this sunday -- >> obviously, republicans had a good night. >> a democratic midterm melt doub. republicans seize the senate and leave the democrats tangled up in red. >> this election was a repudiation of the president. >> how did the gop create a electoral tsunami nobody saw coming? i will be joined by a possible presidential candidate wisconsin's scott walker and political big hitter howard dean. and the republicans say they will work with the president for the good of the country. >> i will enjoy some kentucky bourbon with mitch mcconnell. >> it is going to be a lot of hard work. >> and the e rerecovery may be

left behind. >> and howard schultz and how big business can help communities who are asking, what rekoh are ri? >> and do you think that the community map can be expanded for 2016? >> we won in red states, blue states and more purple states. >> and surprise! they may be seeing more blue than ever before. i'm chuck todd and joining us are eric canter and stephanie cutter, former adviser to president obama, amy cook, as well as my colleague over at msnbc and telemundo, jose diaz valart. it has been a drubbing.

it happened to george bush and to barack obama in 2010 and now history has repeated itself tuesday. there is some localizing of the e elections and the vaunted turnout efforts and democrats thought some luck could hold the losses down. well, nothing worked. pick the adjectives, beating, trouncing, shellacking, and all of them fitting for what happened to the democratic party. another way to describe the election is what happened to president barack obama even if he does not see it that way. >> every election a moment for reflection. i think that everybody in the white house is going to say, okay, what do we need to do differently. >> they will have a lot to reflect on. it was always projected to be a good night for the senate republicans, and it ended up to be a memorable one with the gop picking up seven seats and most li likely alaska and louisiana will give them nine.

but it was the gubernatorial races as they watched blue h state, maryland, massachusetts and illinois pick republican governors and adding to that other states where they were vulnerable like maine and wisconsin and florida, where they picked up nothing. it was a drubbing where the republicans picked up 11 more legislative chambers giving them a more advantage over the democrats. this is serious implications over the structure of government and elections and not only e redistricting in 2011 but the early voting laws and the timing of voting and how politics will be conducted in many of the places. one of the few bright spots for the losing team, voters in five states approved voter minimum wage increases. joining me now is the governor of wisconsin, scott walker,

after winning his blue state for the fourth time in with wisconsin and many rocketed governor walker to the top of many of the list of potential presidential lists. thank you for coming on. >> thank you, chuck, for having me on. >> and 52.3%, and 52.3% in the recall, and 53% for you and barack obama in 2008 and 53% in 2012 and a pat e tern here, and i think that we know what your ceiling is 53%, and the president's ceiling is maybe higher than that, but is there an obama/walker voter, and if so, who are they? >> well, in our case, we had double-digits with thement in -- with the independents, and we can't win in our state withoutt the double-digit independent voters. so we reached out to the younger

voters and not just the traditional voters go ourg way. >> you said that one of the reasons that you had success in wisconsin and president obama had success in wisconsin is that you were principled in the beliefs, and do you believe that centrism does not work in wisconsin, and they want to pick something progressive or something conservative, but they don't want anything in the middle? >> i think that in wisconsin, we are very much like america, independent voters who decide elections in swing states like ours want people to lead and have big bold ideas and act on them. four years ago in my state, everything was blue, the republicans with were out of power in the assembly and the senate and the governorship, and in the election of 2010, i told the majority to put up or shut up time meaning that we are less bad than the democrats before us, the voters would have every reason to throw us out, and four years later, we sit and not only did i win for the fourth time, and added to the majorities in the house and the senate, and a

message to washington. >> is this something that you believe will translate nationally? >> well, in our case, certainly, we had a slowdown early on with the protests, but in the last year, we saw the best from september-to-september, and the best private sector job growth in more than a decade and the unemployment rate down from 9.2% in 2010 down to 5.5%, and if you lower the taxes and ease the regulations and put the power back in the hands of the people to kree dree yat the jobs, it will happen. >> but in wage growth, it is below the national average, wisconsin is, and when it comes to job growth, it is below the national average and the tax cut policy has created a larger deficit, $1.8 million deficit hole that you have to plug next year in part because of the state revenues did not come in as expected. is it possible that the idea of cutting the the taxes to create jobs and stimulate the economy

is not working in wisconsin? >> no, it is the opposite. the reason that the revenues are down is because we cut withholding. that is where the government will take your money, and we cut that in a april and so we anticipated that redk snun april, because we gave that money back to the hardworking people. and so the no growth does not change the budget, does not happen. because we have a budget starting with more than of a surplus happening, and so if you compare that to illinois who raised a taxes and with ee lowe taxes, and thank god they elected bruce raumer, because they will be able to tirurn it over as well.

>> and i don't know if you were taking a a vailed shot at john kasich, but it is that you were critical of him taking the money which is going to make it more difficult for him to balance the budget, and giving hill health insurance to a lot of people above the poverty line and you don't want to do that, but do you have second thoughts? >> no, from our standpoint with we did something unique from any other state in the country. for the first time in the country, not a person is on a waiting list for poverty. we have access to health care and with we don't put the taxpayers at risk. states who have taken the medicaid expansion are betting on the fact that the congress and the president who can't deal with the $17 trillion debt are going to come up with the money, and they haven't come up with the money as we speak. >> so you think that governor kasich came up with a mistake? >> well, again, every state is different and i won't criticize individual governors, but in our case, i won't bank on the the

federal government to bank on something, because they have shorted other states across the country and wisconsin and relying on the federal government to balance your budget is a fool's bet. >> you made your name having to do with the collective bargaining issue in wisconsin. so there is an agreement over the years that if you come into the public sector, teacher, firefighter, police officer, in exchange for not et getting a public-sector-like salary, you will get a pension, and protected retirement like in the form of a pension which many in the private sector don't get, and do you still believe in the basic agreement? >> well, in the end, providing for good decent hard serving public servants is a good thing to do. my brother and sister who work at sears said they would love to have the deal you offer your

public ser vapts. we match their pension, and the average family in the state is paying 20 to 25%, and we provide a good deal and they don't have to pay union dues. >> and you do still believe in the pension for the government workers? >> yes, and i do and they will be guaranteed because of the reforms we have that were put in place before i came into office and the ones i put in after i came in office. >> do you plan on going? is. >> i plan on going for the next four year, and i deeply care for my state and my country. >> do you defer to paul ryan. >> i said i would be the president of the the paul ryan fan club. but if we beat hillary clinton, we have to say that hillary c n clinton is all about washington and in many ways she was the big loser tuesday, because she embodies everything that is wrong with washington, and now,

all of the people have executive experience outside of washington have a good fresh approach from the the bottom-up, and that is what you are going to get to the stat states. >> you are not deferring to paul ryan, but you are looking for a member of congress to be the nominee? >> paul rand and others who are not a member of congress will make the best leaders. >> and thank you for coming on. >> thank you, chuck. go, packers! >> and now, despite a juicy sound bite, the president avoid ed a way to describe the election results, but there were ways to lick the wounds. >> i must confess i have sadness tonight. >> and surveying the the wreckage, there was blame of the president and unfriendly map and

off year electorate. >> for those who voted, i hear you. for the 2/3rds of voters who chose not to vote, i hear you, to too. >> and it is an ebbing of the republican voters. >> and there is finger-point in. harry reid said that the president's approval rating is barely 40%, and what more is there to say? and others argue that tuesday's losses were not a disaster. >> we have had better nights, and worse nights. in 2006, the republicans lost 30 seat, and we lost about 15. >> there is a word for that, spin. not only did the republicans win the senate control, they are poised to hold the largest majority in the house since herbert hoover, and it is a firewall that could take democrats a decade to break through. how did it happen?

in early 2014, the democrats had a game plan to run on a populous economic message. >> and opportunity for all. >> paexpand opportunity. >> opportunity is who we are. >> join the rest of the kcountr. say yes. give america a raise. >> instead, while four red states approved minimum wage hikes by large margins tuesday, d democratic candidates abandoned the populous call to arms. >> they have successfully made this campaign a referendum on president obama which i do not believe would be all that important if we as democrats had done a better job messaging exactly what the president has done. >> and the senate democrats also insisted that the president delay executive action on immigration to save their red state candidates particularly in the south. not only didn't it work, it may have hurt some democrats in states with large hispanic

population populations. in florida where democrat charlie crist narrowly lost the governor race, the e electorate dipped from 17% to 13% in 2014. and in colorado, cory gardener improved on republican 2010 e showing in 20 of. 1 counties that had the largest hispanic population. to win, democrats believed they needed the base voters to come out, and they made the election a project of assembly the coalition groups, and that didn't happen, and instead, numbers that were posted looked more like the democratic 2010 shellacking than the obama 2012 victory leavingen the democrats asking, does the coalition exist without obama on the ballot? and there is a coalition between the white voters. in the last three elections

white voters and in particular white men have broken for the republican republicans by huge margins. this year the gop won white noncollege graduate bis 30 points. how does the party are refresh itself? don't expect the new faces to lead the congress, because both reid and nancy pelosi are expected to keep their positions, and the remaking of the party will fall at the feet of another popular democrat, hillary clinton. and joining me is howard dean who was tasked with repilding t -- rebuilding the the party after the fall in 2010. and now what do -- >> infamous defeat. the president has been brilliant with the strategy to pull it together, but for a variety of reasons and not all of them to

do with the dnc. and of all of those people, jim clyburn was the most accurate, and it was message. sure it was an off year, and we can make all of the excuses, but there the days of the 50-state strategy and take thing over the house and the senate when i was running the dnc, i could not keep the washington democrats to stay on message. the republican message was, we are not obama, and no substance, and the democrat message, oh, we are not either. you cannot win if you are afraid! it sounded like it. are where the hell is the democratic party? you have to stand for something if you want to win. >> and tim balls had a rough piece. it said that it hallowed out the democratic party, and without prominent state-wide leaders, the democrats are in trouble of seeing the party atrophy. >> we have a strategy.

>> what is it? >> they do the training and we do the intel and they weave together this incredible organization that the president has done in the last eight years for his campaigns, two of the best campaigns ever run in the history of american presidentials, and you are to ip still discipline and money, and you have to instill it. >> and the parties are focused on the gender gaps, but are they too focused on the gender gap. the numbers of white men. in 2006, democrats had 44% of white men. nobody said they would win white men, but the democrats were competitive, but it is down to 33%. >> i saw that. one of the reasons is that we are not on the lunch bucket issues. when we stick to the lunch bucket issues and you saw the president's clip, and white men have been tough for us since the

southern strategy of richard nixon, and so 4% is great for us -- >> 44%? >> if the we lose by 4%, that is terrific, but the erosion of the white men has to do with the fact that the economy is not better and the folks are under big time stress, and we have to have a message that has to do with the basic economics. it helps us all across the board, but particularly with white men. >> and now, there is a concern among some that because there is a coronation of hillary clinton that actual ly the democratic party could use some freshening and some new faces, and hillary clinton is the nominee, and probably the strongest nominee, but are you concerned that there are not going to be any other democratic no, ma'amnominees. >> well, there are going to be other nominees. >> and does she need -- >> well, no other nominee needs one. >> does the democratic party

needs one? >> well, we don't need one, but we will get one. it is the most important office of the country, and you won't have uncontested march. but the truth is that there are a number of things to debate, and we should debate income inequality and the fact that corporation corporations are controlling not only the republican party, but the government of the united states, and the fact that the supreme court has deviated from the constitution on numerous occasions, and i have yet to find where the constitution says that a corporation is a person, and there is a tremendous ke bait to be had, and so with we have to find that. >> and are you going to to be helping with that debate? >> am i going to be running for president, no. will i help, yes. >> and thank you for coming on. and another reason for the democratic loss, and we talked about it with howard dean, democratic loss, and we talked about it with howard dean, howard schultz, ceo of

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[♪] great rates and safety working in harmony. open an optimizer +plus account from synchrony bank. visit myoptimizerplus.com to open an account. service. security. savings. synchrony bank engage with us. what will the new faces of congress look like next january? here is the current snapshot. as it stands, the 114th congress will have 68 new members, 11 new senators. one is a democrat. the other ten are republicans. the gop could add two more to their ranks with alaska and

louisiana. at least 57 new house members, 16 democrats, 41 republicans. of those, the new, 13 are women. 11 of the new members are under the age of 40. still, 80% disapproval rating in it the exit polls for congress, 87% of the 535 are coming back. go figure. up next, the america still waiting for the recovery. we will talk to starbucks ceo howard schultz about when change is in the air you see things in a whole new way. it's in this spirit that ing u.s. is becoming a new kind of company. one that helps you think differently about what's ahead, and what's possible when you get things organized. ing u.s. is now voya. changing the way you think of retirement.

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i'm just looking over the company bills.up? is that what we pay for internet? yup. dsl is about 90 bucks a month. that's funny, for that price with comcast business, i think you get like 50 megabits. wow that's fast. personally, i prefer a slow internet. there is something about the sweet meditative glow of a loading website. don't listen to the naysayer. switch to comcast business today and get 50 megabits per second for $89.95. comcast business. built for business. welcome back. the panel is here with lots to talk about. welcome to all of you. mr. canter, since you are new to this world and you were form ery over there, they say which nv[y govern. i pose the question to you. which one will show up and which

one should show up? >> first of all, look at history over the last couple years. the house was extremely productive in passing legislation. as we all know, bills just started to stack up in the senate. i do think that's part of the outcome that we saw on tuesday is the inability for congress to work for the senate to act -- >> you won that argument. democrats would say that the republicans held just as much responsibility for the gridlock. >> significant frustration about the inability of it to work. the question will be, as the speaker has said this week, is there going to be common ground? and i think you will see very quickly within six weeks whether there's going to be common ground. on the one hand, we have heard a lot about the president saying he will act on this question of an executive order for immigration. if he does that, that's incendiary. i think we are going to be in store for a very, very -- >> isn't repealing healthcare

just as incendiary? >> i will say this. there's probably something more incendiary. that's not incendiary because we know that that's going to happen, just like in 20 -- after 2006 election when the democrats won, they went over and over again to pass bills condemning the position on iraq. in the end, congress ended up supporting president bush's position. >> is this equal incendiary? >> yes. i thinkny the difference is tha even though the house and the senate, the new republican majorities have committed to attempt to repeal healthcare, the president said i disagree with you. but that's not going to stop me from working with you on other issues. contrast that to republicans who say, if you move forward on immigration, mr. president, even though we have not acted over multiple years, then we're just going to shut down and stop working with you. that is no way to start a new republican majority. we have to find ways to work together, even if we disagree on

some issues. >> jose, what's the hispanic committee going to do if he tables for another six months? is that incendiary? >> yes. by the way, the congress did act before going on the break. they voted to defund any future actions the president may take. they did act and make a statement. i think the key here for immigration is that with the loss of mr. canter among other things, back then, it was a message that the house should not support immigration reform. if they had done it back then, we wouldn't deal about this now. the president made a promise. i think he will keep it. >> this is two nuclear bombs, it sounds like to me. is that fair, that each side ha back like that? >> it could come back. the biggest problem is intraparty rather than democrats versus republicans. >> each side has to sort their own politics out. >> it's more within the republican oparty, deciding who

they want to be and knowing what they are up against in 2016, which is their own map problems. can mitch mcconnell help protect them while pushing an agenda? >> you will weigh in more. we have more for you to talk about. you canby3x imagine how frustr they are at the white house, by the way. so many economic indicators have been good. still voters threw democrats out of office because of the economy. unemployment rate has fallen more than four points since the bottom of the recession to 5.8%. the stock market has risen to an all-time high on friday. the deficit has shrunk to its lowest level compared to the size of the economy since 2008. the deadbt accumulation is growing. yet, americans disapprove of the job the president is doing on the economy. there's a reason for that. the recovery is concentrated in more densely populated areas. we asked luke russert to visit the america that the recovery has left behind.

>> reporter: far from cities, and often too far from campaign trail, rural america is not feeling the economic recovery. unemployment in georgia stands at roughly 8%, the highest in the nation. and in the small towns, jobs with a future are hard to come by. >> we may be in a recovery in some places but not in rural america. tough times. >> if i don't work, i don't eat. >> reporter: these towns once thrived growing peaches. but jobs left and the work never came back. what's not working for them? washington. >> you can't control &stuff. >> reporter: at lunchtime, bar be bers and clients say they can't be heard. >> how can my voice be heard? >> reporter: feeling ignored,

small business owners, like this man who owns a landscaping company "oinearby, he wants to create jobs and pay his employees higher wages. but says taxes and government regulations stand in his way. >> only time we hear from the federal government is if where he in trouble. >> reporter: while business has returned to some degree, it's not booming. >> wall street investors and they are happy. but small businessowners, i can't say there's that much enthusiasm. >> reporter: in fact, there's a helpless feeling here in rural america that the political system is not set up for them. >> they don't seem to want to do anything. they are fighting each other. >> reporter: had is your father's furniture store? his father sold furniture but had to close down in the '80s. >> they need to come listen to people in small rural towns. >> reporter: while the struggle continues, rural americans voice an unending desire to be heard and not forgotten. >> we hope and pray.

>> reporter: for "meet the press," luke russert. >> nothing says economic growth than when a starbucks shows up in your community. i thought it would be a good idea to bring in the ceo of starbucks, howard schultz, to talk about this issue of rural america and this uneven economic recovery. thanks for coming on "meet the press." >> thanks, chuck. >> in many ways the starbucks symbol, there's this feeling, the neighborhood is on the move. if you are not in a neighborhood, then it's the feeling that that neighborhood isn't moving. what do you look for in a rural or ex-urban community? we know where you go in urban communities. what do you look for that tells you this is going to be a good place to put a starbucks? what needs to happen to make you feel as if the economy is growing? >> my heart going out to those people. the truth of the matter is, problems exist throughout the country, not only rural america. we have stores everywhere.

i just -- i feel as if the economic situation that we are dealing with is directly linked to the situation in washington in which there has been a fracturing of trust and con confidence for over ten years. >> you think that's directly tied to washington? >> absolutely. >> explain. >> here is an example. i was at west point friday. i spent the day with an extra ordinary young candets. can you imagine if the new congress embraced and lived by that. country would have -- would be in a better position than we are today. in addition to that, we have a million veterans now entering  2.5 million have served in iraq for the last -- >> disproportionately from urban america that they are coming home and not finding jobs. >> it could be catalytic if we hired these veterans. but we're not.

as a result of that, we have written the book. we have a big concert tuesday night. we are encouraging businesses and business leaders to do one thing, forget washington for a while. let's forget pointing fingers, stop blaming them. as business people and leaders, we need to take the lead and do what we can to move the country fo forward. >> what would be your recipe for this sort of -- the issue of rural economy? here is what's going on. they were one manufacturing towns. that manufacturer leaves. it's been replaced -- the jobs are replaced, sometimes a casino, sometimes it's home healthcare workers, the only growing j ining job opportunity. they just leave. what do you do? >> an example. i was in ohio right outside of pittsburgh, we saw an old factory that has been out of work for over ten years, a pottery factory. we went to that factory. starbucks gave them an order. we started employing people and restored the factory.

businesses across the country need to recognize, we need to bring manufacturing back to america. these rural towns cannot be left behind. >> so do you think it should be ì(lc&ority of companies

this concert. you wrote a book. this is about the veterans coming home. there's been a lot of talk about trying to help them get back into civilian life. what is the one thing that you think the public needs to understand about helping these folks back into civilian life? >> 2.5 million extraordinary young men and women have served for the last 10, 15cm years in all volunteer service. as a result of that, most of america -- 98% have not had real skin in the game. we need to have a conversation, be empathetic, be understanding and do everything we possibly can across the country in rural america and every town to hire a veteran. >> all right. howard schultz, ceo of starbucks, thanks for coming on. thanks for doing the concert. it's an amazing lineup. it doesn't matter your taste, you have something there. tomorrow nbc news will put a human face on the ebola tragedy that's taking place in west africa. that's where this is a true epidemic. we will tell 24 stories of

people fighting this deadly disease. if a few minutes, why democrats might have reasons to be optimistic about 2016 despite ♪ [ male announcer ] this man has an accomplished research and analytical group at his disposal. ♪ but even more impressive is how he puts it to work for his clients. ♪ morning. morning. thanks for meeting so early. oh, it's not a big deal at all. come on in. [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪

please visit your nearest jay robert's jewelers location. welcome back. we have heard a lot about what the next congress might or might not do. it feels like a good moment to get answers from newcomers. i have mike rounds, a former

governor of south dakota. he wonui a senate seat and gwe graham, a democrat who knocked off a republican incumbent. she's the daughter of former florida governor and senator bob graham. welcome to washington. senator, you will be here soon enough i imagine. let me start with you. why the message -- what is your mandate that you believe the voters gave you when coming to congress next year? >> washington is dysfunctional. it has to be fixed. america's not broken but washington is. part of it says is that south dakota common sense can help. you work side by side with other people to get the job done. i think the republican majority now has an opportunity to show that we can actually govern, we can put together an agaenda and

we can get results. you take apart obamacare section by section. you pass the keystone pipeline. get energy production started again. get our grain back on the railcars that can't get to market because of the glut of oil. >> dismand ledismantling health rye po priority? >> you start out with section by section. you do it in such a fashion that you pick those items which have to be fixed. there's a section in this, the independent payment advisory board which needs to be eliminated in my opinion. most people out there would agree with that. the medical devices taxes that are there right now has to be taken apart. i think there are pieces which republicans and democrats recognize have to be fixed. it's more than that. it's the fact that republicans have to set the agenda. we have to execute. we have to tell people what our plan is. let's get a budget and let's

pass a budget every single year and let's do it on time. let's make government functional once again. that's what the american people are expecting. they want us to go in and do our jobs. the message that i think a lot of us have is we didn't come there to sit on our butts. we came there to get the job done. >> congresswoman elect graham, you just laughed about that. what parts of what you heard do you agree with? >> i completely agree that we need to find compromise and break through the dysfunction. as i traveled around my district, that's what i heard over and over and over again. people want a government that functions. they want a government where people get along. that's what i ran on a platform of saying the north florida way is finding a way to get along, find common sense solutions. we may not always agree but we have to find compromise in order to make the decisions that need to be made to move our country forward. >> you won voters that voted for

rick scott for governor, t. why were you able to pull that off? >> from day one, i have just been reaching out to all 14 counties of the district. i wanted to make sure that everybody knew that i cared about earning their support. and i think that's what made the decision. i put 37,000 miles on my car since i entered the race and met as many people as i could. ph experience. and i think it was that connection with folks that i had that made the decision. >> governor elect -- senator elect, i say this and i meant governor because many former governors that serve in the senate don't like it. what have you heard from former governors about your tenure that you are about to begin? >> they have told me to be prepared to be frustrated. they have said time and again, look, you got to get in and you got to go to work on it because you've been measured on results already. washington has not been.

and so there's no time frame there. there's nobody there that seems to understand that the people outside of washington expect results. so part of the message has to be that the bureaucracy which has taken over the vacuum because congress has been dysfunctional has been not been doing their job, you have a bureaucracy which has grown. we have to get that under control. >> advice your father gave you? >> he said, first of all, be informed. >> nobody was more informed than him. good luck keeping up with that. >> i will. and to make sure you are not part soisan partisan. bring people together to make the right decisions. that's what i'm committed to doing. >> it's your father's birthday today. >> happy birthday to my dad. >> welcome to washington soon enough. thanks for coming on "meet the press." i should note my step-father is having a birthday today. happy birthday to him.

what the midterms mean for the big one. we will read the tea leaves and look ahead to 2016. they're coming. what do i do? you need to catch the 4:10 huh? the equipment tracking system will get you to the loading dock. ♪ there should be a truck leaving now. i got it. now jump off the bridge. what? in 3...2...1... are you kidding me? go. right on time. right now, over 20,000 trains are running reliably. we call that predictable. thrillingly predictable. it's time to get to work are finally over, fixing our long-term national debt to help build a stronger economy. with a solid fiscal foundation, we can create more jobs, invest more in innovation and infrastructure, and make america more competitive, giving our kids a better future. a bipartisan solution to our long-term debt

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there are still 730 days until a new president is elected. the results of the midterms can give a hint of where the fight will be fought.

let me explain the 242 and 191 that we start with. the states in blue that add up to 242, states that democrats have won in six straight presidential elections. with this cycle, they hope to add to their sort of permanent blue walllvax here. they were open with victories that in a midterm year that they would be able to say to the republicans, you can't win there in 2016. guess what happened. republican wins in colorado, iowa. those two states right in the battleground, florida governor, back in the battleground. virginia, mark warner may have won but back in the battleground. how about wisconsin? if scott walker keeps winning there, you have to put that back in the battleground. minnesota and michigan by the way, senate races that republicans thought they could make competitive, they didn't. not making it into our battleground. there is good news here if you

are democrats. look at a few other states that may have been added to the battleground as well. take georgia, yes, david purdue won, but it was a wave year. he got 53% in a good republican year in georgia. georgia is back in the battleground. look at arizona. they had five democratic members of congress running for re-election. four are coming back and the fifth when all the votes are counted may indeed come back. arizona, back in the battleground. there you go. the democratic blue wall may be down to 232 rather than 242, by throwing in wisconsin, but the republican wall is now down to 164. for now, look at this. it's an impressive battleground map. goes from coast to coast, who is to say there isn't going to be a decent amount of people feeling the

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stephanie cutter, is it -- is this a project, a wreck la mags project or it's the midterms, everything will be okay? >> i hope it's a serious project. >> you think it should be? >> a project that -- >> dnc feels like they have to look at it. >> yeah. i think that if we don't take it seriously, it's to our own peril. we have a midterm problem. that's serious. we have a bench problem of how we are cultivating new democrats come into the fold of the party and to be willing to run for things. we can't show up every four years and think we're going to win midterms unless we invest in it. we saw governor dean make that point with you earlier. >> amy, look at the leadership of the democratic party. you say, do they have a staleness issue? hillary clinton is a familiar face. there's no new faces. look at what the republicans, they elected a ton of new faces. their leadership is the same,

but that's a lot of new faces versus the democrats' party of old faces. >> there's a bigger problem. a lot of it is, this election was a referendum on the president as it was about the fact that people didn't feel like the economy was working for them, even though as you pointed out the statistics would tell you it is working for them. this is the challenge for hillary clinton going forward which is, you are going to be tagged with the obama economy, tagged as being a democrat. how do you convince voters they want another four years of a democrat in charge of the economy? that's the bigger challenge i think than all the talk about what doi we do about demographics? how do we convince four more years of a democrat is good for them economically? >> eric cantor, do the republicans -- a good midterm year didn't solve your presidential problem. >> let's look at the benches. stephanie talks about the lack of a bench on the democratic side. that's the striking difference.

hi hillary clinton -- she will have a difficult time disconnecting herself from the obama administration. i also think that if you look at at least what's going on in the democratic party, they look like elizabeth warren is where the passion and -- >> if she doesn't run, where does that go? >> you see hillary clinton to amy's point trying to appeal to the base by saying businesses don't create jobs, which everyone knows is counter intuitive. look at our bench. we have will have -- i bet there's a dozen people looking out there to run. >> but if you solve the bigger democratic challenges? >> i think if you look at the midterm elections and what's going on, people are looking for idea and solutions to get them out of this funk that they don't feel their life is working. they don't feel the country is working for them. it is about ideas. what you have seen though -- take a look at cory gardner's

race. had you mark udall practice the politics that the left has been trying to undertake for decades, the war on women, and that fell flat on its face. it proves that the democrats, they are out of ideas. the republicans, will have to sift through the different players to see which ideas are going to take our party forward. >> back to the basic question, if the republicans can't connect hispanics, they aren't going to win a presidential election. >> that's correct. it's going to be tough for them to come out and support them like they did president obama. let's not forget obama got 71% of the latino vote because romney's official position on immigration was self-deportation. both parties have a lot of work to do. the fact is, every day in this country, 1,000 people are deported. a vast majority aren't criminals. the people being deported many times are family, fathers and mothers.

those people don't see anywhere in washington standing up and saying, let's deal with this problem, because it's more than just discussions in offices. it's also about people whose lives are being affected every single day. that they don't see as a concern in washington. >> let's talk about the dysfunction in washington. there was a lot of talk about bipartisan compromise this week. what are the chances of washington politicians breaking the habit of a lifetime and hugging it out? according to the winners this week, it sounds like it will be priority number one. >> they are not red. they are not blue. but they are crystal clear in their message to washington, d.c., get your job done and get the heck out of the way. >> i promise you i will work with anyone in the senate, democrat, republican, independent, to get things done. >> i want to come back here next year and talk to people about

the bipartisan things that we accomplished for the good of the nation. >> so far, so good. right? guess what. we have heard hopeful like talk like this before from leaders. >> we needed to work together on behalf of the american people. >> we both expressed our wish to work in a bipartisan way for the benefit of the american people. >> to have a serious discussion in the next few days about the places where we do agree. >> of course, all that -- it gets chuckles from everybody qt here. guess what follows after that happy talk? gridlock. is there a different path that might stop the gridlock in congress? the president has had a change of heart. >> some folks still don't think i spend enough time with congress. why don't you get a drink with mitch mcconnell they ask? really? why don't you get a drink with mitch mcconnell? you know, actually, i would

enjoy having some kentucky bourbon with mitch mcconnell. i don't know what his preferred drink is. >> the best way to drink it in my opinion is to make a manhatt manhattan. >> how about that? you won't hear mitch mcconnell say nice things about manhattan very often. if you ever want to come in our studio, work through the gridlock, here is what we7j got? we got the bourbon on ice. eric cantor, you said six weeks will test bipartisanship. why? >> the republicans -- congress needs to pass the spending package. >> they do it in a big way and that shows that's a republican, hey -- >> we will work together and the president cannot sign that executive order. he will light a fuse. >> stephanie? what's the test? >> i think that i agree with eric that over the next six weeks, we have to see progress. they have to get things done together. i think that what mr. schultz was talking about in terms of

veterans employment, it would be a good opportunity. >> very fast. >> there's no one left to compromise with. that's the problem with avenue elections. >> where are the -- >> there's no one left to compromise. >> president has to act. he has to follow through on his promises. he will do that. if that poisons the well, maybe it's time to change the water. >> here we go. by the way, this marks the 67th anniversary of "meet the press." thank you martha roundtree. i would like to congratulate "face the nation "this more t" . welcome to your 60s. you will get social security check soon enough. that's all for today. we will be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

ing right now on "nbc 10 @issue." >> let us be the people to actually create this bright future we deserve. >> it was a historic decision 2014 in our area. we examine the key races. the key issues facing pennsylvania, new jersey and delaware. >> if we act in goat faith we can make substantial progress. plus a information pennsylvania governor forecasts areas of compromise in congress. today on "nbc 10 @issue." good morning. thank you for joining you. voter discontent was the dominant theme this week, the electorate handed the senate to republicans and in pennsylvania tom corbett became the first incumbent governor in the state not to win a second term