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Campbell Brown
Obama Wins Presidency, Election Results Continue to Filter In
Aired November 05, 2008 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's update you now on some of these close senate races that we have been watching.
In Georgia right now, look at this. Senator Saxby Chambliss he's slightly ahead, 51 to 46 percent over his challenger in Georgia Jim Martin, 46 percent, 97 percent of the vote in. Remember, this is a state where you need to get a majority or more than 50 percent in order to be elected. There's a third party candidate there. If he stays at 51 percent, and it looks like he might, Saxby Chambliss would hold on to that seat. That would be very important for the Republicans.
In Minnesota, Norm Coleman, slightly ahead of Al Franken right now with 71 percent of the vote now in. There's a third party candidate in Minnesota, as well. Dean Barkley, the independent candidate. You don't need a majority in Minnesota. So, if Coleman holds on to that 43 percent to 41 percent lead, he would be re-elected in Minnesota. But it's not over with yet. They have lots of votes to count.
And take a look at this. In the state of Oregon, it's been really, really tight. Gordon Smith, the incumbent Republican, he's slightly behind Dean Merkley, the Democratic challenger. 41 percent of the vote in but it's obviously still early. Plenty of opportunities for those numbers to change. We'll watch those closely.
I want to show you some other races that we have already projected some winners and I'm going to go back here first of all as some of you know, North Carolina right now, Elizabeth Dole, Republican Senator, she loses to Kay Hagan, right now with 99 percent of the vote in. Fifty-three percent for Kay Hagan to -- that's enough.
Look at John Sununu. He loses in New Hampshire, the incumbent Republican, to the former Democratic governor, Jeanne Shaheen. Seventy-two percent of the vote now in in New Hampshire.
In Kentucky, the Republican incumbent, the minority leader, Mitch McConnell, he manages to hold on and win and get re-elected in a relatively close race, as Bruce Lunsford losing.
In Colorado, right now, Mark Udall, a congressman, he's going to be elected the Senator -- that's a Democratic pickup -- replacing an incumbent Republican who decided not to run again. And in New Mexico, his cousin Tom Udall, he's going to be elected, as well. Another Democratic pickup. That's the seat that Pete Domenici gave up in New Mexico. And in the state of Maine, there will be the Republican incumbent, Susan Collins. She will stay in. She has been re-elected in Maine.
And in Louisiana, the Democrat incumbent, Mary Landrieu, she had a very tough race from John Kennedy, but manages to hold on, as well, with 52 percent.
In Mississippi, Thad Cochran, the incumbent Republican, he holds on, wins relatively easily there, as you can see.
So it doesn't look -- it doesn't look like the Democrats are going to be able to get up to that 60 majority, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, because these vulnerable Republicans, several of them, as you just saw, managed to hold on.
But there will be a significant pickup in the Democratic majority. Right now, it's 61 -- excuse me. It's 51 to 49. And it's going to go up, the balance of power. We're going to take a look at that.
BROWN: And Wolf, we do want to take a look at that. You had mentioned Louisiana and Mary Landrieu is keeping her seat there. That was the one feat that Democrats were really defending. The rest Republican seats that had been shaky.
John King, walk us through it. What we know now as Wolf said, Democrats were trying to get to the magic number of 60. Doesn't look like they're going to do it.
KING: Doesn't look like it. We'll show you the state so far. And those watching at home say why does it matter so much? It matters hugely if you're President-Elect Barack Obama and you're trying to get an agenda through the Congress, you want to know, No. 1, how many Democratic votes you have. You also want to know how much pressure you're going to come under from your own party, trying to push things through.
Before we go through the numbers, let's bring back your friend, Campbell. That would be the virtual capital and put it on the table there. And let's start with the Senate. As we see, we bring the Senate up and take a peek. As you watch this, this is where we began the night: 51 Democrats, 49 Republicans.
But here's what we know so far. Wolf just went through all those results and this is what you get at the end of this: 56 to 40. So the Democrats plus five, assuming Joe Lieberman stays in their caucus, and we'll deal with that down the road a little bit.
Four faces. See the white tiles in the middle there. The Alaska race, that's Senator Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in the Senate. Most believe this seat will go Democratic, but we're waiting. The polls are still open in the state of Oklahoma. Ted Stevens convicted just last week of seven corruption charges.
Democrats may pick up that one. That would give them -- let's say for the hypothetical that they win that one. I just want to show how hard it is to get to 60. That's one they think they can get.
This one Wolf just talked about. Saxby Chambliss is ahead. The question is, when the absentee ballots are counted, will he stay above 50 percent? So we'll leave this one as undecided for now, including that.
A very tight race out here in Oregon. Gordon Smith ahead at the moment, as Wolf just said, although I'm looking at updated results showing the Democratic challenger slightly ahead at the moment. So we'll watch this one as these come in. But even if Democrats won them all, they would just get to 60 and Minnesota, of course, we showed that earlier. Norm Coleman eking it out.
The Democrats would have to win all of those left, Campbell, on the board, Campbell, which at the moment appears unlikely. And watching them as they come in.
And then there is that one other question, what happens to Joe Lieberman? He is here. He is an independent who caucuses with the Democrats. Many Democrats would like to kick him out of the caucus because of his open support for John McCain but more importantly...
BROWN: He hasn't really been caucusing with them lately either, Lieberman.
KING: He has not been -- he has not been caucusing with them lately. He has not been caucusing with them, hasn't been back in the Senate for some time.
But he -- not only did he campaign for his friend, John McCain. Most Democrats understood that. But he was very harsh at the convention and in some of his public speeches about Barack Obama, who is now the president-elect of the United States.
If the Democrats get to 59 and Joe Lieberman would be 60, then again, we're waiting for Minnesota, Oregon, Georgia and I hypothetically called Alaska, but that's not really done and putting that back there.
And if they can get to 60 including Joe Lieberman, there will be a lot of pressure to keep him there. But Dana Bash reporting a little bit earlier that Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, had a meeting with him later in the week and they will see what to do with that situation.
A lot of pressure on Harry Reid to at least strip him of his chairmanship that he has. And many would like to kick him out of the caucus. So that's what we see. Democrats will have at least 56 and potentially 57, 58. Sixty looks like a dream.
And quickly, Campbell, I just want to bring up the House numbers so we can switch the screens here and show you the House. And this is where we were at the beginning of the night, 236 to 199. A lot of counting to go on here in the House races. We do know they will pick up the Democrats for a minimum of 16 seats. So Nancy Pelosi, the speaker, will have a biggest Democratic majority of at least 252 Democrats. We expect that number to actually go a bit higher, perhaps substantially higher. But we know that, as we go through the 435 House races across the country, the Democrats will pick up at least 16. Some Campbell, think that number will grow in excess of 25 or even higher. We'll count those votes as we go on through the night.
BROWN: A lot of wind at Barack Obama's back as they actually try to get down to the business of governing based on the numbers we're looking at right now.
KING: It is a blessing to have more Democrats to put your agenda through. It also could be a little pressure. The expectations on Barack Obama. One of the big tests, the first tests will be will he stand up to his own party if they try to push things that perhaps the middle of the country or the more conservative Democrats and the Republicans he promises to reach out to.
That will be one of the fascinating dynamics. We'll watch it play out for 70 days, a little more than that, until he's actually the president and then, of course, once he is.
BROWN: First 100 days. All right, John King for us. And let's turn to Wolf -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Thanks very much.
Alaska, by the way, Campbell, Alaska has now closed the polls. That means that polls all over the United States are now closed. It's just after 1 a.m. here on the East Coast, and Alaska is now official. That state is closed.
We're watching, by the way, as John mentioned, an important Senate race there. The incumbent, Ted Stevens, has been convicted on those felony counts, facing a very tough challenge from a popular mayor of Anchorage, Mark Begich. We'll update you on that race, because that could affect, obviously, the balance of power. Ted Stevens, longest serving Republican in the United States Senate.
Look at these pictures from Pennsylvania Avenue just outside the White House. These are live pictures you're seeing right now. They're coming in. Folks have gathered in the District of Columbia right outside the White House to express their joy at Barack Obama's election tonight. And they're making that very, very clear.
It's just after 1 a.m. on the East Coast. And lots of people have gathered at the White House to celebrate, to celebrate the election of Barack Obama.
We'll take a quick break. We'll continue our coverage right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: And welcome back to our continuing coverage. Got a lot to talk about. We're joined by some new panel guests. First, though, let's start with Alex Castellanos.
You were listening closely to Barack Obama's speech before. And as we were talking about this transitional power, a particular line stood out to you.
CASTELLANOS: Marvelous line, something you never hear an American politician say. He said, "I need your help" to the voters. Wow. That's tremendous.
He said his campaign started with a simple idea: change begins from the bottom up. That's not the way the U.S. government works. The seminal essay in wonk speak here, computer or software architecture, is called "The Cathedral and the Bazaar." And the cathedral is the old way of doing things. It's the way Microsoft builds software. "Hey, We're going to do it our way, worship in our church or you don't get to do it at all."
But the open source movement in computer engineering is people get together from all over the world and build computer software bottom up.
Is Barack Obama going to be the old top-down, industrial age cathedral leader, or is he going to be the fellow we heard tonight? This new generation of leadership that is very bottom up? For the communications age.
I think there's -- it's a -- there's a very -- the only thing that hasn't changed in Washington about a hundred years is the U.S. government. Will we see a big generational change, as well? And I think we could.
COOPER: Hilary, you've been watching some of these ballot initiatives. In California, we've been watching Prop 8. We don't have results yet for that. But you've been watching some of the other ones.
ROSEN: Well, particularly for gays and lesbians, it hasn't been such a great night so far. We -- there was a ballot measure in Florida to prevent same-sex marriage. It looks like that passed. There was a ban on gay adoption passed in Arkansas and another ban on same-sex marriage in Arizona. So the sort of message of unity and power that Barack Obama has been spreading hasn't so far ascribed to...
COOPER: Well, he actually mentioned gay people in his speech tonight, not something you actually hear from a presidential candidate, often talking to a wide audience.
ROSEN: Well, it's part of his inclusive America speech, and I think it's really -- he lives that. And I expect his administration to be that.
People I'm hearing from California are still holding out hope that some of those unreported counties are still going to defeat the prop. COOPER: Actually, a vote board from Prop 8 on the board. Right now, 53 percent voting yes on Prop 8, 47 percent no on Prop 8. That's only 26 percent of the vote in. And not sure exactly where that vote has come from. It might make a big difference where the vote from California is coming from, but that's something we're going to be watching.
ROSEN: San Francisco, Silicone Valley. Those are low reporting so far.
COOPER: All right. We'll be watching those numbers, see if they change.
Leslie Sanchez, your thoughts on this evening?
SANCHEZ: I will -- a lot of it's already been said. I think it's just the role of government. We know Republicans won seven of the last ten presidential elections. But 30 years before that, Democrats won seven of the last nine. This is really -- is it the start of a new kind of different role of government era?
Very much so I think he's the right candidate at the right time. But also, remember it took 20 years of kind of pro-government ideas before you saw a Ronald Reagan come back, in terms of what does it mean for the Republican Party that we're saying enough of the government. Now government's the problem.
I don't know if it's going to take 20 years to get to that point, but it's definitely a different time in looking at how government is going to work and support its people.
COOPER: Carl?
BERNSTEIN: I think it's a transformational moment that he intends to unite the country. He knows he has an opportunity to do so.
I'm very moved and struck by the choice of where his speech was. Grant Park, which was the scene of the great battlefield in 1968 of the Democratic Party, that people were beaten. It marked the end of any kind of unity in Democratic Party.
And now, he has gone -- picked that place to bring things together in the country. And his message was, you know, this election in both parties was a message to both candidates from people from the bottom up saying, "Fix it." And I think he understands that.
And now he's got to fix more than he intended to or bargained for because of the economic situation. But the opportunity to unite the country, he has a shot at it. He knows he does if you talk to his people. And he's going to try to do it.
ROSEN: And we're going to -- we're going to see some more from the peoples' House, the more we learn about these congressional races as the night goes on. The Democrats took seats in North Carolina and Colorado and Ohio, in Nevada and some places where Democrats haven't succeeded before. And so you're really going to see Barack Obama having now expanded that map across the country with that ground-up support, using that. And some of them are more conservative Democrats.
SANCHEZ: Exactly.
HILARY: So that is going to be -- you know, this isn't sort of a liberal takeover of the Congress. This is really going to be sort of a unity -- needing to be a unity effort here.
SANCHEZ: But 2006 saw that. I mean, you saw the rise of conservative Democrats, you know, that was part of the defeat of Republicans. But also on top of that is this -- is this kind of transformation of who's going to have power, more so in the Senate. I think the House is powerless.
ROSEN: It turns the states purple. It turns these states that have historically had a majority of Republican congressional members into a much more diverse community. And I think that's part and parcel of the government.
SANCHEZ: One thing I think we're going to see...
CASTELLANOS: One argument -- one argument is...
SANCHEZ: ... I think, ultimately, are ticket splitters. I mean, we haven't talked about that very much. But you're talking about these ballot initiatives. You're talking about states like Indiana. You know, where you're really seeing a split between who they chose for their state leadership versus their presidential leadership that we haven't seen ticket splitters in this kind of movement for more than 20 years.
CASTELLANOS: One argument you could make, what does it take to elect a Democratic president? Well, one is it takes a hugely unpopular Republican president and an unpopular Republican Party and an unpopular war, and an economic melt-down.
But that's not enough. You also need a Democratic -- an inspirational Democratic candidate who says he's going to cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans, which used to be what Republicans said, and said he's going to -- he likes General Petraeus and Gates. He might open the door to oil drilling. In other words it takes a Democrat who moves towards the middle, too.
BERNSTEIN: He understood the country at its moment better than anyone imagined. He really understood the moment when nobody else gave him the chance. But he understood, decided he would go for it at a time when Hillary Clinton was going to be the nominee of the party. A black man, he was going to take on this establishment, and he had the confidence that he could get there.
COOPER: He understood the country and also how to win this race. BORGER: And that's why he'll understand how to govern, because he understands the psyche of the country. He knows where the country is, whether it's in the center or it's center right. And he's going to have enough power to say to Democrats...
COOPER: Devil's advocate, though...
BORGER: Yes?
COOPER: ... it's very easy on a night like this for his supporters to be caught up in this euphoria.
BORGER: Sure.
COOPER: ... and caught up in this other stuff. But Washington is a completely, you know, different animal. Washington is a different place with its own rules and its own universe. Is -- are the supporters being sort of, you know, pie-eyed with the thinking that change is going to come?
BORGER: People owe him, Anderson. He has power. He brought -- he swept...
COOPER: Mitch McConnell doesn't owe him.
BORGER: No, Mitch McConnell doesn't owe him. And he understands that on the budget, for example. He's never going to get a Republican vote.
But Republicans understand right now that the country, the country -- he's got a majority of the popular vote -- the country wants him to succeed. And if they stand in his way, the country hated the bipartisan -- partisanship and all the rest. And if they stand in the way of that, then they could get blamed for it.
COOPER: But I mean...
HOLMES: If I can jump in. But you do have a point which is that the House rules is the majority rules there. And in the Senate, if the Democrats have picked up all of these seats, they only need to get a couple of squishy Republicans to be filibuster proof and then put that pressure on Barack Obama.
You know, tonight for me, I look at those 47 percent of American voters who, even in this economic climate, voted for John McCain. And that's a bittersweet moment for them. And I appreciate when Barack Obama said tonight, to those Republicans, to conservatives, independents who voted for him, "I hear you. I need your help."
We will see if that turns out to be the case. We saw in 2006 that Nancy Pelosi, she promised this new era of bipartisanship, and it didn't happen.
MARTIN: This is -- this is where the "we, us, our" comes in. When you look at the rallies, when you look at the people who have gotten behind him, he is moving people to action. When he calls for the American people to participate in this process, what he's saying is, "Look. Don't just sit here and say it's Washington, D.C., like they're a separate entity. You are a part of this."
COOPER: If you're an Obama supporter, there's 47 percent of the country right now who heard that message and say, "You know what? I don't buy it."
MARTIN: Fine. You know what? Look, look.
HOLMES: They're looking at his record. They're looking at that he was ranked the most liberal senator by "National Journal," which is not a partisan publication. And so they're hanging on that hope that he hears them and he's there to help.
COOPER: There's questions about that ranking.
MARTIN: But again, it's how do you challenge the people to participate in this? The problem we've always had is people complain about Washington, but they're the same people who send those folks to Washington.
If he is able to touch the people where they are and say, "Come with me on this journey," they're going to move those members of Congress to also make changes.
BORGER: Can I just say the Republican Party will be having an identity crisis starting now? They have to figure out where they are, who they are, what they support, what they don't support. And what Barack Obama has to do during this transition time is set the tone.
MARTIN: That's right.
BORGER: Very important to set the tone. If he reaches out to Republicans in his cabinet, if he decides to keep Bob Gates at defense, that's really, really important.
And what are his issues? Energy is an area where Democrats and Republicans can agree. So maybe he'll do that off the bat.
COOPER: David, I mean, you've worked for a Republican president and you've worked for Democratic presidents. Real change, how do you actually get change in Washington?
GERGEN: It's very tough, and this Washington has been paralyzed to the point of dysfunctionality for a long time. We all know that.
I do think one of his great assets is that this -- let's call it an army, these millions of people, especially young people, whom he is going to be able to mobilize through the Internet and put pressure on.
There's no Democrat in the past who's had that kind of grassroots posse (ph) that he has had.
But I do not think we should underestimate or, to use a George W. Bush word, misunderestimate just how -- just how tough this is going to be.
HOLMES: And also...
GERGEN: Because I want to say, while we watch these returns coming in tonight, this one surprise that seems to be coming in is I think a lot of us felt, if Obama had a big victory, as he's having right now -- 5-point victory is massive --, that the Senate seats are not coming in quite the way we expected. And there's no indication that the House seats are coming in the way we expected for the Democrats.
We talked about 25 seats. So far, the number of races are still outstanding. But so far, we're talking 10, 12. So from that perspective, that suggests, to go back to Amy's point, that there is -- there's a significant portion of the population that's not there yet that he is going to have to bring with him.
And to get big things done in the United States' Senate, you don't need -- you have to do more than 51 votes. You have to do more than 55. You have to get into the 65 area to rally get big, big things done. And I think -- I think this is a tall mountain to climb. I think he's -- he's one of the few people we've ever seen who has the capacity to do it, has the potential to do it.
COOPER: By both personality and by mandate?
GERGEN: He's got a mandate. I think he has a better strategic sense than almost anybody we've seen in this office in a long time. He's emotionally a very healthy person and he's not a needy politician. And that's going to make a big, big difference.
And he's one of the most disciplined people we've ever seen. I think he is going to be so disciplined during this transition. In fact, I worry that he's not going to get enough rest.
HOLMES: And one indication that he's already disciplining Democrats and sort of a sliver of hope for those who didn't vote for Barack Obama tonight, was that earlier today Harry Reid said at a rally in D.C. that this is not a mandate for ideology, and it's not a mandate for party. I think that's echoing this idea that Obama's trying to get across tonight, at least, which is that he is going to reach out in a bipartisan way.
But he will be getting pressure from his policies.
O'BRIEN: And if you even look at the exit polls, what you see the biggest obstacle for John McCain was George Bush, George Bush. I mean, that's really -- a lot of people who are voting against John McCain, voting for Barack Obama, really were voting because of President Bush was the issue. And so it's not enough to have the army of supporters who are engaged and interested. You've got this other issue, as well.
COOPER: We're going to have a lot more ahead. Our coverage continues a couple more hours. Hey, how about that? Get some popcorn. We're still here. CNN.com is the Web site. Check it out. We'll be right back. Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: They're celebrating in Berkeley, California, right now. There you seeing some live pictures courtesy of our affiliate, KGO. Berkeley is a very Democratic area but they're excited. They're thrilled.
These scenes, they're going on all over the country right now. That's because Barack Obama has been elected president of the United States.
We want to welcome you back to our continuing coverage. I'm Wolf Blitzer here at the CNN election center, together with the best political team on television.
Want to update you on some important Senate races. We have not yet projected winners in these Senate contests, but we'll update you on what we know.
In Georgia right now, the incumbent, Saxby Chambliss, facing a tough challenge from Jim Martin, the Democrat. Right now, with 97 percent -- 97 percent of the vote in, Chambliss with 51 percent. Martin, 46 percent. You need in Georgia more than 50 percent in order to win. If it's under 50 percent, they have to have a run off election in December.
Right now, Chambliss is ahead. It's looking pretty good for him right now. We'll continue to watch Georgia. The Democrats were hoping for a pickup in that state. We don't know if that's going to happen.
In Minnesota right now, it's extremely close between the incumbent Republican, Norm Coleman, and the challenger, Al Franken, a former comedy writer and comedian. It's only 7,653 votes apart, 42 percent for each of these candidates. There's a third-party candidate, Dean Barkley, an independent candidate running on the Independence Party. He's getting some votes, as well. We're watching this race very closely. It doesn't get much closer than that.
In the state of Oregon right now, the challenger, Jeff Merkley, slightly ahead of Gordon Smith, the longtime Republican incumbent in Oregon, 48 percent to 47 percent. But only about 9,000 votes separate them. Only 42 percent of the vote in Oregon has been counted.
Remember, these are paper ballots -- these are, excuse me, mailed ballots in Oregon. They do their elections, their voting, via mail. And they've got to count a lot of ballots right now. We'll see what happens. We might not know for a while who's going to be the senator from Oregon.
And in Alaska, they just closed the polls a few minutes ago at the top of the hour. The long-time incumbent, Ted Stevens, facing a very strong challenge from the Anchorage mayor, Mark Begich. None of the votes have been tallied yet in Alaska.
We're watching all of this very closely.
Let me go back to Minnesota because we've included the third- party candidate Dean Barkley. He's actually a former United States senator. He was named to succeed Paul Wellstone. Jesse Ventura, the former wrestler, he was then governor of Minnesota, named Dean Barkley to the U.S. Senate for a couple of months. He's getting about 15 percent of the vote.
I don't know enough about Minnesota politics to know if he's taking votes, potentially, away from Norm Coleman, the incumbent Republican, or Al Franken, the challenger, but he's got 15 percent there. So he's doing relatively well for a third-party candidate. It's going to be very, very close. You see the numbers changing right now. Coleman ahead by about 10,000 with 82 percent of the precincts in. We're watching this race very, very closely. As of right now, it looks like the democrats have increased their majority in the senate by at least five seats from 51 to 56. Doesn't look -- doesn't look like they're going to get that magic number of 60, which is the filibuster-proof majority in the senate but we'll watch it together with you. You want to see more about all of this, go to cnn.com. We have all the numbers coming in right there. We'll take another quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back. Our coverage continues. Going to be showing you some crowd shots from around the country that we're still getting and there are a lot of parties going on all night. I think Roland Martin an Obama supporter is still trying to make plans for -- do you have a party set for where you are going to go?
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, yeah.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Would you like me to tell you?
MARTIN: They have actually --
O'BRIEN: We might have access to this information.
COOPER: I see you working your phone. Normally I would assume --
MARTIN: Since they extended the -- we are here to 3:00 a.m. so car's waiting but that's fine. I'll be there eventually.
HILARY ROSEN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Poor thing with the car waiting outside.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Oh yeah.
COOPER: What are you still looking for tonight, though, David Gergen. MARTIN: A party. No. Just kidding.
GERGEN: I'm still looking for -- we have up on the board here that Ted Stevens is running slightly ahead in Alaska.
MARTIN: Amazing.
GERGEN: I think there are some more results. We haven't called North Carolina, we haven't called Indiana. With almost all the votes counted, Barack Obama has a slight lead in North Carolina, he has a slight lead in Indiana. He's slightly behind in Missouri. You know a few more pieces of the puzzle to fall in place.
COOPER: We should point out, I mean Ted Stevens, 49 percent to 46 percent against democratic challenger with 37 percent of precincts reporting, I mean it is a small lead. Only some 4,360 voters. Ted Stevens has been convicted of crimes.
ROSEN: Oh big deal.
MARTIN: He's the godfather of Alaska. Everybody still owes him.
ROSEN: And Mitch McConnell, who won his reelection and who's the leader of the republicans, when asked about Ted Stevens' fate, if he were to be re-elect said, he is not going to get seated in the United States senate. He said there is a 100 percent chance that he will not get seated.
GERGEN: I'm telling you that's a possibility for Sarah Palin, possibility.
COOPER: What are you saying? Sarah Palin would take the seat.
GERGEN: Stevens could resign if he is elected. He said he would do the right thing. He actually has --
ROSEN: And then Palin --
COOPER: Sarah Palin --
ROSEN: Appoint herself?
MARTIN: She is the governor.
GERGEN: She is the governor.
ROSEN: I don't think the governor --
GERGEN: What if he said I would like to have -- listen, I do think it's in fairness to Ted Stevens if he talked to the lawyers involved, he has a case on appeal that is pretty strong. And he may get beyond this. You can't tell. He has an amazing shelf life and is -- I think the point is right, well taken. He is very well respected in Alaska. So but when you say what are you looking for? There's a few more pieces of the puzzle still to fall into place. : I think we are still looking at California and the marriage amendment there. Hilary mentioned earlier in Arizona and Florida that the marriage amendments aren't succeeding so far as we see the polling data. But California it was a lot tougher and a lot closer so --
COOPER: The amount of money that was spent in California on -- for and against proposition 8, you have tens of millions of dollars, I think some $25 million at the very least coming out of the state --
: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger he opposed the marriage amendment in California so that culturally of California sort of a bellwether, for how the rest of the nation may be going in 20 years, you know we'll see.
COOPER: A lot of money coming in from Utah, from the Mormon church actually into California in support of proposition 8.
ROSEN: One of the reasons why this is a unique take on the same- sex marriage issue is because the supreme court of the state actually said that under the state's constitution gays and lesbians are protected -- entitled to equal protection and that included the right to marry. So this is actually the first time if it passed which hopefully it won't that somebody's rights would actually be taken away after there were thousands and thousands of marriages already in this state.
COOPER: So what happens to the marriages of all those people?
ROSEN: Well the constitutional experts in the state say that those marriages would be legal. You can't retroactively take somebody's rights away, you can only do it prospectively. So some gay people in California would stay married and others wouldn't be able to be.
GERGEN: Barack Obama's first appointment to the supreme court would ultimately, that's going to have a lot to do with this subject.
COOPER: We don't have the results yet of proposition 8. That's one of the ballot initiatives that we're still watching very closely. It's pretty close at this point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And in Minnesota, I'm just getting word that Norm Coleman just went up a thousand votes ahead of Al Franken with a little more than 85 percent in. This could be a close one and we might be looking at a recount.
CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: And there's a third party candidate.
COOPER: Right. Who's doing well with about 15 percent of the vote at this point.
BERNSTEIN: One thing that I'm interested in is while we're focused on the nuts and bolts of the new senate and the new house, we have to look at the enormous powers of the president. Look how George Bush without any kind of huge majority in congress has used those powers and gotten what he's wanted. And Obama is someone who understands the history of the presidency, its powers and intends to build a consensus. And that's his objective. Looking back to FDR. To build a national consensus of purposeful --
COOPER: You could argue that President Bush was able to get those powers because of 9/11 and the country's response to it and desire for giving the president what at the time the country felt was necessary.
BERNSTEIN: Exactly, and we are now in an economic situation, much like Roosevelt faced which is a threat to the national security that enables a president to build a consensus around what needs to be done for the country. And bring together the various factions in Washington and in the country and that's what Obama was talking about tonight.
: I don't think there is no talk of relinquishing that power. I mean that's not part of the conversation.
BERNSTEIN: Well what's to relinquish?
LESLIE SANCHEZ, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well I kind of wanted to go to the bigger point is the republicans have an interesting challenge here in terms of what is the strategy going to be moving forward? Do they want to take this obstructionist approach or do they want to take the compromise approach? Talking to many republican leaders, they're saying we need we need to do whatever we can to pull Barack Obama and his positions to the center as opposed to pushing him so he's aligning with the many of the folks on the left.
ROSEN: Too much is made really of this number 60 in the senate. Filibusters are not based on party. They're mostly based on issues and so, when you look at some of the issues that have faced filibusters in the senate in the last year, stem cell research only lost by four votes in the senate. Well, there's already seven new democratic senators. When you look at the stimulus package, it only lost by three votes at the senate. When you look at the energy bill which was for alternative fuels, it only lost by one vote in the senate. So there are a lot of things you can get done and without threat of filibuster with six or seven new votes in the senate.
SANCHEZ: It's not only the number it's the composition of those members, it's how conservative they are on those issues, it's you know, which of these particular issues that they ran on. I mean that's historically what was the challenge back in the '60s and '70s and their efficacy it's whether or not they had five or six conservative senators who made it difficult.
ROSEN: Right. Because they're always going to be conservative democrats who are going to go against a particular issue and moderate republicans who are going to go for a particular issue.
COOPER: You were talking earlier about some of these ballot initiatives, we have some of them on the board I just want to show our viewers as you talk a little bit in California, proposition 8, right now we're looking at 53 percent voting yes on it, 47 percent saying no. But again, 32 percent of precincts reporting. In Florida, ban on gay marriage amendment number 2, yes 62 percent, no 38 percent with 98 percent though. We still have not been able to call that officially I believe. It's 60 percent threshold so we're still waiting on that. And Arizona, proposition 102, the ban on gay marriage, that we have called yes, 56 percent no, 44 percent, 91 percent of the precincts. And in Arkansas as you said, Hilary Rosen, ban on gay couples adopting children yes 57 percent to 43 percent.
ROSEN: A very big amendment ballot measure in South Dakota banning abortion was defeated which this was the second time that this was fought in South Dakota and the second time defeated. This was a major focus for pro-choice groups around the country.
COOPER: It's interesting, David Gergen, on this night where we see Barack Obama being elected president, we see other messages being sent through ballot initiatives and a different race perhaps in the senate and house than many observers anticipated.
GERGEN: Yes. And I think that's one of the questions we are going to have, Anderson, when this is all over. Coming into it there was a sense and James Carville has talked about this, Paul Begala has talked about this, that this would be a wave election, a realigning election as it's called. And with 2006 and 2008 together, we get this massive new democratic representation and it will be large. I think Hilary Rosen is right just to point out yes and told me when I said you know there are about 10 or 12 that they picked up so far in the house, there are actually 16 so far and counting. It is going to be large but one does not have the sense at this hour that it's going to be the massive wave that we thought. It is not a tidal wave of democrats. It is very personal to Barack Obama. And very personal to his victory. It did not bring a wave of other people in. And these other ballot initiatives and so forth didn't win.
ROSEN: But as James pointed out earlier, it's on top of 2006.
GERGEN: I agree with that.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: So you have a wave in a way.
GERGEN: But it underscores that this is a hard climb.
BORGER: Yeah.
GERGEN: That he doesn't have this huge tidal wave coming in with him. He has to keep building and I thought his speech tonight captured the sense we're a long way from the top. It's as if we have climbed up to one summit and when we got there we realized we're not at the top of the mountain, just behind it there's a new mountain we still have to climb.
MARTIN: Earlier you were talking about Alaska, a special election is required, the governor can't appoint. And so, that's how that's going to be resolved if Stevens resigns or if he leaves early. So she can't appoint anyone to it. One thing that we haven't really talked about -- it really comes I think tomorrow or Thursday, governor's mansions, state legislatures. In two years congressional districts are going to be realigned and so the question is going to be, will the democrats pick up, will they expand their lead in terms of governor's mansions. That's going to be real -- a really big deal. Of course, we all remember Tom Delay how they basically changed in Texas five whole seats, took them from democrats to the republican side. You know, and this is where Howard Dean strategy comes in how you're able to win state legislatures because that impacts when you begin to realign with the census just two years away. Not a national deal, but it has a national impact in terms of who gets reelected to congress.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think you know we're hearing this debate is this -- an ideological wave and I would argue, no and I would say that those ballot initiatives in California, Florida and Arizona would suggest that and puts Barack Obama in an interesting position in terms of his supreme court justice nominations and what kind of battle you might see in the senate there because he will just have had these election results in 2008 on that very, you know, hot issue. I think, also, if you look at the exit polling, 68 percent strongly or somewhat favor offshore drilling where it is not now allowed. So will Barack Obama go with that popular opinion or try to put together a left/right coalition? There are a number of things that are suggesting that the American public isn't as far to the left as members of his party who have pressure from members of his party but in terms of where we stand --
COOPER: In offshore drilling he says he supports, but it's not a long term solution.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- he hasn't said extensively wherever it's not now banned but looking at these issue by issue, I don't see this as a big ideological wave and Harry Reid himself said that it wasn't and this was a vote for hope.
COOPER: All right, go ahead, David.
GERGEN: It is a blow to conservatism.
MARTIN: Yes, indeed.
GERGEN: You have to --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That would be if you argue that John McCain was the greatest spokesperson for conservative principles and there are certainly a lot of conservative voters who say that.
And the white house --
MARTIN: you saw that --
BORGER: What about Sarah Palin.
MARTIN: 360. I'm sorry. Conservatives are in a very difficult position now and that is the more hardened they become, you have more people who do not self identify as a republican. You have the independents. They have a problem when it comes to moderates. So sure, it's not a huge shift in terms of, you know, center right to center left but the republicans must be concerned with how democrats are now operating in the last two elections.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But the frustration was that John McCain was not a very good articulator of conservative principles when it came to the biggest issue on the table, which was the economy and among -- in the exit polling among those people, 60 percent said Palin was a factor in their choice and 55 percent of them voted for John McCain. So I think we are going to be debating the Palin effect for many, many months to come.
COOPER: Well, let's debate that right after this commercial break. How about that? A lot more ahead. Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: These are live pictures from Seattle, Washington, where they're celebrating in the streets, as well. As I have been pointing out, celebrations going on in major cities and small towns all over the United States. They're celebrating the election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. We want to welcome back our viewers in the United States and around the world. Let's go right out to Candy Crowley, she's in Chicago. There was a huge crowd there just a little while ago, behind you, Candy. Most of those folks have now left, about 125,000, 150,000 that came to celebrate Barack Obama's win. Now what?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, now the work starts. I think you saw part of that tonight in this speech that Barack Obama gave. It was a somber speech at some level. It talked about the challenges that are ahead. It talked about how things were not going to happen easily nor quickly. I thought it was a very presidential speech and I think he spoke to not the joy of the moment although clearly there was some of that when he walked out. But this was a very forward-looking but realistic-looking speech and I think one of the things is that, of course, he's sold as part of his package, hope. I mean, a lot of people in these crowds, in any crowd you would go to says, I don't know, he gives me hope, he makes me believe again and he has to somehow control those hopes because people do believe that it's going to happen. He said, look, it might not even happen in my first term but I need you to help me. So I thought it was very much a presidential speech. And I thought he also spoke to some of the things that people are worried about and the war and that sort of thing and the economy. But it was mostly, I thought, just a look ahead and saying, listen. We need to, like, take a realistic look because as you know there's no bigger burden than great expectations and there are very great expectations for Barack Obama. And I think that's one of the things that really is going to be one of his biggest steps to reach and that is that people expect so much of him. Practically speaking, he is going to need a chief of staff. He is going to begin to put together a cabinet. There's a lot of work to be done. January is not that far away when he is inaugurated. There's a lot of work to be done but first you have to get the people to put it together, the transition office. We know John Podesto from the Clinton administration will be helping out. Some from his -- from Barack Obama's campaign will be helping out. So he's got to put together the structure pretty quickly. This won't be the cabinet level. He's got to get a staff around him that can do so much that needs to be done including, of course, a planning of inauguration.
BLITZER: Yeah he has about 75, 76 days until inauguration. I assume most of that time Candy he's going to spend right in Chicago, presumably in his own home with his wife and his kids. And there will be offices, he will have in Chicago, to get this process going.
CROWLEY: Yes. But I'm told that a lot of the transition work also will take place in Washington. There are a lot of people there who are old hands at this sort of thing so I think Barack Obama you will see go back and forth. The bulk of it for him at least in the near future is going to be here in Chicago but again, I was told by people when we were talking about this that they believe a lot of the work and the putting together will be done back in Washington because we really are talking about old Washington hands that Obama needs at this point to start putting together what he needs and to start sort of saying here is what you need and it's not just a matter of personnel. He also has to be walked through the structure of it, obviously.
BLITZER: All right Candy, stand by. We're going to be replaying Barack Obama's speech shortly. I want our viewers especially those who missed it to be able to have a chance to listen to it and watch it again. Dana Bash is in Phoenix right now where I thought Senator McCain delivered a very gracious moving statement, even in the face of some boos from some of his supporters when he mentioned Barack Obama's name or Joe Biden's name. He really rose to the occasion, and he did what he's supposed to do and he did it in a very, very generous manner. Dana?
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Any objective observer watching John McCain tonight would say that he was a class act and he gave quite a classy speech. Specifically, really, noting the moment. The moment that this country obviously is noting far and wide right now, electing the first African-American president but also noting his own service and tribute to country which we heard so many times at every single stop on the campaign trail but obviously this time through a very different prism. And he's also very emotional. I mean, he is somebody of the generation who doesn't really like to wear his emotions on his sleeve but it was hard not to see the kind of emotion that he was feeling here. With regard to what's next for John McCain, I can tell you that he is going to head to his cabin near Sedona, Arizona tomorrow. Unclear how long he's going to be there, unclear who if anybody from his campaign staff is going to go or whether it's just going to be family. But, you know, it's really interesting. Remember, Wolf, John McCain has been through a presidential race before. He hasn't gotten this far but he has been through a race before and returned to the senate and worked pretty hard to get some things done, some pretty big pieces of legislation done. If you listen to what he said here, promising to work with Barack Obama and promising to go back to Washington and work, that is very likely what he is going to do because he does still have that day job and that is in the United States senate. One more thing I want to point out which is really interesting. Probably within the past hour, as John McCain is back at his home, he's with his family, probably to bed already, Sarah Palin was here still on the lawn with some of her friends and supporters, again, not too long ago and at a certain point we heard people chanting Sarah. I think that was perhaps illustrative of what she may hold in her future or what at least some people around her might want her to hold on the national level in her future. Wolf?
BLITZER: There's no indication she's simply going to go back to Alaska. She's generated a lot of support among that conservative base in the Republican Party and she is going to be a player, I'm sure. No doubt about that. All right Dana, thanks very much. Dana is at the beautiful Arizona Biltmore hotel where John McCain spoke just a little while ago. Senator Obama spoke at Grant Park in Chicago. The president-elect delivering a rather moving and significant speech. If you missed it, here's your chance to see it right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT-ELECT: Hello, Chicago. If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches, in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.
It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, democrat and republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states. We are and always will be the United States of America. It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we could achieve, to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more towards the hope of a better day. It has been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America!
