we're live with the special edition of ac 360. the debate wrapped up in tampa, florida. a lot to talk about. jobs, social security, healthcare. some surprising moments as well and pointed an contentious moments. we have an analysis of the key moments of the debate in case you missed it. we'll take a look at the facts thrown out in the heat of the debate. see if there was truth to them. see if -- we're keeping them honest. a look at memorable moments from tonight's debate. take a look. >> it's been called a ponzi scheme by many people long before me. no one has had the courage to stand up and say here is how we're going to reform it. >> the term ponzi scheme i think is over the top and unnecessary and frightful to many people. >> the question is, do you still believe that social security should be ended as a federal program as you did six months ago when your book came out and return to the states or do you want to retreat from that? >> i think we ought to have a conversation. >> we're having that right now, governor. we're running for president. you said if people did it in the prief sector, it would be called criminal. that's in your book. >> what i said was -- >> i'm not particularly worried about governor perry and romney frightening the american people when president obama scares them every single day. i've been told by some people you can't get that done. i say why? well, because you don't know how washington works. yes, i do. it doesn't. it's easy to turn around this economy just to have the backbone to do it. >> does governor perry deserve any credit for all the jobs created in texas? >> sure. >> tell him how much credit he deserves. >> i think governor perry would agree with me, if you have four aces, it doesn't necessarily make you a good poker player. >> governor perry, you were dealt four aces. >> i was going to say, mitt, you were doing pretty good until you got to talking poker. >> congressman paul, you're from texas, does your governor deserve all that credit in. >> not quite. i'm a taxpayer there. my taxes have gone up. our taxes have doubled since he's been in office. i don't want to offend the governor because he might raise my taxes or something. >> the drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor and this is just flat-out wrong. the question is, is it about life or was it about millions of dollars and particularly billions for drug company. >> it was a $5,000 contribution that i had received from them. i raise about $30 million. if you're saying that i can be bought for $5,000, i'm offended. >> i'm offended for all the little girls and the parent that didn't have a choice. that's what i'm offended for. >> you just heard social security emerges a hot button issue. they were talking about vaccinations. rick perry called social security a ponzi scheme. romney and perry went head to head each accusing of scaring the seniors. back live, john king host of john king, usa, david gergen and the chief political analyst -- eric eric son of red state.com and paul la gala. ari fleischer. and roland martin. i don't know how many folks we have. i lost count. we just talked to john king. john, there's one particular exchange on social security between rick perry and mitt romney that got a lot of people's attention. we heard a bit of it before. i want to play the extended version right now. >> but the question is, do you still believe that social security should be ended as a federal program as you did six months ago when your book came out and return to the states or do you want to retreat from that? >> i think we ought to have a conversation -- >> we're having that right now. we're running for president. >> are there ways to move the states into social security, for state employees or retirees? we did in the state of texas in the 1980s. i think those types of thoughtful conversations with america rather than trying to scare seniors like you're doing and other people, it's time to have a legitimate conversation in this country about how to fix that program that's not bankrupt and our children actually know there's going to be a retirement program for them. >> governor, the term ponzi scheme is what scares seniors, number one, and number two, suggesting that social security should no longer be a federal program and return to the states and unconstitutional is likewise frightening. there are a lot of very bright people who agree with you. that's your view. i happen to have a different one. i think that social security is an essential program that we should change the way we're funding it to make sure -- >> you said if people did it in the private sector -- >> did what? >> it would be called criminal. that's this your book. >> what i said was -- [ applause ] governor perry, you got quote me correctly. you said it's criminal. what i said congress taking money out of the social security trust fund is like criminal and that is and it's wrong. john, do you think social security has become at this point the key hot button issue or something coming up throughout the primary? >> without a doubt. here's why. number one, if you listen to these tea party voters in this room, many of them agree with governor perry, especially with what governor perry wrote in his book, fed up and said in interviews after that. they think social security is unconstitutional and they would prefer a transition where 20, 30 years from now it's returned to the -- >> he was not asked a yes or no. he had because of the pressure to write an article in the usa today, he said tonight he wants to reform the program but not touch anybody -- governor romney believes this is a vulnerability much the challenge is a lot of republican primary voters, especially tea party voters are more with governor perry's position on this. what governor rom mi is trying to prove, he's trying to make the case that this would make governor perry unelectable. in a state like florida, pennsylvania, even iowa, where you have a higher population of senior voters, governor romney is trying to make the case, if you want the candidate with the best chance of beating barack obama, a candidate who can be viewed as someone who who would abolish or social security is unconstitutional. governor perry standing by what he said. he said the issue is reforming it. but look for this to continue on what he said in the book. not what he said in the essay. the fact he thinks the founding fathers would turn in their grave. that social security shouldn't be there. governor perry now wants to talk about fix it. not whether he would support it being there in the first place. this will continue. >> i want to bring in a round rob into get impression of what you heard from the panelists. eric ericson, what are your headlines going to be on red state.com? >> well, i think this may be the first debate where romney didn't come out the clear winner. rick perry came out strong. everyone held themselves to the end and perry needed to do well. i think he did well. i don't think the social security exchange helps romney at all. i think he's foolish to continue it. he may want to go after perry on hpv or i am dprags. i think the majority believe with perry. for the life of me, i can't understand why he would go with this. governor roland, your take. >> if you're ayala continue owe voter, the last thing you want to hear is some of the things you heard. colorado, new mexico, arizona will be -- the gop did themselves no favor in trying to curry with latino. so much emphasis, talking about social security, talking about a balanced budget, most of the -- >> it came up in abolished in the department of education. >> right. that's the only moment it came up. frankly, if you're a parent trying to get your kid educated. they didn't speak to the crisis when it comes to education. major failure in that not coming up. gloria bore jer? >> i think anderson what we saw was this race is far from over. there's an internal fight going on in the republican party whether or not constitutional. i don't think -- i don't think that question got answered by governor perry tonight. it's something he and mitt romney will engage on in the future. i think romney started chipping away at the economic miracle of the state of texas and it's clearest going to continue to go back at that. he said, you know, when you're dealt four aces, it's easy to win the hand. i remember that. >> ron paul did that pretty effectively as well saying i live in texas, my taxes have doubled. >> i remember that happened with michael dukakis talking about the massachusetts miracle. they chipped away at that. that was a big problem for him. i think we saw perry really on the defensive and everybody on the attack on him. he's going to get used to it. paul in. >> remarkable study of contrast between mitt and rick. mitt was cool, rick was hot. mitt was factual and rick was a little more emotional. it was really an interesting study in contrast between the two of them. the real question is, which party, not who won but which party. if this is still the party of investment bankers who carry a putter at the country club, well then mitt romney wins. if it's the party carrying a pitchfork to the tea party rally, rick perry wins. certainly in the hall, i was watching on tv, but in the hall it sounded from the audience like a strikingly conservative, really almost radically conservative audience which only helps rick perry. >> although, paul, wouldn't you say that rick perry certainly seemed to have stumbled on the hpv vaccine issue, in the hall, his stance was not popular at all? >> this is in fact, i think, long-term, strategically, the real achilles heel for rick perry. that's where michele bachmann took it. she took it to crony capitalism. she didn't say this is -- she didn't say it's to small government conservatives, although it is. she suggested, she implied and said, i want to quote her, she said this is because the governor's chief of staff was the chief lobbyist for this drug company. she's trying to suggest that he will depart from conservative values. rick perry is speaking now to a group. let's listen in for a bit. >> we don't need you monkeying around and fiddling around and getting in our business on every kind of regulation you can dream of. you're doing nothing more than killing jobs. it's a cemetery for jobs at the epa. mr. cain hit the spot, he said you need to put somebody in who is a pro job, pro american administrator and tell them every day, this is going to be about creating jobs in america. then we need to have a little conversation about taxes and how we're going to lower the tax burden on the job creators out there. both the corporate side and the personal income tax side. >> so paul, i want to let you finish up what you're going to say and move on. >> if this notion begins to take hold, perry conservative might sell out the conservative principles because he's connected to a lobbyist, then mrs. bachmann may be able to get back in the race and mr. romney may press the argument. when i talk to people in texas, they think perry's vulnerability is not ideology or talent. ari fleischer, your thoughts before we go to break. >> i think that republicans have to be a little careful here that social security is not the defining issue that divides them in this primary. they have to remember to bring it back to barack obama, to jobs, to debt and deficits. this is the core strength that made republicans so strong in this cycle. they will come back for the social security debate, the romney people love it and the perry people want to engage in it. it's a given. the bigger perspective cannot be lost as the candidates move forward in this debate. >> we'll have more from the panelists in a moment. we'll come back to them throughout the hour. let us know what you think about what happened. go to twitter at anderson cooper. i'll try to join on the conversation on-line at anderson cooper. rick perry said the $800 billion stimulus package created zero jobs. you can have a republican debate without the name obama coming up. ari said obama's name should have come up more. we'll get her reaction in tampa as well. 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>> anderson, we've looked at a lot of things. we'll have a lot them over the next 24 hours and on cnn.com. your one big one came fairly early on when all the candidates were going after the president over jobs. lit listen to what rick perry said. >> he had $800 billion worth of stimulus in the first round of stimulus. it created zero jobs. 400-plus billion in this package and i can do the math on that one. half of zero jobs is going to be zero jobs. >> that was the kind of red meat out there that got people excited. in a nutshell, what the governor is saying is that the stimulus created zero jobs, but the congressional budget office very trusted here says that's just not the case. they say it's between 1.4 and 3.3 million jobs created or saved by the stimulus program. i realize that sounds squishy because there's a broad range. but many independent economists also say there's no question that jobs work -- was created or protected by the stimulus spending. as much as the governor would like to say, his statement is true. when we look at it, we have to say no, that is flat-out false. the stimulus did create some jobs, maybe not as many as it wanted but it did create jobs. you also heard all of the governors out here, anderson, talking about the jobs created in their state under their governorship. important fact to look at there, look at the national trends while they were governors. in fact, some of them created jobs but sometimes the national trend was created jobs or maybe they lagged behind the federal government. it gets squishy in those numbers. anderson? >> we'll continue to check in with you. we'll do this over the next 24 hours. checking the facts of what the candidates said. candidates took president obama to task tonight on everything from jobs to healthcare. take a look. >> i'm not particularly worried about governor perry and governor romney frightening the american people when president obama scares them every single day. >> it's unconstitutional. whether it's the state government or whether it's the federal government, the only way to eradicate obama care is to pull it out by the root and branch to fully repeal it. >> this president does not understand how to free up the small businessmen and women or for that matter, wall street. >> what the president did was simply wrong. it is the wrong cars for america. >> some people say that barack obama's recovery is a disaster. it would have to make n improvement to be a disaster. debbie wasser schultz joins us live from tampa. you heard the remarks. the criticisms aren't just from republicans. the majority of americans disapprove on how president obama is handling his job -- how he's handling the economy. is 2012 becoming increasingly difficult race for democrats, you think? >> well, anyone listening to the debate tonight, anderson, watched the republican candidate as expected worship at the altar with the tea party. as a that ffloridian, i was looo see what they would do to create jobs and turn the economy around. how would they help middle class, small business owners. none of that. more of the same doubling down on proposals like repealing wall street reform. for good measure, saying let's invest social security and privatize it. put it in the stock market. give the same wall street folks the money that is supposed to be the safety net for retirees and let them gamble it away in the stock market. that's not acceptable when it comes -- >> when you say repealing obama care, they say it would save jobs. >> oh, really? well, i find that interesting. what repealing healthcare reform o do, especially to seniors in florida, is it would eliminate the closure of the doughnut hole. it would cost seniors about $3,000 in more -- in additional prescription drug costs. it would get rid of the wellness visit that's now free. it would get rid of preventative screenings that don't have co-pays. so the list goes on. it would leave people with preexisting conditions like i have twisting in the wind because insurance companies could drop us or deny us coverage again. the republicans demonstrated how out of touch they are. then at the end for more good pressure when ron paul was asked a question about whether or not a 30-year-old without healthcare coverage, if he was sick for six months should be allowed to die, people in the audience from tea partiers yelled out, yes. that's how out of touch this crew is. >> michele bachmann said tonight that president obama, quote, stole over $500 billion out of medicare to spend on his federal health reform package. your response to that? >> healthcare reform added eight years of solvency to medicare. according to cbo, that's how many years were added to the solvency of medicare. we made sure that we cracked down on waste, fraud and abuse and made sure that we took the subsidies being given to health insurance companies that weren't giving anything in benefits back to seniors who are on medicare and made sure that we fut into direct healthcare benefits for them. that was an important reform for them as well. >> congressman debbie wasser man sch