[Cooper:] Well, in a conference call to his supporters today, President Obama was blunt, saying there's no way to sugar coat it; last night was tough for Democrats. He warned that they most likely face even tougher days ahead. The voting map has been dramatically redrawn, and we're likely to see the emergence of a new generation of Republican power brokers, along with current GOP leaders like Sarah Palin and others who will try to unseat the president in two years. Back again now to John King.
[King:] Anderson, you know how it works: once one election is over, everyone says what does this mean for the next one? So what does 2010 mean for 2012? Well, first, let's get a sense of the scope, the drama of the Republican victories here. Look right up here. This is the map coming into the night last night in terms of the House of Representatives. See all the blues? That's blue House districts across the country. That's how we began the night. That's how we ended. You see all that red one more time. That's before; that's after sweeping, stunning Republican victories all across the country. And that's just the House. Let's go to the Senate races. Here's how we began the night. We began the night here. Remember all this up in the Midwest, right up here, the industrial heartland right up there. Began the night, all that blue, ended the night with all that red. The governors' races also critically important in 2012. Again, look at all this blue. Look at all the blue, especially in the big Rust Belt states. Those are critical presidential battlegrounds. There's how we began. There's where we ended. Why does that matter to the president of the United States? Well, Barack Obama carried Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan; I could go on and on. These are all states the president carried. He also carried Florida, which kept its Republican governor. If you're the president of the United States and you are looking at this map, the electoral map has changed so dramatically today from where it was not only yesterday, but when he won that big victory in 2008. So that is a challenge for the president. This is based in the economy, among winning back support among independent voters and rural blue-collar white voters for which among which this president has always had a problem. So what about the Republicans? Who does this map help? Well, for one, we saw Sarah Palin, she has Tea Party support. She is in a commanding position coming out of this election. Who else? The Republican governor of Florida, the Republican governor-elect, Rick Scott; he is now a power broker in Republican politics. Watch him in the years ahead. Right here in Ohio, John Kasich is the new governor there. He's a close friend of Newt Gingrich. We'll see if that friendship cements any 2012 presidential alliance. And again, look at this. A Republican governor of Pennsylvania, Michigan, on and on, out in Iowa. Iowa? How about Iowa? Terry Branstad is about to be the most popular Republican in the United States of America as all the 2012 contenders try to make friends and get his endorsement. A very different map today than when the president won in 2008 and a very troubling map if you're Barack Obama looking ahead to 2012 Anderson.
[Cooper:] Yes, John. It's amazing the difference that two years makes. Back again with our panel: David Gergen, Gloria Borger, Erick Erickson, Ari Fleischer, and Cornell Belcher. It's interesting, Erick, we were talking. It does seem now all of a sudden the Republicans have a new and very deep bench.
[Erickson:] Yes, very much so. Remember that whole line we said for the past several years, Republicans can't win in New England? Guess what? The entire Maine legislature and governor is now Republican. New Hampshire, the entire legislature is Republican. They went from almost a 5050 split to, like, 75 percent of the New Hampshire legislature. What's happening at the ground level in the states for the Republicans is very significant because after 1994, a lot of people went to Washington, many of whom were flukes. They really didn't deserve to be there, but they just did because the wave was so big. And the Republicans never replenished the bench at the state level. This year they're replenishing them. The first two non-white female governors in the nation were elected last night. They're both Republican.
[Borger:] You know, don't forget, you have 19 state houses that have now gone Republican. You've got redistricting coming up, and this really sows the seeds for the future for the Republican Party.
[Cooper:] You were talking about Marco Rubio as a potential vice presidential candidate.
[Borger:] Oh, yes.
[Gergen:] One of the real problems the Republicans have had is the people who have been circulating, speaking for the Republicans, have seemed a little stale. And I think this is going to freshen up the Republican voice. To have someone like Rubio out there getting Christine O'Donnell off the screen and getting Rubio on the screen is a big step forward for the Republicans. They've got these young guns in the House who are very interesting. I think they're going to get more and more air time. And you can actually have an engaged debate in this country, which I think would be helpful for the Republican Party, and give people and by the way, I think it's also going to open up the ranks for the 2012 nomination.
[Borger:] I do too.
[Gergen:] Because we've had a crowd the working conventional wisdom in politics is, Barack Obama's going to win in part because it's a pretty weak field running against him. Apparently, yes. But there may be new people coming under this.
[Belcher:] Let me say this, I know I'm always partisan, apparently, taking off that hat.
[Erickson:] Not apparently.
[Fleischer:] Now, you're going to take it off?
[Gergen:] Now you're going to take off the hat?
[Belcher:] Look at what Rubio did in Florida. It becomes really interesting, because he split I mean, he got he basically got among Hispanics and Latinos, in Florida what we what Barack Obama got. And which takes away a key Democratic sort of part of that electorate there, so splitting that up. Given how close that race was, if he can't run with Democrats' performance, like Barack Obama did with the Latino vote in Florida, she'd be governor now. So it becomes really interesting. And when you look at
[Cooper:] So what do Democrats do to rekindle I mean, how do they get young voters back? How do they get African-American voters back?
[Belcher:] You put Barack Obama back on the top of the ticket. I mean, one thing two things that will get him back on. One is people are comparing sort of the young vote and the black and brown vote to '08, which is false which is false. I mean, in the battleground states, the African-American vote did turn out, and the youth vote did turn out. So comparatively what it was is typically is in midterms. However, when you go out when you go out west and when you look at sort of what do we do to win that race out west, look at how he blew away with the Hispanic vote out west. Look at the ground operation that he put together out west. When you look at Colorado, again, we are becoming a blacker and browner country, particularly out west. And with Republicans to compete there, it becomes awfully important.
[Erickson:] I have to say this. This is the sixth election where the Republican death has been declared because of demographics. And yet they've gotten another reprieve.
[Fleischer:] There's one there's one riding issue on all this, and that's the state of the economy. If jobs don't get created and the economy stays weak, it's going to be terrible for Barack Obama and deservedly so. If on the other hand, jobs come back, I think you're going to see also a sense, and the media's going to help, that so much of what Barack Obama did now is being vindicated, proving it was the right thing to do.
[Borger:] But he now has an opponent.
[Fleischer:] That's the shape of what's to come. We all have to fasten our seat belts, not worry about 2012 yet. Focus on 2011. See what happens in the economy. That drives everything.
[Gergen:] I agree. There's this
[Borger:] And both of the parties have a real stake in that for 2012. So there may be I don't want to be Pollyanna here, but there may be some ray of hope that in fact, because they both need to work towards that, that they can do some things to try and get it done. Although obviously, philosophically, they have differences about how you go how you go about it. But it's in their own self-interest.
[Erickson:] The only sure thing that I can guarantee about 2012 is the conventional wisdom between now and the end of this year
[Cooper:] David Gergen, Gloria Borger, Erick Erickson, Ari Fleischer, Cornell Belcher, many thanks. Up next, how paint and sand are the key to cheap electricity. It seems strange we're going to explain in tonight's "One Simple Thing" report.