other state in the nation. as a matter of fact, in the last two years, we created almost half of all the jobs created in america. >> that's governor perry yesterday. you're going to hear that a lot in the weeks and months ahead. we checked with the bureau of labor statistics and his numbers, do, in fact add up. texas created about 262,000 jobs between the summer of 2009 and now that's out of 524,000 jobs nationwide. but the bureau of labor statistics says many of those jobs were for the minimum wage, minimum wage jobs have more than doubled in texas over the last four years and also texas is creating many jobs in part because the population is growing so fast, up more than 4 million since rick perry took office, more people buying goods and services and more jobs. some those people boosting the texas economy come across illegally across the border. according to the it ex-text association of business, illegal immigrant labor pumps in $17 billion a year which in turn also creates more jobs. another job creating factor, federal stimulus money going straight into state and local construction projects or as it did in the last two years, to cover 90% of the state's budget deficit. in as much as jobs are jobs governor perry is on solid factual grounds with his claim. he was claiming victory on that as recently as yesterday. >> and that's exactly what we've done in texas, some very simple but very effective principles of keeping our taxes low and our regulatory climate fair and predictable, legal system that doesn't allow for oversuing and starting out by not spending all the money. we left $6 billion in our rainy day fund in texas, so we've got a decade's worth of experience. >> he's saying he balanced the state budget while keeping taxes low, without dipping into emergency money. however, he did it by taking big money from washington. back in june of 2009, when governor perry was signing the 2010-2011 budget texas was $6.6 billion in the red and it also had a rainy day fund to cover that shortfall. instead of using the fund, texas lawmakers in the perry administration filled the gap with $6.4 billion of federal stimulus money. that's how he balanced the budget without touching the rainy day fund. at the same time as he was taking billions in federal money he was railing against the federal government. earlier that year he even posted a blog headlined "help us turn the tide in washington and stop these irresponsible bailouts." that post went up the same day he requested the federal money. here answer the letter he wrote to president obama "please allow this letter to certify we will accept the funds in h.r. 1 and stimulus and use them to promote economic growth and create jobs in a responsible manner that is in the interest of the texas taxpayers." he said he opposed the stimulus and took the money. right up to this day he continues to speak out against federal money and the state officials who take it. >> americans are fed up with democrats and republicans who have embraced bailouts, championed so-called stimulus programs and supported big government giveaways. >> governor perry has published a book titled "fed up, our fight to save america from washington" during that same period governor perry was actually talking openly about the possibility of breaking away from washington. >> we got to break, there's absolutely no reason to dissolve but if washington continues to thumb their nose at the american people who knows what might come out of that. when we came to the nation in 1845, we were a republic, we were a standalone nation and one of the deals was we can leave anytime we want, so we're kind of thinking about that again. >> two years later the stimulus funds have dried up and there are no longer billions of federal dollars to help texas out. last month governor perry signed a new budget with deep cuts affecting millions of cuts. charles in south carolina it will be a fascinating day tomorrow, and roland martin and mimi swartz, executive editor of "texas monthly" magazine. mimi, you live in texas an covering rick perry. will his jobs claims and budget claims hold up under campaign scrutiny? >> i don't think so. i think when you look at what's happened to the way people live here, our economy's really going to be suffering. once those budget cuts kick in you'll see a whole lot more employment maybe in time for the election. >> erick, does it sound there's double-talk on the acceptance, on the acceptance of the stimulus money? >> yeah i think there is. keep in mind every governor opposed to the stimulus wound up keeping the money, in fact a lot of them did it because of pressure from state legislature or in some cases i think texas is one of them, their democratic delegations that we won't give you money for education unless you take stimulus funding and texas was affected by several but yeah he has to explain that on the trail. you can expect a mitt romney ad on the issue. >> roland martin ,jobs are the top priority with voters. >> here's one of the issues in 2008 with senator obama and senator clinton were campaigning in texas and then had to go to ohio. texas benefitted from nafta. nafta is not popular in states like south carolina, ohio, pennsylvania and michigan, and so he is going to have to also explain that. but to erick's point you must examine that. you can't stand here and talk about, you know, decrying stimulus funds, but you accept them. also in texas, the republicans control the house and the senate. so it's not like rick perry actually had to do it. if he wanted to say no to stimulus funds he could have said so but he didn't. >> is that the case, mimi? >> i would assume so. i'm just thinking about quality of life here and again what people are going to really see once reporters start digging into the way life is lived here, the poor air quality, the poor health care, we're way down at the bottom of all of those things. i hate to see it, you know, i hate to see texas dragged through the mud again, but i think that we're in for it. >> erick, how strong a candidate do you see rick perry as a candidate and who does he most immediately affect by entering? >> i think rick perry would probably be a strong candidate. he's going to have to wither a storm probably for the next couple of weeks. so people understand if he's a paper or a tiger. if they see he's not a paper tanker he'll impact mitt romney largely because of the impact on someone like tim pawlenty and michele bachmann, pulling people away from them. mitt romney seems to be capped out nationally a quarter of the republican primary vote. if perry can cause consolidation it pushes mitt romney it's psychological factor that it's even nominee down further. >> roland you look at the latest poll, rick perry five points behind president obama, it's early, the polls are a snapshot. should the white house be worried about him? >> no, because you have to get through the republican primary first. if you go back to 2004, a generic democratic candidate, was leading president george w. bush in the polls. we saw what happened in november. and so the polls are one thing. you still have to to run the race. remember fred thompson in 2008 republicans were in love with him, he crashed and burned. former new york mayor rudy giuliani, same thing, they loved him. he crashed and burned. i don't believe governor perry is the same, he will be an active campaigner. but again, he will also turn from, in terms of tea party, michele bachmann. rick santorum placed his agenda on social conservatives. rick perry pulls from him. if he's able to craft a strong economic message he greatly impacts mitt romney. so he actually impacts 3 of 4 candidates beyond one candidate. >> we're going to leave it there. erick erickson, roland martin, mimi swartz. good to have you all on the program. thank you so much. reality it's a lot more complicated and the relationship is kind of fascinating. take a look. reportedly, there's been bad blood all around. jim acosta has the "raw politics" tonight. >> amen. >> amen. >> amen. >> reporter: for rick perry, it's a question keeps coming up, not whether he's running for president, but whether he's running from a certain president named george w. bush. >> i called him on his birthday. >> reporter: this week, perry told "time" magazine there's no bad blood with the man he replaced as governor from texas. >> not from my perspective and not between george w. bush and i. >> reporter: go to youtube and you'll find a different story. four years ago speaking on behalf of rudy giuliani's failed campaign in 2008, perry slammed his predecessor. george bush was never a fiscal conservative, never was. wasn't when he was in texas. >> if washington won't protect our border, texas will. >> in his run for re-election in '06, perry blasted washington on illegal immigration and clarified in an interview which washington he meant. >> which washington are you criticizing, the republican-controlled congress or the republican-controlled white house? >> all of them. >> all of them. >> and the fact of the matter is everyone is complicit in not addressing the issue. >> if it means throwing george bush under the bus, he'll do it. >> reporter: former texas congressman democrat martin frost says, if perry has a bush problem -- >> football, cotton, barbecue, it's a great time of the year. >> reporter: -- it's that he's too much like him. >> if you close your eyes and listen to governor perry, he sounds like governor bush. >> bring him on. >> he drops his gs, has some of the same word choice so they sound very much alike. >> reporter: is all of that authentic? >> oh, i think it's authentic. >> reporter: both grew up in south texas, both have ranches, perry grew up on one in the tiny town of pan creek. bush has crawford. texas political experts say that may explain why perry has worked so hard to step out of bush's shadow. >> i don't think there's anything wrong with respectfully disagreeing with someone who i highly admire. i love george bush. he's a great president and i support him. >> reporter: he's also courted tea party republicans. >> all of that was an effort to rebrand, if you will, texas as rick perry's texas, rather than george w. bush's texas and looking forward to a possible national campaign, clearly governor perry is going to need distance from president bush. >> reporter: perry isn't the only one doing the distancing, when perry ran for re-election last year, bush's father and his vice president both supported senator kay bailey hutchison in what was a bitter primary challenge. >> i think apt the staff level there is a certain tension between some of the texas staffers for george w. bush and governor perry's staffers. >> reporter: but former bush secretary ari fleisher says, there's no scandal in perry wanting to be his own man. >> part of running for office is establishing your identity, sometimes you reinforce that which came before you and sometimes it means you differ, and i suspect we're going to see both of those with governor perry. >> reporter: in his speech perry is expected to tout his economic record but democrats in this state point out that record has never been tested on a national stage. that process has just begun. jim acosta, cnn, charleston, south carolina. >> let us know what you think, we're on facebook or follow us on twitter. @andersoncooper. i'll be tweeting tonight. up next, the first big test for gop candidates tomorrow, some of the most interesting moments from the debate last night and sarah palin showing up in iowa for the straw poll. the question is she seeking publicity or does she have a reason to be there? candy crowley, john king join me in a moment and later, the latest from syria. the resistance not backing down even in the face of truly staggering brutality, kidnapping children to punish their parents who protest. dramatic video from today. first let's check in with isha sesay. isha? >> polygamist leader warren jeffs is now in prison serving a life sentence for having sex with minors. we'll play some the taped evidence that was sent there. it's chilling. you'll hear from ex-followers as they explain how he became a cult-like leader, bill a harem and still worshipped by his followers today. that and much more when "360" continues. rity and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. i'm laughing because we have a funny ridiculous thing in the program at the end, it's on my mind. first event of the presidential campaign gets under way tomorrow. the ames straw poll in the campus state university. republicans from all across the state expect to weigh in, the vote is nonbinding but influential in weeding out the more influential candidates. sarah palin is not even a candidate and may not be at all a candidate but she is in iowa, surprise, making the rounds today at the state fair in des moines. where she was asked if she'll be on the ballot for 2012. she said she doesn't yet know. she and rick perry were making themselves felt at the gop debate last night in ames. in case you missed it here it is again boiled down to about a minute or so of some key moments. >> people are looking for a champion. they want someone who's been fighting. >> it's an undisputable fact that in congress, her record of accomplishment and results is nonexistent. >> when you were governor in minnesota, you implemented cap and trade in our state. you said the era of small government was over. that sounds a lot more like barack obama if you ask me. >> america's got to learn how to take a joke. >> look i'm not going to eat barack obama's dog food. what he served up is not what i would have done if i had been the president of the united states. >> 4.2% unemployment. that's my credential. >> i need to respond to that. >> you have the next question. >> i'd love to see the rest of tonight's debate asking us about what we would do to lead an america whose president has failed to lead instead of playing mickey mouse games. >> tomorrow the straw poll which again could be a make or break event for some the candidates. just before air time i spoke to candy crowley in iowa and john king who will be there for the weekend. winning the straw poll can boost fund-raising but doesn't predict necessarily future success. mitt romney won it in 2007 and lost the iowa caucuses so what is tomorrow really about? >> it has no official role, anderson, in the nominating process. plays out somewhat look a circus act but straw poll has a history sending some well-regarded candidate to the sidelines. if you're like rick santorum, he told candy crowley if he's not in the top five he's probably done. why? if you're trying to get your footing and line up activists and line up fund-raising, even though this event doesn't count, a lot of people will look at it to see, will you be viable down the road? >> candy, santorum said that to you. i guess it really judges the candidate's strength, the turnout there, the kind of resources they can put into the event. >> reporter: exactly it measures organizational skills yes but also sort of tests your fund rising ability because listen, let's say tim pawlenty, he spent $1 million in this, this is a very important moment for tim pawlenty. rick santorum doesn't have that kind of money. he's been using shoe leather. look, we've bought some tickets for some people but $30 a ticket, you're talking about a pretty big state and trying to bring people on buses down here, so candidates you know, usually supply the tickets, supply the bus transportation, supply the food when they get down here, and that takes a pretty well-healed candidate. >> john, for pawlenty, iowa is really make or break. he went after michele bachmann last night in the debates. she's obviously been leading the polls. i want to play some of what was said. >> she's got a record of misstating and making false statements. that's another example of that list. she says she's fight are for these things. she fought for less government spending, we got a lot more. she led the effort against obama care. we got obama care. she led the effort against t.a.r.p., we got t.a.r.p. it's not her spine that we're worried about. if that's your view of effective leadership with results, please, stop, because you're killing us. >> so what kind of showing does pawlenty need to have tomorrow in order to remain viable? >> the motto of minnesota is minnesota nice, that was a little minnesota spice. look, congresswoman bachmann is from governor pawlenty's home state, she's under his skin because she's ahead in the polls. he's from neighboring minnesota, organized probably on the ground as well as if not better than anybody in iowa right now if you talk to the experts out there. governor pawlenty would like to win. he really needs to win. if he comes in second or third, it better be close to the top else the money will dry out. >> it's interesting to see sarah palin showing up trying to create a buzz in iowa, at a certain point, unless she's declared candidate, doesn't she start to look like she's just chasing cameras? >> reporter: sure. we may have passed that point, yes. listen, certainly that is already out there. she did the same thing a couple of months ago, sort of raining on mitt romney's announcement that he was going to run in new hampshire while she was taking a bus tour sort of up the east coast so this is the sort of thing that she's done. she does attract the cameras. it was a mad scene here when she showed up in iowa today at this iowa state fair. she says listen, you know, i'm not, someone asked her that very question, are you just trying to get the attention, trying to draw attention from them and she basically said you guys are here, go away, go find somebody else, which we're not likely to do as she knows. >> so, john, newt gingrich's campaign has obviously you know, been full of messes. he's been limping along, campaign, his entire staff leaving. he was asked about it last night. it was really a fascinating moment. let's watch. >> how do you respond to people who say that your campaign has been a mess so far? >> well, let me say first of all, chris, that i took seriously brett's injunction to put aside the talking points and i wish you would put aside the gotcha questions. >> gotcha questions is so just i mean that term, sarah palin uses that term you know when you just ask basic questions. that wasn't a gotcha question. i mean, newt gingrich cannot have been surprised to have been asked about his imploding campaign. >> he was not surprised but he was clearly irritated. it's not a gotcha question if you want to be the chief executive of the united states you're accountable for your campaign. and when your staff resigns that does reflect on the chief executive. his point i know i'm not one of the front-runners. i know that i will get asked about three, four questions. why don't you ask me about the debt and afghanistan and america's debt in the world. that's his frustration as a candidate who is struggling and you could see it from his strong performance but he is being squeezed out. i think largely just because he is yesterday's news to many republicans. >> candy crowley, john king thanks very much. >> thank you. still ahead syria erupting, tens of thousands of protesters report happenedly taking to the streets. government security forces firing at them. we is remarkable new video. some protesters calling for president bashar al assad's death. they're now kidnapping the children to punish the parents who are protesting. crime and pu