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Campbell Brown
Chicago Celebrates Obama Win; What's Next for President-Elect?; Obama Victory Converts Red States to Blue
Aired November 05, 2008 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROWN: Welcome back, everybody. Hello, and in so many ways, it is quite an extraordinary day. Welcome to our special post election coverage, "Transition to Power." I'm Campbell Brown.
BLITZER: And I'm Wolf Blitzer at the CNN election center here in New York.
And at this hour, Wolf, there are a lot of key races, a few critical races here and ballot results that have been too close to call. We're going to have the very latest details on those.
There are questions about what an Obama administration will look like, its priorities, questions of balance of power on Capitol Hill. We're also going to look at what led up to these incredible scenes. Check it out. Just -- from just a few hours ago. And we'll focus on a question lurking somewhere in the minds of each of these revelers, not to mention the president-elect. So now what?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term, but America I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: We're going to have a lot more ahead here when we get started. We're going to talk to our political panel, but first we want to do a little bit of no bull. Campaigning is one thing; actually running the country is something else entirely. And we are making a pledge to you now to hold this new administration accountable.
At the top of the list, we want to walk through some of the promises that Barack Obama made. And at the top of the list, middle- class tax cuts funded in part by allowing the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy to expire. Obama also was an early advocate of a second economic stimulus package. He hasn't been the first presidential candidate or president to call for energy independence. Obama wants an all inclusive approach from wind and solar to so-called clean coal and limited offshore drilling.
His signature foreign policy issue is what he calls a responsible ending of the war in Iraq, coupled with a major new focus on Afghanistan. And of course, in the debates you'll remember Obama called health care an American right, and he proposes a near universal employer-based system of coverage.
The list goes on and will end with what may, of course, be the hardest promise of all to pull off: ending what the president-elect described last night as the partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.
Again, our pledge to you here at CNN is to track those promises and pledges made by President-elect Obama and to hold him accountable. We will let you know what happens.
And Chicago has seen, made, and changed political history like few other cities in the world. But what the world witnessed there on election night last night and what is happening today in private is history in all caps.
CNN's Candy Crowley was there for the big night. And she is there for the day after. And joining us once again with the very latest.
And Candy, walk us through last night. Kind of what the mood is today, the aftermath, after the party. I'm sure people there still feeling very good, very excited.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They absolutely do. And I think you saw last night, in the speech that Obama gave, certainly both ends of what they are dealing with today. And that is there is the elation of what happened after 22 months of this effort. And it was a nonstop effort, as you know, that went into election day.
But then there is the history of the moment, which certainly Barack Obama recognized, but there is also the reality of today. This is a man who has listed as his priorities, not just his tax cuts, but a change in energy policy, which will also be costly and health care.
The reality is he is looking at, A, a huge deficit. And B, what you find with presidents is when they get in the Oval Office, the power that they sought is not quite as big as the power that they get, because you have Congress. And he's going to need to deal with Congress. It is one of the reasons that sources say he does want Rahm Emmanuel, a congressman from Illinois, a friend, a man who understands the legislative process, to be his chief of staff, to kind of get on the ground running someone who can work through, as one aide said to me, the puzzle palace of Congress.
So he needs to deal with the Congress and, while it is dominated by Democrats, not all Democrats are equal or the same. You have Southern Democrats, far more (AUDIO GAP), East Democrats. So he's going to have to work around this. He didn't get the 60 -- magic 60 number that he needed in the U.S. Senate to stop Republicans from filibustering, which remains their one power that they have, is they can stop bills in their tracks with a filibuster.
So there are so many things that they are looking at and not just what really are historic challenges. Two wars are going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. This economic problem that the country continues to have. And then he's dealing with these enormous, great expectations, which you saw in the faces of those crowds from Chicago to New York to Washington, D.C. And on the international, in London and Paris and Africa, all of these sort of international hopes mixed up with domestic hopes.
And I thought last night he tried to tamp that down. Using that sort of Martin Luther King echo of language, saying we're going to get there; it won't be easy, but we're going to get there.
So I think now the realities of governance have set in. They've been working on transition, actually, for a while. They had a head of transition in place. Some of it will be done in Washington. Barack Obama, I am told, will remain here for the most part, probably make the big announcements, which I'm assuming is secretary of state, secretary of defense, his cabinet. But a lot of things will go on in Washington. They have a big office there. And they have already begun working, Campbell.
BROWN: Of course, they have. Candy Crowley, no time to waste. Appreciate it, Candy. We'll be talking with you again a little bit later -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Campbell, thanks very much.
It's really been an amazing political season when you think about what's happened over the past two years and what happened yesterday across the political map.
Let's walk over to John King, because he's at the magic map right now, the magic wall, looking at these blue states. They were red states; now they're blue states. It is pretty remarkable what Senator Obama and Senator Joe Biden did.
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, one year ago today, Senator Clinton on the Democratic side and Mitt Romney on the Republican side were considered the front runners. Today the United States has its first African-American president elect, and he did it in sweeping fashion: 53 percent of the vote, something Bill Clinton never had, a majority for a Democrat. That hasn't happened since Jimmy Carter just barely cracked 50 back in 1976.
A very sweeping national victory and also a sweeping victory if you take a look at it from the Electoral College perspective. We have called this one for Obama. Two still left: North Carolina and Missouri, we haven't called yet. But he's at 349, could go a little bit higher, Wolf. Of course, 270 it takes to win.
And again, Barack Obama said he would stretch the map. These were Bush states four years ago, won Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico. These were Bush states four years ago, Ohio and Indiana. Virginia was a Bush state four years ago; Florida was a Bush state four years ago. So Barack Obama did what he promised to do and that is remake the map for the Democrats.
And within that remade map, there are reasons for the Democrats to think we can build on this for some time to come. Out in the Mountain West, in Colorado, in Nevada, in New Mexico by more than 2 to 1, he beat John McCain among Latino voters, the fastest growing segment of the American population.
And Wolf, across the country, he won in the suburbs. About 40 to 45 percent of the Americans live in the suburbs. Look at this, around Philadelphia, significant. I'm going to use green. You can see it a little better. The last time -- excuse me for stepping across.
The last time a Republican carried Pennsylvania was back in 1988. Look at George H.W. Bush. He won in the Philadelphia suburbs. In the 20 years since that election -- watch as you go through this -- Bill Clinton carried those suburbs. George W. Bush couldn't win those suburbs. Barack Obama, a sweep of the suburbs. Bush carried one county of those.
So as Obama builds this coalition, there are reasons for the Democrats to be optimistic. Some downside. We'll discuss that a little bit later. But if you're looking at this, this morning and you're a Republican, you're thinking we are not a viable national party at the moment.
BLITZER: And these two states that have not yet been decided, North Carolina and Missouri, right? Are those the two undecideds?
KING: North Carolina and Missouri.
BLITZER: How close are the numbers in those two states?
KING: Let's take a peek. This one is -- shows up red on our map because this is the live data feeding in. And this is about as close as you can get. That's 6,000 votes, if my math is pretty good, 50 percent to 49 percent. They're still counting some votes out there. It's 100 percent in, but they're checking. Because it's so close...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: So that one's still in play. And North Carolina right now, you see this one's colored blue because it is Barack Obama with a very slight lead. Again, just 11,000 votes there, roughly, my quick math in my head.
This is impressive, if you look at it, a Democrat putting North Carolina in play, especially when you go to the north. Democrat won Virginia, potentially going to win North Carolina. This is something very troubling to the Republican Party, because it's the south that is the electoral base of the Republican Party.
The Democrats are chipping in, Virginia and North Carolina, and, of course, Florida, a key swing state. Barack Obama with an impressive victory there, as well, Wolf.
BLITZER: If he gets -- Virginia he did get, but if he gets North Carolina, that would be huge, indeed.
All right. Let's talk about the balance of power in Congress right now, because the Democrats have dramatically expanded their majority, but they're not where they necessarily had dreamt of being.
KING: They're not as far as they thought. This is where we were going into the night last night, 236 to 199 on the House side. That's Speaker Nancy Pelosi's majority. Fifty-one to 49 on the Senate side. That's Majority Leader Reid's majority.
And let's flip over. You'll see the Senate numbers change. The House ones we do differently. The Democrats will have at least 56. There are four races we have yet to call, four Senate races, all Republican incumbents. They're too close to call right now. If you switch them, you could get to 56 or 57. But right now 56. Maybe they'll get a little bit higher, Wolf.
And over here, we think they'll get up here into the 250s somewhere. And this is looking remarkably like 1993. When Bill Clinton came to power in January 1993, he had 57 members of the United States Senate, and I believe the number's 256 in the House of Representatives, strikingly similar, still 11 -- I think 11 or 12 House races to figure out, but the Democrats will be in the 250 range, in the House, 56 maybe, 57 or 58 in the Senate. Remarkably similar to what happened to Bill Clinton 16 years ago.
BLITZER: And Obama and his people are going to desperately try to avoid what happened to Bill Clinton in 1993 and '94, because they lost the House and the Senate in '94, as a lot of -- a lot of us who covered that era remember.
KING: The pendulum swung very quickly two years later.
BLITZER: They've got lessons to learn if they're going to avoid those mistakes.
Campbell, it's quite fascinating to think what has happened over the past 24 hours.
BROWN: It certainly is, Wolf.
So much still to talk about. We will be for the next couple of hours. The election is over, but you can still vote. Are you worried about Democrats controlling all three branches of government? That's our question of the hour. Tell us what you think. With our quick vote call 1-866-979-VOTE, or text "yes" or "no" to 94553.
And what about the Republicans? What is next for them? And will Sarah Palin be the future face of the GOP? We're going to see what our panel thinks about that when we come back.
And inside the ballots, breaking down the votes. We've also got the very latest on the exit polls. That's coming up, as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: It feels like hope won. It feels like it's not just victory for, obviously, Barack Obama. It feels like America did the right thing. It feels like there's a shift in consciousness. It feels like something really big and bold has happened here. Like nothing ever in our lifetimes did we expect this to happen. Something big just happened. It feels like -- it feels like anything is now possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: That was, of course, the one and only Oprah Winfrey reacting to Barack Obama's win last night.
Obama didn't just win last night. He won big, redrawing the political map, capturing states Democrats hadn't won in quite some time. We are already feeling the aftershocks of what was a political earthquake.
And we want to talk about that right now with our unparalleled team of political pros. With me today, Mark Halperin, we introduced before, "TIME" magazine editor-at-large; CNN political analyst Roland Martin, who supported Obama's campaign; CNN contributor Hilary Rosen and Democratic strategist who advised Hillary Clinton's campaign; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; and CNN contributor Ed Rollins. Yes, everybody has to wave when I introduce you now. Also a Republican strategist.
HILARY ROSEN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: What's the Hillary Clinton thing?
BROWN: Mark, we -- we've been talking about how Obama was able to expand the map in a way the Democrats haven't been able to, beyond the traditional red/blue make-up. I mean, John King was over at the map a minute ago and looking at Virginia, possibly North Carolina, Indiana. How did he do it? What happened in these places?
MARK HALPERIN, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Well, some of it was tactical. He had more money to spend, and he very effectively used all of the modern techniques people who are in politics use to reach voters: phone calls, mail, door to door canvassing, real emphasis on human interaction, more offices than anyone has ever had. More staff, probably more volunteers. All of that was part of it.
But it was also a message. You know, if you look at some of those states and some of the blue states that went very strong for Obama, things changed in the middle of September. When the economy became the main story, the bottom fell out, and social issues that Tony would like to talk about, foreign issues that John McCain would like to talk about, national security, all of that gave way to the economy. And if you look at those states, they match up with the national picture. People cared more about the economy than anything else, and those who cared about the economy preferred Barack Obama.
BROWN: Tony, you're just joining the panel now. Let me get your broader take on a lot of this, because you were not enthused about John McCain from pretty much the beginning.
TONY PERKINS, PRESIDENT, FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL: Why do you say that? BROWN: You made it abundantly clear. Did you -- did you ever -- I mean, what did it come down to for you? Did your feelings ever change as the campaign progressed?
PERKINS: I think I was reflective of many social conservatives that voted against an agenda that they thought was going to be harmful to the nation. They didn't -- they weren't enthusiastic for John McCain until he made a selection of Sarah Palin. That's when you actually saw social conservatives getting behind his candidacy.
But still, the exit polling shows that that was not enough. The social conservatives did not show up like they did in 2004. And it's right, the issue of the economy was the prevailing factor. And John McCain was doing well until, you know, New York had its -- Wall Street imploded. And then we immediately saw Barack Obama take a lead that he maintained throughout the rest of the campaign.
BROWN: But you did mention Sarah Palin, and the exit polls also show us that, for a lot of independents in particular, that was a reason to vote against John McCain for them.
PERKINS: Maybe so, but without -- without a base, and I think what John McCain tried to do is reach over the base to the independents. He never had a conversation with the base of the Republican Party about the issues that they cared most about: the fiscal issues, the social issues.
And he tried to send messages. In particular, to social conservatives the message he sent by not tinkering with the party platform, sent a message by the selection of Sarah Palin. Strong messages, but he never had that conversation. And I think that's what ultimately hurt him.
He did not see the base, which really influences the independent voters. I mean, there's a lot of those folks that don't make up their mind until the end. And it's true. I mean, those that -- the independent voters go both left and right. They lean both directions and they're influenced by other people they know, whether it's down at the barber shop or the laundry. Whatever. They're influenced by energized core voters. That's how Barack Obama attracted so many of the independents. He enthused his base, and he did a good job of it.
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Campbell -- Campbell...
BROWN: Yes.
MARTIN: ... the social conservatives or that portion of the Republican Party forced John McCain to stop being John McCain. John McCain had to spend a significant amount of time trying to reach out, reassert -- not reestablish, assert that he is pro-life, convince them in that way.
No, but what was appealing about John McCain when he won the nomination? Everybody kept saying John McCain is going to directly target those independents. But you get all of this talk, even from the folks with the blogs and the radio: he's not conservative, not conservative enough. So he spent all that time to reaffirm he's a conservative when he was losing valuable time for the people we need to win.
ROSEN: He, of course, did that to win the Republican primary. So let's -- let's look at the numbers here. To win the Republican primary, evangelical conservatives are a larger portion of that vote. And so, you know, I think John McCain lost this election, you know, in 2006 when he went to Liberty University and kissed the ring of Jerry Falwell and apologized for being such a maverick.
BROWN: But Hilary, you have to concede the point Tony made -- Alex made it earlier, Ed agrees -- that this was a tight race until the economy took over and this crisis.
ROSEN: It wasn't tight because of conservative social values.
MARTIN: Listen...
ROSEN: It was tight because independents were not yet convinced that change for Barack Obama was really going to represent the kind of change from George Bush that they were looking for.
ED ROLLINS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Hilary, from March 15 on, when Mike Huckabee dropped out of the race, John McCain walked away from conservatives and tried to reach independents.
ROSEN: But he'd already lost them.
ROLLINS: No, no, no. He had a tremendous time to go and say to conservatives, the social conservatives, "I really care about your interests." He could have paid attention to Mike Huckabee, which he absolutely did not.
MARTIN: I agree with that.
ROLLINS: And basically he was all the way trying to reach independents. Independents don't come to the game until it's -- until there's two tickets. And our base was not placated one single iota. And if anything, what he wanted to do is he wanted to change the base. He wanted -- his attitude was, "I don't like those people. I'm going to move away from those people. I'm going to remake this Republican Party."
ROSEN: That's my point, Ed. He...
(CROSSTALK)
HALPERIN: I think you're actually right in the abstract if this were a political board game. The problem for John McCain is, he's not comfortable talking to social conservatives.
He went -- he went -- he had one moment in this whole campaign when he went to Rick Warren's church, and he did very well. That was one of his best days of the campaign.
But what you're advocating is John McCain going for an electorate that he doesn't want to govern with and talking in a way that makes him uncomfortable. One thing we've learned conclusively about John McCain, he's got the worst poker face in politics. When he's uncomfortable, he shows it. We can all see it. And if he had done what you had said, if he had courted the Huckabee constituency, I think he would have lost even worse.
ROLLINS: Well, we'll have to see.
BROWN: All right.
ROLLINS: Equally as important, he didn't like the tax issue. And he never could sell the tax issue.
BROWN: OK. Stay -- standby, guys. We've got a lot more with the panel coming up in our next hour.
Also up next, exit polls. We've learned a stunning amount of detail about who voted, why they voted the way they did. And they're giving us a pretty revealing X-ray of yesterday's historic election. We're going to scan that for all the info when we come back.
And she won't be going to Washington, not this time anyway. So where does Alaska Governor Sarah Palin go now? We'll talk about that when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: A lost election will never mean more to me than the privilege of your faith and friendship.
I don't know -- I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election. I'll leave that to others to determine. Every candidate makes mistakes, and I'm sure I made my share of them. But I won't spend a moment of the future regretting what might have been. This campaign was and will remain the great honor of my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: That was Senator John McCain during his very gracious concession speech last night. Exit polls are telling us what was going through the voters' minds as they cast their ballots. Those polls suggest that just because race was a factor, it wasn't necessarily an obstacle.
Let's go back to Soledad O'Brien. She's over at voter analysis, taking a look at this issue.
Soledad, what are we seeing?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Wolf, it's been very interesting today to be reading the op-eds, because there's a lot of questions about Barack Obama being a post-racial candidate. Does his race matter? With this election, do you put behind the nation a painful racial history?
So we can take a look at the exit polls to kind of sort through that. For example, when you ask demographically, the question, was race important in your choice? Let's figure out where that is. Right here. Was race an important factor? Trigger that. Let's look at the United States. Oops, that's Wisconsin. Sorry, guys. Going to use my pen.
There we go. Fifty-three percent who voted for Barack Obama said, yes, race was important, 46 percent for John McCain.
But back out and we asked the reversed, the flip question of that. Back to demographics, was race not an important factor in your decision? And you see an interesting thing. Same thing, same numbers almost: 52 percent Obama, 46 percent John McCain. And so it's kind of a wash.
And I think what you get from that is that the same number of people who thought it was a factor also similar numbers said it was not a factor.
I think there's a more important number that we need to look at. And I would say let's take a look at the white voters for Barack Obama. So open that up here, go to the shelf. White voters are right down here by white voters. Trigger that. Forty-three percent of the vote, white voters, the vote went for Barack Obama. Forty-three percent of white voters.
So if you come over here and if we can show this graphic here, how does that number compare to white vote for Democrat historically? Look at these years, 1996, 1992. That's Bill Clinton. This is Al Gore. This is John Kerry. 2004. You can see that 43 percent right on par with 1996 and Bill Clinton. Higher in fact, than he was, Clinton was, in 1992. Higher than Al Gore, higher than John Kerry.
So what you actually see is that Barack Obama got better numbers in the white vote. The only person he was behind, actually, over time is Jimmy Carter back in 1976, who got 47 percent of the white vote.
So I think that answers the question. Was race a factor? Yes, it was. Was it a limiting factor? Was race a barrier to Barack Obama's election? And the answer to that is no.
And I think then it becomes are we post racial? I mean, to answer that question, race is important; it's not a barrier. And I think that's where the question of inspiration and promise of America plays in. So that is what we see when we take a look at the question of race and Barack Obama's election -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Fascinating information. Soledad, we're going to be checking back with you. Thank you.
She's a Christian conservative superstar, but broader support? Maybe not necessarily. Sarah Palin's ups and downs and future plans. We're taking a closer look.
And the panel on race. Our analysts and experts hash out how the issue played out on the campaign trail. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. SARAH PALIN (R-AK), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I certainly am not one to ever waste time looking backwards, pointing fingers and playing the blame game. I'm not going to participate in that at all.
There are good things in store for this nation. And we're only going to get there in reaching America's destiny if we all unite, work together, and certainly put aside the pettiness and the sense of partisanship that just gets in the way of doing what's right for the people of America. So I won't participate in any of the negativity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Governor Sarah Palin talking to our own Dana Bash in Phoenix earlier today. For now, the governor will go home to Alaska and remain as governor. Next month, she'll become a grandmother, as well, and after that, well, after that Sarah Palin's future is wide open. But already there's lots of chatter about her role four years from now.
CNN's Randi Kaye reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCCAIN: The next vice president of the United States, Governor Sarah Palin of the great state of Alaska.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Christian conservatives, it was love at first sight. Sarah Palin, pro-life and opposed to embryonic stem cell research, was about to recharge the Republican base.
BAY BUCHANAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Republicans were not the least bit excited. And overnight, they were just energized and thrilled to death.
KAYE: So-called faith moms connected with her as one of them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Being a mom and being a Christian woman.
BUCHANAN: Hockey moms found a new champion.
PALIN: You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull, lipstick.
BUCHANAN: Crowds at Republican rallies swelled. For Palin, it all began here, the small town of Wasilla, Alaska, population 5,000 when she was mayor.
This former beauty queen and high school basketball star was later elected governor. She was known for taking on the good old boys network and big oil. In her, John McCain thought he'd found a fellow maverick.
But the honeymoon wouldn't last. Back at home, state investigators determined Palin had violated ethics laws and abused her power to get her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired. Since then a state personnel board concluded she hadn't violated any laws.
And her folksiness proved no match for network anchors. Interviews quickly painted her as uninformed and apparently unprepared to be vice president. On CBS, does Alaska's proximity to Russia really count as foreign policy experience?
PALIN: Well, it certainly does, because our -- our next-door neighbors are foreign countries. Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America. Where do they go? It's Alaska.
KAYE: Palin's candidacy was lampooned on "Saturday Night Live."
TINA FEY, COMEDIAN/WRITER: Are we not doing the talent portion?
KAYE: And conservative commentators turned on her. David Brooks calls her the cancer of the Republican Party.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: A very smart woman in Ohio told me she's like a sugar high. She -- it was -- it was great while it lasted, but it went away pretty darn quickly.
KAYE: CNN political analyst David Gergen says it's clear Palin isn't looking back, but looking ahead.
GERGEN: I think toward the end she was working for John McCain, but she was also working very hard for Sarah Palin's future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: Now, if you listen to the political analysts, the general feeling seems to be Palin has not emerged as a front runner for 2012. She was asked by our Dana Bash in Arizona today about that, what she thinks about running in 2012. And Palin didn't say no, but she put the focus right back on governing Alaska, Wolf.
BLITZER: So what might she do, do you think?
KAYE: Well, she could end up with a Senate seat in Alaska, or as we were just talking about, she may even get her own talk show, actually. Hollywood Reporter says agents are already looking at her for an Oprah-style show.
And CNN senior political analyst David Gergen says the best thing she can do is disappear for a while, go underground, re-brand herself, maybe do the talk show circuit on Sundays, and just start over.
BLITZER: Well, she's got a future, no matter what she's going to do. I have no doubt about that.
Tina Fey, she's got a future, too. KAYE: I think so. As long as Sarah Palin has a future, so does Tina Fey.
BLITZER: Well, it didn't hurt her career. All right. Thanks very much, Randi, for that.
There's been a lot of discussion about race in this election. But was it really a factor yesterday? We're going to put that question to our group of political pros. That's coming up.
And what about those controversial propositions like the ones to ban same-sex marriage in California, Arizona, and Florida? Tom Foreman standing by live. He'll take a closer look at all of that. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: They were big questions looming over this election. Would America really elect an African-American commander in chief? Should we believe all those polls showing Barack Obama out in the lead? The answer to both questions was apparently yes.
Let's check back in now with our panel of political pros: Mark Halperin, Roland Martin, Tony Perkins, Soledad O'Brien joining us now, and Ed Rollins, as well. Welcome back, everybody.
So we talked so much about the Bradley Effect before all of this, Mark. Clearly, I mean, he was up by, I think by 7 generally. He wins by 5. Does that mean the end of this conversation about the Bradley Effect?
HALPERIN: No, look, every candidate sees different. This is going to revolutionize African-Americans and politics. But Barack Obama did a lot of things really smart, along with his advisers.
The way they handled the race was brilliant. They never let it get front and center, with one exception: during the Reverend Wright controversy. And then Barack Obama, to solve his problem, as he's done in other times in his career, gave a great speech, one of the best speeches, I think by acclamation, on race really diffused the issue. Turned a problem into an opportunity.
And while there clearly are probably millions of Americans who factored race in, it did not, obviously, keep them from winning. And he did a great job of not running as an African-American candidate, running as a candidate who is African-American.
BROWN: And that, do you think, will sort of be the same way he governs, presumably?
MARTIN: Absolutely, because it was all -- it was all by design. One of the things that I often said when we did the post-op on Senator Hillary Clinton, is that President-elect Obama had the opportunity to study the '84 and '88 races of Reverend Jackson, to understand how an African-American runs. Carol Moseley-Braun wins in Illinois, prior to being a senator (ph). And so he used those as models. For Hillary Clinton, there wasn't a national model to run for that particular spot. And so they understood that. Just like they studied the entire map. They studied all of those previous races to say this is how we're going to have to be able to run. That's why David Axelrod was critical.
BROWN: Right.
MARTIN: He led many black candidates to victory in races where they, frankly, ran as a candidate, not as a black candidate.
O'BRIEN: But it's also a different time in America. It is a different time. One of the things the pollsters in Ohio would tell us is that, when they did tests on this Bradley Effect, they'd send a white pollster out followed by a black pollster or the reverse, to see if someone would change their answer to the pollster. It wasn't happening. You did see that during the Bradley era, but you did not see it this time around.
We're in a different country.
MARTIN: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: The demographics of the country have changed. More kids are going to be in a classroom with biracial kids where it's hard to define who they are and what category they fit into.
MARTIN: Hip-hop. You name it.
BROWN: Tony, the Republicans, they got, what, 4 percent of the African-American vote? That's going to have to change for the Republican Party to succeed. How do you connect?
PERKINS: Well, actually, in 2004, a much larger portion of the African-American vote went to the Republicans.
MARTIN: Nine.
PERKINS: But that's more.
BROWN: Nine to 10 percent.
MARTIN: But it was a drop from 2000.
PERKINS: Right, but they had made gains, and primarily, those gains were made on the social issues in that the Republicans were working to preserve marriage and family. And asked them for their support and they supported them on that. But the Republicans didn't follow through.
And I talked to a number of African-American leaders, and in the churches that have felt they were used by the Republicans. And this time around they were standing with Barack Obama.
I don't want to take anything away from what -- the campaign that Barack Obama ran. I think it was a brilliant campaign and should be studied on a number of fronts, but I think Soledad is right. We're also living in a different America.
O'BRIEN: And look at the census. I mean, you know, let's not even talk about African-Americans. Let's talk about Latinos, because that's the number that Republicans really have to look at. That's the number by 2050, because of the growth in the Latino community, you're going to see minorities being altogether a majority. And if you'd let those numbers fall, the Republican Party's going to have no...
BROWN: And Latinos, again, Ed, a place where Republicans really dropped the ball if you compare it to 2004 and 2000.
ROLLINS: As a Californian I've always been focused on the Latin community, Latin-American community. The bottom line is we are now a white southern party. And we look at that map, we really shrunk to that. If we don't expand that and we don't basically have policies and -- if you don't help elect candidates. That's one thing I always tried to work on. You -- I can't stand up to a black community and say, "Come vote for me. These are my values." You've got to have somebody like a J.C. Watts who we had, who left the Congress and some others. And you've got to do everything to elect them.
That means you've got to get them through a primary in a Republican district and get them elected. We need leaders. We don't have any.
PERKINS: Understand the issues in the minority communities better. I don't think the Republicans -- the Republicans have tried to Republicanize in every form or fashion instead of adapt to some of the issues.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Let me -- go ahead, Mark.
HALPERIN: Part of Obama's appeal to nonwhite voters besides African-Americans was based on his message and his background, as Soledad said. But part of it, again, to go a tactical thing, was superior resources and targeted media. Radio, mail, surrogates, much bigger operation than John McCain could afford.
And that's effective, because if you're trying to communicate to a particular group, there's some specific messages you want to get forward, particularly if you're a new person like Barack Obama was. They did it really effectively.
MARTIN: Campbell, George Voinovich, used to be mayor of Cleveland, now in the United States Senate, gets 40 percent of the black vote. Why? Because as mayor, he not only talked to African- Americans, sat down with them, what are the issues? Had a partnership there.
Mike Huckabee, 48 percent of the black vote when he was governor of Arkansas. So it happens on those levels. How do you transfer it?
But also, I think from Obama standpoint, how do you move in terms of black politics? Gwen Ifil's book, something real interesting on that whole issue.
What you're seeing is the post-civil rights movement generation does not operate in the same way as the prior generation. And so they are going beyond the traditional issues.
One of the smartest moves Obama made by going to the U.S. Senate, he didn't join a housing committee. He didn't join the traditional, I was going to say the communities for African-Americans. He joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That was one of those moves you're going to see black politicians do when they run for those higher offices. Because they have to broaden their view about the traditional social issues that people think of.
O'BRIEN: Right. But don't forget, he also was appealing to white voters.
MARTIN: Yes.
O'BRIEN: It was Iowa voters who gave him the first stamp of approval that brought the African-Americans in to support him. Because before then, African-Americans really didn't think he was going to win.
ROLLINS: The great thing about him being the president and the first family, America for the next four years is going to develop a comfort level and get very excited...
BROWN: Inevitably. I mean...
ROLLINS: They're going to see -- the problem with white America and black America is we don't live together anymore. And so there's not a comfort level.
I grew up in public housing. I was a boxer. My friends were African-Americans. I know how to tease as we do back and forth. That's not there anymore. And I think what's going to happen is people are going to able to see this man and relationships and they're going to feel comfortable, and it'll make America a better place.
O'BRIEN: It won't happen overnight, though.
BROWN: Right.
O'BRIEN: The one thing we have to caution about is that, black man being elected president of the United States does not change the graduation rates for African-American young men in this country next year, maybe even a couple years out.
MARTIN: We've actually -- affirmative action went down in two states yesterday.
PERKINS: But we have to realize that, just because we may differ over policies, has nothing to do with the race issue. And it had -- there will be aggressive and, I think, very healthy debates over public policy matters.
MARTIN: Tony, buy me a dinner.
PERKINS: Next time you're in D.C.
MARTIN: Absolutely.
PERKINS: Next time you're in D.C.
BROWN: We've got a lot more...
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: ... a lot more with the panel when we come back.
Up next, believe it or not, some of the most contentious votes are still up in the air. We're going to have details on that.
Plus, last night was one of those nights years from now people are going to ask, do you remember where you were when Barack Obama was elected president? We'll hear some very personal stories from some of our iReporters. And Miles O'Brien will be with us to share those.
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BLITZER: Video of Barack Obama leaving his home in Chicago this morning. Let's get on to some of the other issues that faced voters during this election.
A reversal of fortune for same-sex marriage in California. Thousands of couples thrown into legal limbo of sorts by the passage of Proposition 8 out in California. The news just came down in the last hour or so. Opponents of gay marriage going three for three yesterday.
Let's go back to Tom Foreman. He has more on some of these state and local ballot measures.
What happened, Tom?
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, there were some very contentious measures out there in many states, which maybe didn't grab the headlines like the presidential race, but now are being scrutinized. Controversial measures received thumbs up or thumbs down in many areas, chief among them these votes on gay rights.
Arizona voted 56 percent and Florida 62 percent to ban gay marriage. Now, as you just said, Wolf, California jumped on board with this, as well. The final count just being completed there a short while ago.
But it's important to note particularly when you talk about Florida and you talk about California out here, these are two states that voted for Barack Obama. So, this may give us some framing, some idea of their political tolerance for the more liberal-leaning aspects of his agenda if he wants to go that way.
Arkansas produced a strong vote to keep gay couples from adopting children. Legal challenges, of course, to many of these measures are already in the works, but let's look at some other things, as well.
Arizona, John McCain's home state, voted to change some of its restrictions on hiring undocumented immigrants. It's still illegal, but now only employers who knowingly hire such workers can have their licenses suspended or revoked.
Nebraska and Colorado, two big western states, both voted on the idea of ending affirmative action. Nebraska says, "Let's do it." Colorado still up in the air, undecided at this moment. But again, notice this: Colorado went for Obama, and yet the vote on this basic issue which swirls around race is very, very close.
Michigan approved the use of medical marijuana. And Washington state, way over here, voted to allow people whose doctors say they're going to die within six months to have a doctor help them commit suicide.
All interesting votes on their own, but taken together could be an important sign of the true political character of the country right now -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Good point, Tom. Thanks very much.
Campbell, these initiatives, very significant, and they will have an impact in those states.
BROWN: Absolutely, Wolf.
And we want to mention now, as Barack Obama said last night, this election was about you, and that's true whether you supported him or not. Let's find out how you are reacting today to the results.
CNN's Miles O'Brien is here with a look at your election iReports -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Campbell, this is a magic map. It's magic in many ways. Let's check in with some iReporters. Let's face it: many of us all throughout the nation felt compelled to watch this event together. There were parties all over the place.
Let's go to Pittsburgh. This was an event where you get a real sense of the excitement that people felt at this Democratic Party event in Pittsburgh.
Let's go down the Arkansas, similar kind of thing. People gathering together, of course, bringing out their iPhones and their video capability to share the moment with us.
Let's go to North Carolina, see what they were doing there. Similar kind of thing. Once again, that excitement in the air all throughout the nation, people wanting to gather together to sort of savor this moment in history at these Democratic headquarters.
Let's go now and listen to some of our iReporters who took the time for us to sort of give us dispatches and their feelings as they watched this moment in history. This one comes from Washington, and let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Obama will win Ohio.
DAVID WHITE, VOTER: This is the greatest night of my life. And I know a lot of you want to -- you know what is funny? My home is right around the corner from the Frederick Douglass house, and tonight, that house shines a lot brighter in Washington, D.C. We made it! We made it!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: That was David White in Washington, obviously sharing some excitement there.
Let's move in on New York. Times Square, and Obama girl in Times Square last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am so happy, and here I am in Times Square. And everyone is just as happy as I am.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The American people seem to have wanted Obama and Obama girl for the next four years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Obama girl for the next four years. Obama for the next four years. That's for sure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: All right, Wolf, I've got to show you one more. This one is pretty -- well, suffice it to say you might be a little bit worried when you see this one. Let's go to Connecticut. Take a look at this young man who took the time to build his own wall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have my own magic wall set up here. I was going through the numbers. I was being John King. And I'm very happy for the country. I didn't think that our country was exactly ready at this time to have an African-American president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: There he was, a future CNN anchor there, Marcus Pharem (ph) in Hamden, Connecticut, with his own magic wall -- Campbell.
BROWN: Miles, very, very impressive, and he's very cute.
All right. Before the election, some Republicans warned of the danger of one party takeover in Washington. Now it has happened. So what do you think?
Seventeen hundred of you responded to our "Quick Vote" question this hour, are you worried about Democrats controlling all three branches of government? Sixteen percent of you said yes; 84 percent said no.
We've got a lot more of our special coverage on this day after Barack Obama's historic win, straight ahead. In our next hour, all of us here are talking about these kids in Harlem and the powerful ending to their history class.
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