club of new york and that starts at 12:45 eastern. >> harold ford jr., reasonable and good friend, joe watkinsse aide to former president george h.w. bush. >> you didn't say he's reasonable. >> joe is right, but harold has potential. >> joe and i have known each other for almost 20 years, go back to university of pennsylvania, but joe and i have been friends for a long time. >> you'with you we'll talk fisc cliff in a second but you want to do a postmortem? >> you can't win without women, and can't win without latinos, you can't win without young people. you can't win on a single issue, and i just think there were a host of challenges. for me, the whole time, the sense that i had was that it was obama's race to lose, that he had the advantage. anybody look at the electoral college would have to say there were seven or eight easy ways for the president to win, i mean one or two ways for the president to win and for mitt romney, he had like seven or eight different paths that he had to work for him in order to become president in the electoral college. it was obama's race to lose and the presiden

. >>> i want to bring in our political power panel, erin pike, ted strickland and reverend joe watkins, a republican strategist. great to have you all here. i know you were listening to the senator there. reverend joe, i want to start with you. the president is going to speak in the next hour from pennsylvania. we're getting live pictures of his plane arriving right now, as i understand it. it's going to be the first time we're going to hear from him since john boehner and mcconnell rejected this initial offer. what cards do the republicans think that they are holding that they can be so ob ststinent at s point, joe? >> i don't know if it's any cards. the hope is that we can get this done for the sake of the american people and the time for posturing has passed. it really is a negotiation. and republicans know at the end of the day that revenues have to be raised. and the question becomes is how's that done? is it going to be done by eliminating dividends or done by raising marginal rates? and of course, they're against raising marginal rates. but i think at the end of it all, both sid

and joining me now from washington, democratic pollster margie, and republican strategist joe watkinsoo early, right, guys? let's get talking about this. joe, is the gop already making plans for 2016? at this point, if so, who would you say would be the party's best hope? >> the party has to start looking to 2016. we've suffered two losses now in '08 and again in '12. we've got to look at expanding the base. the republican party knows that you can't win going forward without women, without latinos, without young people, without african-americans. so the party has to broaden its base. not necessarily change its belief system, but has to broaden its base and have a bigger cap that has a bigger plank. marco rubio, jeb bush, possibly governor-elect mike pence, bobby jindal. a lot of names. chris christie, because he's soaring in the polls right now. but folks who help broaden that tent and relate to independents, as well as republicans and democrats. >> you know what's a notable admission is you didn't mention paul ryan the his tenure as the vice presidential candidate, does that put him

governor rendell, joe watkins. apologize. we'll get to you next time.ll call you our pennsylvania pundits today on a friday. thank you so much. >>> the death nell for ding dongs. twilight for twinkies. hostess is closing its doors. cnbc's mandy drury is here with what is moving your money. that announcement was made just a few hours ago. not only are we talking about the end of some icon ik baked goods but also thousands of jobs here. >> absolutely. it is really sad. they've got almost 18,500 workers and, richard, most of them are going to be laid off. hostess asked a court's permission this morning to shut down the company because that workers strike i was talking to you about yesterday just basically crippled it and stopped them from being able to operate. bakery operations have been suspended at all plants and now it's focused on selling its assets. that includes 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers, but as to what happens to those assets the ceo told cnbc that he is hopeful they can sell those brands or the brands can live on because obviously thes

. >> i want to bring in margie omaro and joe watkins, republican strategist. both of you. happy thanksgiving. >> good morning. >> this is time of peace and tranquility among the family. let's ask you this. with her having come out now, she's saying what in her own defense what she was given, her talking points, what she was told to say, intelligence given at the time. does this put any of this to rest, joe? >> i think that this is a good start for ambassador rice. she's somebody that has an impeccable background, phi beta kappa rhodes scholar, somebody well regarded in the international community and the united states. she could be very well our next nominee for secretary of state. i think that it's okay to explain what happened. i think it's a good thing to explain that you've got information that led you to say what you said. and i think her real battle right now lies with convincing senator mccain. she's got to reach out to senator mccain, some of the others who have to confirm her in her bid to be the next secretary of state. i think she can do that. but s

and joe watkins, republican strategist from the former aide to president george h.w. bush.d morning. >> good morning, alex. >> governor, not to pick on florida, however, you know state politics, and the vote counting process. would this happen in pennsylvania? i mean what is it about florida? >> well, no. the counties would have delivered the vote way before this. now, there may be an automatic recount triggered by the florida statute, but to deliver the initial vote four days later, there's something grievously wrong in florida. and governor scott ought to empanel a bipartisan commission to look at all of florida's election laws. for example, the weekend before, closing the weekend before closing down the early voting in miami. it was an absolute disgrace and embarrassment, an infringement on our right to vote and our ability to vote. florida needs a thorough examination of all of their election laws. >>> all right. let's get to what happened tuesday. your take away, governor, on what happened. how did the president register a decisive win and why did republicans think the