expedient decision. if he makes a decision that makes the liberal wing of the democratic party happy the moderates say he must be in the pocket of labor or some other liberal constituency. his own party seems to assume the worst of his motives and i think that... he's allowed his decisions to be made... to be viewed through the prizm of mechanics and washington maneuvering as opposed to, hey, here's what i really believe. here's where i'm trying to take the country, this is my world view and follow me as i try to lead the country toward that. >> rose: we move from politics to literature and a conversation with martin amisabout writing and friendship and mortality. >> it started out being me when i stupidly tried to write for quite a long time an autobiographical novel about the sexual revolution with that title. and then realized a, that real life in fiction is dead. it's inert. life is chaos, it has none of the symmetries and patterning of a novel. also that you can't write about your own sex life without being disgusting or at least embarrassing. there's just not... there isn't a voice that can do it. in fact, writing about sex may, indeed, be a dead end. i manage it there for in the sex that is described is pornographic in nature and there are various plot reasons why this is so. and it's perfectly easy to write about emotionless sex. but what has always defeated writers is... including lawrence and updike and everyone else who's really tried it is that you cannot... sex is deuniversallizing. >> rose: john harris and martin amis next. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: we begin this evening with a continue situation about our conversations about the obama presidency and the challenge the president faces. tonight we look at domestic politics, including the midterm elections and yesterday's primaries and the political leadership by the president. joining me now from washington is john harris. he is editor-in-chief of politico. i'm pleased to have him back on this program, especially after an election night. welcome. >> hi, charlie. >> rose: john, tell me, what did these election results tell us? >> well, they told us... and i think this was probably the most significant primary night we've had in several months. this was a big one. in particular this primary battle in colorado where the incumbent, michael bennett, the person appointed senator, was in a tough intraparty battle. president barack obama had clearly picked sides and was backing bennett over his challenger andrew romanoff. and it looked like this place was pretty close. in the end it turned out not to be so close. i think it was eight points by which bennett won. if he hadn't won, it would have been a real embarrassment. the white house knew it. they were primed for it. i was talking just yesterday with a senior obama political radded advisor who was very nervous and if they knew bennett had stumbled it would have been not just his defeat but seen as a defeat for obama because obama had been out to colorado time and time again and made it clear in his choice. so anyway, they got some good news for a change and they've needed it. >> rose: it's said that by him... by the president that what he was able to do in 2008 was make his personal narrative a narrative of the country. he clearly did that. what narrative would the president like for the country to see going into these midterms and as a precedent to what the narrative might be in 2012? >> right. i think we have to look at this, as you asked, what he would like the narrative to be. but then also acknowledge that he is not succeeding right now in 2010 the way he did in 2008 of making his preferred narrative the way that most of the country has seen it. i think president obama's narrative would be hey, i came into office in very difficult circumstances, i said i was going to do big things, it's been a rough ride along the way but we've done those big things. we've stopped the economy from freefall, we've passed a comprehensive health care legislation, we've passed an overall of financial laws in response to the meltdown in 2008. i said we would end the combat mission in iraq by august of this year and that's precisely what we're doing. so i think his narrative would be hey, times are tough but they're getting better. i'm somebody who's good to my word, i say what i'm going to do, i'm sort of an earnest conscientious president. maybe i'm making some mistakes, maybe washington is... i haven't been successful in taming washington the way i hope to, it's still a rough, divided, polarized time but we're making progress and why would you want to go back to the crowd that had power stpwh-fr that's his narrative. i don't see that being the dominant narrative in the country right now. >> rose: what's the dominant narrative in the country right now? >> i think the dominant narrative in the country is that what the obama administration is calling the recovery, the first to acknowledge it's an uneven recovery, doesn't feel like a recovery to most people. that drowns out much of the other messages that politicians want the public to hear. they don't believe that president obama has fundamentally changed the character of washington. they don't like the way that washington works in either party. they see more polarization. they see more bickering. and i think at a very fundamental level, lots of people don't see his major policy initiatives working as remedies to the things that they care about: health care reform, maybe it's... maybe... it's certainly a formidable legislative achievement. but it's not clear that it's a... passing that is a big political achievement. and i don't think it will be clear, certainly not by november. it won't be clear until people can see it also being effect i have policy and that people don't see that yet. so they're unhappy. they're angry. >> rose: and they blame him. >> i think certain parts of the electorate do blame him directly and i think certain other parts of the electorate don't necessarily blame him but they're saying, hey, wait a minute, this is not what change was supposed to feel like. i was supposed to peel better now and i don't. >> rose: we have a 9% plus unemployment and people are sayings where this recovery and what is the president doing and what did he do that didn't take care of this? >> that's right. and i do think that this goes directly to the question of how we perceive president obama's leadership. people like me, political reporters, we tend to analyze messaging. we tend to sort of critique presidents on whether or not they're striking the right rhetorical posture or how they handle the mechanics of individual decisions. and yet i think there is a fair argument to make all that is almost irrelevant in a climate where you've got almost 10% unemployment. that's the dominant reality. the most brilliant messaging by the... president obama and his political team, by the democrats on capitol hill, the most brilliant messaging is basically beside the point when people are upset about 10% unemployment and if unemployment were 5% these guys would look like geniuses but it's not so there's all kinds of second guessers. my personal view, charlie, is that may let them off the hook a little bit too easy. i have been struck... the point you made, about president obama's success in 2008 was making his narrative the country's narrative and i think there's some specific reasons beyond the economy that that's been the case. >> rose: and they are? >> you follow this whole flap this week with robert gibbs giving an interview making clear his frustration with certain commentators on the left. he says "they must be on drugs if they think there's no difference between president obama and president george w. bush." i think one reason that president obama doesn't get credit from the left and doesn't... if you look at the polls doesn't get a lot of credit from independents who also are deeply disaffected is that he doesn't spend a lot of time talking about the broader context of his decisions. his great success in 2008 was he transcended the internal divide in the democratic party. these questions that most democratic presidents, presidential candidates get. hey, are you a new democrat, a so called d.l.c. democrat, are you more tradition old-line liberal? he said "those questions are irrelevant, i'm barack obama." he united the party around his personal story and, of course, around the democratic party's disdain for president bush. and that was enough. he never defined himself in a philosophical or an ideological way. that was great in the campaign. i think it doesn't work as effectively in governance. i'm struck... every decision he makes if the left is unhappy they assume he's just selling out, he made an expedient decision. if he makes a decision that makes the liberal wing of the democratic party happy, the moderates say oh, he must be in the pocket of labor or some other liberal constituency. his own party seems to assume the worst of his motives and i think that he's allowed his decisions to be made, to be viewed through the prism of mechanics and washington maneuvering as opposed to hey, here's what i really believe, here's where i'm trying to take the country, this is my world view and follow me as i try to lead the country toward that. >> rose: do you think there's a difference in terms of this? admiration and likability? i mean, you can admire someone for their skills, and on the other hand to like them is something very different and is a very, very important political quality. >> well, there's been a lot of conversation that president obama, his personality is too austere, too detached, too intellectual and that people aren't getting the feeling that human connection with him. some of that is certainly stylistic. he is cool, low key, cerebral style politician. wasn't true in 2008 where many people did feel an intensely emotional attachment. >> rose: does he have in terms of the party and in terms of washington and in terms of the country a sense of reaching out? a sense of wanting to make sure that he is engaged and is connected? >> rose: well, i think you can overstate these things. you know, president obama's still popular with his party. if you look at polls you see the democrats are by overwhelming margins they like him and they support his presidency. so i think you can put too much stock in the... some of the liberal commentators, the columnist ins, the bloggers or whatever. and i go back to... i do agree with the people who say, look, if unemployment were 5% rather than almost 10% everything would look different. he's out there. his team feels when he's out there in front of the country he does connect more than he does when he's in washington but for all that there's no getting around the fact that he doesn't have yet the kind of almost mystical connection with the public. the country sort of understanding at a human and each thet i can level of who this person is and where he's trying to 25eubg the country. i don't think he's succeeded in that. >> rose: what's the biggest challenge for him for the next two years? >> i think it's hard to define that challenge because it's going to be affected by such profound ways in what happens in these midterm elections. if democrats come out alive with modest losses and... but still retain control of the congress that's an entirely different picture. it allows him to continue to be -- to my mind-- a very ideologically ambitious president. i've been struck with some of the complaints on the left that they don't know what obama stands for or they think he's been a big disappointment. it's been an enormously productive season of governing in washington. you can't say that barack obama is jimmy carter and he's gotten licked by washington. he hasn't. he's accomplished big things. you can argue whether those are good things or bad but you can't argue that they're small. and i think that... a decent democratic result in november would allow him to continue that. if democrats get licked in the fall, you're going to have... you're going to see a... i think a much different presidency. they're going to have to come up with a new theory of a case of how they govern. and, you know, this obama team, charlie, has been often pretty disdainful in private conversations of bill clinton. they think he stood for kind of a small-ball presidency, al about tactics and not about a larger vision. i think they're going to start to appreciate bill clinton's presidency if they find themselves in a similar situation as clinton did facing a hostile republican congress. >> rose: you once wrote a book about politics with mark halprin, i heard him say this morning he could see the republicans winning an extra 60 seats, which would give them the majority. is that in your judgment and among the political cognizant that you know likely? >> there's a lot of people who think it's likely. i think what mark was citing was not some kind of outlandish prediction. you're asking me personally do i think it's likely, i don't. i do think that you're seeing plenty of instances of republicans no, ma'am putting forward the most electable candidates. not putting forward the most attractive face for their party and the closer we get to november you're going to have not simply a referendum on obama and the democrat bus a clear choice. i don't think that choice is likely to produce the sort of overwhelming gains, republican gains that some people are forecasting. i think they might be fairly modest. >> rose: so democrats retain control of the house and the senate would be your guess now. >> that's my guess now with the proviso, charlie, that anybody who would consistently bet on my electoral predictions would not be a wealthy man. >> rose: i thank you for joining us. >> great fun. good to see you, charlie. >> rose: john harris from politico as we look at the politics and the political leadership of president obama. back in a moment. martin amis is here to talk about his new novel and his close friendship with christopher hitchens. stay with us. martin amis is here. at just 24 he published his debut novel "the rachel papers." he was quickly branded a career rival thaofg his famous father kingsley amis. 20 books later, martin amis is now 60 and going strong. ron charles of the "washington post" says "there's not a smarter cleverer writer alive than martin amis." "the pregnant widow" is his 12th novel. i'm pleased to have him here back at this table. and there's also this in the beginning of the book. from that you chose this title. >> yeah. he was talking about social and political revolutions and the revolution i'm talking about is the sexual revolution, that that was no different than from any other in that it isn't a flip, it isn't a capsize when you have a revolution, it's a... you know, you start from a new basis but then it takes forever to adjust itself because your old beliefs and inhibitions in the case of the sexual revolution don't evaporate at the snap of a finger. they have to work their way through you. and i think, for instance, the rise of women-- which i applaud and encourage whenev i can-- will take at least another century. so "the pig are widow" is in her first trimester. it isn't a fate acomply. it's something that will evolve where where we are now and it's still evolving. >> rose: you set this in 1970 because of your subject matter, aassume. >> the hinge year. i remember very clearly. people say "you didn't know it was a revolution then." oh, yes, you did. you would have been a little bit older, but can remember what it was like before the sexual revolution and how tremendously dedicated girls were to the old ways. i.e., you know, you save yourself for your husband and there will be no sex before marriage. >> rose: and then all of a sudden? >> then all of a sudden it was like when you see these documentaries about the wildebeest in africa and there's a tremor and then a stampede and they're off. and it was very like that. and slightly unreal as always these things always are. above all, unreal. and the thought that, you know, walking along or sitting around the pool with girls who are sunbathing topless, i had this this persistent thought which is where the where are the police?" >> rose: you had experienced this going to italy on a vacation about that time? >> yeah. there was such a summer. but it was... whereas this is full of teeming sexual tensions and aspirations, that summer was pa thet nick that nothing would ever happen. young people and possibilities, but nothing came of it. >> rose: your narrator is a 20-year-old keith here inning. is that you? >> it started out being me when i stupidly tried to write for quite a long time an autobiographical novel about the sexual revolution with that title and then realized, a, that real life in fiction is dead. it's inert because life is chaos, it has none of the symmetries and patterning of a novel. and also that you can't write about your own sex life without being disgusting or at least embarrassing. there is just not... there isn't a voice that can do it. and, in fact, writing about sex may, indeed, be a dead end. and i manage it there for... in that the sex that is described is pornographic in nature and there are various plot reasons why this is so. and it's perfectly easy to write about emotionless sex. but what has always defeated writers is... including lawrence and updike and everyone else who's really tried it is that you cannot... sex is deuniversallizing. >> rose: why did you want to write about sex? >> i... well, charlie, as you get older... >> rose: (laughs) yes. tell charlie. >> you want to know what you lived through. what was the big political... cultural political development of your time. for our grandparents it would have been the movement of people from the land to the cities. for our father's time, our parent's time it would have been the war. for us, i think this was the great change. this was the reinvention of how men and women were to behave to each other and a great, necessary, and inevitable thing. but an ambiguous thing with its own casualties and its own ways of getting it wrong. >> rose: it's just impossible, do you think, to be autobiographical, as you suggest in to write that kind of thing that will be rivetting and interesting? >> well, how are you going to do it? are you going to say "towards morning i took her again"? there's that sort of style. or there's... you know, as you sometimes find in trashier fiction, "she was sobbing and damn near fainted." >> rose: but you also said you wanted to write about the one you missed. >> yeah, well i think that's what obsesses us all. when all you've got to do is keep your mouth shut and yet it doesn't... something goes wrong and i think you never forget those. you never forget any of them, any of your erotic sexual life but those ones hurt. >> rose: the ones you missd? >> yeah. >> rose: in fact, you suggest on your deathbed or keith suggests on your deathbed, most men... it's almost universal, keith says, they think about the ones they missed and the ones they had. >> well, bertram russell i think put it this way. i've never seen it on... no man is ever unconfirmed it, that you just wish there'd been more of it. just bulk, you know? >> rose: (laughs) is that right? is your that your sentiment now at 60? you wish there had been more of it? >> yeah. and... (laughs) but it's very... it's completely intelligible that those are the times when you're most intensely alive. >> rose: when you here in the midst of sex? >> well... >> rose: leading up to it and the act itself and thinking about it and everything else. >> yeah. this is love and life, idealliment it's all part of that. it's the most... the erotic, the life force is at its most intense. and i t