i am joined by cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein and allen lichtman who ran for congress in how damaging is this for democrats and the president that you have people in the party showing little support or now distancing themselves in large part for the sake of mid terms? you have 39 democrats in the house who voted for a republican plan. how defeating. >> it is potentially very damaging unless they can stabilize the system and public assessments of the system. the reality, fred, we're living in a more parliamentary area of politics, voting more for the party and less for the individual. if obama can't restore more public faith in his administration and leadership, that's going to hurt democrats in 2014 and 2016. >> how does he do that? visiting various cities and professing, you know, i made some mistakes, i'm going to fix the problem, this is going to be good for you, that doesn't seem like that's going to be enough. >> the short answer is they have to make this work. the answer to almost all their problems to the extent they have answers are getting more people signed up t

joining us now, allen lichtman, presidential historian at american university, co-author of fdr and thet jackie, about that fateful day, november 22nd, in dallas. but i feel like not enough has been said about that transition to lbj. what can you tell me or what are your views about that transition, that awkward moment, of course, of the swearing in with jackie wearing the blood stained suit, and how this new now president had to also console a grieving widow, and at the same time try to maintain or continue on with the hope that was always associated with jfk. >> in the tragic flash of a moment, lyndon johnson went from holding an office that john adams, previous vice president in the early republic had said was the most useless office in the history of the world, to suddenly becoming the most powerful leader of the world. and this was an absolutely delicate transition. and johnson wasn't known for his delicacy. he was known for his crudeness and overbearing manner. yet he handled it with exquisite graciousness. he was incredibly outgoing. he wrote letters to john f kennedy's children