Could Democrat Loses Help Hillary?
REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: As all of you know, President Obama said very clearly that his policies were on the ballot and voters were very clear in return. They want nothing to do with the policies of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Up and down the ballot, these were the president's candidates, these were the Clinton's candidates, and they lost.</s>MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: New questions, new speculation, new opinions about the future for Hillary Clinton. That was, of course, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, hanging Tuesday's massive Democratic losses on not only the president but the Clintons and specifically Hillary Clinton.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That was a very deliberate statement. So, too, this from Republican stand to the Rand Paul, very deliberate who coined the hash tag "Hillary's losers" with a series of black and white photos of Mrs. Clinton stumping for Democrats who lost. One election barely over and already under attack.</s>PEREIRA: Here we got with our political commentators, Margaret Hoover and Sally Kohn. Ladies, good to have you with us. Does this landslide, Sally, give Hillary something else to run against that isn't part of the resume, namely the president, or does she need to distance herself further from him?</s>SALLY KOHN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There's some -- too much is being made of the candidates who didn't do well, that Hillary went and stumped well. They didn't do well for a host of reasons. Blaming on people who showed up and did rallies. Elizabeth warren -- the reality is there were good and bad signs in the election for Hillary. One is, if there's still a referendum on the president, his leadership, foreign policy abroad, Hillary is tied for that. That becomes a challenge for her. On the other hand, Hillary does well with the demographics who did not turn out in this election. Part of the reason Republicans were able to do so well is women stayed home, especially that women stayed home with the case with Hillary and also African-American voters turn out more, they tend to more in Democratic elections. That bodes well for the future. She has to see if Republicans do well in Congress.</s>BERMAN: Margaret, I have a certain amount of respect when politicians do things that are so blatant and completely without nuance.</s>MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You hit the nail on the head. I have a certain amount of respect for commentators who have no nuance in their analysis. I think that's right. I think Republicans would be apt to listen to this criticism. One of the things we've hit in the past historically is an overreach on Clinton criticism which has come back and bit us in the booty. By the way, endorsing candidates, that never makes or breaks any candidate. Charlie Crist lost and that won't turn out to help them when Florida will hang in the balance and it would help to have a Democratic governor there. All that being said, they knew what they were doing. She was being a good soldier, commandeering and trying to prop up her party loyalty.</s>PEREIRA: Sally, let's say the phone call come in --</s>KOHN: I don't think that phone call is coming any time soon.</s>PEREIRA: A little role playing here. What would you say is the strategic move in terms of how to confront all this landscape she's facing?</s>KOHN: I think Margaret and I agree on this. It would be nice if Democrats could stop running just on the bad stuff Republicans are doing and if Republicans can stop running against Obama and now Hillary and actually put forward their plans, ideas, solutions for the country. Just because I'm fanaticizing here, I'll go a step further, maybe work together on the ones they share in common. In Hillary's case, she'll have plenty of ammunition if the Republicans go back to Congress and they do the same agenda of trying to stomp on reproductive rights and not passing minimum wage and all that, she'll have plenty to complain about there. She also has to find a way to connect with the authentic economic populism that is, in voter's hearts across the country, including red states, as evidenced by the red states that passed minimum wage bills, she has a hard time connecting with that.</s>BERMAN: Margaret, our friend, Paul Begala, yesterday said the Democrats have no bench when it comes to viable presidential candidates. Do Republicans see it like that?</s>HOOVER: I think Republicans hope Hillary gets it because we know she can be a flawed candidate, although I think we over estimate how flawed she can be and underestimate what her brought appeal could be and the historic factor of having a first female president potentially. I think Joe Biden has made it plenty clear he doesn't intend for her to waltz into the nomination. There are left wing more progressive candidates, that if we pushed sally's buttons enough, we would find what she thinks might work, if it's not an Elizabeth Warren, is it a Brian Schweitzer or somebody else who can represent the progressive left of the Democratic Party. I don't think she even thinks she'll walk into the nomination which is why she was hitting the trail trying to get loyalty chips.</s>BERMAN: I sense we'll talk about this again.</s>PEREIRA: You think so?</s>BERMAN: Margaret Hoover, Sally Kohn. Not the last time we'll talk about Hillary, probably not even the last time today.</s>BERMAN: Ahead for us @THISHOUR, Jon Stewart, have you heard of him? You know what he does every night. You probably don't know what he is doing next. We will tell you. He said down with Christian Amanpour about a new film he's making. We'll talk about that.