there are 36 senate seats up for grabs this fall, evenly split between the two parties. but according to the respected cook report, 11 of the democratic seats are vulnerable to a republican takeover versus five vulnerable republican slots. to win back the senate, republicans would have to hold on to all their own seats and pick up ten democratic seats. not impossible, but improbable. still without dispute, republicans have the wind at their back. a year ago registered voters preferred a democratic-controlled congress 48 to 39%. now a new wall street journal nbc poll finds republicans have erased that advantage. still the gop should hold off on an early victory lap. a cnn poll released this week shows the majority of americans are angry at both parties. and when it comes to what is likely the issue of the 2010 campaign, americans still blame republicans for current economic problems. when we return, the political state of the union with the two senators in charge of helping win seats
is nominate the most conservative person we can find. if by some chance the democrats and murkowski or collins rally and defeat that person, this person said the democrats will take a real beating for that in november. they ll lose seats. republicans will gain seats, and the president can go ahead and nominate the person again in january and we ll get them on the court. in some ways the conservatives, this is a moment where they re saying, don t compromise. don t try to get a moderate that you think can sort of just do the most conservative person you can get and we ll win either way. that s a risky game. if the democrats do win seats, then they re in more trouble. the luxury of losing this time around. for that exact reason, the math on the midterms is not entirely favorable to the republicans right now. i don t think the president really believes that he can risk having a nominee go down. that would be catastrophic thing for him. demoralizing.
legislatures who are really one party. well, i think california has a very interesting approach. let s give it to a citizen commission. i think it should be requiring districts to be as contiguous as possible so you don t have these spaghetti districts. but i m in a 60/40 district. i don t even have to listen to republicans. identify got to worry about a challenge on my left. same for republicans, a challenge on the right. and the fact of the matter is, there s a tea party now. so the challenge is on the right. if you think about the tea party, as i talk about in the book, the tea party had a very specific objective roll back government. you heard that from senator-elect mourdock today. roll back government. and it made a decision, electoral involvement, win seats. they won 43 congressional seats in 2010. so when barack obama and john boehner got an agreement in principal for a $3 trillion deficit reduction package, it was the 43 tea party republicans in the republican caucus that