joining us with cpm group, and jim steele at hsbc. gentlemen, good to see you both. jim steele, gold and silver, a lot of the metals have been very strong to begin this year. is this going to continue, do you think? >> i think it is. we have the twin issues of accommodative policy. and we also have come back -- little comeback, not so much today, but overall in the euro. and we have the reestablishment of some net long position that is were drawn down at the end of last year. we still have good retail demand in the coin and bar space. so it looks to me as if this rally does have legs, yes. >> but jeffrey, you sense a top could be coming, yes? >> actually, we think the cyclical beat was probably raechd in september for gold. and last may for silver. we think on a short-term basis, we're probably at a top, maybe even today. but this week we think the prices will come off, and probably what we're seeing right now are the highs for the year. >> where do you differ from jim steele then? he's itemizing a lot of the fundamentals that would seem to be supportive of metals pr

. >> a steel cage. jim acosta tracking the predebate rhetoric. sometimes the candidates carry it over, sometimes they don't. we'll watch, jim. thanks so much. for his part governor romney was more gentle today but clearly had speaker gingrich in mind here. >> if you think that you really need someone who's been part of the culture of washington for the last 35 years to go there again and continue in washington, why, there are other people you can choose. >> our chief political correspondent the anchor of state-of-the-union with candy crowley is here with us. let's star with governor romney. your first point about what he need to do, tighter, sharper answers. >> he just has not been on his game the last couple of debates. and unfortunately, newt gingrich unfortunately for mitt romney, newt gingrich has been on his game. especially he's uncomfortable with his wealth. a lot of people have pointed this out. when someone brings up your tax returns and how much you paid in taxes, you need to have an answer as to, you know, that you can use the next day

>> tonight, a man who said he was hit by a car on the same street and now has a steel plate in his leg because of it. jim was a rebound year for the economy. a jobs report says 200,000 jobs were created in the month of december. the unemployment dipped to 8.5%, the lowest it's been in nearly three years. nearly 2 million jobs were created in 2011. it's a significant increase over 2010. while it's good news, the recovery is still sluggish. underemployment level that looks at people with part time and low paying jobs is still high at 15%. >>> in decision 2012, the republican presidential candidates were quick to react to today's unemployment numbers. they were not giving credit to president obama for the drop in the jobless rate. >> unemployment numbers are a good indicator we have a long way away from a healthy economy. >> there might be optimism that republicans are going to take the white house and maybe that's spurring people to take risks. >> when pressed about it later, santorum said he was joking. in other news, polls show mitt romney has the lead in new hampshire and south carolina as well. his lea

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steel letters why the cadets live. it's really having a big impact on the academy, don. >> absolutely. as i mentioned, jimore accounts of sexual assault and all of the military academies. >> that's right. this report says last year 65 assaults were reported. no real explanation for why this is going on here at the air force academy they suggest that, look, they put in a lot of new systems to better handle these cases and now victims feel more comfortable coming forward. unclear really if that is the case or not. to address this, the pentagon has enacted two new things. one, holding on to reporting longer to track it and, second, an ability for victims to transfer very quickly if they've been involved in a sexual assault. that's not clear if it will have much impact because there's no place like the air force academy to transfer to. so it's unclear whether those measures will do much. >> jim spellman, thank you very much. >>> the iowa caucus meant big buckses for rick santorum. erased a crazy amount of money since tuesday. coming up, we'll show you how much. >>> plus, how independent voters are key in the

there was a steel mill that bain swept in, they picked that company over and there were a lot of people who lost jobs there. >> joining us from mirt approximately beach, south carolina, a senator jim demint. he has a new book which is called "now or nerve, saving america from economic collapse." it's nice to have you back, sir. i know we will be talking as we head to south carolina in the next couple of days. was there a winner in tonight's debate? who do you think did the best job? >> pr soledad, it's good to be back with you. it's good to see cnn all over the state of south carolina. we're looking forward to having you here. it was a feisty debate. frankly when you give the candidates more time to talk, it made it a little harder to decide which one was doing well. but they threw a lot of punches, but i felt good about the whole field after i heard them talk even though they were attacking each other a little bit towards the end. i think they were doing a lot better about expressing their vision for our country. it's hard to tell a winner, but i think they all won in a lot of ways because we could see more depth in each of them. >> that's such a politically down the middle of th