let's talk about cain ace new slice of the pie, ari fleisher and former 2008 obama pollster cornell belcher. ari, it feels like beef seen this before, republicans being pegged as the straight talker in the race, wins a straw poll, then starts running out of steam. is it reasonable that herman cain will be any difference? >> i think the third behind perry and romney is a terribly important battle because i think it is very possible one of the two front-runner sz going to stumble. therefore whoever is in third will move p up to second, it could be cain, could be santorum. it's important to keep your eye on. when you watch cain in the debates, what gets through is he comes through as so sensible, so direct spoken, so strong. and the reforms that he proposes are structural. no tinkering in the margins. he really wants to change washington and i think that from a ceo has a lot of appeal to republican primary voters. >> cornell, cain also told wolf he could take a third of african-american votes, basing that on anecdotal evidence. is there any polling that could help make that case? >> first of a

let's talk about cain ace new slice of the pie, ari fleisher and former 2008 obama pollster cornell belcherari, it feels like beef seen this before, republicans being pegged as the straight talker in the race, wins a straw poll, then starts running out of steam. is is it reasonable that herman cain will be any difference? >> i think the third behind perry and romney is a terribly important battle because i think it is very possible one of the two front-runner sz going to stumble. therefore whoever is in third will move p up to second, it could be cain, could be santorum. it's important to keep your eye on. when you watch cain in the debates, what gets through is he comes through as so sensible, so direct spoken, so strong. and the reforms that he proposes are structural. no tinkering in the margins. he really wants to change washington and i think that from a ceo has a lot of appeal to republican primary voters. >> cornell, cain also told wolf he could take a third of african-american votes, basing that on anecdotal evidence. is there any polling that could help make that case? >> first of

ari fleisher -- >> i believe in free speech. >> you said you don't want to hear that. >> ari fleisheretter watch what you say, remember that quote? you better watch what you say. i think we have seen and george packer was talking about that, the failure of so many of the establishment institutions in our country and the undermining of the very freedoms we proclaim to uphold in the name of a war on terror. somewhere in there, i'm trying to say we got to be very careful about policing speech. we need to have -- >> speech from the right, non-stop. >> i wrote a column for "the washington post" and the nation also about sarah palin and the crosshairs. the point -- >> you thought they were fine. >> no i thought there was something dangerous there. >> it's horrible. i'm afraid if you police speech -- >> i really think the balance between security and liberty and liberty being free speech has been shifted in the wrong direction in this country in the last ten years. >> speaking of civil speech, pat buchanan. >> i want to ask my friend katrina about government workers. i grew up in d.c., katri

earlier i talked about the fight ahead with roland martin and ari fleisher, press secretary to george w. bush. you can follow him on twitter @arifleischer. ari, every single poll shows that americans overwhelmingly support increasing taxes on the wealthy. the latest cnn poll shows two out of three americans approve of it. "the new york times" poll, others. are republicans on the wrong side of this debate? >> i don't think it's that simple, anderson. people always say make somebody else do it, i don't want to. but that's not how you build a strong nation, and that's not what presidents should do. i'll give him credit for putting something specific on the table. i think he'll find that to some degree enhances the leverage in his hand. but the problem is, it only really enhances it with the left of his party. i think you'll see in the senate where democrats who are vulnerable or up for re-election, they won't come anywhere close to supporting this proposal because it's radioactive down the center and that's a big problem. >> roland, there are a lot of folks like ari saying this plan like

earlier i talked about the fight ahead with roland martin and ari fleisher, press secretary to george w. bush. you can follow him on twitter @arifleischer. ari, every single poll shows that americans overwhelmingly support increasing taxes on the wealthy. the latest cnn poll shows two out of three americans approve of it. "the new york times" poll, others. are republicans on the wrong side of this debate? >> i don't think it's that simple, anderson. people always say make somebody else do it, i don't want to. but that's not how you build a strong nation, and that's not what presidents should do. i'll give him credit for putting something specific on the table. i think he'll find that to some degree enhances the leverage in his hand. but the problem is, it only really enhances it with the left of his party. i think you'll see in the senate where democrats who are vulnerable or up for re-election, they won't come anywhere close to supporting this proposal because it's radioactive down the center and that's a big problem. >> roland, there are a lot of folks like ari saying this plan like