hello, everyone. i'm randi kaye. it's 1:00. we have got a busy hour ahead. so this is what all the fuss is about. election day in new hampshire. republicans choosing a nominee to run against president obama. democrats choosing, well, president obama. these first in the nation primaries culminate months or even years of campaigning and most of the top republicans are still at it.

here's why. the last new hampshire tracking poll by suffolk university puts to rest any visions of iowa-like outcomes. mitt romney's lead is actually a few points wider than yesterday. but jon huntsman has broken out of a three-way tie for third into a virtual dead heat for second. and as of yesterday, 7% of likely voters still have not made up their minds. no need for polls in dixville notch or hartsville locations. those towns voted at midnight and the results are in. drumroll, please. dixville awarded two votes each to romney and huntsman. hart voters gave romney five votes, paul 4, huntsman 2, and gingrich and rick perry, 1 each. whatever happens elsewhere in the granite state, you'll hear it first from this guy right here, wolf blitzer is already suited up for the big night. >> we're ready to go. >> i'm sure you are. >> we've been practicing and practicing and practicing. >> you need practice after all these years, all these election nights? >> you want to be a good

cellist, you've got to practice. you want to be a good tennis player, you've gt to practice. >> i'm sure it will be perfect. let's talk about mitt romney. do you think he has anything to fear tonight? >> he's going to win. does he win with 25%, 30%, 40%? the pundits will be looking closely, but a win is a win is a win. he won in iowa by eight votes, but that is still a win. a win is good. if you win iowa, new hampshire, and if he were to go on and win in south carolina, which is coming up january 21st, that's the trifecta. that's pretty good. >> what does it say if it comes in at less than 40%? >> it's still -- i wouldn't read too much into that. they're dividing up a lot of the other votes, the non-mitt romney, if you will. if huntsman comes in second, though, that's impressive for huntsman. it's do or die for him in him, jon huntsman. if he doesn't do well tonight, it's over, for all practical purposes. >> do you think he's been playing it right? he's visited, what, had about 160 or 70 campaign stops? >> he spent all of his time in

new hampshire. he may have visited iowa once, very, very briefly. all of his time, all of his money in new hampshire. he's got to do well, huntsman. if he doesn't do well, i suspect it could be over for him. >> what about santorum? he's in fourth place. is that good enough to carry on the momentum, any other momentum that might be left -- >> i think santorum and gingrich, they are definitely going on to south carolina. rick perry has already given up hope for new hampshire. he's already in south carolina. but i think that all of them will -- maybe with the exception of huntsman, depending on how he does, they'll all be in south carolina and florida. they're not giving up. it's still very early in the process and i don't see any reason why they should give up, as long as they have the money and the strength and the will to go forward. >> so based on what you know from all these years of covering politics, is romney unstoppable if he takes iowa and new hampshire? >> look, based on everything we've seen so far over these past several months, anything is still possible. is it likely romney will get the nomination? yes. but is it possible he could be

stopped? yes. a lot will depend on what, you know, the story lines, what comes out, what moves voters, what doesn't move voters. one thing that's a why would card, newt gingrich has a lot of supporters and some very, very wealthy supporters that are putting up millions of dollars right now in negative attack ads on mitt romney in south carolina. if those ads succeed in doing to mitt romney in south carolina what the pro-mitt romney attack ads did to newt gingrich in iowa, who know what could happen. >> you in for a long night, do you think? >> i think we'll know pretty soon whether or not mitt romney, we'll be able to project that, i suspect, relatively early. but the question who comes in second, third, that could drag on and we'll see how long it goes. i'm hoping it goes on all night. i love that kind of stuff. >> and all year. we'll take it. wolf, thank you very much. we'll be tuning in tonight. be sure to join wolf blitzer, anderson cooper, erin burnett, and john king tonight for live coverage of the new hampshire primary, 7:00 eastern, only on

cnn. we'll get right back to politics in a moment. first, we want to tell you about some other stories making news right now. we're learning more about 26-year-old robert champion, the florida drum major who died in november. champion's friends have told the attorney that he was gay and that may have been one reason why he was treated more harshly than other band members. but champion's family attorney says this was not a hate crime. >> we are shocked, we're outraged, we're devastated that a band director would suggest that an institution that he himself has a leader of a band is exonerated for the death of a band member on his watch, just because that band member was gay, that now this makes it a hate crime? no, this is hazing. >> champion's family is expected to sue the bus line and famu. now to syria, where president bashar al assad gave a rare and defiant speech. he blamed the violence in his country on, quote, external

conspiracies bip western and arab elements. al assad also denied giving orders to government departments to fire on protesters. and he said a referendum on a new constitution will happen in march. and in seattle, dna may help sheriff's suspects find a suspect in a 20-year-old murder. investigators circulated go composite sketches of a possible suspect but never had a name. after a comparison with genealogy records, they discovered the suspect's name was similar to robert fuller, who settled in salem, massachusetts, in 1630. investigators say they now have a probable last name. amazing. turning to health news, of all things, a nicotine patch may help elderly people with memory loss. preliminary research published in the journal of neurology finds that it could improve the brain performance of people experiencing early symptoms of dementia. the lead researcher saw he saw an improvement in attention and mental processing on the

subjects that received the nicotine treatment. the study was done on 74 nonsmokers for six months. as the front-runner in the race for president, you can expect negative attacks, but mitt romney is getting it from all sides. >> i thought it was going to come from the president and the democrats from the left, but instead it's coming from speaker gingrich and apparently others. >> can he overcome this? we'll talk with a romney campaign adviser right after the break. but first, a political junkie question for you. the democrats also vote in new hampshire today, so how many names are on the the democratic primary ballot? tweet the answer to m me @randikayecnn. i'll give a shout-out to the first person with the right answer. [ woman ] my husband, hank, was always fun.

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before the break i asked how many names are on the democratic ballots in the new hampshire primary? the answer is 14, including president barack obama, crane's tax frees freese, and a guy named vernon supreme. congrats to darnell for tweeting me the right answer.

you don't really need a poll to tell you who the front-runner is in the gop race for the president. >> governor romney enjoys firing people. i enjoy creating jobs. >> and i have no doubt that mitt romney was worried about pink slips, whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out. because his company, bain capital, and all the jobs that they killed. i'm sure that he was worried that he'd run out of pink slips. >> now, i have to ask a question. is that really what -- is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money? >> mitt romney is the front-runner/punching bag, and those fighting words from rick perry, newt gingrich and jon huntsman stem from his capital work in bain capital. he did a lot of business that sometimes went very well and sometimes went bust. romn romney's new hampshire poll numbers haven't gone bust and my next guest has something to do

with that. jennifer horn is mitt romney's new hampshire campaign co-chair. thanks for joining us again, jennifer. since we spoke last weak, the attacks have come fast and furious against mitt romney. let me play you a quick comment from governor romney himself. >> i like being able to fire people that provide services to me. you know, if someone doesn't give me the good service i need, i want to say that i'm going to go get somebody else to provide that service to me. >> so has the onslaught prompted you and your folks there to change your game at all? >> reporter: not at all. i was in the room when governor romney made that comment. he was talking about bringing free market competition to health care services, talking about that as consumers, we should have the right to fire our health care service provider if we're dissatisfied with the service that we were getting. but randi, i have to tell you, there is nothing more infuria infuriating than hearing

candidates who claim to be conservative attacking free market and capitalism in general. and for speaker gingrich, this is a really disappointing thing to hear. >> i know you say that you were there and i want you to just walk us through with a little more detail. but first, i want to play exactly what mitt romney said about firing, and you tell me how he meant it. >> sure. >> i like being able to fire people that provide services to me. you know, if someone doesn't give me the good service i need, i want to say, you know, that i'm going to go get somebody else to provide that service to me. >> i think he meant exactly that. i think he meant exactly that. that when you're not getting the service that you paid for, you should have a right as a consumer to get that service somewhere else. the entire conversation, if you play the three or four sentences before that, was about health care. he was talking about bringing competition and free markets into health care, so that consumers, individuals, yourself, myself, so that we have the right to go out and choose our health care provider

rather than the federal mandate that president obama would like to push with obama care. and the important thing, here, randi, is that the voters, the citizens of our country, are smarter than that. they are more sophisticated than that. they understand what governor romney meant by this. and they agree with him. >> let me ask you about some of the hits that he's taken. because there is one school of thought that he's taken a lot of hits and really that this sort of trial by fire will only make the nominee, the eventual nominee, if it is mitt romney, stronger. do you buy that? >> i'm sorry, randi, say it one more time. it's a little bit noisy here. >> one school of thought is that trial by fire in this stage of the game, all the hits he's taking, could make the eventual nominee, if it is him, better prepared for the general. >> right. listen, i'm a big believer in robust primaries. i've run for federal office. i think primaries make the candidates stronger, they make the message stronger. governor romney has been out

there, on the stump delivering a clear, consistent, conservative message on bringing prosperity and jobs back to america again. these are little bumps in the road. we are hoping to do very well here in new hampshire today. we move on to success, where we hope to do well also. and we just continue with the same message that governor romney has had from the beginning. that he's the candidate with the conservative record in both the private and public sector, that uniquely qualifies him for this moment in our nation's history, to put america back to work and to get our country back on track. >> what number in terms of percentages will make you happy tonight? >> listen, one vote more than the next guy. you know, this is -- >> or at least eight more, as he likes to say. >> we hope to do well. we hope to do well here. everybody on the team has been working incredibly hard. they have knocked on tens of thousands of doors. they've made hundreds of thousands of calls. the governor has done, made -- i've lost track of how many visits and events he's done here. the thousands and thousands of voters, we've all put everything

we've got into this. and now, you know, at this point, it's just about sitting back and hoping that the voters of new hampshire are willing to put their trust in the governor and move us forward. >> jennifer horn, you'll be watching tonight and so will we. thank you very much. remember to stay with cnn for live coverage of the new hampshire primary. with all the focus on the republican candidates, it's easy to forget this guy, president obama is also running in new hampshire. he's even on the ballot. his campaign strategy for 2012, dnc chairwoman debbie wasserman schultz joins us next.

the change is hard, but it's possible. and if you want to end the cynicism and the game playing and the point scoring here in washington, then this is the

election to send a message that you refuse to back down. >> with all the focus on the republican candidates today, it's easy to forget this guy's running in new hampshire too. in fact, president obama is on the ballot alongside 13 other democratic presidential candidates. while there's no doubt about his chances today, the president's re-election team is gearing up for november. and they'll certainly be watching the votes come in tonight on the republican side. joining me now from manchester, democratic national committee chairwoman, debbie wasserman schultz. thank you so much for joining us today. congresswoman, the democrats are -- the democrats are probably relishing all this infighting on the republican side. are the attacks on romney actually helping president obama, though, in november? >> well, we're focused today and leading up to today on making sure that we stand up the most significant grassroots presidential campaign in history. we've been running a door-to-door, neighbor-to-neighbor campaign.

we had 3,200 one-on-one meeting and seven offices open around the state as of today. that's our focus. the republicans have been busy in a circular firing squad and it's pretty clear there's a dramatic contrast between the direction that president obama's been taking us and fighting for working families and the group of candidates on the other side who want to make sure that the wealthiest, most fortunate americans keep the wind at their backs. >> you have noted that there appears to be a lack of enthusiasm, if you will, around mitt romney and certainly within the gop itself. but if he wins tonight, won't he be in pretty good shape as the only nonincumbent republican candidate to ever win iowa and new hampshire. does that make him a pretty strong contender against obama, if it indeed goes that way? >> well, he really limped out of iowa, randi. he spent five years trying to win iowa, spent the most money doing it. and only beat the candidate who spent the least by eight votes. now he comes into new hampshire, which is essentially his home

state. i mean, he was the governor of massachusetts right next door. has a home in new hampshire. if he doesn't do better than 50% and beat his nearest competitor by 30 points, then that really demonstrates how little enthusiasm there is for him here and how lackluster his campaign is. and it would be understandable, because when you don't have any conviction, when you don't stand for anything or you're willing to stand for anything, then the voters really aren't going to have a lot of confidence if you. so he's -- there are repeated examples of mitt romney, really showing how dramatically out of touch he is with working families. and yesterday saying that he likes firing people, that he somehow identifies with people who have been fired, because he's feared having a pink slip. i mean, when? he's shown no evidence of that. this is a guy who repeatedly has stuck the silver spoon that he was born with back in his mouth. and it really is a clear, dramatic contrast between the two directions that we could go on november 6th. >> is he still the guy that the white house has in its sights?

>> i'm sorry? >> is he still the guy? for a while now, the white house has certainly been focused on mitt romney. that still the case? >> mitt romney has really earned the scrutiny. he's at or near the top of the pack of candidates on the republican side. he's exclusively focused on president obama. he's repeatedly distorted his record. we should know this is a candidate who just in 2002 ran for governor of massachusetts, supporti supporting roe versus wade, saying he was pro-choice, now says he's pro-life. he has gone from saying he has strongly held convictions on one side of an issue and has completely flip-flopped based on his desire to get elected. and that's something that we think voters need to know. so we've been talking about it, as a result. >> very quickly, i want to share a couple of polls with you. looking at the president's approval rating, it's certainly up a bit at 4% last month.

and if romney is the nominee, our most recent polling has obama beating him, 52 to 45% in the general election matchup. but is the president also running against the economy, do you think, congresswoman? how much does the economy have to improve for him to win? >> the president has been fighting so hard for the last three years to get the economy turned around and create jobs, and he's taken us from bleeding 750,000 jobs a month to now three years later, we've had 22 straight months of job great in the private sector, randi. just last month, 200,000 jobs created last month alone. he's begun to get things turned around, slow but steady progress. as far as the republican nominee, we'll see what happens with that. president obama's busy being president and we're busy in the obama campaign and the democratic party making sure that we run a huge grassroots campaign. mitt romney's campaign, his office here in manchester is up for lease and we've got offices around the state, seven offices open around the state.

we'll be hitting the ground running tomorrow and they'll be packing up and going to south carolina. >> congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz, thank you very much. and remember to join wolf blitzer, anderson cooper, erin burnett, and john king tonight for live coverage of the new hampshire primaries, 7:00 eastern, right here on cnn. jon huntsman polled in the single digits just days ago, but he's climbing in the polls in new hampshire. >> everybody's saying, hey, you're surging. we're hearing anecdotally that a lot of votes are coming in for you. and i say, hey, i'm still the underdog. >> could he surge toward the top and become the leading conservative alternative to mitt romney? we'll talk to his campaign manager, next. [ sniffs ] i have a cold. [ sniffs ] i took dayquil

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i really want to know what governor huntsman, for example, can tell me is good about him as compared to some of the other candidates that i'm considering. i'm tired of hearing the negative. i want to hear some positives. >> the gop candidates have rotated through front-runners and stunning surges. in new hampshire, we're seeing it again. this time, it is jon huntsman's turn, who up until now, was consistently at the back of the pack. this rolling average from gallup pretty much proves that fact. you see the yellow line there?

yep, that's jon huntsman. but check out the latest polls. huntsman is neck and neck with ron paul behind romney. a suffolk university poll has him in third place. and this poll by the american research group has huntsman surging to second place with 18%. some, even huntsman himself, thought that was nearly impossible just a few days ago. >> nobody associated the word "surge" with our name and i get around this morning and people are saying, you're surging. we hear, anecdotally, there are a lot of votes coming in for you. i say, hey, i'm still the under dog. i'm the margin of error candidate from just a few short days ago. >> let's bring in jon huntsman's campaign manager, the man on the ground in new hampshire, matt david. thanks for coming on the show today. it's no secret jon huntsman has had his sights on new hampshire for a while now. what exactly are you hoping to prove tonight? >> well, we need to -- first, thanks for having me. but tonight we've got to exceed

market expectations. and judging by the polls that have come out, we're moving in the right direction. looking at crowd sizes over the course of the last couple of days, there have been 200, 300, 400 people showing up. and we've done it the hard way, with traditional retail politics. governor huntsman done over 170 events in the state. we think at the end of the day, new hampshire voters will reward him for that. >> let's talk about independence. that could really be key for governor huntsman tonight. what do you think is the draw for him for those voters? >> i think any independent voter who watched the debate on sunday and saw governor romney attack governor huntsman for serving his country. he says he should have been out raising money to help elect politicians. and governor huntsman stood up and said, listen, when i'm asked by my president, regardless of my party, i'm going to serve my country. i put country first. and i think when voters hear that, they're going to break

toto our side. >> what's your strategy ahead for south carolina? >> we have the absolutely best ground game down there. we have the attorney general, alan wilson, we have the former attorney general, henry mcmaster, we've got the campbell family, we have the best organization. and ultimately, these primaries are won with two things. message and momentum. we'll have the momentum coming out of here and we think our message about restoring trust in this country, installing term limits and ending of a revolving door is going to play well in south carolina, florida, and beyond. >> that sounds great, but the reality is this. i want you to look at the polls that we have. orc poll showing huntsman is last place with 1% there. he's also virtually off the radar in florida. so what will you do to change this. >> well, listen, again, like i said, it comes down to message and momentum. we'll have the momentum we need coming out of new hampshire. and his message about restoring the trust deficit in this country, installing term limits, ending the revolving door. we have the best tax proposal,

job creation plan endorsed by "the wall street journal." that's going to play well in south carolina. it's going to play well in florida. i think you'll see this momentum we started here in new hampshire translate down to north carolina and florida. >> let's talk about mitt romney. he's gotten a lot of heat for his wealth and his role at the private equity group, bain capital. my colleague, kira phillips, actually asked jon huntsman about this and here's what he said to say. >> your family's wealth pretty much makes romney's look like pocket change. so what makes huntsman the millionaire different from romney the millionaire? >> well, i can only speak to my own experience, and we've lived the american dream. we didn't start with a family business. we all pulled together and helped to build it. >> we didn't really get a clear answer to that question, matt. so can you help us out? what is the difference between romney the millionaire and huntsman the millionaire? >> listen, governor huntsman, the differences are stark. governor huntsman started a

family manufacturing business with his dad, grew it to be a very successful company, then went to be on a two-term governor, with a very good record. you compare that to mitt romney, who was 47th in job creation when governor huntsman was number 1. who did health care with a mandate, similar to president obama. governor huntsman did health care without a mandate. governor romney raised taxes. governor huntsman had the historic largest tax cut in his state. i think the differences are pretty simple and laid out. i think, ultimately, voters are going to see that. >> matt david, thank you very much for your time today. remember to watch cnn for live continuing coverage of the new hampshire primary. from jon huntsman to rick santorum, he's hoping to keep the momentum going, so what did he say about his chances, just moments ago? it's fair game and it's next. but first, another political junkie question for you. which non-incumbent candidate won the new hampshire primary with the highest percentage of the vote? you can tweet me the answer @randikayecnn, and if

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before the break, i asked which non-incumbent candidate won the new hampshire primary with the highest percentage of the vote. the answer is richard nixon with 89.3% in 1960. vice president nixon lost the general election that year, but came back to win the new hampshire primary two more times, becoming the only man two threepeat. this is a first, everyone. we did not have a winner. maybe the question was too hard. i'll blame my producer, doug. i will not give you his twitter handle. let's get right to the heart of the political debate, where everything is fair game. and right now mitt romney seems to be fair game for all of his republican rivals. one of the main attackers is newt gingrich and a super pac supporting him is behind an unflattering movie about romney's time at bain capital. but this is how gingrich describes the attacks as a necessary thing. >> whoever we nominate had better be tough enough and had better be thoroughly enough vetted before they get the nomination, because what you

don't want to do is nominate somebody and find out in september that they have a fatal weakness, and then you can't do anything about it. >> joining me now are cnn contributors, maria cardona and will kaine. thank you to both of you. so is newt right? are these kinds of attacks going to leave a mark, say in march or april, or even november, will? >> i actually think that it is doing mitt romney a favor right now to deal with these issues up front. take the most recent one, randi, this bain capital one. i think it's good to have this conversation now. the issue of questioning mitt romney's success as a director of bain capital. i would say two things. for democrats and for newt gingrich. one, when you criticize mitt romney's successes and failures at bain, it shows a fundamental lack of respect for the free market, for failure, for success, for hires and fires, for risk. what more, this criticism is coming from politicians and pundits, and that doesn't play well. >> so, maria, let me ask you about jon huntsman. let's talk about him for a

minute. is he going to be, do you think, the rick santorum of new hampshire? >> well, we'll see, but i think what we're really starting to expect tonight is that mitt romney may not win with the margin that he was expecting, that all of us were expecting. and that huntsman is actually experiencing a surge. and what has been so baffling to me throughout, both in terms of the attacks as well as huntsman, in terms of the attacks is that the republican rivals waited up until now to launch all of these attacks, and i think some, you know, some very valid attacks against mitt romney, but they waited up until the day before new hampshire. and on huntsman, it also is baffling to me, because, apparently, republican voters put such a premium on electability, and i've got to tell you, as a democrat, jon huntsman would have been the most electable candidate against barack obama. >> how about rick santorum? i know, will, you just had a chance to interview him and talk to him a little bit today. how's his mood leading into the primary tonight? >> i've got to say this, randi,

that rick santorum is running the front-runner or the leader status very well, it suits him. i had a long sit-down with him and my friend asked him, your general problem is a sense of likability. that many voters don't seem to like you. he had this moment, where he paused and said, it's my fault. i've been a little bit too tense. my wife has asked me to calm down. now that he's literally moved to center stage in the debate and is getting time to talk, he's wearing that well. is that enough to survive a fourth place finish in new hampshire? we'll see. but i have to say, he's much more likable when he's winning. >> maria, if rick santorum doesn't do well and maybe he does end up with a fourth place finish, as he's polling right now, does that -- will that make voters, say, in south carolina, think twice about him? >> well, it depends on what he does after new hampshire. if he goes directly to south carolina, which is, frankly, what mike huckabee didn't do four years ago, then i think that he would have a chance to continue to make the argument

that he would be the social conservative, the real conservative in this race. the anybody-but-romney vote, if you will. and that is still thing that conservatives are desperately looking for. what we have seen time and time again from republicans is that mitt romney, it might be the front-runner, but he is not somebody who has been able to consolidate the conservative vote. they don't like him. they don't trust him. and they are desperate to see somebody else make -- do a real competition against him. >> will, just very, very quickly here. if this does turn out to be a long primary season, who benefits the most? >> a long primary season? well, anybody but romney benefits the most. right now it looks like he could run the table, for the first three states, which would be incredible for him. if it drags out, it's whoever is the last man standing against romney. that's who it benefits. >> everybody will be watch withing that number two slat tonight. will kaine, maria cardona, thank

you both. remember to join wolf blitzer, anderson cooper, erin burnett, and john king tonight for live coverage of the new hampshire primary, 7:00 eastern, right here on cnn. the new hampshire primary is today, as you know, but many eyes are already on south carolina. rick perry skipping new hampshire to focus on the palmetto state. he's the only candidate there today. is this the right move? a live report from columbia, next.

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no, not new hampshire. we're talking south carolina. and texas governor rick perry is hoping the palmetto state picks him on january 21st. but perry's got a whole lot of ground to cover between now and then and he is not wasting any time. he is the only candidate in south carolina today. and he's not holding anything back against his stiffest competition there, mitt romney. cnn political reporter peter hamby is in columbia for us today. peter, let's talk about rick perry. he seems to really be drilling into the front-runner. >> reporter: he absolutely is, randi. he's totally planting a flag here in south carolina. it's his last stand. he's barnstorming the state and really tailoring his message to really heavily evangelical state. he's talking a lot about his faith. but he's seizing on this bain capital attack that the other republicans are developing against mitt romney, really hitting him wherever he goes about some of these companies that bain took over and cast people out of their jobs. listen to what he had to say, for example, earlier today during a campaign stop in south

carolina. >> i will suggest they're just vultures. they're vultures, they're sitting out there on the tree limb, waiting for the company to get sick. and then they swoop in, they heat the carcass, they leave with that, and they leave the skeleton. >> reporter: that's pretty stark language from a republican, speaking about another republican's business record. you donate really hear that in the republican party and republican primary. but it could be a potent message down here, because this is a state struggling with unemployment. the unemployment rate's 9.9%. a lot of manufacturing jobs have left the state over the last few decades and gone overseas. so expect to hear a lot more of this from rick perry. he's only at 5% in our most recent cnn poll of south carolina poll and mitt romney's all the way up at 37%. so there's a lot of ground to make up here. so it's sounding perhaps a

little bit desperate, but nothing to lose at this point for rick perry. >> certainly not. and romney's even getting it from rick perry. there's this new ad coming out by the super pac that's supporting newt gingrich. that's going to hit him pretty hard too. >> reporter: oh, absolutely. and they're spending $3.4 million on this ad. this is a pro-newt gingrich super pac. they've basically bought the rights to a documentary, exploring bain capital's record of taking over companies. it's very tough stuff. they're going to start running these tv ads tomorrow, all over the state. basically 30-second, 60-second ads promoting this documentary and attacking romney. i've got to tell you, this is a pretty cheap state to run television ads. you can probably drop between $300,000 and $500,000 and really cover the state for a week on tv. $3.4 million means that tv viewers in south carolina are going to be absolutely swamped with television ads before the january 21st primary. so mitt romney's going to have to answer a lot of questions about these ads down here. >> and just very quickly, what

kind of reception do you think mitt romney will get when he gets to south carolina? >> reporter: well, he's the front-runner. again, 37%. the key figure in our cnn poll, though, is 49%, basically half of republican voters here are undecided. voters here are really only just waking up to this race in the last few weeks. it's not like it was in 2008 when there were bumper stickers and science all ovigns all over. romney is still the front-runner in a divided conservative field. he can escape with a win, a plurality. a lot of voters here really care about electability, and that's a pro-romney message. but it's going to be a pile on romney after new hampshire as the other candidates try to take him down to florida, where it's much more expensive to campaign, randi. >> certainly will be. thank you, peter hamby. for more on the new hampshire primary, remember to watch cnn tonight at 7:00 p.m. we'll watch you live coverage as the votes are tallied. you may hear more curse words on television during the day, thanks to the internet and

cable. the supreme court weighs in on policing the airwaves. the latest on this first amendment fight, next. and the nfl family in mourning after authorities confirm that the body found near a river is the son of a green bay packers coach. the investigation into his death, next. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

. rick santorum, how can you be pro second amendment because it's a question of liberty and yet be anti-gay marriage? gay marriage, women's right to choose and gun rights are all personal liberty issues, and so if you're going to be consistent, consistently for personal liberty, you should be for all three of those things. >> that was just another one of

many people who sounded off on cnn's open mike in new hampshire. remember to join wolf blitzer, anderson cooper tonight for the new hampshire primary right here at 7:00 p.m. tonight. first we head to washington where the supreme court is weighing whether the government should still police the air waves for dirty words and provocative images. it goes back to 1978 which allows the senate regulation commission to monitor what you see and hear on regular tv. broadcasters have been given big fines for breaking the rules, especially during hours when kids are likely to be watching. they've forced them with a heavy hand and says it violates their constitutional rights. gabby giffords' january

shooting has triggered this, a comic book heroine. it will be released later this month. firefighters resuscitate a dog after a mobile home fire. take a look at that little guy there. rescuers used a mask specifically designed for dogs to help save this little one, but firefighters were not able to save two other dogs they found in the house. the owners of the dogs were not hurt. now to oshkosh, wisconsin. sad news for the green bay packers. the son of packers offensive coordinator joe philbin was found dead in the fox river. 21-year-old michael philbin visited friends over the weekend and later was reported missing. no cause of death was determined. an autopsy is planned for today. the packers' gm says the team's thoughts and prayers are with the philbin family. and to indianapolis where

you'll need deep pockets to pay for superbowl parking. they're reporting a space that normally goes for $10 a night right now will cost 200 on superbowl weekend, and it will cost 900 a day to park an railroadrv nearby. you might want to bring a bicycle. but it's not scaring drivers. spaces around the city are apparently selling pretty fast. south carolina voters are listening in and we're listening to them. after all, they're next up. time now for another political junkie question. can you name a democrat who also finished in the top four in the new hampshire republican primary? tweet the answer to me at randikayecnn. if you get it right, i'll give you a shout-out right after the break. ♪

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before the break, i asked if you could name a democrat who also finished in the top four in the new hampshire republican primary. there were actually two, john f. kennedy in 1960 and lyndon johnson in 1968. they each got fourth place those years as write-in candidate. in 1968, he actually tied his

father for fourth place. no one got this correct. you'll have to blame my producer, doug. he's making them too hard. we're watching new hampshire closely tonight but also will be keeping a close eye on the next state, south carolina. tom is in charleston, south carolina right now, and as always, you have a little something special going on tonight, don't you? >> we do, randi, because this is really the place to watch tonight, the reaction here. we are here at the college of charleston, and tonight these chairs will be filled with about 40 local voters here, most of them still undecided. there will be republicans, people leaning that way who want to vote for republican candidates, but they really haven't decided yet. they're all going to be having these devices in their hands. as the candidates come out and speak tonight about the results in new hampshire, they'll turn these little dials back and forth, which will make these numbers go up and down, and all of that is going to be feeding into this crack team over here

from southern methodist university from the communications department there. they're taking all this information, dial testing it and giving us a steady feedout during the time of these candidates. do they like what they hear, do they not like what they hear? we'll let you see the thought process of these voters here, what they're reacting to, why they're reacting to it, randi, and what that probably means for the candidates when they get here. >> it's fun to watch. i know you've done it before and it's fun to see the realtime response to what they're saying, certainly. but tom, as long as you're there in south carolina, what makes south carolina different? i mean, it's a different contest for the republicans. >> there are several things that are different. you talk about iowa, new hampshire and here. this is the most popular state so far. they're pushing 5 million people right now. it is a much more religious

state than the other two states. not much more than iowa, certainly more than new hampshire. in new hampshire, there was a setting some time back where 4 to 10 people said religion was very important in their lives. here you'll find that number closer to 7, pushing up toward 8 and 10 saying it's one of the most religious states in the country. so that means you will hear the candidates talking a lot more about values, what kind of person they might be. rick perry's followers are leaning more toward that side. compared to the other two states, in both iowa and new hampshire, the unemployment rate is well below the national average, in the 5%-ish range. here they're pushing 10%. they're above the average. what's going to trump here? will you see people looking at the economic side saying, look, we just have to go that way no matter how we feel about the overall values picture on

people, or will that religious vote have a big impact? another thing to bear in mind, this state has about a third of the population african-american, which many of them will vote democratic, but it may affect some of the overall sense of how they look at candidates and what it will mean to their communities. >> all right, tom foreman, we'll be watching. i'll hand it over now to brooke baldwin. hey, brooke. >> hi, randi. i want to welcome all our viewers. i'm brooke baldwin. we want to talk new hampshire. specifically, this is the very first primary in this fight for ultimately the gop nomination. we are hours away from getting those results as those polling places begin to close a little later tonight. the battle now really, we know that romney is likely going to grab the number one spot tonight. the battle will be who will get number two and number three. we will be watching. mitt romney maintains a firm lead, talking next in south

carolina and the polls there. santorum, though, is gaining ground, battling second place with former speaker of the house, newt gingrich. still, though, in florida, the next primary, mitt romney tops the list at 36% according to a poll we have here. still plenty of time. florida's primary is january 31st. heads up, if you like o.j., drank a little this morning, the fda says it's testing imported o.j. for a fungicide used . it is a fungicide used in brazil. a drum major who died in that alleged hazing incident all gone wrong, and champion's

friends tell his attorney that champion may have been gay. the victim's parents say, no, that is not the case. >> the underground, undercurrent rumor mill that the reason robert champion was hayszed mor severely was that he was gay. that is not true. it was a hate crime. >> some are getting kicked out of the coast guard for allegedly usi using fake pot. it allegedly mimics marijuana, called spice. alaska, they know a thing or two about snow, but hello, take a look at this. nearly buried under 18 feet of

snow. this is a result of weeks and weeks of record snowfall there. national guard troops are helping the town dig out. down south, meantime, in texas, it is torrential rain. we talked about the flash flooding with chad yesterday. it is still causing huge problems there. most of houston under water yesterday, thousands of people without power. you watching the games? alabama getting some sweet, sweet revenge and then some. crimson tide coach rick saban received the mvp trophy today for 21-0. this time around, the bama defense dominated the tigers. >> i always know when you throw the ball out, they're going to go get it. because they are a hateful bunch and they are competitive as you can ever imagine. >> the shutout of the tigers was the first in the history of the bcs title games. the u.s. department of

agriculture planning to cut 259 of its facilities all around the country. this move is part of a plan to save $150 million a year. the usda says the closures will affect 46 states in usda headquarters in washington. seven for offices will also be closed. it's still not clear how many people could lose their jobs, but the usda says some offices are no longer staffed or only have one person working there. what is called new zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster, it's just gotten worse. bad weather causes the ship to sink further, containing 100,000 tons of hazardous material. officials say the material is wrapped in plastic, so they say there is no risk of harm. it ran aground in october. and if you like the fun gadgets here. marking the opening of the ces,

that's a consumer electronics show in san francisco. the ceo of nokia is declaring a mobile war against apple and t-mobile. they're hoping it will make a difference in android devices, at&t and are working with nokia to promote the device, and our nerdy text guru is going to talk to me about some of these gadgets when we bring her on the show tomorrow. a lot to cover here in the newsroom. watch this. tonight all eyes on new hampshire, but it's not first place that everyone will be talking about, it's the silver and the bronze which could determine who stays in and who drops out. i'm brooke baldwin, special coverage of round 1 of the gop primaries starts right now. the business experience mitt romney promotes is now the heart

of his opponent attack. >> is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people? >> the gop race takes a surprising turn as republican candidates raise questions about capitalism, cash and the rich. >> i'm sure he was worried because he's run out of pink slips. >> plus, is the number of independents rise in the u.s.? john huntsman hopes his strategy wins them over. >> i represent a new generation. >> the question is, is he too late? also, it's a disturbing trend. men accused of plotting terror in america were just kids during 9/11. what is behind their hate? and a band member dies during what investigators are calling a brutal hazing ritual. now robert champion's parents are making an amazing revelation about their son's personal life.

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john huntsman makes no bones about being the underdog when it comes to the republican nomination, but he thinks he has a way to get the voters on his side. >> when we want to beat barack obama at the end of the day, we have to convince people who voted for him last time to cross over and vote for me. that means you have to have the math that works on your side, which means you have to break out of the one-party box. you have to win independence. so establishing that model here in new hampshire, remembering full well that when you go into south carolina, you have an open

primary there as well. you've got to be able to win over independents as well. >> mitt romney, though, he is the heavy favorite, but a latest barrage of attacks, newt gingrich leading those attacks, could damage his win in the primary. wolf blitzer back with us today. obviously, it's an exciting day. you feel the buzz around here as we're going to be covering all this tonight, but when you -- first of all, when do the polls close? when will we know the results, and what, really, will you look for? >> some of them close very early. the 6:00 eastern hour, the 7:00 eastern hour, most of them close by then. a few close by 8:00 p.m. eastern. we're not going to project a winner, assuming we have all the data, until all the polls in the state are closed. so the earliest we would be able to project a winner would be 8:00 p.m. eastern. most of them close around 7:00,

7:30, around that time. >> what would be you looking for? >> we know mitt romney will win in new hampshire. will he win by 15 points, 10 points, 5 points? that will be significant. we'll also be watching very closely to see who comes in second. if ron paul does well, it potentially could hurt john huntsman. this is a do or die for john huntsman. in new hampshire, he's invested all his effort in new hampshire. he has to do well, and if he does well, he can move on. he's got backers to be able to go to south carolina and florida. >> we'll come back to new hampshire in a minute, but i want to talk about florida. a quick refresher here, romney is personally liked. he is favored in new hampshire, south carolina is next and then you have the florida primary ten days later. here's the news. this is the poll out today, the first poll of likely primary voters in florida. take a look at the numbers. mitt romney there at the

tip-top, 36%. gingrich at 24, santorum 16, ron paul and perry and huntsman. what do those numbers say to you? >> assuming rick perry does not do well in south carolina -- >> he's already there. >> he's going to get maybe 1 or 2%, if that. he didn't do well in iowa. he reassessed what he was going to do after iowa and decided to play again in south carolina. we'll see how he does in south carolina. if he leaves and if huntsman leaves, then the field is narrowed from 6 to 4. i think gingrich, santorum, ron -- ron paul says he's not going to compete in florida. he wants to move on to some of the other states because he doesn't have the resources in florida. that may be a mistake from his perspective. i'll be talking to him about it 4:00 p.m. eastern. put it this way. if mitt romney has won in iowa, barely, he'll win decisively in new hampshire. if he wins in south carolina and

goes on to win in florida, you know what? >> could be a done deal. we talked about this yesterday, these superpacks, $5 million are going to start seeing these ads pop up tomorrow, right? we've seen this narrative that we're not used to in the republican party, this class warfare that began with newt gingrich and now we're seeing a couple other candidates jump on. if this really affects mitt romney's winning, how might that play out? will they continue that narrative into the next two primaries, do you think? >> i think it's going to get brutal, even uglyer. >> even worse. >> newt gingrich, his popularity was destroyed in iowa because of all these anti-newt gingrich attack ads pro romney, pro ron paul forces put out. >> they worked? >> they worked, effectively. here's the difference in south carolina. newt gingrich is going to attack mitt romney, try to do to him in

south carolina what they did to newt gingrich in iowa. but the difference is mitt romney is not going to just take it. he's going to fight back. he's got millions and millions of dollars. he can respond. he'll take a hit and he'll come out swinging, so this is going to get a bit more fierce in south carolina. if it's not over in south carolina, in florida it's going to be brutal. >> finally, i want to ask you about something you've talked about so often before the primaries got going, how the rules have changed. a winner take all, it's the delegates -- >> some states are winner take all, some are proportional. going to the convention in tamp pa, in summer, the republican convention in proportion, not to london, it could drag on.

one candidate who emerges as the main challanger to mitt romney, this thing could go on and on and on. i was waiting for the results from puerto rico. in june, who would have thought? it didn't hurt, by the way. that long prolonged time, it didn't hurt barack obama going into the november election, because you know what happened? >> we'll talk next hour. all day long we've heard from the republican presidential candidates. we now want to go of your views. we don't want to hear from you on the rate. take pictures, and we want to see democracy action from people like you making it happen. and wolf mentioned it's going to get uglyer.

more mud slinging from the presidential candidates. newt gingrich says romney's business is more about cutting jobs. . >> poor little rich people manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money. >> i thought it was going to come from the president and the democrats on the left, but instead it's coming from speaker gingrich and apparently others. >> here to talk to us about her father's campaign is one of newt gingrich's daughter, jackie. we also have other news. jackie, stand by. we have a major earthquake in sumatra, indonesia, rated a 7.3. we'll be right back.

. we have breaking news as we mention aid moment ago. major earthquake in indonesia. chad making calls, looking at maps. chad, how significant is this? >> this is a 7.3. this is a major earthquake anywhere in the world, don't get me wrong. this is the same area that had the 9.1 earthquake with the tsunami back in 2004. so a 7.3 mainly along the same fault line that we had certainly will put a lot of shaking on the land here but not as much as a local tsunami threat. the shattering and the glass breaking in these areas for sure at 7.3. only about 150 kilometers away from that other earthquake at 9.1.

7.3 under the water, small tsunami, but at this point not much to worry about, clearly, as we had back in 2004. >> keep your eye on it. as soon as we have pictures we'll bring them in. chad, thank you. we talked a lot about newt gingrich hammering away at mitt romney, but a lot of his attacks were aimed at ron paul supporters. >> they're young and enthusiastic at some point and people will figure out this is actually a legalized drug group, and once that becomes clear enough, i think you'll see ron paul's support shrink. paul has two groups. don't worry about -- and legalize drugs. he has one policy and he thinks he'd like to be at that level. >> keeping with our primary coverage here on cnn live in new hampshire. let's go to jackie cushman.

she is the daughter of the former speaker of the house, newt gingrich. jackie, thanks for seeing me and thank you for coming on. i know your dad vowed to run a positive campaign, mr. idea, the campaign of ideas, but then mitt romney kind of crushed him in iowa. wolf blitzer and i were just talking about the onslaught of all those negative ads. but now your dad, jackie, is fighting back. when it comes to romney, is your dad angry or is this now personal? >> oh, no, it's not at all personal. there is a lot of money spent in iowa. it was roughly $10 million in negative advertising, and roughly half of that was against my father. if you equate that across the nation on a per vote basis, it's $5 million nationally. what dad was saying was, look, we need to provide clarity, we need to make sure people understand the backgrounds and experience of people. and he's been very clear about

this, he said anyone that supports him should make sure they have factual information, but we do need to draw a contrast for the voters. >> so you're saying not personal, but angry, yes? >> no, he's not angry. he is not angry. he is not angry. >> okay. okay. we're about to see a bunch of ads, i know, starting tomorrow in south carolina. i'll take your word for it. you know your father better than i do. your dad, though, has been openly criticizing romney for his career with venture capitalists which required sometimes closing businesses. let's listen. >> is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money? >> jackie, is that your dad or is that someone more like a michael moore? >> i think clearly you could tell my dad's voice, it's clearly my father. partly why this contrast is so

important is governor romney talks about coming from a different background. he has a background in business and talks about that a lot. so if that's the basis for his platform as presidency as opposed to his record as governor, then it's important that the voters understand what that background included. my dad, as speaker, balanced the budget, reformed welfare, cut taxes and cut spending, so he's done it before and can do it again. the question is, what does this stand for? >> it's something you hear from democrats talking about a class warfare, and here is your father sort of beginning these sorts of attacks. >> i think you have an incredibly great point. the point is in the end of this process, the republicans need to have a nominee that can stand against president obama and provide a very clear contrast. and to your point, they are going to take this narrative and run for it.

donna brazil said this past weekend they would love to have romney as a candidate, and i think in the end we have to ask ourselves who do we want in contrast to obama? do we want a nominee that speaker gingrich balanced a budget when president obama can't balance a budget. >> your dad is more of this ideas guy, and i guess my question was, what was he like around the house growing up? did he own a tool box? did your dad like to fix things. >> that's a great question. every year we had to fix the christmas tree. i don't know about you, but all our christmas trees were very, very wig. so we had to wiring our wall to make sure it was non h-knock on

over on occasion. >> some of the people, i know, who wrkd with your dad, they argue that it may be a shortcoming. was he a sddisciplinarian at ho? >> in terms of whether he disciplined, when he actually had that contract with america, was voted in as speaker, and then actually in the first 100 days voted on everything in that package, that requires enormous discipline. a lot of people said, hey, slow down. we're in power. we can wait. but he didn't. he actually fulfilled his promise to the american people. he is incredibly disciplined. >> joining us from new hampshire, jackie cushman. jackie, thank you very much. the votes are kound and

cast. we'll all be live tonight starting at 8:00 eastern. the band member allegedly killed during a hazing. his parents revealed a side of their son that might have contributed to his being bullied to death. that story, two minutes away.

when bp made a commitment to the gulf, we knew it 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 so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of environmental samples from across the gulf have been analyzed by independent labs under the direction of the us coast guard. i'm glad to report all beaches and waters are open for everyone to enjoy. and the economy is showing progress with many areas on the gulf coast having their best tourism seasons in years. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp.

we're committed to the gulf for everyone who loves it, and everyone who calls it home. who can forget the florida a&m band member who died in that alleged hazing incident. his friends have told family and his attorney that he was gay and he may have been beaten because

of that fact. robert champion died back in november after being teased on a bus by fellow band members. his parents spoke at a hotel where robert champion died. they said he was, quote, hazed to death, and even if he was gay, it didn't justify it. >> they're at the very hotel where their son was killed a little over two months ago in a hazing incident. they say it was hard to be here, but they say it was important to make a statement and let people know about the next step in this case. their attorney, rick chestnut, says he's filing a lawsuit against the bus company based here in florida. he learned from his own investigation that the bus was on, the air conditioner was running. he believed someone should have been on that bus or someone should have known what was happening while the bus was on. also during the course of the investigation, he said some of robert champion's friends told

him that champion was gay and he believes that could have been one of many factors that contributed to robert champion being beaten so severely. pam champion says her son was never defined by his sexuality, but listen here. they say this is nothing they ever considered. >> actually, my husband thought it might be true, but i never considered that. i never considered that at all. it never crossed my mind. >> so this is a surprise. >> yes, it was. my son was slated to be the head drum major for school. and he made drum major last year. that was his first year being the drum major. and to be slated to be the head drum major, that could have caused jealousy. >> champion says they're determined to find answers, find out why this happened to their son. they're not satisfied with the

course of the investigation with the orange county sheriff's office. they tell me they haven't heard anything for several months now since their son was killed. they're also not satisfied with how samu was handling this case. at this point they plan to move forward with their investigation. brooke? >> thank you. let's show you democracy in action. in new hampshire, casting their votes in the republican presidential primary. coming up next, we're going to speak with the head of the republican party in that state. we want to know whether these negative campaign ads we've been talking about are really affecting the race for the white house. stay right here.

back now live to coverage of the new hampshire primary. john mcdonnell, chairman of the republican party. you have your overcoat on so that tells me it's a little cold. i know you're tough, but hopefully the weather is nice and that brings good things for voter turnout. what are you seeing in the headlines tomorrow? >> very good turnout. i went to my home town in london earlier. the heaviest time of turnout is

5:00 and after. our polls in londonderry close at 18:00. they're reporting 250,000. that's actually more than we have registered republicans. that will mean a lot of republicans as well as undeclareds will be participating in the new hampshire primary. >> should mitt romney win as we keep anticipating tonight? should we prorate his victory down? he's kind of a favorite, isn't he? >> he definitely has a home court advantage. i'm not making any predictions about tonight. all of our candidates have done a great job and have the best of new hampshire political talent involved in their campaigns. having said that, we're also very loyal in our region to our candidates, so whether it's joe lieberman or ed musky years ago

or paul songas. in this case, mitt romney, so it certainly favors him that he's from the region. >> so he's got the home court advantage, but then you have all these attack ads. are you surprised he has attacks on mitt romney. i'm sure you're speaking with him today. >> i am. negative campaigning does have an impact. governor romney has a great organization, and i'm sure they're prepared to address these in various ways. they've run an outstanding campaign, and if, in fact, he does win today, it's going to be a tribute to that organization. as a party leader, i don't like to see negative campaigning but i understand the candidates have a lot invested, and in the final days of the campaign, it just happened. the important thing is we will be united later on. >> what are the voters telling you with regard to the negative campaigning? how is it affecting them in their vote?

well, generally speaking, voters don't like to hear that. i've heard it today and i've heard it throughout many campaigns. they don't like to hear what's wrong with the other candidate, they want to hear that the individual who is sponsoring that add, who they support and what they believe in. >> newt gingrich, you know, he's out there and challenging some of the fundamentals of capitalism. when we see the results coming in tonight, will we see that the voters in their state bought what gingrich is saying? >> republicans -- i'm not sure i fully understand speaker gingrich's point. republicans throughout this nation believe in capitalism and believe in free enterprise. again, they're going to be campaigning. i know that the speak wants to do well, and i know -- i don't

think criticizing another candidate about capitalism and pursuing capitalism is definitely the way to go. >> we'll see if other candidates materialize in the results, or perhaps not. wayne mcdonald, thank you very much. >> whether to move up the hands of the doomsday clock. find out how close we are to midnight. stay here. ♪

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i wasn't aware one of these existed until i read this the other day, but there is a clock that apparently predicts when the world will end, and it just got one minute closer to midnight. i laugh, should i be? is this serious stuff? >> only in the context of when the world is going to end. because we are at 11:55 p.m. on the way to midnight being the end of the world. now, that doesn't mean it's happy hour -- >> you seem very calm. >> we're not five minutes away.

we had been three minutes away in the past in 1953, we had been 17 minutes away in the past from being dead and that's the way the soviet union felt. the threshold of pain here between where we are now and five minutes to midnight, and the very best time we've seen on this clock being 17 minutes before midnight is it kikind of stretch. when the soviet union fell, to be honest, it could have been 3:00 in the afternoon. let me back up just a few minutes and tell me what's coming, why it's going and why we got a little closer to death today. 1947 it starts. somewhere around '49, the soviet union explodes an atom bomb, and then we explode a hydrogen bomb. at that point we are only two minutes away from dying on this clock. then we get better. in 1953, we have a nuclear test ban, we're doing okay. in the '60s, it escalated in

'68. then all of a sudden president reagan was elected. everybody remembers him as a statesman, and he pulled down the wall. but in 1981 he said the only way to win the cold war, if you we understand it, was to win it. so all of a sudden back in 1982, this thing was five minutes away. the bombs we were building, we were going to destroy the soviet union. >> i don't mean to interrupt your flow, but this whole thing is predicated on historic event. >> historic event. >> so who is behind the clock? >> they made it in 1947. basically anatomic scientist said now that we have the atom bomb -- and it's all relative. if you think about 17 minutes and 4 minutes, we are much closer to five minutes now. we are much closer than we were back in 1981 when the soviet union fell and a lot of bombs were going away and they were

disarming them. what happened this year, we got a little closer to midnight because climate change was added. that could all kill us even before atom bombs do. we have nuclear weapons, especially back in the '80s and '90s. we have pakistan and india with weapons. as we see here, the atomic energy commission is saying, hey, nobody is even talking about getting ready of any of their weapons. we're not getting farther away from death, we are getting closer to it, but it's not really five minutes. >> on a much more serious note, i do want to ask about indonesia. forget the doomsday clock, it's what most of you are interested in. what have you learned about the tsunami? s tsunami is for air no closer than 600 feet.

it still is a significant quake, significant mud. it will not spread across the u.s. or hawaii with a 7.3. that's only about 100 miles from where that big earthquake happened. it was 7.3 today, it was 9.1. i want to you take a look at this. this is the quote of the day as we had dubbed. this is a presidential quote. >> quote, there wasis a texan w was the vice president under roosevelt. his name was cactus jack garner and he said being the vice president wasn't worth a bucket of warm spit. e clothes are too big now, so i'm donating them. not going back there again. good for you! how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain.

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all right, you thought about this, the quote of the day. quote, there is a texan who was the vice president under roosevelt. his name was cactus jack garner and he said being the vice president wasn't worth a bucket of warm spit. you thought about it? the answer is said by governor rick perry. roll it. >> there is a texan who was vice president under roosevelt. his name was cactus jack garner. and he said that being the vice president wasn't worth a bucket of warm spit.

and, you know, being the governor of the state of texas is an incredible job and competing with these other governors across the country, so, you know, i'm interested in being the president of the united states. >> governor rick perry. and as new hampshire voters go to the polls today, there seems to be a question of who will come in first, but for the second and third place spots, that is a tight race. i was just talking to the chair in that state. he said the turnout pretty good. what are you seeing? >> it's going to be a record turnout, brooke, and it makes sense because remember four years ago they had about 230,000, but remember that

barack obama versus hillary clinton, so a lot of independents went that way. they think they'll break a record from four years ago since there are really no other democrats at this time. barack obama versus barack obama, i guess. let's go back a couple hours . 12:00 midnight. i don't know what you were doing -- >> i was at work, my friend. >> you were still at work? >> i was. >> well, in dixville notch, it was dead even, two hunts for -- two votes for huntsman, two votes for ron paul. i guess that doesn't tell you a heck of a lot. it's labor, it's fun, it's politics. >> when it comes to the latest polls in new hampshire, there are two different versions. we know who number one is, but who is number two and number

three? >> you're right, not a lot of drama here for number one. first one, this is suffolk university. they had been doing this every day at the tracking poll. there he is on top, you're absolutely right, mitt romney. of course, home field advantage. he was the governor of neighboring massachusetts. 37% for him. look at that battle for second place there. 18% for ron paul, 16% for john huntsman. rick santorum at 11%, newt gingrich at 9%. and rick perry not even campaigning here at 1%. this is from the american research group that came out last night like the other poll conducted sunday, and romney again exactly at 31%. huntsman at 18, 17 and so on. you're right, all the drama will be who comes in second. will huntsman come out of nowhere? he was in single digits and just last week his numbers are starting to climb.

regardless, everybody wants a second, third or fourth place finish to move on to south carolina. >> i'm sure you'll be ready to pack your bags and head for a warmer climate. a lot of people talk about south carolina where things get even uglier. >> south carolina has a tradition of some ugly politics. we've seen that historically over the cycles. it could get pretty ugly of the we've already seen newt gingrich's superpack. they say they're going to go up with these ads. they're targeting mitt romney with bain. it was semi-ugly in iowa and here in new hampshire, brooke. >> thank you so much. we have just heard from representative ron paul and he's actually -- listen to this. he is defending senator romney about that fight. >> i think they're way overboard

on saying he wants to fire people and doesn't care. in defense of romney, i think they're wrong. i think they're totally una ware of the market because you stay in companies, you stay in jobs, you reorganize companies that are going to go bankrupt, and they don't understand. they're either just d demographing. >> he's saying there has been a misunderstanding of what's important, actually coming to the defense of mitt romney. coming up next, we're going to tell you about how many second about this guy. plus, as i understand this multi-million-dollar home. well, whatever you thought was

the reason. also, a dog is found swimming in the gulf of mexico. come to find out his owner hit by a drunk driver while she was walking this dog. we're going to tell you -- an amazing story about how the dog was rescued by a kayaker. before you begin an aspirin regimen. talk to your doctor, and take care of what you have to take care of.

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trending today, a huge throw to tebow through his game, winning touchdown.

this is on sunday night. the world erupted. we had 524 tweets per second. twitter says that is a new sports record for the site. just to put this in perspective, the tebow pass easily seizuurpa the death of steve jobs. tebow bible verse matches his winning pass for the game. you know about that $12.3 million mansion we told you about last week that was owned and also demolished by tiger woods' ex-wife? here's why. hurricanes and termites. this 73,000-square-foot home used to fit nicely here on palm beach. that is, until last week when a

demo crew took it down. elin nordegren had it demolished because it wasn't up to code to deal with hurricanes, and termites in fested it as well. this next story is a tearjerker. a kayaker just fishing in the gulf of mexico find a terrified dog swim foming for its life, a you'll never believe how it got into the water in the first. jeanne moos with the story. >> you're fishing for mackerel off the key, and you find a dog? he lifted him onto his kayak. >> i usually keep a camera running just in case i catch the big win. >> you did catch the big one. his name is barney. >> and he's such a sweet dog.

>> but this story has no sweet, happy ending. >> i immediately saw that he was in distress. he was shaking a lot. >> his legs were cut up. one paw was especially bad. hungarian bichas are excellent swimmers, but this one was in danger of dying. where did he come from? >> my first thought was that he had slipped off the back of a boat while the owner wasn't paying attention. >> he approached the closest boat -- >> you didn't lose a dog, did you? >> but forney's trip started as a walk. 53-year-old donna chen, wife and mother of three, was jogging with barney on saturday afternoon when police say this man lost control of his car as he rounded this bend. police say he was driving drunk and speeding away from