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CNN TONIGHT

America's Choice 2014: Races To Watch; The Obama Factor; Race And The Midterms; Impact Of ISIS And Ebola On Elections

Aired November 3, 2014 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. It's 11:00 p.m. on the east coast. This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon. Tonight, we're live across the country with all the races to watch this election eve. Is the GOP on the verge of taking control of the Senate and will tomorrow's vote be a report card for the president on everything from ISIS to Ebola?

Plus the marijuana midterm, several states are voting on whether to loosen restrictions on marijuana. Is America going to pot? We're going to get into all of that tonight.

But first I want to begin with CNN's Michelle Kosinski live for us at the White House this evening. Michelle, here we go, just hours away from Election Day. The White House has largely been quiet on many of tomorrow's key races. What can we expect from the White House tomorrow?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: All right, definitely, well, the White House says we are going to continue to hear from the president, but it's not in the form of public appearances, in fact, today and tomorrow no public appearances at all.

But they say the way certain parts of the country will be hearing from him will be in robo calls and radio spots. They didn't want to mention, which ones are running because they said that they hadn't been announced by the campaigns yet indicating there was still some decision-making going on in some of these races.

But we do know in North Carolina one will run for Senator Kay Hagan who is at times tried to distance herself from the president, as have many candidates in these tight, tight races. So his voice will be out there, but we're not going to see him actively campaigning. And that's pretty much what we've seen throughout. At least in these races that America is really watching -- Don.

LEMON: Michelle, take us behind the scenes. Are they worried about what they will face in Congress for the next two years?

KOSINSKI: Worried, I don't know if that's the best word. I think it's more expecting and possibly dreading in some ways, but this has been coming up. It's been building for such a long time and it's also not the most unusual scenario.

I mean, almost always in a president's second term that party's going to lose seats. The Senate or the House could switch or both. I mean, we've seen this again and again. So it was a real possibility.

What we did hear from the White House today was a little bit different than what we hear from Vice President Biden in his interview with CNN earlier. He said it's not going to be that big a deal. We're just going to keep doing what we're doing.

The White House said, OK, it is a big deal, this will be significant. But again, they said the president is going to keep trying to work with anyone, as they put it, who will support measure that's will help America's middle class families -- Don.

LEMON: Michelle Kosinski, appreciate your reporting this evening. Now I want to bring in a man whose political crystal ball has been pretty accurate and that's Larry Sabato. He is the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Welcome, sir. Thank you for joining us.

LARRY SABATO: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: You know, Vice President Joe Biden told our very own Gloria Borger that Democrats will keep the Senate. You have your crystal ball blog. So is he right? Will Democrats be able to keep their majority?

SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER OF POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, anything's possible particularly on election eve. You start questioning your own predictions. But I think it's very unlikely. I think it's become even more unlikely over the last week. You know, Republicans certainly don't have a slam dunk here.

It wasn't ease easy for them to get to 51 as they thought it was going to be earlier in the year. But I'll be surprised if they don't get there. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they got 52, 53 seats and if everything falls just right for them. It could go a little above that.

LEMON: What do you mean by a six-year itch? That's how you describe this election year.

SABATO: It's the sixth year of a two-term presidency. There is something about the sixth year that causes the incumbent White House party to lose a fair number of seats, sometimes loads of seats in both houses of Congress.

Only Teddy Roosevelt in 1906 and Bill Clinton surprisingly in 1998 have been able to avoid the six-year itch. It's a tough year for most presidents. And I will be very, very surprised if President Obama doesn't have a serious itch to scratch after tomorrow night.

LEMON: OK, you know, will tomorrow's midterms do you think, Larry, give any clues as to what could happen in a 2016 race for the presidency?

SABATO: Don, I could guarantee you every pundit in America will come up with ten ideas. And I'm going to push back because I think that first of all two years is a lifetime in politics. And if you look back at our history, the sixth-year elections as often as not predict nothing about the next presidential election. So we're going to hear a lot of ideas and people should approach them or listen to them very skeptically.

LEMON: You heard everyone talking about Kansas, Alaska, New Hampshire, Louisiana, Georgia, and so on and so forth. Is there anything that you think that people will be surprised by tomorrow?

SABATO: I think we'll have some surprises for sure. There are nine very close Senate races. There are 11 very close governor's races and frankly, you can just flip a coin. I've been looking for a lucky coin to flip in making predictions on many of these races because they really are close.

And even the people on both sides with the private trackings admit how close they are and that they could go either way. Some of them have been frank enough to say they have no idea what's going to happen. And most political people never admit that.

LEMON: Yes. So everyone is saying it's not really where the polls are, right, if you've been doing this long enough. It's the momentum that they're going in. So why does everything appear to be going the Republicans' way? That's what it appears right now.

SABATO: Well, I wouldn't say everything's going their way. The Democrats may be able to keep a firewall, at least in New Hampshire. Maybe even in North Dakota, North Carolina, rather.

LEMON: You don't think the momentum, though, is on the Republican side?

SABATO: The momentum is on the Republican side, but it's not uniform. This is not a tsunami. It's not a wave. These are heavily Republican states that the GOP is carrying. I've compared this more to a full moon high tide for the Republicans.

That's very different than a tsunami. You're going to have plenty of Democrats, especially in gubernatorial races, survive, and some of them will even beat Republican incumbents.

LEMON: All right, thank you, Larry Sabato. Appreciate it.

SABATO: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: Joining me now is Charles Blow, CNN political commentator and "New York Times" op-ed columnist. You heard what Larry said. Do you agree? Do you think the momentum is on the Republican side? Do you think the Democrats will be able to keep up a firewall and may be able to keep control of the Senate?

CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you know, the smart money now seems to be that Republicans are likely to take control of the Senate. Although there are, as Larry Sabato is pointing out, it's really hard to tell because you have to wait until Election Day. You have to make sure that the models are correct. That people will turn out in the proportions that the models suggest they'll turn out. If those turnout models turn out to be wrong in one state or more than one state, then those states could be very different than what the polling is saying.

LEMON: Yes, a lot of pollsters were surprised in 2012 and we saw it live on national television as they were very surprised. So Charles, let's talk about your new column. Because in your "New York Times" column you said blacks, Obama, and the election.

You list the many issues that conservatives have attacked the president on, which was the IRS scandal, Ebola, ISIS, Benghazi, and the list goes on and on. You say the GOP isn't really running on issues, they're running against an individual. That's politics, though, right?

BLOW: Of course, it's politics. You do whatever you think is going to help you to win the election. And in this particular election, the Republicans are placing their bet that people are unhappy in the states that are competitive with President Obama.

And a lot of Democratic candidates in those very same states are -- have kind of bought into the idea that the president is very unpopular in those states and he cannot them and so they're asking him in polite ways to stay away.

And the Republicans are running ad after ad after ad after ad that basically say that whoever the Democrat is on the ticket in that particular state, it's basically just a rubber stamp for Obama. I was in Baton Rouge yesterday. I'm in Atlanta today.

And you realize how inundated these populations are with these types of ads and they're not really issue ads. They're just saying that this candidate, this Democratic candidate is in line with Obama.

LEMON: OK, yes, and I've heard a lot of that, having been from Baton Rouge and visited there recently, the thing is this candidate will vote on everything that the president has voted on. You also point out too that among the African-American voters support is still strong for the president, something that "SNL" alluded to this weekend. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Times are looking bleak. Republicans are likely going to take the Senate and many Americans have been disappointed with the president's handling of the Ebola crisis, immigration, and ISIS. So I'm asking, for real. Should we have voted for Mitt Romney? Hell, no. Hell, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Then they went on to talk about other scenarios about, no, the president was wrong on this, but would that change your vote? And they say no. The woman who gave you birth feels the same way. Obama can do no wrong. The president has been out of sight in a lot of these key elections tomorrow. He is now playing to the black votes in an effort to keep the Senate. I mean, will this last-ditch effort, do you think, as you call it, will it work?

BLOW: Well, I don't know. But I think, you know, the idea of politicians trying to play to a particular demographic where they are strong is understandable and he's doing that. The African-American populations vote overwhelmingly Democratic regardless of who is on the ticket.

And they in particular seem to be holding this president in high regard. And he is now asking them to come out and vote in higher numbers. So in a couple of states, you know, maybe Georgia, maybe Louisiana, North Carolina, maybe Arkansas.

You could have enough of an African-American population in those states that if you cranked up the turnout among that group who always vote Democratic, you could have an impact. Whether or not this will work, who knows?

There is some suggestion in some of the early voting tallies that the numbers are up from 2010. Will it be up enough? Will more of those people actually show up on Election Day than are being predicted at this point? Who knows?

LEMON: That's a million-dollar question right there. Can I get this in? I want to get your quick response because I want to play this. This is from News One here, the first lady speaking to Roland Martin. A channel geared toward African-Americans. Here it is.

BLOW: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: And that's my message to voters. This isn't about Barack. It's not about the person on the ballot. It's about you and for most of the people that we're talking to, a Democratic ticket is the clear ticket that we should be voting on regardless of who said what or did this. That shouldn't even come into the equation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It's not about the person on the ballot. It's about you. Is she right?

BLOW: Well, I mean, it's hard to parse exactly what she means by that. But I do believe, you know, this is a Democratic presidency, the first lady married to a Democratic president. Of course, they are going to be in favor of the Democratic line.

And I think the Democrats have basically been trying to make this pitch that the Democratic Party is the more friendly party for particular populations and trying to make that case. Will it be enough? That keeps becoming the question. Is this going to be enough to make more people come out to the votes? African-Americans do come out relatively speaking in midterms as a decent rate. So you'd have to push that up even higher than it is now. Whether or not this pitch will do that, I'm not exactly sure.

LEMON: It's usually higher during presidential election years.

BLOW: Everybody's higher other than elderly people.

LEMON: Thank you very much, Charles Blow. Appreciate it. When we come back, the White House on the ropes on everything from Ebola to ISIS, will voter discontent with the president turn out in favor of the GOP?

Also, two conservative women who say the right needs to make -- needs a makeover. Plus, hot at the polls. Three states from the District of Columbia have marijuana legislation on the ballot. Is America going to pot?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: For some voters the biggest issues in the midterms are ISIS and the Ebola scare. So joining me now is Steve Latourette, a former Republican congressman from Ohio, A.B. Stoddard, associate editor and columnist for "The Hill," Ryan Lizza, CNN political commentator and Washington correspondent for the "New Yorker," and Maeve Reston, a political reporter for the "Los Angeles Times" and a contributor to "Inside Politics."

All right, you guys are going to play fair tonight? I certainly hope not. So I'm going to start with A.B. Stoddard. A.B., how much do you think ISIS and Ebola, two stories that have really dominated the headlines in recent weeks, how much do you think it will impact the results tomorrow?

A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR/COLUMNIST, "THE HILL": Well, I think it will have impacted the end of the campaign, and for candidates who are struggling, especially on the Democratic side, it will have been a problem. If you look at polls, the new NBC/"Wall Street Journal" polls, this is not at all the top issue. Neither one of these stories is.

The economy is and health care and other domestic issues. But they took up a lot of oxygen. They were scary and they were good commercial material, and they were good stump topics. And so that's why it had a way of drowning out the message.

That at least Democrats would have wanted to talk about, an economy in recovery, good new numbers and indicators, and cheaper gas and stuff like that. When you know, Ebola and ISIS was a sign that everything was out of control.

LEMON: Ryan, I wonder if she's right because as you sit around and you listen to people across the country, I've traveled a couple places in the last week or so, and I wonder if we are in a news bubble or in a vacuum where these are the big things for us, but many people aren't talking about it. Is she right?

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think A.B. is exactly right. I couldn't have said it better than she said it. The polls show absolutely no indication that these two incredibly important stories that we've been covering at CNN and elsewhere are very important in the elite media, they have not broken through.

You don't see campaigns, for instance, running on those issues and the campaigns are polling every day. So you know what voters care about. And the voters are not telling pollsters that those are the issues that are going to drive them to the polls.

Now, that doesn't mean that it's not in the back of their mind, that it might not shape views and how people are feeling about the direction of the country in general. I find it hard to believe that this number you keep seeing about the country being on the wrong track.

I'm sure that ISIS and Ebola and all the other crazy scary things going on in the world feed into American anxieties right now. It's not a foreign policy election, and that's what ISIS is all about. And people are not, you know, despite all the attention to it. People are not as freaked out about Ebola as you might think.

LEMON: Representative, doesn't it speak to leadership about how long it took the president to name an Ebola czar and on and on? Will people look at it in that way?

STEVEN LATOURETTE (R), FORMER OHIO REPRESENTATIVE: Well, I think that's the issue. I agree with both Ryan and A.B. that this isn't bubbling to the top of what's going to drive people to the polls tomorrow. But I put it under the category of this president just can't catch a break.

I'm a good loyal Republican, but I don't think Ebola is his fault. I don't think ISIS is his fault. But it's the failure or perceived failure to act in a decisive way that sort of piles on and gives sort of fuel to this fact that this president is just going to take us in the wrong direction.

So it's more background chatter. I think it hurts the Democrats. The only exception where I think ISIS has played a role is up in New Hampshire. I think Scott Brown has used it against Shaheen.

LEMON: But I mean, it has happened on this president's watch. That's the obvious thing. But Maeve, I want you to listen to the vice president. What he told our very own Gloria Borger today about the administration's handling of ISIS and Ebola. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We've got to figure out, we, the president and I have to figure out how to better communicate exactly what's being done. That's part of the problem. That's part of the dilemma. LEMON: Day before the midterm election, Vice President Biden says he and the president have a problem communicating with the American public. Is that a strategy?

MAEVE RESTON, POLITICAL REPORTER, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": I don't know if it's a strategy, but it certainly was a very valid point and something that a lot of people would agree with. I guess I'm a little bit of the outlier here.

I was just in Iowa over the last week and this issue does come up, ISIS and Ebola. Not so much as the top issue that people are talking about, but there's a lot of uneasiness about the economy.

Still even after all these years, after the crash. And beneath that people feel that the government is just basically not in full control. And maybe that's partly what the vice president was talking about.

But you know, the feeling of uneasiness, is the government going to be able to deal with Ebola, are they going to be able to deal with ISIS, do they have the right solutions.

I think that very much is on the minds of voters everywhere and it doesn't necessarily, you know, play to either party. It certainly reflects on the president. But they're not happy with anyone right now and the way they're handling things.

LEMON: Republicans may be exuberant tomorrow from your perspective, Congressman, as a former congressman. Is there anything you would warn your colleagues on Capitol Hill about?

LATOURETTE: Well, sure. I mean, it's like the dog catching the car. You've got to be careful of what you wish for. If in fact things turn out the way most people think and the Republicans are in functional control of both houses, I think you have to go to Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's letter that says we've got to govern.

And if we don't take this opportunity between now and 2016 and it looks like the same old circular firing squad, we're going to hand the White House and the Senate and maybe the House to the Democratic Party in 2016. So yes, they should be nervous about that.

LEMON: All right, everyone, stay with me. Is President Obama more of a lame duck than presidents usually are at this point? And will he and the GOP get anything done if Republicans control both the House and Congress? Some answers when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: President Obama has two years left in the White House, but is he even more of a lame duck than most second-term presidents? I'm back now with former U.S. Representative Steven Latourette, A.B. Stoddard, Ryan Lizza and also Maeve Reston.

So you know, it's not unusual for midterm elections to be difficult for presidents -- for the president's party especially when the president is a lame duck. I want you to take a listen to what President George W. Bush said after his election night in 2006 at this same point in his presidency.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: This is a close election. If you look at race by race, it was close. The cumulative effect, however, was not too close. It was a thumping.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It was a thumping. So first I'm going to start with A.B., is President Obama even more of a lame duck than usual or is this just how it goes at the end of a long presidency?

STODDARD: Well, President Obama, I think by his own definition, certainly by the definition of those in his party, has had a very successful first four years, I would say, in office because of the sweeping legislation he was able to pass. And so he will be down in the history books as maybe the last president for a while who will be able to move a Congress to pass broad sweeping legislation.

LEMON: But my question --

STODDARD: It is unpopular and it has made him much more unpopular than he expected and more unpopular than when George Bush was at this moment. Bill Clinton at this moment, he had to remind Americans he was still relevant. President Obama is going to have trouble getting anything done unless he wants to come to the middle.

LEMON: That's the answer to my question, Maeve, because even back then President Bush said Republicans took a thumping in the midterms in his second term. So do you think that this president is any different?

RESTON: I mean, I think that our memory is often short on this issue. You know, and you get to this point in your presidency, especially when you've tried to do the kinds of things that Obama has tried to do, and you just get to a point where you're going to be a drag on your party.

We certainly saw that with President Bush less so with Bill Clinton. But out there in the rest of the country I think that people are just ready for Obama to move on. They're looking for fresh faces. It's definitely a very strong anti-incumbent year and you see that across the board.

LEMON: Ryan, can we talk about this? Because I spoke with one of my guests earlier about there are people who say that the president seems weary of being president now, that he's almost over it. That he's just sort of biding his time. I don't know if that is a fair assessment. Go ahead.

LIZZA: I've heard that before. And you do -- I think there's a great reluctance on Obama's part to do some of the public performance of the presidency, which is kind of ironic because in some ways he's very good at -- you know, his rise through politics was a lot about public performance and great speeches. I think there's a real resistance in Obama and -- to do some of the things that the press and the folks in Washington pressure him into. I think one of the problems of the White House is it's become very insular. He's sort of got his set group of people and doesn't go beyond that that much. I don't think that's a great explanation for the problems he's having.

The real explanation is that ever since 2010 when Republicans took over the House, it's been impossible to move legislation in Washington. And you know, just to go back to your original question, if you look at the trajectory of Bush from his re-election and you look at the trajectory of Obama since his re-election, it's pretty much the same track. It's just straight down.

And I think you have to ask the question, you know, is it Bush? Is it Obama or is it just structurally is it not possible for American politicians to maintain their popularity over eight years?

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, you know, because he talked about it, this president actually talked about midterm elections back in 2010. Let's listen to it and see if we can glean any information from him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: This is something that I think every president needs to go through. I'm not recommending for every future president that they take a shellacking like I did last night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Representative, he called it a shellacking. Bush called it a thumping.

LIZZA: Looks a lot younger there too, doesn't he?

LEMON: He does looks a lot younger. His hair is darker too.

LIZZA: Well, I think -- what is he going to use on Wednesday if it's a thumbing or a shellacking? He's going to need a different word. I think it's very hard to govern in the current environment. And it's almost beyond the personalities and the specific presidents. We have something structural in American politics right now that makes it almost impossible to sustain your popularity.

LEMON: Representative, that was originally for you. But Ryan jumped in, so we let him finish. So what did you make of it?

STEVEN LATOURETTE (R), FORMER OHIO REPRESENTATIVE: Well, what I make of it is I think you have one of these golden opportunities coming up if the election turns out the way it's supposed to tomorrow.

And during the lame duck if the president and the speaker and Mitch McConnell and Democratic leaders open up the back channels and pick up the red telephone like this was the cold war and sort of say you know what, let's use this last two years to be constructive, you can get some stuff done.

That isn't the way it went in 2006. I was there for the thumping. And quite frankly, the Democratic-controlled House decided that they were not going to work with President Bush and vice versa. And you get nothing done. So you can either go that way or you have a golden opportunity and we'll see whether statesmen and stateswomen rise to the occasion.

LEMON: We should figure out what the next word will be. It was thumping, shellacking. The next one will probably be drubbing.

LATOURETTE: Drubbing. That's not bad.

LEMON: That's a good one. If Republicans do have a big night tomorrow, many people say that the biggest impact will be on appointing justices and filling those kinds of positions, getting appointees approved. It's a huge bone of contention as it is now. How big of a factor do you think that will be, A.B.?

A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR/COLUMNIST, "THE HILL": It all depends on what Republicans decide to do. If they're in charge of the Senate, they have time in January before they're sworn in where they're going to decide whether or not they're going to change the rules back to the way that they were and require a super majority or whether or not they're going to use the nuclear option.

That is a big source of contention, whether or not they should use the -- do to the Democrats what the Democrats did to them. We'll know in January what they decide.

LEMON: All right, thank you, A.B., Ryan, thank you, Maeve, and also Representative Steve Latourette. Appreciate all of you. Get some sleep. Long day tomorrow and a long night.

Up next, two conservative women who call themselves "Chicks on the Right" say the conservative movement needs a makeover. I'm going to ask them what they mean when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: What is the state of the conservative movement in America in 2014? I'm going to ask "Chicks on the Right." No disrespect. That's the name of their blog. That's what they call themselves.

So joining me now is Miriam Weaver and Amy Jo Clark, co-authors of "Right For A Reason: Life, Liberty, And A Crapload Of Common Sense."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was it hard for you to say that?

LEMON: I had to say chick and you know what, and I wanted to say the real word but I couldn't say it. You are sort of -- I think he's a libertarian, but you're saying what Rand Paul says. Rand Paul said the Republican Party -- I'm quoting here or paraphrasing. He said, it sucks or --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our brand. Our brand sucks. LEMON: Do you agree with that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we do agree with that.

LEMON: Why do you say it needs a makeover?

MIRIAM WEAVER, CO-AUTHOR, "RIGHT FOR A REASON": Because right now I think when people think of conservatives or the GOP they immediately conjure up an image of an old white dude. And so part of the reason that we started our site and the reason we wrote the book is to sort of reject that stereotype.

LEMON: So tell us who you are. You have a blog and you have a radio show?

AMY JO CLARK, CO-AUTHOR, "RIGHT FOR A REASON": We have a drive-time radio show in Indianapolis. We also have a column in the "Indy Star." And our website we started almost six years ago because of the reason that Miriam is talking about because we saw a lot of the stereotype that you know, the conservatives are -- or conservatives were just old stodgy white dudes. And we're not old stodgy white dudes. Surprise.

LEMON: You're not?

CLARK: No, we're not that. So we wanted to dispel that myth that we were all that.

LEMON: So back to my original question. You said in need of a makeover. What exactly does a party need?

WEAVER: It needs to get better messaging. It needs to be able to deliver what conservatism is really all about in a much more effective way. And that's where they've lost their way, frankly and they've lost women. They've lost minority voters as a result.

CLARK: And to be more on the offense rather than the defense because we do a lot of waiting for the messaging to be served up. And then we get on the defense and we want to be more on the offense of serving it up.

LEMON: It seems to me as someone -- I'm not political and people will go, my goodness -- I'm not left or right. I think that the Republicans do themselves a disservice and they seem to trip over themselves and they can't do it right. There's such an opportunity with people of color including Latinos, African-Americans, because Democrats take that vote for granted.

And they're not -- many times people of color are not served by the Democratic Party and I think the Republicans. They have a real opportunity there. Why don't they seize that opportunity?

WEAVER: We don't know.

LEMON: They can't help themselves.

CLARK: I know, we talk about that all the time on our website. It's almost as if we -- we're just silent. We just wait. And that's the thing is that we're not on the offense. We're too much on the defense. And we wait for that messaging.

We're too silent. We don't get out there enough. We don't use pop culture. We don't do social media. We don't do enough of the things we could be doing all the time that the Democrats do so well.

LEMON: In all honesty you don't embrace -- I'm not saying you, but the party doesn't embrace a lot of people unless you are -- unless you fit a --

WEAVER: I think that's a misconception. I think they do, but they're not good at telling that story. So for example, there are four Republican governor women compared to one Democrat. And that's not something that people hear a lot about.

LEMON: Can we talk about the book?

WEAVER: We can.

LEMON: "Right For a Reason." So you consider yourself social conservatives?

WEAVER: We're probably moderate. We're definitely fiscal conservatives.

LEMON: I found this in your book and I thought it was very interesting. You talked about political correctness. You said political correctness is stupid. You said, "The backlash that can exist from the political correctness police can be intense. Those who dare to stray from the political script risk mockery, lawsuits, and even job loss.

As a result we have become so freaking afraid of offending someone or hurting someone's feelings that we are becoming mindless drones who, if liberals had their way, will only be capable of engaging in robotic sterile interactions with one another."

I do see that a lot and I think there's a lot of truth to that. So we talk about that issue a lot on this show. Have we all become too sensitive?

WEAVER: Without question. We see it all the time in universities. We tell stories about this on our web site, all the time. Halloween was a perfect example.

In fact, we wrote a lot of stories about different universities that were coming down and putting out all these edicts to the students saying here's how to dress appropriately so as not to culturally appropriate anyone's -- or appropriate anyone's culture.

Here's how not to offend people with your Halloween costume and we're thinking it's a Halloween costume. I mean, this is getting ridiculous.

LEMON: Yes, but there are people who dress up like Ray Rice and his wife, Janay, on Halloween. Is that appropriate?

WEAVER: Well, I think there's a level of appropriate that is obvious to people, but then we're talking about examples where people get offended by someone dressing up as Pocahontas or dressing in a kimono because they feel that that's appropriating someone else's culture. And we find that to be ridiculous.

CLARK: And nowadays I think even just everyday interactions with one another you just feel that you have to walk on eggshells because everyone is offended by everything. And it's affecting just everyday interactions with personal, you know, everyday just language.

LEMON: For me more so than that, like for costumes I think people should know better than -- you know, there is a level of respect and dignity.

WEAVER: That's just common sense.

LEMON: That's common sense. But I'm talking more in the larger sphere of affecting conversation and actually people getting to know each other and getting to learn about someone else's culture or their political beliefs, that we don't really say things that we want to say because we're afraid of being castigated.

WEAVER: That's the danger of it.

CLARK: We're becoming so sanitized. I think it's dumbing down our society almost.

LEMON: Thank you, Miriam. Thank you, Amy Jo. Appreciate it. The book is called "Right For A Reason: Life, Liberty, And A Crapload Of Common Sense."

WEAVER: Thank you.

LEMON: Thank you for joining us. We're going to talk about marijuana right now.

WEAVER: Fantastic.

LEMON: Marijuana legislation on the ballot in Alaska, Florida as well as D.C., but in Colorado the rocky mountain high has been legal for almost a year. When we come right back we're going to take a tour of a pot factory there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Let's look at that, a lot of marijuana. It's on the ballot tomorrow in Alaska, Florida, Oregon, and the District of Columbia. In Alaska and Oregon and D.C., they're considering legalization. Florida's voters are considering a measure to allow medical marijuana. But the sale of recreational marijuana has been legal in Colorado since New Year's Day.

CNN's Miguel Marquez takes us on a tour of a pot factory in Colorado.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the green mile. We just finished it.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to Medicine Man, the most sophisticated marijuana-growing operation in the world, or so says its owner, Andy Williams.

(on camera): And in the world of marijuana, how big is this facility? How a big a deal is this facility?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a big deal. I don't think there's a better one in the world. There's bigger, but there's not better. Come on in.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): An exclusive look at an exclusive facility, with pot legal here, the art of growing now a science. Every element of every plant's life controlled to the smallest detail.

ANDY WILLIAMS, OWNER, MEDICINE MAN: So in the manufacturing process you want to control the inputs so you have consistent output. So that's what we're doing with this. We're controlling one of the bigger inputs into the system, which is water.

MARQUEZ: And not just any old water. An industrial-sized reverse osmosis machine purifies this water down to -- solids from this water down to 1 part per million. Most tapwater has solids about 50 parts per million. These plants pampered in every way.

WILLIAMS: So what you see here are different flowers. There are four different flower rooms down here. Each of them has their own 15 tons, three different machines of atmosphere control.

MARQUEZ: Usually used to keep high-end computers cool, these computer room atmosphere control units have been repurposed for pot. Temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide, can all be monitored and adjusted. When anything is off even by a single degree, it's a red alert.

(on camera): What's happening right here now? Why has this gone red?

WILLIAMS: So if you press this alarm button, it will tell us that the air temperature's too high according to our settings.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): The room is 77.1 degrees. These plants get 76 degrees. In this first year Williams expects Medicine Man to bring in about $9 million. He estimates gross income will more than double in year two, business booming.

(on camera): So this is the new Medicine Man?

WILLIAMS: This is it.

MARQUEZ: Retail only?

WILLIAMS: Yes. I already see the completed project. I know you see something less than that, but I see it in my mind. MARQUEZ: I see a form Arby's and a former Mexican food restaurant, and you see a pot shop.

WILLIAMS: I do. It's going to be so gorgeous.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): His new establishment set to off in November will be for recreational pot only. No medical marijuana here. In July recreational sales outdid medical for the first time ever. Most expect the recreational business to keep booming.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The demand in the state we consider to be about 130 metric tons.

MARQUEZ: A 130 metric tons the same weight as NASAs yet to be built and ginormous SLS-130 rocket. The 130 metric tons is the demand for both residents and tourists for all types of weed, recreational, medicinal, and even the black market stuff. Because legal pot is still expensive here, as much as 500 bucks an ounce, the black market thrives.

BARBARA BROHL: We believe that about 55 metric tons is being supplied by the black market. Then there is about 80 or so metric tons that are being supplied by us.

MARQUEZ: Barbara Brohl is overseeing implementation of Colorado's grand marijuana experiment. The state is now allowing more growers and retail shops to enter the market, every step Economics 101.

BROHL: We have to be really careful because what we really want is supply and demand to be equal because if you have too much supply prices drop.

MARQUEZ: Making it possible Colorado pot could move into other states. If the supply's too low, the black market keeps flourishing. The new market here is still a work in progress.

(on camera): What are we looking at here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So this is our chemistry lab.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Genifer Murray, founder and president of Can Labs, has a front row seat in this new industry. Her Can Labs has quadrupled in size over the last year as regulations for testing and controlling marijuana products have kicked in, testing everything from pot strength to contaminants to portion control.

GENIFER MURRAY, FOUNDER, CAN LABS: Four years ago edibles said 1x, 2x, or 3x. We didn't know what the x was, but that's where it started. So we've definitely progressed.

MARQUEZ (on camera): What will it say today?

MURRAY: Today, it will give you a-milligram per gram.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Truth in pot advertising controversial here. First exposed by the "Denver Post's" the cannabis, some edibles contained too much of the drug, others way too little.

RICARDO BACA: Many of these 100-milligram labeled packages had less than one single-milligram. One of the manufacturers out there was ripping people off.

MARQUEZ: Growing pains for a new industry, Colorado's cannabis culture getting higher and being watched closely around the world. Miguel Marquez, CNN, Denver.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We are spotlighting our top ten CNN Heroes of 2014. This week's honoree is tackling crime and gang violence in Guatemala and helping children in his community find hope. Meet Juan Pablo Romero Fuentes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUAN PABLO ROMERO FUENTES: My country's violent history has created a very violent present. Gangs are everywhere. Kids are exposed to drugs, to violence, and to the lack of opportunities for them to improve their lives.

I was a teacher in the same community that I grew up. My students were dealing with the same problems that I was dealing with 20 years ago. I wanted to change that. The best thing for me to do was open my house doors and bring them here. Eight years later I'm still running the program in my family house.

We provide classes so they can find their own passions. We give them a decent plate of food. Children are powerful. Just they don't know that yet. So I created a safe place for them to realize that they actually can change bad aspects in their lives and their community.

In a violent country the only weapon we can have, it's love. I still believe that we can change this country. I see potential in kids' dreams and ideas. They are the ones in charge of writing the new history in Guatemala.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: One of our top ten honorees will become CNN Hero of the Year and receive $100,000 to further their work. Go to cnnheroes.com to vote. All ten will be honored at CNN Heroes, An All-Star Tribute hosted by Anderson Cooper on Sunday, December 7th.

I'm Don Lemon. Our live coverage continues now with John Vause and Rosemary Church at the CNN Center in Atlanta.