f. kennedy. >> we plan to take him directly to walter reed. >> chilling conversations on air force one hours after the president's death never heard before. what do they mean and why are they surfacing now? what it all means. plus, the single most annoying man i've ever met in my entire life. i said it before and it remains true today. >> i'm loved by millions. >> you'll see. >> unbelievable, howie mandel is back for more. this is piers morgan tonight. >> good evening. mitt romney has to be feeling pretty good about the sunshine state. a poll has him as the 14 point favorite, and paul in third, tied with santorum. he sounds like a man who expects to win. >> sure is fun. what a day this is. with a turnout like this, i'm beginning to feel we might win tomorrow. what do you think? i know the speaker is not real happy, speaker gingrich. he's not excited these days, i know, it's sad. he's been flailing around trying to go after me one thing and another. >> and gingrich says he will cede nevada and michigan to mitt romney. is the writing on the wall? >> jack welch, the founder of the jack management suinstitute. >> i see you're in florida, i can tell by the tans you are sporting. the last time in my studio, you were very pro mitt romney. how do you think things have played out since we last spoke? >> i feel a lot better tonight than i did after south carolina, piers. >> it's been a fascinating race. south carolina clearly was a shock to the romney system. you saw a very different mitt romney in the debates last week, a new ferocious mitt romney, not prepared go down without a hell of a fight and that debate performance turned him into the front-runner again. was that the kind of mitt romney you've been looking for? >> i'm a big fan of mitt romney, not because of his combativeness, because of his intellect and ability to persuade all kinds of people to get together and get the right answers. i think he's a solutions person. this combative thing is necessary during these primaries, which is sort of crazy. but he's more of a conciliatory, pull teams together and get the right answer guy. >> suzy, we're hearing tonight, newt gingrich may be prepared to cede both nevada and michigan, neither of which he would have expected to do very well at. what does that tell you about the way his campaign is now going? >> i think that newt is going to go all the way to the end, the way he says he will go all the way to the end. he sees himself as the conservative solution. i think he's in it for the long haul. you have to think how long newt's career has been. he's been up and down. he's been prince and pig. he is going to ride this one out. i'm not thinking that him ceding these states early on is any kind of signal of newt saying i'm out of it. he will stick it out and thinks he's the answer. >> jack, is it good or bad thing for the republican party this goes on. people seem to forget when barack obama and hillary clinton went head to head, it was for quite a long sustained period. it got very nasty and they tried to rip each other's throats out. you can't help but conclude it helped barack obama in his later fight with john mccain? could we not think it could help mitt romney and he could turn into a more formidable opponent during the debates last week than if he had won south carolina and already won the nomination? >> mitt romney's biggest issue is being comfortable in his own skin, letting people know who he really is. every day he has a chance to do that, the better chance he has. he's improved dramatically over the past eight weeks and all we can hope for is he gets better against a real campaigner, barack obama. >> suzy, the big problem i have with mitt romney, a strange criticism, a very nice guy, interviewed him twice, like him, lots of personal skills, very good track record, good family man and so on. he seemed a little bit dull. what i was excited by. i don't have a horse in the race, not republican or democrat, what i found exciting about the debates last week, i saw a side i didn't know existed. i saw a guy prepared to really fight. that changed my impression of him. >> i think you hit the nail on the head when you say that he's got this problem with boring people. but people are going to be deciding on one hand a bore and in the case with newt, it comes down to newt and mitt, a bumble bee. newt is like that bumble bee that goes from idea to idea, the moon one day and got knows what he will come up with. he says i'm the candidate of ideas. pick some ideas instead of 25 ideas. voters will say, bore, bumble bee, bore, bumble bee. i think when people decide what they will vote on ultimately, most americans would rather have a bore than a bumble bee. >> piers, i saw a tough side of mitt romney in the salt lake city olympics. i was involved with nbc at that time. we were afraid the whole thing was going down the drain. there was a corruption scandal out there. 9/11 had just occurred. we had bet a billion dollars or so on the olympics and we thought we were losing the whole thing. he went out there and cleaned that whole mess up with a fi firmness and leadership skill you would not believe. so that's when i became a real mitt romney fan, when i saw him pull that mess together. >> and the upcoming- >> sorry, suzy, after you. >> the upcoming campaign against barack obama, barack obama is a fantastic campaigner, there's nothing like him on the stump giving a speech. he's fiery and passionate. you can't have then mitt out there doing his standard statiststick where he is understated. he has to meet barack obama where he is. what we saw in the debates last week where he is more feisty and commanding, that's necessary going forward. >> and also, jack, i imagine you were delight about this, turned this whole debate from his wealth and success from what looked like a negative because he looked so defensive about it into much more of a positive and finally stood up i guess you would have done a long time ago, hey, i've been successful, so what? that's the american way, isn't it? >> finally, he did it. it took him a long time. he's not a brag gardard guy. candid like that doesn't come easy. patting himself on the back wasn't easy and he did it. he did it in a first class way. he is a first class person. in doing that, he put the thing on the table. people might not like it. john kennedy was a wealthy man. franklin roosevelt was wealthy. teddy was wealthy, we had wealthy presidents. >> he said the important thing, did not inherent-inherit my wealth. people are under the impression he was born with a silver spoon. i did not inherit my wealth. >> john kennedy inherited his wealth and didn't have to say it. >> times have changed because when john kennedy-wise president there was not occupy wall street going on. >> okay. you win. >> yeah! did everyone hear that. >> i want to play you one of the attack ads mitt romney played after south carolina interestingly not through a pack, as he had done before but through himself. let's watch this. >> gingrich was paid over $1.6 million by the scandal ridden agency that helped create the crisis. >> i offered advice as historian. >> really? >> and then quit in disgrace and then cashed in as insider. if he wins, this man would be very happy. >> i approved this message. i'm mitt romney. >> attack ads have always been around in american politics. the danger, if these guys keep getting nastier and nastier about each other, what happens when one eventually wins and has to take on the democratic president. barack obama can just start replaying all this stuff, look, this guy is a liar, this guy is inflammable, blah blah blah, all good fodder for the opposition as well, isn't it? >> look, that's what's always said in the primary. what this is going to come down to in september and october is what does this economy look like? how is it doing? do we have a recovery that's real? or do we have this tepid, few hundr hundred,000, hundred thousand, few,0 thousan jobs a month, is that enough? do we want to get occupy wall street jobs? do we want to change the argument? do we want to pull ourselves together? do we want to stop fighting each other? do we want a president a unifier, rather than divider? those are the questions. it's not about what somebody said about somebody february or march of this year. that's not the big game. >> what is the answer. sorry, after you, suzy. >> whatever they're saying in these attack ads will be repeated by the democrats when that happens and new attacks that they haven't thought about of each other, there'll be more new attacks, bring it on now. >> jack, what is the truth about the state of the american economy right now, do you think? >> we have a very tepid recovery, but we do have a recovery. the fourth quarter was 2.8%, nothing like we hoped for. it will be a little slower in the first quarter this year. i think things are going to flatten out in the 2-3% range. we'll have job growth in the 100 to 200,000 range per month. piers, we have 5 to 7 million people drop out of the work force. assume we get 500,000 jobs, that's fraction of what dropped out of it. the real unemployment rate will be double digit. we don't have a real recovery. we are so oppressed by this government's regulatory actions on every facet of the economy, they just appointed another commission to go after the mortgage thing, 55 more investigators, just when the mortgage thing was being settled why the banks, they piled another thing on in the state of the union thing. it's crazy, piers. it's just regulation after regulation. the jobs bill had a regulation that said, if you didn't employ unemployed people, you could get a fine of $300,000 for discrimination, piers. everything is punitive, nothing is about incentives. it's all backwards. >> jack, i have to take a break so you can calm down, have a glass of water and gather your steam again for the next assault. i will ask you about barack oba obama, as a president after the brea break. >> i'm totally calm. >> i imagine that will get you even more riled. >> piers, i'm calm. this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people came to louisiana... they came to see us in florida... make that alabama... make that mississippi. the best part of the gulf is wherever you choose... and now is a great time to discover it. this year millions of people did. we set all kinds of records. next year we're out to do even better. so come on down to louisiana... florida... alabama... mississippi. we can't wait to see you. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. with my vial and syringe. me, drawing my insulin dose. and me the day i discovered novolog flexpen. flexpen is pre-filled with your mealtime insulin. dial the exact dose, inject by pushing a button. no vials, syringes or coolers to carry. flexpen is insulin delivery my way. novolog is a fast-acting insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults and children with diabetes. do not inject if you do not plan to eat within five to ten minutes after injection to avoid low blood sugar. tell your healthcare provider about all medicines you take and all of your medical conditions, including if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. the most common side effect is low blood sugar. other possible side effects include reactions at the injection site. get medical help right away if you experience serious allergic reactions, body rash, trouble with breathing, fast heartbeat or sweating. with flexpen, vial and syringe are in the past. ask your doctor about novolog flexpen, covered by 90% of insurance plans, including medicare. right now, warren buffet pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest americans or do we want to keep our investments in everything else? like education and medical resear research. >> president obama at the state of the union last week calling for any making over a million dollar a year to pay a 30% tax rate. >> let me dial back on your anti-obama rhetoric. the reality is if you're barack obama, things are looking quite good at the moment. you had on the foreign policy part, stunning successes. bin laden getting killed, the seals in action last week rescuing somebody captured by soma somali pirates and troops out of iraq. foreign policy, big ticket. the car industry improving and the economy improving, albeit slowly. if you're in the white house and watching mitt romney and gingrich going at it like a couple in a sack, i don't think you're feeling too bad at the moment. >> you are feeling good but you realize you have a country in employment of double digits, real unemployment and people in the streets in washington, oakland, california, rioting. you have a country where you are dividing the haves and the ha have-nots. you are a country you are yelling about paying more taxes to the rich that don't pay them. i've never paid less than 30% taxes so i'd be happy with a 30% tax rate. you have a lot of things going on here. >> what about this, jack? what about this? we know barack obama can sing because we heard him sing al green brilliantly earlier in the week. i want to play you a bit of footage tonight involving your man, mitt romney, this could cost romney the entire election. watch this. >> ♪ oh beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain ♪ ♪ for purple mountains imagimaj above the fruited plain ♪ ♪ america america god shed his grace on thee ♪ ♪ and crown eed thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea ♪ >> now, no offense to mitt romney, who is a game guy for going at that, but, frankly, given the comparison between barack obama's brilliant impression of al green and the way that just got murdered, i think this could be an actual issue. >> you're missing the point. it's the difference between the songs that they're singing. mitt romney didn't exactly do a beautiful job on that song but think about what he's singing, okay? it's that patriotic song. he goes all the way through it. i think there's actually something quite appealing. then you have the very cool barack obama singing al green, okay, it really -- that is the two different americas, isn't it? so i think that, you know- >> take that, piers. >> what you're basically saying, suzy, mitt romney's inability to sing could become an electoral positive for him. >> the subject. >> no. if they put them side by side, there will be a bunch of americans, maybe not the americans on the coast. i think there will be a bunch of americans in the middle who will say, that's what my dad sounds like when he sings it. >> that would be my reaction and that would be a problem. my father shouldn't sing either. let's turn to ron paul. you wrote a column about ron paul and you said he should pull out of the race now. why should he pull out? >> we wrote a column where we tied a business situation to a political situation, trying to tie current events to business lessons. when somebody leaves a company, you want them to leave loving them as much on the way out as you loved them on the way in. you want to give them severance, you want to make them friends, because some day they will be customers, supply, et cetera. when ron paul exits the stage at his timing, whether it be in august at the convention or just before the convention, the republican party should learn a lesson from business and treat him with great dignity and give him a place on the convention floor, give him a speech in primetime, take care of him, so that his followers, those smart young followers, our children, others, those young people who wouldn't normally pull the r lever will say our guy got treated right. his platform is being listened to, his comments on the fed are being listened to, his arguments about the war are being at least listened to, that's what we've got to do. we've got to treat him with dignit dignity. >> is it good for the party if rick can sore rum and paul continue to the bitter end or should one of them take one for the team fairly soon? >> i think it's good if they end up being strong supporters and believers in whoever the winning candidate is. they have to exit on their time schedule. they have to be treated -- they both have done a hell of a job of staying in this game and doing a first class job in the debate, both of them. a lot of people thought ron paul won the last debate although everybody said mitt won, a lot of people were supportive of ron paul in that debate. look, these people deserve their dignity and their voice. if the republicans are smart, they willett the let these two gentlemen exit on their time frame, on their schedule with their arguments in the foreplay. >> i will reluctantly let you two exit now, much as i'd like to continue. jack and suzy welch, as always, a great pleasure. thank you very much. >> thanks, piers. coming up, the mother of all conspiracy theories, newly released tapes from air force one recorded in the hours after the assassination of president kennedy. i'll ask one of the top experts on the presidency, what he discovered when he listened to them. you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size price. i deserve this. 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( seth ) wouldn't you like to know ? something sparkly ? maybe. something sweet ? mmm... let's just say it's a surprise. the helzberg diamonds gift box. diamond heart pendant and godiva chocolate gems. i love you. you do ? it's been 48 years since president john f kennedy was assassinated in dallas. one key source that day was a tape of the radio traffic from air force one as it flew back from washington carrying his body. until now, only a heavily edited tape was possible and until tonig tonight, sorting out the details, joining me to discuss this. a fascinating discovery. how did you come across this extra bit of the tape. >> we felt the same way. we literally found it at the bottom of a box, part of the collection of ted clifton who worked in the white house for john f. kennedy and lyndon johnson. left the white house in '65, died in '91, his wife passed away in 2009 when they sold the estate. this was personal effects. >> this was the box you found the tape in? >> this is the box and the tape is in it. it's a reel-to-reel. when we found it, it was just a box of reel-to-reel with no knowledge of what's in it. we had our suspicions but no knowledge of what is in it. it says flight traffic. he left the white house in '65. the version we had before came out in the late 30e6 60'60s, ea '70s. the time frame didn't match. >> other than the discovery, truly fascinate, is there anything significant on this extra bit of footage or not? >> absolutely there is. not only individual elements of the tape, things we haven't heard before, but the fact it fills in holes. historians had specific questions, where's the beginning part of this conversation we only have the tail end of. he refers to a cadillac. we have the beginning portion. also the tale of the tape. raw tapes gone missing and this original investigator. how did we get from a to b? >> let me go to douglas. you're a big historian. you know this area very well. how circuit do ysignificant do these tapes are suddenly surface ing like this? >> it's fascinating. you