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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Obama Wins Reelection; Election Coverage; CNN Projects Bachmann Wins Another Term

Aired November 07, 2012 - 05:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- whether you are black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you are willing to try.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

I believe we can seize this future together, because we are not as divided as our politics suggest. We are not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions.

And we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We all and forever will be the United States of America. And together, with your help and God's grace, we will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on earth.

Thank you, America. God bless you! God bless these United States.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And, of course, it was all about the math. You can see the cheering there as Obama supporters are cheering. Then you can see in a little bit, confetti starts pouring down and the president's family comes out and the vice president's family as well coming out to join.

But it was all about the math, 270 was the number of electoral votes needed. That's what they got to. Let's get right to John and Christine at the magic wall.

Hey, guys.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, thanks so much, Soledad.

You know, CNN was able to call the race a little after 11:15 Eastern Time, which was earlier than a lot of people had predicted. Some people thought we'd be counting all night into the wee hours of the morning. That did not happen.

So how did the president put together his victory? Christine Romans at the magic wall.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINES CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've been telling you about all those swing states that the strategists were going for and all roads went through Ohio. In the end, for the president, these are the swing states, and he took all of them.

I mean, here is Nevada with its six electoral votes. He took Nevada. He took Colorado. Paul Ryan spent a lot of time in Colorado. They're really hoping -- the Republicans have been hoping they could get that and they didn't.

There's Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio with its 18, Virginia, 18, New Hampshire, and then Florida. We are still waiting for. That's how the president got to 303. He needed 270. He's got it.

So, even though we have not called Florida yet, Florida with its 29 electoral vote, Mitt Romney at 206 can't get over the top.

BERMAN: And right now, the president is leading in the vote count in Florida but Miami-Dade County as they suspended counting overnight. They will start counting in a few hours again. And right now, the president is ahead there and he could pick that up, too.

ROMANS: A couple of states however he had in 2008 that he didn't get this time, these two states he lost. Those are reliably, reliably Republican territory until last time when the president turned them. He lost them this time but he had all the swing states, 303 electoral votes.

BERMAN: The president won North Carolina just by 14,000 votes four years ago.

ROMANS: Close.

BERMAN: This time it was still pretty close. It was interesting. A lot of people thought North Carolina would be a blowout for Mitt Romney. It wasn't. They didn't call Mitt Romney until very late, so there maybe hope for the Democrats in the future in this state.

ROMANS: And he lost Indiana as well. But other than that, he took all the swing states and we are still waiting on Florida.

BERMAN: It's Florida. We'll be waiting for a long time.

All right. Christine Romans, thanks very much. Soledad?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Don't pick on Florida.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: The governor's concession speech happened just around 1:00 in the morning. He had been waiting, crunching some numbers coming out of Ohio, but that was not in his favor. And so he conceded.

Here's how his concession speech went.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This election is over but our principles endure. I believe that the principles upon which this nation was founded are the only sure guide to a resurgent economy and to a renewed greatness. Like so many of you, Paul and I have left everything on the field. We have given our all to this campaign.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

ROMNEY: I so wish -- I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction. But the nation chose another leader, and so Ann and I join with you to earnestly pray for him and for this great nation.

Thank you and God bless America! You guys are the best. Thank you so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: John Avlon is joining our panel, what was it, senior columnist for "Newsweek" and "The Daily Beast." Ryan Lizza is a writer for "The New Yorker." He is joining us as well. Roland Martin is still with us.

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, hey.

O'BRIEN: Ana Navarro is still with us as well.

So, ultimately -- I'm forgetting all my friends on this side.

MARTIN: That's OK.

(CROSSTALK)

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I had a piece of pizza and I'm good for the next hour.

O'BRIEN: John, I wanted to start with you. If you had to assess what happened, the biggest flaw in the Romney campaign, what was it?

JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think ignoring the center too long in the election. I mean, that pivot back to the center in the first debate was enormously effective for Mitt Romney. It helped him get momentum when getting traction for a long time, but it was to little, too late.

And there were fundamental questions on how much people could trust him with his positions. Ali and I saw him in Ohio, the damage done by the Jeep ad they ran. So, it was an economic issue of connection but also, will this guy say anything to get elected?

A lot of the Republicans will be doing the post-mortem today and saying the problem is that he was not conservative enough. That's stereotypical. It's also not true. That was not his problem. When he recentered himself that's when he did best in the polls. Ultimately, it was a credibility problem. And you saw the ballot initiatives across this country, you saw that -- I mean, and the numbers bearing out, that to some extent the Republican Party has been so insular in the moment, that there's this intense echo chamber talking about momentum. While members of the moderate party look outside and say, what are you all talking about?

O'BRIEN: Well, le me ask Roland a question, because earlier we were talking about gay marriage and you said zero for 34 until this --

MARTIN: Zero for 32 referendum for today.

O'BRIEN: But this is the first time people got to vote up it, right?

MARTIN: Well -- no, no. There were other referendums in the past as well, but once you start breaking those down, some of those took place in primary elections as opposed to the general election.

O'BRIEN: So my question is, can this be read as a repudiation of some of the conservative evangelical values?

AVLON: It is a tipping point. These marriage initiatives are a sign of the tipping point we have hit in the polls over the last 18 months, two years in particular. Maine had rejected marriage equality just in 2009. Now, it passes it. And so, this is very significant that for the first time, you are seeing ballot issues pass marriage equality. That is the sign of a tipping point in this issue. And I think a larger --

NAVARRO: Hold on a minute. I think that if you post it the way you just did, it is a repudiation of evangelical conservative values and it makes it that much more difficult to pass. I don't think it is a repudiation of anything. I think it's an acceptance of gay marriage.

O'BRIEN: Well, at the same time, you had all these Catholic bishops come forward and yet the same -- if you look at the actual exit polling, Catholics went for President Obama. I guess maybe repudiation is not quite the right word, but it seems the message up sent was on --

NAVARRO: I'm Catholic. We have been ignoring the priest for years.

(LAUGHTER)

NAVARRO: We talk to God and we ignore the priest.

MARTIN: Soledad, he's a perfect example, though. Catholic nuns and Catholic bishops, on the issue of contraception, on the issue of gay marriage, it's a separate conversation. Then we talk about Congressman Paul Ryan's budget in the poll.

So, you have bishops and nuns who on one side sounding more supportive of Republicans.

O'BRIEN: But with a vote, you have to pick one or the other.

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: By the way, bishops aren't always on the same side.

MARTIN: I understand that. The point I'm making is that when we say how Catholics are going to vote, it's just like any other particular voter, that is: what are the issues you consider to be important right now? So, we make a mistake when we say, well, Catholic bishops think this way, they aligned with the party. It all depends on the issue.

So, what is happening across the country are people less self identifying. They are saying, I'm making determinations on issues as opposed to an ideological decision. And I think that's what we saw in this election.

How can Mitt Romney win in the exit poll, do better on the economy? And who's going to fight more for the middle class? President Obama. That's an issue-driven thing versus the ideological one.

AVLON: Yes. Just add two things to that. You look at the polls, President Obama won the middle class argument, which was the ground both candidates essentially agreed to fight on. That was going to be what the election is about.

O'BRIEN: Who loves the middle class, who is going to hurt the middle class.

AVLON: Barack Obama won that ground. The other thing that's so important about the Senate races, the fact that Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin lost is also a significant indicator, because these are states that President Obama won by double digits. And yet those Senate candidates proved too extreme for women and moderates in those states.

O'BRIEN: We're going to talk more about the economy. The election was all about the economy. U.S. futures are already moving this morning.

Christine Romans and Ali Velshi will break that down for us next.

First, though, here's the moment, the very moment when Chicago found out that the president won re-election. Listen.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back.

President Obama will stay President Obama, re-elected overnight. He will remain the 44th president of the United States.

As for the Houses of Congress, the House of Representatives will remain in Republican control. And in the Senate, the Democrats will keep the control there. And depending on the outcome of two elections that are still too close to call. They may increase their governing margins in the Senate. Again, as I said, those are too close to call. You want to stay with us for that.

But, first, to Soledad with some market reaction.

O'BRIEN: All right. John, thank you very much. Let's go right to Ali Velshi and Christine Romans to take a look at what's happening overseas. We're also coming up on when the U.S. markets are going to happen.

ROMANS: Right, the lack of market reaction as I was saying.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: You know, you just heard from Andrew Stevens that basically Asia was flat. Asian markets have closed and European markets opened up a little bit and you got U.S. stock futures up a little bit, but I wouldn't be surprised if they turned around, because this is what people expected. They expect what investors expect. They expected the president would be re-elected.

VELSHI: We need to make a big distinction here. Barack Obama is not bad for business. And Democrats are not bad for the stock market. This socialist president got you a double in the stock market in the last four years.

ROMANS: It's up 75 percent.

VELSHI: But there is something very clear, Barack Obama and the Democrats are bad for very rich people who are all those people who give those surveys to say that he's going to be bad for business.

This is an entirely skewed look at the world. So, it's not bad for business, actually. It's just bad for rich people because they're going to pay bigger taxes. That's the problem we have right now. That's why everyone was saying we want Mitt Romney as president and we do better under Republicans.

It is categorically not true in America that the government does better under Republicans. It does better under Democratic presidents and mixed -- you know, a Democratic president and a Republican House.

ROMANS: That's the market. You have the sentiment among business, especially small business owner who don't like Obamacare. They don't like what they think is a president who doesn't talk their language.

Look, just last week, Jeb Bush was talking about animal spirits, which is an economic term, and Mitt Romney was talking about quintiles for income.

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: When business owners hear that, they think, oh, these guys speak my language. When they hear Barack Obama, they don't hear that.

VELSHI: Right. ROMANS: And so, there's something rightly or wrongly --

VELSHI: Rightly or wrongly, they don't think --

ROMANS: -- they would do better under --

MARTIN: I have to push back on that. I have had a lot of small business owners on my show. I've had folks with the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce. I've had folks with Latino Chamber of Commerce and they say, look, most of our members are small business. President Obama says the small businesses will not be impacted as a result because those folks revenues (ph) $250,000, how can we say what most small businesses, we are talking about 97 percent --

ROMANS: It's perception.

MARTIN: No, no, it's not perception. It's also what we say. When we articulate that most of all businesses out there don't like this issue, when you say 97 percent are making less than $250,000, that's the 3 percent we are talking about. So we are putting 3 percent over the 97 percent. If you want to say most, I say 97 percent trumps three.

O'BRIEN: Ali Velshi said Barack Obama could be bad for the rich people because we know that certainly impact their taxes.

VELSHI: Well, more costly to rich people.

O'BRIEN: Bad if you don't like to pay more money in your taxes, I think that's fair to say.

So do you think that's actually going to happen when you look at the balance of power, Ryan?

LIZZA RYAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Look, the Republican Party has to make a decision on two major issues immediately. The first is are they going to accept a deal from Barack Obama to get $2.50 in revenue, excuse me, $2.50 in cuts for every $1 in revenue. And number two, they're going to have to make a decision on what to do about immigration because those are the first two issues to happen when Congress comes back.

On tax cuts, John Boehner even before the election was saying, no, we are staying on our position. We are not going to cancel the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. Well, he doesn't have a choice. On December 31st, they expire.

VELSHI: Right.

LIZZA: The White House signaled in every possible way they can to let the tax cuts expire. We will start over next year and redo the tax code. So Barack Obama has the ball in his court. There is a deadline, December 31st, all of those 2001 and 2003 Bush taxes are going away no matter what.

So, I don't see what the Republicans' bargaining power is right now on that issue. O'BRIEN: On that issue.

AVLON: On that issue. Look, there are a lot of folks who believe, Norm Ornstein among them, that this composition, President Obama re- elected, Democrats keeping the Senate, Republicans keeping the House, is actually the best scenario for a productive lame duck session, because if either party feels they got massive ideological win or a new president, they could kick the can to January, because then they have a chance to run the table.

But now, there's a real incentive, both parties have essentially been chastened by the American people to some sense. President Obama reelected but by a lesser margin than he won in 2008. So you can make the case and Boehner did say this yesterday, in addition to his tax cut rhetoric, say, we need to define the common ground.

So I think there'll be an urgency in addition to the fiscal cliff to have a productive lame duck session.

NAVARRO: I think President Obama's re-election does two things. It frees President Obama to be able to work with the Republican Congress and it frees the Republican Congress to be able to work with the president.

AVLON: Amen.

O'BRIEN: Still ahead, we're going to take a look at the Senate by the numbers, who is in, who is out and what were the biggest surprises on election night, and how will all this affect Congress being able to work together? That's ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: It was no surprise they were playing "Signed Sealed Delivered" last night. That is President Obama at his victory speech. President Obama has won reelection. Republicans, though, retained control of the House. Democrats keep control of the Senate.

How did the math work out? John Berman has got a look at the balance of power now -- John.

BERMAN: Hey, thanks, Soledad. As you said, same, same, same here on Capitol Hill, in Washington.

The Republicans will maintain control of the House of Representatives. We are still counting ballots in some key races across the country where we don't know the exact numerical makeup yet, but Speaker Boehner will remain Speaker Boehner.

As for the Senate, the Democrats will maintain control of the Senate. Again, we don't know the exact margins there. They have a chance to actually pick up a net gain in their governing majority.

It depends on two races that are still too close to call. Those races are in the states of Montana and North Dakota. In Montana, the Democratic Senator Jon Tester faces off against Denny Rehberg. And in North Dakota, also a Democratic seat, Rick Berg, the current congressman, facing off against Heidi Heitkamp. These races are too close to call. They'll be counting ballots perhaps all day today. So, we may not know the outcomes there for sometime.

A couple high-profile races to tell you about right now. Right there, you're looking at Missouri and Indiana. Those races, those seats both won by Democrats. You remember, the Republicans in those races were the ones that made the controversial comments about rape. In both cases, they probably cost Republicans those seats. They may have been sure things for Republicans without the comments.

And then maybe the most high-profile race in the country, in Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren becomes the first female senator from the Bay State by defeating Republican incumbent Scott Brown. What a whirlwind two years for Scott Brown. It was in January of 2010 when he really ignited the Republican revolution by winning the seat that had once been held by Ted Kennedy there. But a mere two years later, he suffers defeat at the hands of Elizabeth Warren. And she will be the next senator -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: It will be interesting to see her impact. She's a reformer, that's what she ran on. It will be interesting to see what she's able to bring to Congress.

VELSHI: You know, the thing about Elizabeth Warren, which is interesting is that she would never have been in the Senate, she wouldn't never been running if those Republican senators didn't work so hard to block her nomination --

MARTIN: Yes.

VELSHI: -- as the chairman of the CFPB.

O'BRIEN: That's true.

VELSHI: Now, who would they rather be dealing with in the Senate, the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or a senator? They lost big betting against --

(CROSSTALK)

MARTIN: They're also standing with her when they talk about she was extremely tough on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner when she was in the oversight panel. When you go back to look at the testimony, I mean, she was nailing the Obama administration on housing, on many of those issues, because she -- I had her on my show several times, she was not all about hailing this administration.

VELSHI: They threw her under the bus a little bit on her nomination.

MARTIN: It wasn't a little bit, they did.

VELSHI: I mean, I have to say, regardless of party, good for her. She prevailed. She got crushed and now she's going to be a U.S. senator.

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: -- appointed new Secretary of State.

O'BRIEN: Scott Brown, right, he comes back into that.

All right. We're going to take a look coming up at the black vote, the female vote. They both came out in droves this year helping re- elect the president, the Latino vote. Our expert of panels is talking about that, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. We especially welcome our viewers in the United States and those around the country. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Lots to talk about this morning.

President Obama has won a second term. Republicans will keep their majority in the Housel. Democrats keep control of the Senate.

Here's a little bit of what President Obama said in his victory speech. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Despite all our differences, most of us share certain hopes for America's future. We want our kids to grow up in a country where they have access to the best schools and the best teachers.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

A country that lives up to its legacy as the global leader in technology and discovery and innovation, with all the good jobs and businesses that follow. We want our children to live in America that isn't burdened by debt, that isn't weakened up by inequality, that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

We want to pass on a country that's safe and respected and admired around the world. A nation that is defended by the strongest military on earth and the best troops this world has ever known.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

But also a country that moves with confidence beyond this time of war to shape a peace that is built on the promise of freedom and dignity for every human being. We believe in a generous America, in a compassionate America, in a tolerant America, open to the dreams of an immigrant's daughter who studies in our schools and pledges to our flag.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) To the young boy on the south side of Chicago that sees a life beyond a nearby street corner to the furniture worker's child in North Carolina who wants to become a doctor or a scientist, an engineer or an entrepreneur, a diplomat or even a president, that's the future we hope for. That's the vision we share. That's where we need to go forward.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

That's where we need to go. Now, we will disagree, sometimes, fiercely about how to get there. As it has for more than two centuries, progress will come in fix and starts. It's not always a straight line. It's not always a smooth path.

By itself, the recognition that we have common hopes and dreams won't end all the gridlock or solve all our problems or substitute for the pain-staking work of building consensus and making the difficult compromises needed to move this country forward. But that common bond is where we must begin. Our economy is recovering. A decade of war is ending.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

A long campaign is now over. And whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you. I have learned from you, and you've made me a better president. And with your stories and your struggles, I return to the White House more determined and more inspired than ever about the work there is to do and the future that lies ahead.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Tonight, you voted for action, not politics, as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together, reducing our deficit, reforming our tax code, fixing or immigration system, freeing ourselves from foreign oil. We've got more work to do.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

But that doesn't mean your work is done. The role of citizen in our democracy does not end with your vote. America's never been about what can be done for us, it's about what can be done by us together to the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. That's the principal we were founded on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. That speech at McCormick Place in front of 10,000 people in Chicago. You got to believe that party went on all night long.

I'm joined now by my EARLY START co-anchor and Chiacago native, Zoraida Sambolin, who is live this morning in a diner in Chicago. Good morning, Z. ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. You know, I was at a viewing party last night, and there was so much excitement for President Obama until, on our air, those numbers in Florida flipped, and then everybody got really freaked out. So, I found a couple of people and Georgia in particular here, to my left.

Sixty-seven years old, Georgia Roulo, you were there last night at McCormick Place. And, you actually were volunteering, also. So, you've been up 24 hours with all of the excitement. Tell me about it.

GEORGIA ROULO, OBAMA SUPPORTER: Well, it started by volunteering in Beloit, Wisconsin on Monday. I went canvassing for Obama there, and then, went yesterday for the party at McCormick Place from beginning till end. And just came right here for breakfast, right from there.

SAMBOLIN: Now, I mentioned that you're 67 years old, and I asked you why you voted for Obama. Did it affect you, you know, the downturn in the economy? And you said, yes, it did. But you still voted for him. Why?

ROULO: Because I really don't feel it was all his fault. I feel that he pulled us back from the brink of disaster. And it would be totally unrealistic to think that he could solve all the problems he was given in this historic period of time. And he has done so many great things that I'm giving (INAUDIBLE)

SAMBOLIN: Can I start talking about those tense moments last night? Did you feel them while you were there at Mccormick Place?

ROULO: Yes. I was scared for a little while, but I knew those votes would come in.

SAMBOLIN: So, (INAUDIBLE) to my right. You, guys, have been talking a little bit this morning and you are actually a Republican. You voted for Romney. You are Half-Filipino, Half-Mexican. You are exactly the demographic that the Republican Party needs but doesn't have. Why did you choose Romney?

EDGAR RODRIGUEZ, ROMNEY SUPPORTER: I just thought that in the past four years, it just seems like not enough has convinced me. I did vote for Obama in 2008. And, in the past four years, it just seems like nothing really happened that convinced me to vote for him again. And I do feel (INAUDIBLE) that, you know, maybe four years wasn't enough, but I just feel that it just didn't convince me.

SAMBOLIN: And what did you think that the Republican Party has to do in order to bring folks like you into the mix?

RODRIGUEZ: You know, I just -- Mitt Romney just offered a plan that convinced me that this will also for better economy, about health care programs and reform, was the way to go, was the way of the future.

SAMBOLIN: All right. Well, we thank you so much for hanging with us this morning. I know it's been an all-nighter for both of you. So, I really appreciate it. Thank you very much. All right. John, back to you. BERMAN: All right. Thanks so much. Bring me back some bacon. All right. Let's go back to Soledad now.

O'BRIEN: All right, John. Thank you very much. Let's reintroduce our panelists. You're back in, OK.

NAVARRO: Something like that.

AVLON: Wake up! Wake up!

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about the way forward now. What do you think has to happen? We talked a little bit about some of the problems and some of the ways in which both parties could improve. How do you move forward over the next year, two years, three years?

AVLON: This is the number one obligation of everyone who are watching to this bring us together.

O'BRIEN: How?

AVLON: This country is deeply divided and the healing is going to begin. I think the president needs to set up a very specific agenda saying on issues of deficit and debt, I will work with the bipartisan framework, whether it's gang of six, the grand bargain, or Bowles- Simpson as a basis. I will work with you, but it's going to be a bounce plan.

We're going to deal with a fiscal cliff together. And maybe on things like immigration reform which I agree with likely to be on the top of his list. He can say, look, I intended to pick up the mantle that President Bush and John McCain held in 2007. We can do this in a bipartisan way.

But he's going to have really to really focus even more than he did in his first-term on unifying the nation and making his case and playing offense in that regard, not keeping a close --

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: -- in his first term. His first two years, you know, he passed a lot of controversial bills, passed emphatically unilaterally with just Democrat votes.

AVLON: Because a Republican decision strategically --

NAVARRO: Well, I mean, listen, it takes two to tango, and he really, for example, on immigration. He never actually presented a proposal. He convened the meeting, and then, from there, we never went anywhere. So, right now --

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: Did you ever see a plan?

(CROSSTALK)

LIZZA: -- his destiny is not in his own hands. Everything depends on the psychology of the Republican Party and the --

(CROSSTALK)

LIZZA: Unless, the Republicans take away from what happened yesterday, if Republicans decide that this is like 1997, that they -- when they failed in their number one goal defeating Bill Clinton, and they said, you know what, OK, put this aside. This guy is going to be four more years. We can concentrate on the next presidential election and let's cut a deal, right? 1987, you had a big deficit reduction deal between Clinton and the GOP Congress.

That's the best hope (ph) for the White House is that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell decide, OK, we didn't defeat this guy. Let's get pass the fiscal cliff. Let's get the best deal we can. So, you know, he has to work with the divide Congress. His future is not in his own hands.

MARTIN: We saw tonight -- first of all, I think the best avenue for the president is to first deal with John Boehner. You saw his statement tonight. First of all, his statement was one released by a true Speaker of the House, more about Americans working together.

That statement sent out by Senator Mitch McConnell was pathetic. I mean, it was angry, it was dismissive, it was not about unifying this country, and that's the problem. And I think --

O'BRIEN: Mitch McConnell is up for re-election in two years.

MARTIN: But here's the deal, though, if the president, though, creates a relationship with Speaker John Boehner and that's also very helpful when Vice President Biden also had a very good relationship with him. That's going to actually corner Senator McConnell, because what the president say is, I can work with Boehner, and we can strike a deal. But McConnell is going to be sitting over there going, oh, oh, I'm now stuck out. I better --

NAVARRO: Like for example, on immigration, it's not McConnell he has to reach out to. He's got to reach out to Marco Rubio who, I think, the Republican Party is going to look at to solve this to look solutions outside the box. He's got to reach out to Lindsey Graham. He's got to reach out to John McCain.

MARTIN: Right. But Senator Mitch McConnell is the minority leader. And --

O'BRIEN: Yes. But you know what, also as Republicans, you listed on -- if you look at the statistics of the Latino vote, I have to imagine they're on board with that.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: There are four things that if this president wants to have a legacy, there are four things you can get bipartisan cooperation on, immigration, real tax reform because everybody wants it, energy, he needs to get that XL Pipeline and keep going on this, and an infrastructure program -- an infrastructure bank. He can make this a legacy presidency, and those are things both parties --

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, we're going to take a look -- take a look at what this election says about the religion folks and a new CNN projection right after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: We have a projection to make in a high-profile House race. You will recognize the names here. Michele Bachmann, CNN now projects that Michele Bachmann has been re-elected to the sixth Congressional district in Minnesota. It was a really, really close race against wealthy businessman, Jim Graves, just about 3,000 votes separating them.

And Michele Bachmann is no stranger to close races. She's actually just won her last two Congressional races by a fairly slim margin, but this district was redrawn to make it safer for her but not safe at all. Both candidates spent well over a million bucks in October on ads and she barely squeaked through again by just over 3,000 votes. So, a narrow win for Michele Bachmann -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right. Thanks. John Avlon, you covered a lot of this race and that candidate.

AVLON: I have. And I mean, look, it was a bad night for wing-nuts last night, but Michele Bachmann is straight (ph) through in a redrawn -- redrawn to be more conservative. She got her first serious competitor Jim Graves, self-made centrist businessman, put up a really good fight.

O'BRIEN: Three thousand votes.

AVLON: Three thousand votes. And it was amazing. Michele Bachmann's final ad in this race was presentingd herself as an independent mind thinker and someone who could reach across the aisle to solve problems. I mean, it was an SNL shift.

(CROSSTALK)

LIZZA: And if you want to point fingers at someone who created the crisis that Mitt Romney faced in terms of moving him to the right during the primaries, Michele Bachmann. I mean, he --

O'BRIEN: Brings us back to the fiscal cliff, doesn't it? How you get to some kind of resolution --

NAVARRO: She's going to come go back to Congress in a much different role than I think she had before. She's no longer a presidential candidate. You know, she doesn't have that kind of national voice. She just squeaked by. You think --

(CROSSTALK)

LIZZA: I spent a lot of time with her last year with (ph) a big profile of her. And, she raised more money as a House candidate than almost anyone in the country. She has a national base of conservatives who love her.

AVLON: $14 million she's had in the bank and that's what save --

O'BRIEN: Let's send right back over to John Berman.

BERMAN: Thank you so much, Soledad. You know, we're going to go back and talk about the presidential race more. The state we were all watching leading up to election late night last night was Ohio. It did go for the president there. It took a while to get there, but ultimately, did end up blue.

I'm joined now by Carol Costello who is in Columbus, Ohio, the capital. It looks a little bit cold this morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is pretty cold, but I'm telling you people here in Ohio are happy, John, because Ohio's long election night there is finally over. Now, when they watch television, they can see cheesy car commercials instead of (INAUDIBLE). And they're very, very happy about that.

What issue was it that won Ohio for Obama? It was the auto industry bailout. People here, especially in the northern or the upper half of the state supported the auto industry because many of them work in the auto industry. They think that bailout helped save their jobs. And talking about attack ads, can you issue one attack ad to many? I think so.

And I think the election in Ohio proved that. The Romney campaign released that ad, and John Avlon knows all about this, released that ad saying that the car companies were going to move jobs to China. Well, Ohioans did not like that, because frankly, it's scared them. It made them afraid they were going to lose their jobs, and frankly, they didn't like being lied to in that particular way.

So, a lot of voters that I talked to voted for Obama for that very reason. So, there you have it. Ohio put Obama over the top and was a deciding state once again.

BERMAN: You know, and Carol, everyone was so concerned about the provisional ballots. Would they keep this election hanging on the balance for days, turned out it didn't even matter.

COSTELLO: It didn't matter, although, there were some problems. I talked to a lot of civil rights groups yesterday. They were monitoring the election. And they said a lot of people were turned away because they were forced to use these provisional ballots. They thought their vote wouldn't count anyway, and they simply did not vote.

And that's the sad thing. But you're right, in the end, by and large, provisional balloting did not matter one bit. Ohio goes Obama's way.

BERMAN: All right. Carol Costello live this morning in Columbus. Thanks so much -- Soledad. O'BRIEN: All right. John, thank you.

Let's get right to Dan Gilgoff. He is the religion editor for CNN.com. You've been writing about this impact as you go to the exit polls about Catholics, about the evangelicals. Tell me a little bit about what your interpretation is into what you see.

DAN GILGOFF, CNN.COM RELIGION EDITOR: Sure. Well, it seems to be such a stark turnaround from where we were this day in 2004 where it seemed to represent this kind of high water mark for Christian right influence in American politics. You had evangelicals and other so- called value voters sweeping George W. Bush into this resounding second-term victory.

You had a dozen ballot initiatives, in most cases, amending state constitutions to ban same-sex marriage and really ushering in this entire new era of banning same-sex marriage. And last night, we saw the kind of unraveling of the whole lot of that. You saw, in the face of all of this Catholic Church opposition to the Obama administration, particularly, on contraception and religious liberty, you saw Catholics turn out for President Obama.

He won Catholics. In some states like Pennsylvania, he won them, even though, he lost them in 2008. You saw in two states for the first time voters embracing same-sex marriage and legalizing same-sex marriage. And then, you saw sort of the poster children of the Christian right, including Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana.

O'BRIEN: Those are those local races that people nationally were watching, of course, because they became huge national stories.

GILGOFF: And they embody this kind of hard right line on abortion and sort of the Christian right came to their side when the Republican Party in Akin's case abandoned him. You saw both of those candidates defeated last night.

And so, I think what you saw was -- could be described as a kind of repudiation of the Christian right agenda, which is, so far, from where we were just a few years ago.

VELSHI: I want to ask you about Florida, the Jewish vote. Obama was not playing to it as well as Mitt Romney was. We don't really have a full settlement in Florida, but how did that play out?

GILGOFF: The Jewish vote is so solidly for the Democrats that, although, he didn't achieve the 78 percent of the Jewish vote Obama did like he did in 2008, it didn't present a problem for him. What was really interesting, I think, was looking at the evangelical vote in certain states, including Ohio, including Colorado.

You know, they were all of these evangelical leaders who are basically, you know, predicting apocalypse if Obama was to be re- elected. And what you saw was rank-in-file evangelicals in states like Ohio, in states like Colorado, actually turned out for Obama more this time around by a slide by of significant margin than they did in 2008.

MARTIN: I hope there's a lesson for me in this, and that is, we stop allowing folks like Rev. Franklin Graham to speak for all Christians. It bothers me when we put them on and there's no one opposite him, because look, I'm an evangelical. My wife is an ordained minister. I'm an absolute Christian. And, the beliefs that I have don't fit on a pamphlet.

You can't simply define it based upon the issue of pro-life, the issue of same-sex marriage, and the issue of how you're supporting Israel. I think what you're seeing is you're seeing people who are Christians who are believers in Jesus Christ.

We're saying, look, I'm looking at a totality of issues to make a decisions based upon my children, education, poverty, all kind of different things among those lines, and when we continue to again (ph) put forward folks who only bring one perspective as opposed of saying, wait a minute, what about (INAUDIBLE) of the world, the Freddie Haynes (ph) of the world (INAUDIBLE). We have more Christian voices beyond --

AVLON: Well, he makes an important point about the social gospel, the bible isn't just Leviticus. And what's one thing that's extraordinary about this election, and Dan has written about this, is that for the first time, we had three of the four people in the top ticket not Protestants.

And talk about, you know, trying to form a more perfect union. That is an extraordinary threshold we crossed, but we didn't spend a lot of time talking about, but it is remarkable historically.

O'BRIEN: Dan Gilgoff, nice to have you. Thank you. Folks can read your piece on CNN.com in the religion editor. Thank you. We appreciate that. Let's go back to John Berman.

BERMAN: Thanks, Soledad.

Now, we're going to talk about a name you'll be hearing a lot about this week. Tammy Baldwin made history twice. She is now the first openly gay politician and first woman from Wisconsin elected to the U.S. Senate. She defeated former Wisconsin governor, Tommy Thompson, 51 percent to 46 percent. And here's a little taste of her victory speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMMY BALDWIN, (D-WI) U.S. SENATOR-ELECT: And I am well aware that I will be the first openly gay member.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CROWD: Tammy! Tammy! Tammy! Tammy! Tammy! Tammy!

BALDWIN: But -- but I didn't run, but I didn't run to make history. I ran to make a difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Now, this race between Tammy Baldwin and Tommy Thompson one of the most expensive in the country. The two candidates raised $20 million combined. That is a lot of money.

When we come back, the results heard around the world. Global reaction to President Obama's big night. Stay with us.

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O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. To world reaction now following the president's victory, re-election, Egyptian President Morsi sent a telegram calling for this a strengthening of the friendship between the two countries to serve their common interests namely justice and freedom and peace.

The British prime minister, David Cameron, said this, "Warm congratulations for my friend, Barack Obama. I'm looking forward to working together.

From Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote this, "His strategic alliance between Israel and the U.S. is stronger than ever. I will continue to work the President Obama to ensure the interests that are vital to the security of the citizens of Israel."

Let's get right to Zain Verjee. She's in London where the Brits are reacting to the victory by President Obama. Hey, Zain, good morning.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey. Good morning, Soledad. The reaction here is phew! That pretty much is a sign of relief from this country as well as in many parts of Europe. We talked to quite a few people, Soledad, this morning, and what they're saying is that the United States made the right choice.

They said, what President Obama needs to do right now is to sell the U.S. better to the rest of the world and surprise, surprise, fix the economy. Let me show you "The Sun." It's a tabloid paper here. This kind of captures the mood of some people, OK? They focused on the soccer match results from last night.

You've got Manchester City, arsenal, and then, down here, oh, by the way, there was an election, Obama and Romney. So, that just gives a sense of this magazine knowing their audience. But this morning, people are really interested in the results. On the political side, the British prime minister said this, we want to kick start the world economy. We want to get a Europe/U.S. trade deal.

We want to get started and focused on Syria, too. Online, though, this is an interesting fact, the peak of the moment yesterday for the world online was that when networks projected Barack Obama's win, 327,000 tweets went out at that moment around the world. And on average, it's like 6,000. So, that was pretty awesome.

O'BRIEN: Zain Verjee for us. She's in London. Thank you, Zain, appreciate it.