of people around you, staff and cabinet, who believe in you and the direction you're trying to move the state so that you have a unified front to move forward. third, with the people in the legislative branch. you have to have relationships with them so that when you sit down and you make agreements,

that they know because they know you that you'll keep to your agreement. and that means they'll keep to theirs. and that's all about personal relationships that you have to build at each one of those levels. the people levels. the people of new jersey rewarded me with the personal relationship we have. with the broad spectrum of people voting for me last night that hadn't voted for a republican in a long time, and didn't vote for me four years ago. i have one of the most extraordinary staffs and cabinets in the history of this state. i've heard people whisper about it. these are a group of intensely loyal, focused, talented people who make me better. and my relationship with the legislature has been on full display for everybody to see. we've gotten very, big important things done in a bipartisan way. sometimes i just think, people make this too complicated. it's not that complicated. >> governor chris christie

answering tough questions in his first news conference since winning re-election, including from our own kelly o'donnell down playing consideration he may be considering a possible 2016 run. christie saying, i have a job to do. now the country, an outbreak of polio that has health officials deeply concerned. nancy snyderman just returned from the region and filed this report. >> reporter: with million s yea yans displaced, a case that isn't seen a single case of polio since 1989 there are concerns it will spread beyond syria by refugees. personnel meet truckfuls of

family and vaccinateding every child across the border, almost 19,000 last week alone. it's a race to keep the conflict from further damaging its youngest victims with a disease that's normally so easy to prevent. >> dr. nancy snyderman joins me now from new york. thank you for joining me. you just returned from that region. what were you seeing on the ground? what were the conditions like? >> it depends. in jordan, there's a large refugee camp, almost semipermanent at this point to the aspect they have a hospital and women's clinic established. neighbors lebanon, they use the military to serve as interface, anyone crossing into lebanon must be vaccinated at the border. i have to say jordan and lebanon have really ramped up trying to stop this outbreak. the concern is for every child shown up with polio, there may be 200 now carrying the virus

and they want to stop it at its borders literally. iraq is sort of a squishy area because we don't know how much are going across the iraqi border but that medical infrastructure has been devastated. >> winter is coming, what could the implications of that be on these people? >> there could be terrible because we know that people will be huddling together. there's a shortage of petrolle and housing. any time you bring people together, it's easier to pass a virus like this. it likes to live in water. it is isolated in cairo and wild type virus. the concern is for a lot of people, where did it come from and are we just looking at the tip of the iceberg. from the world health organization and unicef, the tip of the iceberg situation is for real. inoculating people who cross the borders is a step. but if conditions are lousy,

it's a real genuine concern. >> i want to delve into that, 10 polio cases confirmed more broadly. how deep does that go within the medical community? >> it's a huge concern because there were no cases at all since 1999, no cases in lebanon or jordan since 1992. we're never kplasant we made it go away. you can start to say job well done but the vaccination rate in syria was over 90%. and we know you sort of need that immunity to keep people safe. in just two and a half years since this war broke out, the vaccination rates have now been cut by a third. and so we know now that's probably the natural history of how long it takes for polio to rear its head. once it takes place, if you have an undervaccinated population and certainly we can assume refugees are under vaccinatevac.

we might be just seeing the beginning and that would be dech vas tating for all surrounding countries. >> fleeing syrians are not being given refugee status in lebanon. how does that impact the overall conditions there? >> it's different depending on which country. it comes to political nature of things. jordan has given formal refugee status and set up the large camps where you can leave if you go back to syria or sponsored by a family or going on to europe. in lebanon, they are recognizing fleeing people as refugees but there isn't a coordinated camp of sorts. so you see sort of makeshift squatters camps in the cities and countryside. and the concern is those makeshift camps maybe porous. >> thank you for that incredible reporting. >> coming up tomorrow, we'll talk to senator kirsten

gilibrand. tamron hall is here with a look at what's next on "news nation." >> great job. coming up next hour, tea party takes it on the chin while christie and de blasio come up big winners and mcauliffe eeks out a victory in virginia. we'll play more of what christie said, the day after analysis. plus, we're getting new surveillance video out of georgia in the case of this young man, 17-year-old kendrick johnson's death. the camera according to new information, was aimed in the direction where johnson's body was found, but, authorities say because of a motion detector it was not activated. we'll have the very latest on this new development in this ongoing investigation. later, it's being described as extraordinary, astonishing, pope francis asking more than a billion catholics their thoughts that were once considered off limits, gay marriage, divorce,

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your worst cold symptoms, plus has a decongestant. [ inhales deeply ] oh. what a relief it is. no sign of crack, toronto mayor rob ford says he loves his job and won't resign despite admitting to smoking crack cocaine. >> i was elected to do a job. and that's exactly what i'm going to continue doing. >> more evidence new surveillance video from the day kendrick johnson died is released just today. why police say the cameras did not record how the teen's body ended up in a gym mat. and the pope and the people. the latest shake-up is being called fascinating and astonishing, he'snc