>> 150,000 jobs added to the economy over the last couple months. has that given the president the boost he needed to get out of washington and take on this trip? it's been a disastrous week. >> it's still a mixed bag. the political urgency has gone away. there's not another one for two years. there are still 15 million people out of work. and democrats and supporters of the president really want him focused on the economy. something they hi he failed to do over the course of the last year. yes, the tenth straight month that the private sector added jobs in the country. that's the good news. the bad news is that the unemployment rate is still at 9.6%. that is unchanged. economists say there's going to have to be 200,000 jobs for that to come down. it's not in the cards quite yet. >> mike viqueira at the white house, thanks. i want to bring in luke russert. he's going to fill us in on the shakeout there and the pelosi move isn't exactly a shocker, is it, luke? >> reporter: it kind of is in the sense that we heard rumors that speaker pelosi would be running for minority in the democratic caucus. a lot of folks thought she would be too toxic. that too many people went down on tuesday because of nancy pelosi being wrapped around their neck. what does it mean for the future of the party? that being said, this morning we heard a much different tune. a lot of folks hinting that nancy pelosi saw herself as not the one who should have to fall on the sword after tuesday. harry reid will go back and lead the senate. why should nancy pelosi, the person that passed wall street reform, passed health care reform, passed cap and trade and essentially fought for everything the party wanted to do, why should she have to leave? it should be her decision and her decision alone. she decided she wants to be the democratic leader to fight for health care and social security. what does that do the party? it really shakes things up. this was not expected to other party leaders. now you're going to have an interesting race for position of whip. james clyburn versus steny hoyer. during april of 2008 they danced the electric slide together. but they're now going to be opponents if you will in this race to see who will be number two. >> i've done the electric slide at a lot of weddings. it doesn't mean i'm friends with those people. >> but it shows you they are definitely friends before they are rivals. but in this case they are going to have in as opponents. it's going to be contentious for the dcic party. you're going to have the highest ranking african member of the house democrats going against who many see is the highest ranking moderate southern member who is a voice for the blue dogs of the leadership. so nancy pelosi's decision is throwing things for a loop. republicans i spoke to today said this is like christmas for us. remember, she had an 8% positive amongst independents. 24% overall. republicans will run that until the end of the day. that being said, democrats feel the best chance going forward and the best chance of keeping thisdivided caucus together would be nancy pelosi. thomas? the electric slide analogy. if they did the chicken dance. maybe that would mean they were friendly. >> maybe they can have a dance off and it won't be that contentio contentious. >> i would watch that. now we move onto alaska where e still waiting for the results. right now write-in candidate lisa murkowski leads joe miller by 13,000 votes. nbc's kristen weer is joining us from anchorage. you spoke to joe miller. he's trailing in the votes, as we say, but what's his state of mind? >> reporter: well, he's not close to giving up right now. says this race is not over until every vote is counted. he's getting ready for a fight. his opponent lisa murkowski publicly stated she feels pretty confident about her chances here. the write-in ballot count is leading now have. the big question is how many do say lisa murkowski's name? we'll have to wait and see. but this is joe miller's message for his opponent. take a listen. >> we aren't terribly concerned. but on the other hand it reflects her little victory speech she gave several days ago may be premature. if you assemble a team of that magnitude, you're clearly concerned about the ultimate result. >> reporter: he's talking about the team of lawyers lisa murkowski assembled. he thinks that's one sign she's not 100% sure she has a victory. there are two paths joe miller could win the race. the first is through the write-in ballots. if enough of the ballots are not filled out with lisa murkowski's name or if enough are deemed invalid and simply thrown out then joe miller could take the lead. the second is through absentee ballots. right now there are 30,000 absentee ballots. he thinks right now the absentee ballots may be his best bet. >> frankly i think we're going to pull ahead in the 13,000 votes. but we're going to pull ahead of where we are now when the ballots are counted. this race is not done until the ballots are counted. >> we spoke to joe miller in a coffee shop/bookstore in wasilla, alaska. that's the hometown of sarah palin, one of his biggest supporters during the race. she was just here stumping for him in anchorage. he says right now he would support sarah palin if she did run for president. so right now really a waiting game here, though, in alaska in terms of this race. a lot of people watching and waiting to see who the next senator will be. thomas? >> how much clothing did you take to alaska with you? >> reporter: not enough. >> i think you're going to be there for a while. >> reporter: i think so. thank you. >> so now that most of the dust has settled, what's next for president obama and democrats as they face an emboldened republican party on a mission to make sure the president serves only one term. to hear john boehner tell it, the white house still isn't getting it. >> there seems to be some denial on the part of the president and other democratic leaders, the message sent by the american people. when you have the most historic election in over 60, 70 years, you would think that the other party would understand that the american people have clearly repudiated the policies that they put forward the last two years. >> jonathan capehart is an msnbc contributor and editorial writer for the "washington post." good to see you. >> hey, thomas. >> mr. boehner keeps to referring to the american people as if they all voted for the republican ideology. is that something the white house and democrats should be rejecting, or should the white house remind people that, yeah, the country voted for change in '08. maybe they're getting a memo here in 2010, a little update to what we voted for. >> right. the american people voted for change in 2006. they voted for change in 2008. they voted for change in 2010. rhetorically it's very clever of the republicans to say that this election was a message from the american people. and you remember on election night, or the day after the election, i believe it was senate minority leader mitch mcconnell who said we'll work with the administration as long as they listen to the american people. you know, as you said rightfully, thomas. just because the voters tossed out the democrats and brought in the republicans into the house doesn't mean they're going to agree with everything that the republicans want done. >> so the president admits he wants to work with republicans, but do you think he's ever going to get to a point where he no longer considers that a viable option? >> well, it depends on the issue. if we're talking foreign policy, i'm sure there's some areas where he and the republicans can work together and get some things done. if you look at education, that's something both sides truly care about and could possibly get things done. where there's going to be hell to pay is when they look at the really heart issues, those bush era tax cuts due to expire at the end of the year and other economic issues where the fighting and not the controversy, but the fighting twoon the two sides will be very intense. and the possible of reaching a compromise looks very slim. >> republicans have started to hang their hat on the fact they want to repeal health care. that's not a secret to anybody out there. but is the distraction of talking about that really just that, a distraction from the serious problems in front of the country with 15 million americans out of jobs? >> well, it's a disstrax right now in that they can say it. it keeps the base ginned up. it keeps the folks who voted republicans interested. but we have to discount a little bit of what's being said right now. when john boehner becomes speaker. when mitch mcconnell firmly in senate majority leader status and whatever happens with the house leadership. when they get into a room and have to really start governing, that's when we'll have to start paying attention. now the republicans are -- they now have a true m responsibility in governing. >> jonathan capehart, good to see you. just hours after washing his party get crushed in the 1994 midterms, president bill clinton offered an olive branch to republicans. >> i also called the leaders of the next congress senator dole and congressman gingrich to tell them after this hard fought campaign that we are ready to work together to serve all the american people in a nonpartisan manner. >> president obama said virtually the same thing after tuesday's shellacking, but the according to mcconnell, the gop is in no mood to pete the president half way. >> the white house has a choice. they can change course or they can double down on a vision of government that the american people have loudly rejected. when the administration agrees with the american people, we will agree with the administration. when it disagrees with the american people, we won't. this has been the posture from the beginning of this administration, and we intend to stick with it. if the administration wants cooperation, it will have to begin to move in our intersection. >> michael tanner is director of health and welfare studies and joins us. is it fair to say all this talk of compromise is just window dressing for what's likely to be two years of total gridlock when it comes to congress? >> sure. i mean, we have two very different ideological points of view. president obama wants to move the country to the left. republicans want to move the country to the right. you can't necessarily just split the difference between them. i think in this case an ideological debate is a good thing to have. >> so you wrote a column describing the ten takeaways for the gop. it's the economy stopping obama care. cutting spending, not just taxes, banning earmarks, leveling with americans, tack tacklitackl tackling entitlements and a possible government shut yn down. in the bush administration it backfired. why would you say this is a takeaway for something that would work this time? >> i certainly don't think it was anything to do with the bush administration? it was one of the biggest spending administration before the obama administration that we've seen. if anything it was a rejection of big government conservativism and the last republican congress and big government liberalism of the obama administration. this was a clear message from the american people for smaller, less expensive government. >> so let's talk about that. you bring up big government conservative side of things. so let's go with the tea party. i want to read something to you from today's new york times and get your reaction. quote, as the party controlling the house the republicans have to produce budget, spending bills and other legislation that the 40 lawmakers strongly allied to the tea party might balk at supporting. they will be very leery of the establishment, even if it is the leadership of their own party. almost every republican has made the repeal of the health care top priority, what's happening with the jobs and the economy being the number one issue? was that just a campaign tactic? >> well, i certainly think the economy has to be number one. if the republicans go off on tangents on where to place a mosque or don't ask, don't tell, they're going to get tossed out. they have to focus on economic growth. repealing parts of obama care that they can do. and doing things to generate more investment and growth. >> michael, thanks for joining us today. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> veterans come to congress, newly elected congressmen who served in iraq and afghanistan. how would they change capitol hill? we're going to talk to one of the upcoming freshmen. the next big thing from lexus is not a car. it's the idea that a car that will never have an accident may be possible. in pursuit of this goal, lexus developed the world's most advanced driving simulator, where a real driver in a real car can react to real situations without real consequences. the breakthroughs we innovate here may someday make all cars safer. this is the pursuit of tomorrow. this is the pursuit of perfection. just got more powerful. introducing precise pain relieving cream. it blocks pain signals fast for relief precisely where you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol. so it's friday. now that the dust has settled on the midterm elections we're going to steal a page from our friends at morning joe. so who are the winners and losers of this election cycle? it's willie geist and his unique take. >> i'm not recommending for every future president that they take a shellacking like i did last night. >> the republican shellacking of democrats this week put the president in a sad mood. but left the speaker to be in tears of joy. >> chasing the american dream. i poured my heart and soul into running a small business. >> republicans celebrated wins that sent shock waves from state houses to the halls of congress. >> we've come to take our government back. >> reporter: sarah palin celebrated her own impact on the even's races with a video starring lumer jacks and growling grizzlies. but the big winner, of course, was the natural disaster metaphor. >> not pa wave election, but a tidal wave election. >> a tidal wave or a tsunami. >> to me, that's an earthquake. >> you do realize all your metaphors for republican victory kills thousands of people. >> it was a rough night for professional wrestling executives. >> isn't that just a kick -- >> for opponents of buddhists. >> why did he once tie a woman up? >> for billionaire heads of online auction sites and a devastating night for pot heads across the state of california. >> pot, marijuana, weed, whatever you want to call it, it's a no go. >> the legalization of marijuana! drum roll please, it's not going to happen. >> where we failed to unite americans this week, cold beverages succeeded. opponents in the ugly illinois senate race got together after the election to throw a few back. and president obama appeared open to the idea of a slurpee summit with john boehner. >> they're delicious drinks. >> america said some difficult good-byes this week. >> we have won. the delaware political system will never be the same. >> christine o'donnell may have lost her race in delaware, but she left her mark on history. >> i'm not a witch. >> you have to answer these questions. >> well, certainly. i'll answer those questions when i'm the senator. >> mystery man alvin greene won 28% of the vote in his south carolina senate race. and hosted a sparsely attended election night party. >> this is my reception. we lost two good ones when carl paladino went down swinging. >> my baseball bat is a met fore for the people. make no mistake. you have not heard the last of carl paladino. and it's time to say good-bye to jimmy "the rent is too damn high" mcmillen. >> the rent is too damn high. ♪ i will remember you >> it already makes me sentimental. especially with that music. it tugs at the heart strings. so the march to 2012 begins. next, how president obama ov's overseas trip will play into his bid. that's going to go right in your glove. ohhh. oh. see that? 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[ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. check with your doctor because it can happen to anybody. ♪ [ upbeat instrumental ]or [ rattling ] [ gasps ] [ rattling ] [ laughing ] [ announcer ] close enough just isn't good enough. - if your car is in an accident, - [ laughing continues ] make sure it's repaired with the right replacement parts. take the scary out of life with travelers. call or click now for an agent or quote. i'm trish regan with your cnbc market wrap. reaction to the jobs report today. numbers on the dow are up 29 points. s&p 500 trading up just a pinch there. naz dam cosdaq composite index down by five points. investors speculating for the good jobs report will mean less quantitative easing from the federal reserve. that's the big concern. maybe the market won't get as much free money as it's hoping for. we'll see how this plays out as we get closer and closer to tend of the session. >> trish, as we've been talking about the president beginning his trip to asia, explain to us why this is important. >> well, he's trying to strengthen some economic ties, thomas with additional countri