a new poll shows republican pat toomey is now two points ahead of the democrat, joe sestak. down from a five point lead less than a week ago. elaine quijano has more on this neck-and-neck battle. >> pennsylvania republican pat toomey is relentless on his attacks on president obama and the democratic congress. >> they're just trying to transform america into something like a european-style welfare state. >> reporter: a former congressman with a near-perfect conservative rating. >> give me a "k"! what's that spell? >> reporter: toomey blamed his democratic opponent congressman joe sestak for voting for government bailouts of the banking and auto industries and for the $800 billion economic stimulus. >> joe sestak has supported every single item on the obama- pelosi agenda. >> reporter: he served 31 years in the navy, rise together rank of admiral and worked as a national security aid to president clinton before becoming a congressman. he says without the stimulus, unemployment would be higher. >> we've taken some tough votes. they were necessary to keep the ship from sinking.

we're talking about representative joe sestak, the man who beat arlen specter in the democratic primary. he's trailing by about 4% to republican pat toomey. we're going to switch gears to the illinois senate there. alexei gee newell yaus... alexei giannoulias is trailing 2% to republican mark kirk. in colorado, the tea party-back insurgentandidate ken buck th republican is 4 and michael bennett the democrat is at 50%. that is about 25% of the precincts reporting. we'll try and check in on these races and a few others throughout the night. jim, back to you. >> lehrer: back to mark and david. david, we talked many times leading up to this and earlier tonight and now we're getting close here to an end result. we still have 30 minutes just on this special. how does it feel to you tonight as to what this election is about? i've asked you that before. any change? >> no, i haven't changed in the last half hour. unlike of tc once said it was between the men and the boys in politics and the boys run for president to be something and then run for president to do something. nancy pelosi was a grow

i want to congratulate joe sestak on a spirited and competitive campaign.ts they put out. i also want to say how much i respect the service that joe sestak has given to this country. [applause] i respect both the 31 years he spent in the united states navy and the four years he spent in the united states house of representatives. he has served this country well and he has done so honorably and i was in the best of luck in all of his future endeavors. [applause] i have a lot of people i need to thank tonight and i cannot begin to go through everybody that i need to thank but there are some that i have to mention he. . i want to mention a few of them. i have to start with a two people who taught me all the important things in life, always encouraged me to preserve my dreams and made countless trips from rhode island to be here in pennsylvania to help us in any number of ways and that is my mom and dad, mary ann, and joseph. [cheers and applause] i want to thank my brothers and sisters. we have just been a very close family since the beginning. i am so gratefu

in order for joe sestak to win this seat, he has to get better than 35 percent of the vote or rather hold the republican pat toomey to under 35 percent of the vote in philadelphia. that is unclear and now what we are looking at is the likelihood that the rest of the state between the urban areas of pittsburgh and philadelphia coming in for toomey and it is virtually a died even tie as we get closer. you mentioned we are waiting on the closure of nevada. this is an example of how important it is to get the urban area. there is only one in all of nevada clark county. in clark county, harry reid needs to get better than 8 percent than sharron angle in the entire area of las vegas. if he cannot get an 8 percent advantage or better in las vegas, harry reid's ability to remain majority leader is jeopardized. one last thing before we go, shep. battle for the governor's offices and you talked a moment ago about ohio. ohio, john kasik victory. they, lected george bush in 2006. notorous bell weather who predicts who will be the state. that bodes ill for barack obama. fox news predicted that th

passionate antitax man pat toomey in the ultimate swing state we're watching carefully, joe sestak aheadnts now but it is too early to project and too tight to project a winner in that race. in the state of illinois, alexi giannoulias running against mark kirk, republican -- this is really important because it is barack obama's former senate seat, so this has a lot of sentimental meaning and significance for the white house, and they are watching this race very, very carefully. also in the state of wisconsin, another race that is very tight. too early to project, senator russ feingold, a maverick senator running against ron johnson, a plastics manufacturer from oshkosh who has put a lot of his own money into the race. in nevada again -- actually, in colorado, rather -- michael bennet who was appointed to fill in secretary salazar's seat is running against ken buck who is the county district attorney. we'll be watching this race carefully. barack obama took colorado in 2008 and once again a microcosm of what's happening in this country, majority leader harry reid is running against tea pa

. >> reporter: and democratic congressman joe sestak. >> a heck of a lot of that enthusiasm out there. >> reporter: and in illinois, republican mark kirk and democrat-alexi giannoulias. with so much uncertainty it promises to be a long night of vote counting across the nation. rart regardless of the outcome white house officials announced that the president will speak to the results in an afternoon news conference tomorrow. >> ifill: david, let's talk about some of those marquis races that kwame was talking about. starting with west virginia where we see joe manchin who is the governor of west virginia, the democrat, in a pretty tight race at least until recently against john raese, a businessman. >> this is one of the first really key races to watch because it's an early poll closing time tonight. 7:30 p.m. eastern and it is the fire wall for democrats in their battle for overall control of the senate. if manchin can hang on to this seat, that is already in democratic hands, the late senator byrd, that would go a long way to sort of putting up a blockade to senate control for the rep

blotted out the sun in terms of the universe of other issues. >> in terms of the argument that joe sestak has been making, he is a congressman who has voted with the obama administration on some issues but not on all issues. so how has pat toomey been able to successfully portray him as connected to washington, to this administration? >> well, of course, representative sestak accuses or reminds voters that pat toomey was an investment banker. but toomey says, hey, here's the guy who voted for the bailouts. it's kind of been a contest between the two of them to see which can portray the other as the enabler of wall street excess. >> woodruff: speaking of wall street excess, maybe i'm giving everybody whiplash in terms of running from one state to another. but karen in ohio, wall street has been a factor in your governor's race there. >> absolutely. both the candidates for governor, the democratic candidate for governor and u.s. senator have been trying to use that. they've been using it to former republican congress members. kasich the former congressman and in our senate race portman who

. -- between pat toomey and joe sestak.e] >> thank you. first of all, let me do something. i want to congratulate congressman pat to meet on a very well thought campaign. in particular, is wonderful family curium actually met his wife. so congratulations. thank you. to everyone is standing here. all of the volunteers. including 19,000 across this wonderful state of pennsylvania. throughout the campaign i kept saying that i could lose it myself. but i could not win it without them. i want you to know. it was me. next that want to thank my staff. i have an amazing staff. [applause] in the navy of was the commander of a number of ships. i must tell my staff, mentioning first elecampane staff under bill walsh. and then my district office and my washington office. tonight, to my campaign staff, i have never had a more professional, competent, or hard-working staff. whether we were running against the establishment or with the establishment, one that was so humble in the sense of always remembering how to treat others. particular

not because they care about joe sestak or because they think a.c.o.r.n. is a threat to ameri america's moral fabric. >> by the way -- >> investigations cost money, too. >> right. >> well, of course. you'll have to ignore that. by the way, they've got 50% ofrooms believing that a.c.o.r.a kr a.c.o.r.n. stole the 2008 election. you don't think they'll go there? david, you're more optimistic that i am. but i love the new word that came out of this segment, cocktail partied. david and christina, thank you so much for joining us. really appreciate it. >>> i want to say one word on this real quick before we leave. you've got a wide disparity here. obama says never look backwards. i wasn't going to investigate bush on torture, even though he just admitted it in his last book. said, yeah, i waterboarded them. we're not looking backward. he's not going to go after bush on the iraq war and wiretapping. he's not going to go backwards on anything, even though he had a treasure chest of illegal actions to go back to or possibly illegal actions if you want to be kind. b

he nearly defeated democrat, joe sestak. >>> and one of the biggest democratic victories of the night belonged to senate majority leader, harry reid. he managed to fight back against not only a tea party challenge. but also frustrated voters of his home state of nevada. jon karl was there. >> reporter: good morning, vinita and rob. a stunning victory for harry reid here in nevada. the top democrat in the senate. somebody who had been seen as, perhaps, the most vulnerable democrat in congress, has won here in nevada. defying the republican wave that has swept so much of the rest o. the country. he defeated sharron angle. and he defeated her pretty soundly. did it, in part, by just rolling a relentlessly negative campaign. a campaign at times quite ugly. portraying sharron angle, who is a real tea party hero, as somebody who was way outside the mainstream. and now, harry reid wakes up to another reality, which is he is the majority leader. but he goes back to a senate majority that is a much smaller majority. a majority, nonetheless. and it is a victory that he will certainly take. back

in pennsylvania, republican pat toomey beat democrat joe sestak in an expensive and bitter race. sestak ousted arlen specter in the primary. >>> in illinois, republican mark kirk defeated democrat alexi giannoulias to win the seat formerly held by the president. but west virginia democrat joe manchin beat republican millionaire john raese. in a seat formerly held by robert byrd. in florida, rubio easily won a three-way race, but another tea party candidate lost, christine o'donnell who won a stunning primary victory lost to democrat chris coons. the republican gains means president obama will have to deal with a far more conservative congress, complicating his ability to aen act legislation randall pinkston is in washington with more on in. good morning, randall. >> reporter: good morning, betty. a big night for republicans and as you indicated, a huge defeat for president obama and the democrats who now face a new reality when congress convenes in january. the man set to become the next speaker of the house is promising change in washington. >> reforming the way congress works a

in pennsylvania, one of the first states to have polls close, joe sestak has bounced back from being almost out of it entirely in his race against pat toomey. also, west virginia, joe manchin, the popular democratic governor there is making a strong case for senate. if either of those races goes democratic, republicans will have to run the table. and that brings us to the democratic fire wall, what they hope will be the fire wall, out west in california and in washington state. in washington, patty murray, the incumbent senator there is neck and neck against dino rossi. just too close to predict. and in california, barbara boxer seems to have pulled ahead a little bit against carly fiorina. if she pulls that off, democrats are likely to hold the senate. and the marquee matchup of the night is in nevada. that is going to be tea party triumph or tragedy. they would love to take down harry reid, sharron angle, the tea party candidate, out there, a lot of complicating factors in this race. if they miss this opportunity, there will be a lot of soul searching about why they weren't able to

let's have senator rick van tore rum of pennsylvania and congressman joe sestak. add merle start with you. is all of this escalation a vik victory for the bad guy? >> absolutely not. head of terrorism unit after 9-11 and i think the cost after 9-11 not the psychic value but the tangible impact on all of us because we didn't have the appropriate means out there to defend ourselves is something we have to understand before 9-11 we like the wars overseas now we have a home game. i would very much want my daughter nine years old to be able to floi on a plane knowing that those two million passengers every day are appropriately screened to make sure something like the underwear bomber can't. some people call for profiling or how about the fellow who was a young asian got on an airplane described as an elderly senior caucasian slipped right throw. we need to use the best technology, give people the choice you can go right through it or you can have this pat down in order to secure our own airways for our people. >> before i get to the senator admiral one follow up quest

reporter: after which, she crisscrossed the country to philly, to push struggling senate candidate joe sestak. >> can we do this? >> reporter: house republican leader john boehner, smelling victory, blasted president obama for telling latino voters they should, quote, punish, their, quote, enemies, for opposing immigration reform. >> mr. president, i have a word to describe those people. those people who have the audacity to speak up against the big government. and, mr. president, that word isn't enemies. they're patriots. >> reporter: in a radio interview, the president acknowledged his poor choice of words. >> i probably should have used the word opponent, instead of enemies. >> reporter: vice president biden rallied in delaware with democrat chris coons. >> go out and vote. i'm positive delaware is coming back. i'm positive america is coming back. >> reporter: polls have coons leading christine o'donnell. her hail mary? a half-hour ad on tv. >> i want to go down to washington and fight. >> reporter: president obama, meanwhile, is taking his last-minute get-out-the-vote efforts to radio air

the sestak issue -- >> joe sestak when he was running against arlen speck tr for the democratic nomination approached and said you will get a job or a title in the obama administration if you drop out. you're saying what? >> i can only take on an issue like that that obviously occurred in the bush administration if i take on the whole problem. i can't say this president is wrong. i find out that president bush, his -- >> so you're not going to investigate that? >> i'm going to look for changes in the future. i have to recognize the problem in the gulf began on president clinton's watch and i have to be fair and bipartisan. if we need reforms, we need reforms for all presidents, not this one. >> you don't or do think that the president is corrupt? >> i think this administration is going to have to make a change. and the word corrupt is not an unreasonable. black's law would say getting $800 billion and spending it in political paybacks to public employee unions was, in fact, a misuse there that i would call corrupt. do i think that the president is corrupt? no. i never should have implied t

last spring when congressman joe sestak revealed the administration was ready to offer him a job if heropped his primary bid against arlen specter, issa called it obama's water gate and, quote, a crime has been committed by the white house. >> an allegation has been made that multiple sources in both parties, anthony weiner, dick morris and others have made it very clear, even axelrod, that they should answer, that in fact this is serious. this is an impeachable offense, according to dick morris. it's not about what was done wrong, it's about the cover up. and right now there's a coverup going on in the white house. we can no longer trust the administration when they say we're ethical and you should trust us. >> last month when he needed votes, congressman issa had this to say. >> he has been one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times. he has ignored the very laws that he said were so vital when he was a senator. >> since election day, however, congressman issa seems to have changed his words and tone. he told wolf blitzer yesterday he can't criticize president obama on the ses

. >> orrin hatch -- i mean, joe sestak would have been better off running against specter in pennsylvania specter was probably not as strong a candidate as the tea party backed toomey. you're wrong, steve. >> it depends on the states. >> of course. everything depends on the state. blue state -- each one of these states is going to have its own unique circumstances. in a republican red state, a tea party candidate who gets nominated could win, but in a state like murkowski's, run as an independent and can be elected away. >> look at what's happening in utah. good point. according to a recent poll, it is a patrol year. if hatch's re-election were held now, 40% said shathey'd vote fo him. that's not a great re-elect number of. >> it's also irrelevant. a poll of registers voters two years out doesn't mean a lot. >> means something. >> nothing. not worth the paper it's written on. >> listen. hold on. >> probably the mentality robert bennett had. >> no, my point is that i think that hatch, snowe and some of these other members have learned from watching what happened to bennett. you see hatch t

. >> don't count out joe sestak. >> bill: i'm not counting anybody out i'm just hungry. >> bill: pony up, man. >> there it is. it's yours, bill. $100 steak dinner. >> bill: you have to come with me, governor and ruin your reputation. >> i would be happy to. >> bill: that's the fun of it i want to walk into the capitol grill. you come to new york or i will come to philly and we will do it. >> have a good time. >> bill: i'm going to walk around the whole restaurant six times so everybody sees you. [ laughter ] all right. governor, you are a stand up guy. i thought i might have to waterboard to you get to you pay off the bet but i don't have to thank god. >> no. >> bill: michele bachmann will enter the discussion discussion. does she have any common ground with president obama? the man who attacked bill o'reilly.com, our web site, gets sentenced in federal court. is it legal on the case upcoming. >> bill: continuing with lead story will the left pull back from the torture issue a poll done by opinion dynamics poll. prisoners that might protect the united states from attacks. 34% oppose a

if you were right, orrin hatch i mean joe sestak, would had been better off running up against orrinhatch, i mean -- arlen specter in pennsylvania. the fact is that arlen specter was probably not as strong of a candidate as the tea party backed pat toomey. so you're wrong, steve. >> well, no, i mean it depends on his states. so pennsylvania. >> well of course, everything depends on the state. but a blue state. a blue state where the winger -- the winger -- >> chris, each one of these states is going to have -- it's own unique circumstances. >> yeah. >> in a republican red state a tea party candidate who gets nominated could actually win, but in a republican red state, like lisa murkowski's the republican senator can step out. and can be elected anyway. it wouldn't work. but in utah it might. >> look at what's happening in utah you make a good point there. according to a recent mason-dixon poll out there among registered voters, always a tricky number. registered voters probably make sense a lot of people vote. if hatch's re-election held now 40% said that they'd vote to re-elect him.

joe sestak, how he beat arlen specter was one of those ads that he used when, you know, arlen specter said i changed party to get re-elected, that played over and over again. that kind of thing really had an effect in the primary. >> lehrer: back to what tim kaine and haley barbour had to say. susan, haley barbour confirmed and believes or said that this election really is a referendum on obama and obama policies. do all of your reporting and the polls reflect that to be the case. >> when you look at house races that's definitely the case. we've seen a nationalized election when it comes to house races. despite the attempts of democrats and a lot of democratic candidates to make it a choice between me and the other person, i think that's... republicans have succeeded in large part this year by having a very consistent narrative against the obama administration, against nancy pelosi, against the actions of the democratic congress, and have made it a referendum on what they've done. voters are speaking in a big way that they're not happy with those steps that they've taken. >> lehrer: b

keystone state, republican pat toomey defeated another democratic hopeful, congressman democrat joe sestak. >> we've got to end the threats of the excessive government regulation and the huge, out of control role that washington has begun to play. >> ifill: the roll call of casualties continued throughout the night: arkansas senator blanche lincoln losing to republican john boozman; wisconsin republican ron johnson beating three-term democrat senator russ feingold. >> my friends, the people of wisconsin have spoken, and i respect their decision. i've called ron johnson and congratulated him and... ( audience boos ) ...and wished him well as our senator. and i also offered my help and the help of my staff in any transition. >> ifill: but in west virginia, democratic governor joe manchin held onto the senate seat formerly held by robert byrd. and in conneicut, attorney general richard blumenthal defeated wrestling executive linda mcmahon. the anti-establishment tea party movement claimed victories in several key races. in florida, marco rubio beat back a challenge from democrat kendrick meek

ballot a couple of tuesdays ago, he would have lost by about a point and a half, the same margin joe sestakthat's easily reversible between now and then. if you look at president clinton if we did a study like, they midterm for clinton or president reagan, he would have found they would have been down, too. i'm not worried about it. if the president leads and if does the type of things that show a strong leadership and a willingness to bring us together, he'll carry pennsylvania. >> i agree with the governor in this sense, chris. this was a heavily white turnout. 80% white, which is extraordinarily high. in 2012, it's not going to be there. the white vote will be down about 75, 73. who will come out? the hispanics who didn't come out. the young people who didn't come out. the african-americans who didn't come out, that will go up. secondly between now and 2012 you'll have the republicans no longer united behind an anti-obama basically agenda but fighting with each other to win the nomination for the presidency. so i think that -- and take a look at what obama did. i mean, the democrats -- h

. >> chris: will you investigate the white house effort to get joe sestak out of the democratic senate primary in pennsylvania? >> chris, i am going to do what president eisenhower suggested. i'm going to take a complicated problem and expand it in order to solve it. people in the bush administration, w. bush said they did the same thing. that means we have an endemic problem, epidemic if you will of the administration thinking it's okay to save their party money by clearing a primary with a government job. i think we have to bring it to an end and look for ways to expose it and bring it to an end for this president and every president to come afterwards. >> chris: what is the first thing, what is the big investigation you are looking to hold? >> i'm going to go after a lot of things and i'm going to do a lot of investigating. i think finishing off the angelo mozilo, friends of angelo program -- >> chris: countrywide. >> countrywide. where it created the financial meltdown in some small part because freddie and fannie took huge amount of bad loans and have losses. we have to bring it t

the open seat in pennsylvania where democratic congressman joe sestak in a tight race against pat toomey, new poll showing it's toomey with the edge, a two-point lead turnout is so important here. washington state now, the democratic firewall. senator patti murray and republican dino rossi, showing murray up slightly, personally popular. the real enemy there is washington, who she's up against. three-term democratic senator russ feingold, slipping away from ron johnson. this is now a seven-point race in johnson's favor. recent polling in the much-talked about republican seat of florida. what a crazy week this week. we mentioned earlier, we'll talk more about the fact that that president clinton will try to get kendrik meek out of the race. it's a three-way race. if that support from meek went away, what could that mean for the race? he's still in the race. what about the african-american turnout? a real fear for democrat ic candidates. chuck todd will go inside the numbers a little bit, chuck. let's talk about the house right now. go inside the fight for the senate. magic number is ten f

arlen specter changed parties and was taken down by joe sestak. sure enough, pat toomey 1, and generally speaking, a blue state, and he was attacked for some of his conservative views but it did not matter. now pat toomey is willing to compromise, but he has been trying to get in the senate for a long time. he picked a very good year to run. host: in fact, a new governor, pennsylvania republican. several democrats in congress lost, including paul kantor ski, patrick murphy, who was seen as a rising star at one point in the democratic party. i want to talk about the colorado senate and gubernatorial race. we are joined by the political editor of the denver post, curtis hubbard. what is the latest on the colorado senate race? guest: the democratic incumbent needs can block -- neat -- leads ken buck by a total of 6940 votes. they are separated by 47.4% to 47.1%. host: is that 100% of the votes counted? guest: is impossible for us to tell in colorado anymore. mail balloting and early voting, there it are not a defined number of precincts. we just do n

. >> caller: joe sestak, of course, is the congressman in this district, and he was running for the senate right. i gotta know just because the people are curious, when did you know on tuesday that you wan? >> caller: well, you know, bill, we started to see results in some of the, in some of the areas that were, actually, you know, rather the main line. and we began to see that we were going to get good, good, good numbers out of there. so we sort of knew early that they with respect making their -- weren't making where they needed to be. >> host: yeah, yeah. so how late were you up tuesday night? >> caller: well, i stayed up late because i sat with my wife, and we had a quiet glass of wine and sort of reflected on the last year. we knew the results by about 9:45, 10:00. i received a gracious call from my opponent conceding, so we were able to have it wrapped up for the 11:00 news. i stayed and circulated, thanked an awful lot of supporters who were there who really were the ground troops. i mean, unprecedented the amount of people involved in these campaigns. >> host: yes, sir. >> caller:

the joe sestak situation is certainly a matter of corruption. whether it's illegal or not, whether other administrations have done it before isn't the question. the american people don't think that government jobs and government positions should be used for political purpose. so it's certainly an example where i'm not going to worry about whether or not it was a crime. i'm going to worry about whether or not it will continue. the second half of the name is reform, not just oversight, not just investigation. we're about accountability and efficiency as much as we are about investigations. >> okay. we are out of time. you are no longer saying president obama's been one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times, correct? >> i'm certainly saying this administration is going to have to straighten up and fly right. it will be our job to make sure government money isn't wasted. i've never made that a personal statement. tried never to make that a personal statement about the president, so if that's backing up from it, i'm not saying the president

two of them in pennsylvania, paul kanjorski's district, joe sestake's seat and the former seat in thesuburban philadelphia. jim oberstar's seat in minnesota and mark kirk's seat which they were able to hold onto in the chicago suburb. those are the four seats. that is the edge of the way. those of the most democratic seats that republicans hold. if you look at a seat that john kerry won with more than 54% of the vote they are all held by democrats. >> thank you very much john for that illuminating series of maps or good segues very nicely into the commentary i want to make on the house, which is why what could have been a mild wave turned into a historic tsunami? i discussed the long-term intellectual forces at work on a piece that i wrote on national a few on line called day of the democratic dead that appeared today before the elections, so i would encourage you if you are interested to take a look at that. i want to focus on more than nuts and bolts. there are two types of seats that swung back primarily, john identified one said very clearly and that is the republican seats that w

two are in pennsylvania,the joe sestak seat in suburban philadelphia, one in minnesota, and this seat in the chicago suburb. those of the four seats. that is the edge of wave. those are the most democratic seats that republicans won. the others are all held by democrats. >> thank you very much for that eliminating map. it said was very nicely into the commentary want to make on the house which is why we could have been a mild way it turned into an historic tsunami. i discussed the long term intellectual forces at work on a piece i wrote a national view online call "day of the democratic dead" which appeared before the election. take a look at that you are interested. i want to focus on the nuts and bolts. there are two types of seats that swung back primarily. john has identified one step clearly and that is the republican seats that were picked up in the last two elections by democrats. many of them slipped back into the republican pattern. this time. the other seats are seats that are dominated by the group i have been talking about throughout this election and that is the white wor