races i work in were doing things on tv and mail-- independent women are offended from everything from aikin to murdoch and it speaks directly to womenally economic stand. and i think you'll find at the end of the election, that issues didn't define the election, but for some voters, especially the independent women, who are the holy grail in this election, are very important. >> let me get away from women-- not that i want to get away from women. what we saw in 2004 here, all three of these stase were really close. john kerry won between two and four percent annual points. they're competitive races. if we have a competitive race-- and we are-- it's not surprising these are real contests. the problem for the republicans is getting over that hump. yes, they can get to within two or three points in these states but winning them is awfully hard. are you really going to tell me-- lesley, maybe you will-- that mitt romney is going to win pennsylvania but have a hard to winning ohio, and colorado. >> to the point of pennsylvania, i think it's a much more difficult task, there's no doubt. let's jus

when you have tea party favorites like congressman aikin in missouri being beaten so soundly and when you have mr. murdock being beaten so soundy. i think the fever has a potential to break. the tea party has been repudiated and i think you will see a number of republicans at least i hope good one that is are going to have the courage to stand up to the tea party caucus and they know it is not in the nation's interest to built a principle compromise starting with the fiscal cliff which needs to be dealt with over the next few week. >> what is your father's plan now? >> his plan is to get to work. he will be back in dc tomorrow. he is home here in wilmington tonight. they is a number of issues to tackle. immigration reform, energy policy. education and a whole host of issues that he is focused on. i think he has been an unsung hero. he must be feeling pretty proud isn't he? >> well, i think he is. i am. he played think important role in this campaign. the debate came at a time where there was a bit of a slide if you looked at some of the polls. he stopped that. i was very proud of him

is there a chance that the views of todd aikin and mourdouck coud cost the gop chance to take the senateguest: i do not know much about the religious believers in those states, but in general when it comes to abortion or, most americans, a slim majority, they say abortion should be legal in most or all cases and that would include cases of rape and incest. it is a relatively small percentage of the electorate who say they think abortion should be against the law in all cases. host: conn., steve, on the independent line for greg smith from the pure research center. -- pew research center. caller: i consider pew one of the premier web sites for polling. it's a great organization in my opinion. my question is about trend lines in the future. i see republicans becoming the party of the religious and the democrats becoming the party of the nonreligious. or people in new england to do not like to mix their politics and religion. what do you see in the future of the face of the parties? guest: first, thank you for the kind words. i appreciate that very much. looking ahead, you are onto somethin

with the help of todd aikin and richard mourdock, his bearing to the right on immigration and his unwillingness to have a discussion with latino voters and with african-american voters, all of that talk about voter suppression or democrats trying to cheat just increased the turnout tremendously among african-american voters. >> two point -- one in the primary -- to in the primary and one in the general i really? the first would be the debate in which sitting next to rick perry, he moved strongly to rick perry's right on immigration and attack rick perry. someone never thought of as a squishy liberal and citing the dream back in texas. i thought he's going to live with that for a long time. it may have worked in the primaries but it has long-term consequences. the second was thing more than 12 is going to get rid of planned parenthood. this is a health-care provider and sent like one in four women at at one point or another gone to planned parenthood for basic health care. being on record saying that against that -- the worst that it consciously in the primary that or mistakes. the second is the

it shows a gap between mccaskill and aikin that they could call it this early when it looked at one point like it was a competitive race. >> he was down but not by much. you thought there might be some invisible voting going for him, but not. >> woodruff: it's interesting it's slow because the missouri polls closed i believe-- yes, they did, 8:00 eastern, which was over two hours ago. in fact they've only got 2% counted is kind of surprising. >> one of the great thing about exit polls. there's no winner bias. you come out of the polling place. you've just vote. it's not like a preelection poll where i'm going to vote, i intend to vote or i got a flat tire or headache and i don't vote. you really do get a very clear picte. i don't know-- >> i think president john kerry would agree with you. >> speaking of john kerry and massachusetts, we want to go back to massachusetts where our friend margaret warn ser on site at the romney-ryan headquarters. margaret. >> warner: hi, gwen. the romney-ryan hks ballroom here is playing fox all the time. the rock band isn't playing. and so there has been a