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American Morning
Exit Poll Analysis of the Midterm Elections; Post-Analysis of the Midterm Elections; Interview with Nikki Haley; Interview with Harry Reid; At Least 64 Dead in Baghdad After Coordinated Explosions
Aired November 03, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Thanks so much for being with us at 7:00 a.m. here in New York this morning on this Wednesday, November 3. It's a special edition of "American Morning," the day after the elections. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Quite a busy election night, still several races up in the air. During the next hour, we'll be taking you through it all with the best political team on television. So let's get you started.
All right, we begin this morning with the big news. And here is the big news -- Democrats retain control of the Senate. Here's the way the numbers break down right now, 47 seats to the Republicans, 51 to the Democrats. We reminded you a few minutes ago there are still three races yet to be decided, that in Alaska, Washington, Colorado.
But because Alaska is going to be a Republican regardless of whether it's Joe Miller or Lisa Murkowski, our computers have already awarded that seat to the Republicans.
Let's take a look at how things are in the House. And this is the big problem for Democrats came in because Republicans won control of the House. It looks like John Boehner will be the speaker of the House. 218 were needed for a majority. The Republicans went well past that, 239 seats they have compared to 183 for the Democratic Party. A gain of at least 60 seats, and there are still some races undecided.
So this makes it worse than 1994 when Newt Gingrich and the Republicans swept into power, 56 seats the Democrats lost, but then they picked some up. That night it was 54, but overall, it was a loss of 52.
Let's look at some of the races outstanding here. Scott McAdams, Joe Miller, and Lisa Murkowski in Alaska. Let's take a look at Colorado first. It's neck-and-neck between Michael Bennett, the incumbent, who was appointing you'll remember in 2009. He's got 48 percent compared to Ken Buck's 47 percent. Ken Buck, the Tea Party- backed candidate.
Here in Alaska, we mentioned that Lisa Murkowski leading, we believe, we're not sure, though, because this is all the write-in ballots including Lisa Murkowski and they won't be counted for another couple of weeks now. Joe Miller behind at 35 percent, Scott McAdams well back at 24 percent. So we're giving that one to the Republicans because they are going to win that seat regardless.
Washington Senate, look at this. It's 50/50 between the incumbent Patty Murray and Dino Rossi. She has got about 14,000 more votes than he does at this moment. Only 65 percent of those counted.
And a big upset here in the state of Ohio when it came to the governor's race. Ted Strickland lost to John Kasich, 49 percent to 47 percent. So obviously that is a big loss, particularly when you consider how important Ohio is going to be in the general election in 2012 and all of the ideas of issues of redistricting and everything. That is a big loss for the Democrats. Kiran?
CHETRY: Sure is, John.
Also, Republicans seizing control of the House as we had talked about earlier, gaining 60. The man expected to be the new speaker is also from Ohio, Ohio's own John Boehner. He teared up during his speech last night as he savored his party's victory.
CNN's Carol Costello is live in West Chester, Ohio, this morning. The morning after reaction, a tempered response, though. It wasn't a huge victory call. It was a little bit more measured than that, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was measured. He said this is not the time to celebrate. This is a time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.
I know what you're thinking right now. Here I am in this empty diner. It's not open yet. We're waiting for people to come in so they can react to John Boehner probably becoming speaker of the House.
In campaign rallies two days ago, John Boehner spoke a lot about how he worked in his father's bar, worked up to where he is today, went to Washington to fight for the common man. When he cast his vote here in West Chester yesterday, a reporter shouted out to him, "Mr. Boehner, how would you father feel about this moment?"
And John Boehner said, "Oh, you're just trying to make me cry." John Boehner is known to be emotional. And last night as he talked about possibly becoming the next House speaker, he was emotional as usual.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER, (R) OHIO: Listen, I hold these values dear because I've lived them. I spent my whole life chasing the American dream.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: President Obama did reach out to John Boehner. They spoke by phone briefly. John Boehner described the conversation as brief but pleasant. Now the big challenge, Kiran, and you know what that is. Can both men work together? Can both reach across the aisle?
That will be very important in determining which direction the country goes in. It's what voters here certainly want. They want John Boehner to reach across the aisle to work with Democrats so they can get the economy going and get jobs back here in the state of Ohio.
CHETRY: All right, Carol Costello for us. Poor thing, an empty diner. It should open any minute for you now, Carol.
COSTELLO: That's right. It opens. Next time you'll see people here.
CHETRY: John?
ROBERTS: She's getting great service, right?
Democrats may be licking their wounds this morning because of what happened in the House. Not all doom and gloom, because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was able to hang on to his job for another six years, knocking off Republican tea party candidate Sharron Angle by about five points. Final tally, Reid 50 percent of the vote, Angle, 45 percent.
Jim Acosta live in Las Vegas this morning. Harry Reid was in big, big, big trouble going into last night. How did he pull it off?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you could say, John, that Harry Reid "manned up." In the polls, in the final days of this campaign, he was losing to Sharron Angle by a good four percentage points. As you mentioned, he won by about five points.
How did he do it? Well, from my experience traveling to this state a couple of months ago that Harry Reid was already trying to organize the Latino vote. According to the exit polls, that vote showed up in force for Harry Reid.
If you look at the casinos behind me where I'm standing on the strip this morning, all of these casinos are staffed by union employees. And the unions were out in force getting those employees to the polls to make sure they voted for Harry Reid.
What about Sharron Angle? Well, according to the exit polls, Sharron Angle was deemed too conservative by about 44 percent of the voters in this state. And by a 65 to 31 margin, the moderate, self- described moderates in this state chose Harry Reid.
So when you add it all up, it does appear that poor constituencies for the Democrats showed up, minorities showed up to vote for Harry Reid. And Sharron Angle just could not get over the fact she was viewed as too extreme by voters in this state.
And Harry Reid is expected to have a news conference later today. He's going to be on this program later today. But he's already put out a statement as Senate majority leader, not as a candidate for the Senate here. And he is showing some of that fighting spirit, that former boxer is coming out and making a statement that's sort of in your face of the Republicans saying, quote, "Simply saying no will do nothing to create more jobs."
So Harry Reid, while saying in this statement he wants both sides to find bipartisan solutions, a little swipe at the Republicans there saying "Simply saying no will not create jobs." John?
ROBERTS: Well, it's certainly got them a lot of seats in the 2010 midterm elections. We'll see where they go from here. Jim Acosta this morning, thanks.
Jim Acosta mentioned that Harry Reid is going to be coming up, and he is here on "American Morning" joining us live from Las Vegas about 40 minutes from now.
CHETRY: John, thanks.
CHETRY: Well, ahead on the special edition of "American morning," Ed Henry is live at the White House. The president placed a congratulatory call to John Boehner this morning. What is the next move for this White House as they look at a very different Congress this morning? We're going to talk to Ed about that.
Also, how did Republicans do it? We're looking at exactly who came out to vote. There's an app for that. And Christine Romans is tracking exit polls for us.
Also, even before the midterm election is history, the focus has turned to 2012, the race for president. New Hampshire is the site of the nation's first primary. Nine minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: So 7:12 this morning here on the east coast. The big headline is that the balance of power has shifted on Capitol Hill. President Obama no longer has a Democratic majority in both Houses.
The Democrats did hang on to the Senate, although just barely. They now have 51 seats. But in the House, there was an historic shift. Republicans have taken at least 60 seats at this point. That is the biggest swing in the House of Representatives since 1948.
And it's certainly not the outcome the White House had hoped for, not by a long shot. The president already calling Ohio Republican John Boehner to offer congratulations. Our Ed Henry is live at the White House this morning. What's the mood like there?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, they're trying to take this in stride. The bottom line is the president did place that call to John Boehner. He called a lot of other Democrats, as well, and also called the Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, all because they want to show they're going to reach out to Republicans, that they get the message, there needs to be more reaching across the aisle.
And both sides talked a good game after that call. White House aides said, look, the president's going to reach out. Boehner's aides said they want to work with this White House. But the fact of the matter is, the White House has largely passed its agenda so far in the first nearly two years with mostly Democratic-only votes. And in fairness to the White House, that's largely because Mr. Boehner and a lot of his Republican colleagues have been all about no in terms of most of the president's agenda.
So in terms of reality check, there's going to be a lot of rhetoric today and in the hours ahead saying, look, it's time for all of us to get along. But so far, neither side has a good track record.
What the White House is hoping for when you talk to senior aids in terms of a silver lining in all of this ugliness is the notion now that if the Republicans control at least one chamber on Capitol Hill now, at least they have some responsibility to govern and can't just say no all the time, Kiran.
CHETRY: Right, especially when the margins are so small in the Senate, at least, 51-49 at this point.
The president will address the nation in a news conference at 1:00 p.m. eastern. John?
ROBERTS: Still a couple of questions you might be asking this morning as we're dissecting and analyzing what happened yesterday. Who came out to vote and how did they vote? There's an app for that and Christine Romans has that for you this morning.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And you can get it at home, so we're going to bring it to you right here.
Right, who came out to vote, how did they vote, and what do the demographics look like? First of all, by sex, men, 47 percent of the vote was men, 53 percent of the vote was women. That's how that vote came out.
Now, let me show you how to break it out even further. There you go. Democratic women -- Democrats, how did they vote? Well, 42 percent were men, there you go, 55 percent women -- 49 percent women actually. And then we take a look at the Republicans, 55 percent were men, and 48 percent were women.
Now, vote by race. No big surprises here, John. Although you were interested in the African-American vote. Whites 78 percent, African- American vote 10 percent. African-American women, 93 percent were going for Democrats interestingly. Perhaps not surprisingly. Eight percent Latino vote and, four percent Asians and others. That Latino vote leaning heavily Democratic, as well.
And let's take a look voting by age if we can. And this is something that I think is really interesting. The youth vote was 11 percent, even after the president spent some time trying to talk to young voters yesterday on radio shows. Twenty-two percent, 30 to 44; 45 to 64 year olds, 44 percent; and 65 and older, 23 percent of the vote, John. It's interesting when you go up that age bracket, more likely to lean to the Republicans. ROBERTS: What's interesting too is that they are the most reliable voting bloc, as well, people who are 65 and older. I remember being outside a polling place on Friday in Atlanta and there was a line out the door of people waiting to get in and early vote. And almost to a person, they were all senior citizens.
ROMANS: And they were also a reliable voting bloc for the Tea Party we found from other exit polls as well.
ROBERTS: Yes.
ROMANS: The Tea Party supporters tended to skew white, male and higher up the age chain.
ROBERTS: And it's interesting too to see the level of younger vote lower than it was during the presidential election. I guess for many young people, they don't get excited about an election unless there's one person that they can really latch on to.
ROMANS: That's right. It's typical from a general election to the midterms that it falls off.
ROBERTS: Yes.
ROMANS: But there was such excitement about President Obama among the youth vote a couple of years ago. But 11 percent youth vote and it did skew Democratic.
ROBERTS: All right. Love your app too. (INAUDIBLE) incredible.
ROMANS: I know. Cool, right?
ROBERTS: Thanks. Christine will be back a little bit later with more exit polling because as we peel apart the onion that was yesterday's election, it's really fascinating to see some of the trends that emerged.
Still to come this morning, new details emerging that former President Bush considered replacing Dick Cheney as his running mate in 2004. We'll tell you about that.
And then coming up at our next half hour, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, one of the few bright spots for Democrats keeping his job for another term. And joining us live to talk about it at 7:50 Eastern. You're watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty minutes after the hour. We're joined by "The Best Political Team on Television." And a couple of new faces joining us this hour. Three of them actually. Ed Rollins, of course. He's the iron horse. He's been with us all night and continues to join us.
ED ROLLINS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: That's because I'm the oldest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the new face. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the new face.
ROBERTS: It's true what they say, the older you get, the less sleep you need.
Andy Card, former White House chief of staff is with us. David Gergen, of course. John Avlon remains, as does Hilary Rosen. And welcome James Carville to the program this year.
JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Thank you.
ROBERTS: How are the Saints going to do this year?
CARVILLE: Well, I'll tell you what, a pretty good game against the Steelers. They did a little better than the Democrats. It did better with the Steelers against the Democrats.
ROBERTS: All right.
CARVILLE: You may be getting our timing down, John.
ROBERTS: So, you know, it was in 1992 --
CARVILLE: Right.
ROBERTS: -- when you coined the phrase "it's the economy stupid." It was the economy again last night. Sixty-two percent of people who were polled in our exit polling said that was the number one issue. And they trusted Republicans over Democrats 53 to 44 percent to handle the economy.
James, this is a big turnaround for Democrats who for years had a lock on that particular issue.
CARVILLE: Right.
ROBERTS: What happened?
CARVILLE: I think two things here. Number one is, and it was a bad economic times. 9.5 percent unemployment does not produce good results for incumbents under any circumstances. I also think we had the wrong message. The combination with the wrong message and the wrong economy, it's going to lead with the right message we might have won or lost 45 seats. I have no idea how you do this, but the message that what they were doing was working clearly wasn't resonating out there. It was clearly irritating people.
And so we had a night that I would call a strong Category Four hurricane, not a five. There were some things that did survive. Nevada looks like -- we've got, you know, West Virginia. It looks like we might have a shot in either Colorado and Washington State. But I think it was a combination of the wrong times and the wrong message and led to a pretty stunning electoral debate.
ROBERTS: Andy, was the Republican message on the economy that much better? Or people just looked at the Democrats and said, they're not doing it, so let's try one from Column B?
ANDY CARD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I think they were angry and frustrated about the current state of the economy and those who were in charge of it. And in all honesty, President Obama did nothing to invite the Republicans to be part of any solution. When he first got elected, he turned to the leadership of the House and Senate and said write my legislation and that's what will pass. He didn't say Congress write the legislation. He said Democratic leadership write the legislation. He abandoned his responsibility to lead, gave it to Nancy Pelosi. She wrote it, and the American people rejected it.
DAVID GERGEN, SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Can I --
ROBERTS: You always have something to say.
GERGEN: Well, I think it's very interesting that in the interpretation of what happened there are two schools that are coming out. James makes the argument, you know, wrong time, wrong message. I think some of us would make the argument wrong time, wrong direction. And that this had much more about the direction in which President Obama was taking the country and the Democrats like Nancy Pelosi than it did with how they marketed it. That it's the substance that really got them in trouble. And I think there's a divide that's growing out on the interpretation side that we ought to be very clear about.
CARVILLE: The biggest thing that caused people to vote against us was TARP. Do you really think that this country could have done without TARP?
GERGEN: James, I think the turning point actually was health care. I think the health care is when it turned --
CARVILLE: But you talk to people, the biggest reason they give is TARP. And we know we couldn't have done without TARP. Yet people say it rewarded irresponsible people. And they never came out and said we are doing this. We have to do this, but we're going to hold these bankers accountable. It was almost like they gave them the money and turned the bank and then turned back and didn't do anything.
HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: In some respects, though, I think the process is what killed Democrats as much as the substance. So I don't think that's something that message could overcome. I think that the White House had a message, which is we inherited a disaster and we have tried to make it better and we're not there yet. But the process of health care, the process of watching Congress work in a very unappealing, unattractive way I think really turned people off in a way that no matter what the result, it was never going to be a good result.
ROBERTS: Let's let John make one point and then we have to wrap it.
JOHN AVLON, COLUMNIST, THEDAILYBEAST.COM: It's not the style, it's the substance. I mean, independent voters trusted Democrats with the economy, with jobs, with the deficit in '06 and '08. You start to see them break with the president and the Democratic Party beginning with the stimulus, bailout backlash, then health care goes into a freefall to the point where now 60 percent of independents don't approve of the health care bill. Now that's subtle. That's a pretty decisive judgment.
ROLLINS: Whatever it was, our side got energized where two years ago we were dead and gone didn't know if we were coming back. We got energized. We turned out in big numbers. Your side didn't get energized at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
ROLLINS: And I think that's the bottom line.
ROSEN: And the answers going forward are not either.
ROLLINS: But this is deep. This is not just the Senate or the House. This is legislative races.
GERGEN: That's right.
ROLLINS: This is congressional --
GERGEN: Yes.
ROLLINS: This is way down. City council, everything was up yesterday where Republicans could win, they won.
ROBERTS: Lots to talk about this morning, and we've still got 4 1/2 hours in which to talk about it. Ed, I hope you can hang in through the rest of the morning.
ROLLINS: You gave that energy drink. I'm ready.
AVLON: It's a euphemism.
ROBERTS: We didn't give one of those Four Lokos. Don't worry.
Kiran?
CHETRY: Stuffed with the sugar free Red Bull he should be fine.
Twenty-five minutes past the hour right now. Still to come, we're following other stories developing today.
More shots fired at a government building in the Washington area. We talked about this now. Four other shootings, as well, and they're still looking for a suspect.
Plus, there's barely time to catch your breath, but the 2012 race has already started. Jason Carroll is in New Hampshire with a preview looking ahead.
It's 26 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHETRY: Thirty minutes past the hour right now. Welcome back to a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. We're continuing our extensive election coverage in a moment. First, though, we're getting a check on some of the stories making news this morning with our Alina Cho.
Hey, Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kiran, good morning. You wide awake still?
CHETRY: Yes.
CHO: I hope so.
All right. Good morning, everybody. Here's a look at this morning's top stories.
At least 64 people were killed by a wave of coordinated explosions across Baghdad. According to Iraqi police, the attacks included 14 car bombs and two road side bombs in at least 17 neighborhoods. So far, no one has claimed responsibility, but the U.S. military says the assault has all the hallmarks of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
A big developing story in the United States, shots have been fired again at a military facility in the Washington, D.C. area. Police say a Coast Guard recruiting station in Woodbridge, Virginia, was targeted early yesterday morning. The fifth shooting there in a little more than two weeks. Nobody was hurt, and no word on a motive. So far, the FBI has linked the first four shootings.
The first fascinating tidbit is coming out for former president George W. Bush's new memoir. According to the "New York Times," the former president writes that he briefly considered dropping then Vice President Dick Cheney from his 2004 re-election ticket. You heard that right. The idea apparently came from Cheney himself. Cheney's replacement reportedly would have been former Senator Bill Frist.
The final launch for the space shuttle Discovery has been delayed yet again. This time because of an apparent glitch with the engine computer controller. The shuttle is now scheduled to blast off tomorrow morning, weather-permitting, of course. NASA tells us that on its 39th mission, the "Discovery" and its crew will bring spare parts to the International Space Station.
The Federal Reserve is set to announce a bold move to boost the economy this afternoon. The Central Bank is expected to inject about $500 trillion into the economy. It's a policy known as quantitative easing. It's designed to lower long-term interest rates.
And you think you've heard it all? Well, think again. Soon you may not only be checking yourself in at the airport, but also, tagging your luggage. That's right. American Airlines and Air Canada are reportedly in talks with the Transportation Safety Administration to let travelers at Boston's Logan Airport print and then tag their own luggage. It's designed, they say, to speed up the check-in process. The airlines say there's no security risk because it doesn't change how the bags are screened behind the scenes.
It is 32 minutes after the hour. We're going to get a check of this morning's weather headlines. Rob Marciano in Atlanta for that. And they'll probably charge us $35 for the privilege, right?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Exactly. Good morning. Well, listen, we're already printing out our own boarding passes, throw a sticker on a bag. What's the difference, right? Listen, if you're traveling south today, it's going to be another wet one, although not as concentrated as it was yesterday. Here's your circulation. You kind of see everything rotating around and that's probably around there.
Slowly drifting off to the east. It'll get into Florida tomorrow, so the launch is going to be suspect. They'll have a hard time getting it off the ground because of weather. New Orleans up towards say Biloxi, Mobile. A little bit of rainfall this morning. A lot. Yesterday. Look at the numbers. Monroe, Louisiana almost five inches. Galveston, Texas, four inches. Houston got over three, these numbers were nice. Although it was a nasty day. Boy they needed the rain bad.
October was incredibly dry, so was September. So they'll take this drought-busting rain, at least helpful stuff. Sunny and dry across the northeast. By the way, this thing is going to catch up with some stuff and make for a bit of a mess across the northeast over the weekend, especially on Friday. And this thing, tropical depression Tomas, still forecast to restrengthen, still forecasted to affect Jamaica and Haiti in some capacity but at this point, it's been difficult to predict thus far. Alina, back up to you.
CHO: All right. Rob, thank you very much. That's a look at this morning's top stories. Our election coverage continues now with our John Roberts.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Alina, thank you so very much.
Some of the results we're looking at this morning come from the granite state of New Hampshire. In the race for governor, incumbent John Lynch hangs on to his seat beating John Stephen, the challenger in the Republican side, 52 to 46 percent. It's still about 10 percent of the vote left to come in but we called that one a long time ago.
And take a look at this in the Senate race in New Hampshire, Kelly Ayotte hangs on to this one, Republican she was vying for (INAUDIBLE) she beat Paul Rhodes, 60 to 37 percent. Of course, all eyes are focused on the granite state this morning, not just because of these two races but because of the fact that it is going to play such a huge part in the election that occurs two years from now.
And you're saying two years from now, what are you talking about? We just got through with the midterm elections of 2010. But we should tell you historically speaking, the race for the presidency starts today. And our Jason Carroll is live in Manchester, New Hampshire, a place we're all going to become very, very familiar with. And speaking of familiar with, I know where you are. JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Tilt'n Diner. Absolutely. And you are so right. Things begin very, very early here, John. As the folks here wait for their hot food to arrive, they're also waiting to see which potential GOP candidates will show up here very soon. Already right here we've seen names like Huckabee. We've seen names like Romney. The question is, who will be next? And when?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): Just when you thought it was over -
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: CNN is now ready to make a major projection, the Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives.
GOV. TIM PAWLENTY, MINNESOTA: It's a massive undertaking, and it's a lot of work.
CARROLL: The candidates are back on the road. The calendar may read 2010, but for Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, it's 2012.
PAWLENTY: Something that takes a while to get up and running. And particularly for someone who is not well known, you've got to do that much more and start that much earlier and work that much harder.
CARROLL: Pawlenty is not the only Republican who has made early visits to New Hampshire, the first primary state in the nation. Mississippi Governor Haley Barber, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney have already been here several times this year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are we happy to have Mitt Romney here?
CARROLL: And while none have formally declared their candidacy, some are certainly sounding presidential.
Don't spend money we don't have, live within our means, and hold true to the values that have made America such a strong country.
DR. ELIZABETH OSSOFF, NLH INSTITUTE OF POLITICS: It's already started.
CARROLL: Dr. Elizabeth Ossoff knows the importance of campaigning early here. She's the director of research at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
OSSOFF: If you don't make that personal connection with the New Hampshire voter, you are not going to get their time of day. You're not going to get them -
CARROLL (on camera): Couldn't you say that about any state?
OSSOFF: No, because New Hampshirites are used to that. There's an expectation on the part of the New Hampshire voter that if I don't get to meet you, if I don't at least get to see you at someone's house, I am not going to pay attention to you. CARROLL (voice-over): Ossoff she says the concerns facing New Hampshire voters are the same as the rest of the country. Jobs, government spending, taxes, and health care. It's clear to those potential candidates the importance of getting out early. But also, to keep it in perspective.
MITT ROMNEY (R), FMR. MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR: You never know how it's going to work out. I think President Obama didn't win New Hampshire. And he won the whole shooting match.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Now, one name, of course, we did not mention, Sarah Palin. Sarah was here back in '08. We know that for sure. But we do have to point out that earlier this year, John, Sarah Palin was in Iowa. So you can read into that what you want.
John.
ROBERTS: All right. Hey, Jason, I've got to tell you, we're looking forward over the next two years to many, many breakfasts in diners just like that one. What we're not looking forward to, though, is January.
CARROLL: There's going to be a lot of them.
ROBERTS: All right. Jason Carroll for us this morning. Jason, thanks. Kiran.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: 38 minutes past the hour right now. Still ahead, we're going to be speaking to one of Sarah Palin's "Mama Grizzlies." She became South Carolina's first female governor. Nikki Haley joins us to talk more about her win today, coming up.
38 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: 40 minutes past the hour right now. History was made in South Carolina last night. One of Sarah Palin's so-called "Mama Grizzlies" became the state's first female governor.
Republican Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, knocking off Democratic rival, Vincent Sheheen in a hard-fought race and Nikki Haley joins us live this morning from Columbia, South Carolina. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
First of all, let me just say congratulations. How does it feel this morning? I know this was a hard-fought and in some cases bitter campaign.
NIKKI HALEY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR-ELECT: Good morning, it's been a long 18 months. In all honesty, I don't think it's set in yet, but we certainly are excited.
CHETRY: How do you view the win this morning? There's a lot of talk about, you know, this being a rebuke of the current administration, a rebuke of establishment candidates. How do you view it this morning as you get set to leave the state of South Carolina?
HALEY: This was people finding the power of their voice. It was people saying we want government to remember who it is that they work for. We want the government to know the value of a dollar and we want jobs and the economy to come first. This was all about the people saying we've had enough. It wasn't about a party. It was about taking their state and their country back and it started with South Carolina, and we're thrilled.
CHETRY: One of the questions that people have is what's next for South Carolina? The entire bitter situation with former Governor Mark Sanford and just this legislative gridlock that you guys experienced in the state. There was some concerns that that may continue with you as governor. How do you assure the people that you are going to get things done in that state?
HALEY: You know, this is the turning of a new page. This is a time where we go back to the basics. We look at the fact that government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people. It was never intended to be all things to all people. And certainly when you give a man a job, you give a man pride. We're going to give a lot of pride to the state of South Carolina. We're going to do it with the legislature. We're going to do it with the people who have their power and their strength back, and we're going to make South Carolinians proud.
CHETRY: You know, this race did get ugly at times for you. There were rumors about, you know, inappropriate personal relationships at times. There were rumors and innuendo questioning your religious beliefs and your Christianity. How do you shake all of that off and move forward? I mean, are there grudges? Are there bitter feelings left over from this?
HALEY: No, you know, I mean, there's no room for personality conflicts when you're in politics. If you really want to do the work for the people, you don't let those things get in the way. I never let those distractions get in the way. Our focus was that we needed to stay on the issues. We needed to stay on the facts.
You know, politics is the art of distraction. When they saw we were winning, they tried to distract us. We didn't let that work. Our focus has always been about doing right for the people of this state. When it comes to jobs, when it comes to education, and more importantly with spending and how we spend our dollars in government.
So, you know, while it was a brutal 18 months and I certainly wouldn't wish that on anybody, we had to do it. Because when you push on the establishment, the establishment pushes back. But it was our job to make sure that we got this done.
CHETRY: You mentioned the need for creating jobs and the promise to create jobs. Why do you think the state Chamber of Commerce sided or endorsed your Democratic opponent instead of you? HALEY: You know, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which is the small businesses in South Carolina endorsed me. The Chamber of Commerce is part of the establishment. You know, certainly, big corporations dealt with the lobbyists that is certainly controlled by the establishment. It made sense here in South Carolina. We understood it. It was a mistake on their part, but we're still going to focus on the businesses of this state.
CHETRY: You know, the interesting thing also is you got a lot of national support. You got a big endorsement from Sarah Palin and of course, a big endorsement from Mitt ROMNEY:. How much do you think Sarah Palin's endorsement helped you?
HALEY: Listen, every ounce of support, from Jenny Sanford to Mitt Romney to Sarah Palin, all of it mattered. What I love about Sarah Palin is she's gotten the people in this country to know the power of their voice. And when she came to South Carolina, we already had a ground swell that was going, but she certainly got the rest of the state to pay attention and listen to our message. And so I'm very grateful for the help that she and Governor Romney gave, Jenny Sanford, Mark Sanford, all of them, you know, all of that together put the stars in alignment. We're very grateful.
CHETRY: You know, it's interesting because it didn't work out that way for some of the other candidates that Sarah Palin endorsed as part of her so-called "Mama Grizzlies." We also saw Christine O'Donnell in her Senate race in Delaware. And Sharron Angle in that bitter Senate race in Nevada, all losing.
Why do you think that happened?
HALEY: You know, I don't know. And the last thing I'm going to become an analyst on another state.
What I can tell you in South Carolina was that people were tired of both parties. They were fed up with the arrogance of government, on the federal and state level. They were fed up with the spending and lack of responsibility, and they wanted someone that was going to be able to bring those voices of the people back again. And they agreed with our message.
We asked them to join our movement and said that this movement's never supposed to be about a person. It's never supposed to be about an election. It's about what the work we're going to get done in January.
And so, we're grateful to the people of this state. And I think this is a groundswell that will continue to go a across the country.
CHETRY: You know, you said it's not personally, but you certainly do -- your win is a source of pride not only for women, but also for Indian-Americans. Bobby Jindal, you joined him as only the second Indian-American to become governor in the United States.
What does that mean to you? HALEY: You know, I hope that it makes people proud. But really, as historic as I think a lot of observers are going to say this is, what I hope is historic is the work that we do in January and the things that we get done in our first years in the Haley administration. That's really what will be historic, is the work that we do and the pride that we give to the people of South Carolina, when they see that we did a great thing.
But we certainly were proud for the women in this country. We're proud for the Indian-American community. We're proud for our families.
But most importantly, we're proud for the state of South Carolina.
CHETRY: Well, I want to thank you for spending time with us this morning. I'm sure you got very little sleep, as well.
South Carolina governor-elect, Nikki Haley, thanks.
HALEY: Thank you very much. Thanks for your time.
CHETRY: John?
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Kiran, a lot of political experts figured that Harry Reid would be unemployed this morning. But he is back for another term as Senate majority leader and he joins us live coming up in four minutes. Stay with us.
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ROBERTS: Ten minutes now to the top of the hour.
Senator Harry Reid is a happy man this morning. Just a couple of weeks ago, it looked like he might be joining the ranks of the unemployed after the midterm elections.
But let's go on and take a look at the results. He eked out a five-point win over the Tea Party Republican challenger Sharron Angle -- 50 percent of the vote going to Senator Harry Reid, 45 percent to Angle.
And the Senate majority leader joins us this morning live from Las Vegas.
Senator, I don't know if you're up early or if you're up late, but thanks very much for joining us. We appreciate it.
SEN. HARRY REID (D), NEVADA: John, I'm up late. Only thing -- correction to make is, for me, this is not eking out a race. I've had some close races. This one wasn't close.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, it depends on your interpretation of the word "eke," I guess.
And for many people, this race wasn't as close as some thought it would be. But when you look at this the overall, Senator, and you look what happened in the Senate and you look at what happened in the House, are you chastened this morning? Because it would appear that voters said, we want things done differently than they were done for the past two years.
REID: John, I think it's important we realize that we have some work to do. I'm very happy we've got Connecticut. We've got Delaware. We've got West Virginia. It looks like Colorado's going to be OK. Looks like Washington's going to be OK.
But I think what we need to do is stop using words like chastened and recognize that all of us, all of us who are going to be in the Senate have to work together. That's the message from the American people. We must work together. And I am looking forward to that.
I have a good relationship with Mitch McConnell, my Republican counterpart. I've known John Boehner for many years. And I think it's time we need to set aside our speeches and start rolling up our sleeves and have a little sweat on our brow.
ROBERTS: Now, who is it that needs to work together? Is the Democrats need to work together with Republicans or Republicans that need to come to the table and work with Democrats?
REID: Well, we know that the Republicans have, this last Congress, picked up the name the "party of no." I think that Democrats have to work with Republicans. And Republicans have to work with Democrats. It's not a one-sided deal.
ROBERTS: All right. Because Senator Evan Bayh writing yesterday in "The New York Times" said, quote, "Democrats over-interpreted our mandate. We also overreached by focusing on health care rather than job creation during a severe recession do."
Do you need to recalibrate your priorities going forward? Does all of the focus in -- at least in the early going need to be on job creation?
REID: As far as I'm concerned, my number one job and that was a part of this campaign, my number one job is to help create jobs. And I'm going to do everything I can.
The only thing that's going to solve our economic problems in this country are jobs -- jobs and more jobs.
ROBERTS: Now, you're going to have to deal with the Republican Senate in not too distant future on some thorny issues like tax cuts. What do you expect is going to happen with the Bush tax cuts? Are they going to expire? Are they going to continue for the middle class and not for the high-income earners? Where is that going? Because that's going to be a very big issue going into the New Year.
REID: I'm focused on small business. I'm focused on middle class Americans. I'm going to do everything within my power to make sure that the tax cuts for the middle class go forward. ROBERTS: What about tax cuts for high income earners? You know, the question I asked was, the Bush tax cuts as they are right now. Will they continue or are you going to modify them?
REID: My concern is not with people who are -- who have a lot of money. I'm happy to -- if we need to work something out, with the people that are really rich, I'll have to take a look at that. But right now, the focus in America is not with the wealthy. It's getting jobs for people.
People in -- you know, we're not talking about paupers here. We're talking about up to $250,000. And I want to do everything I can to make sure that those tax cuts remain in place.
I'm not -- I'm not awkward. I'm not bullheaded. I'm willing to work with my Republican colleagues on a way to get this done.
ROBERTS: And as you know, the man who will most likely be the incoming speaker of the House, John Boehner has said that he wants to dismantle Obamacare, as he calls it, the health care bill that was passed by Democrats. Are you going to fight him on that or might you be open to some compromises on the health care bill?
REID: I'm not going to, at this stage, say I'm not open to compromise because I just told you that's what legislation is all about.
But I'm very proud of the work we did with the health care bill. We had to do it. The insurance industry was bankrupting America.
And what we've done is reduced the debt by $1.3 trillion. We extended the life of Medicare for 12 years. We filled the donut hole, and on and on with all the great things we did with this legislation.
ROBERTS: Right.
REID: It's important for the country that we move into a modern world and make sure that we don't have 50 million people with no health insurance.
ROBERTS: So, Senator, just so I've got this straight, you say you're not against reopening the health care bill and potentially looking at some changes along with your Republican colleagues in the House?
REID: Health care bill is very important. I wish the Republicans had worked with us when we did the health care bill. If there's some -- if there's some tweak -- if there's some tweaking to do with the health care bill, I'm ready for some tweaking. But I'm not going to, in any way, denigrate the great work we did as a country in saving America from bankruptcy because of the insurance industry bankrupting us.
ROBERTS: Senator Harry Reid in Nevada this morning, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate your time.
REID: My pleasure.
ROBERTS: We've got about four minutes until the top of the hour.
Christine O'Donnell's run for the Senate ended in defeat and but she sure gave us plenty to talk about. We're going to ask the Delaware Senate candidate and Tea Party darling what went wrong when she joins us live coming right up.
And a wave of red across the map of the United States -- a new look on Capitol Hill. What can we expect to hear later today from the president? Reaction to election night live from Washington in our next hour.
You're watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
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