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CNN Live Event/Special
Election Night in America
Aired November 06, 2012 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: They're getting ready to close the voting in -- on the West Coast, including in California, and we've got some major projections right now.
All right. CNN can project that California will be won by the President of the United States. All 55, a huge number, the largest state of the United States. All 55 electoral votes will go for the president. Fifty-five, add that to his column.
Hawaii, where he was born, four electoral votes, the president will carry Hawaii. He will also carry Washington state on the west coast, 12 electoral votes, they all go for the President of the United States.
Mitt Romney, he's got some wins out on the west coast in Idaho, for example, have carried four electoral votes in Idaho and three in Montana.
Right now, we cannot make a projection in Oregon. We don't have enough information right now, but let me show you where the race for 270 stands right now. The president, now taking the lead, 228 for President Obama to 176 for Mitt Romney. 270 needed to be elected president.
Those yellow states out there, those are the states we have not yet made projections in.
As we wait for more real votes to come in, we want to share with you what our exit polls are revealing. Remember, these are estimates, based on interviews with a sampling of voters as they left select polling stations and they also were based on phone interviews we made with a sampling of people who voted early.
Here is our exit poll results for the state of Oregon. The president with 52 percent. Mitt Romney with 45 percent. Remember, this is an estimate, an estimate only, that reflects the votes of the people we interviewed at select polling places. Early voters, we interviewed on the phone as well. They may not necessarily reflect the actual outcome in a particular state once we get the final vote tallies. We're watching all of this.
Those states we just projected, California, we knew it was going to go for the president, but it certainly adds to his road to 270.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's the big basket of eggs. It comes out of California. It goes into the Democratic basket. It puts the president 228 to 176. So let's just do some common sense. Let's do some common sense. Some of this is, you know, educated guesses. This is common sense.
Oregon is likely to stay right there. Most people, even most Republicans, will tell you, Nevada will stay right there. So then you start coming across New Mexico, likely to stay in the blue column right there. Now we'll see if that changes. But if do you that, and I think it's very hard, Republicans at home can't argue with me very strongly on those states. That gets the president to 246. Then you start coming to this -- I'm going to leave Colorado for now. That's a battleground state.
So then you start coming across here, and, Wolf, with the president at 246, you start looking here. Missouri, let's assume that one goes red. So you're looking here, this 10 right here -- Wolf, let me go to you. You'll move the map a little bit for me.
BLITZER: Let's get to some more projections. Important ones, in fact, right now.
All right. Moving quickly right now, Wisconsin, we project will be won by the President of the United States. Its 10 electoral votes will go for President Obama. This is the home state of the Republican vice presidential nominee, Paul Ryan. But CNN now projects Wisconsin will be in the president's corner.
North Carolina, on the other hand, we project will be won by Mitt Romney and its 15 electoral votes will go for Mitt Romney.
So where do we stand now on the road to 270? The electoral votes needed to be elected President of the United States? The president is ahead. He has 238. He's inching closer and closer to 270. Mitt Romney has 191.
You can see those yellow states out there. Those are the yellow states where we have not yet made projections, but we have votes that are coming in.
John, Wisconsin, the Republicans really wanted to win Wisconsin because they thought Paul Ryan would help. They won that recall election, they won big time in 2010, but this time the president once again will carry Wisconsin.
KING: And so if you think about the Romney strategy, especially in the final weeks of the campaign. No Republican has ever won the White House without Ohio. They know the president has been leading there. He's leading right now. So what do they do? They said well, we need a plan B. Plan B was Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes. That's now in the president's vault.
Well, so now we need a plan C, maybe that would be Michigan. We can get 60 in there and make up most of Ohio. That one is now in the president's vault. Well, then we need a plan D. Wisconsin was going to be 10 of those then they find somewhere else. So plan B, plan C, plan D are now gone. And so you start looking at the Romney map and you're saying, well, then what's plan E? And if you start looking at where is plan E, forgive me, but history tells us that's going to stay there. Logic tell us, the Latino vote, that's likely to stay there. Even a more Latino vote presence here and Republicans should be listening to this over and over again. Latino vote here. The Latino vote could make the difference here. I'm not going to touch it right now. Let's just assume Missouri keeps its Republican DNA, and stays there. President Obama did not carry that four years ago. That gets you to 256, right?
So the president needs only 14. From that -- If this happens as we expected, well, the president needs only 14, which means he could do this with Colorado and Iowa. Never mind Ohio, where he's leading right now. Never mind Florida where he's leading right now. And never mind Virginia where he's slightly behind but still in play because of the votes that are out right now.
So you look at this map right now. Plan B, plan C, plan D are gone. I have a very hard time coming up with a plan E. Don't ask me about a plan F.
BLITZER: Stand by for a moment. We have another major projection right now.
CNN projects that the Democrats will retain their majority in the United States Senate. They have won enough Senate seats to make sure that the Senate majority leader Harry Reid will continue to be the Senate majority leader.
A major, major win for the Democrats in the Senate. Earlier, we projected the Republicans would retain their majority in the House of Representatives.
Let's go to Anderson and Dana for more.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yes. And particularly in Virginia, it was a tight race but we're projecting Tim Kaine.
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That means that this Democratic seat is staying in Democratic hands. This was a very, very tight race. But the former governor will now be the new senator from the state of Virginia. Tim Kaine. And in California, Dianne Feinstein is going on to win a very easy re- election, and in Hawaii, we have a new senator-elect, a Democrat, Mazie Hirono. She beat the former Republican governor who they thought maybe that she would have a chance because she was pretty popular. But that didn't happen particularly with President Obama at the top of the ticket.
COOPER: Right. And again let's go and look at the balance of power.
BASH: OK. So look at this. Right now we have 42 Republican seats, 48 Democratic with two independents, but because the remaining seats that we know are out there it is very clear, as Wolf just reported, that Democrats will be able to retain control of the Senate. The open question now is, what will the balance of power be? How many seats will there be?
But, Anderson, I think it's really important to underscore the fact that going into today -- or going into this election year, Democrats were defending 23 out of 33 seats. With this bad economy, they had -- Republican just had to pick up a net four. They thought it was a no- brainer.
COOPER: Yes.
BASH: But -- and there's a -- there are a lot of Republicans that we're talking who were very upset because there was a combination of unforced errors, bad candidates that really set them back. So Republicans are depressed, I think, is probably an understatement to describe them right now.
COOPER: A much different story than it was two years ago, 2010.
BASH: Very much so. And at this point they're actually even telling me, I was just talking to top Republican sources that they think they might even lose seats. Never mind gain. Lose seats by the end of the night.
COOPER: Still some races we're watching. Dana Bash, appreciate that.
Let's check in -- we're going to go with David Gergen and Gloria Borger.
As you look at this, obviously, I mean, the question really becomes, what happens now? What happens tomorrow assuming President Obama is re-elected --
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well --
COOPER: -- in terms of actually being able to get things done? Does anything really change?
BORGER: No, and I don't think -- I don't think anything does change. I mean, before this evening, I was talking to an aide to -- a leader -- a Republican aide to a leader in the Senate who said to me, you know, nothing is changed unless the president comes to us and proposes something that we can live with on the fiscal cliff, we're not going to be willing to deal with him.
I think, however, that -- you know, to Dana's point about how upset and depressed these Republicans are, you know, they had a couple of real opportunities in 2010 and, again, to try and regain power in the Senate, and, again, it's the Tea Party in 2010, there were three seats they could have won, and they kind of threw them away.
COOPER: And -- I'm nervous to turn to Alex Castellanos.
BORGER: Yes.
COOPER: Because I keep hearing some deep sighs from him.
BORGER: Yes. COOPER: Over the course of the night.
ALEX CASTELLANOS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: I'm going for the Hemlock here. No. You know, I think there is a chance that we're going to get something done. Democrats and Republicans coming up --
COOPER: Where do you see that?
CASTELLANOS: If the -- if President Obama is re-elected, and again that's still an if, a long way to go. Because one is, Republicans, the Congress is going to be re-elected every two years. They have a lot of pressure. It's going to be a little hard for them to move. But this president is never going to be on the ballot again. He's demonstrated tremendous flexibility before, Bush tax cuts, keeping Guantanamo open, all those.
I think he knows his legacy -- he'll be judged by history, by whether he gets his hands around the fiscal health of this country, whether he puts this country on a sound fiscal track. That's -- he'll get on Mount Rushmore if he does that. He won't if he doesn't.
(CROSSTALK)
CASTELLANOS: Now he can move 80 percent to -- where Republicans are. He can embrace something like Simpson-Bowles. The good news for this election, there's no agenda. Nobody ran proposing anything on either side.
COOPER: We're going to have more from you, guys. We got --
CASTELLANOS: So they can put something --
COOPER: We have another projection to make. So let's go to Wolf -- Wolf.
BLITZER: We have another major projection to make right now in another key battleground state.
And CNN can make this projection right now. The President of the United States will be the winner in Iowa, Iowa and its six electoral votes, the president will carry. Right now, with 53 percent of the votes in Iowa counted, the president has a 55-44 lead, 98,648 votes advantage in Iowa.
They are thrilled over there at President Obama's campaign headquarters in Chicago. They're dancing over there at campaign headquarters, they're watching what's going on.
Jessica Yellin is watching as well. You know what? Let's listen in briefly. A little bit of the celebration that's going on at Chicago -- in Chicago, over at Obama headquarters.
Jessica, are you there?
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm here, Wolf. There's an enormous enthusiasm in this room as they have been watching the returns come in all night. For them this was a campaign that they didn't know for so long if it would turn out with a night like this. For these people, they remember four years ago, a very different mood throughout the campaign, a campaign based on a very different theme of hope and change. This time, a battle focused on demographics, on ground game, on an operation driven to turnout specific people who are Obama supporters.
BLITZER: All right, Dana, hold on for a second.
YELLIN: And a national --
BLITZER: I'm sorry to interrupt but we have yet another projection to make right now.
And CNN projects the president will carry New Mexico. New Mexico will be won by the President of the United States. Add another five electoral votes to his column. The president carries New Mexico. You can se he has a 52-44 advantage with more than half of the vote counted.
Let's see where it stands right now, if we add up, his electoral votes right now on the basis of New Mexico being in his counter. He has 249. He's getting closer and closer and closer to the 270 he needs to be re-elected President of the United States for another four years. Mitt Romney has 191.
They are thrilled obviously in Chicago.
Jessica, I interrupted you a moment ago to project New Mexico. Go ahead and talk to us how thrilled are they over there.
YELLIN: You know, Wolf, they are thrilled in this room. But as I talked to the people who are back at the Obama boiler room, they are still staying cautious on e-mail and in their contacts and waiting for all the final numbers to come in. But there is a great deal of enthusiasm here as you can see. They also get excited any time they see themselves on TV. So that's part of the cheering, when they see when their picture is up.
Huge excitement. The president watching this now from a hotel room not far away, with his wife and two girls, and friends and family who were gathered in town, and then he will simply joined by the vice president and his family when they head over here later this evening as well as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a whole bunch of people who will put on quite a -- what they said would be an early night and a victorious night. That's what they predicted, Wolf. They said it would come out that way. And so far, that's what it's looking like -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Let's stay in Chicago. Our Brianna Keilar is right in the middle of the crowd over there.
Brianna, they seem pretty excited right now as the president gets closer and closer to 270. He's got 249 by our count right now.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the excitement here in (INAUDIBLE) in downtown Chicago has really been building with each projection that comes out, especially when we saw Iowa, we'll tell you, I'm standing among people, about 10,000 --
BLITZER: All right, Brianna, hold on a moment. Unfortunately we can't hear you. That crowd is very, very excited right now.
Let's go over to John King. The president, 249. He's not that far away from the 270 he needs to be elected.
KING: Takes 270, you can do the math at home. He's 21 shy, right? Well, let's do a little history. This is a safe bet. OK. We'll have to count votes. But Oregon has been a Democratic state for a very long time. That would get the president 256. Some Republicans say watch, watch, watch. I've talked to a lot of people out in Nevada today. They expect that one to go right there. That puts the president at 262.
You know what that means, Wolf? If you look at the map and he's at 262, look at anyone left. Anyone left, pick one more state, turn one more blue, you get four more years. That's what happening. Now we have to count these, we haven't officially called these yet but history is history. Our reporting shows very strong, Oregon will stay blue. Nevada is likely to stay blue. When it comes to that, he's at 262. That would put him over the top. Colorado is nine. He won't win Missouri. Ohio is 18, will put him way over the top. Virginia's 13 would put him over the top. He's leading right now in Florida. That's 29. That's called way over the top.
You look at this map right now, and you are a Republican, and we're just picking the numbers, we're just counting the votes, folks. We don't take sides here. But getting Mitt Romney to 270, it's almost impossible completely improbable.
BLITZER: All right. Stand by for another moment because we have another projection to make right now.
CNN projects Oregon, the state of Oregon will go for President Obama. That's another seven electoral votes. The president will carry Oregon. You see 40 percent of the votes is in. He's got a lopsided advantage, 59 percent to 38 percent. So where does that put him -- where does that put him now on the road to 270? He's got 256 electoral votes, 191 for Mitt Romney. He's well on his way to 270.
You see those yellow states there. Those are states we have not yet made projections in. But the president getting closer and closer and closer to that magic number of 270.
John King, it's -- as you say, any one of these other states could really push him over the top pretty quickly.
KING: Assuming -- and it's an assumption. And I know there are Republicans at home watching, saying we will prove you wrong. But I called it any state and inside the Romney campaign they'll push back a little bit. They don't push back hard. They expect because of the Latino vote, and this is the conversation we're going to be having for weeks and weeks and months and months inside the Republican Party. They expect because of the Latino vote that that one will stay blue. That will put the president at 262.
Wolf, Colorado will put be enough to put him over the top. Even if he couldn't do that, we don't expect him to win Missouri. Any one of these, any one of these would put him over the top. At the moment, he's ahead in Ohio. That's 18. At the moment, he's ahead in Florida, that's 29.
Let's switch the map and we come over here and look it. Just see where we're looking at it right here. Again, Ohio would put the president over the top at 71 percent. Governor Romney still in play. That is very, very close. But when you look at places, what's out? A lot of the vote that's out is right there in Cuyahoga County. That's the president's territory.
Some of the vote that's out is down here in Franklin County. That's the president's territory. So if you're looking for a Mitt Romney comeback strategy, can it happen here in from Ohio? It's unlikely to find it there.
And, Wolf, as I go back I'll also just show the Florida number one more time. A narrow but stubbornly consistent lead for the president in battleground Florida.
BLITZER: John, we have another projection to make right now. They're coming in pretty quickly. Let's take a look.
CNN projects Missouri will be won by the Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. He will capture all 10 of Missouri's electoral votes, if more than 50 percent of the vote is now in, 58 percent for Romney, 40 percent for Barack Obama.
Based on those indicators we have projected Missouri will go -- Missouri will go for Mitt Romney. So where does it put us on the road to 270? Romney now has broken to 200 barrier. He's at 201. The President of the United States, significantly ahead at 256. So Missouri helps Mitt Romney, but not -- maybe not enough.
KING: Maybe not enough. If you look at what's left out there, the only sure bet for Governor Romney right now is the state of Alaska. So let's assign the state of Alaska to Governor Romney. That would get him up 204. Then you look at the map right here, and at the moment, at the moment, the president is favored in Nevada, the president leading in Colorado. The president is leading in Florida, the president is leading in Virginia, and last time I look, Governor Romney, and let's switch maps, was leading but just narrowly in Virginia.
So you're looking at the map right here. Let's just do this before he switched maps. That's a relatively safe bet. That would get the president at 262. And again, after that, any one state gets you over the top -- Wolf.
BLITZER: We've got a really major projection to make right now.
CNN projects that Barack Obama will be re-elected President of the United States. He will remain in the White House for another four years because we project he will carry the state of Ohio. By carrying Ohio, he wins re-election, the President of the United States defeats Mitt Romney in this -- at this time right now, we have made this projection, so the president wins this battle for the White House.
They are excited in Chicago. They're excited at Times Square in New York. They're watching all over the world right now. The President of the United States has been re-elected right now.
Let's listen in to some of the excitement.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
So you can see, the Empire State Building now has turned blue, because that is our projection, the President of the United States has won re- election. Let the world know that 11:18 p.m. on the East Coast of the United States, we projected this win, the re-election of Barack Obama for another four years, the president will be the winner. Mitt Romney will lose this election.
We'll see what happens in these other states. But let's go to Jessica Yellin right now. Our chief White House correspondent watching all of this unfold in Chicago -- Jessica.
YELLIN: Wolf, the euphoria in the room is evident. These people have worked hard for the president, everyone in this room was in one way or another a volunteer for the campaign. While this was a very different kind of campaign from 2008, what is not different is the kind of coalition the president put together to re-elect him. A very different vision of -- makeup of America that is diverse, that is heavily Latino, African-American, relied on single women and where the president played heavily to their interests.
And this is a kind of coalition the president made clear. He was interested in appealing to, and it's a lesson that the Republican Party will learn from.
I will also point out, Wolf, that the president did make some explicit promises about what he would do in a second term. Cutting the -- cutting the deficit and not extending the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, among others.
BLITZER: Jessica, hold on for a moment. I want to listen to some of the people cheering. They are so excited right now. The president's supporters at Times Square, the president's supporters in Chicago, and elsewhere around the world.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
All right. Let's go back to Chicago. Brianna Keilar, our White House correspondent, she's right in the middle of the crowd up there.
We're going to try to hear what you have to say, Brianna. Get that microphone right up to your mouth.
KEILAR: Hi, Wolf. It's a very excited crowd here, but I will tell you, I did talk to some people after our projection of Ohio, and I said, are you surprised that things wrapped up so early? And they said, yes.
I think people here were settling in for a rather long night. They thought it was going to be more suspenseful. But they're certainly very excited, obviously, Wolf, with each projection that continues to come out, they get even more excited and this is going to be continuing on for hours.
Many of these people here were volunteering for President Obama. These are Illinois-based volunteers. They went door knocking, phone banking in Wisconsin and Iowa, key battleground states for President Obama, so these are certainly people that really feel like they have some ownership in his re-election here, Wolf.
BLITZER: Very excited in Chicago right now. I assume they're excited all over the country. All of the president's supporters. They worked hard for him to get re-elected.
It's interesting that Ohio, by our projecting, that he will carry the state of Ohio, that put him over the 270 mark, so the president goes on to win another four years in the White House.
And, Anderson, four years ago we projected his win at exactly 11:00 p.m. on the East Coast. Tonight we projected his win 18 minutes later at 11:18 p.m. on the East Coast.
COOPER: And while we continue to watch the crowds of Obama supporters, celebrating, let's talk to our panelists, our contributors, our analysts. Just some initial thoughts. Alex?
CASTELLANOS: Well, boy, that hurts. But the current President of the United States is now the future President of the United States. And now it's time for all of us to remember what this is all about. And that's about leading the country to a better place. So now I think it's incumbent for Republicans to be as gracious as they were passionate about this election. And go sit at the table and see what we can do to deal with some of the impending problems.
COOPER: Van Jones, from the Democratic perspective?
VAN JONES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I agree. I think that the Republican Party is a great party historically. Party of Abraham Lincoln, a party of Teddy Roosevelt who's an environmentalist. It is a party that I respect and admire. I think that there've been some elements in there that maybe pulled it too far in one direction, that can be corrected.
This is an opportunity for to us come together, and you said it's a 50/50 country. But I think for people who saw this president struggling and wanted him to be able to have a second chance, it's a big emotional moment for us, but it's also a big opportunity for the country.
COOPER: Margaret Hoover, a Republican, I mean, do you think that's the message the Republican Party takes away from this? That they went too far to the right? Because I think there's a lot of elements the Republican Party will say they were true to their conservative values? MARGARET HOOVER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think what you'll see is the Republican Party take a moment, step back, and just a little bit into (INAUDIBLE) as it did at the end of -- in 2008. I think there's going to be a lot of fighting, because the Republican Party is made up -- the conservative movement -- of many different factions. Libertarians, economic libertarians, social conservatives. National --
(CROSSTALK)
HOOVER: There's going to a fight over the narrative, over who is going to control the Republican Party and there is no elected leader of the Republican Party for the next four years.
CASTELLANOS: Well, you don't -- you don't win the middle as a Republican by becoming a Democrat, by just, quote, "moderating." If you're tied and you want to take the market share, you don't say, hey, I'm more like that. You say I'm new improved. The Republican Party needs to move forward, not sideways.
COOPER: David?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I will put this in the proper perspective. Again, I had an opportunity to go to the Jefferson Memorial today. And it just reminds you of what a penchant of democracy this is. This is a wonderful country to have an election like this. And an African-American to not only win once, but twice, there is something about that that speaks to sort of what America is, the promise.
I think the question now, my interpretation of a lot of this data is that there were an awful lot of people who voted today who would like to see more moderation in their politics. They -- the moderates were the largest self-identified --
COOPER: Both on the left and the right.
GERGEN: And the left and the right. They're asking the right on immigration, as Gloria said earlier tonight, they're clearly in favor of doing something about providing a path for citizenship, but they also don't want the president to go too far to the left. And I think there is a chance for them to come together, but we only have a moment in all of this, where they all sort of celebrate the democracy. It's a wonderful thing to see (INAUDIBLE) to go through. Most countries don't.
BORGER: You know, these moments are always -- are always wonderful, and I think we need to give an awful lot of credit to the Obama campaign, which ran yet again another terrific campaign. The contents of the campaign, however, are not as great as these moments. Because we saw a very negative, nasty campaign, a small campaign that didn't rise to the kind of joy we see in people's eyes today.
And I think what they are asking for as we -- as we go ahead and we look at a Congress that has to confront the fiscal cliff, I think they are looking for the Congress and the president, even though it's a status quo situation, to come back in a different frame of mind.
COOPER: We should just point out --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: I just want to show the popular vote right now because right now Mitt Romney is leading in the popular vote. Of course those numbers could change, but we are projecting, of course, the President Barack Obama will be -- will be re-elected.
BORGER: And it's such a divided country as we saw in all the exit poll results and you see in the division in the popular vote.
COOPER: Does President Obama now have to lead differently?
GERGEN: Yes.
COOPER: Do Republicans in Congress have to behave differently?
BORGER: Yes.
CASTELLANOS: President Obama got one of the rarest things we get in politics and in life and that's a second chance. He is now more mature than he -- he now has seen some of his shortcoming tested in a public arena, that he hasn't built relationships, that he hasn't addressed some of the fiscal matters that he needs to address.
My hope is that we're going to see -- you know, Bill Clinton stumbled, fell, came back into American politics.
COOPER: And James Carville --
CASTELLANOS: I really hope the president -- he may do it -- I hope that Obama does the same.
COOPER: James, Alex was just making the point that he thinks President Obama has to now lead differently, that he's seen so many mistake. Do you agree with that?
JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I'm watching the election. The president is going to be re-elected, the Democrats are taking the Senate, and people are saying, well, the Republicans are not bad, Obama has to lead on 80 percent of the way.
Why did we have an election? I mean there's a reason that we have it, you know. I mean, and he's going to -- sure, Obama is not going to get everything that he wants. But he should get more of what he wants.
(CROSSTALK)
GERGEN: You think he should interpret this as a mandate?
CARVILLE: No, it's not -- it's not -- I don't think it's a mandate. It's not a mandate. But what the public is saying is they're giving him power back. He certainly doesn't have to give up 80 percent of what he wants. He should get more of what he wants than the Republicans, because we had an election.
(CROSSTALK)
CASTELLANOS: He didn't run on what he wanted. He ran on don't go back to what the other guy did. So there is no --
JONES: President Obama -- both candidates -- both candidates said you have a clear choice. They both laid out a vision, that was a more laissez-faire vision that was laid out by Mitt Romney. I think take it to extremes and President Obama said very clearly he wanted to have a weight board, a balanced approach when it comes to the deficit.
He laid out a vision. We got a mandate for that. And part of the mandate is, taxes will have to be raised on the wealthy -- people who have done well in America, will have to do well by America and begin to pay America back. That was -- he was consistent about that for a year. That is a part of this mandate going forward.
COOPER: And you're looking at the picture in Boston, Romney's hometown. We see cheering amongst Obama supporters there as well.
BORGER: I'm not sure that either of these candidates laid out a true vision. I think that right now is an opportunity for both the Republicans and for the president, and you know, I was told that the president, as early as the end of this week, may give some sort of economic speech or may hold some sort of availability to talk to the American public.
COOPER: Well, we'll certainly --
GERGEN: He should.
COOPER: And we're expecting to hear obviously from President Obama tonight, as well as from Governor Romney. We're obviously going to bring you those -- both of those speeches as soon as they happen. Certainly a lot to digest not only tonight but also in the weeks ahead.
GERGEN: Yes, he's got the fiscal cliff coming up very, very soon. So he does need to lay out sort of what everybody has been expecting him to lay out.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: But what does he have to actually change? I mean, at this point, who needs to give more? Because --
(CROSSTALK)
HOOVER: Great point, Anderson.
COOPER: Because Obama supporters will say Republicans have been intransigent from early on.
HOOVER: The predominant thought in the market place, too, is that, you know, Wall Street was hoping that Romney would win only because they felt that the combination of the president and the Republican Congress, this intransigent Republican Congress, simply couldn't get the deal done. And something needed to go.
COOPER: But that's like saying that the Republicans will get to be rewarded by being intransigent because Democrats couldn't get anything done so you've got to give it to the Republicans.
(CROSSTALK)
HOOVER: The tone that we're going into Washington is entirely polarized. Eighty percent, over 80 percent of the advertisements from both sides in this election were negative advertisement.
BORGER: But do you think they're going to be so self-destructive? I mean, let's -- that they're going to go over the fiscal cliff and cause another recession. I choose not to believe that but I do believe they could come up with a framework of some kind.
(CROSSTALK)
CASTELLANOS: This beating has been so large that I think you're going to find Republicans, not accommodating, but you're going to find Republicans very realistic. I think until Republicans learn how to move forward, you're going to find Republicans -- and I think right now we're looking at --
COOPER: So where do you think -- you see a movement on immigration reform?
CASTELLANOS: I think you see movement right now. They're going to (INAUDIBLE) revenues, these Democrats, especially on upper inform income taxpayers. I don't think they should start with something like immigration because it's a very polarizing issue. Go to the economic stuff where you're going to find common ground. But please don't put immigration on the table first. Because the fighters will go to their respective corners and become polarized again.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: David?
GERGEN: What's important here is the president not go immediately into the details of (INAUDIBLE). What's important is to set a new tone. He wants to, in effect, close the chapter on the first term. And re-open -- open a new chapter in his relationship with Congress in a second term. And he should open a new chapter with the business community, because there's some hostility there. And I think he -- as Churchill would argue, in victory magnanimity. He has to take the first step. He ought to make the first step. But then he ought to invite him to the White House. I agree with James. He shouldn't give up 80 percent. I don't -- I don't think that. But I think he's got to have --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: But is that -- is that in the president's DNA because -- CARVILLE: No. He can't -- no, he couldn't dictate. That's not what he can do. But the idea that somehow or another Obama has to -- look, the election has to have a consequence, that voters in effect have weighed in tonight, their view has to be respected. And Obama has to respect the view. And yes, if -- I don't know -- I don't know what the magic number is, but there's got to be some movement.
BORGER: And there are some liberals --
CASTELLANOS: And we know how this works, we've seen it done successfully before. By a very brilliant Democrat and his very talented team of operatives. Bill Clinton and James Carville. They did it when they got beaten in the midterm election. This president now, even though he won, has to do the same thing. He has to move towards the middle.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: Listen to what he's saying. But --
GERGEN: And so do Republicans. And so do Republicans.
COOPER: Go ahead --
CASTELLANOS: That's will put the pressure on the Republicans to do that.
GERGEN: Yes.
JONES: I agree. I agree with Mr. Gergen. There is a myth here that this president did not want to reach out and he did not want -- many of his efforts were rebuffed. He tried to put forward tax cuts for small businesses, he was rebuffed. He tried to put forth help for veterans. He was rebuffed. Tried to put forth tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans. He was getting rebuffed on putting tax cuts on the table.
I think the Republicans now have a chance to say, you know what, we'll take your offer. The Republicans now have an opportunity to behave differently and to reach out across the -- it should not just be on Barack Obama.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: But the president -- here's the thing.
JONES: Both of them have missed opportunities to cooperate with each other.
BORGER: Here's the thing. The president has to lead.
JONES: Fair enough.
BORGER: The president has to lead, and in talking to Democrats, I think there is a discussion going on right now inside the Democratic Party about how is best to do that. Does the president go and say, here is my plan. Here is what I want to do and put it on the table and have them come to the table and negotiate? Or does he -- does he just sort of open it up for discussion?
COOPER: What about the battle over Obamacare, does that now --
CASTELLANOS: Obamacare --
HOOVER: So it's settled. Settled.
(CROSSTALK)
CASTELLANOS: Nothing will happen to it.
HOOVER: Settled.
GERGEN: The question about -- partly here, how the Democrats interpret this election. If they see this as a big thumping victory because they won these electoral votes, that's going to lead them to a path I think that will get them into trouble. I think that they realized the country is deeply divided. And they have won, they won a very substantial election, but it's worth remembering, I have gone back -- you go all the way back to the beginning of the 20th century. Every second-term president who has won re-election has always done so by increasing his share of the vote the second time out.
This is the first time we've had a president go from a big percentage to a smaller percentage. And that ought to be --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Just want to point out if you look at the popular vote right now, it is getting closer and closer now, Mitt Romney is only ahead by 226,000 some odd votes in the popular votes, 63 percent of the popular vote being reported.
Brianna Keilar is with the Obama supporters right now who are obviously elated.
Brianna, what are you hearing?
KEILAR: Hi, there, Anderson. I am here with a 15-year-old supporter of President Obama's. Her name is Kendall Herbert. And she's actually been volunteering with the Obama campaign since she was just 8 years old.
So Kendall, tell me, what did this feel like to see the projection that President Obama has been re-elected?
KENDALL HERBERT, OBAMA VOLUNTEER: It was kind of, like, again 2008. I kind of just had the moment again. I started crying in 2008 and then it came again. I kind of felt like my hard work paid off. And it's just a really good feeling.
KEILAR: So you actually are too young to vote obviously. You're 15. How does it feel to have spent all of this time working to elect someone who you will never be able to vote for? HERBERT: It kind of at the same time is like a bad feeling. But at the same time, it feels like so good knowing that I can make an impact at such a young age, which I like, but voting wise, kind of sad. Like I watched my mom fill out her ballot, and I'm like, can I just step in for a second and check it off? But -- yes.
KEILAR: Now to be clear, you're not quite satisfied. You said to me that you're hoping next time that you will see what elected?
HERBERT: A woman. A female for once. Like Oprah.
KEILAR: Well, I'm not so sure about that. But certainly this is a supporter of President Obama's, Anderson, who has very high hopes. She spent time doing phone banks and canvassing in Iowa and Wisconsin, despite the fact that she is three years shy of voting age, Anderson.
COOPER: We're obviously waiting to hear from President Obama, as well as Governor Romney. If you were Joe Biden tonight, by the way, are you now looking at 2016 and getting very excited?
(LAUGHTER)
CARVILLE: Let's wait until midnight.
(LAUGHTER)
CASTELLANOS: He's got a career still on "Saturday Night Live." You know -- but, you know, this does make it a little more difficult for Hillary Clinton. She leaves the administration.
Now, James, I know -- James says she's got no thoughts of such a thing, and he --
CARVILLE: Except that.
CASTELLANOS: Certainly know better than I do. But this does make it more difficult for Hillary Clinton.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: And who would become Secretary of State?
CARVILLE: No, I think --
HOOVER: John Kerry.
COOPER: John Kerry?
HOOVER: John Kerry.
JONES: I don't -- you know, I honestly don't know if it makes it more difficult for Hillary Clinton. I think President Clinton is going to get a great deal of credit in this. I think Senator Clinton -- I mean Secretary of State Clinton has done a great job. I think that's all down the road. One thing I think we haven't talked about is, look at what's happening in the Senate. You have a -- you know, from a Democratic point of view, this has been a great night in the Senate.
You have Elizabeth Warren, a true progressive hero going in. It looks like you're going to have a stronger liberal basis in the Senate. Again, that's no reason to move to the center recklessly. It's not about moving from the left to the right. It's about finding a deal that will work for America. And I think that this president was willing to do that a year ago. I think it is a myth out there that this president do not want to cooperate. I think he did want to. I think he had a hard time finding a partner because of the Tea Party caucus.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: James, you were talking earlier about this being a testament to the ground game, to this much a volunteer ground game that President Obama put in place, the money that they devoted to it. You work in that world. Explain why was it so significant.
CARVILLE: Well, I mean, it looks like -- just look at the results. It does seem that President Obama's great vote in the battleground states is exceeding his vote outside the battleground states. And they have spent an enormous amount of money, I've heard up to $3 million --
COOPER: $300 million.
(CROSSTALK)
CARVILLE: A very sophisticated operation. A lot of people, including me, early on were very skeptical about it. There was a lot written about it. There was a great piece in the "New Yorker."
COOPER: What was your skepticism early on?
CARVILLE: I don't know if this stuff could really work in the sense it's never been tried before.
HOOVER: It might get (INAUDIBLE).
CARVILLE: And it looks like -- yes, it's when I get into the details of it, it looks like just based on the back of the envelope calculation, that it probably did work. That they're exceeding vote totals in swing states than they weren't But this is going to be fodder for political scientists for a long time to come to see what this is. Hard to dissect it tonight.
(CROSSTALK)
HOOVER: This is highly scientific. I mean this is highly scientific advanced market segmentation of voters. What -- I mean, the Bush '04 campaign did this, and then the Obama campaign took it to the nth degree. What they do is they identify voters based on their consumer preferences, they overlay consumer preferences with respective voting preferences and then they are able to target, micro-target based on all of these consumer preferences, e-mailing, knocking on doors, how that voter would like to be touched, how are they going to best receive that campaign's message?
COOPER: It also just seemed that President Obama did a very good job of sort of targeting groups, traditional supporters within the Democratic Party and energizing them. Gay and lesbian voters by switching his position on marriage equality. Getting a lot of support for that. Latinos as well. I mean they went sort of piece by piece, and appealed to them.
GERGEN: Yes. And I think it's been well remarked whereas the Romney had more of a national message, Obama people are very smart about understanding the elements of their coalition. And not only a few of that, but they did things along the way. So with the Latinos, when they -- you know, they stopped enforcing the laws, and sort of created their own dream act.
What they did with women with Lilly Ledbetter and what they did on abortion issues. I mean they actually did deliver some things that, of course, working class whites which are so important in the Midwest.
COOPER: And women it seems were very important obviously.
GERGEN: Yes. And women have put --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Women, we'll look at tonight.
GERGEN: Women put him back in the White House. I mean women made up 54 percent of the electorate and they voted 55 percent for President Obama, and that gender gap which is large really had --
BORGER: And Romney didn't get enough men to counter balance that. But in terms of the coalition, the one thing as we look forward, and maybe Van can speak to this, which is if you put together this coalition, a progressive coalition, there's already fears that I'm hearing about a grand bargain betrayal of the base that put him back in the White House if the president were to do something on -- well, that's the question. That's what I'm asking Van. Well, if he compromises --
COOPER: I got to jump in here. I want to get to Jim Acosta, who's been following the Romney campaign -- Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Yes, that's right. I just got off the phone with Gail Gitcho who's the communications director for the Romney campaign. She told me as of five minutes ago, and I want to caution that's about five minutes ago, that the Romney campaign was not prepared to concede this election to President Obama. Now that may have changed in the last five minutes. I can show you right now, there are -- I would say dozens of people filing in the room. Maybe -- I don't want to say hundreds because it's not that many.
But it's a very large number of people filing into this room. And you can see the stage is sort of being set there around the podium. People are gathering in this room for what appears to be a speech. I was told by Gail Gitcho with the Romney campaign that they don't have a timetable for a speech, but that there will be a speech later on this evening. But at this point, according to the Romney campaign, they are not prepared to make that concession to President Obama. Not at least right now. Maybe in a few minutes. We'll see. I'm trying to get back in touch with the Romney campaign because this could be changing minute by minute.
COOPER: All right.
ACOSTA: But I want to get you that information.
COOPER: Jim, appreciate that. We've got to go to John King right now at the magic wall -- John.
KING: Well, Anderson, one of the reasons we're told there's some pause in the Romney campaign is that we've already called the state of Ohio. They dispute this. They still say they think they have a shot in the state of Ohio.
If you look at, it's 49-49 so it's very close right there right now. One thing I was told by an activist here. A long-time Republican activist in Hamilton County. They say they think they're going to win this county and as more votes come in, Governor Romney has caught up. The president was ahead by more, but this is a traditionally Republican county. if the Democrats win it, the state is gone.
The president is leading here now but just narrowly. But, but here's why we're confident in our call. Because if you look up here, even if Mitt Romney makes up some ground down here in Hamilton County in Cincinnati, you go up to Cuyahoga County, where Cleveland is, it's 12 percent of the state population, only half of the votes in. The president is going to get more of a cushion up out of Cuyahoga County. That's why we're confident in our call.
And I want to go to Toledo, as well. Lucas County, it's 4 percent of the population. Look, only 12 percent of the vote in so far, the president is winning 2-1 in that county as well. Again, Toledo, auto bailout, Jeep ads. So the president is doing very well across the industrial part. The Romney campaign wants to see more numbers here. They say they still think Ohio is in play. I would argue against that.
They also say they still think Florida is in play. Very, very close. Look at this, 3.9 to 3.9 so you're talking about 50,000 votes. They're just shy of that. But again when you look at this map and you say, OK, find me the Republican votes to get Mitt Romney back in play in Florida, pick your conservative county. Pick anything read. Hundred percent in, 100 percent in, 90 percent in here but a very small county. And you look at places where some Democrats votes are still out. Orange County, now up to 99 percent so that one has filled in since last time we checked.
Come down here, we're at 83, more votes for the president. We're 97, few more votes for the president, 99 -- so Palm Beach County is about done. Again, you look at the map. You want to give -- any campaign the benefit of the doubt. It's hard to find a place here. Now we haven't called this one yet. But it's hard to find a place there where they make up the votes and since last we spoke, the President of the United States has moved ahead of Governor Romney in battleground Virginia.
So it's -- the Romney math getting incredibly hard. You get only 85 percent here. We'll watch this one.
But remember, we were talking about this earlier with Mr. Carville, and we wanted to see Norfolk City, Norfolk City has started to come in. The president made up a lot of ground there, and as more of the northern Virginia suburbs, close to Washington, have come in, the president, Fairfax County, almost 60/40, still some more votes to count there. Arlington County, just a few more votes to count there. The president winning big. You move over to Alexandria City, almost all the vote in there.
But if you come into these areas here, still more votes to be counted, but where the votes are out in Virginia, where the president has now passed Governor Romney, they're mostly out in Democratic areas. So the Romney campaign wants to wait. You can't blame them. It's a long hard-fought campaign, but when you look at the map, whether they're looking at this map or whether you're looking more importantly at this map, we have the president over the top, president got 365 electoral votes last time. If he runs the board, he'll get 330, 331 I think. Maybe there's one or two in there for Governor Romney. But warm up the fat lady.
BLITZER: He's going to get one more electoral vote, John. We just projected that in the state of Maine, we earlier projected he would get three of the four electoral votes. That fourth electoral vote in the state of Maine will now go for the president. So that numbers will go up from 274 to 275. Another one electoral vote for the president. The magic number being 270. So he's got -- with Ohio enough to -- enough to win.
Let's take a closer look at the votes right now and see where we stand right now. We got -- in the remaining states that we're watching, and we're watching Virginia, 86 percent of the vote is in in Virginia. You see the president is ahead by 21,716 votes in Virginia. Right now we're watching Virginia, still 13 electoral votes in Virginia. It's very, very close.
Colorado right now, 70 percent of the vote is in in Colorado. The president is ahead, 51 percent to 47 percent. He's got an advantage of 60,000 plus votes in Colorado. So those two states we're counting the votes closely there as well.
In Florida, 91 percent of the vote is in. The president is slightly ahead, 50 to 49 percent. He's got an advantage of 47,000 plus votes. Only 8 percent, 9 percent of the vote still outstanding in Florida.
In Nevada, 63 percent of the vote is in. 54 percent for the president, 44 percent for Mitt Romney. Those are six electoral votes in Nevada. Those are the states we have not yet made projections on. But you see the president is doing well.
Take a look at the popular vote right now. Sixty-five percent of the national vote is now -- and you see the president is now ahead, slightly ahead by 166,000 votes over Mitt Romney. Excuse me. Romney is ahead. Excuse me. Romney is ahead by 166,544 vote. He's gone up to 172,000 votes, he is ahead of the president, 66,000 votes. But they're still counting votes in California. The largest state in the United States. And that's the state that the president will carry. We projected that the president will win in California.
So we'll see where that popular vote goes. If the president loses the popular vote, but wins the electoral votes, it won't be the first time that has happened. Back in 2000, and a lot of our viewers remember, Al Gore won -- yes, Al Gore won the popular vote by half a million votes but he lost the presidency, because he didn't have enough votes in the electoral vote.
All right. We've got some more projections to make right now. Nevada, we project that the president will win in Nevada. Will carry the six electoral votes in Nevada, 63 percent of vote is in. The president has a significant 54-44-point lead. So with that the president's numbers have now gone up to 280 electoral votes. He needed 270 to be elected president. So Nevada in the president's corner. He is building up obviously a little cushion over there so we're still waiting for Florida, still waiting for Virginia, and Colorado.
KING: Yes, and Alaska. So let's assume Alaska stays to its Republican DNA.
BLITZER: They don't close until 1:00 a.m.
KING: They don't close until 1:00 a.m. I'll make you some scrambled eggs.
BLITZER: Yes.
KING: Let's assume that one stick true to its Republican DNA, that would -- get Governor Romney up to 2004. But at the moment, Wolf, and we'll check the vote totals in a minute. At the moment, the president is leading in Colorado, the president has a narrow lead in Virginia, and the president has a narrow lead in Florida. So the president could get up above 3:30. And getting on 365 electoral votes when he beat John McCain four years ago.
If you look at the map, if this is the final map, if, the light states are not called yet at home. But if this is the final map, what would the takeaways be. Governor Romney would have taken away North Carolina. A traditionally Republican state. The president won last time. Governor Romney would have taken away Indiana, a traditionally Republican state. The president won last time. So if this is how we end up, Republicans are going to be profoundly disappointed, not only in losing when you had the president with a -- no president since Franklin Roosevelt has won with an unemployment rate above 7.1 percent, has won re-election.
So President Obama tonight making history, again, if you will, not only will Republicans be disappointed in losing, they'll be disappointed when they look at this map and thinking all they got back were very traditional Republicans states. And they just barely won North Carolina. There are still some Obama people e-mailing me and saying, why did you call that? But we think that's the same call. But they just narrowly won that and they won Indiana, and so if you look at this map and you're the Democrats, you have to give them credit. They didn't have a primary campaign. When you traveled early in this campaign, that's all they focused on.
Identified people who might or will vote for us, learn how to turn them out on Election Day. As Mr. Carville was talking about earlier, it's an impressive operation. Then if you switch the map over here, you know, if this -- these states. Let's just check real quick. It's very close, it's very close. We're at 91 percent, and I've been searching these counties, Wolf. Most of the vote that's out is in Democratic leaning areas. So it's hard to see it happening. Not impossible, but it's hard to see it happening.
Virginia, again, the president has passed Governor Romney and most of the votes that are out, not all, but most of the votes that are out are in Democratic areas. So it's hard to see, let's go out to Colorado, another big battleground. The Republicans really wanted to get this one back.
BLITZER: Yes.
KING: But you see this edge right now. Not impossible, but the president is doing what he had to do in places like Jefferson County. A narrow win, but he's winning the suburbs, that's only 1 percent. You come up here to Adams County here, you know, a narrow win for the president. You come down here. The president is doing what he has to do. And he wins inside Denver.
I want to show you one thing, though. There's a lot of conversation over from our analysts about what happens now, how do we govern. We know the Republicans will keep the House, we know the Democrats will keep the Senate, we know President Obama with less -- potentially a popular vote loss or a narrow popular vote win in smaller electoral college win will come back, but there's a reason this -- will there be a mandate? Will there be compromise?
I want to show you something. This is by county, the vote for president tonight across the country. Most counties in America are voting Republican for president tonight. The president wins in urban areas, he wins in the big suburbs, that's why he's being re-elected but if you look across the country, this is a center right country, even though a center left president, some would say a left president, is winning re-election tonight.
We are going to end the night, I believe, with 30 Republican governors, a Republican House, 30 Republican governors, we're going to have a civil war perhaps. Alex and Margaret, you can answer this better than me. But generational -- I think literally an ideological civil war in the Republican Party. But -- so when the president says it's time to raise taxes on the rich, these people are going to say no. And so from a governing standpoint, a lot of question marks tonight.
BLITZER: Yes. It's still a win. A win is a win, is a win and the president is going to be the leader of the country for the next four years, and that's something that's going to energize that base, that's going to energize all those Democrats out there. So you got to give the president a lot of credit for putting that coalition back together and winning and maybe even not necessarily the popular vote, but the electoral college potentially pretty decisive.
KING: Again, I want to say we're comfortable in our call. But while we were standing here, the map sometimes tells me things. While we're having conversations, the map just switched. Mitt Romney is now leading in the actual vote count in the state of Ohio. I saw it turned red so I wanted to see what happened there. But again as you look for the votes that are out still, a lot of votes still out in Cuyahoga County, that's the most Democratic area, also the most populous area of the state.
You come down to Akron, at Summit County, still some votes up. The president is winning there. So we're very confident in our call. But we'll watch it, as the -- night comes on. Lucas County, again, the president is winning much of the vote out there, but I was struck by just looking at the map when it turned back this way.
The moral of the story is Mitt Romney is running a closer race and to a degree, a much closer race than John McCain. But a close second is still second.
BLITZER: Yes. Still second And we're going to be waiting to hear speeches from both the President of the United States and for Mitt Romney. But so far, you just have Jim Acosta, Anderson, say Romney is not ready to concede.
COOPER: Yes, there's also a number of state ballot initiatives we want to get you up to date. We're going to get you numbers on that shortly on marriage equality, also on marijuana and a couple of states. We'll get you the numbers as soon as we have them on that.
More with our panel. John King talking about the idea of some sort of civil war within the Republican Party. How -- where does the Republican Party go from here? How do they see this? Alex? Margaret?
CASTELLANOS: Well, generationally, you know, nothing new grew under the shade of the big bush tree. We kind of missed the generation. That generation is ripening now. It's the Marco Rubios, the Bobby Jindals, the Susana Martinez, even Jeb Bush, belongs to that next generation of Republicans. Those are the folks who need to step up to lead the party, otherwise, it's the same old guys in Washington, then we will have --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Where does the Tea Party fit into all of that?
CASTELLANOS: You know, the Tea Party is really not a social issues party. The Tea Party is all about fiscal control. If something is done in the next year and has to be to put our fiscal house in order, the Tea Party will become less of a factor. But government has become this crazy thing that allows all of us to take more of each other's money than any of us actually has. Somebody has to do something about that.
I mean, yes, Barack Obama, won a mandate tonight, I think he did. He said I'm for bigger government? Government needs to be a bigger part of your life. But he is also constraint my reality.
COOPER: I don't recall him saying I am for bigger government.
(CROSSTALK)
CASTELLANOS: He said government --
(CROSSTALK)
CASTELLANOS: He advocated a government-centered society.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: That's your spin, and I get that. But let me, can we just -- I just want to speak a little bit about the Democratic Party. And what this means to us. The coalition now, the coalition now, nobody believed four years ago in this country you could put together -- you could have black folks and lesbians and gays and Latinos and young folks, standing together and trying to move the country forward.
We are in a world, where we don't want to be thrown overboard into the global economy without now help from our government. We want a partner in the United States government to help us in the same way other Democrats will (INAUDIBLE).
We want to be able to make progress as a society. Here is my problem. Here's what I'm saying though. There is vindication here. We felt like this man was being demonized. But he was being turned into some sort of a cartoon character. And a lot of African-Americans go if Barack Obama is not acceptable who is going to be acceptable? A clean-cut, good father, he's a hard worker, and somebody who cares about the country, he has integrity. He has somebody who then was mistreated in our view by people who would rather see him fail than see America succeed. So there is vindication.
We can see that the tears out there. We can see people cheering out there because of the Vindication --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: And do you think that's become -- that has led to some of the high turnout we've seen in -- JONES: That's -- and so there' a backlash against back lash. Can we just give these Democrats credit. There's a backlash against backlash. African-Americans stepping up. We saw young people stepping up. You saw Latinos stepping up. You saw people standing in line for hours and hours and hour and hours. Saying listen, we are a better country than what we've been seeing and he (INAUDIBLE) on this president. And I am proud of America and I'm proud of this coalition. The coalition (INAUDIBLE).
(CHEERS)
CASTELLANOS: It is entirely possible and I hope we've come to a place in America that even a black man can be a bad president. In other words, this had nothing to do with race and why any one demonized Barack Obama. Barack Obama came into office in a country that was going bankrupt and a lot of Republicans are concerned, he spent it farther that the bankruptcy.
(CROSSTALK)
HOOVER: When you look at some of these coalition groups, though, Alex --
CASTELLANOS: We've got the incentive. I mean that was a --
COOPER: But look, some of the rhetoric, I mean, the doubting about his birth certificate. You don't think that had a backlash, that that had a backlash effect on some voters?
CASTELLANOS: I think that is one of the worst parts of the Republican Party and I think that alienated a lot of people in the suburbs. But I think to say that that's the only reason that the Republicans voted --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: James.
CARVILLE: Yes, look, first of all, the man won re-election, OK? That counts for something. So my point, as I said earlier tonight, the consequences to the ruling party are going to be dramatic. The Republican Party is going to have to reassess itself. The Tea Party has cost them five Senate seats. I don't know the value of the Senate seat, but it's very high because of Senate seats in Nevada, Colorado, Delaware, Indiana and Missouri.
GERGEN: Except for the control of the Senate.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: Right. Yes.
CARVILLE: All right? They're going to have to figure out how to come to terms with these people because they can't afford -- they can't live with them and they can't live without them.
COOPER: Candy Crowley, standing by at the Romney campaign headquarters.
Candy, obviously a very different mood than the (INAUDIBLE) we're seeing among Obama supporters.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, really different, Anderson. I mean this has been a quiet crowd all night long. And subdued, they're waiting. They did see an analysis on another network about why the Ohio numbers might not be right. That gave them some cause for cheering. But right now what we're doing is wondering about what's going to happen here with the Romney campaign. They are up in their rooms, and I ask last time, about a half an hour ago, what are you doing?
And I was told we're pulling the numbers. So they're not ready to concede, as Jim Acosta just said, and they are sitting here in fact waiting to see what Mitt Romney is going to do.
COOPER: And at this point, do we know what the Romney campaign is doing? Governor Romney is clearly not at this point ready to concede, correct?
CROWLEY: Right. No, not ready to concede. They're still pulling numbers, they are looking at Ohio in particular.
COOPER: All right. Candy Crowley, appreciate that. As soon as you hear anything different, let us know. We got to continue with out panel.
Margaret, you were --
HOOVER: Yes, I was just about to say, we're talking about these different demographic groups, and one thing about the (INAUDIBLE) generation, any cohort, generational cohort, when they come of age politically, if they vote three times in a row,
(END)
