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The Stock Market Plummets; European Earnings Low; Republicans Devastated; Fiscal Cliff Looms; Obama Re-elected for Second Term; Florida Still Counting Votes; 2012 Election Most Expensive in History; Stocks Down Following Election; What Obama's Re-Election Means for Balance of Power; 7.3 Quake Over Mexico Coast
Aired November 07, 2012 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: To put the people before the politics.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No Republican has ever won the White House without Ohio.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the end, the battleground state of Ohio put the election out of reach.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The president of the United States defeats Mitt Romney.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the nation remains a house divided. As the balance of power holds firm on Capitol Hill, a call for unity.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This morning we have every issue covered. Can the White House and Congress work together to fix the economy? Will the partisan gap now close?
With the Empire State Building bathed in blue light, this much is clear.
BLITZER: Let the world know that at 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KATE BOLDUAN, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Kate Bolduan. Hello, everyone. We continue our special coverage of the 2012 presidential election.
For the first time in months, President Obama woke up today knowing where he'll be waking up for the next four years. And yet, hours after the race was called and Mitt Romney conceded, there's still the matter of Florida. We still haven't called a winner there.
If the president holds his lead, he'll pad his electoral college margin. If not, Mitt Romney will finish a somewhat less distant second. We're still watching that, as well, as many other things.
Either way, we know there are more fights ahead. Listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: When we make big decisions as a country, it necessarily stirs passions, stirs up controversy. That won't change after tonight and it shouldn't. These arguments we have are a mark of our liberty.
And we can never forget that, as we speak, people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter, the chance to cast their ballots like we did today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Much more on the presidential election to come, but first, I'm going to send to John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And we do have breaking news this morning and it has to do with the stock market. We've been watching it drop and drop and drop some more.
Just a few seconds ago, it was down 300 points. Now, creeping up from its lows. Our experts tell us it doesn't have to do necessarily all with the U.S. election.
Christine Romans, Ali Velshi, here. So, what is this about?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's not just the election because, look, the markets expected that Barack Obama was going to become president ...
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: At least, there was a very good likelihood that he would.
ROMANS: Right. And when you look at the makeup of the House and Senate, it's pretty much as expected, as well.
But earlier, we heard from the European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi, who said basically that growth was going to be weaker than expected. It was a concern in Europe and, specifically, in Germany.
Germany, of course - Germany is the one who has been, you know, carrying some of the other countries in the region, so this is still a problem.
Also, we just talked to Mohamed El-Erian who is the CEO of Pimco. He said there are still some concerns about Greece. So, President Obama comes today, after having won last night, with the same old problems, a weakening Europe, a eurozone crisis, Greece is still a problem and we still have the fiscal cliff to deal with.
VELSHI: I want to - I mean, I can't overstate this because the bottom line is things have changed. Since Christine and I started trading, you know, following markets, things change.
You used to be able to 10-years ago point to exactly why the market is up or down. Most trading is done by computer on the basis of momentum, so things start to sell off, computers start selling, there's more volume.
But let's just explain this for a second. If anybody is surprised that Barack Obama had and at least better than even chance of winning, then they shouldn't be handling anybody's money, first of all.
And, secondly, there are -- these markets, we've all been up way too long, which means I got to look at futures and so did Christine far more than we normally do. They were ...
ROMANS: All over the place.
VELSHI: They were all over the place. They were up, they were up and then Mario Draghi makes this speech to talk about European and German growth slowing down and they tank. And that's where it came from, so I'm just saying.
BERMAN: Mario Draghi not a name that may be a household name to many people ...
VELSHI: He's the Ben Bernanke of Europe.
BERMAN: But this guy's held our economy hostage over the last year. Every time this guy speaks, the market goes up or down.
VELSHI: Right. Little children think Mario Draghi has horns.
He is the chairman of the European Central Bank which does not have the ability to -- I don't want to use the manipulate wrongly, but to have an effect on the European economy the way the Fed does in the United States.
ROMANS: They can't do to their economies what is we can do, what the Fed can did here.
I will make one point. Hospital stocks are still up. That's because the markets are saying, ObamaCare is here to stay. Bank stocks are down very sharply ...
VELSHI: Which would be expected.
ROMANS: ... because the markets are saying, oh, guess what. We're going to get our financial reform. This is still going to be a big fight over regulating banks. BERMAN: Let me ask our all-star panel here a question. Because had this happened yesterday or two days ago, we'd see a negative ad on this. I mean, we'd see Obama being blamed for this.
Are there any finger-pointing today? Is there going to be finger- pointing today?
ROSS DOUTHAT, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, of course. (INAUDIBLE).
VAN JONES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It doesn't matter, but there will be and part of the problem that we have right now is that for at least the past year and a half, we've been living in a kind of a fact-free political environment where anything that goes wrong anywhere in the world ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not on CNN. Only elsewhere.
JONES: Except on CNN.
But, honestly, literally anything that happens in the world, you're going to blame it on President Obama and we're going to get -- I think that has dissserved the country. I think it's disserved the problems we now have to go into.
I'm glad that we're trying to make it clear this has nothing to do with President Obama.
Here's what most people are worried about at home, though. They still don't know how we're going to get this - I call it the fiscal showdown challenge. They still don't know where the jobs are going to come from and they still don't know if anybody learned anything in Washington, D.C.
And, so, if we go chasing the ball around, the next sort of alarmism around, OK, well, Barack Obama killed the stock market. He's going to kill your kid next. We're going to miss an opportunity this week to do something.
DOUTHAT: Well, the reality is that Americans should be focused on what's happening in Europe, right? I mean, from a political point of view, Obama, I think, has been very lucky actually over the past three months that Draghi and the Europeans have been able to, like we do in Washington, kick the can down the road.
But if you look at the politics of Greece, for instance, which was sort of on everybody's mind in their last election cycle, the -- both the socialists and the fascists parties in Greece have gained more ground since the last election cycle, the odds of the eurozone actually breaking up have gone up and, you know, independent of what happens in the U.S. ...
JONES: So we need to be stronger here at home because we know -- if that-if what you just said is true, that's terrifying ...
BERMAN: Hang on one second, guys. Hang on. I've got to stop you here because, believe it or not, we have election news. Let's go to Kate for that.
BOLDUAN: And we can now -- CNN can now project that Jon Tester will retain his seat for the - in the Senate in the state of Montana.
Jon Tester was considered probably one of the most vulnerable -- one of the vulnerable Democrats up for re-election in a very tough re- election battle, as we can see, a very tight race that has taken us all the way through to today.
He won and he defeats the Republican congressman, Danny Rehberg. With 83-percent of precincts reporting, CNN can now project that John Tester will retain his seat in the U.S. Senate.
A Democrat to retain his seat, that doesn't change, obviously, the balance of power. It does help Democrats, though, John, as I toss it back to you and our panel. It does help them with their majority in the Senate.
BERMAN: Kate, our reaction at the table here was this is a wow. This is a wow.
Jon Tester, the Democrat from Montana, was supposed to be endangered and, in fact, it does change the numbers here. This guarantees that the Democrats will actually gain governmental ruling voting seats in the Senate.
You're surprised, John.
JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I'm stunned and this is a big deal. In part because it shows just what a bad night Republicans had when it came to their Senate candidates.
You know, the Democrats really had the odds stacked against them this particular cycle. A guy like Jon Tester running in a very red state, Montanta, that President Obama lost by a large margin had a big target on his back. Guess what. He pulled it out.
He pulled it out because he kept running as a Montana Democrat. He was running as a laborer, you know, farmer Democrat. He stands out from a lot of Democrats on -- in the Senate and he's been vindicated for that.
And there's a special reason, too. Montana actually has a unique history of ticket-splitting. It is the state that has the highest level of ticket-splitting in our recent political history and they showed that again. They voted for Mitt Romney for president. They voted for Jon Tester to be their ...
ERICK ERICKSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, REDSTATE.COM: I have to disagree with you, John, on that one and, you know, I'm actually - I'm glad to see Rehberg lose this race. I've got to be honest.
Rehberg was a horrible candidate who the Republicans put up. They largely shut out other guys because they said, this is our guy. The National Republican Senatorial Committee went around the country to races this year - we're seeing it blow up in their face -- where they said, these are the most electable.
George Allen, hey, let's bring him back. Tommy Thompson, hey, let's bring him back. Rehberg who has a personal history that didn't sell well with the voters, given things in his past that came up, and it doesn't work for them.
If the Republicans aren't willing to go out and get fresh blood to run for the Senate and run for the House and they just want to recycle the usual suspects who keep losing, well, then they're going to keep losing.
BERMAN: Before you guys jump in, we're going to get - we're going to talk more about this you because we're lucky enough to have breaking election news this morning.
What - you know, at 11:15 in the morning, it's always great to have election news here.
VELSHI: Another attention-grabbing stunt by Kate, I think.
BERMAN: But we've got to go to break here.
There's one new member of Congress, an Hispanic Republican. Ted Cruz is the new senator-elect from Texas. He's going to join us next.
But first, some international reaction to what President Obama - some international reaction to President Obama staying in office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Tonight, more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEONE LAKHANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Leone Lakhani at a breakfast election party in Abu Dhabi.
Now, people in the Middle East don't like to wake up early, but this lot has been here through the night, way before sunrise, just to watch those election results coming in.
I mean, the U.S. ambassador was here a few minutes ago saying he felt like he was in a Vegas casino. He didn't know what time it was.
Now, there are some 40,000 U.S. citizens based in the UAE. Some of them were here watching those election results, but there are members of other embassies, other nationalities, including members from the community here in the UAE who all gathered to watch those election results. There's a huge interest in the U.S. elections here because, as we know, the Middle East is going through a time of change and evolution and everyone is eager to see how the U.S. administration addresses those changes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So, the election is being watched all over the world and the election's clearly not over yet because, just a few minutes ago right here on CNN, we were able to make a new projection that Senator Jon Tester from Montana has been reelected, which was a big surprise to a lot of us at this table and a lot of Republican establishment-types.
And we have to talk more about this. We brought in senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash. She was on with CNN International during the big projection. She ran here right away as soon as she heard the news.
Dana?
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It really is remarkable when you think about the fact that Jon Tester is a Democrat in a very, very red state who won six years ago in a Democratic wave. And the minute he won, he knew he was going to be fighting for his political life and he was.
Up until election day, it was a one-percent, razor-thin race and he was able to pull out because it's sort of the way Rahm Emanuel and other Democrats began to run Democrats several years ago which is that he matches the state.
He is conservative. He is one of them. He is a rancher. He, you know, wears his flannels and he talks like they do and he was able to really connect with them.
BERMAN: How much did luck play a role? Because if you listen to Erick, if you listened to Ana Navarro earlier today, a lot of Senate Democrats benefitted from the weakness of their opponents.
BASH: That's right. Not in this case. I mean, Denny Rehberg, they -- many Republicans thought that he was going to be a good candidate. I will say, in the end, he had some missteps or some bad press about some boating accidents and things like that, but he's a well-known candidate.
He's laughing over there.
VELSHI: The business ones want to know what's a boating accident.
BASH: But, no, but initially they felt that they were going to be in pretty good shape because he is somebody who has won in Montana in the House.
But, you know, look, yes, they didn't have the greatest candidate there at the end of the day. But this was supposed to be the seat, just like Claire McCaskill in Missouri, this was supposed to be the seat that they picked up and, we were talking about this earlier, the other big picture thing that this says is not only did the Democrats not lose the senate, they gained a seat if you consider Angus King likely to be -- the newly independent senator from Maine -- likely to caucus with Democrats.
BERMAN: All right, Dana Bash, great to talk to you here.
We have an exciting interview with a new senator, an incoming Republican many consider the all-star of the incoming Senate class. Let's go to Kate Bolduan for that.
BOLDUAN: Yeah, let's keep our focus on the Senate right now.
The incoming Senate class includes a Texas Republican who's never held elective office before, Ted Cruz taking the seat of fellow - of retiring Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Senator-Elect Mr. Cruz, thanks for coming in this morning. Congratulations.
TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS SENATOR-ELECT: Good morning. It's great to join you.
BOLDUAN: Well, thank you so much.
So, Senator, you won your seat on a day when 71 percent, a really amazing number that so many people are talking about, 71 percent of Hispanic voters backed President Obama.
What do you think this says? What do you think your party, the Republican party, should learn from that statistic?
CRUZ: Well, the president had a very good night last night and Republicans had a really lousy night all over the country and I think at the end of the day the president should enjoy his victory, but I think what it says going forward is we remain a nation very, very divided.
The popular vote was almost 50/50 for a good portion of the night last night. It looked like President Obama was going to lose the popular vote.
And at the same time that Americans reelected President Obama, they also reelected a Republican House of Representatives.
So this country remains divided and the question now is, are we going to be able to have some real leadership to pull back from these economic and fiscal challenges that I think are really grave and that the American people are looking for leadership to address.
BOLDUAN: Well, let's talk about these fiscal challenges.
One of the first things that you - well, depending on how things go in the lame-duck, one of the first things you're going to face when you come into office is the looming fiscal cliff and compromise is something that everyone is starting to talk about is needed if they're going to pull something off to save the country from going over this fiscal cliff.
But you told supporters, yesterday, and I'll quote this from "The Dallas Morning News," you said, "If he, President Obama, continues down this path, I will spend every waking moment to lead the fight to stop it."
Does that mean compromise is a dirty word in your mind?
CRUZ: Well, it doesn't. And actually in those remarks, the first thing I said right before that is I said, if President Obama means what he has said on the campaign trail, if he means what he said last night in his acceptance speech, that he wants to work across the aisle, that he wants to tackle the deficit, tackle the debt, that he wants to reduce the burdens of government on small businesses and entrepreneurs to create jobs, then I am happy to work with President Obama.
But, and this is the second half that you quoted, if he doesn't mean what he says, if that was simply what he says on the campaign trail and if he wants to go back to the path of the last four years to more and more spending and debt and taxes and regulations that kill job, then I will do everything I can to work to stop us from continuing down that path because I think continuing down that path will hurt this country.
It is killing jobs and a lot of people are suffering as a result.
BOLDUAN: Now, as you are -- prepare to come to Washington, one thing some folks are talking about this morning is that this is a status-quo election and that that is going to mean more gridlock in Washington, which is why and what is behind why Congress has such an historically low approval rating right now.
What are you going to do when you come to Washington to change that?
CRUZ: Well, I think the next four years may prove very challenging and it depends really on the president. What is he willing to do?
If you look back two years ago after President Obama faced a loss of the House of Representatives, an overwhelming election result in 2010, President Obama didn't do what Bill Clinton had done when the same thing happened to him, which is move to the center, work with Republicans in the House, have a balanced budget, reform welfare.
Instead, President Obama, two years ago, doubled down and went even further left to more spending, who debt, more taxes.
I think the question now is, what does the president do? If he reads last night as a mandate for more of his economic agenda, then I think we will have gridlock because I don't think Republicans will be willing to go along with policies that will hurt this country, that will result in more people losing their jobs and that will result in even more debt jeopardizing our future.
But if he's willing to follow Bill Clinton's model -- he campaigned a lot with Bill Clinton -- if President Obama will follow Bill Clinton's model and work with Republicans, reduce spending, reduce taxes, reduce regulations, I will happily work with him and I think a lot of Republicans will.
BOLDUAN: All right, Ted Cruz, congratulations on the victory. We will see you in Washington.
A lot more work ahead. Sounds to me like we've got some big battles ahead, as well.
Wolf Blitzer, our favorite, Wolf Blitzer is getting miked up again to join us again. He got no sleep.
Plus, a closer look at the exit polls that we've been really, really chewing through and who helped put President Obama over the top last night.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: One of the big questions coming into this election was, did Barack Obama in 2008 catch lightning in a bottle? Would he be able to put together the same winning coalition that he had four years ago this year?
Well, we now have our answers and Christine Romans shows us at the Magic Wall.
ROMANS: And the answer, John, is yes. I mean, let's look at age here, 18-to-29-year-olds, 19 percent of those voting were 18-to-29 and they preferred the president, 60-percent-to-37-percent.
Look at 30-to-44-year-olds. They also chose the president by a margin of 52-to-45.
And then Mitt Romney starts to get more traction here when you talk to 45-to-64-year-olds and then, of course, to senior citizens, 65-and- older.
Let's move along and take a look at how you break this out by gender. Women, women went for Barack Obama again, 55-percent-to-44-percent women and they were 53-percent of those who voted.
Among men, men preferred Mitt Romney. 52-percent-to-45 percent.
And then let's break it down now by race. OK, 72 percent of those who voted were white. Look at the margin here, 59-percent-to-39-percent, so President Obama trailing by 20 points among white voters.
How does he make up for that? African-Americans continue to be a solid voting bloc for the president, 93 percent for Mr. Obama.
And, look, the Latino vote for the first time in history double digits, 10 percent of the vote there, 71-percent-to-27-percent going for Obama. This is so incredibly important in this part of the country. Remember, we were so closely watching Colorado and Nevada. Very important here in part because you look at the demographics up here, John, and this shows you the concentration of Latinos in the Southwest. And you look at all of these spots here and now they're turning from red to blue.
BERMAN: He won 71 percent of the Latino vote. That coalition between the youth vote, women vote and minority vote held strong for President Obama and could be a sign of future elections to come.
Christine Romans at the Magic Wall, thanks very much.
Meanwhile this election, $6 billion spent and still a divided government. Can Washington break the gridlock in the next four years? We'll have more coming up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Mallika Kapur in at one of India's outsourcing hubs where people have been following the U.S. presidential election closely to see what's being said about outsourcing.
This time, though, the rhetoric hasn't been as negative as it was back in 2008 because the situation has changed.
Indian call centers no longer provide just basic, cheap, back-end services to the United States. They've started to provide higher value-added services.
As people in call centers here say, without us, corporate America would be disabled.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOLDUAN: We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Kate Bolduan, along with my very good friend, John Berman, for this special edition of CNN NEWSROOM.
It is 11:30 here the on the east coast, 8:30 out west. A lot has happened overnight. All that time, all that effort, all that money and post-election America looks an awful lot like pre-election America beginning with the president. Barack Obama becomes the nation's third president in a row to win a second term. And if he's daunted by the prospect of at least into more years of divided government -- there are the midterms. We don't even talk about that yet -- he's not letting on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: When we make big decisions as a country, it necessarily stirs passions, stirs up controversy. That won't change after tonight and it shouldn't. These arguments we have are a mark of our liberty. And we can never forget that, as we speak, people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter, the chance to cast their balance the lots like we did today.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: As for Congress, Democrats cemented their hold on the Senate last night with big wins in Massachusetts and Indiana. And we just called the race in Montana. Republicans held on to the House.
Over to John Berman.
Hey, John.
BERMAN: Thanks, Kate.
We called the president for president at 11:18 eastern time, p.m., last night. Of course, there was one state that we didn't call and they are still counting this morning. That state, the state of Florida.
And own Ashleigh Banfield is down in Miami where apparently the election is still not over.
What's going on, Ashleigh?
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, are you surprised, Berman?
(LAUGHTER)
Come on. I'm in Florida, for crying out loud.
Look, everybody here woke up and they stayed up late and found out the results, they heard it on TV. If they woke up to the Miami "Herald" this morning, they saw "It's Obama" on the front page. What some people didn't know was that their state had nothing to do with it. Florida has not actually made a call. There's a lot of reasons for that. Some very long lines, John Berman. You saw me showing them to you yesterday at the polling place I was at. Four hours for some people. Then I wake up to find out later on, some of those people actually ended up waiting six hours at other polling stations. And some Floridians were casting their ballots at 1:45 a.m. this morning. That is well after the time you just quoted that the president was actually called the president. So very frustrating for a lot of people here in Florida.
And late last night, the U.S. postal service dumped about 18,000 absentee ballots on to the elections officials at Miami-Dade County. So guess what they spent the night doing? All night, 50 of them in a warehouse opening ballots and verifying ballots and counting and scanning ballots. And that went on all day. I just got off the phone with one of those county officials and they actually expect to have some of those results right about now, between now and the top of the hour.
However, that's not the end of it either. No, they still have provisional ballots. Those can't even be touched until tomorrow. They'll start the process with those tomorrow. They'll get to them by Saturday. They'll probably have a certification by the 20th.
These guys over here are from other countries. Sven is from Germany. Manuel is from Portugal.
Were you surprised to those results here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you expect to have a vote after the election.
(LAUGHTER)
And there is no vote, still 37.
BANFIELD: Welcome to America. Welcome to Florida. It's nice to see you.
So basically, Berman, we spent our morning having a lovely brunch at Miami South Beach waiting for results.
BERMAN: Ashleigh, I have to say, you look at the map of Florida, you see a whole lot of red. Barack Obama carried 13 of the 67 counties in Florida. So why is this so close?
BANFIELD: Miami-Dade is really the issue. The lines were long and the ballots very long. So think about just the time to scan a nine to 12 page ballot. It's not like throwing one through in a couple of seconds. We also had tons of reports of those optical scanners jamming. And it happened several times at the polling place we were at temperature. So I know that was actually multiplied throughout the 6,000 some-odd precincts.
But the issue really came down to Miami-Dade and those very long lines, those very long ballots and then the issues with some of those ballots that obviously were problematic in terms of scanning and counting.
BERMAN: OK, Ashleigh. Thank you so much. Stay there. Bring us the news when it breaks there. There's always something in Florida.
Thanks very much, Ashleigh Banfield.
Kate, let's go back to you.
BOLDUAN: Thanks so much, John.
From Florida to Ohio. Ohio was just one key to President Obama's victory. Let's take a moment to listen to his acceptance speech from early this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Democracy in a nation of 300 million can be noisy and messy and complicated. We have our own opinions. Each of us has deeply held beliefs. And when we go through tough times, when we make big decisions as a country, it necessarily stirs passions, stirs up controversy. That won't change after tonight. And it shouldn't. These arguments we have are a mark of our liberty. And we can never forget that as we speak, people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter, the chance to cast their ballots like we did today.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: Despite all the frustrations of Washington, I've never been more hopeful about our future.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: I have never been more hopeful about America. And I ask you to sustain that hope.
(SHOUTING)
OBAMA: I'm not talking about blind optimism, the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the road blocks that stand in our path. I'm not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight. I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: And 2012 will go down in the record books as the most expensive election in U.S. history, to the tune of a whopping $6 billion for all the races nationwide by some estimates. But after all that money, the White House, Congress, as we like to say, it has remained status quo. Obama still the president and Congress still split.
So let's talk about the role of money in politics and specifically this election. Take a look, $6 billion election. But also look at this where all of this money really was spent. It was all really focused in the 12 battleground states. I think we have Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan -- we could run through them all. You have the 12 battlegrounds there. But most of the money being spent, Ohio, Florida and Virginia.
What did you get for all that money?
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Not a whole lot.
(LAUGHTER)
I think there are a number of people who need T-shirts saying "I spent $6 billion and got status quo."
(LAUGHTER)
Here's another one. We haven't talked about this today. But the Republican Governors Association got Republicans to 30 gubernatorial races. We haven't seen that in a very long time in this country. They did it because they kept a lot of it in-house. They managed it themselves. One of the problems you saw on the Republican side nationwide is they to a degree outsourced a lot to outside groups. We have this unlimited sum of money --
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: Did it hurt them?
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It did hurt them in that it was so diffuse. They can't talk to each other under the rules. You had a lot of people stepping on each other's feet. You had a lot of people saying I'm getting results that weren't getting results.
HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: I'm a contrarian maybe on this issue. Americans spent $6 billion on Halloween costumes this year. I don't think it's too much to --
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That's ironic.
ROSEN: I don't think it's too much to say we're going to invest in our government and in our leadership. So I don't -- where the money comes from and how it gets used and the negativity of the ads, sure, let's talk about all of that. But when you look at the aggregate, not that disappointing.
The final thing I would say if, if you look at some of these candidates like a Jon Tester, like a Tammy Baldwin, like a Sherrod Brown in Ohio, $20 million, $30 million spent against them. Candidates matter. Leadership matters. Records matter. Money doesn't always matter.
BOLDUAN: That's a good question. When you see all of this money spent but still, some of the candidates who were way overspent, they still won.
AVLON: Look, and there may be some billionaires waking up today who decide their money was not well spent and maybe that adjusts their behavior down the road. But let's not be naive. You're seeing a multibillion-dollar partisan economy in which consultants get rich, regardless of results, regardless of accountability. And folks at home were sick of the negative ads. The folks at Wesleyan Media Project did this. 88 percent of ads was negative this cycle. That because if you're doing it through super PACs or 501(c)4s, the whole point is to do a negative ad. So it leads directly to the influence of outside spending and the shadowy groups abuse, not just super PACs, but these 501(c)4s that do not disclose their donors --
BOLDUAN: They don't have to disclose their donors.
AVLON: And let me tell you, the IRS or the FCC or somebody should take a look at this stuff because the abuse of these organizations --
(CROSSTALK)
AVLON: Citizens United was unprecedented money and unlimited, unprecedented disclosure. That did not happen this cycle.
(CROSSTALK)
VAN JONES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It's true that they didn't get what they wanted. The super PACs weren't able to buy the election. But we talk a lot about the fiscal deficit. There's a democracy deficit. People feel like it's one dollar, one vote than one person, one vote, and they start tuning it out. And that's dangerous for America.
BOLDUAN: And this may be the new ballgame, $6 billon election. Wolf Blitzer will be joining us.
When we come back, our special coverage continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: President Obama's victory celebration last night in Chicago. Tht was a time of celebration and jubilation. Meanwhile the morning after, something of a rude grim greeting from Wall Street. The markets very unhappy this morning. It may not be all about the election.
We're joined by Alison Kosik, who is at the New York Stock Exchange.
Alison, what's going on?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. We are watching these losses accelerate. The Dow down 338 points. The Dow trading below that 13,000 mark.
You're right, this is really -- has less to do with the election and more about what's going on with Europe's debt crisis. What happened is Germany is showing signs of slowing and that's a big problem because Germany has really been the region's powerhouse over in Europe, the country that's been signing the checks for much of the region during this debt crisis. And throughout, we've been certainly lately talking about the election more than European debt crisis.
But now that's moving to the front burner and Wall Street is certainly focused on that. Investors want to know as well, now that President Obama has been reelected, how he plans to avoid the fiscal cliff. He'll have to work with Congress and they won't have long to work out a deal, two months, 55 days, to come up with a solution on how to avoid those tax hikes and the federal spending cuts from all happening at once. And many are believing that some sort of compromise will happen. But until then, the market will be on edge about it and, as you see, on edge about Europe. We are also watching oil prices fall more than 4 percent because that usually happens when economies are having trouble, as well. We've talked about that as well -- John?
BERMAN: Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange, down 330 points and counting. Thanks.
Back to you, Kate.
BOLDUAN: John, we'll be watching the markets, but also still talking about the new day. President Obama winning a second term in office and what that also means with the balance of power. Wolf Blitzer is here. He'll be joining our coverage.
It's not like you ever ended reading the coverage last night.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, THE SITUATION ROOM: This is nonstop. We keep working. A historic moment, so.
BOLDUAN: And keep feeding you more and more coffee. I guess that's all we can do.
BLITZER: Coffee is good.
BOLDUAN: So you've had time --
(LAUGHTER)
-- maybe a moment or two --
BLITZER: Not much.
BOLDUAN: -- to try to digest all of what happened last night. What would you say your big takeaway is from our coverage?
BLITZER: Really impressive. I was, I guess, surprised to see that the younger people actually showed up in bigger numbers this time than they did four years ago.
BOLDUAN: There was so much talk about the enthusiasm gap.
BLITZER: Yes. The enthusiasm gap, supposedly -- they weren't enthused by President Obama anymore, but they showed up and voted big percentages for the president, and that helped put him over the top.
If you look at how he did it, he got that youth vote, certainly got the African-American minority vote, Hispanics voted overwhelmingly, women voted overwhelmingly, a gender gap. He did go down on the white vote. The white vote was 44 percent for him four years ago, 39 percent this time. But he more than overcompensated because he had all these other people to show up, that ground game the Democrats have is very impressive.
BOLDUAN: Yes. John Berman says he's now a believer in ground games because of what we saw.
BERMAN: I am. I never believed it before. I always thought when a campaign started talking about their ground game, you knew they were in trouble, but now I think it's the signs to come.
I will say, Wolf, watching your 86 hours of continuing coverage --
BLITZER: You were in there a few hours yourself.
(LAUGHTER)
BOLDUAN: One of the most fascinating parts was Florida. Watching the Florida results come in, just consistently tied. It was a lot worse than the Romney people thought it would be. And that's when their mood changed. The map was changing to blue. They were losing states, but you still felt they were most concerned about Florida. I was communicating with them all night and you really saw their mood change. I'm wondering what that was like just to see those numbers come in.
BLITZER: The numbers were really fascinating. I stood at the magic wall with John King, and when we weren't on the air, we would look at Miami-Dade. We would look at Broward, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach County, because those are the big Democratic areas that the president did really well four years ago. He needed to win big in those three counties in south Florida in order to really do well. And he was winning huge in those three counties. The Democrats had been concerned maybe they wouldn't get the turnout. But people showed up. And that certainly helped him. And then the I-4 corridor between Tampa and Orlando, he did well there, as well. And as a result, we haven't projected a winner yet. It's still very close. We'll see what happens in the course of the next few hours. But Florida was certainly there for the president. Even if he winds up losing by a few votes, he did well.
BOLDUAN: I think now, looking forward, there's -- out of necessity, some kind of soul searching amongst the Republican Party. Where do they go from here and what do they really need to learn about last night? One of the numbers you mentioned is that President Obama got 71 percent in terms of the Latino vote. That's an eye-opener and a reality check, many are saying, for the Republican Party.
WOLF: Lindsey Graham, the Republican Senator from South Carolina, made this point, just if the Republicans don't reach out, find a way to bring in Latinos, Hispanics, they are going to be in trouble because that's the fastest-growing part of our population right now.
And the other thing that was really fascinating, you noticed -- you've been reporting it as well, is that these ballot initiatives that support gay marriage, marriage equality, they passed.
BOLDUAN: A watershed moment.
WOLF: It was really dramatic. Maryland, for example, it passed. In Maine, it passed. And so, remember in 2004, one of the reasons a lot of the pundits suspected that John Kerry lost, because they had these ballot initiatives opposing same-sex marriage, it turned out a lot of that Republican base and helped the Republicans at that time. But the mood of the country appears to be changing.
BERMAN: And very quickly, too. Because in Maine, which last night passed gay marriage, just three years ago, 2009, they had a measure on the ballot which failed.
BLITZER: I think one of the reasons is the president has come out in favored it. Remember, three years ago, four years ago, the president was opposed to it. He defended the Defense of Marriage Act, if you will. Now he supports gay marriage and I think that has had an impact. The repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," for example, that's had an impact. Gays can serve openly in the United States military right now. If you speak to any of the four-star generals, as I have, there have been no problems. And there really haven't been any problems. All those fears they had over the years have not materialized.
BOLDUAN: Wolf, rest your voice. You're going to be back up at the top of the hour.
We'll have more right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
BOLDUAN: Of course, we'll continue with our political coverage shortly. But first, I want to go to Karen MaGinnis in Atlanta for us at the Extreme Weather Center.
Reports of an earthquake off of Mexico, Karen?
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is off the coast of Guatemala. And this has happened in the last half hour to 45 minutes. Preliminary reports were of 7.5 magnitude. This is very close to the coast. Here's Guatemala City. And it was about 27 miles off the coast, about 20 miles deep.
Now the information that we have right now is that there was no tsunami warning issued. That could change at any moment now, but 7.5 magnitude. That may be revised as we go throughout the afternoon. It looks like already one aftershock being reported. But we'll keep you updated on that.
And, Kate, our other big story is the weather across the northeast and New England. We'll be updating you on that coming up in the next hour with the big nor'easter that is expected to impact those areas hit very hard by Superstorm Sandy.
Back to you.
BOLDUAN: Karen, you'll be watching that for us. We'll be coming back to you throughout the day. Thank you so much.
So we're about to toss it over to the next crew, but it's kind of -- there's a lot to digest and what all of last night meant. What are your final thoughts, Dana, on what you've seen and the election and the impact?
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think we don't even have a second to take a breath because in a couple of minutes, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, will go before reporters and talk about what we'll all be focusing on. Right now, we already are, which is the fiscal cliff, how they deal with it. You can bet he's going to lay that line in the sand, saying there is no way, given the results, they'll allow an extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest. Then at 3:30 eastern we'll hear from the House speaker. Guaranteed he's going to say the opposite. So here we go. Strap in. BOLDUAN: Yes. At the beginning of the negotiations, laying down the markers. We'll see if it ends up like the debt debacle or if there is compromise to be had. I don't think we have an answer on that.
What do you think, John?
BERMAN: I'm still thinking about the contests outstanding. One in North Dakota for a Senate race there. Heitkamp against Berg. North Dakota is a big state and may be hard to get some of those ballots in. Then, Florida. Doesn't matter anymore to the outcome of the election but it's still fascinating to me. I don't think many Republicans saw this coming, the defeat in Florida. Even though the polls said it was possible, I think it was a surprise. And if nothing else, Florida speaks to the Democratic demographic challenges facing the Republican Party in the years to come.
BOLDUAN: When you talk about the final Senate race, Dana, why is it outstanding? Do you think it still will have an impact if it helps Democrats a little more or sets them back a little more? What's the impact even though we know Democrats still have control of the Senate?
BASH: You know this very well that every single Senator and every single seat they have counts big time when you look at counting votes. So I think the answer is yes to that.
And the other interesting fact is that North Dakota, this is an open Democratic seat. They -- the Republicans thought this was -- we talked about this earlier. This was a no-brainer that they'd be able to take this. They ran a strong Republican candidate and Democrats ran a very strong Democratic candidate, somebody who fit the state, a moderate Democrat. One thing I'll add to that is we already hearing from Republicans saying, well, Democrats are going to hold a line in the sand, saying no tax increases. A lot of the newly elected Democrats, especially in the Senate, are moderates who also may not want tax increases.
BERMAN: We've talked about the future of the Republican Party, what it means for the party in general. It's interesting to think about specifics, what it means for specific people. You know there are politicians right now who have been on the phone with their advisers already talking about how they position themselves, what to do now -- Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan. What does Paul Ryan do? Marco Rubio. There's a lot of interesting questions about these people.
BASH: Marco Rubio in 2016.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: I would absolutely agree with you. The question of Paul Ryan, and where does Paul Ryan go from here after being on this national/international stage, what his role will be within the party going forward, coming back to the House. That's unclear.
BASH: He was already a big name --
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: -- in the Republican Party. There's no question he will continue to be because he is still the House Budget chairman. But the question is whether or not this was -- there were some who say was this a no-lose proposition. Even if he didn't win the vice president he'd still be a new face, a younger face, the next generation of the Republican Party. I think there's a lot to that.
BERMAN: What does John Boehner do with Paul Ryan? That's an interesting power structure right there.
BOLDUAN: They become teammates in the fight ahead.
All right, we'll continue. Our special coverage continues with Wolf Blitzer and Suzanne Malveaux right now.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: The results are in. We know what happened.
