November 21, 2008

"I think this is a crucial part of the political process, just getting a bunch of brilliant people in the same room and talking about issues," said Dan Keyserling from the UVa Center for Politics.

A room filled with political pundits, national journalists, as well as Democratic and Republican party leaders, discussing their post election thoughts at the universities 10th annual American Democracy Conference.

Among the speakers, Senator elect Mark Warner, who says he's hoping leaders in both parties focus on getting results.

"What I want to try to bring is somebody who's focused on the bottom line on getting results. I mean this country cannot stand more of the kind of back and forth petty partisanship where its about the blame game rather then getting things done," said Warner.

Panelists also touched on where we go from here, Democrats, the incoming Obama administration, and after tough losses in the election, the GOP.

"We need to basically re-figure out who we are as a party, what we stand for, what are our value systems, what are our priorities," said former chair of the Republican National Committee Ed Rollins.

But as we move forward, all agree that both parties will have to work together to solve the country's problems.

"My sense is that this new Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike are ready to hopefully get in there and shake things up a bit," said Warner.