"outfront" on a friday night, the most shaky republican race since 1964. six different candidates have led in the national polls so far this year. it's amazing to think about it. but there is a big reason for it. the tea party. a cnn poll shows that the republican party is literally split down the middle. half of them support the tea party or are active members. well, 49, 51, some call that a mandate. i call that a split. the tea party is really the tea parties. christina boterri from the national tea party federation told us there are at least 5,000 tea party groups. there is no national umbrella group and there is no one manifesto. case in point, michele bachmann. one tea party support group called on her to quit the presidential race today. the other tea partiers have endorsed her. minnesota congresswoman responded to the call for her to quit on "the situation room" earlier with wolf. >> it certainly isn't a blow to my campaign because i've had nonstop support coming out of the woodwork from tea partiers all across the country. >> so lots of groups, lots and lots and lots, which means a lot of fighting. but when you add up the numbers, the bottom line is power. the tea party is half the republican party. joining us to talk about it tonight, sal russo from the tea party express. sal, thanks very much for being with us. we appreciate your taking the time. >> glad to be here. >> so what is your view of this -- the breaks that are happening within the tea party, which i know is a broad definition. but you have one group calling for michele bachmann to step down, others supporting her. do you support her? >> i think the you said it very correctly. contrary to some of the impressions, the tea party movement is an extraordinarily broad-based movement. that's the reason we won more republican state legislative races since 1928, more republican congressmen since 1948. it has to be broad-based and it is. so there's a divergence of opinion. some of the groups have social policies, some have foreign policies, but i think the one unifying theme of all the tea parties is they're opposed to the increasing size and cost and intrusiveness of the federal government and they want to see economic programs advanced by the candidates that will foster economic growth and job creation. so, on that score, i think really all ten of the republican candidates have done very well as far as the tea party is concerned. and you know, contrary to that poll that you recited saying the party is 50/50, i think when you hold somebody to say do you belong to this group or that group, it narrows it down. i think what you find is an overwhelming number of republicans and frankly, americans, agree with what i say is the basic premise of the tea party is that the success of spending and the gigantic skyrocketing national debt is unsustainable. >> let me clarify for viewers that that 49-51 was people who reflective of people who identified themselves as active party members or the support of the concept. ron brownstein was on our program last night, pollster at the national journal, saying that among the half of the party that did not identify with the tea party, mitt romney has a very clear lead. but on the tea party side of things, he has not gotten traction, 10 to 18% of that group all the way through. he hasn't been building. it's herman cain who is the front-runner. and not significantly so but is the front-runner among the tea party people who define themselves as tea party. do you think at some point you've got to come behind one person? >> well, i think that could happen. we've been polling our members for several months now and what we have found is that every couple of weeks, the leadership changes. it started off the newt gingrich was ahead. then newt -- then mitt romney pulled ahead and then when herman cain had the good south carolina debate, he pulled ahead. and then michele bachmann did really well in the new hampshire debate. she pulled ahead. then perry got in the race. he pulled ahead. and then cain had the straw poll victory in florida. and now he's ahead. so i think what that tells you is that people are in the tea party movement as well as americans generally are testing out these candidates trying them out, seeing how they sound and how they feel about them. and so it's moving around. there's not a consensus. which is why i think it's silly to tell anybody to get out of the race. let's keep them all in the race and hear what they have to say. we're in serious economic problems. we need good answers. >> i want to bring in ned ryan on the phone. i know you were going to be with us in person rushing to get to a studio. ned ryan for those watching cnn all day, the man who asked michele bachmann to step down, the president of american majority, which is another tea party affiliated group. ned, thanks for being with us. why did you taking this stand against michele bachmann today? >> first of all, thank you for having me. yeah, we're crazy drive here in new orleans. the reason i wrote this post was really an observation that the tea party movement always has been and hopefully always will be very focused on how do we fix the economy, how do we get jobs and government back to its limited role. that's the focus, that's the purpose. that's where the movement started. as evangelicals are deeply pro-life, i understand the social issues but somebody driving social issues that doesn't have the substantive stands and contributions on how to solve our economic problems, first of all, is not going to go anywhere and is not really adding much meaningful to the debate. i think at some point, it's going to begin 0 damage and confuse people and dilute the party message. that was the purpose of why i wrote that post. >> thanks very much more equalling in, ned, because we did want to hear from you. ned ryan and sal russo there. interesting that someone who is a self-identified evangelical, he doesn't want those issues to dominate, he wants it to be the economy. a split tea party and split gop are potentially problems for my next guest, rince priebus. setting your party's agenda, having trouble coalescing, as that interview just showed. does that worry when it comes to a national election where your party's split in half? >> no, it doesn't because i think you know, and i agree with sol. i don't think anything's split at all. you have a party here that has multiple candidates running for president and you're going to have some people supporting one over the other. that doesn't mean that there isn't complete unanimity in the fact that we need to save this country from a president who seems to have a love affair with the man in the mirror without actually following through with any promises. while we may be picking our horse so to speak and having a debate amongst each other, certainly we're going to have a uniform and a direction in in party that is in one direction, which is to put a republican in the white house. >> do you think so? i'm just curious. when you look at the mitt romney numbers, the half of the party that doesn't identify itself as a tea party supporter or active member, i hear your point they'll all come together, are behind romney. within the other half of the party, they're not in love with the guy. are you confident if he's the nominee you'll get them to go to the poll. >> i think if you look at barack obama and hillary clinton and you go back four years ago, you had two people that fought each other all the way through the end of june. and guess what, it was pretty good for the democratic party. i really believe that, erin. i mean, i think having the debate within your party over a new direction for america, which is what we're having in our party and i think of a lot of independents are involved with it, is really the same kind of debate, although much different issues than what was happening in 2008 among the democrats. so, we're having that debate. i think it's its healthy for our party, healthy for america. listen, if you want to keep going the same way we have been for the past four years, then americans will stick with barack obama. but i happen to think that's a pretty miserable place to be and most americans agree with me. and that's why i think we're going to be ultimately successful in 2012. >> let me ask you this in terms of money. how much money is it going to cost you to do it, reince president obama at $84.9 million raised. mitt romney $32.2 million and the man tied with him has about million raised. how much is it going to cost you? >> i think it's going to come down to issues. i think the republican national committee, along with the candidate when we get a nominee and do some joint fund-raising agreements together like the dnc and barack obama are doing and we're raising a good amount of money and our net dollars are very high and we're very competitive, but the fact is, it's going to be expensive. we've got a president who's in love with campaigning. i hate to keep -- i'm not trying to continue to do this, but look, we've got a president who is more interested in raising money and being president than he is putting americans back to work. guess what, here's the deal. i think most americans are tired of it. they're tired of the speeches, tired of the pageantry and want to go a different direction. we're going to give them that different direction next year. >> thanks very much for taking the time to join us. we're going to be talking about it with james carville. >> most do, that's the good thing. >> you got to see it that way if you're in your seat. thanks very much. appreciate it, reince. it's been more than a week since gadhafi died, but his son, saif, is still on the run. what is libya doing to find him? an 8-year-old autistic boy was lost in the virginia woods for six days, found today curled up in the fetal position. the doctor who treated him out front with the exclusive details. sometimes it is fun to be bad. actually, it's often fun to be bad. we can't resist telling you what we did today. yeah, anderson. we're talking about you. no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink tltltltle emotional here? aren't you getting a little industrial? okay, there's enough energy right here in america. yeah, over 100 years worth. okay, so you mean you just ignore the environment. actually, it's cleaner. and, it provides jobs. and it helps our economy. okay, i'm listening. [announcer] at conoco phillips we're helping power america's economy with cleaner affordable natural gas... more jobs, less emissions, a good answer for everyone. so, by reducing the impact of production... and protecting our land and water... i might get a job once we graduate. what's vanishing deductible all about ? guys, it's demonstration time. let's blow carl's mind. okay, let's say i'm your insurance deductible. every year you don't have an accident, $100 vanishes. the next year, another $100. where am i going, carl ? the next year... that was weird. but awesome ! ♪ nationwide is on your side >> the number tonight, 600,000. that's the number of facebook logons that are compromised each and every day. now, that sounds like a lot. you know what? it is. if you look at it like this, it's only .6% of total daily log ins. facebook is the world's largest social network with over 750 million users, despite the rise of google plus. to help store the data, facebooking is building buildings in sweden just south of the arctic circle. the cold air will help keep the company's servers cool and save it millions of dollars. when you look at where all the money goes in energy, look at cisco and facebook. that's where you see the big gas guzzlers. james carville, david frum, cnn contributor and john avlon. great to see all three of you on a friday night. >> thank you. >> you start laughing, mr. carville. you hear the tea party conversation we had? we had a couple of the 5,000 groups on, including the guy who said michele bachmann get out. what do you think? >> i cannot believe what i'm watching over there. you watch these debates and then you watch tea party splitting. it's hilarious. then the chairman of the republican national committee talking about obama and pageantry and look at himself in the mirror. >> you don't need to pay for pay-per-view boxing anymore, do you? >> i really don't. i'm mystified but gratified that all this is going on. as a democrat, it's fun to watch here. >> all right. john avlon, what is your take? are they going to coalesce? they say they don't need to but they do. will they? >> this is going to be a long process. the reality is mitt romney, the presumptive nominee, is not getting support from the tea parties or evangelicals. that teavangelist crowd. that's a big deal. the rest of the field is fractured. here, you've got the most conservative crowd running for president of the republican party in modern history and the conservatives don't coalesce around one candidate. it makes mr. carville very happy. >> let me bring in mr. frum here. david, i want to coach to you from a column this weekend about mitt romney where he says, romney, supposedly the republicans' most electable next november is a recidivist reviser, an unusual alliteration, of his principles who is not only becoming less electable, he might damage gop chances of capturing the senate. that is harsh. >> the first question is, which of the candidates on the stage would make the best president? from my point of view as a republican, it's incontestable. romney can do the job and almost nobody else on the stage could do the job. what i think is sort of sad and sorry about the tea party activists, the party is split down the middle. someone like me, i'm in the nontea party half and i'm quite content with romney. if the other half cannot agree on one person, they will lose, even though they have half the numbers. it's just ndisciplined and irresponsible of them not to coalesce. yet, as you saw in that interview, there is something going on in that movement. something as self-evident as, hey, you know, one half of the party has one candidate and the other half of the party has half a dozen candidates. we can tell how this is going to come out. they can't say something like that because the very idea of responsible leadership is so anathema, they can't even apply it to themselves. >> that's an interesting point. >> when you have someone like george will, a wise man in the republican party in the conservative movement, come out that the hard against romney, that is a real roblem for mitt romney's campaign. you have the reagan revolution as potentially being handed over to someone who said he wasn't a republican during the reagan years. that is a real problem for him in terms of coalescing the party. >> david, it was interesting, you heard ned ryun who said bachmann should quit. it was fascinating how he said i'm an evangelical and believe in the social issues but do not want them to dominate the campaign at all. that's smart politics. but partly it could be a sense that the republican base needs -- is realizing that social issues aren't going to be enough. >> i think that's a big part of it. i think what he was doing was being connected to the real world of coalition politics. you can't get -- look, when somebody like me says i looked at it and mitt romney seems like best of show, that doesn't mean perfect or ideal. that doesn't mean i expect to agree with him about everything. the art of -- along with political leadership, you need political followership. some willingness to draw your own priorities to choose from the best of the available options, no the to let the better be the enemy of the good. and if you don't do that, you're not doing politics, you're doing protests. >> james carville, i'm curious. you heard me talking to reince priebus about the money. the president has raised more than mitt romney. we all saw the story today in the "new york times" that is mr. obama who said he would issue lobbyists, 15 of his, quote unquote, bundlers have raised $5 billion. is that going to hurt him at all? >> who's going to attack him for it? certainly not romney. people understands, the reason we have high held -- the reason we have pollution and the reason we have income inequality is because plutocrats and providers provide the money for campaigns. i think people understand that at some level. is it fair? yes, the white house says that they don't let lobbyists on the premises and things like that. but there's great cynicism about money and politics. i think people are on to something. there is a connection. >> look, when president obama is going to try to run against official washington and he's getting in bed with bundlers and trying to raise $1 billion, you're going to get a very compromised candidate. it's hard to harness the anger. >> thanks so much to all three of you. please have a wonderful weekend and mischief night. all right. "outfront" next, an 8-year-old autistic boy found after spending six days alone and lost in the woods. the doctor who treated him coming out front exclusively. and the latest in the search for baby lisa. as we told you, the police were supposed to question her brothers today but they didn't. why not? and people in the building were not happy today. we can't resist telling you what the "outfront" outlaws did to deserve it. >> the previous interview used cisco telepresence to bring people together for face-to-face conversations. montgomery and abigail higgins had... ...a tree that bore the most rare and magical fruit. which provided for their every financial need. and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. [ melissa ] i hit the water and everything changed. ♪ i saw what my life could be... and found the strength to make it happen. ♪ i lost my leg serving my country. now i serve in a new uniform. [ male announcer ] helping people achieve without limits. at the hartford it's what we do... and why we're the founding partner of the u.s. paralympic team. show your support at facebook.com/thehartford. the two trains and a bus rider. the "i'll sleep when it's done" academic. for 80 years, we've been inspired by you. and we've been honored to walk with you to help you get where you want to be. ♪ because your moment is now. let nothing stand in your way. learn more at keller.edu. and now a story we can't resist. mischief night, hell night, devil's night. whatever you might call it, it's the night before halloween when kids across the nation play pranks on their unsuspecting neighbors. toilet paper, eggs, shaving cream, all of it. and since our next show is on halloween night, for us, tonight is mischief night. so we couldn't resist doing this. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> he's not here. >> he's not here? oh, shoot. he doesn't have any markers, does he? yeah, a sharpie will do. thanks, appreciate it. we just couldn't resist, anderson. still "outfront," the "outfront" five. the house of madoff. >> it was a very ugly family tragedy playing out here. rising threat. >> there is another big concern. the highest tide is coming within the next 24 hours. his long trip home. >> it's a story ultimately about how we went through all of that, but survived it. and ultimately got to a point of reconciliation and forgiveness. all this still "outfront" in our second friday half. . as much as you like any way you like, like new sweet and spicy s