stoddard, ryan lizza and maeve reston.t's not unusual for midterm elections to be difficult for presidents -- for the president's party. especially when the president is a lame duck. i want you to take a listen to what president george w. bush said after his election night in 2006 at this same point in his presidency. >> this is a close election. if you look at race by race, it was close. the cumulative effect, however, was not too close. it was a thumping. >> it was a thumping. so first i'm going to start with a.b. is president obama even more of a lame duck than usual? or is this just how it goes at the end of a long presidency? >> well, president obama, i think by his own definition, certainly by the definition of those in his party, has had a very successful first four years, i would say, in office because of the sweeping legislation he was able to pass. he so he will be down in the history books as maybe the last president for a while who will be able to move a congress to pass broad sweeping legislation. >> but my qu

in the meantime, staying in washington, we bring in ryan lizza, our cnn political correspondent.ice to have you, sir. >> how are you? thanks for having me. >> i'm doing all right. before we go anywhere else, let me talk about this guy running in kansas. this is something i know you're passionate about. this guy in kansas running against pat roberts. his name is greg orman. he's an independent. he's not yet stated which party he would side with should he beat pat roberts. focus narrative on the midterm election on control of the senate, do you think control of the senate could come down to him and his decision should he win? >> i think it's less likely it will come down to orman because as you pointed out, the republicans in the last week really have strengthened in a number of places and it's looking like they might not need orman. having said that, he still could be the guy. two interesting scenarios. if it comes down to him and he has said he'll caucus with whoever is in the majority, he's going to be a little bit of an odd duck in the republican conference. you can go to his w

let's talk more about politics with ryan lizza, he's washington correspondent for "the new yorker." ere with us. ryan, you've got americans who are taking -- they have a brighter view now of the economy. this is according to a new cnn poll. it says 41% say the economy has stabilize, up five months from last year. they're saying a third of those polled, the economy is starting to recover. this is only up from a quarter of those polled last november. you would think it's good news for the president, but can he just not even capitalize on this pause of the other issues we ease reoccupied with? >> the number one reason driving that is low gas prices. if you want to think about the number one black friday sale, forget about a tv at best buy. it's that gas prices are down to $2.50 by the end of the year. that's got people feeling more optimistic. eventually, that will start spilling over a little bit to the president and economic confidence usually runs along with presidential approval and he might start feeling that. >> his approval is not great i guess would be an understatement right no

joining us again, our chief political analyst, gloria borger, and our cnn political commentator, ryan lizzae -- how the democrats, vice president biden, will handle a republican takeover of the senate. did he suggest how the democrats, though, in general will pivot if that happens? >> it was sort of a prebuttal. he didn't want to concede that. but he said, if they do, we're going to compromise. and that's what you would expect him to say because he said, it's up to the republicans. if the republicans control one branch of the government, they're going to have to learn to govern. so we are ready to govern if they are ready to govern. so he wants to pivot. so they're on the spot. >> he becomes more relevant if the republicans take control of the senate. harry reid has pushed joe biden away saying, stop trying to negotiate deals. but the president has a nonexistent relationship with mitch mcconnell. joe biden has a pretty good relationship with mitch mcconnell. >> the most important legislation that has gotten done in the last couple of years was a deal between mcconnell and biden. so they hav