Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

America Votes 2010; 2012 Starts Tomorrow; O'Donnell Ad Running; Polls Opening in 30 Minutes; Tea Party Strength in Florida; Tropical Storm Tomas; Economy - Issue Number One

Aired November 02, 2010 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It is 5:00 here in New York this morning. And today is the day, Election Day 2010. Americans around the country are heading to the polls. And, of course, the power in Washington is up for grabs today.

I'm Kiran Chetry on this Tuesday, November 2nd.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for being with us. Let's get you started on this midterm election 2010.

We're covering today's midterm elections like no other network can. We've got correspondents positioned across the country, following races big and small, all part of "The Best Political Team on Television," watching it all for you this morning.

Right now, 5:00 a.m. Eastern, polls in Vermont are beginning to open. By the state law, all polls are going to be opened by 10:00 a.m. Eastern. And some voters in New Hampshire are already at it as well.

At more than $3.5 billion, this is the most expensive midterm election ever. Some very big names with their jobs in jeopardy, polls that are showing voters could turn over at least the House of Representatives and maybe a chance that the Senate.

We're following all of this this morning with incredible technology.

And Tom Foreman is here with us to show us all how it happens.

Good morning, Tom.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. How are you?

Let me tell you this: if you are at home trying to follow all of this throughout the day, and I'm sure you will be, every time you see us over in this area, that's when you're really going to want to put down the coffee cup and pay attention, because this, John, is our top 100 -- these 100 of the House races out there. Of course, not all the races, but these are the 100 you should really watch.

The reason people should watch these is because these are the ones that are most on the knife edge, were possibly they could tip over and this will make a big, big difference. We divided them by class, almost like graduation year. 2008, this is the year that Barack Obama swept in. So, there are a lot of Democrats in there.

Over here, when you move it to 2006, you see that's the year that Nancy Pelosi took control.

And then we go further back and you can see the numbers get smaller and smaller, because we're talking now about people who came in and for example, 2002, and have stayed in all that time. So, a couple of things to watch here.

As the day goes on as the results are coming in this evening, you'll notice that most of these are Democrats, most of them are Democrats. That's because most of those seats are the ones that are the most imperiled based this breakdown that we've done. Why are these are the most knife-edge sort of seats, our top 100?

Those back here from 2002 and if you go into much further back into the 1990s, that sort of thing, one of the reasons that you really want to watch those as the day go on is these are people that have proven they can survive. These are people that year in, year out have proven they know how to win elections, they know how to get people out, they know how to win. If you start seeing these flip in particular, then you've got a real earth-shattering election at work. If you look at the ones up here, it's a little bit different.

ROBERTS: So, when it comes to the top 100 that we're looking at, how was the determination made of what to watch?

FOREMAN: There's a lot things involved in deciding which one -- why these are the important ones, one of which is, how did this district perform and was it normal for that district? For example, if you had a district, let's look at the Ohio first district, we open this up. Here we have a Democrat who won the district, but look at the presidential race here, Barack Obama won by 55 percent to John McCain, 44 percent.

One of the things we'll talk about during the day is: Was it the nature of a district to be Democratic or Republican? If you have a district that is naturally a Republican district and it voted Democratic, particularly in '08, then you can say this was part of the Barack Obama wave. Well, that has now changed. People are not so excited about the Barack Obama candidacy as it was or the presidency.

So, the question is: are those coattails there anymore? In a lot of cases, there probably won't be. That was one of the metrics we looked at.

We also looked at just an overall big equation of how are they doing in the polls? How have they performed in the past? Have they been able to be re-elected before? Have they been able to raise money? That's what determined these 100.

And as I mentioned, most of them are Democrats. So, throughout the day, every time we're over here, pay attention, as you see these change color in various areas, that will tell you the real nature, and you'll be able to tell us at a glance -- if you see a lot of these blues going red, then you'll say, now we have an earth-shaking election. If you see a fair number, then you'll say, well, that's what people predicted but it hasn't gone too far.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: Tom Foreman this morning with our amazing technology to watch this election. Tom Foreman, thanks so much. You'll be with us all morning.

Meantime, let's go over to the pundit and here's Kiran.

CHETRY: Yes, it's been a long and nasty campaign, and when the final vote is counted, a lot of people say it really comes down to a referendum on President Obama and his first two years in office.

Dan Lothian is live in Washington for us this morning.

And, Dan, the latest CNN poll has a slight majority of Americans who say that they actually plan to vote for candidates who most oppose the president's policy. This is a major turn around from just 20 months ago.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It really is. And, you know, as the Republicans like to point out, this is an administration that came into power under the banner hope and change. But what has been left now over the last two years for some Republicans, independents and even some in the president's own party is disappointment. They feel that the president has not delivered quickly enough on his promises.

And in particular, a lot of people concerned still about the number one issue and that is the economy. Yes, the administration to their credit, as they point out and the president has talked about out there on the campaign trail, that the economy was much worse once he came into office, realized the situation that was on the verge of going off the cliff, as the president likes to point out.

But nonetheless, when voters go to the polls today, that is what is in their minds. They don't have a job or know someone who is unemployed. They still cannot hang on to their homes. And so, that is what is in their minds when they're voting.

And for this administration, the president has tried to change that thinking out there saying: Listen, give us a chance, it's much more difficult than we anticipated. We're still trying to fix it.

But a lot of people aren't buying it -- Kiran.

CHETRY: We also know the president already voted today. What he's doing the rest of the day as the rest of the country votes?

LOTHIAN: He's going to be doing a lot of interviews on radio. Yesterday, he did three interviews, national radio shows, including Ryan Seacrest from "American Idol," trying to reach out to new media, those younger voters as well. He'll also be doing some live radio interviews today in some of those key states like Florida, Nevada, Illinois, and -- obviously what the president is trying to do at the last minute here is to try to get as many voters out to the polls.

The president, just this weekend in Cleveland, was pointing out that if he can get energized, and get people out to the polls and support Democrats like they did in 2008, then Democrats can also do well in this midterm election.

CHETRY: Dan Lothian for us this morning at the White House -- thanks so much.

Interesting he's doing an interview with Ryan Seacrest, on the air with Ryan Seacrest. Steve Harvey. He's everywhere today.

ROBERTS: You know, it's getting the exposure. That's what it's all about.

CHETRY: Yes. Well, after you vote, by the way, turn on CNN. "The Best Political Team on Television" will be here, bringing you up-to- the-minute results and analysis from this critical midterm election. Our live coverage begins tonight 7:00 p.m. Eastern, and AMERICAN MORNING picks up the post-election coverage bright and early, beginning at 3:00 Eastern tomorrow morning.

So, keep it on CNN for the most comprehensive election coverage on television and online.

ROBERTS: Other stories new to tell you about this morning: accusations of a race-baiting robocall in the South. Some voters in a primarily black area of Alabama gotten phone message from State Senator Hank Sanders, an African-American and a Democrat, warning that a vote for Republicans in the governor and lieutenant governor's races would mean returning blacks to the cotton fields of Jim Crow.

He defended that last night on "A.C. 360."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATE SEN. HANK SANDERS (D), ALABAMA: I grew up during that time, I experienced it firsthand. I know exactly what that situation is. And I'm concerned that we will slip back into those days if we don't stand up and fight. I'm encouraging people to do something positive and that is to go out and vote. And I'm saying if you don't go out and vote, then you can slip back into the days that we -- none of us want to go back to because they were horrible times. I lived through them myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Phone lines, by the way, across New England are back up this morning after service went out from a spiking campaign robocalls. Several Democratic and Republican field offices across New Hampshire also lost phone service last night.

CHETRY: She sees all the hallmarks of a plot by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. That coming from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, talking about mail bombs that were found on planes coming from Yemen late last week. She also told us that the U.S. is now extending a cargo ban on shipments from Yemen and security teams from the U.S. are already in the country working with officials in Yemen.

ROBERTS: A federal appeals court ruled the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy can be enforced while the Obama administration appeals a lower court ruling which found the policy unconstitutional. A gay rights group that filed the suit may make an emergency appeal directly to the Supreme Court.

CHETRY: Indiana, one state beefing up security on employment offices across the state. Officials there say they're bringing in extra armed guards in anticipation of an upcoming deadline when thousands of people could have their unemployment benefits cut off. Nationwide, it's estimated that 2 million Americans could lose their unemployment benefits unless Congress authorizes another emergency extension by the ends of this month.

ROBERTS: And the long wait is over, the San Francisco Giants have won their first World Series title since 1954, closing up the Texas Rangers in five games. Their series-clenching 3-1 victory last night set off a wild celebration on the field in Arlington and on the streets of San Francisco -- that should be a 4-1 victory -- streets of San Francisco. The Giants will be honored with a ticker-tape parade on Wednesday.

CHETRY: And they made quick work unfortunately of the Rangers.

ROBERTS: They sure did. Boy, five-game series. There you go.

CHETRY: Yes.

Ten minutes past the hour right. Let's get a check of this morning's weather headlines. Rob Marciano, the man to know this morning, because everyone is going to be trying to figure whether it's going to be nice as they head to the polls today.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And I think that, you know, from majority of the country, guys. There's not going to be much of the way of excuses, but there is a spot that the weather's going to be rough. It already is, and it's across southeast Texas and Louisiana, the storm that you see behind me is going to be rolling east slowly. So, where it's raining now, it's going to be slow to end.

But north there, we're looking at cool and seasonal conditions, warm and toasty on the West Coast. So, that may grab some voters off the beach there. Houston, New Orleans, up through Dallas and east towards Shreveport, Monroe, heading towards Jackson, Mississippi -- these storms today, earlier today, were on the severe side as they head towards the lower Texas coastline, through Galveston, and down to Corpus Christi as well.

Houston is just getting hammered right now with heavy, heavy rain, and that will continue throughout most of the morning, maybe lighting up a little bit later on today. But for the most part, where it's raining now, it probably will continue to rain. Sprinkles encroaching on Atlanta, but no excuses there, 62. Chilly out in New York and D.C., Philly, Boston, but you will be dry -- it will be dry in Denver. And again, Los Angeles, 91 degrees, so near record-breaking high temperatures across southern California after the summer that wasn't there.

And again a lot of voters may very well be trying to cool off on the beaches, cool and wet across the Pacific Northwest, and there's a few more numbers for you to specifically invite you to the polls. Fifty- seven in Minneapolis. It will be 45 degrees and dry weather expected in Chicago.

More updates on this, plus Tropical Storm Tomas still eyeing Hispaniola. We'll have the forecast track from the National Hurricane Center just in a few minutes.

ROBERTS: Looking forward to it. Rob, thanks so much. We'll see you again soon.

MARCIANO: You bet.

CHETRY: Meantime, the White House is really working the state of Ohio. But is it helping the Democrat in a crucial governor's race?

Carol Costello joins us live with details after a quick break.

Twelve minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Fourteen minutes past the hour. Welcome back to special election edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

In little more than an hour, polls will open in one of the most important governor's races in the country right now. In the battleground state of Ohio, the incumbent Democrat, Ted Strickland, is locked in a very close battle with Republican opponent, former Congressman John Kasich.

Also, Ohio's congressman, John Boehner, who's in line to become speaker if Republicans capture the House, is pouncing on something that President Obama said last week.

Our Carol Costello is live in Westchester, Ohio, for us this morning.

So, walk us through why Ohio is so key in this midterm?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's all Democrat now and it's poised to become all Republicans. Voters are very angry here. They are motivated to vote, at least on the Republican side. And they want to take the Democrats, some of whom they just elected two years ago, out of office and replace them with all Republicans.

Of course, that governor's race is very key, Kiran, because -- it's very close actually. Ted Strickland is a Democratic candidate, John Kasich, the Republican. They are neck-in-neck. It's possible that we won't know who is governor of the state of Ohio by the end of the night. That's how close the race is.

I'm in Butler County which is near Cincinnati. This is very much Republican territory. John Boehner is most assured of a win here and, of course, he's poised to become speaker of the House if, of course, Republicans elected enough Republican congressmen across the nation to take majority of the House. He held this big rally for the Republican gubernatorial candidate.

And this many people were energized would be an understatement. Let's go to the pictures right now. (INAUDIBLE) was singing to the crowd. They had a former Cincinnati Bengal rallying Republicans to get to the polls, like sweep the Democrats out of office.

And John Boehner was very much talking about President Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), OHIO: You know, while the president's been here a dozen times over the last year and Ted Strickland thinks it's about him. This is about -- this is about President Obama trying to get re-elected in two years. So, if you want to send -- you want to send President Obama a big, loud message, vote for John Kasich.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And there was a huge cheer from the crowd.

There is a Democratic candidate running against John Boehner, of course, you don't hear much about him because the Democrats don't even bother to pump any money into his campaign. But he was standing -- his name is Justin Coussoule, he was standing on the street corner here in Westchester and he was trying to get the word that he's angry that the Democrats are just laying down and taking it (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN COUSSOULE (D), OHIO CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: If you wanted to defeat the enemy, you attack their generals. And this is a prime opportunity to attack one of their commanding generals. They do with us all the time. We should fight on every front and this is a place we should have fought, and it's a place Democrats can be inspired across the country to get up off the mats, instead of accepting the national narrative as they're writing it, that they'll retake the House and he'll be the speaker, we fight every race including John Boehner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Justin Coussoule trying to get the word out to (INAUDIBLE) here. Of course, Democrats are hoping that they're -- that the voters are energized enough to come to the polls and the polls open at 6:30 Eastern Time. They're expecting maybe a 52 percent turnout here, Kiran, and the weather should be great. It's kind of cool, but they're expecting no rain. CHETRY: Carol, you know, the interesting thing -- we just heard comment from the gentleman you just interviewed talking about enemies and you know, coming together and commanding generals. The president also took some heat in which he described, you know, political adversaries as enemies. What was the latest with that?

COSTELLO: Well, it's the tune of the country right now. It's become a battle and they're not exactly to their opponents. So, maybe we should expect to hear that sort of thing. But very definitely, people on both sides of the aisle feel they're in the trenches because the economy is so very bad here in Ohio. They're fighting mad and they're going to be fighting mad until everybody has jobs again.

CHETRY: All right. Carol Costello for us this morning, outside of Cincinnati -- thanks so much. John?

ROBERTS: All right. So, we got a lot to talk about this morning. We're going to be on for the next four hours jawboning it all to find out where we'd go from here. We got a panel of people from both sides of the aisle and independents as well. We're going to talk to them coming up next.

Nineteen minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Both houses of Congress and 37 governorships up for grabs this morning when America goes to the polls. Many polling places are opening on the East Coast. At the top of the hour, we got "The Best Political Team on Television" with us this morning to make sense of it. It's a big panel, too -- starting with our CNN senior political analyst Ed Rollins, Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez, independent -- independent, what do we call him? The guy who wins all the time because he's an independent.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: "Daily Beast" columnist John Avlon.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: Michael (INAUDIBLE) from "TIME" magazine. Of course, we got Hillary Rosen with us and as well, Kiki McLean.

So, I'm going to throw a jump ball out there, folks. What's the outcome going to be today?

ED ROLLINS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Fifty-five Republicans, I think, win in the House. I think we're eight seats in the Senate. And if late at night, if there's a rush across the country, we may -- we may get there.

MICHAEL SCHERER, TIME: It's a wave, but it's not going to be a mandate. The Republicans will take back control but they're still going to find themselves a couple of weeks after the election underwater, worse polling probably than President Obama. Everybody is unpopular right now.

HILARY ROSEN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I'm looking at these early voting numbers and I am not convinced at all that the Republicans have this in hand. They have not closed this deal.

ROBERTS: Which parts they have in hand?

ROSEN: They don't have the House in hand, even. They're early voting in Nevada --

ROBERTS: I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at everybody's reaction.

ROSEN: -- in Washington, in West Virginia, Democrats are getting out there. The enthusiasm gap that everybody has predicted --

ROLLINS: Election days we find out whether the polls are right.

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: Everybody's -- for months and months, there's enthusiasm gap, Republicans are going to get or Democrats don't care, they're not going to vote, the amazing machine that was created in 2006 and 2008 has fallen apart. That has not proven to be the case and I think tonight people are going to be surprised.

KIKI MCLEAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Let's do one thing this morning. The first thing to tell everybody: go vote.

JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

MCLEAN: -- call it a day. Let's give the American -- I love Election Day, because this is a day we own the country, right? Fourth of July is great about history. On Election Day, you can vote. Everybody's got their coffee this morning, I early voted yesterday.

Hilary's exactly right. There are millions of Americans who did absentee or early voting. Millions more go today.

I think what's interesting, to Hilary's point, on the enthusiasm gap that's become this phenomenon that may not really exist as we're seeing. It's important for people on both sides to recognize: this game ain't over and when you show up, you make a difference.

LESLIE SANCHEZ, REPUBLICAN: I'd just like to put those (ph), this may not excess later tonight when these returns are coming in. I think the difference is, it is a nationalized election. And that's different. That's distinctly different. Gallup proved it yesterday. People want to send a message to the president.

MCLEAN: Nationalized against Sarah Palin? SANCHEZ: Nationalized against Pelosi, Reid and the president. And it's very rare that in a midterm, you're going to have that kind of organized effort. It's usually a collective idea of 500-plus races. That's what's unique about it.

And the enthusiasm with respect to early voting, you have seen a lot more enthusiasm among Republicans and independents, the figure that people don't talk about.

ROBERTS: All right. So, you're the guys -- again, he's the guy who always wins is the point you were making. But independents are also -- but independents are also the ones who are going to decide the election.

AVLON: Sure.

ROBERTS: So, where are independents going today, do you think? And I know every race is local. But there is a certain national sense to this.

AVLON: But there is a very clear national trend of independents towards the GOP, it's been going on for around 18 months. And right now, they're looking around a 15 percent edge, which is equivalent to what they had voted for Democrats in 2006.

If you take a big step back, what this election is about is independents largely saying, look, we like the checks and balances of divided government. When one party has control, whether it's Democrats or Republicans, it tends to lead to ideological overreach and overspending.

ROBERTS: But there are many people who say that what you're going to get this election will be nothing but gridlock. So, check and balance would be more of a handcuff.

(CROSSTALK)

AVLON: That's exactly right. And that's one of the things, about this incredibly poisonous, polarized political environment. The normal checks and balances that would -- the independents say, look, we're going to force the two parties to work together and give Republicans some responsibility so they just can't attack the president -- give them some responsibility for governing, that that could end up compounding things that the independents really hate about politicians.

ROBERTS: Michael, tie us to the analysis game, do you think there's any way that Democrats can hang on to the House?

SCHERER: I mean, there's always a possibility, but no, I wouldn't bet anything on it. I would actually modify what he said. You know, the shift from independents is towards Republicans but it's not necessarily for Republicans.

AVLON: That's right. SCHERER: This is a protest vote. It's been a protest vote for three cycles now. Independents are going to the polls because they're unhappy with the economy. Unless somebody is able to turn around the economy, the next cycle, they're going to throw everybody out again.

(CROSSTALK)

MCLEAN: Michael raises an interesting point, because when you look at some of the polling as much as two months ago, there was a lot of press around some focus groups that Walmart did around the "Walmart mom voters" phenomenon this year.

And as desperate and as broken hearted as those women were feeling about the economy, about the future for their children, anger at incumbents, there was a difference about how they felt about President Obama and we see that in other polls. So, Michael raises an interesting point, this is also not 100 percent protest vote against Barack Obama, and Republicans better be careful because I think we will see surprises tonight where they had overplay --

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: We got to take -- hold that thought. We'll get the good- looking guy on the end to hold the thought. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back right after this.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: It's 30 minutes past the hour right now, time for a check of our top stories. It's a last minute bid to reach out to younger voters. Ryan Seacrest will be airing an interview that he did with President Obama on his radio show this morning.

A lot of fan questions were piling up on Seacrest's Facebook and Twitter pages ranging from will you make a serious effort to work with Republicans, to what do you think about Justin Bieber. That's what you get when you show up on Ryan Seacrest radio program.

Well, 2012 starts tomorrow. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour told our John King that he will help Republican candidates until the very end before he thinks about his own future.

Barbour is on the short list of potential GOP presidential candidates, but he also has a big job this election year as a chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

And also a 24-minute campaign ad for Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell in Delaware is now running on a local Delaware cable station. It was supposed to be running days ago.

Controversy erupted yesterday when Delaware 28, which is the public channel there, failed to run the commercial as scheduled. It turns out a station executive had to leave town because of a family illness. Both sides agree that that's what caused a miscommunication. John -- JOHN ROBERTS: All right. Thanks, Kiran. We're back with our political panel now and picking it up, Ed Rollins, you were about to say?

ED ROLLINS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: The wonderful thing about politics is there are winners and losers at the end of the day. And no matter whether it's by 300 votes or 100 votes, tomorrow we will basically have a majority in the House and I think we'll basically be in a much better --

ROBERTS: Despite Hillary's most enthusiastic predictions to the contrary.

ROLLINS: I have been on her side. I know what it's like. You know, you sit here and you get up in the morning, and you basically say, I don't believe the polls, but at the end of the day, there's a trend.

And I totally agree with you. It's not pro-Republican, it's an election about change and an election about anger and the country is not satisfied with what's going on today.

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: I think maybe we have a failed to do as Democrat adequately enough, which is - let's face Independents are deciding this election, not Republicans and not Democrats -

ROBERTS: As they did in 2006.

ROSEN: As they did in 2008 and 2008, and as they will do forever more because Independents are now 30 percent to 40 percent of all new registrations and growing among young people.

So having said that, what we have though is a Republican leadership that would be taking over that is not about new independent change.

The ideas that they have put on the table are about going back to the same proposals that they had before and so the challenge is for people to understand that their hopes and dreams of change crushes the minute the election is over.

And I think that's the thing that Democrats might have failed to draw as enough of a contrast between what you want as change versus what you're going to get.

ROBERTS: And what happens to these Tea Party candidates, let's say that Ron Paul wins and Sharron Angle wins. They go in there with the hope to change the Republican establishment. Do they run up against a brick wall?

ROLLINS: They will become good votes. They will be good conservative votes. There's a conservative wing already in the very few moderates left in the Senate and they'll become part of that group and most things will satisfy them.

The party will become more fiscally conservative as needs to be. That's what they promise the Tea Party. They'll try and shrink government, which is not easy and I think those are the things the Tea Party people want.

KIKI MCLEAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: You know, I'd say, it's interesting to me because I think when you think about the choice -- every Election Day, it's a choice, you go in and you're going to make a series of choices between two.

I had two or three people yesterday because we had some green party candidates in there and you look up and you say, what is it that I'm looking for out of this election?

And Independents are crucial at the end of the day, as analysts we recognize that. But the base for both parties, neither of whom has enough in their base have to show up and at the end of that process, they have to vote on what it is they want out of there.

And right now if you want cooperation, if you want less hyper partisanship, whatever wins today you've got to hold them accountable. I hear Democrats say to me sometimes, it's two years, let them have it.

This is a big job, and my reaction is, I don't think we have two years to give. When you go out today, this ought not be an experimental vote.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As an old running back, I would say give me the ball and let me run with it. Democrats and especially Bill Clinton have been trying to say, look, this isn't a referendum, it's a choice.

If it's a referendum Democrats loss for choice, they've got a fighting shot because they're trying to play off the fact that Republicans don't have very high positives because they're building off essentially a no Obama agenda.

And that's -- the crucial thing is can you transition from essentially a no Obama agenda to taking responsibility for governing and moving that ball forward? That's one of the really exciting and interesting things about this election.

MICHAEL SCHERER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, TIME: If they don't have a huge majority in the House, if Speaker Boehner comes in and he only has a margin of 10 or 15, he's actually probably better off and if he has a margin of 30 or 40 because at that he'll have more pressure for a more partisan agenda, which would just get him into deeper trouble.

ROBERTS: Will Republicans just spend the next two years preparing for the 2012 trying to undo everything that this administration has done for the last two effectively establishing gridlock in Washington?

LESLIE SANCHEZ, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It is a wakeup call to Republicans because of the independent argument, to be fiscally responsible, to move measures that grow jobs and economic performance and ensure the U.S. is competitive.

It's just pulling back. America especially independents like the checks and balances, like divided government so they want more transparency and everybody keeping an eye on each other. So to the extent Republicans can hold the fiscal line, hold the power of the purse, I think they will be rewarded.

ROLLINS: If we learned the lesson of 2006 and I think we have, it's going to be whether the Obama and Democrats learned the lessons from this election, and are you willing to sit down on the next years and try to get this economy moving again?

ROSEN: We're going to come back to this, but there's really nothing in the Republicans' proposal that talks about fiscal responsibility in any meaningful way.

MCLEAN: Just listen to what Mr. McConnell has said who continues to operate.

CHETRY: All right, 37 minutes past the hour, we have plenty to chew over throughout the morning so don't worry. It's only 5:37 here in New York.

There's also plenty of drama, by the way, surrounding Florida's three- way Senate race including reports that former President Clinton tried to convince the Democratic candidate to drop out.

Do you remember we talked to Kendrick Meek about it on air? We're going to have more on a live report with David Mattingly from the state of Florida coming up. It's 37 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Forty one minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. This is a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING, it's Election Day and voting is already underway now in 10 states.

At stake in this election, of course, the balance of power in Congress, which we've been talking a lot about it for the past week and also in dozens of state Houses including Florida.

The polls open at 7:00 Eastern time and all eyes will be on this three-way Senate race. Republican Marco Rubio has been leading Governor Crist. He's a Republican turned Independent and then, of course, you have Democrat Kendrick Meek who finished the campaign answering questions about reported backroom deals to try to get him to perhaps back out and throw his support behind Crist.

Meanwhile the contenders to replace Crist as governor include Democrat Alex Sink and Republican Rick Scott. They've been running neck and neck in this race as well.

Poll is closing at 8:00 tonight. CNN's David Mattingly is live in Plantation, Florida for us so, you know, a lot of big races and a lot of nail-biters actually in the state of Florida today?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right and you have a lot of voters who are looking for relief as they come to the polls today. Keep in mind, when we talk about a downturn in the economy, it is still downward turning here in Florida. The state's unemployment rate actually went down a point of a tenth of a percentage point in September.

It's now standing at 11.9 percent more than two points about the national average so you have a lot of people out of work to begin with. A lot of people looking for relief and Florida also has the second highest rate of foreclosure in the country with one out of every 148 homes in some stage of foreclosure.

So you have a lot of voters feeling very vulnerable right now, very dissatisfied with the economy and that's going to add up to a volatile mix for any party that's in power. Of course, President Obama did win Florida two years ago, but since then his support among Independents has been eroding, partly because of the economy and also think what's happening just in the last year.

We have seen the BP oil spill affecting the state of Florida very dramatically and there's been a lot of dissatisfaction with how the White House was handling the response to that.

So this is something that's been added to this mix, again, a very volatile mix for Democrats and we're seeing that playing out in all of the races top to bottom throughout Florida.

CHETRY: And you mentioned some of the key issues unemployment as you said higher than the national average, the foreclosure crisis, as I guess voters are registering their dissatisfaction who are they blaming the most in all of these?

MATTINGLY: Well, they're going to blame the party that's in power, that's the Democrats in Washington right now. So what you're seeing the Republican candidates here straight down the board, in addition to campaigning on the idea of jobs, jobs, jobs.

The Republicans are also campaigning against Barack Obama and they're getting a lot of traction doing that against their Democratic opponents because of all the factors that I was just talking about.

This is a very critical time as Democrats try to turn around and try to push back against this trend, these economic trends that make it so hard for them to be getting votes, we're going to be watching a very close governor's race tonight between Rick Scott and Alex Sink.

Rick Scott, the Republican at times during this process actually taking out TV ads to campaign directly against Barack Obama, directly against a mosque at ground zero. So we have seen him taking out expending a lot of political money and time going after Barack Obama as well as his Democratic opponent.

So we're also going to be watching that, as well as that drama that you were talking about playing out in the Senate race. Did the Democrats actually approach their own candidate to say maybe you should drop out so the Independent Charlie Crist could have a better chance of beating the Republican opponent? Last night, Bill Clinton campaigning with Kendrick Meek to try and erase those questions, but voters today again, on the minds will be jobs and those foreclosures problems, the problems that are affecting them directly.

As usual, Kiran, it's all about Florida. Everyone's going to be watching the voters here to see what they decide in this pivotal election.

CHETRY: Very true. David Mattingly for us this morning in Plantation, Florida. Thanks so much. John -

ROBERTS: We get up to a chilly morning here in the northeast. Rob Marciano has got this morning's travel forecast coming up right after the break.

And in 10 minutes time, our Christine Romans breaks down the most important issues facing the country on this Election Day. It's what minu45 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: That's what it's all about today, that's the building in the spot light as we go into Election Day 2010. Right now, 44 degrees in Washington, a little bit chilly. Later on today, sunny skies and 54 degrees for the high.

CHETRY: That's right and potentially a lot of changes in that building come tomorrow.

ROBERTS: We'll see.

CHETRY: Meanwhile, it's 48 minutes past the hour. We got to get a check of this morning's weather headlines as people head out to the poll today. What they can expect weather wise? That's where we check in with Rob Marciano. Hey, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. If you're getting an early start and heading out there now anywhere from Chicago back to D.C., New York, Philly, it's definitely on the chilly side. Temperatures not out of the 30s yet, and in some cases like Pittsburgh, it's barely there at 30 degrees.

So a chilly start certainly to the day, but sunshine should prevail and I think temperatures will rebound pretty nicely. Down in the south, a stylish rain gear might be the call. Houston back to (inaudible) these thunderstorm watches are being allowed to expire, a lot of heavy rain with this now as it marches slowly down the Interstate 10 corridor.

So this isn't moving very quickly, that means there will be some street flooding and it will be a slow go at times along parts of the Texas coastline including southwest Louisiana eventually creeping into bad road. So most of Louisiana is going to be wet today, just be prepared and you know the low spots in your neighborhood that are going to flood, try to bob and weave around those. Here's your storm. It slowly moves to the east. It will bring some beneficial rain, that's a good news. Elsewhere it will be dry with the exception of the Pacific Northwest where rains will infiltrate that area.

The southwest including Socal will be near record breaking high temperature 90 degrees in Los Angeles so you may have to pluck some voters off the beach.

Let's talk about Tomas. Tropical storm force winds at 50 miles an hour. Here it is moving to the west at about 12, it is about 300 miles and change south of Port-Au-Prince Haiti. We mention that because Haiti is still in the cross hairs for this forecast track from the National Hurricane Center.

Move it to the west, peel it to the right, bring it to hurricane status anywhere from eastern Cuba to the entire island of Hispaniola over the weekend. It could be enduring hurricane strength winds as Tomas makes a turn to the north.

We'll keep you updated on this forecast throughout the morning. John and Kiran --

ROBERTS: Rob, thanks so much. Good to see you this morning. It's a big day for you, the American voter, issue numbers one, two, three, four and five, the economy.

Our Christine Romans has new poll numbers on whether people are happy with the way things are going in this country. Take a guess. Ten minutes to the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: It's 54 minutes past the hour now. Welcome back to the Most Politics in the Morning, special early edition of AMERICAN MORNING. It's Election Day and the economy is, of course, and has been issue number one and it will be in today's election according to the polling.

It's no surprise though with unemployment hovering around 9.6 percent in this country, that a lot of people are concerned. Our Christine Romans joins me with more on this, and you have a pulse of the voters, how they're feeling?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, HOST, "YOUR MONEY": I would say issues number one, two, three, four and five as John said are all about the economy. I want to tell you about. We ask people this week nationwide what is the most important issue facing the country and they all say, 52 percent say it is the economy.

You look at the other issues people are facing, it doesn't even come close, 8 percent health care for all the talk on the campaign trail about health care reform and potentially repealing it or repairing it as the Republican say, it is still the overall economy that's the big deal here. The wars 8 percent, illegal immigration, the stock market, nothing gets even to 10 percent overall. The economy is the most important issue. We also ask people how they think things are going, compared with other midterm election years, how are things going in this country overall?

And compared with 2006, 1994, and 1982, it's pretty stunning this year. Only 25 percent of people think that things are going well in this country, you compare that with, say, 1982 when they say 40 percent of people thought things were going well, that was a year when 10.4 percent unemployment. A year that Reagan's party lost 26 seats.

But it's interesting, Kiran, because a lot of people compare things to 1982 in the midterm election year and what's sort of interesting about that is that Reagan was able to come back after being bruised his party bruised in 82, and came back to re-election '84 and his approval rating started to rise again.

So an interesting parallel there, but pretty interesting when you look that only 25 percent of people think that things are going well in this country and that is a number that is going to play out I'm sure over the next 24 hours.

CHETRY: We've known people have felt this way for a while. It will be interesting to see how it plays now polls today, who goes out there and exactly who they play?

ROMANS: We'll more - we're going to use this technology you've just seen - we're going to know more about that after the polls close, you're going to be able to see us use the exit polling just like this to show what people say they were thinking and feeling and doing actually in the voting booth.

So we've been talking about what they say they're going to do. Now we're going to know what they really do.

CHETRY: Exactly. A good 3D-way to show it, right? Thanks so much, Christine. We're going to take a quick break, when we come back, we're going to be in the 6:00 hour. We have a lot going on, live reports as polls open in states around the country.

We're also going to be checking in with you are pundits. What are the key issues and also what happens next? We're going to take a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)