Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/democrats-republicans-optimistic-in-midterm-elections Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Two weeks before the midterm elections, Democrats are confident they will retake control of the House and Senate. Two political analysts provide an update on the election landscape and speculation over a 2008 presidential run for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. MARGARET WARNER: With Election Day just two weeks from tomorrow, time is growing short for the candidates or their parties to change the dynamic of their races. For an update on how the political landscape looks, we turn again to Jim VandeHei, political correspondent for the Washington Post, and Adam Nagourney, chief political correspondent for the New York Times.And welcome back to you both.Adam, yesterday you wrote that the Democrats' mood was a mixture of glee, dread and hubris. Just how confident are they? Do you think, based on the evidence, they're overconfident? ADAM NAGOURNEY, Chief Political Correspondent, New York Times: Many Democrats are very, very confident. And you see it in the conversations with them; you see it in the way many of them are planning for post-November 7th. You know, you talk to people who normally have been very glum — because Democrats have had reason over the past 10 years to be glum — and they see no way they can't win the House and probably win the Senate.There are other Democrats who I think are more realistic. And part of it is because of the history of the past six years, where they've seen what some of them had hoped to be victories turn into defeats. And part of it's because they realize that they're up against a very tough adversary.And, you know, as I think we were talking about this last week, polls do show Democrats with a lead in a bunch of House races across the country, but in many of those cases they're small leads, and Democrats realize that the turn-out-the-vote operation that Republicans have could make a difference in those races. So some of that optimism some Democrats would say might be a little bit overstated, which seems reasonable to me.