>> lin prefers the basketball court where he's become an linderella story, kissed not by a prince. jeanne moos, cnn. >> lint. >> caller: new york. >> get it. >> i think this is a little bit over the lin. thank you so much for joining us. i'm candy crowley in for wolf blitzer in the situation room. good evening, everyone. i'm jessica yellin infor john king. tonight iran's president defiant as he declares progress in developing nuclear fuel rods. plus it's an all-out war for votes as rombo storms michigan's airwaves. santorum hits hard in romney's native state. and new tonight, the world will be able to watch whitney houston's funeral. details on what we'll see as loved ones say goodbye to the super star.

iran is one step closer to being able to build a nuclear weapon. the iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad claim as breakthrough, claiming they've now made their own nuclear fuel rods. but he says they're for peaceful purposes. this is much more than just a photo op, certain to case late already heightened tensions with israel. it could mean even higher gas prices for you. barbara starr is at the pentagon. barbara, it's a lot to make sense of. put all of this in context for us. >> well, good evening, jessica. when you look at those pictures coming out of iran today, there's a lot of facts and a lot of messages behind those pictures. what is the message? iran is saying that it has now made its first nuclear fuel rod. and the president of iran showed up to watch it going into a system there to be able to be inserted. but what does it really mean behind the scenes? is this a fuel rod that works? does it take them on a step closer to making nuclear

weapons? the state department says that it's hype, this was expected and they're not too worried about it. but experts will tell you that this is not an insignificant step on the road to nuclear weapons. this may be partly iran trying to negotiate its way, pressure its way out of crippling sanctions. but the bottom line is, they are making progress. jessica? >> and is there any sense if iran is closer to producing a nuclear weapon with this development or if this really is hype? >> that's the key thing that the intelligence community, the cia, is watching right now. and the israelis. this is what they say. if iran decides to make that run for weapons-grade nuclear fuel, that's not what we're talking about today. that would be more involved. if they make that critical run it could take them about six months to make enough fuel for a nuclear weapon. it could take them another year and a half to make a warhead and put a nuclear warhead on a

missile. so we're still talking by some estimates several months away, but that's the red line. and both the u.s. and israeli intelligence services of course want to catch iran before they cross the red line. >> got it. thank you, barbara, thanks so much. barbara starr at the pentagon. new poll numbers now will make it hard for president obama to argue that he's the underdog in the race for the white house. he comes out on top in the cnn poll pitting him against presidential contenders. gloria borger, i looked through these mostly good news for president obama. let's start with his approval rating first. he's at 50%. and that's up 6 percentage points from november if you take a look at that polling. so what do you think is behind the rise? >> well, first of all very good news for president obama. but i think there are a few things behind it. first of all we've had nothing but republicans attacking each other. they were supposed to try and

focus on barack obama. but there are these things called primaries and caucuses? and they have to actually try and win them. and it has been a much more hotly-contested race than a lot of people predicted. >> and negative. >> really negative race. so people don't like that. secondly our poll also shows that more people believe the economy is getting better. not a majority yet but more people think it's getting better. so of of course that helps the president. and the third thing that our poll shows is that the president is really improving his ratings with swing voters. very, very important if you intend to win another election. his ratings with independent voters are up five points in just the last month alone. so you put all those things together, good news for barack obama. >> i think that last point's what makes chicago the happiest right now. we'll see fit hold. >> let's look at how it stacks up against his potential republican rivals. he beats romney now by five percentage points. he beats santorum by seven. ron paul by seven.

and he just cleans gingrich's clock. >> right. >> so is this a typical advantage for an incumbent or a sign of a weak republican field? >> well, i think it's a sign of a weak republican field, particularly when you look at mitt romney. mitt romney's calling card has been electability and quite frankly that's been his appeal with republicans. when you look at all of our exit polls and entrance polls throughout this entire process, republicans over and over again say, you know what? we really want somebody who can beat barack obama. but if you look at the poll that you just showed, they can't beat barack obama, at least not yet. and that was you know mitt romney's strongest suit. so a real problem. let me just say, though, that independent voters are not happy voters. they're still gettable for republicans. so when you look at this matchup and you see that the president is winning right now, that could

change. but the republicans have one thing they have to do first and that is decide on a candidate. >> once there's a one on one race, it's up for grabs maybe. >> you don't know. it really depends on how the economy is going. really does. >> that's the big unknown. gloria thank you. >> sure. >> gloria borger. rick santorum says his tax returns should be out soon. we thought today would be the day but that clock keeps on ticking. let's bring in senior congressional correspondent dana bash who has been covering rick santorum many a primary night. dana, you know the inside workings of that campaign just as well as anyone. so what is the holdup? what's going on with those returns? >> reporter: well, we are told that we should see them very soon. there was a chance that maybe we would see them today. there still is a chance. jessica i promise if we do see them i will come right back on and give them to you. we do know because rick santorum said himself on this show last week he had been going back and forth with his accountant. remember he now sort of famously said he did his own taxes and he

had to go back to his computer at home and gather the information. that was three and a half weeks ago. that's why we've been asking where are they? on the show he said again last week he had to go back and forth with his accountant to make sure he had everything right. so i'm still waiting. >> we know you'll keep asking until we get. they let's move on and check out an ad his campaign put out today in michigan, the next state up with a primary. take a look. >> this time romney's firing his might at rick santorum. romney and his super pac have spent a staggering million dollars attacking republicans. why? because romney's trying to hide from his big government romney care. >> we get it. it's pretty funny. obviously turning fire on mitt romney. so how do you think the michiganens will react to portraying romney at rombo? >> they're hoping inside the santorum campaign that they react obviously well. and it is definitely funny but it's also controversial. not only because of the fact

that they've got mitt romney with the machine gun, but also because of the fact that santorum has been saying over and over and over again that he is running a positive campaign. now, they insist that this is not negative. but you know, look, he's definitely trying to get back in the game. what's also interesting we've been reporting he has raised so much money, $1 million a day at the last part of last week. now we know how he's going to spend it. now we're told he's going to put up ads in arizona coming up on february 28 but super tuesday states, ohio, tennessee, georgia, oklahoma. they are hoping if nothing else that that keeps him in the game and keeps this momentum that he's got going continuing on. >> right. well, that was the big question would he have the money to keep going. it sounds like he does forenow. we'll be sure you'll check back with us if you get those tax returns. thanks. cnn's dana bash. thanks for being with us. heading overseas to syria now, a huge pipeline explosion in homs turned the sky black with smoke.

activists blamed government war planes. the government blames terrorists. it's just one part of today's pummelling which has left more than two dozen people dead. machine gunfire and the sound of shellings are the new normal and the residents there say leaving their houses is like a suicide run. now syrian president bashar all al assad says his country will vote on a new draft constitution later this month. foreign journalists are not allowed inside syria. remarkably our arwa damon and her crew have managed to get inside homs. oth arwa, i want to begin by asking you've watched this from a distance for awhile now. now that you've been really inside the center of it share with us your impression of the violence there now. >> reporter: you know, we've been in the vicinity of homs

square less than 24 hours at this stage. it's very difficult to summarize what we have seen even in this time period. we spent the best part of the morning, a few hours, at one of the main medical clinics a neighborhood. if you'll remember that is where a lot of the shelling has been concentrated. and the situation there is just utterly tragic. there are people lying in hospital beds on the verge of death quite simply because doctors do not have the medical equipment at hand to save them. there's one man who is a father of three young children. he tried to get his family out. he was unable to do so saying that the military was not allowing them to leave. he was then injured in the shelling. his arm is just attached to the rest of his body by a few muscles. another man lying in a hospital bed. the doctor says that his leg is going to have to be amputated if he can't get out within the next 24 hours. and you can smell the stench of rot coming out of his wound.

and then a young man, just 19 years old. with the volunteer access clinic. because jessica, there are no medical staff. there are two doctors there. one of them is actually an internal medicine specialist, the other a dentist. and they've trained up this staff of 20 volunteers through 15 days of training. one of these young volunteers, a 19-year-old, a young man was lying in a hospital bed because he'd been wounded in one of these attacks. the situation is incredibly serious. another of the volunteers, a young 27-year-old woman was just crying out saying, how can the world stay silent? these are human beings. these are not stones. how can people not want to help us? >> it's remark ashl what you describe. i imagine it's having quite an impact on you. one of the suggestions from the outside world has been arming the opposition. some people think that's a good idea. some don't. i'm curious given what you're seeing, how organized is the

opposition there? if you had to assess its strength, is the opposition in a position to take down the syrian government if they had outside support? >> reporter: when it comes to the armed element of the opposition, and that is the free syrian army, again on the microcosmic level when it comes to neighborhood to neighborhood, there are fairly well organized, able to communicate with one another but they lack the weaponry. that is why we're hearing these calls for some sort of effort to arm the opposition. because many people do believe that if they had the weapons at hand, not only could they take on the assad regime but that more people would be encouraged to defect, knowing that they had the tools in hand to try to bring down this government. >> arwa damon reporting again from inside syria after she spent the day in homs. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> remarkable reporting. whitney houston's death certificate released within this past hour. it lists her full name, age and

next of kin but not her cause of death. we're taking a closer look with our dr. drew in just a few minutes. coming up the fda is warning that a counterfeit version of a wide widely-used cancer drug is on the market. first new video today from iran claiming nuclear progress. ahead a former state department insider discusses the potential threat. ♪ [ male announcer ] for our families... our neighbors... and our communities... america's beverage companies have created a wide range of new choices. developing smaller portion sizes and more low- & no-calorie beverages... adding clear calorie labels so you know exactly what you're choosing... and in schools, replacing full-calorie soft drinks with lower-calorie options. with more choices and fewer calories, america's beverage companies are delivering.

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iran is showing the world what it claims are homemade nuclear fuel rods. they could be that much closer to having their own nuclear war head. the state department says today's announcements are just hype. p.j. crowley is here and he now teaches at george washington university. thanks for being with us. first how shall we read iran's actions today? do you believe they've made their own nuclear fuel rods or is this just politics? >> well, it could be both. this is another step in a dangerous direction. i don't think i have any question -- reason to question

that they've produced a fuel rod, which is part of an effort to refuel a research reactor so they can produce medical isotopes. two years ago the international community including the united states offered to provide them what they needed to fuel this reactor. in two years they declined. >> it's also politics you believe. >> sure. ironically today they did two things. one they had this show of their nuclear progress. and on the other hand they agreed to come back to discussions with what is called the p 5 plus 1, the group that engages iran on these issues. so they've strengthened their negotiating position, even as they've at least appear to be reasonable publicly. israel has been warning of a possible -- well, there's a belief that israel could at some point attack iran's nuclear facilities. do you see this as a provocation of israel that iran's provoking israel? >> again there's tension here. with every development whether

it's progress in the nuclear program, whether attacking israeli diplomats around the world, you just have these sparks. at any point that spark could produce a dangerous escalation. >> the u.s. reaction was essentially to play down what happened today. do you think that's the right response? >> well, i think that this is a step that they have been pursuing, accelerating their program, enriching up to 20%. it's a process that takes some know how. it's not yet to weapons grade capability. but the more they're at this, the more the centrifuges spin, the closer they get to having a capability where from that point it's a short distance from a civilian program to a weapons program. >> is this in any way insurance for ahmadinajab? >> that's where the politics comes in. as much as this is building a capability, this nuclear program is as much about regime protection. iran looks around the world or looks around the region, saddam

hussein had a nuclear program. he's gone. gadhafi gave up a nuclear program. he's gone. they're looking to produce a certain level of capability that in their view shows that the regime is harder to overthrow. >> and what happen to oil around the world. we'll get to that another day. thanks so much for being with us, appreciate it. switching gears every football fan knows these guys but you'll have to get used to monday night football games without them. we'll let you know who's leaving the booth. and which pooch took the best in show at this year's westminster dog show? a dalmatian? a terrier? here's a hint. think smaller and furrier. sizz] ♪ [ male announcer ] free hot breakfast. with fresh waffles. real value. from your friends at hampton.

welcome back. here's kate bold wauan with the latest news you need to know now. >> reporter: a warning if someone you love takes a drug widely used to fight cancer. the fda is warning a counterfeit version of avastin is on the market. so far the fda has done 19 medical practices that have accidentally bought the fake drug from a foreign supplier. very unfortunate. it takes money to make money apparently. way too much according to the white house. the obama administration is asking congress to change the mixture of metal that goes into pennies and nickels to make them cheaper. right now it costs more than two cents to make a penny and more than 11 cents to make a nickel.

how does that make cents? the formula hasn't changed in 30 years. and ron jaworsky will no longer be part of the monday night football booth. he's not out of a job. the network plans to use him in other capacities while keeping the monday night football cast to just two. mike turicco and john gruden. finally at long last you're looking at malachi, winner of the famed westminster dog show. he was a best in show finalist last year but the second time was the charm for the squat and hairy 4-year-old. of course i'm saying that only in endearing terms from pennsylvania which became the fourth pekinese to win best in show. >> i just look at him and think how long it takes to get my hair done. can you imagine grooming that dog? >> i know. just have to sit for a little longer, malachi. got to bring out the

straightener. >> very cute. i love the westminster shows, kate. thanks. coming up more on our top story, ahead, could iran launch an attack against jewish targets here in the united states? local communities, they're already taking precautions. we'll explain. also ahead, a new focus in the investigation into whitney houston's death. who prescribed the medication found in her hotel room? dr. drew joins us next. ♪ [ male announcer ] offering four distinct driving modes and lexus dynamic handling, the next generation of lexus will not be contained. the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. see your lexus dealer.

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whitney houston's family prepare toss lay her to rest, questions are swirling about who gave her the prescription meds found in the hotel room where her life came to an end. plus is that mitt romney wielding a machine gun? no, it's a look-alike in a campaign ad targeting romney in a state he can't afford to lose. and no one can touch will ferrell's george w. bush impression. but tonight the funny man is hanging with a different commander in chief. . new concerns tonight that iran or its agents could strike here in the u.s. there's no specific threat, but a bulletin from the fbi and department of homeland security lists american synagogues, jewish schools and community centers as possible targets. here's brian todd. >> reporter: will jewish facilities have a police presence at their curbs for the

foreseeable future? jewish leaders tell us they're boosting their security and for good reason. with talk of a possible israeli strike against iran's nuclear facilities, there's new concern about how iran might retaliate. maybe by using its approximaties like the terrorist group hezbollah. >> what's iran's capability of doing damage inside the united states? >> that's actually very difficult to give you a clear concrete answer to, but we do know that hezbollah does have its footprints and they have a role and have had a presence in the united states in the broader america. >> reporter: this former homeland security aide to president bush, says there are also criminal enterprises in the u.s. which iran cowl tap into to carry out an attack. experts say sin going, jewish community centers and schools are soft targets. this joint homeland security and fbi bulletin sent last week to law enforcement agencies says that violent extremist groups have long advocated attacking places like this. but it also says as of last week

there was no specific threat to jewish organizations inside the united states stemming from those recent tensions with iran. a homeland security official says there's been no change in that assessment since then. but i asked one woman about the threat as kids were let out at this synagogue. >> places like this are sometimes considered soft targets. are you concerned about that? >> of course. i work in the community and -- >> reporter: homeland security secretary janet napolitano says her agency is monitoring the hezbollah threat. >> we are reaching out to particularly jewish -- the jewish community across the country who have been the intended targets in the past. >> reporter: iran has proven it can launch deadly strikes on foreign soil, bombing jewish targets in argentina, assassinating a former iranian prime minister in paris. u.s. officials say with their backs against the wall the iranians may again make a bold stroke like their alleged plot to assassinate the saudi ambassador in washington.

but former cia officer who tracked iranian operations says that episode shows the regime can also bungle these plots. >> even when the iranians have succeeded in the past with terrorist strikes, and they have often succeeded, i don't know of one where we haven't recognized them. >> reporter: he says the iranians may have sleeper cells inside the u.s. but he says it may take them awhile to get those cells operational to carry out an attack. he says for that reason if iran is attacked look for there to be some lag time between that and a possible retaliatory strike. jessica? >> brian that, homeland security fbi bulletin says that while there are no specific threats inside the u.s. it did mention another hezbollah operation recently elsewhere. do you know anything about that? >> reporter: yes. that bulletin says an alleged hezbollah plot was disrupted last month in thailand targeting tar gets in asia.

the timeline was not clear but leaders in this country are on alert based on that. >> very concerning. thanks for the report, brian. whitney houston's private funeral will now be televised on saturday. we got word this evening that cameras would be allowed inside newark's new hope baptist church where houston sang gospel as a child. meanwhile investigators want to know more about what was in whitney houston's pill bottles on the night she died. we still don't know what killed her. but authorities are tracking down her doctors and her pharmacies hoping to learn more about those prescriptions. don lemmon is live in l.a. don, we understand you have some new information. tell us what you've got. hi, don. >> reporter: we do have. hi, jess. we do have some new information. and it's important because as you heard the coroner and beverly hills police confirm that there were prescription medications found in whitney houston's hotel room. and if she had prescription medications with her then the odds are she was taking them.

now, i have spoken to someone. and things aren't always as seem. and it contra dikts what many of her friends are saying that whitney was not drinking and she wasn't erat nick the days before her death. here's what that source says. and it's important again, this is according to a source who was briefed on whitney houston's's behavior and activities days before her death. they're saying she was seen ordering and consuming considerable quantities of alcohol before 10:00 a.m. 9:30 sometimes as early in the morning on wednesday and thursday at the beverly hilton at the hotel bar and in the pool area. the source also says that guests on both days overheard houston loudly come plaining that her drink were being quote watered down they were putting too much ice in them. the source says other guests began to express concern about her erratic behavior, says her appearance on those days suggested to the witnesses and

to other people that she was intoxicated. her clothing was dishevelled. even mismatched. she was per spierg heavily. the source says houston was jumping in an and out of the pool area and doing somer salts in the pool area. they also added she was alone some of the time wandering between the home bar and the pool area but she was also seen drinking in the pool area and at the hotel bar with her entourage and also with a male companion. saturday morning she was also seen the day of her death, they said dreinking at the pool bar but her behavior was not erratic. the reason i say that now, jess, we have the coroner now who has subpoenaed doctors and pharmacies on the east coast and west coast about the drugs, prescription drugs that were prescribed to her and who filled them. they want to find out exactly what she was taking. >> this is so surprising because it's so different from what a

lot of her friends as you've been reporting, don, have been saying. don't want to take away from the sadness around her death or make any assumption. >> reporter: jess? i'm so glad that you're saying that. yeah. i'm so glad that you're saying that. because people are saying don't focus on the negative or whatever. this is the information. this is what sources are telling us. and this is a concern because if you have this coroner who's subpoenaing people about prescription drugs that they confirm were found and if she was indeed drinking that is a concern. and that could possibly have led to her death. we don't know until the investigation place out but we have to report these things. that's a reality. those are the facts. >> absolutely. great reporting. thanks, don, for staying on this. we'll continue to follow your updates as you bring them. don lemmon in los angeles. thanks. continuing on this story as investigators search for answers to what did cause whitney houston's's death, one thing that's a mystery is what is it that celebrities often -- why is it that celebrities often get

away with erratic behavior while those around them say nothing? joining me now dr. drew pinsky, host of the dr. drew show on hln and publicist to the stars who helped mariah carey reinvent her career after she suffered a "physical and emotional breakdown." dr. drew i want to start with you and your reaction to what we just heard don lemmon report from a source who said that whitney houston's was drinking alcohol before 10:00 a.m. on some of the days right before her death, even accusing a bartender of watering down her drink. >> right. well, it's very sad. i basically have a couple of comments to make. one is, everyone has repeatedly reported that the night before she died that she was toasting and drinking champagne. and for somebody -- that has been reported from many different avenues, different sources. and for someone with her chronic, long-standing drug history having just been at a treatment program in may, that

is -- that is an emergency. that is somebody that people should have pulled -- just seeing that people should have pulled her aside and said, honey, we've got to get back in the program. you are in serious trouble. now if you add to that what we're hearing, what don just reported, at the level of consumption she was maintaining it wouldn't take much of those medications to suppress her respirations and cause her to stop breathing. one or two potentially could have been enough to kill her given what was reported. and let's remember. >> benzodiapine xanax? xanax, lorazepam all in her bathroom. don is absolutely right. this should not in any way diminish this woman's life and career and the gifts she has given us. but i am sick and tired of sitting here of reporting celebrities dying of pharmaceutical drug deaths, one after the other, when are we

going to have enough of this? when are doctors going to be held accountable? when are we not going to prescribe these kind of medication toss people who have addiction? >> marvy, this is a theme we hear over and over not just celebrities necessarily dying but celebrities in these crises, the whole world cease it happen. they're surrounded by entourages, many of them. you wonder why isn't anyone intervening? you see these people up close. what happens inside these entourages when no one reaches out to them until it's too late? >> well, i think that people do reach out. and people have to remember that there's a difference between there's some people who lack integrity and care more about the check than they do the client. and the entertainment industry sadly is a fertile breeding ground for individuals who have their own agendas and those who really look to exploit the weaknesses of the celebrities that they represent. most people are looking for access. they're looking for relationships. so it's hard to find the level

of truth that most of these celebrities need to weather through very difficult times in their lives. but at the same time, every celebrity should also be and has to be held accountable for their own actions. you can only want so much for a person. there has to be a point when they have to want to do for themselves. and we've heard a lot of of blame. we've heard everyone wanting to blame bobbie. everyone wanting to blame the people around whitney. but whitney clearly knew what she was doing. she was a grown woman. so i do agree that everyone takes a responsibility when you have a work relationship and a friendship. but at the same time, we don't know what took place. we're making assumptions. until we really know i think the culture of celebrity is intoxicating for both the celebrity and the individuals around the culture of entertainment. >> dr. drew, let me bring you in this for a second. curious if you'll clear up one thing for me. is it possible for somebody who's been an alcoholic or

addict to start having a drink sometimes? >> no. it's been tried throughout history. it doesn't work. moderation -- again, once someone has progressed to the point that they have significant chronic addictive pathology, she clearly did. she did multiple treatments. that is somebody who is in a potential death as we have found out, in fact was the case. she has a terminal condition. and the only way to avoid that terminal outcome is complete and total abstinence from opiates, cannibus, all the addictive problems. must be avoided. >> we don't know what was in the room. a lot of my friends and people have heard things, who over 40 doesn't travel with prescription drugs some nature like me? >> jessica, this is why i'm so upset. this is why people are accusing me of being too aggressive here. your viewers must hear this.

if somebody has a -- this is somebody with a terminal disorder. it's called addiction. if somebody has addiction there are certain things they can take and certain things they cannot. if they do it their underlying condition reawakens and they are in harm's way. that's the nature of the disorder. it's a brain disorder. and once somebody triggers and throws the switch on that disorder they cannot safely take these kinds of medication. and for everyone around her to say, well, she's toasting and partying. oh, my god. that is somebody who is in serious, serious trouble. and how that could go unnoticed, it's hard for me to understand. i will tell you i've treated lots of celebrities. what we're hearing is the case. some people refuse to bring it up for fare of triggering righteous indig nation and limiting their access. but people that employ them are just as guilty. they want them back at work. she's making a movie in the fall. she should have spent the six to 12 months after may focusing on her so bright and nothing else. >> marvy, have you seen where

people should be in rehab but they will lose money? >> they only make money when they work. there are so many people with so many agendas around the culture of entertainment that they fuel. and the gravity of the pressure is tremendous. and it's really -- for whitney there were a number of variables. none of us will fully know what took place on that afternoon. but i do believe that it's definitely a very toxic environment when you don't have people who can step in and step up and tell people the truth. but it's also -- no one can be around a celebrity 24/7. so it's really about education. and it's really about their own free will. >> right. >> and them doing because they desire to be better. >> marvy has a good point, at some point it does fall upon the celebrity. if you remember back to the michael jackson story, deepak chopra told me he went in and confronted him very directly about his drug use and was

dismissed from the inner circle. the celebrities have power, money, and can control their inner circle. they maneuver it to such a way they can carry on with their disease. they're independent contractors. they're not employees. so the employee has no power. ultimately there is a point here we have to hole the celebrity accountable as well. then we're all fascinated with the drama so they get more attention when they act out. thanks to both of you for your time. hln's dr. drew pinsky and marvet -- we appreciate it. we'll tell you what voters think in our new poll. later, shocking video of a deadly fire that killed almost 300 people in honduras.

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less than two weeks away from the next gop primary contest in arizona and michigan, and mitt romney has a comfortable lead in the grand canyon state. an american research group poll out today shows the former massachusetts governor with a 7 point advantage over rick santorum. that's in arizona. but he's trailing santorum in romney's own state of michigan. ouch. and in a new poll from the all-important battle ground state of ohio, the former pennsylvania senator is beating romney by seven points. that's important. joining me to talk about this volatile gop race republican

strategists and cnn political strategist. >> she gets her own camera. >> we work it out that way. believe me. >> what it's like to be special. >> doug, let's starts with you. how concerned should the romney camp be about michigan and ohio where he is trailing rick santorum now? >> the concern is we're seeing these numbers in real states as opposed to national polls which could mean anything. they're concerned. they're putting a strategy together. they have been putting a strategy together to start to combat that. >> meaning crush santorum. >> i wouldn't say that. they might privately. but it's to really start to as we would say draw distinctions. and because we haven't had debates, it's going to be fought on the airwaves until we have the debates next week and moving forward. >> there's a new poll we have out, donna, today, that shows people's perceptions, voters' perceptions at how the president or different candidates' policies will affect them. will they favor the rich. the majority of voters think that romney's policies are the best for the rich than gingrich,

santorum and that the president's policies favor the rich the least. >> but it favors the poor the most as opposed to middle class. that was the important part of that. there were three columns. favors the rich, middle class, favorers the poor. the favored the poor the most. >> let me just say something. we're 90 days since the census released data that show that 49 million american rs living in poverty, another 50 million living on razor's edge. you have an economy really worried about it. >> but voting behavior, that might make a difference. nobody's going to run against the president by saying he cares too much about the poor. that's not going to happen, but i think that is interesting to follow that through. >> so many americans are now worried about their own economic -- it's clear to me the president policies are resognating with people who are right there in the middle, worried about their economic

future. >> that's what they autoto be sayinging. if i were santorum or romney, my concern is that the middle class doesn't drift into poverty. >> let's look at what santorum is saying. this is a new ad out from the santorum campaign hitting romney. >> this time, romney's firing his mind at rick santorum. romney and his superpac have spent 20 million attacking republicans. >> we get the point of this. doug, is this going to hurt romney you think? >> it's a good move for santorum to do. so often we see candidates talk about my opponent as slinging mud. we don't see them doing it in this fashion calling them romney bo, which is an attack they're going to try to make stick. if they do, then it will be e effective, which we used to say about rahm emanuel.

sometimes, we can be bipartisan with language. if it works, it will put a check on some of the rhetoric coming out of the campaign. >> he is struggling to maintain his status as a front-runner. we had a weak victory over the weekend and i'm not going to talk about the cpac poll. santorum knows romney's going to try to define. rick santorum, people don't really know him. so the romney campaign will try to define him as somebody who's a washington insider, somebody like president obama, doesn't have the right executive experience. part of the prop is that voters have had the opportunity to see romney and don't know which mitt romney they're look iing at. >> the difference, i'll finish this quickly. with santorum and gingrich is people thought they knew gingrich and romney said it's not the same guy.

little different, more sophisticated with santorum. >> we'll see what they do to santorum. we'll see what happens with the next ads. >> three months ago. >> we'll start hearing that a lot. thanks to all of you. appreciate it. >> erin burnett "outfront" is coming up at the top of the hour. iran's president ahminedjad, easy for me to say, claims that his country has made some big nuclear advances. you're talking about that tonight. >> that's right. it comes out today in the white labcoat, showing off these hot rods. i guess sounds like a car, but a crucial part of the nuclear power equation and a nuclear rod, a big development for iran. they say they're going to get yellow cake and that leads them further down the path of getting that 90% enriched uranium. that date could be accelerated today. we talk about the real decision america has to face with iran

and it could with coming very soon. some of the pictures we actually have of their facilitiefaciliti they've changed, how they're masking things, are pretty incredible. we have that at the top of the hour. plus, jeremy lin, i have a taiw taiwanese american in my family who's going to come out and talk about it. >> sounds fun. the show "glee" airs a special tribute to whitney houston. plus, a heavy metal star endorses a presidential candidate. we'll tell you who and witch and why.

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here's kate bolduan with the latest news you need to know. >> some late breaking news to bring to you. just in, dana bash is reporting that rick santorum could release his tax returns as soon as tonight. an adviser says we'll get four years of his tax information. the length of a presidential term, but santorum's been promising to release his taxes for a month now, first saying e h had to go home to get them. speaking of rick santorum, we might be playing heavy metal music as his next campaign event because today, he locked in the endorsement of megadeath front-runner, front man, who

tells musicradar.com, he doesn't like the job president obama has done and prefers santorum because his ads haven't gone negative. insert heavy metal joke there. it is interesting he's talking about ads not going too negative. a lot of people would feel the same way. >> we're getting to the moment you missed. "glee" belted out a tribute for the late whitney houston and get this. they planned it all before her death and here's a new take on the song we'll all remember whitney for. ♪ i wish you love ♪ and i will always love you i will always