i'm kate bolduan. hello, everyone. 2012 presidential election. for the first time in months, president obama woke up today knowing where he'll be waking up for the next four years. and yet hours after the race was called and mitt romney con seized, there's still the matter of florida. if the president holds his lead, he'll pad his electoral college margin.if the president holds h, he'll pad his electoral colle margin. we're still watching that as well as many other things. either way, there are more fights ahead. listen here. >> when we make big decisions as a country, it necessarily stirs passions, stirs up controversy. that won't change after tonight. and it shouldn't. these arguments we have are a mark of our liberty. and we can never forget that as we speak, people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter. the chance to cast their ballots like we did today. >> much more on the presidential election to come. but first, we send to john berman. >>> an

let's start with kate bolduan. kate? >> reporter: hey, anderson.way from closing in prince william county, virginia. and when that happens, that is when the phones are going to start ringing here at the board of elections headquarters. this is one of the locations where they'll be taking in the calls with results. first writing in the results here and then later physically having the results brought in these bags. the results, though, we're hearing could be delayed even by hours because of the hours-long wait at some polling stations in the precinct. why does this matter? because everyone is watching what happens here in prince william county, as well as what happens in louden county, just to our north. people are watching as a key indicator of how this state and its 13 electoral votes will go. anderson? >> gary tuckman. gary? >> reporter: anderson, in reicho county, virginia, just north of richmond is a battleground county and battleground state. barack obama is expected to do well in the washington suburbs. mitt romney is expected to do well in t

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i want to go to kate bolduan in virginia right now, one of the key battleground states. u're getting fresh, updated numbers, kate? >> reporter: we're getting our first results coming in from our first precinct here in prince william county, virginia. i'm going to go over to the vice chairman of the county board elections. rick hendricks. he took the first call. rick, tell us the results you got and where you got it? >> piney branch precinct in bristow. 799 for mitt romney. 966 for barack obama. if you know northern virginia, live convert venue, that's where the precinct is. >> reporter: you told me earlier, this is a new precinct. but tell me about the historically what this area would -- how this went in 2008. >> it used to be part of victory precinct and in 2008, obama did carry victory precincts. >> reporter: so there's our first reporting out of prince william county, virginia. we're watching the calls as they come in, and we'll have more coming in very shortly. >> john, what do you think? virginia is obviously the northern part, the suburbs of washington. the preside

our congressional correspondent kate bolduan is here. she's got more on this part of the story.g compromise. but it is a very delicate dance. the two men are talking nice, but at least for the moment are still sticking to their very different positions. house speaker john boehner laid down his marker once again in the fight over the looming fiscal crisis saying the ball is in the president's court. >> this is an opportunity for the president to lead. this is his moment to engage the congress and work towards a solution that can pass both chambers. >> reporter: while neither side is offering any detail of how they want to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, boehner did continue his postelection change in tone friday. >> i don't want to box myself in. i don't want to box anybody else in. i think it's important for us to come to an agreement with the president. >> reporter: republican and democratic aides tell cnn key lawmakers and committee staff have been working through various legislative scenarios for months. a senior house republican aide says that includes staff level talks be

kate bolduan is here. >> who knew what and specifically when?s to lawmakers specifically on when he first learned who was behind the attack. pentagon correspondent barbara starr broke this story just a short time ago. barbara, what is the former cia director expected to say? >> well, kate and wolf. i have spoken to a source, a long-standing source of mine who is close to petraeus, someone who is not a junior aide. petraeus wants to go to the capitol hill and clear this up. that petraeus, as cia director, knew almost immediately, that's how the source characterizes it, that al qaeda sympathizer group in libya was behind the attack. but the confusion emerged very quickly, as well. because petraeus and the cia had about 20 different intelligence reports, we are told, that indicated it was due to that anti-islamic film back in cairo that had sparked the riots. so, what you have here are two questions on the table. who is responsible and what was their motivation? what we now understand is petraeus will tell the committee those 20 reports or so about

. >> our congressional correspondent kate bolduan is here. she's got more on what's going on. day. it's a fast moving story. what's the latest? >> yeah. another day, another twist, wolf. simply put. forget any talk of progress it seems. it appears both sides are now playing tough. the nice talk has taken a distinctly nasty turn in this battle. treasury secretary tim geithner, the president's point man in the fiscal cliff negotiations, arriving on capitol hill for high level talks most notably with house speaker john boehner. >> morning everyone. >> reporter: how'd it go? just listen. >> despite the claims that the president supports a balanced approach, the democrats have yet to get serious about real spending cuts. >> reporter: a much gloomier assessment from the initial pre-thanksgiving huddle at the white house. boehner described his meeting with geithner as frank and direct. the same way he described his phone call with the president the night before. and he said for the past two weeks there has been no substantive progress. most public statements have been optimistic, con

. >> i'm kate bolduan in prince william county, virginia.tions here, a sample ballot here in prince william county, where all of the action will be in just over an hour when the polls close and precincts call their results here at the headquarters. barack obama won northern virginia in 2008 by 234,000 votes. key to his success, northern virginia. a big boost to that in 2008 was absentee voting. officials say right now absentee votes, there are 68,000 fewer absentee ballots in, but officials say they expect overall turnout to top that of 2008, which was more than 74%. all eyes here in prince william county, virginia. for now, i'll toss it down to florida. >> drew griffin here in jacksonville. they are counting the last of the absentee ballots, and i've got to tell you that right at the top of the hour, they're going to be ready to tabulate a lot of these votes. take a look at this machine that's been working for days. they have 45% of the vote actually in and tabulated. nobody supposedly knows what the count is, but they'll press a button clo

>> reid making those comments to our own kate bolduan. i'm joined by dan lothian. dan, we're learning more about the white house plan to deal with the fiscal cliff. break it down for us. >> reporter: right. this is the plan that secretary -- treasury secretary timothy geithner took up to capitol hill yesterday. it calls for $1.6 trillion in tax increases over a ten-year period more than republicans had anticipated. in addition to that, $400 billion in spending cuts that will come later. much of that not really specified. we're looking at entitlements such as medicare. and then the plan also includes $50 billion in stimulus spending. democrats see this really as sort of the opening salvo in these negotiations. early on in this process, both sides appear to show some level of optimism that this would get done. in the last few days and certainly yesterday it just seems like both sides are so far apart, it's not unusual for us to see this kind of posturing and other negotiations, tough negotiations over the last four years or so. you'll see things build up whether it a

kate bolduan is monitoring some other top stories in "the situation room" right now including a tragic parade honoring u.s. troops. what happened, kate? >> it's a horrible story, wolf. a freight train slammed into a truck carrying veterans and their spouses in a texas parade. four people died and 17 others were hurt in midland yesterday. federal authorities are investigating. initial reports show the train sounded its horn and the crossing gate and lights were working. but there are conflicting reports about whether or not the crossing arms actually were down. also, the coast guard is searching for two missing workers after an oil rig exploded off the coast of louisiana. eleven people were injured, workers were doing maintenance on the rig at the time. we're told it was not producing oil at the time. but 28 gallons of fuel spilled into the water. authorities don't consider it a major environmental threat though. nasa astronomers have discovered what could be the most distant galaxy in the universe. they spotted it using a combination of manmade and natural telescopes. it's only a fract

kate bolduan has been working the story for us has details. what's going on here?> kathy actually has a more powerful position this time around. she is now the conference chair of the republican conference. that's the fourth ranking leadership position in the house republican leadership with john boehner, eric canter and kevin mccarthy ahead of her. that's big news for house republicans. also big news on the democratic side of the house today after much, much speculation, nancy pelosi announced she'll stay on for another two years as a top democrat in the house. but that wasn't the only message she was sending today. despite losing the gavel to republicans in 2010 and failing to win it back last week, nancy pelosi says she's staying. >> i have made a decision to submit my name to my colleagues to once again serve as the house democratic leader. >> reporter: flanked by dozens of her democratic female colleagues, pelosi clearly relished the chance to draw a stark contrast with house republicans. >> i'm so proud to stand here with you, my sisters. this is girls mornin

our congressional correspondent, kate bolduan, has been working her sources on capitol hill and what's going on. stakes are enormous right now. what's going on? >> they were away for a week. staff was supposed to be working. but lawmakers are arriving back in town with no real whisper of an imminent breakthrough at the moment to avoid this looming series of tax increases and spending cuts that could very well damage the economy. but the air of compromise among some notable republicans is definitely grabbing attention. the republicans' comments quickly caught fire. >> i will violate the pledge, long story short, for the good of the country, only if democrats will do entitlement reform. >> a pledge you signed 20 years ago, 18 years ago is for that congress. the world has changed and the economic situation is different. >> i'm not obligated on the pledge. i made tennesseans aware, i was just elected, that the only thing i'm monitoring is the oath that i take when i serve when i'm sworn in this january. >> reporter: gop lawmakers bluntly stating to alert the fiscal cliff, they're ready to

. >> let's get straight to our own kate bolduan.excellent panel with her. >> that's correct. as they're always excellent whenever i'm around if i do say so myself. just kidding everybody. the question today, can washington work together to fix the debt crisis? as we know that is generally an unanswerable question when we're looking at washington working at all. but we're going to attempt to answer this today. so you heard in a snapshot, ross, the president has reached out to republican leaders. we've heard speeches from harry reid as well as john boehner, everyone's talking about and describing as congenial, conciliatory, what do you make of it? >> well, i mean, i think the big thing that changed is that the president won re-election. so his leverage over this process is much, much, much -- i can throw on some more muches if you want, larger than it was during the last time we had these kind of negotiations. on the one hand, that in a sense makes it more likely you get a deal done. on the other hand, if i'm sitting in the white hous

kate bolduan picking up the story. >> it will continue to be for days and weeks ahead.ng in long, meandering lines miles long, hours long for some. reuters reports at least half the gas stations in new york city and neighboring new jersey are closed because they're simply out of gas or don't have power themselves. >>> almost 5 million homes and businesses still have no electricity. con edison says power to midtown manhattan should be restored by saturday, with a vast majority of customers back online by november 11. that's ten days away. cnn's deborah feyerick is working that part of the story for us this evening. deborah, that is not something that any resident without power wants to hear right now. what is the latest? >> no, absolutely not. in all the hard-hit areas, this is the time of night that everybody begins to dread. the temperatures are dropping. that means it's simply getting colder and the natural light that they're able to use to kind of get around and navigate, well, that's disappearing. so, those who are in their apartments who are effectively sort of stu