christie and hillary as vice president with two of cnn's political commentators, joining me are maria cardona and kevin madden. i feel like it's "cross fire." thanks for joining us, kevin and maria. >> thanks, don, good to see you. >> polls show chris christie cruising towards re-election. new jersey is a democratic state and he's apparently making inroads among women, among hispanics and other minorities. >> right. >> is he rewriting the republican playbook for winning traditionally democratic voters? >> yeah, i think it's an important sort of case study for how republicans can do a better job of winning not only the middle but constituencies that are not traditionally within the republican party. so, i think the reason -- one of the ways he's done that is he's

let's discuss with political commentators maria cardona and ben ferguson. very much for coming in. maria, the latest poll numbers from quinnipiac university show these numbers are not very encouraging for the president and for the democrats if elections were being held today, for whom would you vote on october 1st, 43% said republicans. now 39% say democrats, 39% say republicans. i guess a lot of people are blaming a lot of democrats are blaming the obama care rollout for those numbers. >> sure. and so thankfully, wolf, the election isn't today. and it is still a year away. and a lot can happen in a year. one of those things that's going to happen is that by the end of this month, as the white house has stated, the fix fips to obama care website will be in full force and a lot more people will be able to sign up. a lot more people will be able to enroll. so that is what this administration is focused on. they have some of the best folks on this, including jeff zients and todd park who is one of the best minds in technology. he's the chief technology officer

. >> let's bring in our political panel to discuss all this, maria cardona a cnn political comment natorst and ross a cnn commentator and opinion columnist for "the new york columnist" we have a smart sandwich. russ, this is the third time in as many weeks republicans blocked a judicial nominee. robert wilkins was unanimously confirmed. do you think republicans smell blood, sense weakness in this administration or are trying to pounce? >> in part, i also think that a lot of republicans would actually be relatively happy if harry reid went ahead with the so-called nuclear option and did away with the filibuster for judicial nominees. what we're watching is the culmination of a process that's gone on, under republican presidents and democratic presidents alike going back to the 1980s where the filibuster has been used more and more, constantly to block george w. bush's nominees and you know, if you go back nine or ten years it was republicans threatening to use the nuclear option, so in a sense, precisely because the white house seems weakened, the democrats seem weakened, a lot of republi

now, cnn political commentators maria cardona a democratic strategist and ben ferguson who has a conservative join us now. maria, i'm curious about this going back and saying you can have it for another year or not when it's technically i guess against the law. we were discussing this a little bit earlier in the program. what would stop a republican president in say three years add administratively fitching obama care? >> well, if he can do it legally through regulations, then i guess nothing other than hopefully a republican president won't be elected. but look, this is what the president talked about yesterday. he heard the american people loud and clear. he was contrite. he was apologetic. i was explanatory. he was introspective. i think that is exactly what the american people want to hear right now. he also acknowledged that he had lost some of the trust that had been, frankly, one of his strong suits in the last five years. that i think is the indication of a good leader which is someone who knows when they've made a mistake and they hear cloud and clear exactly what the american want.

maria cardona, and ben ferguson, thank you so much. >>> sure. >>> and the president uses twitter.ually as well, twitter helping start a revolution in the middle east. coming up, now you can own a piece of twitter. it's going public. [ ship horn blows ] no, no, no! stop! humans. one day we're coming up with the theory of relativity, the next... not so much. but that's okay. you're covered with great ideas like optional better car replacement from liberty mutual insurance. total your car, and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? and i know there are many myths out there about a reverse mortgage, so i want you to know the facts. there are currently no credit score or income requirements to qualify. you can get tax-free money from the equity in your home. you can use the money to pay off your current mortgage if you have one. the remaining money can be used for anything. there's no monthly mortgage payments. and you still own your home! call today to get your free guide a

. >> viewpoints now from a couple of xen commentators, maria cardona, democratic strategist, ben ferguson radio show host. i'm glad we have the two of you together. these are always lively conversations. i want to start with the president trying to fix one problem but have created another. because there are 45 days until this deadline. insurance companies have gone in one direction. now he's saying wait, you don't have to go there. maria, is the president creating a bigger problem? >> well, we'll see, victor. i think the important thing here is that the president was actually listening to the american people, especially that important small but important 5% of americans who are receiving their cancellation notices. they were scared and they were upset, and the president has actually responded to that. and in fact, some insurers, even some who met with the president yesterday at the white house said that they're glad that the president did this because their own customers were scared and were anxious and this gives them the ability to calm them down, to assure them they're able to continue

we have maria cardona, democratic analyst, and rahim salem, also a contributor to the "national review both here this morning. we learned last week -- we learned last week how quickly the segments go by, so let's get to it. let's put the numbers up, the graphic. 65% disapprove of the president's handling of the economy. but the economy is growing, job climate is improving, saw more than 200,000 jobs added in the month of october. housing is coming back. is this about the president and the dislike of him? why the 65% disapproval? >> well, i think people are concerned that the economy isn't improving fast enough. i think that the economy keeps teetering onto brink, and though you had reasonably decent numbers over the last few months, they're not nearly as strong as you need to get the economy back to full employment. so i think that that's why that dissatisfaction is building. the dong people have been expecting hasn't arrived. >> maria, the numbers can say whatever they are, they can be accurate. if people don't feel it, then does it really matter? >> that's exactly right. and so, i do

cnn political commentator, maria cardona, ross douthat and sheera senner. i want to start with you. is really your bread and butter. a month ago we were talking about do the democrats really have a chance to take over the house and now today, sorry about the peter brady thing, now today we're sitting here thinking do republicans have a chance of taking over the senate. how big of a shift are we dealing with here? >> yeah, there has certainly been a large shift but let's remember, there is still almost a year to go until the election and if poll numbers can flip this quickly in a month, they can flip even more quickly many times between now and november 2014. that said, yes, there certainly has been a shift, especially in the senate, where republicans need to pick up a net of six seats to gain control of that chamber, and seven senators very vulnerable democratic senators are up for re-election in states that obama lost in 2012. that is not good math, especially if the national landscape is shifting towards republicans. >> maria, you run in these democratic circles. if this does cost

with us from washington, d.c., maria cardona, cnn political commentator, and here in new york, sherryt to start with you from the news from washington state that they will not do this. this is an administrative fix the president is offering to try to get insurance back to people who lost it. do you think this is going to work, especially with states saying they're not going to c comply? >> we'll see. i hope other states will take a look at this and realize the constituents in their states who are upset this happened actually want this and hope they will work with this new fix to actually get their constituents the kind of fix they need. i mean, at the end of the day, john, the whole focus of this was for folks who could not get insurance, for them to be able to go on to the insurance marketplaces and get affordable insurance. for those who had it but did not have plans that were up to snuff, if you will, who did not have the kind of coverage and protections under the obama care that they needed to have, they would also be able to go onto the marketplace and get better plans for either

maria cardona and will cain. >> good morning. >> let's start here.des here on the opposite sides they are arguing now. mitch mcconnell and harry reid and then senator obama. i will start with you, maria, about the hypocrisy of what happened this week. >> i think the issue here, victor, is when president obama was senator obama, the partisan ship was not at the level that it was today. in fact, senator reid said this. no side has completely clean hands on this. both sides have used the filibuster as a tool. this is, i think, the feature that got me. in the history of the united states, 168s tim times, the filibuster has been used. half of the time it has been used in president obama's tenure. it has gotten to the point where it is historic and absolutely nothing is getting done. the reasons why the republicans were blocking the nominees were not substantive at all. nothing with qualifications. it was pure politics. that is what senator reid wanted to get rid of. >> let's get will in here on this. senator mcconnell in 2005 was in favor of the nuclear o