chad todd, gloria borger, clarence page and kelly (voice 1) we've detected an anomaly... (voice 2) how bad is it? (voice 1) traffic's off the chart... (voice 2) they're pinging more targets... (voice 3) isolate... prevent damage... (voice 2) got 'em. (voice 3) great exercise guys. let's run it again.

chad todd, gloria borger, clarence page and kelly

with us today, nbc's chad todd, cnn's gloria borger, nbc's kelly o'donnell and the "chicago tribune's" clarence page. any establishment power this year is a force to behold and republicans who want to beat barack obama next time are studying up. anyone who wants the g.o.p. nomination has to get the tea party force without being a crackpot himself or herself. when richard nixon brought in the goldwater party, it was different. most disappointed right-wingers had lost in 1964. same thing when jimmy carter brought in the mcgovern crowd in 1976. they were in no position to put up a fight. not so the tea party. they'll be coming off a big win and on a roll. listen to minnesota governor tim plenty, not a tea party guy, trying to signed one. >> the federal government is a drug dealer trying to give out free samples, give people a free taste, get them addicted. and get your own house in order, by the way. chris: they're all trying to act the part, trying to be tea party types. will this work, the establishment-types echoing like tea party people? >> i think it's going to be very, very hard fo

first let's bring in senior politic politic political analyst gloria borger and steve.r. we waited a long time and perhaps in the midst of the greatest recession since the great depression it wasn't a good idea to do that. what's your take? >> well, you know, it's interesting. think when barack obama came into office, he had a couple of choices. he could have just done the agenda that was handed him, which was the terrible economy, or he could have done the agenda that he ran on, which was reforming health care and a whole host of other things. instead he decided to do both, ali, right? he worked on the stimulus package and health care reform for nine months. instead of doing a more circumspect plan which was a little smaller which some in the white house advocated -- ed henry knows about this -- the president decided you could not reform health care without going whole hog if you really wanted to do it the right way and save cost downs the road. so he took a big gamble on this. you know, we may discover in the mid term elections that it fires on him. ten months down th

correspondent dana bash and senior political analyst gloria borger joined me earlier.a, we've seen a lot of back and forth support for o'donnell, putting out a tepid congratulations to her, what have you heard from your sources? they appear to be now rallying around her. >> reporter: privately, nothing has changed. republicans who want to win that seat are still very unhappy that christine o'donnell won and that mike castle didn't. in the words of one source i talked to today, yesterday their polls showed that castle winning by 11 points and o'donnell losing by 11 and that has not changed today. however, and this is the big however, despite that, they understand that the most critical thing going forward to november is winning, not just in delaware, but across the country. and sources i talked to today said the last thing they realized this morning when they woke up, the last thing they need is to try to tamp down on some of that energy that they're seeing that they need to get out there against democrats in november. >> so the national republican senatorial committee

here in washington, joe johns and gloria borger. james carville, let me start with you and tell me upfront we could interrupt you at any moment when the president takes the stage. you have run campaigns. you've seen the polling data. republicans are energized. part of the democratic issue is that the younger voters tend to check out in midterm elections. what's the challenge? >> well, the challenge is, you're right. the republicans are more energized than the democrats. the white house has calculate they need to do something. there's not much of a risk they're going to energize the republican or tea party people anymore. it would make some sense here. they close enthusiasm gap three, four points, they'll save a couple, three senate seats and save house seats. it's a reasonable calculation that they're making. there's not a lot of risk to it. >> not a whole lot of risk. can he get younger voters who tend to say this doesn't matter to me, it's not a presidential election? can he get them out to play this year? >> you know, it's got to

gloria borger at the cnnpolitics.com desk in washington, d.c. welcome back. a. what do you have crossing the ticker? >> great to see you. we should expect more news out of delaware today. congressman mike castle just told dana bash he's going to make his decision he said probably today. he's facing a deadline tomorrow on whether or not he's going to mount a run-in candidacy in the state of delaware but also said in the past he's always leaned towards not doing it. so we're going to see if he changes his mind. obviously, the democrat is running ahead of christine o'donnell in that state. lots of folks felt moderate republican castle would have had a better shot at getting joe biden's seat so we're all sort of on pins and needles to see what he's going to do. on the campaign trail there's someone else out there and i'm not talking about barack obama. i am talking about former president bill clinton. word today is that he's heading out west. the west is going to be a real challenge for democrats in 2010. they did very well in the west in 2008, but that has change

gloria borger in washington. >>> ed henry is -- is he there or is he coming? oh, okay. g next to gloria. this is all very confusing keeping track of you. >> reporter: we were going to handoff. >> didn't you feel like going back to school? sorry. >> it is like going back to school and that's why i thought it was nice for gloria to break it down in an easy way for you to understand. >> i like the bullet points. i like it. what do you think of the speech. >> reporter: it was interesting because mostly at how noncontroversial it was. you've been talking about how last year there were conservatives suggesting that everything was going to come apart and that our children were just going to be indo doctrinda into a socialist agenda by the president. it's on the political ticker right now at cnn.com one is re can'ting saying he's in a lot of trouble now and he's facing all kinds of ethics allegations and so he's going through a lot of difficulties. nevertheless, he's saying a year ago he made a huge mistake by suggesting that kids were going to be indoctrinated. he's apologizing

. >> bring in correspondent ed henry and our senior political analyst gloria borger to talk about all this. the president's approval what the president did yesterday taking questions from everyday americans. if you're out of work, i'd have tough questions for the president. gloria, start with you. what can the president do to get this back on track, especially when so many democrats are on the line? >> i was talking with some republicans yesterday doing house races, and they basically said, look, this mid-term election is bait. okay? people feel -- they don't feel any recovery. they're disappointed. the change that they've seen, a lot of voters are nervous about it. you mentioned before. you mentioned health care reform. the stimulus package. the bailout. people decided that they didn't like them, or they haven't seen the results from them yet. particularly health care reform. a lot of it's not going to kick in until 2014. so what the president can do is try and help out members of congress where he's still popular. he can raise a lot of money for democrats but, you know, the democrat

republican strategist ed recallens is with us in new york and matthew doud and cnn political analyst, gloria borger. >> i want to show you this one number. we gave you the president's approval rating. i want everyone to take a look at this. has president obama met your expectations, yes, 32%, exceeded 9%, 56% of americans, 56% of americans, matthew doud, you polled for presidential campaign and a president, that's not just the republicans. if you're at 56% who thinks this president has not made the expectations, that's a wide swath. >> he has intensity among democrats, but he lost any republicans he started with, after his inauguration are gone. most of the independents shifted their way. when you're at 42% job approval rating, there's a lot of people who think you haven't met your expectations. >> joe klein, a lot of fascinating races in the west, you're in colorado today, what is driving it? i was looking at other numbers today. i don't want to overdwell on the polling. it tells you back in june, people started to get the sense, maybe the economy was going to get better. now that number is back d

gloria borger. james, should the democratic party adopt the strategy and go after the tea party? >> making a point he actually went more after the funding than the tea party members and he was going after the candidates but what he does that's very smart is, saying, well, activists out there trying to do something. you notice in the part that you showed, look, if they're candidates say something really dumb like the guy in alaska. although they're unconstitutional, he's now far from it. >> he doesn't want to make the tea party seem cooky. >> he says, i'm going to play it straight then he distorts everything. >> well, we did -- >> well, on the phone conversation -- >> we fact-checked what he said and what he said was mostly true, for example he said this about joe miller. unemployment is unconstitutional, we have the sound bite. >> the unemployment compensation, got it, first of all, it's not constitutional a authorized. i do not favor the extension. >> okay. that's pretty clear. >> are you concerned that this extremist label could stick? >> no i'm not at all. because if you ask t

gloria borger, roland martin. let's begin with christine o'donnell. she won last night. she gave a big speech. with not much sleep, she got up this morning, made the round of tv shows to say "don't count me out." >> they never thought that i could win this race and i believe that we can win without them. let me say that they also said that ronald reagan wasn't electable. >> ed rollins, you were among the doubters last night. you're among the doubters last night. you helped that guy, ronald reagan, get elected. >> i did. she's an unknown. obviously, delaware's a small state. if the party doesn't help her, she may get conservative money to at least run a decent campaign. at this point in time, you know, that race has been assumed to be ours. i don't ever believe they're ours until we win them. think we have to wait a little and see, two, three week, can she be a credible candidate? the probability is no. there are other places, like west virginia and other places, that three weeks ago we never thought was on the radar screen so -- >> a big point everybody around her makes

and senior cnn political analyst gloria borger. amy goodman, i want to go to you first, because there is so much frustration among democrats outside of washington that we had a big election in 2006 that gave us control of congress, those democrats would say then we elected this president in 2008. why can't they do what we elected them to do? >> i mean this is a very important question. in fact, the one thing they did do today, james droga 9/11 act which will help firefighters, emergency workers, cops. james died in 2006. first police officer to have his illnesses tied to the toxic plume at 9/11. it's astounding that it took this long to pass, with all of the people who are suffering here in new york. and yet it was done almost entirely on partisan lines. the republicans didn't vote for the firefighters or the cop, the emergency workers, about, what, 15 of them. this is what it's come to. it is frightening. so much needs to be done to care for the people and every which way. and it's not happening right now. >> erik, wasn't you to c

jessica yellin is here, and jim dooik, and democratic pollster jim bolster, and gloria borger. we have also james carville from new orleans, and jes s, to you n the ground, reports of returns moderately high. any word on the reports? >> well, i'm here on the christine o'donnell headquarters and they are jazzed because they are hearing that the turnout is high in the counties where she is and possibly lower in wilmington where she is probably going to get fewer votes than mike castle, but the castle campaign is also feeling confident, so it is too early to tell, but the bottom line is that establishment republicans believe that if christine o'donnell wins today, not only do they lose the senate seat, but that cold determine democratic control of to senate, and there is a lot riding on that in the republican world of delaware tonight, john. >> and just to the group, jess makes a great point, because i sat down mitch mcdonnell, the senator republican who was rattling off the seats they need and delaware was one of them. now, you have been backing the tea party campaigns and said t

this is hardly the first white house shake-up covered by gloria borger. i want to start with the democrats. paul, rahm emanuel is a friend of yours. rahm emanuel is polling already in chicago. he knows ethically it would be a bad deal to stay inside the white house once he makes the decision if he starts organizing a campaign. all signs are yes, you don't have any doubt? >> well, he hasn't said, at least not to me, finally, informally, but he's never made it a secret. the two great dreams of ram's life is to be speaker or to be mayor of chicago. i think he's served him quite well. who could possibly, you know, who could stay in the way of him saying, mr. president, i've served you as best i can, now i want to go -- >> if rahm emanuel may leave as early as next month, you also have people leaving on the economic team. peter orszag, the budget director, gone. larry summers, leaving. rahm emanuel possibly leaving soon. donna brazile, six weeks before an election, any impact on the workings of the white house and the political operation? >> absolutely not. >>

. >> gloria borger, dana bash, thank you. >>> democratic national committee shairm tim kaine says he's york times," quote, republicans thought they were embracing the tea party and it turns into the donner party. despite democratic hopes of republican cannibalism, however, the enthusiasm of tea party supporters should worry democrats in november. joining me, eliot spitzer, former new york governor and co-host of "parker/spitzer." also republican consultant and political contributor alex castellanos, and dana lash, also the co-organizer of the st. louis tea party coalition. appreciate you all being with us. eliot, robert gibbs said, and i quote, that this shows there's a very vociferous debate going on in the republican party for the hearts and minds of the republican voters. is he right? >> of course he's right but he's the victim of that debate because the debate has created enthusiasm, energy, the tea party is take over the republican party in many states. in delaware, not so clear. but democrats are saying we're no longer setting the agenda and the fear democrats have is this enthus

let's bring in senior political analyst gloria borger and david gergen. gloria, right now, 42% approve of the way the president's handling the job. 54 disapprove. on december 1 and 2, 42% approved, 49% disapprove. it's going in the wrong direction for the president. >> it is going in the wrong direction. if you go back to history, you look at figures for bill clinton right around the midterm election, the disastrous midterm election in 1994 when he lost control of the congress. and his approval rating was exactly the same. it was 42%. if this midterm election is a referendum on barack obama, it's going to be a lot of trouble for the democrats. >> you worked for bill clinton at the time, david. do you see a similar disaster on november 2 for barack obama that happened to bill clinton and the democrats back in '94? >> wolf, this poll certainly suggests that may be shaping up. it's almost relief -- bad news for the president and his team. what i find most surprising about the poll is 37% of people in the cnn poll say they would support a candidate approved of

let's discuss with our senior political analyst, gloria borger. what's happening here, gloria, to the gop? >> i would have to say this is not a great year for having a great resume, a long political resume. in 2008, when republicans were recruiting their candidates, they were trying to prove they had a political pulse after barack obama won. so what did they do? they recruited a lot of establishment, well-known republican candidates. they were feeling very good about the incumbents for re-election. take a look at this, bob bennett of utah who was beaten by a tea party candidate, mike lee in a state republican convention, lisa murkowski just lost in alaska to another tea party candidate. trey grayson from kentucky was beaten by rand paul, of course, and we've got governor charlie crist of florida afraid of being beaten in a republican primary by marco rubio. he switched parties and became an independent. >> we're going to get results pretty soon that would have potentially national ramifications. >> absolutely. lots of folks are saying that those v

let's go in depth with our political analyst gloria borger. r about to be gone, and is this an opportunity for the president, gloria? >> well, in a way, it is -- first of all, wolf, it is to be expected. you know, you have covered the white house and i know folks s the white house and these jobs are a burn-out job. and you can measure a year in the white house in dog years so it is not a surprise that larry summers is leaving. but as suzanne said, he did clash with a lot of folks. he was a forceful personality, but it is an opportunity in a way for the white house. i clearly think they see it that way which is a way for them to integrate new policy, new economic policy, as they head into the next two years. even into the midterm election with the person that they are going to choose to replace larry summers. we don't know who that is yet, but i would not be surprised with its new economic team if the white house is trying to send a signal to the american public that they are listening to their concerns, and that they're focusing like a laser as

joining us to talk about that and more, senior political analyst, david gergen and gloria borger.re all republicans happy that karl rove is back? >> lots of those running for election are happy that karl rove is back. some of the tea party activists are not thrilled with him because he said that christine o'donnell and the state of delaware was unelectable. he was unhappy because he felt she could cost them control of the senate. but there are lots of republicans here who feel that the republican national committee is not doing some of the things that it needs be doing. and that they're thrilled with karl rove along with ed gillespie and former bush advisor are raising something like $32 million to help do things like get out the vote and run some attack ads in districts in which they feel they can really make a difference. >> david, can karl rove mastermind another republican political victory on november 2? >> i don't think he'll mastermind it, wolf. you know, there's a wave in this country that neither karl rove nor anyone else will control. but he can make a difference in some

and gloria borger and our senior white house correspondent, ed henry. if he leaves by friday, that's soon. who replaces him? >> in the short term, you're likely to see pete rouse, a behind-the-scenes player. has the president's trust. he was the chief of staff. the big question is long term, what do you do? love him or hate him, rahm emmanuel is unique and a hard person to replace. he had the white house piece from the clinton days. he had the congressional piece. he worked the media. he knew how to get the message out. not a lot of people can do that. three big factors, the election, a lot of people around town saying the democrats do take a drumming, you need a shrewd bipartisan figure. erskine bowles did that for bill clinton. the second big issue is the president's level. get a brawler in there, take the republicans on. the problem is this is not someone in the obama inner circle. does he have a comfort level. other shuffling going around. jim jones likely to leave his national security advisor. tom donnell is not going to be the chief of staff, eve

. >> i want to bring in our senior political analyst, gloria borger. you were watching this, you were listening to this, give us a sense of the response? how did the crowd respond to her message? >> she was clearly well receive received as you saw. and today's event not only just o'donnell, but all of the speakers were embracing the tea party themes that we've heard so much about the campaign season already. ant anti-big government, anti-health care. anti-any kind of bailout. but the thing that was interesting about what we just heard from o'donnell was this class warfare argument. the us versus them which we hear a lot from sarah palin. >> sure. >> theouith anti-americanism o so class. not as if the cultural issues have disappeared. at the values summit, they're still there. a lot of talk of don't ask, don't tell. they've been supplanted at this point by the tea party themes of anti-big government and us versus the elites in washington. >> i'm curious as to how you think the republican contenders, potentially for 2012, are shaping their own message. i

. >> let's dig deeper with our senior political analyst gloria borger. only yesterday some top national republican leaders were saying that if she won, she could forget about getting money from the national republican party. today they're playing a different tune. >> today they pledged her $42,000 from the republican committee and that's all they're allowed to give her. now there's a little bit of acceptance, okay, she's our candidate, but i sat down today with a top republican senate strategist who said, look, we're pragmatic here, all we care about is viability, all we want to do is win back control of the senate so. if down the road o'donnell looks like a viable candidate which to them means that she's within single digits of her opponent, then they'll reassess and they might just give her some money because they want to get this seat. they have got a point coming up where they can give some coordinated campaign money, $180,000 max, and then down the road, those independent expenditures which help fund campaign ads. he didn't rule it out, but i wouldn

let's talk with gloria borger.his this is like the 1994 contract with america, we heard dana bash. how important is it to the republicans? >> i met with some senior republican house strategists today. it's important because you have to tell people what you're going to do. it's different from 1994, wolf. in 1994, the republicans had health control for 40 years in the house. they had to remind people, this is what we stand for. right now, they feel that they have a terrific issue set already out there. the stills will package, they can talk about that. the health care policies, they can talk about that. so they consider this to be more of a governing document, if you will, than a campaign document. they believe, look, it's fine for us to do it, but we don't all need to tie ourselves to the establishment in washington, our candidates are just fine on their own. happy to have it. don't need it. >> what other republicans target of opportunity in the house? >> i spoke to them today. they divided it to three groups. fresh

joined by david gergen and gloria borger.things we're learning is the president's advice was rejected by the military but he overruled them. >> it was astonishing to me. you know more about this than i would because you've been in the white house. the president had to write his own memo, his own six-page memo, put it on the table. and say, okay, guys, is this clear enough for you? because he wasn't hearing what he wanted to hear from his advisors or the military. this is a president -- i spoke with lots of folks inside the white house who were in these afghanistan reviews. they made it clear to me -- this was a president very concerned about mission creep. wanted to learn the lessons from vietnam. didn't want his generals to dictate either the timing or the size of his policies. and the troops. he had to write it down himself. it's extraordinary. >> never seen a president do that, six-page memo saying here's the policy. you sell it to the level below you. here's the general direction, write it up, i'll approve it. i think thi

let's bring in our senior political analyst, gloria borger. this rate as far as bumper sticker politics is concerned? >> is pretty predictable, wolf and i think that is, in a way what republicans wanted. there is really not any great headlines here. they didn't want to make any headlines, as dana was talking out. you want to repeat tax cuts for everybody, i mean, extend the tax cuts for everybody and we knew that they were going to do that they want to repeal health care reform. we knew they were going to do that but the larger question here is are they giving the democrats a target here? you talk to democrats today, they say, look, you look at this pledge and it is just more of george w. bush you talk to lots of republicans and they say, look, we want this to be a re r referendum on barack obama. we don't want this to be a referendum on what we are going to do so why are we giving them points about a referendum in. republicans say, look, we had to check the positive box. that is, we have to give people something to vote for, so that is what t

we will get more on this with our senior political analyst gloria borger and john king who is the hostt hour and our chief correspondent candy crowley who is host of "state of the union" which airs sundays at 9:00 a.m. eastern. gloria, a lot of white house departures and looks like a new chief of staff as ed reported. pete rouse, and there is a picture of him sitting with the president that was released by the white house, and that sort of confirmation that he has the job. >> right. yaet, he does have the job, and you know, if rahm emanuel is kind of an outside guy, who did not know h-- who did know how t with congress because he was prominently and go on the sunday shows, et cetera, and pete rouse is a inside guy. he is a consummate insider and he was tom daschle's chief of staff for many years and he is somebody who knows the hill very well and he was barack obama's chief of staff and then came over to the campaign. he was co-chairman of the transition, and talking to people inside of the white house, they see pete rouse as somebody who can get together, competing egos, and there may

and part because as gloria borger reported yesterday on cnn, there's no majority for any plan right nownow, there are five or six variations of this tax plan. and there's no single one of those variations has majority support. this could well go over, be pushed over till after the elections. but for middle class taxpayers, there should be assurances that it will get done. i don't know how, but it's going to get done. they're not going to go home and raise taxes on everybody. they will not do that. >> do you agree? >> i agree. always great to talk to both of you. thanks. >>> hey, if your kid's going out to school this morning taking a test, forget about studying, you might want to have them run around the block. we'll be back with that story. 48 man and woman: ♪ it's the happy birthday song ♪ love, dad and ♪ love, mom ♪ it's your birthday, now, that's the bomb ♪ ♪ you're 13 and livin' strong ♪ [muffled] ♪ it's the happy birthday song ♪ what, what? ♪ it's the happy birthday song ♪ ♪ what, what? ♪ the happy... announcer: you don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent, because kids in