take a view that there's only so much that can be done from a white house to prevent the kinds of losses we're showing here? >> well, it's a great question, steve. i think generally macro forces more important than questions of messaging or tactics. i remind you back in 2010, you remember, democrats had monster elections in '06 and '08. won everything they could win. were owning a lot of hostile turf. probably going to give back in a neutral political market, but 2010 was not. still in the teeth of a recession. other thing i point out. you showed george w. bush in 2002. the other midterm exception was 1998. in 1998 republicans paid a price for overreaching on impeachment as voters saw it against bill clinton. 2002, republicans did a very good job weaponizing national security and homeland security. if your the democrats what you need to do -- there's not an