the couple's cruise to greece at a time when the campaign was just launching also drew attention and publicized friction in the campaign led to more than a dozen staffers quitting. now, campaign aides refer to her as the chief morale officer and in a rare interview this month with the christian broadcasting network, she talks about her role in having her husband stay in the race. >> there were several critical moments where i said to newt, if we can just get to the debates, if we can just get to september, and at that point, you know, anyone who helped our campaign, one dollar was worth $5. >> don't be surprised to hear more from calista gingrich, word from the gingrich campaign they are encouraging her to do more. wolf? >> love to have her here in "the situation room" as well. thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." the news continues next cnn. >> thanks for joining us.

i'm candy crowley. john king is off tonight. mitt romney talks with cnn, answering newt gingrich's latest attacks and weighing in whether he'd vote for ron paul. also, we'll talk with a former republican who is switching parties as a matter of principle, or is it political opportunism? on the high seas what would become the biggest international crisis of the new year. a whop that will hit your car in the gas tank. good evening, from des moines. we are only six days out from the iowa caucuses, and politically, at least, the ground here is shifting. tonight, mitt romney's riding on top of a new condition cnn poll of iowa republicans, laughing off the scathing criticism coming at him from newt gingrich. cnn's wolf blitzer climbed aboard romney's campaign bus today and asked about the attack ads that romney supporters are running against gingrich. >> this is part of the process. i'm not going to be -- we could all wish we had a utopian type

political process but the campaign process that exists is the way it's been for a long time. if you're going to get in a campaign like this, you've got to have broad shoulders. if you can't take on the negative that's part of a primary, you're sure as heck not ready for what's going to come from barack obama. if you can't handle the heat in this kitchen, wait until barack obama's hell's kitchen. >> newt gingrich appears to be trying to have it it both ways when it comes to negative ads. letting others do the dirty work for him while staying positive in public appearances. cnn political correspondent jim acosta spent the day with the former speaker. jim joins us a few hours northwest of here in spencer, iowa. jim? >> reporter: hi, candy, that's right. newt gingrich said again today, at an event in mason city, he said it a few moments ago here in spencer, he will continue to wage a positive campaign. you can only look at what is flying here in iowa to see that some of what's happening on

behalf of the former speaker is anything but positive. keep in mind that this is going on for the last couple of weeks, that gingrich has said he would run a positive campaign but just the last 24 hours, take a look at this mailer that has come out from a pro-gingrich super pac, it's one that was little known until 24 hours ago. it's called strong america now, and it shows the mailer shows basically an attack on mitt romney. and in the mailer it says that mitt romney is the second-most dangerous man in america, after barack obama. and the former speaker was asked about this at a media event in mason city. here's what the former speaker had to say. >> i would discourage them from sending out that nextive information. i think that's wrong. >> reporter: so there you go. he said he would discourage that organization from putting out that kind of information. he didn't condemn it, something he challenged mitt romney to do

about his own super pac about ace week ago. so it's interesting to see the former speaker try to have it both ways. candy, he's in a box right now because he would like, i would imagine, to go after mitt romney and go after ron paul but that would mean going back on his pledge to stay positive. so i asked the former speaker at that same media veil, why don't you put that aside and go after your rivals? >> why not come out fighting for this nomination? >> i think if you saw the crowd here, i know this is hard for some of you to cover, you can fight in a positive way. you can be very strong in a positive way. >> reporter: and so now newt gingrich finds himself in a box with less than a week to go until the iowa caucuses. as you know in that new cnn/time/orc poll his number have eroded dramatically but he has this pledge that he says he's sticking to to run a positive campaign. as we know, sometimes negative

attacks can work. they've worked against him rather well in the last couple of weeks, candy. >> certainly seem to have done so, right. thanks so much. nice guy or not, newt gingrich is plunging in the polls. a new cnn/time/orc poll shows him down nearly 20 points. but that's not the biggest surprise. for that we want to bring in cnn political director mark preston. the top of the poll is interesting, mitt romney back up there, the 25%, he seemed to have had for a year a half, two years now. but the bottom you found interesting. the headline tomorrow is the rise of rick santorum, fall of newt gingrich. if you look farther down into the poll, we look at the middle of the pack, what i fine interesting in this is that if you look at what happened to rick perry and michele bachmann over the last month we did a poll a few weeks ago of iowa caucusgoers asking them where they were on the race, asked them the same question in the new poll it shows neither rick

perry nor michele bachmann have moved the needle. if they haven't moved the needle in the last couple of weeks is there enough time now for them to get enough support to have a strong showing in iowa and big argument is, candy, we are only six days away from the caucuses and if they don't show strong, is their campaign over? >> they probably point out there are a large number of people that say i can change my mind or i'm undecided. it's under 50% but it's high 40%. how about in new hampshire? there's also stagnation there for some folks. >> there is. jon huntsman, who staked his campaign on a strong showing in new hampshire, kind of following the john mccain mod until 2008, not participating in iowa caucuses, not campaigned here, shown no interest in iowa. she's in new hampshire campai campaigning. we did a poll a few weeks ago compared to the poll released a few hours ago, he hasn't moves the needle. jon huntsman who staked his presidential campaign on state of new hampshire has not moved the needle one bit.

>> not as much about who win sometimes in these early contests, as to who's done? >> that's right. >> thanks so much. drama on the high seas that could affect what you pay for gas. the navy's using strong words of warning to iran over military exercises that threat tonight disrupt oil shipments in the persian gulf. jill dougherty has been closely monitoring the escalating situation. jill, we want to start with this narrow vital channel of water known as the strait of hormuz. what's going on there right now that the u.s. finds threatening? >> reporter: candy, we've got another -- maybe they can fix that audio and we'll be back. >> we're clearly having some technical difficulties here. we'll get back to jill later on in the show. every year the gallup poll asks americans to name the men and women they most admire.

the results just came out. we're counting down the top five for you tonight. number five, on the list of most admired men is businessman warren buffett. this is the first year he's cracked the top ten. number five on the list of most admired women, former secretary of state condoleezza rice. we'll have the next name on the list in about ten minutes. but next, the gingrich campaign reacts to what mitt romney just told wolf blitzer about the state of the race for the gop nomination. t t nk you car o pi up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates.

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c'mon, it's not that... gahh, oh yeah that's gotta go... priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $4.95. only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship and return. mitt romney's joking about the gingrich campaign failure to collect enough signatures to get on the ballot. he compared it to the episode of "i love lucy," lucille falls behind working on the assembly line the chocolate factory. cnn's wolf blitzer asked romney to get more serious about gingrich's campaign. >> if he couldn't get on the virginia ballot, couldn't get the 10,000 signatures he needs, what does that say about his campaign? >> well, you know, i can't speak to his campaign but obviously that's his home state and we knew what the rules were when we got into this. we had to organize our effort in each state to get on the ballot.

you've got to be able to play by the rules if you're ultimately want to become the nominee that beads barack obama. >> i interviewed him yesterday, newt gingrich. let's go through a couple of point his made and give you a chance to respond because he wanted to really challenge you to one-on-one, no holds barred, no moderator like me, no -- just a full debate, just the two of you. and i said to him, you know, i'm going to speak with governor romney tomorrow, look in the camera, tell us what you want to say to him, and he looks in the camera and he said this -- let me read it -- he said, mitt, is what you run -- he said all i'd say, mitt, you want to run a negative campaign and attack people. at least be man enough to own it. >> i don't know why he's so angry. look, this is a campaign about things i believe in. i believe the country's being led in an unfortunate and destructive way by a president that done understand our economy or understand america. i can get america working again. that's why i'm running.

as for a one-on-one with newt gingrich, if he and i end up being two finingists, we'll have that opportunity. but right now i don't know, we've debated ten times. we'll do more debates in january. until he and i are the two finingists, other people still beserve to be on the stage. ron paul i think is leading here in iowa as of today. the idea that this is all about newt or mitt is just not right. >> joe desantis joins us now with reaction to mitt romney's interview with wolf blitzer. let me ask you, first, does newt gingrich think this is a rate that has boiled down to him or mitt romney? >> obviously that's up to the voters. but if you look at the national polling i think that the governor romney and speaker gingrich are tied around the mid-20s and everyone else is in the low teens or below. obviously, you know, we started in iowa and go to new hampshire and then head to south carolina and florida, where we're very

strong. we think that by the end of florida, where we still have i think 15, 20-point lead, that is going to come down to a two-person race between governor romney and speaker gingrich. >> governor romney criticized gingrich for not playing by the rules when it comes to getting on the virginia ballot. i know you all think differently. you say, look, we had a guy who frankly i think the speaker said was guilty of fraud, making up the signatures. but doesn't that point out that there is a weakness within the chain of command in the gingrich campaign? >> what it says is that we made a mistake in virginia and we're accepting responsibility for that. we are trying to rectify it. it's not a fatal one. it's one state. we think by the end of the process, 2 out of the 6 candidates who tried to get on got on. we don't think that the state of virginia is going to, in the en, tolerate that.

whether it's a write-in campaign or letting or conditions on we're encouraged to think that in the end speaker gingrich will be on the ballot. but you know, even if not, there are a number of other states that -- >> joe, let me interrupt you. why do you think -- first of all there can't be write-ins in virginia and state party said it was fair you didn't come up with enough signature. are you hopeful? >> we're not saying it was unfair. we think that ultimately the legislature and the governor of virginia are going to err on the side of democracy giving people of virginia a chance to vote for the candidate that they want. >> and let me ask you, joe, in our latest poll, which i'm sure you've seen, speaker gingrich has dropped 19 points in less than a month. why is that? >> $9 million of negative advertising. you know, iowa's a small media market. you can basically blanket the airwaves if you have enough

money. i don't care what candidate's in the race if they have $9 million of negative advertising against them, they're going to drop in the polls. considering we've been outspent 30-1 on the air, still being competitive for fourth place right now, frankly, you know, really not that far off from being in the top tier in iowa still is impressive. we can -- if we can survive iowa we can move on to, like i mentioned, south carolina and florida where we're much stronger, have large leads. >> what is surviving iowa? what is your definition of surviving iowa? >> oh, i think anywhere in the top five would be surviving iowa. >> speaker gingrich had said one point early on, it's clear i'm going to be the nominee, now you know, you're down to we're going to be in the top five. doesn't that suggest his for n

fortunes have shifted. >> he's going to be the nominee after south carolina and florida. we are much stronger in south carolina and florida. we have double-digit lead we think that after the florida primary january 31st, newt will be the front-runner, if not the co-front-runner with governor romney. >> joe, thank you so much for being with us tonight. we appreciate it. it is time to reveal the man and woman in the number four slots of gallup's annual poll who americans most admire. billy graham never finished first but has been in the top ten more than any other man, 55 times since 1955. sarah palin is the number four woman on this year's list. for the last three years she's been in the number two slot. before we get to the next people on the most admired list, eye-opening numbers how much time you and everyone else in the world is spending or wasting on facebook. medicare. it doesn't cover everything.

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wg bachmann. lisa sylvester with the news you need to know. >> the funeral for kim jong-il featured his extra wide coffin atop the hearse. his son and heir marched along the right front fender.

reuters reports one of the myth b s about kim jong-il he could control the weather. it's been unusually cole since his death. if you sneak a peek at facebook from time to time you aren't alone. 55% of the world's internet population, everyone in the world who has a connection, spent time on facebook in october. the numbers, which come from facebook, they're the ones who should know, say one of every seven minutes people spent online is on facebook. mark zuckerberg spent part of the christmas holiday in vietnam trying to persuade authorities to stop blocking facebook. i can't remember if you said you're on facebook or not. >> i'm secretly on facebook. unanother name. it's only to see pictures from nieces and kids and all of that stuff. i'm not a facebook writer, let me put it that way. i'm a watcher. >> i am on facebook, but i don't do much with it.

maybe that's one of my new year's resolutions, do more on facebook and twitter next year. >> let me know how that goes. thanks, lisa. bill clinton is a regular on the gallup poll's list of people americans most admire. he's number one eight times. this year he places third. number three on the list of most admired women, the current first lady, michelle obama. stay with us. we reveal the next top two. whether mitt romney will vote for ron paul if the congressman is the republican nominee. we'll hear from gary johnson, who is leaving the republican party but not giving up his kneit would take time, but we were determined to see it through. today, while our work continues, i want to update you on the progress: bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund

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in this half hour of "john king usa" mitt romney tells us whether he'd vote for ron paul if the congressman turns out to be the republican nominee. the most admired men and women in the u.s. this year. and former u.s. senator arlen specter may have found a new career. would you believe standup comic? newt gingrich made coast-to-coast headlines by flatly saying he won't vote for ron paul if the texas congressman becomes the republican party's nominee. so what does mitt romney think? wolf blitzer asked him about paul's insurgent candidacy during today's cnn interview. >> if ron paul were to be the republican nominee, it's a big if, let's say he wins the republican nomination, could you

vote for him? >> you know, i've already crossed that river, if you will, by saying on the stage a number of times, as believe speaker gingrich has, all of the people on the stage would be superior to the president we have. >> you would vote for someone that says if iran had a nuclear bomb it wouldn't represent a threat to snrl. >> i don't a degree with a lot of things that ron paul says but i would vehemently oppose many of his initiatives and i believe we would be able to move him in a direction that's more productive. i can tell you that this president, if my view, is taking america in the wrong direction, in iran, in israel, and with regards to our policies internationally and here at home. >> you think ron paul would be a better president than barack obama? >> i have said that and i think newt gingrich said the same thing on the stage when we have spoken about our republican contenders. look, this is not a race, of course, about people on the stage i don't think should become the nominee. in my race it's about getting me to become the nominee and taking

the republican banner and making sure that we get america back on track. >> as we said, six days until the caucuses here in iowa, and ron paul's not only still in the running, sometimes he's running first, definitely second, perhaps part of the reason why he hasn't been shy about slamming his opponents, spending 3/4 of a million dollars on tv ads. there's a new one today. john johns was with the congressman on the trail. he's banging on a consistent theme and he has the money to keep doing it? >> he certainly does. it bangs away at what he calls the washing machine and it talks about serial hypocrites and flip-floppers and if that's not subtle enough, they also sort of throw in a picture of newt gingrich and mitt romney, just so you know who he's talking about. >> which one is which. >> right. let's take a look at the ad. >> the washing machine is strangling our economy.

politicians who supported bailouts and mandates, serial hypocrites and flip-floppers can't clean up the mess. one man stands alone. a real plan to cut $1 trillion year one, balance the budget in three. consistent. encore ruptsable. guided by faith and principle. ron paul, the one we've been looking for. >> he's been coming out with a lot of these tough ads, quite frankly. >> that's a rough ad. i saw that this morning. i was amazed. >> it really is. i walked up on him today, two different events, town halls, put the mike out and said, congressman, let's talk about this ad, let's talk about the attacks on you by newt gingrich, mitt romney, wouldn't say a word. everybody says he doesn't like these media avails but when you have a tough ad like that you would think a guy would want to back it up and put his money where his mouth is. >> play this game where you've got -- these are his ads, a lot of newt gingrich comes to mind

have third party that's putting out rough ads and they stay all happy, it's not a new game. how is he feeling? looking at these polls, he's consistently been up there. and this is -- we couldn't say it would be a surprise if ron paul won. >> no, it wouldn't be a surprise, i don't think, if ron paul won. and it's interesting, the crowds that have come out. this is the oldest candidate in the race and he's got a pretty solid size of younger voters there. so it's interesting that people who are -- the kinds of questions they ask. they very much buy into the notion of downsizing government, reading the constitution, understanding that you know you ought to, they say, get rid of the federal reserve or what have you. he's got a lot of people buying into this libertarian mindset and it seems to be popular here among some of the people most likely to go to the caucuses. >> a number of independent thinking voters, that's for

sure. joe johns, we'll talk to you over the course of the next week. thanks. you know you're a political junky if you've been following gary johnson's campaign. the former governor has been ignored by the media and republicans. but you may get a chance to vote for him in november. johnson announced he's leaving the republican party to seek the libertarian party nomination for president. he spoke to us from new mexico. >> governor johnson, you took a big step from a life long republican to the libertarian party. if you are looking at this and you are saying here's republican, you've been in the republican party, ran for governor twice, as a republican, et cetera, couldn't get any traction in the presidential race so you switched to the libertarian party. this looks like a move that is more about opportunity than about principle. can you give me some look into your thought process? >> well, candy, i would argue just the opposite, that it is about the message that it's

about the agenda that it isn't just ron paul that's delivering this agenda, this message. that it's me, too. i was excluded from 16 out of the 18 debates. i felt that that was really unfair. and the exciting notion for me here is, is that if i'm the libertarian nominee, which is no done deal, but if i am, i'm on the ballot in all 50 states and it's an opportunity to continue to be able to talk about the agenda to talk about the message, as opposed to being sent lohome. i happen to think the biggest growing segment of the republican party have those that are libertarian leaning. >> you almost said it yourself, which is you're looking at a growing segment of the republican party. don't you, by the very notion of running as a libertarian, deny republicans votes and, therefore, conceivably handing the victory to president obama? >> no, i actually see it the other way around.

new mexico's a state that's 2-1 democrat. i think -- i think more votes are going to come from democrats who will be disenfranchised over gay marriage equality, over the knack we have so much warfare going on in this country, that we wages a war against ourselves when it comes to drugs. legalized marijuana, no, i see this as drawing perhaps more votes from democrats than republicans. but worst case, best case, it's going to draw from both parties the biggest growing segment of american politics declines state and independence. this is going to draw a big segment of that. by draw big segment of it, it is about the message, it's about the agenda, and i don't see it being represented beyond the primary and ron paul's eventual -- eventually being

knocked out of this. >> so you see that there is a voice that has to come out of the republican party that is obviously has moves to the libertarian party if it's your voice. let's me ask you this, the national regular nix that you now have, the money that you have been able to raise have come from people who think you are running -- thought you were running as a republican. now that you're running as a libertarian, does money revert back to people who thought you wanted to be on the republican ticket? you can see how this mite be a difficulty for some. >> well, actually, you know, i can see where you would think that. but it's been the opposite. it's been the opposite. it's been about people that really do care about this agenda that really care about this message. >> didn't they think you were running as a republican? >> no, i think they were more concerned with the message. that's the feedback that i'm getting and not that there haven't been a few that have been disappointed over the fact that, you know, they were supporting a republican, but

overwhelming majority have been very, very supportive. >> just as a final question here, though, the fact that you were not included in the debates had to do with the folks setting up debates, news immediatia, others who participated, not the republican party per se. the criteria was set up by those who sponsored the debate, not the republican party. >> well, the republican party could have stood up for me. for example, cnn, three months ago i'm at 2% of the national vote. after that poll by cnn, i was excluded from every poll. >> former new mexico governor, gary johnson, now a member of the libertarian party, looking at the presidential race. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you very much. >> we'd like to add this note on how candidates were chosen to participate in cnn debates. cnn maintained a polling criteria for 2011 presidential debates which required candidates to meet an average of 2% of national polls, 122

republicans filed to run for president. governor johnson is one of the candidates who did not meet the 2% polling criteria needed for an invitation to cnn's debates. we look forward to covering governor johnson's campaign as he seeks the libertarian nomination for president. we've been telling you throughout the show who the year's most admired men and women are. time to reveal who got the top spots. winner, hint-hint, chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. the envelope, please. >> starting wer the runner-up, candy. on the men's side, it is president george w. bush, number two, most admired man. runner-up among women, oprah winfrey. and as you hinted the most admired man, can you guess why they had the white house correspondent do the story? president barack obama. and the most admired woman, secretary of state hillary clinton. you know she's held that spot 16 times. the only other woman who comes close to her record in this

gallup survey is eleanor roosevelt, candy. >> so is there any value to this type of poll for the president? >> well, a little. campaign aides, they frequently cite polls showing that voters like and respect president obama as a person. and the president's aides believe that his personal like ability some what makes up for his relatively low approval ratings and the rough state of the economy. but as you know, like ability hardly wins him the election. >> it does not but votes do. for their first big oil deal afghanistan did not choose the united states as its partner. ali velshi joins us explain what this means, straight ahead. shocking images of clergy attacking each other coming up. we'll tell you what caused this biblical brawl. brad, where we going?

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ali velshi is anchoring erin burnett "outfront" and is coming up at the top of the hour. afghanistan chose china, not the u.s., which seems surprising to me but not to you. >> no, because what we've seen around the world is china's being much, much more aggressive than the united states is in terms of securing these oil contracts. first 0 all this one of many that will come up. china offered good terms, paying heavy royalties to afghanistan with is cash strapped.

afghanistan's not a huge oil provider but share a tiny border with china, 50-mile long border, heavy trade corridor. it makes some sense for afghanistan to be getting in the good graces of china. but the bottom line here is that china's buying up any available oil around the world. they have a growth rate several times faster than the u.s. growth rate and in fact over the last decade u.s. oil consumption has been decreasing while finding more sources of oil. so this is actually a common occurrence around the world. there will be other options the u.s. will bid on them and i'm sure they'll get their fair share as well. >> bottom line, client na offered a better deal, capitalism at its best. what do you have coming up tonight? >> i don't know if you know this, a world leader dies "outfront" likes to pay tribute to put a package together to celebrate the achievements of a leader's life. tonight's honorary's kim jong-il. he invented the hamburger, took his first steps at age 3 weeks,

wrote 1500 books in 3 years because it comes from the official north korean news service. on a serious note, we'll be talking with governor bill richardson who spent a lot of time in north korea he has had an inside look in the north korean leadership. we'll talk with a connecticut report who are has more details on what happened during the tragic christmas morning fire, the family, were they given the okay to occupy the house during renovations? details on the heroic effort of the grandfather to get the granddaughters out. all of that coming up on "outfront." candy? >> such an awful story. alli velshi, thank you so much. six days from the kauscaucu. mitt romney leading ron paul. but the big surprise is rick santorum who surged into the number three spot. here to talk it over i'm joined by "new york times" national

political correspondent jeff zelny and joe kleine. mitt romney has been around the 25% mark for a year and a half. are we surprised that rick santorum, who has been saying all along i'm doing better than you all think, any of that surprise you? >> i think he's been coming on and as republicans go through this field and raise them up and eliminate them, he was one who hadn't been raised up. so it's his turn. >> his turn, right? >> it's true. he's been putting in the time here. i mean the caucus -- >> he lives here. >> -- is a niche product and he's visiting all of these people around the state and he hasn't had major flubs. he's not a star performer in the debates but solid throughout. people see him as being able to sort of address these problems and issues. i saw him at a two-hour long town hall meeting in mason city yesterday, which seems like a long time, boy the voters loved it because they know the circus is about to leave town and they

were happy to see him and happy to hear him answer all of these questions. >> he's getting important christian conservative endorsements too. the interesting thing to look at now over the next six days is whether the other also rans like michele bachmann and rick perry and now we have to say newt gingrich, whether their supporters are going to drift to santorum as the christian conservative candidate who might win. >> some of the christian community have been urging all christian vote to get around one candidate because it's split right now but none of them are able to get any lasting traction. let me show you the number that i think matters most in this poll. and the question was, who has the best chance of beating president obama in november? 41% said mitt romney. the next highest, 17% newt gingrich. doesn't that tell us everything we need to know. >> not even close. what mitt romney has been trying to convey to voters in his closing argument. add up ron paul and newt gingrich and still barely reach

mitt romney. so that is what he's trying to make the argument. some voters do not necessarily think that they're picking a president. they're picking someone who believes in their issues, someone who has articulated all of their points of view. every iowan is not going to be moved by that, but that is the bottom line that is going help mitt romney here. >> i met somebody at the airport that i've seen over the years, as we all do now, see familiar faces in the crowd who said -- >> groundhog day. >> -- we don't pick presidential candidates, we eliminate them. >> that's the latest rational that iowans have for being first. but you know, i think that this -- they kept on saying that this wasn't your parents' republican party. well, it turns out that it may well be your parents' republican party and it may not be the tea party's republican party the way this thing is beginning to sort out. >> and you know, something that really struck me from "new york"

magazine was attributed to a senior romney campaign strategist who said, the dynamic couldn't be better for us. i don't see any scenario where we're not the nominee. so i wanted to ask you, paint me a scenario under which you see romney losing this. >> well, he has to lose iowa first and then someone, i mean the numbers in the time/cnn new hampshire poll are very, very solid and good for romney and bad news for jon huntsman who spent as much time in new hampshire as rick santorum spent here and he can't break out. somebody has to beat romney in georgia and florida and you have a race. >> if the field winnows -- >> south carolina, excuse me. >> -- and there's someone else that competes for the anti-romney vote that's the only way it's possible. it's really hard to get your mind around the fact that mitt romney is not going to go the distance. he's -- he's more organized every place than any of his

rivals. and the virginia story proved this more than anything else. newt gingrich and rick perry not getting on the ballot, it shows that mitt romney has been going at this really methodically, he's run before, it's helpful. ron paul is going to stay in this race throughout all of the caucuses, all of the primaries. i think the only way that the romney campaign sees trouble is that if it it's mr. paul, will romney and one other person as opposed to a couple others. but it's hard to get your mine around the fact that romney could stumble that poorly in all of these states. >> most of these guys can stay in. they don't have day jobs, really, why not? >> debates. >> there will be debates. only ones i see dropping out if they really do badly here and in new hampshire are bachmann and perry. bachmann has to run again. perry is the governor. >> he does have a day job, actually. and and i wanted to play you something. romney, we talked so often he has had a ceiling of 25%, where

he is right now according to latest cnn/orc/time poll. wolf blitzer talked to romney today and asked ann romney what we didn't know about mitt romney. here what happens she said. >> i think people don't appreciate actually his sense of humor that he actually humor. that he actually plays a lot of tricks all the time and that he's actually he actually laughs most of the time. he will be telling a joke and will be laughing and sitting back and telling jokes. >> who knew? >> are they good jokes? >> that's right. >> who knew? >> i actually don't think that's -- because people say, oh, they can't relate to him and he's so stiff. i have this here ree that part theory that he's part of the

campaign of sitting and watching people go up and go down. he's been completely cautious and very careful and people didn't see the fire. they are sort of dating everybody else but in the end they see him more presidential than anybody in the field. >> without question. and you do talk to voters here and other states and they say, i just want romney to have a little bit more energy. the romney campaign has been fairly smart about that. they decided to go out and find voters who might be like-minded and may be supportive of them as opposed to trying to convince the social conservatives. so they are trying to find other people. if they have been doing it here for months and months, it's going to pay off next week. >> he just seemed like he wasn't actively going for it. >> i've been out here driving around and listening to radio. rush limbaugh sat in this week. when you listen to the callers,

they are all coming to terms with romney now and the other important thing that romney did last night, that you're going to hear more and more about, he has a story to tell. he has the scenario where he's going to propose the opportunity society and barack obama's going to propose the entitlement society. and that is a clearer message that he's had than in the past. >> romney' second and strong third, is that good enough for him to go forward? >> headquarters and his campaign managers would say of course they were. but it's not all tie-dye like it was before. >> because they don't think rick santorum could win. if they wanted to pick the other two tickets out of iowa,

wouldn't they pick santorum? >> they are worried about him coming back to life in south carolina a little bit and newt gingrich. they haven't ruled him out ear. the rise of santorum is fine with them. the rise of ron paul, just fine. >> thanks so much, you guys. still ahead, why uncle sam is going after yankees owner. plus, arlen spector and why people are getting a good laugh at spector's latest career choice. "car insurance,n it's a bit like asking if they want a big hat... ...'scuse me... ...or a big steak... ...or big hair... i think we have our answer.

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welcome back. this is lisa sylvester with the latest news that you need to know right now. >> yankees' owner is being sued. alleging that he received more than $670,000 in an erroneous 2 2009 tax refund. texas governor rick perry, he's no stranger to public speaking blunders but today it wasn't him delivering the flub, it was his sidekick, arizona sheriff joe arpaio. he hoped to boost spirits by

using a sports reference. instead, this happened. >> boy, i'm getting to know iowa, the great state of iowa. was it the buckeyes or -- what do they call? hawkeyes. >> okay. the problem is, the buckeye is the mascot of arch rival ohio state. and look at this. several dozen greek orthodox were cleaning the interior of a church where christians believe jesus was born when according to witnesses, they began fighting and 60 to 70 priests, you can see them exchanging blows. police had to storm the bethlehem holy site to stop this fight. >> that's not a very christmasy

story. thank you. >> no, it's one of those awful things. >> and now taking you to a moment you might have missed. former senator arlen spector taking up a new career. stand-up comedy. >> whenever congress passes a low and it turns out to be a joke. so i've been in the comedy now for 30 years. the only difference is, it's not stand-up. we all have comfortable chairs. >> you know, lisa, i've known arlen spector for a long time and if i had to think about what's his career after the u.s. senate, you know, tax collector, i could have thought of a lot of things but stand-up comedian. i'm still appalled at that one. >> his