ron brownstein and jamal simmons and i'll bring them in to ask you some questions, sir.nd maybe twitter is over the top and irrelevant. it brings up issue who is speaking for you. >> obviously raises that issue. >> congressman, alex here. as i travel the country and talk to republicans, they say, you know, i agree with ron paul on a lot of economic issues, maybe even more than other candidates, but when i hear him talk about foreign policy and social issues, gee he sounds like a 1960s leftist, if it feels good, do it democrat. if you're kind of two- thirds democrat and one-third republican, would you ever consider running as a democrat? >> no, not really. i haven't. but it tells you what the philosophy of liberty does. it appeals to people across the board. and the constitution appeals to people across the board because it brings people together. personal liberties, it's not judgmentals. but it also allows people to spend their money as they see fit. but how can we, how can we separate some of these issues, say, foreign policy from economic issues. they're one in the sam

now, john avlon, jamal simmons and rick willen. great to have you with us. >> happy friday. >> we finally got here. with a few minutes to spare. john, let's talk about this politics with envy charge. it's something the republicans have been talking about. it's become a little bit of a phrase. it's going to be something people talk about on the campaign trail this year. is the president's push back on this convincing? >> well, the president needs to push back. republicans are going to label anything they can class warfare and the president is trying a populoust appeal. that's his key edge. pitting mitt romney or whoever the republican nominee is, mr. 1%. the democratic base, particularly, the liberal base, is limited. only 20% of americans say they're liberal, so he's walking a fine line on the republican side that he is talking about wealth redistribution. >> jamal, let me ask you about what the president's plan is. the economic numbers were disappointing, but they may be enough to keep getting the kind of job growth we've been get

now, john avlon, jamal simmons and rick willen. to have you with us. >> happy friday. >> we finally got here. with a few minutes to spare. john, let's talk about this politics with envy charge. it's something the republicans have been talking about. it's become a little bit of a phrase. it's going to be something people talk about on the campaign trail this year. is the president's push back on this convincing? >> well, the president needs to push back. republicans are going to label anything they can class warfare and the president is trying a populoust appeal. that's his key edge. pitting mitt romney or whoever the republican nominee is, mr. 1%. the democratic base, particularly, the liberal base, is limited. only 20% of americans say they're liberal, so he's walking a fine line on the republican side that he is talking about wealth redistribution. >> jamal, let me ask you about what the president's plan is. the economic numbers were disappointing, but they may be enough to keep getting the kind of job growth we've been getting,

adam davidson is with "the new york times," john avlon, great and jamal simmons. adam, lets me start with you. io have looked into thes and done incredible breaktop dodown this. actually, you've looked at if you taxed all millionaires at 100%, it doesn't do what taxing the middle class would do. >> we don't tax wealth in the country. we tax new income. if you look at all the millionaires in america, they make around $700 billion in income and pay about $200 billion a year in taxes. the two bipartisan commissions -- they both gave similar numbers. we need about $400 billion either in more taxes or less spending. and so, you'd have to tax all the millionaires at much close to 100% to break that nut. now, i'm not saying we shouldn't tax the rich more. i think for equity reasons, fairness reasons, sure. maybe it's a good idea. but the math doesn't add up that that solves our problems. >> and what about when you look at the middle class? you look at the bush tax cuts going away for everyone. you actually had looked at what it would take to make a big difference. what k

adam davidson is with "the new york times," john avlon, great and jamal simmons. adam, lets me start with you. io have looked into thes and done incredible breakdowns on this. actually, you've looked at if you taxed all millionaires at 100%, it doesn't do what taxing the middle class would do. >> we don't tax wealth in the country. we tax new income. if you look at all the millionaires in america, they make around $700 billion in income and pay about $200 billion a year in taxes. the two bipartisan commissions -- they both gave similar numbers. we need about $400 billion either in more taxes or less spending. and so, you'd have to tax all the millionaires at much close to 100% to break that nut. now, i'm not saying we shouldn't tax the rich more. i think for equity reasons, fairness reasons, sure. maybe it's a good idea. but the math doesn't add up that that solves our problems. >> and what about when you look at the middle class? you look at the bush tax cuts going away for everyone. you actually had looked at what it would take to make a big difference. what kin

john avalon joins us, jamal simmons, democratic strategist and david fromme, cnn contributor. all right, john, i've got to say i was pretty amazed at the coincidence that 8.5% was unemployment a year out from reagan's re-election. by the way, that number for barack obama is down a full percent from a year ago, but it's the next six months that matter. >> that's exactly right. the symmetry is amazing and the trend is obama's friend. this is great news for the country and good news for obama's re-election campaign. but the real issue is the dynamic. what was behind the drop in unemployment when ronald reagan was in office was also massive growth in gdp, 8% in the third quarter of 1983. so president obama will have to hope for a lot more of this. but the momentum, he's got it on his side, that's good news for the country and good news for his re-election bid. >> what do you say, david? >> i like good news. i was there in the '80s. the economy took off like a rocket. this economy is taking off like a big, heavy blimp. in 1983, unemployment dropped by two points and then dropped by

john avalon joins us, jamal simmons and david fromme, cnn contributor. all right, john, i've got to say i was pretty amazed at the coincidence that 8.5% was unemployment a year out from reagan's re-election. by the way, that number for barack obama is down a full percent from a year ago, but it's the next six months that matter. >> that's exactly right. the symmetry is amazing and the trend is obama's friend. this is great news for the country and good news for obama's re-election campaign. but the real issue is the dynamic. what was behind the drop in unemployment when ronald reagan was in office was also massive greet in gdp, 8% in the third quarter of 1983. so president obama will have to hope for a lot more of this. but the momentum, he's got it on his side, that's good news for the country and good news for his re-election bid. >> what do you say, david? >> i like good news. i was there in the '80s. the economy took off like a rocket. this economy is taking off like a big, heavy blimp. in 1983 unemployment dropped by two points and then dropped by a

let's get to aural strategy session and discuss with democratic strategist jamal simmons, and alice stewartswoman for michele bachmann. jamal does she know something that could derail the opportunity for newt gingrich to become president? that's what she's now repeatedly hinting. >> it certainly sounds like she knows something. her spokespeople have said she doesn't know anything that hasn't been made public, but it certainly sounded like is it he got close enough to the white house, she was willing to put it out to stop that from happening. i think we don't have to worry about. we know about the $300,000 fine, the ethics charges, we know about his personal life. all those things are on the record. over time that will wear thing with the american voters. alice, nancy pelosi said any reference to the ethics committee is confined to the public record. what do you make of this exchan exchange? >> i this i it's silly. if she's got something -- this is the second time she's done this. she started this talk in december, and now they're saying it's information that's in the public record she's sta

let's discuss what's going on jamal simmons, and republican strategist former michele bachmann spokeswomant of lowering expectations. >> we have a long process ahead of us, 1150 delegates to get. i sure would like to win south carolina, but i know if those polls were right, regardless of who gets the final number, we'll both get a lot of delegates. i want as many as i can get, but i don't know what the numbers will be. i'm pretty confident, kazuhisa ishilly optimistic. >> would you be surprised if he loses tomorrow, alice? not only that, what's key, anytime you get to a caucus our primary, who has the momentum. as we saw, santorum had the momentum into the caucuses. right now it appears that gingrich has momentum going into the primaries tomorrow. that will be a big factor. he also did well in the debate last night, so those two factors will help. i think whether it's gingrich or santorum will do well, but i think romney is in trouble, and it's smard for him to downplayed the expectations, but when you look at the big picture, with one win in iowa for santorum, even if gingrich wins here,

jamal simmons and el -- former spokeswoman for michele bachmann. thanks very much for coming in.ce, let me start with you. romney is a little more moderate. here's the question -- since the tea party and other more conservative members of the tea party and elsewhere were doing well, why is romney doing as well as he is? >> that's a great question. politics is a bloodsport there in south carolina. things will start getting dirty. as we saw in new hampshire, this is the home of the live free or die state. as things transition we'll get into the bible belt. as i learned, the message change dramatically. you come down to the south and you're talking about gods and guns, but still romney is doing well. first of all, money. you can't deny the fact that money is a big factor, also helping with staff and organization, but also he's got the money and the momentum from doing well in iowa as well as new hampshire. but more importantly there's interesting numbers that came out of exit polls last night, wolf. romney came out 61%, so they're looking at does he have the money to carry on and ta

joining us to talk about florida and beyond, jamal simmons, a democratic strategist, principle of thegroup, and chris tal wright, editor and blogger with conservative black chick.com. so good to see you guys again. >> good to see you, too. >> it just gets more and more interesting. this is really historic. i want to start with you jashtion mall. this is a three-man race. there's no clear winner. the fight for the nomination could very well go beyond super tuesday. so the longer this thing goes, does it help or does it hurt president obama? >> oh, i think this time it helps president obama because it gives him the opportunity to stand on the stage like he's going to do tomorrow night at the state of the union to be president of the united states, to be commander in chief, to be focused on jobs and the economy while the republicans are involved in this sort of circus that's been taking place over there. so you have all of these folks sniping and shooting at each other, going back and forth. mitt romney is still probably the favorite to become the nominee just because he's got money, org

crystal wright, editor of conservative black chick.com, and jamal simmons, they're joining us. orites. >> good to see you. >> jamal, i want to start with you. the numbers now show romney leading gingrich, you and oembalma supporters, who do you want to see grab those 50 distill gas today? >> at this point, all of these republicans have dug themselves into such a hole that i think the platform they run on will be hard to win in a general election. obviously i think the longer this goes on, the better it is for the president and the democrats getting newt gingrich in there, but i don't think gingrich will pulled put it out today. that doesn't mean hi can't keep going. >> crystal, gingrich is your guy, you're a del great for gingrich we recently saw some backing from some pretty good folks there, including herman cain, sarah palin. is that going to be enough to make a difference? >> i mean, you know, it's never over in politics, so it won't be over under the last vote is counted, but we do have to consaid that romney has ran a great negative campaign. it looks like he'll -- money m

ron bownstein, senior political analy analyst, jamal simmons, dnc communications adviser. david fromme is with us and a cnn contributor, appreciate you join us. right to it. the tone is so interesting. like, i can't believe i'm chasing santorum, who did not even win his re-election bid. >> 1,000 votes in 2006. a big number. what feels even more -- rick perry. we got in the race, looked like he was the co-front-runner with mitt romney and here in the final days of the caucus attacking rick santorum, which is kind of a measure how far his star has fallen. someone has to win this caucus. >> what the surge is -- >> a last-minute standing element. >> did you see the science fiction movie, everyone on the planet die, one guy wakes up and he's the only guy on earth? that's rick santorum. he has a retail campaign, actually, but not on tv. no one saw him. all the other candidates died. when newt gingrich collapsed, that vote had to go somewhere. guess who, the only guy they didn't know? rick santorum. >> his supporters would say, working every county. they would say, here's a guy t

jamal simmons is a national editor. mr. poe des at that, let me start with you.ver somebody releases a statement that says i want to spend more time with my family. i need to return. automatically like red flags start flying. do you believe that, in fact, he wanted to spend more time with his family or is this really a metaphor for something else that had to happen here? >> the reality was it was bill daley's choice. i don't think he was very happy in the white house these days. the structure wasn't working very well. he had given up a lot of his day-to-day duties to peat rousse who's the counselor to the president. i think he made the right call actually. when in your heart you feel like you're better off moving on, then it's time to move on. i think the president selected an outstanding choice in jack lew. >> a lot of people have said that, that he's sort of very well known on the hill. i think that one of the issues, it seems, is that daley was having some problems not just on the republican side that you might expect but with his own democratic colleagues. do

jamal simmons is national democratic editor for govote.com for atlanta. cnn's christine romans. she's got the exit polls for us this morning. let's get going. i'm going to start with you, christine, because you have the numbers. >> look at independents first. ron paul won this category no, surprise there. kind of surprising is that -- maybe not surprising to your political guests there. mitt floromney had 29% of the independent vote. how it plays out in south carolina will be a different story. huntsman got this one, people not satisfied the gop candidates. people were holding their nose for romney when you looked at electability issues. huntsman edging out ron paul for those not satisfied with the candidates. looking at christian evangelical, romney beat out santorum in new hampshire and ron paul came in third there. huntsman came way down. and then i want to look at income real quickly and wrap it up. romney comes out for people with $50,000 to $100,000 a year and then paul comes in after that with $23,000. this is the exit polling. had a good turnout, too. a good turnout over

ron bownstein, senior political analy analyst, jamal simmons, dnc communications adviser. us and a cnn contributor, appreciate you join us. right to it. the tone is so interesting. like, i can't believe i'm chasing santorum, who did not even win his re-election bid. >> 1,000 votes in 2006. a big number. what feels even more -- rick perry. we got in the race, looked like he was the co-front-runner with mitt romney and here in the final days of the caucus attacking rick santorum, which is kind of a measure how far his star has fallen. someone has to win this caucus. >> what the surge is -- >> a last-minute standing element. >> did you see the science fiction movie, everyone on the planet die, one guy wakes up and he's the only guy on earth? that's rick santorum. he has a retail campaign, actually, but not on tv. no one saw him. all the other candidates died. when newt gingrich collapsed, that vote had to go somewhere. guess who, the only guy they didn't know? rick santorum. >> his supporters would say, working every county. they would say, here's a guy talking about blue col