and democratic strategist hilary rosen and cnn political commentator and republican consultant margaret hooverlcome to bot of you. >> good morning, carol. >> good morning. so let's center on women voters, shall we? margaret, no one seems to know how to appeal to women or talk about them. jodi ernst has run a great senate campaign in iowa. her democratic contender, not so much. so how did retiring democratic senator criticize ernst on the issues? no. listen. >> and there's the sense that joni ernst, she's really attractive. and she sounds nice. well, i got to thinking about that. i don't care if she's as good looking as taylor swift or as nice as mr. rogers. but if she votes like michele bachmann she's wrong for the state of iowa. [ cheers and applause ] >> i know that was hard to hear but in essence he says i don't care if she's as good looking as taylor swift or nice as apple pie. so, margaret -- >> nice as mr. rogers. he threw a guy in there. >> he threw a guy in there. >> it's unfortunate senator harken would say when joni ernst would be the first female combat veteran elected to the u.s. s

i'm margaret hoover here in new york talking over the best stories of the week. so how about this one? louisiana senator mary landrieu is in a tight race and suggested this week that president obama isn't popular in the south because he's black. well, then new york representative charles rangel brought up the civil war and slavery on the campaign trail. listen in. >> to be very, very honest with you, and the south has not always been the friendliest place for african-americans. it's been a difficult time for the president to present himself in a very positive light as a leader. >> everything we believe in they hate. they don't disagree. they hate. they think that if you didn't come from europe 30 years ago, we shouldn't have immigration. some of them believe that slavery isn't over and that they won the civil war. >> wow! playing the race card too much? let's go to our panel. i know you have opinions. >> i have an opinion as the brown person on the panel. you know, it's interesting to me. when people say that when african-americans or anyone else is discussing ra

margaret hoover, you were a card carrying member of the republican party. we'll let you start tonight there is no other way to put it. this was a tidal wave. everything that we thought was close wasn't nearly as close. things we didn't think were going to be close, like virginia, way close. what happened? >> the map was laid out and very favorably from the beginning for republicans. there was some six-year itch. the electorate is disenchanted with the president who has very low approval ratings. and republicans ran incredibly strong candidates. i think between all of those things, the option on the table was to change the status quo in washington by moving one element, making the senate republican, give some chance of changing from the status quo. by the way, it wasn't an entire tidal wave. scott brown lost. if scott brown in massachusetts then we could legitimately say yep, we swept the country. >> really, really large kahuna. >> it wasn't a super storm surge. >> too soon. >> it had to be a long, long night for you and for activists around the country. >>

john avlon, cnn political commenter margaret hoover and marc lamont hill, good to have you here.slation will we see? >> we will see everything, health care, immigration. make note of it. >> i wish, right? i think it's an interesting thing. they have to do something to the point that was made earlier. the republican party will say, look, we made things happen. we've got things through the next two years. they're going to have to make reasonable suggestions, as democrats, they're going to have to get things done, it's finally actually doable, is immigration, immigration is something that we can make happen. >> john avlon. >> i'm all four the triumph of hope over experience. and mitch mcconnell did campaign on ending gridlock in washington. so let's take him at his word today. but immigration, so many gop candidates campaigned against it. i think the president can say, look, we had a bipartisan margin before in the senate. do it again work with me in the house. if not after 100 days i'm going to do executive action. more realistic are things like tax reform, corporate tax reform, tr

political strategic margaret hoover, errol louis, and sally kohn.to start with you. >> i've had worse. >> president obama coming out to talk this morning after the election defeat for his party. he needs to say what? >> i think he needs to say it's not ais shellacking, it's a spe bump. when you look at who voted, when you look at how elections are going to go down the road in the future, there's still opportunity for democrats and more peril for republicans coming out of the election. they now have the challenge. they have three, they have to do with women, with young voters, and voters with color. if not, it's a speed bump. >> let's keep on that theme here. based on what happened overnight as we head into the day, republicans have changed what? >> i think republicans have changed sort of the terrain of power in washington. i expect the president, frankly, to say there's frustration out there. i share the frustration. i understand that people are upset. and i do expect him to somewhere along the line to point out that we've got record highs in the s

i want to bring in political analyst jason johnson and our political commentator margaret hoover in newjason, i'd like to put up a photo. we saw video of it of the most powerful people on earth wearing funny shirts. you see vladimir putin there, xi jinping and president obama. my question to you, jason, is who's wearing it best? >> you know what, we have to be patriotic so i say obama. it's like they're the three tops or somewhat kind of a star truck look to them but i think our president wears it best. >> on a much less serious note, late in a president's term, especially two-term presidents, the last two years you often see presidents shift to foreign policy. one reason is they can't get much more dondo midwestally. what kind of success can this president have on the world stage. >> he can have a lot of success on the world stage but not necessarily in asia. obama's got two strikes against him right now. first off, he missed this conference last year because of the government shutdown. now he's showing up at this conference after his own party gets beat at home. so between that and th

the gop juggernaut and what it means for the next two years is david chalian and john avlon and margaret hoover. david, first to you, you're the guy in the know. this is what you cut your teeth on every single day. let me just start with the next two hours. what does the president have to say when he goes on tv at 2:50 this afternoon? >> that's a great question. i think what you're going to see the president say is a two-pronged message. we got a preview of this when vice president biden sat down with our gloria borger a few days ago. they are going to try to express that they're ready to compromise. but i think you're going to hear the president challenge the republicans. from his point of view, they've been a real opposition party, an obstruction party, a party of no. i think he's going to challenge them to say, okay, guys, now you're in the big driver's seat and you're governing both chambers. let's see how you govern now and i challenge you to do something differently. so i think we're going to hear both aspects of that message from the president today. >> i want to bring in john and margar

if you don't see that's how the system has changed, it's not margaret hoover.e who haute but margaret hoover. >> except on the bottom of it it says this ad was paid for by the republican national committee or by such and such pac. and can you look that up. >> the reality is when people are as negative as they are now on what's coming out of washington and politicians, negative messages are more persuasive than positive messages. people are more likely to believe something negative than positive. that's part of the reason why it tilt heavily in that direction. >> errol, this is wendy davis' ad she put out against her opponent. who is disabled in a wheelchair. watch this. >> a tree fell on greg abbott. he sued and got millions. since then, he's spent his career working against other victims. abbott argued a woman whose leg was amputated was not disabled because she had an artificial limb. >> i mean this is like one of those where you expect it to like, as you come out of it you're not on "new day," you're on some political satire show, where it was a spoof ad. wh

joining me to talk about that and much more van jones a cnn political contributor and also margaret hoover's also a cnn political contributor and a republican consultant. what is going on with these ads? some people are calling it, margaret, the bumpkin effect. is that fair? >> look, all politics is local, don, you know that. and joni's ad actually came in the middle of a primary season where she had a pretty crowded field and was not nearly as well known as she is now and it set her apart. it caught national attention at the time that that ad came out. so it really got on the radar of a lot of the national groups that have made a real impact in her race, in many races across the country. >> yeah, the guy saying i will use my gun to shoot off your you know what, that was -- okay. anyway. tom harkin. this got him this trouble. let's listen. >> in this senate race, i've been watching some of these ads. and they're sort of this sense that -- well, you know, i've heard so much about joni ernst. she's really attractive. and she sounds nice. well, i got to thinking about that. i don't care if sh

i'm margaret hoover talkinging with sunny and mel here.lk about musical bloomberg infuriated over comments on who should and should not go to college. the former new york mayor said, quote, if you want your kid to go to college or become a plumber you've about got to think long and hard about it. if he's not going to go to great school and he's not that smart academically but he's smart in dealing with people and that sort of thing, being a plumber is great job. you have pricing power and an enormous skill set. of course, mayor bloom derg did go to college, two prestigious ones. now he's a billionaire. are there some people who are better off avoiding college all told. i can't help myself. i know you want to go. you agree with the mayor. >> i agree with the mayor. >> why? >> if you're ready for college and you're going the yusz your degree, yes, you should go. for kids who are not college rmd and like learning how to fix nlks and put in a now. they spend four years in a krad school because they're going to earn more money than a high schoo

>>> welcome back, i'm margaret hoover and i'm here with sunny, mel, and sally and we're talking aboutg about how police treat black and white men differently. and you wrote a column what, white people need to do and know after ferguson" here's what i thought was a key part of it. black communities are ultimately protesting systems of injustice and inequality that structural help white people while systematically harming black people. just because you're white and therefore generally benefit from those systems doesn't mean that you inherently support those systems. or need to defend them. >> for that they call me a racist. >> that's what i get called now. >> it's nicer than what i get called. >> conservatives often get backed into a corner feeling they need to defend the systems actually than taking responsibility and figuring out how to fix them. we've been talking about having a national conversation. let's be concrete what does a national conversation entail? what is it going to look like? does it mean that paul ryan who is the new head of the ways and means committee in congress sh

margaret hoover, a republican consultant. margaret what is your take?is about the end of the hype into the reality of the actual polls or why do you think we are seeing the shift so late? >> i think most voters tune into an election about ten days before. we know in mid-term cycles, not less than 50% vote. a presidential vote, 50% comes out in a mid-term election, 25 to 45% depending on the year. people are tuning in. you have people waking up to water going on. i think all things equal, by the way, these are not national polls, they are national polls. the des moines register and iowa. this shows the senate is likely going to the republicans by a hair and will come down likely to lousiana and georgia. but we'll see, maybe mary land drew's opponent cassidy will be eight eek it out and get the 50%. by the way, it looks like the candidate if purdue, he has been leading. >> what part are you disagreeing with, john? >> reality is tough in the morning. >> it's tough. here's the deal. first of all, this cycle as we said from the beginning is very geared towar

let's bring in john avalon and margaret hoover, republican consultant. we got the president's side, just as important, probably more so is the other site of the equation. let's play a little bit of the presumptive leader, mitch mcconnell, what he had to say about what he wants to do in the senate. let's play it to set the table. >> the first thing i need to do is to get the senate back to normal. that means working more, i don't think we've had any votes on friday in anybody's memory. it means opening the senate up. so that amendments are permitted on both sides. and it means occasionally burning the midnight oil in order to reach a conclusion. >> sounds great. margaret, here's one thing, we want to go forwards, i get it. leadership, okay? governing is leadership. leadership is often accountability. don't you think there should be some ownership of, and the reason all of this has been going on, is because we did it. we're not going to do that any more. we're going to do things differently on the republican side. doesn't he need to say that? instead of ma

talk more with john avalon, a cnn political analyst and editor in chief of the "daily beast" and margaret hoovercnn political analyst and republican consultant. it's obvious that the parents of whose children were killed by isis, the families believe they were trying on their own to get their children back. who knows if it would have worked? it seems as though it wouldn't have. but the government wouldn't let them negotiate or give money. of courses u.s. has its reinforce not allowing that. here's what the first hostage was killed by isis, james foley's parents had to say about the government's help. listen to this. >> i really feel that our country let jim down. and -- >> in what way? >> well anderson, i we met wonderful people within our government. good people who cared, who wanted to help. but the reality of the bureaucracy and really was such that we were not helped. we really weren't. >> margaret, is it time for a review? >> this is tragic. as a parent, it breaks your heart. i don't know that ordering a bureaucratic review of how you negotiate with terrorists would have saved the sons of t

director for the democratic national committee and carl bernstein cnn political commentator and margaret hoover cnn political commentator. the republicans well earned. why it happened, giving the democrats so far a little bit of a pass. yes, voters wanted change. yes, they were pro republican clearly. but didn't democrats ms. finney do it a little bit to themselves. didn't they run away from their base, run away from their president and take a beating. >> number one, republicans i heard this from every democratic campaign i talked to, republicans did a good job making it about president obama which put a lot of democrats on defense and they didn't do a good-enough job making it about the issues. and i'll tell you, look at how many states where minimum wage increase passed. that is an obama agenda item. so that tells you something about running away from some of these core issues, was not a good strategy. not being willing to say whether or not you voted for the president. not such a good strategy if you're a democrat. you also saw some of the republicans like a corey gardner totally back away f