when you're not watching tv, let's continue to educate ourselves on money. check out the new book how to speak money, a step by step guide to understand the language of money with everything you need to know. you can get it on amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. you can stay connected to us 24/7 on twitter. my handle is @alivelshi, the show @cnnyourmoney. have a great weekend. hello, everyone. i'm richelle carey in for fredricka whitfield. welcome to a special hour of "cnn newsroom." we'll focus on the 2012 presidential contenders in this hour. first an update of some of today's top stories. tomorrow's scheduled start of the deep water horizon oil spill trial has been delayed. it will now begin next monday in louisiana. and bp is bracing for a pretty long fight. a judge will have to decide civil liability, who is to blame, and to what extent for

that disaster. more people hurt, more people killed today across syria. this is the city of homa where nine people died today in street battles between security forces and anti-government fighters. violence across the country has not let up, despite today's nationwide vote over whether to change syria's constitution. nelson mandela, the founding father of democracy in south africa is out of the hospital. he was discharged today after undergoing treatment for an abdominal ailment. a family member says it was hernia surgery. he's 93 years old. he was in prison for 27 years for fighting apartheid. he was released in 1990 and was awarded the nobel peace prize three years later. you know what that music means. now to the gop race for the presidential nomination. tuesday is shaping up to be a

very important day with voters going to the polls in arizona and michigan. so we're watching those two states especially closely. i have two big developments to tell you about. first, the polls. heading into the primaries, latest gallup poll shows rick santorum's ten-point lead over mitt romney is all but disappearing. let's take a look at some numbers. santorum now registers 31%. that is down by two points from friday. and down five points from wednesday. santorum's losses are romney's gains. romney is up three points, coming within one percentage point of santorum. newt gingrich and ron paul's numbers stay the same, far below the top two contenders. the other big development, arizona governor jan brewer is throwing her support behind romney, made that announcement this morning on "meet the press." let's listen. >> he has that pro business background and he has that political history that i think that he would serve america the

best of all of the candidates. it was a difficult decision. but i think mitt is by far the person that can go in and win. >> and, of course, with the michigan and arizona primaries two days away, both gop front-runners appeared today on the sunday talk shows. for romney it was fox news sunday where he, again, blasted the auto industry bailout and the obama administration's support of it. >> the result of the president's plan was that we spent several billion dollars before -- at a time we didn't need to, number one. and number two, after the process was over, he gave a huge share of the companies to the uaw. that's not the way bankruptcy normally works. he was paying off the people that supported him and that, by the way, are trying to get him re-elected. the right course was for this industry to go through the same kind of bankruptcy other industries have, and if for some reason they needed some government help, that should have come, get them out of bankruptcy, not spending billions that the auto executives went to washington to receive in the first place.

>> okay. on "meet the press," rick santorum took on president obama's policy to afghanistan last week, in the burning of the korans, what he called unacceptable. >> i don't think the president should apologize for something clearly inadvertent. you should say this was inadvertent, this was a mistake and no deliberate act no meant to disrespect, this was something that occurred, that should not have occurred, but it was an accident. and leave it at that. i think you highlight it when you apologize for it. you make it sound like there was something that you should apologize for. >> not everything, though, on the campaign trail is serious, especially when the daytona 500 is being run, just two days before a couple of primaries. this is nascar. mitt romney made a personal appearance. he visited the track a few hours ago, shaking hands, greeting race fans. rick santorum is in daytona too, kind of, not exactly in person, but he has a clear presence on

one of the cars at the race. his name is all over car number 26 in bold letters and red, white and blue. time to head to michigan where cars are key to the economy and mitt romney is a native son. even in michigan, romney can't get away from the heat being put on by rick santorum. let's bring in political reporter peter hanby in detroit. the story today seems to be santorum's slide. how is that playing out in michigan? >> after our debate the other night, in mesa, arizona, on wednesday, polls have really tightened. internal polling has tigts tigh. the michigan race has tightened. rick santorum is really battling hard to keep pace with mitt romney. romney has an edge according to most polls by two or three points. most people you talk to here in michigan believe that it is really going to be a nail biter. arizona seems to be slipping away from santorum heading in romney's direction, but michigan is going to be ground zero for this race on tuesday night, richelle. >> this is romney's home state.

he seems to have the edge in detroit, but much of the other parts of the state, that is santorum country. could you put into perspective for us what it would mean if mitt romney lost his home state? >> if mitt romney lost michigan, that would be devastating, i think for his candidacy. they're built to go all the way to the convention more so than any other campaign. they have infrastructure in every single state. this is a delegate race for them. for a narrative perspective, it would be difficult, just tass would be for newt gingrich if he lost his home state of georgia or rick santorum losing pennsylvania. if you can't win a state that you have central to your political identity, how do you carry forward nationally? so he's really got a win here on tuesday night. republicans in washington are already kind of chattering about a brokered convention, though that's a long shot, richelle, but that's the kind of talk that this has sparked if romney does lose to michigan on tuesday. >> mitt romney was opposed to

the bailout. he says that the -- the auto bailout. he says he was for a managed bankruptcy. and that is something he had to talk a lot about since campaigning in michigan. how has that played out for him in michigan, the fact that he did not support the auto bailout? >> yeah, he's really been kind of stretching to try to come up with a good argument here. what we see is that this will probably hurt him in the general election. marist and nbc had a poll this week that showed in a general election mitt romney would lose to barack obama. it hurts him here. obama can sort of credibly claim he helped turn around the economy dr-- the auto industry. in the primary, a tougher argument to make for republicans. both santorum and romney have taken positions here. he's running a tv ad making that case, but that's sort of

misleading because rick santorum also opposed the federal auto bailout. that's sort of the dynamic playing out in terms of auto industry here, richelle. >> okay, peter hanby, good wrap-up. thank you very much. talk to you again soon. coming up in a few moments, we'll talk about why gay marriage and abortion trump the economy with some gop primary voters. don't go anywhere. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ helping you do what you do... even better. homicide of young people in america has an impact on all of us. how can we save these young people's lives? as a police chief i have an opportunity to affect what happens in a major city.

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my supervisor is currently not available. would you like to hold ? that department is currently closed. have i helped you with everything you needed ? if your bank doesn't give you knowledgeable customer service 24/7, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. welcome back to this special political hour of "cnn newsroom." we're focusing on all the presidential candidates. ron paul is stumping in michigan ahead of the primary there, telling voters there it is time

for washington to wake up. >> i'm excited about what's happening because the country has certainly changed. in the last five years i believe it has changed for the better. the number of people now waking up, both young and old, and saying enough is enough really shows that the country is way ahead of washington. washington is still sound asleep. let me tell you, they don't know you exist out there. that's our job. and that's why a good showing and winning an election and doing well in these primaries is so important. we need to wake up washington, d.c. for their sound asleep and they need to hear our message loud and clear. >> okay. well, polls indicate most americans think this election should be about the economy. winning the republican primary can often come down to a candidate's stand on social issues. on that front, rick santorum seems to lead the pack. let's bring in our cnn senior political analyst ron

brownstein. ron, it is good to talk to you. let's talk about social issues. >> hello, richelle. >> hello. let's talk about social issues. is that a winning platform for the gop candidates at this point, especially given where the economy is? >> well, the striking thing about social issues is that whether candidates talk about them or not, they always exert a big influence on presidential races. if you look at the republican primary so far, one of the most clear and consistent divides is that mitt romney has more trouble with evangelical christians than with those who don't identify as evangelical christians and socially conservative constituency moved toward newt gingrich and rick santorum at different points in the race. probably going to be the core of santorum's coalition here in michigan on tuesday. if you move toward the general election, it really -- we really have been living through an important change in our politics over the last 25, 30 years. each party's coalition is really held together more by cultural values than by class. how often you attend church is now a better predictor of how you vote in the presidential

election and how much money you make with people who attend church more often more likely to vote republican. these issues matter. they are not going to be the center of debate. the economy is front and center both in the primary and the general, but cultural values are an important dividing line. we see how they resurface constantly with new issues from abortion to gay rights to contraception. >> certain candidates are more comfortable in this realm than others. let's hear mitt romney during our cnn debate this past week talking about social issues, ron. >> when you have 40% of kids being born out of wedlock, and among certain ethnic groups the vast majority born out of wedlock, you ask yourself how are we going to have a society in the future because these kids are raised in poverty in many cases, in abusive settings, the likelihood of finishing high school or college drops dramatically. when we have programs that say we're going to teach abstinence in schools, the liberals go

crazy. >> so, ron, my question is, is this mitt romney playing on rick santorum's turf and how is that going to play in the general election? >> that's a good point. of course, first he's got to get there. as i said, the biggest resistance to romney in this race comes from two quarters. evangelical christians who question his commitment to social issues, earlier in his career he was pro choice and in '94 ran against ted kennedy said he would be a bigger advocate for gay rights than kennedy and the other is the tea party side which questions the fiscal issues. you saw romney trying to play on turf that santorum talked about for a long time, in fact, during welfare reform in the 1990s, santorum was probably the political figure most insistent on inserting into the debate family structure and something called a family cap back then, preventing women on welfare from getting additional benefits if they had additional children. he's probably on safer ground with the public on this front. there is concern about the breakdown of the family and what

it means both socially and economically than he is on some other issues he raised such as questioning the 1965 decision that made it -- the supreme court barred states from prohibiting the use of birth control. this is actually terrain that i think all the republicans will be comfortable talking about and we should point out that president obama raises this issue as well when he talks about the importance of fatherhood. >> he had a fatherhood initiative for quite a few years. let's talk about rick santorum. he seemed to steer into trouble during the debate over his support in congress for no child left behind. let's listen to this and then react on the other side, okay? >> i have to admit, i voted for that. it was against the principles i believed in, but, you know, when you're part of the team, sometimes you take one for the team, for the leader. i made a mistake. >> wow, take one for the team. mitt romney has gotten a lot of mileage out of nailing him on take one for the team, ron. >> i tell you if mitt romney's president, he'll be asking a lot of republican senators to take

one for the team starting on day one. what rick santorum said, it is striking how many of the initiatives of the george bush presidency that were attempted to broaden the base of the republican party have really come into question in the party since the advent of the tea party. that real kind of back to basics, small government, message. think about it, as recently as 2006, 23 republican senators with the support of president bush voted to legalize 11 million illegal immigrants. no child left behind, a george bush initiative. not a liberal initiative. expanding medicare to include prescription drugs. in a lot of ways, what you're seeing is efforts that were made in the earlier part of this century, the last decade to expand the republican base, really coming under question, and the irony is rick santorum finally pointed out today on "meet the press," mitt romney supported no child left behind and is probably more supportive of it than santorum is. but this is an example of what is such a successful strategy for romney. he's prevented candidates emerging to his right from consolidating that support on

the right by raising one or two or three issues that cause the conservatives to have doubts about them, whether perry on immigration, gingrich on immigration or medicare or now santorum on issues relating to labor, earmarks, and no child left behind. he's had a tremendous success at a divide and conquer strategy. we'll see if he keeps it up as we go down the road. >> issues that are perceived as a weakness for him, he's pivoting it right back on them. ron brownstein, ron, thank you. >> absolutely. >> thank you so much for the discussion. appreciate it. cnn senior political analyst and editorial director for the national review. thank you. mitt romney picks up endorsements from two michigan newspapers, but how is he doing in the polls there? two days before the gop primary there. we'll take a look when we come back. what's this? [ male announcer ] quaker oatmeal squares have 46 grams of whole grains... mmmm. ...and a touch of sweetness. you'll be delighted to discover how good they taste. get your free sample of quaker oatmeal squares

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welcome back to this special edition of cnn. i'm richelle carey. let's continue to delve into the issues on the presidential campaign. here is a mitt romney had to say about his conservative credentials. >> i can attest for my conservative credentials by quoting someone who endorsed me in my 2008 campaign. senator santorum was kind enough to say on the laura ingraham show, mitt romney this is a guy who is really conservative and who we can trust. and when he came out to endorse

me, he said these words, he said he is the clear conservative candidate. he's right. i'm the conservative candidate and what we need in the white house is principled conservative leadership and i'll bring it. >> he says he'll bring it. but romney is struggling in his own childhood state. new american research group poll has rick santorum in the lead in michigan with 38%. romney follows close behind at 34%. ron paul and newt gingrich are a distant third and fourth with 12% and 7% respectively. what can we expect in michigan on tuesday? joining us live, dave marie, politics and education reporter for the grand rapids press and steven henderson, editorial page at the detroit free press. thank you, both, for joining me. let's start with your paper's positions on mitt romney. dave, let's start with you. your paper endorsed mitt romney, why? >> yes, it did. well, mitt romney has business sense that i think appeals to people in our area, our state of

course is struggling economically. the paper endorsed mitt romney in 2008 and they appreciated some of the stances he took as the washington outsider. i think we looked in that same direction this year as well. >> and, steven, as well, speak for the detroit free press. >> well, we endorsed mitt romney but a sort of type of an endorsement. we like the old mitt romney, the governor romney, the savior of the olympics. >> let's talk about why mitt romney is struggling in his home state. steven, can you speak to that? >> well, i think there are a couple of things. one is his reinvention of himself, which has happened a couple of times, for governor romney. i think voters are mistrustful of that, they're not sure which mitt romney we're seeing and which mitt romney we would get if we were in the white house. but also, his repeated attacks

on the auto bailout. he's not different from the other -- the other candidates. they all are against the bailout too. he keeps bringing it up. and almost kicking dirt in the face of the industry by pointing out that he just wouldn't have bothered to try to save us the way the federal government did. i think that's hurt him here as well. >> dave, do you agree with that? >> yeah. michigan's outside of detroit, it is more conservative place, and senator santorum's positions on the social issues are -- have been very attractive to people in northern michigan and western michigan. he's bringing in the duggar family to come and stump for him around this side of the state, just before -- up until tuesday. that reflects the social conscious of the conservative base out here. >> let's talk about voters in michigan. what are the issues? obviously the auto industry. let's talk about the issues. the top two or three issues that matter the most to voters in michigan. stephen, take that question

first. >> i think jobs obviously. we lost more jobs than almost any other state in the union during the recession. in fact, we were in a recession nine years before the rest of the state was in a recession. and we never came out of it. and so people here have lost -- a lot of people have lost everything. the idea that people need to get back to work, of course, they're doing that now with the auto industry, which is not helping mitt romney who is trashing the bailouts. so that's got to be issue number one. obviously the federal budget deficit, and the prioritization of spending, is that going to go for entitlements and things like that, those resonate here too. really it is -- this is an economic election for people in michigan. >> and, dave, economic issues certainly, but are you saying there is other parts of the state where social issues matter perhaps as much if not more? >> absolutely. it is almost an underlying issue that is not spoken as much out here. a pollster on friday told me that governor romney's mormon

faith is a reason that 7% of the republicans have said they're not going to vote for him. the pollster actually thought the number is actually higher, but folks didn't want to say that. and the close election where all the polls seem to be within the margin of error, that 7% could be a factor and that's linked directly to the mormon faith. >> quite a few eyes on michigan on tuesday. gentlemen, thank you so much. stephen henderson, dave marie, for the conversation. mitt romney is leading in a new arizona poll and got a big endorsement today. we'll tell you who is backing him next. >> we have installed a regular guy, rich guy meter. let's see how romney does. >> trees are the right height. >> regular guy. >> streets are just right. >> yep. >> i like the fact that most of the cars i see are detroit made automobiles. i drive a mustang and a chevy pickup truck and ann drives a couple of cadillacs actually. >> rich guy. rich guy! couple of cadillacs.

welcome back. i'm richelle carey. this hour we are focusing on politics, allowing you to hear from the 2012 presidential contenders. a new arg poll is out in arizona. it has mitt romney in the lead with 39%, santorum is at 35%. newt gingrich, ron paul are

trailing far behind at 11% and 9% respectively. let's listen to what santorum and romney are promising voters in arizona. >> if i become president of the united states, i will curb the practice we have in this country of giving union bosses an unfair advantage in contracting. one of the first things i'll do, actually on day one, is i will end the government's favoritism toward unions and contracting on federal projects and end project labor agreements and i will fight to repeal -- >> you have my pledge that we will secure this border, we will deal with the issue of the drug violence and the cartels, we will work with the mexican government to make sure that we do -- we have relationships there that can help strengthen their economy, deal with the national security threats to our country at the border, and secure the border so the people in arizona can live in peace and

prosperity, just like every other state in the country. >> arizona is a winner take all state, but they closed primary. romney bagged a big endorsement today from arizona governor jan brewer. >> he has that pro business background, and he has that political history that i think that he would serve america the best of all the candidates. so it was a difficult decision. but i think mitt is by far the person that can go in and win. >> brewer's endorsement comes with some risk. she signed a tough new immigration measure into palau last year. it permits police to investigate any suspect they believe may be in the country illegally. while her stance could help romney among some conservatives, it could hurt him with latinos considered to be an important swing vote. to talk more about what the arizona governor's endorsement means for romney, jim insill, a

writer for tucson weekly. thank you for joining me. let's start with the jan brewer question. what might this endorsement do for mitt romney? >> well, mitt's already in the lead out here. he's obviously leading in all the polls. rick santorum kind of made a run at him here over the last couple of weeks. we're seeing more polls showing mitt pulling ahead after the cnn debate and jan brewer is the latest of the republican establishment out here. he had the endorsement of our attorney general, our secretary of state, and a number of other high ranking republican officials. so mitt had a real campaign out here, really for months now. and rick has not, i think mitt has it locked up out here in arizona. >> having said that, would you think that mitt romney would have a bigger lead than he does? >> well, yes. and that's, i think, going on all around the country is that there is this concern among a lot of conservatives about mitt romney and his real bona fides and whether or not they can

trust him to actually be a conservative governor or a conservative president once he's elected. >> let's talk about what -- in addition to immigration, what would you say are the top two or three issues that voters in arizona care about? and i'm sure that breaks down differently depending where people are and what part of the state. >> yeah, if we're talking about the republican voters who are going to be voting next week, i think immigration is big on their minds. but jobs and the economy are very big on people's minds out here. i would say the other big issue among republican voters is how much they really dislike barack obama and would like to see him lose in november. >> okay. all those issues you just named, how do you think the candidates adress them in the debate? do you think this debate, the last debate in arizona really spoke to voters and tweaked the numbers at all? >> well, i do think that, you know where the immigration issue came up, and the debate, you saw mitt romney really embrace our very controversial immigration law. sb-1070.

he was asked would you support rounding up illegal immigrants and deporting them? he said he would drop a federal lawsuit against sb-1070. that was a big moment in the debate. people really liked that. i think that, you know, his embrace of that law, though, leads to trouble in the general election. you're seeing also in arizona very interesting phenomenon, we had poll numbers this last week from public policy polling that showed that the democrats and independents are now really starting to rally around barack obama and for the first time barack obama is tied with mitt romney among general election voters who are going to be voting in november. >> so do you think that any of the candidates -- or mitt romney specifically, has taken any extremely conservative positions in arizona that could perhaps end up hurting him in the general? >> yeah, i think you're seeing that throughout. his favorability numbers in the state are really on the decline, at least according to public policy polling surveys.

you're seeing that in surveys across america is that as mitt boosts further to the right, he's alienating a lot of the independents. and he's losing any kind of democratic crossover that he might need in november. and, of course, that election is a long time away and a lot can change between now and then. i think even the public policy pollster, tom jensen, puts arizona in the republican column. he's saying it is becoming competitive state, i think that's kind of the story as the republican candidates veer farther and farther to the right. they're losing the independents and folks in the middle. >> but you got to get the nomination first. jim, thank you very much. >> it is a pleasure. thank you for having me. >> absolutely. we talked a lot about the michigan and arizona primaries that are coming up on tuesday. but what is really at stake here? coming up, our political editor paul steinhauser breaks it all down for you. first, president obama's raising his voice on the campaign trail. he took to the mike at the white

house, red, white and blue's event which aired on pbs. ♪ come on baby don't you want to go ♪ ♪ sweet home chicago

welcome back to this special hour of "cnn newsroom." we're focusing on the 2012 presidential contenders so you can learn more about who they are, what their campaigns hope to achieve. let's take a look at the delegates at stake. for that, we turn to cnn political editor paul steinhauser. >> richelle, two days to go until this big primary in arizona and michigan and, yes, a lot at stake. so let's break it down, do it alphabet cal. we start with arizona. we have 29 delegates up for grabs and winner take all. you win, you get all 29. you lose by a couple thousand votes, you don't get a delegate. it is a semiopen primary. republicans, yeah, they can vote in the gop primary, so can independent voters. and arizona's got early voting, started way back on february 2nd and a lot of people have already

cast ballots. by primary day, you may have half or more of all voters already voting. moving on to michigan, 30 delegates at stake, but proportional, you don't have to win to get delegates. also an open primary which means you have republicans, they can vote in the gop primary, so can independent voters. but so can democrats. and it will be interesting to see how many democrats cross over to vote in the republican primary. no real early voting in michigan other than absentee ballots. richelle? >> thank you, paul. newt gingrich takes his campaign to church. stick around to hear what he told a group of churchgoers in georgia. and then coming up at 5:00 p.m. eastern, 60 lives, 30 kidneys, the longest live donor chain in history. the man who started it all, the original donor, explains to us why he decided to do this. ok, guys-- what's next ?

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♪ ♪ one, two, three, four ♪ you say ♪ flip it over and replay ♪ we'll make everything okay ♪ walk together the right way ♪ do, do, do, do welcome back. this morning newt gingrich took his message to church in georgia. he talked about how the fauoundg fathers included religion in the

constitution of the united states. >> life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. now, this phrase is at the center of being an american. first of all, it asserts unlike any other society in the world, power comes from god to each one of you personally. it also says back here so the choir doesn't feel left out. what does that mean? it means you're personally sovereign. the rights come to you. you loan power to the government, the government does not loan power to you. >> okay. we continue to explore issues on the presidential campaign. every sunday we spend the 4:00 p.m. hour here at "cnn newsroom," focusing on the candidates. right now, the race is down to four contenders. mitt romney, newt gingrich, rick santorum and ron paul. this group of presidential candidates used to include this man, texas governor rick perry,

who is now a newt gingrich supporter. what does rick perry think about newt gingrich's fall from popularity? our own john king sat down with the former presidential candidate to get his take. >> speaker gingrich has not disappeared but fallen a bit. out in south carolina, he was the front-runner. you know the dynamic of the race, you were trying to take that spot. you had for a while, to be the alternative to mitt romney. how has senator santorum taken the trophy away from your guy? >> we had a lot of front-runners in this race and may have two or three more front-runners before august gets here. it won't surprise me for this to go all the way to the convention. but newt's -- i tell people newt's the real deal. he's the real fiscal conservative, the real social conservative, the real tenth amendment believing and breathing individual on the stage. each one of the other candidates, whether on the military side or whether it is on the fiscal conservative side

or whether it is on the social issues side, the other candidates can be and are being picked apart a little bit by the republican faithful out there. newt has been always and will continue to be the individual who from a fiscal conservative standpoint, the person who balances budgets, when you get down to what is it that is facing america, that most americans are greatly concerned about, it is that they don't have a job, that they have family members that are either underemployed or unemployed so getting this country back on track from an economic standpoint and newt's done it before, he balanced the budget. i think that's the real driving force for people out there. >> some people say he hurt himself where he tried to stay above it all and other candidates outmaneuvered him. does he need to pick a few direct fights with the other candidates? what is your advice. >> he can be churchill and point out the differences he's got in the candidates. i think he's got that great trait and ability to do it. listen, when you take as much water on as he did with the

negative ads that came out of florida, it is going to beat you down. he didn't have the ability or the money, just say he didn't have the money, certainly has the ability to fight back, but when you have that much money spent against you, it is going to make a difference and i think that's what happened post south carolina. >> newt gingrich has struggled in the polls since his victory in south carolina. he is still struggling. according to an american research group poll of likely gop primary voters in michigan, newt gingrich comes in third, following rick santorum and mitt romney. the same goes for arizona. gingrich is polling in third place at 11%. the difference here, mitt romney is leading with 39%. both arizona and michigan hold their primaries this tuesday. make sure to watch cnn for the live results. our special coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. eastern. as we focus on tuesday's all important primaries in michigan and arizona, our cnn debate last week seems to be a game changer. wolf blitzer weighs in next.

but, first, some political trivia. who won the very first michigan presidential -- republican presidential primary? the answer right after the break. [ male announcer ] this is lawn ranger -- eden prairie, minnesota. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me.

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welcome back to the special hour of cnn politics. we focus on the presidential candidates every sunday, 4:00 p.m. eastern. before the break, i asked you who won the very first presidential michigan republican presidential primary. someone in the studio knew the answer. i thought they cheated by reading the script. but they didn't. the answer is henry ford. it was held in 1916, supreme court justice charles hughes ended up with the nomination, though. here is a look back at the cnn gop debate. it is the last one before super tuesday. take a look. >> congressman paul, you questioned the conservative, fiscal conservative credentials of all the gentlemen, but particularly this week senator santorum. you have a new television ad that labels him a fake. why? >> because he's a fake.

>> i'm real. i'm real. >> congratulations. >> i'm real. >> thank you. >> i find it fascinating that -- when people are running for office, they're really fiscally conservative. when they're in office, they do something different, and then when they explain themselves, they say, i want to repeal that. >> when abuse happened, i said we should stop the earmarking process. but i did say there were good earmarks and bad earmarks. i have to admit i voted for that, it was against the principles i believed in, but, you know, when you're part of the team, sometimes you take one for the team, for the lead, i made a mistake. >> i developed a program for american energy so no future president will ever bow to a saudi king again and so every american will look forward to $2.50 a gallon gasoline. >> the right course for america is to drop the lawsuits against arizona. i'll complete the fence. i'll make sure we have enough border patrol agents to secure the fence and make sure we have an e-verify system and require

employers to check the documents of workers. >> if this week's cnn debate is an indicator, this race could still be a tossup. i spoke with cnn's wolf blitzer on our sister network hln and asked him how the candidates fared. >> romney, on the other hand, he didn't hurt himself. i thought he didn't make any major mistakes or anything like that. looked a little tough. he was going after rick santorum. newt gingrich -- >> cheerful. he called himself cheerful. >> he's trying to revive his campaign, hoping in georgia he'll have an opportunity on super tuesday, a week from tuesday tork get his campaign back in gear if possible. not necessarily ruling out. this has been a crazy election cycle as you know, richelle. anything is really possible. and ron paul is ron paul. he says he's consistent. >> that's exactly what he said. >> he's consistent. >> he was very consistent. rick santorum's poll numbers have been sliding since wednesday's debate. so i asked wolf about that too. >> they really went after rick santorum in the other debates,

he was usually on the sidelines, wasn't necessarily the target because it was either romney versus rick perry or herman cain, remember, or newt gingrich when he was up, michele bachmann when she was up. and rick santorum is the front-runner. >> how did he handle it? >> he did not do that great. i'm sure he and his advisers acknowledged that. he spoke in washington, you know, sort of talk, and he made it sound like he's -- even though he denies he's a washington insider, he sounded like a washington insider. >> it did sound like that, like he would use you. >> he talked about the earmarks and he did or didn't support and he was a team player, wasn't a team player, when it came to supporting president bush on no child left behind, the education program. he did not help himself. >> the latest gallup poll puts romney and santorum in a dead heat. tuesday's primaries, must-see tv. our special coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. eastern with the special edition of john king usa. we'll report the primary results as they happen.

also, if you want to hear more from wolf blitzer and, you do, just comment on the candidates, check out his blog on situation room. he's very funny and informative on twitter too. in honor of the academy awards, candy crowley is handing out some awards of her own to the gop presidential candidates. we open the envelopes next. cadn was designed with near-perfect weight balance from front to back... and back to front. ♪ giving you exceptional control from left to right... and right to left. ♪ the cadillac cts. ♪ we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. wait. ♪ it's morning in the himalayas... [ male announcer ] it's sweet. it's nutty. it's absolutely delicious. kellogg's crunchy nut.

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so here is a look at where the 2012 contenders, presidential contenders will this be week. mitt romney, rick santorum will be stumping in michigan on monday. on tuesday, ron paul will hold a rally in the super tuesday state of virginia. he and romney are the only two candidates competing there. the others didn't get the required number of signatures to be on the ballot. and newt gingrich will spend tuesday in his home state of georgia, a loss there would be a pretty big blow to his campaign. politics is serious business. sometimes you have to have a little fun. and that's how cnn's candy crowley approaches today's trail mix. >> hey, richelle. with a nod to tonight's aacademy awards, we pulled political gold from the past year for this week's trail mix. the envelope, please.

best impression of a stand-up comedian, mitt romney. >> the gap between his promises and his performance is the largest i've seen, well, since the kardashian wedding and the promise of until death do we part. my son had a motorcycle which i would ride on occasion, rarely. >> most overused campaign catch phrase, say it with me. >> 9-9-9. 9-9-9. >> the plan is so fine, they named it 9-9-9. >> i thought it was the price of a pizza when i first heard it. >> best single moment to bring down a campaign belonged to rick perry. >> i would do away with education, the commerce -- the commerce, and let's see -- i can't. the third one i can't, sorry. oops.

>> best unintentionally funny campaign ad, herman cain and his chief of staff. ♪ i am america one voice united we stand ♪ ♪ i am america >> and best parody of an unintentionally funny campaign ad goes to cain's number one fan, stephen colbert. ♪ >> congratulations to all our winners. richelle, as you know, we're fresh out of gold here at cnn. we melted down most of it to pay for this prolonged campaign season. but to our winners, we're going to send something even better, these bookmarks from "state of the union." each recipient will get one. if you play your cards right, we'll send one to you too.