please welcome david frum. [cheering and applause] thank you very much. hey mr. frum. david, good to see you again. thanks for coming back. >> thank you. >> stephen: all right, all right. you are no stranger to this show. you know i'm going to bring it hot and hard, and you know i got some problems with the things you're saying right now. >> i'm ready for it. >> stephen: back in november you wrote a little article for "new york" magazine that said, "when did the g.o.p. lose touch with reality." >> yes. >> stephen: okay. first of all, why is it a bad thing to lose touch with reality? have you seen reality lately? it's terrible. >> it's pretty bad. and a lot of people are suffering pretty badly. and what happens in a democracy is parties should be competing to offer solutions to the problems that people have. >> stephen: they are. they are. the republicans are competing to see who can do the biggest tax cut. >> workable solutions that deliver real benefits for as many people as possible. >> stephen: that was back in november that in this "new york" magazine you said, "has

ariana huffington, steve rattner, david frum and mort zuckerman. next up, what do the shipyard in tahrir square have in common? a lot. first, here's my take. i spent the last few weeks working on an essay for "time" magazine on barack obama's foreign policy. and in association with that piece, i interviewed the president last wednesday in the oval office. let me give you a few of my thoughts and impressions. obama seemed relaxed, calm, confident. i asked him about mitt romney's attacks on him as indecisive, timid and nuanced. i don't quite know why being nuanced is a bad thing but that is what romney said. obama responded that romney and the rest of the republican field are going to be playing to their base until the primary season is over. after that, he said, he looked forward to having a foreign policy debate. overall, i think it's going to be pretty hard to argue that we have not executed a strategy over the last three years that has put america in a stronger position than it was when i came into office, he said. i think obama has good reasons

and david frum, let's get a shot of david frum's chair. i've committed to mocking david frum this morning because he is late for my show and when you have -- >> arrive with sleep in his eyes. >> i'm told it's not his fault. too bad, we don't care. we're moving on. let's talk a little bit about this final debate last night. it is the debate right before florida republicans will vote and stakes were very, very high. mitt romney and newt gingrich really going at it all night with jabs. was there a clear winner in addition to our panelist who got florida republican congressman is in miami. endorsed newt gingrich. thanks for being with us. certainly appreciate your time. how do you think -- i don't know that you're ready for us yet. all right. we'll start. you guys let me know when he's ready. panelists. mr. rivera is getting ready. who do you think won? and don't give me the, i'm a republican, i'm a democrat, you know, here's who i'm supporting. >> we never do that. we never do that. >> never, never. >> last night, last night was, i think -- i

david frum is a contributing editor for "the daily beast" and "news week." steve rapner left a long career on wall street to be the obama strais's car tsar. he is back in business now, and mort zuckerman never left the business. he is the chairman of boston properties and the editor in chief of u.s. news and world report. welcome to you all. david, let me start with you. one of the things i have been puzzling over is what happened to the tea party? this was the party -- this was meant to be the thing that was going to totally transform the republican party. it doesn't quite seem to have had that affect. >> well, it's failed to generate an alternative to mitt romney, and it's taking a bad humiliation because of it. i think a lot of the energy has gone out of it, and especially in south carolina. here's something that i think is maybe relevant. senator jim demint, a senator from south carolina, has been a vocal advocate of the tea party. he has been the leading opponent of dredging the harper of charleston. charleston needs a deeper harbor if it's to compete w

let me start with you, david frum, important to note bill gross is saying he would be an obama man, but when it comes to looking that the republican field, he does not dismiss someone like ron paul out of hand twi did seem like the establishment was do, and -- and similarly in our results from our strike team with rick santorum. so what do you make? do you think that these guys have the capability to become more mainstream candidate? >> ron paul has no capability of becoming a more mainstream candidate. he's a man of the margin, and i think if you are a democrat and you want to do a little mischief in the republican field, you might well favor him because he is is a man -- ron paul is a man who couldn't be elected mayor of a town, let alone president of the united states. here's how the ron paul message worked. i was in one of the precincts in iowa and sought speech given by a very effective and intelligent ron paul supporter. he presented ron paul as pro-life, anti-gay marriage, a veteran, in favor of strong american military, and by the way a supporter of the mission to kill osama bin

i agree with david frum, ron paul is not going to be the president of anything, and if you go and it's -- a couple of ideas he has that there's enough that somebody with like, but if you go anything deeper, some of the stuff is really disturbing and real out there. i -- i'd declare -- i wouldn't declare him out of the mainstream. i'd declare him way out of the mainstream. nice affable guy. >> does it make you think twice that people will say, all right, well if mitt romney doesn't have what it takes, you get a lot that have establishment money and support would be willing to back someone like a rick santorum, obviously more so than they would a ron paul, but willing to do that, david frum? does that surprise you at all? >> i don't believe it's true. i think that ron paul -- that ron paul is going to dwindle. i think mitt romney is going to go here from strength to strength. have you to understand that ron paul's economic views are -- he's essentially a monetary policy crank, and ron paul's views are what the united states needs is to abolish banking. we need to abolish the currency sys

i agree with david frum, ron paul is not going to be the president of anything, and if you go and it's -- a couple of ideas he has that there's enough that somebody with like, but if you go anything deeper, some of the stuff is really disturbing and real out there. i -- i'd declare -- i wouldn't declare him out of the mainstream. i'd declare him way out of the mainstream. nice affable guy. >> does it make you think twice that people will say, all right, well if mitt romney doesn't have what it takes, you get a lot that have establishment money and support would be willing to back someone like a rick santorum, obviously more so than they would a ron paul, but willing to do that, david frum? does that surprise you at all? >> i don't believe it's true. i think that ron paul -- that ron paul is going to dwindle. i think mitt romney is going to go here from strength to strength. have you to understand that ron paul's economic views are -- he's essentially a monetary policy crank, and ron paul's views are what the united states needs is to abolish banking. we need to abolish the currency sys

david frum?dent's speech the the call for the mortgage relief plan and the urge to make the senate less of a place where nothing happens. direct government investment in the energy sector. that is an

david frum?dent's speech the the call for the mortgage relief plan and the urge to make the senate less of a place where nothing happens. direct government investment in the energy sector. that is an indication to boondoggles and his call for raising the rate on capital gains. they're taxes on transactions, not one on income. >> "end point" is enpoint not points. >> last need he talked about equal pay for women. most of the men in that chamber

david frum wanted to ask you a question. >> yes.h time will he spend on the past, in particular the past three years? is the president going to offer some assessment of why he doesn't think the economy has done better? is there going to be maybe even a hint of self-criticism and the suggestion of a different approach? >> i'm not going to preview too much about the president's speech. i want to leave that to him. he will describe how we got to where we are, but more importantly how we move the country forward. over the last 22 months, for example, we've had previous sector job growth each and every month. we created 3.2 million jobs. we created more jobs last year than any year since 2005. we're clearly moving in the right direction. as wees know and you know too many families are still sitting around their kitchen tables trying to stugle to make ends meet. what the president's belief is that we should have a country that invests in manufacturing, that invests in new energy, that invests in preparing our work force. it has american v

"newsweek" kcover story made tht case but david frum disagrees.elists as well. the article that you wrote is an antidote to andrew sullivan's article wrote in news week who basically said, listen, president obama has done a bunch of good things. bailouts worked, obama care is moderate, congress is polarized, basically the president just kept his promises. what didn't you like about that article? >> as you say, andrew sullivan wrote that last week and this week i'm a "newsweek" contributor and they gave me space to write the rebuttal to andrew. and i think what andrew was doing there was shooting fish in a barrel, he was taking the most extreme and most criticisms of the president and they're having lots of those. and replied to those. meanwhile, serious case about that is the issue in this about the direction the country is goi going. the key act about this president is that he is taking on a country toward a path on a much bigger government on a permanent, not emergency busy. i give lots of facts and figures in my article on those trends. >> let

david frum once said it can enrich ewe ran yum and call for israel's demise, but not at the same timeilled six american marines. the taliban claimed responsibility, but the nato-led force reported no activity. killing four and injuryinging 15. this led nicolas sarkozy to suspend training operations and combat help in afghanistan. we asked nick peyton walsh how the mission is affecting the troops to pull out of afghanistan. >> nicolas sarkozy suggested he might bring troops home early. 4,000 french soldiers here helping the training and security. sarkozy's facing great pressure ahead of re-election in april. this war is deeply unpopular in france and nato needs this to stay within the coalition. if they were to leave early, people might see signs of the coalition here crumbling. >> and now to the u.k. and an update on the media hacking scandal that took down rupert murdoch's news of the world newspaper. the parent company of the newspaper has agreed to dole out hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements to 18 reported victims, including some news inl over alleged phone hacking by

. >> good debate about what to do, donna brazile, and david frum.eautiful night out here on the balcony. >> and you can forget what is going on inside. >> and erin is coming up at the top of the hour, and you have been digging into mitt romney's tax returns and what have you uncovered? >> well, this is insane, john. look. the guy made a lot of money. with know that, but we had 500 pages here and we put together a strike team of seven irs experts, and tax experts to go through it to find out some things that stood out, and we did, ale though it does appear that mitt romney paid everything that he is supposed to pay, and there are a coupleel of interesting things in here, and his use of blind trusts, and he has talked about that before and perhaps not in a way he wants us to bring up tonight, but we got to the bottom of it, and also we will be ready for the state of the union. good thing that the weather is good there, otherwise, john, you would not be pleasant. >> i like the cold. i wish it were snowing, but if the it is a night nig, i will l it. you

common sense or basic values of equity or even being able to integrate rupert murdoch, josh barro, david frumeryone else's idea that we should get rid of the carried interest loophole? that seems to be the bigger issue. we have to figure out what are the actual mechanics preventing us from achieving good tax policy. >> the right wing has laid down this narrative attack. they're always increasing. when you look at surveys, americans say taxes are higher than five years ago, ten years ago. you ask michele bachmann about tax codes and they said they want to go back to the reagan tax code, which would be great. it's actually higher. it's more aggressive than clinton or obama. we have this perception that taxes are always increasing, which is untrue. >> and the republican majority, most of them in congress, have signed pledges, no new taxes. no new taxes. so they won't vote for them and they have the majority. >> josh? >> i this the reason the carried interest tax treatment survives is that it's actually not that large a tax issue in the big picture. >> sure. >> you say why can't we have a good ta

. >>> governor, david frum here.r in a southern state who has achieved popularity by being very focused on governments, really picking your issues. when you look at newt gingrich, get beyond electability, what kind of president do you think a president gingrich would be? >> i like all of these republican candidates, every one of them are good conservatives who will be far better presidents than the president that we've got now on jobs, on energy, on understanding that this is a nation of opportunity, not guarantees, which is what this president is moving us towards. listen, i'm here to support mitt romney. and the reasons for that is he is the leader to turn the economy around and cut spending and lead us into an optimistic future. that's the message and that's the whole issue in this campaign. president obama continues to blame everybody but himself for the direction of the country. 8% unemployment or more for 35 straight months. we can't have that. mitt romney's created 125,000 jobs in the private sector. he knows

and speechwriter david frum as well.dviser maria cardonna in d.c. and the director of the suffolk political university research center. and mayor, thank you for having us in your fine city. why are you supporting mitt romney? >> well, i believe he is the candidate that can talk about jobs, create jobs, and people today are worried about the jobs that they have, that they may lose them. >> why are you one of the few people -- i have everyday people come on the show, and i say who are you supporting, who are you endor endorsing? and more often than not, it's i don't know yet. why are you so sure? >> i think that somebody who signs the front of the check understands how to bring people back to work and can get people to the table through the big corporations who will still hiring people. because they are just really scared right now what the future has to bring because of what's happening in government. we need to get him in there so that people will understand their jobs are secure, that they don't have to worry, and we'll