let's bring in dave frum and james carville. 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, which it did seem like the establishment was doing 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 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 eye and i saw the speech given by an effective and intel again ron paul supporter. he presented ron paul as pro-life, anti-gay marriage, a veter

let's bring in dave frum and james carville. 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, which it did seem like the establishment was doing 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 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 eye and i saw the speech given by an effective and intel again ron paul supporter. he presented ron paul as pro-life, anti-gay marriage, a veter

joining us, cnn contributor and democratic strategist, james carville.ing ron paul. is he the guy who you want if you had your wish list to run against obama? who's the guy you want to see run against the president? >> that's wishing for something that's not going to happen. yeah. everything about ron paul -- that a speech he could have given four years ago, eight years ago. i also thought he was a lirlt tired. but that's understandable. he's 76 years old. >> what about romney. everybody makes a big deal. republicans are split over who is the true conservative and who is electable. is romney the guy who is electable? >> romney is not the true conservative that's obvious. we'll know in november if he's electable. we'll get a pretty good indication of that tomorrow night and see how well he does. >> what does the president need to do? if he's saying romney's going to be the guy he's up against. >> i think it's been a very good season for democrats. we hope every democrat wants this thing to go a little bit deeper and wants a few more debates to move around

>> james carville, thank you. >>> let us know what you think. facebook, google plus, follow me on anderson cooper. >>> still ahead, evangelical voters in south carolina and those stunning new poll numbers. if they're right, big if, the candidate you'd expect evangelicals to back may not get their vote after all in south carolina. >>> later in the program, crime and punishment. it was all joran van der sloot could do to stay awake in court. he seemed bored today. then he sprang a huge surprise on everyone. tell you why his trial is now delayed. congestion. nyquil:what? tissue box (whispering): he said nasal congestion... nyquil: i heard him. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. >>> politics now. some truly striking numbers out of south carolina. it's traditionally friendly to evangelicals. the numbers are from a new cnn/time/orc poll. they show mitt romney in the lead among likely voters describing themselves as born again as well as those who say they're not. governor romney leadi

james carville, steven moor with "the wall street journal." james, let me start with you. how damning will it be for mitt romney when these tax returns are put out an i want to emp sis when his father ran, he put out 12 years of tax returns. barack obama put out multiple years. you can make one year look okay, but this kind of stuff's goeng to show up. >> apparently, mitt romney's thinks it's going to be damning. newt gingrich tomorrow night is going to say that we need to see these returns. no that we care as republicans if you pay 15%, we wish everybody did, but barack obama will make something of this. so before we vote, we need to see these returns now before south carolina. gingrich will make that point tomorrow night. >> let me ask you, steven, you believe strongly when people put their money at risk, they get a lower rate, but what about loopholes like this one which a very very few wealthy benefit benefit from. the likes of chuck schumer, eric cantor and nancy pelosi have all conspired to not get rid of this loophole. >> it's a tough call. i'll admit. i want to low

james carville, steven moor with "the wall street journal. kwaelts james, let me start with you. how damning will it be for mitt romney when these tax returns are fully put out, and i want to emphasis that when his father ran for president, he put out 12 years of tax returns. barack obama put out multiple years. you can make one year look okay, but this kind of stuff is going to show up with a big tax return like that. >> apparently, mitt romney's thinks it's going to be damning. he's gone to great lengths to not do it and hasn't done it. newt gingrich tomorrow night is going to say that we need to see these returns. not that we care as republicans if you pay 15%, which everybody did, but barack obama will make something about this. before we vote and you put us in jeopardy in a general election, we need to see these returns now in south carolina. gingrich will make that point tomorrow night. >> let me ask you, steven, you believe strongly when people put their money at risk, they get a lower rate, but what about loopholes like this one which a very very few wealthy benefit benef

james carville, thank you very much. >> thank you. loved the walk.reat walk. >> the great wall, that's what it should be. >> hey, we got a name. >> i think you just did it. >>> well, in if tonight's "outer circle" iran says it developed its first nuclear fuel rod, nuclear weapons. are they far behind? the latest dwopts of the case of maine's 20-month-old missing child. baby ayla missing since mid-december. why is her father speaking out only today for the first time? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t. so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey! >>> we do this at the same time every night. our outer circle where we reach out to our sources around the world. we begin with iran tonight which says it succeeded in building and testing

i don't know if you want to record the point where james carville said he agreed with kwlou you. >> i think we should make a copy of it. >> if you want to play it on your radio show or not, i don't know if it will work for you or against you. >> got to call them like you see them. >> phone in twitter at anderson cooper. i'll be tweeting tonight. just reached 2 million followers. so thank you for that. up next, the kings to winning florida. john king walks us through it. also, millions and millions of dollars being pumped into shadowy super pacs. people writing big checks, apparently getting big results. the question is, who, if anyone, is regulating them. gabrielle gifford, just over a year since she was shot and almost killed. now she's stepping down from congress. we'll talk about why. now, we'll talk to isha. >> in the southeast, people are trying to salvage what they can after a powerful storm system did tremendous damage. we'll tell you what happened and how people are coping when "360" continues. [ monica ] i'm away on a movie shoot and it hasn't been going exactly as planned. c

i don't know if you want to record the point where james carville said he agreed with you? >> i think we should make a copy of it. >> if you want to play it on your radio show or not, i don't know if it will work for you or against you. >> got to call them like you see them. >> phone in twitter at anderson cooper. i'll be tweeting tonight. just reached 2 million followers. >>> and the keys tonight. >>> and millions and millions of dollars being pumped into shadowy super pacs, writing big checks for big results. the question is, who if any is regulating them. >>> congresswoman gabrielle g e giffor giffords, we have watched her make incredible progress. now, we'll talk to isha. >> in the southeast, people are trying to salvage what they can after a powerful storm system did tremendous damage and how they are coping when "360" continues. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. here you go. driver's license. past five years'

joining me are james carville and bay buchanan. >> would you tell them to knock it off? >> i would try to. 2008 was awfully tepid, i like you well enough, hillary, compared to this. this is pretty even by any standard. this is pretty rough stuff going on. >> bay, you said the romney camp expected to get hit on this topic. did you expect it from your own side? >> no, not from our own side. we expected the left would raise it in the general election and come after us. to have a conservative, someone who claimed to be the conservative in the race to be coming after us by basically joining the war against capitalism and attacking mitt romney for his private sector successes is amazing. >> we have already seen, james, one big perry backer jump over to the romney side over these attacks. could this work in romney's favor? >> i don't think so. i think the next is going to be calling romney to release the government help that bain got. he's going to see a lot of subsidies that they got, tax credits, and they were pretty aggressive in lobbying this. the idea that he was a pure ca

>> james carville, thank you. >>> let us know what you think. facebook, google plus, follow me on anderson cooper. >>> still ahead, evangelical voters in south carolina and those stunning new poll numbers. if they're right, big if, the candidate you'd expect evangelicals to back may not get their vote after all in south carolina. >>> later in the program, crime and punishment. it was all joran van der sloot could do to stay awake in court. he seemed bored today. then he sprang a huge surprise on everyone. tell you why his trial is now delayed. confused by all the nutritional information out there? from centrum. it puts you in the center of everything that's good for you. its unique self-assessment tool helps identify the multivitamin and supplement combination that's right for you and your lifestyle. so visit new nutritionpossible.com and take your personal assessment today. better nutrition is within reach. centrum. nutrition possible. thrilled. wait. we can have shakes? and boston cream pie. did you say pie? pie. she said pie. pie. [ male anno

>> james carville, thank you. >>> let us know what you think. facebook, google plus, follow me on anderson cooper. >>> still ahead, evangelical voters in south carolina and those stunning new poll numbers. if they're right, big if, the candidate you'd expect evangelicals to back may not get their vote after all in south carolina. >>> later in the program, crime and punishment. it was all joran van der sloot could do to stay awake in court. he seemed bored today. then he sprang a huge surprise on everyone. tell you why his trial is now delayed. i take an omega for my heart. but to be honest, i find the omega choices overwhelming. which one is right for me? then i found new pronutrients omega-3. it's from centrum, a name i trust. it goes beyond my heart to support my brain and eyes too. and these ultra-concentrated minigels are much smaller than many others. it's part of a whole new line of supplements. there's probiotic and fruit & veggie too. new pronutrients from centrum helps make nutrition possible. can you enjoy vegetables withm sauce and st

. >> we're here with our analysts, republican strategists, democratic strategists, james carville what are you expecting tonight? >> i expect uncertain, that's generally what it is and if one is to believe the final polls taken last night, speaker gingrich is in good shape. we were in the green room talking about ever this and this has been a roller coaster ride unlike any other and i suspect it will provide us -- >> you're thrilled by that fact. >> if the last polls are correct, if last night's polls are correct, yeah, i think yes, i would be understandably thrilled by that. i think donna would probably be happy. >> absolutely, we're ready to take out some of the balloons that we've been storing away but look, anderson, this was a very interesting week in politics. jon huntsman dropped out, threw his support to romney. perry dropped out, threw his support to newt gingrich. rick santorum woke up, found out he won the contest in iowa and where are we today? we just don't know until we see the results tonight but we know one thing, the republicans are not ready to settle on one person ye

james carville, thanks so much. great to see you. in new hampshire. >> glad you got your voice back. glad you didn't flick me off there. thank you. >> all right. now let's check in with anderson with a look at what coming up on ac360. >> keeping them honest tonight. rick santorum trying to build off his strong showing in iowa but instead he is having to answer questions about list views on americans. he said he was tongue tied. we will play the remarks he made and let you decide exactly what he said. newt gingrich also taking heat for comments he made on the naacp and food stamps. we will talk with with our panel about all of that. >>> in syria, killing continues. 24 more people died today. tonight on 360, the inside story. a syrian defector calling it genocide. saying the government can no longer control, the quote, human monsters. and pays $100 a day to kill its own people. remashable stuff. those stories, all at the top of the hour, erin. >>> in the meantime, michelle parker with, florida missing mother, missing since november, he

and joining us are nancy f photenhaure and james carville. the president says that mr. gets most of his money from investments, and statutory and not effective, and that makes his tax rate lower than his secretary. what do you make of that? >> well, it is an illusion, and what you hear quoted does not reflect the 35% already taxed through the corporate tax rate. so, their income tax rate on top of that is a double-taxation of the income tax dollars earned which is not expressed. that is why when you look at the data the top 1% pay 40% of the income tax revenue even though they earn 20% of that money. >> james carville, but more than half of americans agree that the capital gains and dividends should be taxed at the same rate as ordinary income, and it is an issue front and center, and nancys that it is true, that the top 1% pays 40%. >> because the income has gone up, and you know, by about 450%, where ordinary people's income has gone up 20%. but, look, one thing that we can say is that newt gingrich and mitt romney agree that mitt romney's taxes are too high. they wan

have you ever heard anybody, james carville, get out of the race and decide the next morning, wait, i'm back in? >> no. last night the weirdest thing and maybe one of the most fun things i've ever done and just continued this morning. it was a very strange thing. all right. he's going to take his shot, i guess. i don't know. i have no idea what goes through rick per's mind, if anything goes through rick per's mind. i'm not even certain of that, burks you know, he's entitled to take his shot, and i don't think he's going to do very well, but why not try. >> literally five seconds, david frum f.rick perry gets out, michele bachmann already out, where do those votes go? >> end up all going to rom any. just a matter of time. it may take all the time to flav. >> with the caveat just a matter of time. >> let us know what you think about rick santorum and ron paul and how some in the economic establishment think they could be okay. >>> still out front, a royal murder mystery, a young woman found murdered on one of the queen's estates. we're on that case and the u.s. defense secretary leon pane

michele bachmann was filling in for a while too. >> james carville. you very much. >> thank you. love the wall. great wall. >> great wall. that's what it should be. >> yeah, got a name. >> think you just did it. well in tonight's "outer circle" iran says it developed the first nuclear fuel rods. nuclear weapons are they far behind? the question may be ready to answer? and baby ayla missing since mid december. why is her father speaking out only today for the first time? ♪ [ telephone rings ] [ laughs ] [ mayhem ] please continue to hold. the next available claims representative will be with you in 97 minutes. [ laughs ] ♪ and if you've got cut rate insurance, there's nothing you can do about this. so get allstate. the only insurance company that guarantees your claim experience won't be mayhem... like me. [ dennis ] introducing the claim satisfaction guarantee. only from allstate. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you from mayhem like allstate. >>> we do this at the same time every night. our outer circle where we reach out to our sources around the

james carville, thank you very much. >> thank you. loved the walk.reat walk. >> the great wall, that's what it should be. >> hey, we got a name. >> i think you just did it. >>> well, in if tonight's "outer circle" iran says it developed its first nuclear fuel rod, nuclear weapons. are they far behind? the latest developments of the case of maine's 20-month-old missing child. baby ayla missing since mid-december. why is her father speaking out only today for the first time? okay... is this where we're at now, we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's worth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic. are you done sweetie? yea [ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition. fiber one. hey, i love your cereal there-- it's got that sweet honey taste. but no way it's 80 calories, right? no way. lady, i just drive the truck. right, there's no way right, right? have a nice day. [ male announcer ] 80 delicious calories. fiber one. the two trains and a b

that does suggest to james carville's point that mitt romney hasn't made the impact he has to make. i wouldn't be surprised if we get some calls. >> you'll have people saying let's get another candidate. dana loesch says where is my tea party candidate? there are deadlines. you can't just say i'm running for president. you have to file. almost impossible to do at this point. almost impossible to do it in a serious way. let's say romney is first or second. some people say why can't he grow? after tonight our next question is what's next and who is best positioned? mitt romney is way ahead in new hampshire. if he wins tonight or comes in a very close second. it's hard to see the bottom dropping out in new hampshire in one week. you only get one week. it will be interesting the tone. will people go after him in a nasty, negative way. the key test for romney, can he keep new hampshire? then as it was in 2008, south carolina, as it often is in republican presidential primaries, south carolina says iowa or new hampshire win over the field. we pick presidents. >> hot in new hampshire then

people have died in the ten month long and rest with damascus blaming armed gangs for the violence james carville editor of an independent news website based in japan doubts if the observer mission will bring any plausible results the final report will be a pretty much preordained conclusion that there will be findings that the assad government is not doing enough to to listen to the concerns of its citizens but personally i'm not sure what is more ridiculous about this story be the idea that the the autocratic suggs of the arab league states are going to presume to pronounce on the democratic you know leanings of that the syrian government to work with the international community is supposed to take what they say with any sort of moral authority but clearly these are not people in a position to be lecturing on this but i think as i say i think the the report has been pretty much preordained and i would be very surprised to see that that it concludes anything other than the fact that that the assad government is to blame for what's going on in syria right now. former libyan rebels are now chantin

republican battle and what it means for president obama is democratic strategist and cnn contributor james carvilles, always great to see you, thank you for joining us. all the latest polls show mitt romney with a double-digit lead over newt gingrich. what is your sense? what was the key to turning around romney's fortunes for florida? because they were flagging badly just a week and a half ago? >> well, i think three keys. first is, he was aggressive in the debate. looks like gingrich was aggressive in south carolina, took his foot off the pedal as my colleagues said. republicans tend to reward that kind of thing. equally important, he outspent gingrich by a huge amount of money. and third, we don't like to admit it, but we saw it again in iowa, negatives work. and so the combination of his being aggressive in a debate, superior financial resources, and going after gingrich in a very aggressive, negative way paid off and that's been a lesson of this campaign. >> how are you reading the fact to shift to gingrich for a moment that in the face of all of that, the endorsement by herman cain who was on

. >> and now, let's bring in cnn political krigter and strategist, james carville. james, what's your point of view on this? it would seem that you would just take something and start somewhere, but we don't even seem to be able to do that. >> you know, we just released a new democracy poll which shows republicans in congress with dismally low ratings and democrats have taken the lead. there's nothing that president obama can be for that these guys would support and it's really about not liking him as opposed to wanting to move the country forward. comes in with an idea to sort of telescope these agencies. seems like something you'd say, well, that's a good start. elevate to cabinet level. to be all or end all. but it sure would look like if i were if congress and something the president could support i'd take back to my voters, but appare apparently, it's not the mind set of the tea party. >> yes, he is and it does seem from a lot of people would say, all right, even if they think he has a lot of points, why wouldn't you take this and then take more if i want more.

democratic strategist james carville, republican alex, and eric erickson. james, whether the talk is about the jobs that obama created or didn't create or the jobs that romney created or didn't create, it's still going to be all about the economy, right? >> yeah. sure it will. i think today positive news for the president and they'll have it out and the record of bane capitol will be a legitimate issue. it looks like r50i9 now for the moment we've go the a little wind at our backs which has not been the case for a lot of his administration. so they've got to be feeling a little better today. >> eric, clearly obama administration wants to turn what many see as mitt romney's greatest attribute, his time in the private sector, what he calls a job creator, they want to turn that into a negative, story after story of workers who have been fired and huge profits at bane capitol. do they have a story to tell on that front? >> to a degree they do. this is mitt romney's biggest vulnerability. poll after poll after poll show that while americans don't care for barak o