good evening, everyone. i'm john king reporting live tonight from charleston, south carolina. tonight there's a late newt gingrich surge here. because of it, a sudden dramatic shift in mitt romney's south carolina strategy. plus in the maritime world, a captain abandoning ship is the ultimate sin. how did the costa concordia passenger captain leave his passengers and avoid his ultimate responsibility. blackout day on the internet. why fire why piracy policies is making it harder for you to surf the weapon. -- the web. we begin in south carolina this evening with a fast-change republican presidential race. fast as in overnight. our new cnn time orc poll tonight shows mitt romney leading here by 10 points. 33% for the former massachusetts governor to 23% for the former

house speaker newt gingrich. but, and this is important, the final 24 hours of our polling suggest a gingrich surge. my sources in several republican campaigns tell me tonight their numbers, too, are detecting a significant shift, a shift that benefits gingrich heading into the final hours here. want proof? a senior romney campaign aide described this to me as a troblsome development, and the response from team romney was immediate. a touch new tv ad labelling gingrich an unreliable leader. >> that would blind side us and undermine our conservative agenda. chaotic decisions. erratic behavior. >> want more proof? former pennsylvania senator rick santorum also sees a gingrich surge, and he broadened his attacks. >> when the winds are blowing, what we've seen is romney and gingrich is that they put their sails up and go.

i tack against the wind. i stand up for the values that i know are true. >> our chief political analyst gloria borgers here with me on the south carolina campaign. by all indications a single digit vote. the final few days as we go. in if you look closely as our numbers knowing the key constituencies here, a couple of important things. our poll shows romney ahead by ten points, but it shows a gingrich surge at the end. it says, this among born again christians, evangelical voters here in south carolina, a critical constituency. romney 26%, gingrich 23%, santorum 20%, ron paul at 12,rick perry at 9. gloria, if there's gingrich momentum into the final days, if he can pass romney among evangelicals that could be a game changer. >> it's interesting. because romney has done relatively well with evangelicals in iowa.

he was second to rick santorum. you could think rick santorum would be doing the best with evangelicals given the fact that evangelical pastors coalesced around him over the weekend. i think this is gut check time, though, john, where the question is, first of all, evangelical voters not single issue voters. vote on the economy and everything else that everybody votes on. but secondly, they want to beat barack obama. so here is where the question is. who is best able to take it to barack obama? they saw newt gingrich do very well in that last debate. mitt romney has had a very rough week. questions about his taxes, questions about bain capital. and they're saying, you know what? maybe, maybe newt gingrich is the person we want debating barack obama. >> or maybe part of the calculation could be is it newt gingrich or could there calculation just be not so fast. let's stretch this out a little bit and see if governor romney can prove it down the road. >> isn't that what sarah palin advised? >> that is what she advised.

she's a tea party favorite. they made a big mark in this state last year. if you look at our poll among tea party voters, gingrich 31%, romney 26%, santorum 20%, paul 13%, perry 5. a split but gingrich in the lead there. will this be the first time we see the tea party flex its muscle? >> that could be what we're seeing in this poll. what's interesting to me about mitt romney and the tea party, the tea party doesn't really love mitt romney. not their favorite candidate. but they've kind of left him alone. you spoke with jim demint the other day. senator from here. very important to the tea party. he's decided not to endorse. in not endorsing, he's actually helped mitt romney to a degree. but in not endorsing, perhaps what we're seeing in this poll is that it doesn't hurt. >> being careful. doesn't want his fingerprints. >> be careful. so i think it can go both ways. i think again that you're seeing a bunch of voters with gut check

time. okay. what do i want south carolina to mean? as the race continues. >> critical final 48, 72 hours here in south carolina. gloria borger will be with us the entire way. the fascinating race. the stakes here cannot be understated. in modern times every winner of the republican presidential primary in south carolina has gone on to be the republican nominee. if governor romney is to be stopped, it must begin here. he knows this, and he also knows his polling shows gingrich closing. so on the stuff today, governor romney mocked speaker gingrich for suggesting he deserves credit for jobs created in the ragan and the clinton administrations. >> it's the private sector that creates jobs. [ cheers and applause ] >> congressman taking responsibility or taking credit for help crieg ate jobs is like al gore taking credit for the internet. >> cnn's jim acosta is with the romney campaign tonight.

jim it sounds like governor romney beginning to feel the heat, maybe hearing some footsteps, right? >> reporter: that's right. comparing your rival to al gore, those are fighting words down in south carolina, john. you know, when mitt romney is changing the script on his stump speech is happening. normally he goes after president obama every time but he went after newt gingrich in spartanburg. he talked about newt gingrich taking credit for jobs he created when he was in the congress. and then just at this e event a few hours ago at winthrop university he went on newt gingrich's attacks on bain capital, saying he's proud of the jobs he created in the private sector. look at what his top surrogates are doing away from the campaign trail. two held a conference call earlier today. those are two of romney's top surrogates. on that conference call warning republicans and reporters who were on that call that when newt gingrich is the face of the party, the republican party loses. it was a reference back to the

mid 1990s when newt gingrich was the speaker of the house and how many republicans feel because of those government shutdowns, bill clinton was able to coast to a re-election victory in 1996. not to be outdone, the pro gingrich forces are doing their own everything that they can to stop mitt romney. the pro gingrich superback winning our future came out with an ad that shows an animated mitt romney going against an animated barack obama. an animated debate if you will that mitt romney does not win, john. >> and jim, if you're anybody but romney and you're looking for any fresh evidence perhaps to attack the frontrunner, they just got a pretty significant 200-page gift, did they not? >> reporter: that's right, john. it dropped in their laps last night. the blog buzz feed tweeted out a 200-page opposition research book that the mccain campaign actually compiled back in 2008. we as cnn have been able to confirm the authenticity of this opposition research book. an john, i have just the table

of contents right here. basically we read through the book. but the table of contents tells you everything that you want to know. it goes after mitt romney's positions on abortion, the way he raised revenues when he was governor of massachusetts, and then one part that the romney campaign must not like very much, eight pages devoted to governor romney's flip-flops over the course of his political career. that is not something that they want out just a few days before the south carolina primary, john. >> we'll see if any of the other candidates borrow from that play book shall we say in the big debate tomorrow night. jim acosta, thank you. a reminder there be sure to watch tomorrow night southern republican presidential debate. it will be the last debate before saturday's south carolina presidential primary. you'll see that debate right here only on cnn 8:00 p.m. eastern. now overseas to this week's other dramatic story to italy where searchers today gave up any hope of finding anybody alive in the rescue of that cruise ship. the ship began to move in the

frigid waters shifting location by about a yard. divers still hope to check submerged parts of the wreckage. dan rivers joins us by phone from italy tonight. dan the relatives of the missing gathered on the beach. some hopes of survivors being found. no such luck. what is the mood to those you've spoken of as the shift from a rescue effort to a recovery effort? >> reporter: john, i think sadly the relatives who are left onshore here waiting for answers are lyle having to face up to the possibility that things are look pretty grim. we met one guy, kevin robello, whose brother russell was a waiter onboard the ship. he hasn't been seen since he was seen at the stern of the ship helping passengers into life rafts. kevin was here. he talked to us, saying that he was praying every day. he was still hoping. he hadn't given up. he described his brother as a

hero, as a strong man, but sadly he's not been seen or heard of since. and as you say, five days on, it's freezing cold here, it's difficult to see how anyone could survive that long inside the ship. the only hope, i think, is that in the confusion of all those 4,000 people disembarking some people may have gone on their way without notifying the authorities. but sadly, at the moment moment they're still looking for 23 missing people. >> a sad turning point in this horrible, horrible trauma. as dan notes, 23 people still unaccounted for. in just a moment we'll hear from the texas governor rick perry. he promises to push mitt romney at tomorrow night's big debate. >> you can bet i'm going to press him. the people of south carolina need to know. and april's way too late for the people of south carolina. also, a new twist in the

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this is a down to the wire finish in south carolina. but at the back of the republican pack is a candidate who not too long ago was the big south carolina favorite. tonight as south carolina prepares to vote, rick perry, the texas governor, fifth in a five-man race. back in september, just after he launched his campaign, governor perry led the gop race here. i spoke with the governor this afternoon as he campaigned in greenville, south carolina. >> you've been in politics a long time, though, sir. when you're at 6%, governor romney is at the top at 33%. 48 hours until the people in south carolina vote. are you convinced you can win this state or get close enough to the winner to have the viability to carry on? >> well, we're convinced that that's our goal. so the idea that we're going to do anything else other than try to impact this election, that's why we got in it. we didn't get in it because it was our purpose in life to be the president of the united states. we did it because it was our purpose to serve this country. and that's what we've been called for. that's what we're going to

continue doing. >> as you know, some fellow conservatives look at those numbers, and they say that they believe the best course for you would be to step aside. i want you to listen to governor sarah palin, the vice-presidential nominee last time. >> if i had to vote in south carolina in order to keep this thing going i'd vote for newt and i would want this to continue, more debates, more vetting of candidates, because we know the mistake made in our country four years ago was having a candidate that was not vetted to the degree that he should have been. i want to see that taking place this time because america is on that precipice. it's that important. we need this process to continue. >> sarah palin says she'd vote for newt. speaker gingrich himself said he can't ask you to do this but he thinks it would be better if governor perry and santorum stepped aside. how do you feel with that? >> certainly i agree with sara in the sense we need to vet these candidates.

that's one of the reasons why i asked mitt to release his income tax. now we've found out that he's paying a lesser rate than the guy that's out there working hourly wages. and that's the kind of issue that is we have to vet. it's the reason that we talked about bain capital. and there's not a stronger capitalist on that stage than myself. but these issues of everyone's record truly needs to be vetted and vetted well. we can't fire our nominee in september or october. we need to have this vetting process now. so sara's absolutely correct that more debates and more opportunities to discuss the issues for the american people to get their arms around. so from that perspective she's spot on. >> you just mentioned governor romney and taxes. he says he will release those tax returns, but probably until until april. he says he paid about 15% as you just noted. is that good enough? or will you press him for more transparency now?

>> well, you can bet i'm going to press him. the people of south carolina need to know. and april is way too late for the people of south carolina. i've laid my taxes out since back in the 80s. everyone knows how i made my money. and it's an open record. and we need -- if mitt romney intends to be our nominee, he needs to open up his tax records today, no later than tomorrow by debate time. and show people how -- you know, i think he needs to go back all the way to that period of time, certainly when he was the governor of massachusetts. and even farther back. if you're asking people to trust you to be the president of the united states, most powerful country in the world, don't you think we're smart enough and trustworthy enough for us to know how you made your money and where you've spent your money, where you've made your charitable contributions, for

instance? >> and governor, as you hear newt gingrich make the case in this state that he is the strongest conservative alternative to mitt romney, the strongest conservative heir to ronald reagan, how would you counter that, sir? >> well, certainly there are a lot of conservatives in this state. and i think they're smart enough to figure out who the real conservative is, and if one's more so than the other. but i trust the people of south carolina to make the right decision. >> governor perry we'll see you on the debate stage tomorrow night. appreciate your time today. >> thanks you, john. always good to talk to you. so long. coming up, the truth about why the next 48 hours are make or break for the mitt romney campaign. plus the largest cut emerald anyone's ever seen. if you've got the money, it could be yours. you know when i grow up,

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welcome back. here's kate bolduan with the latest news you need to know right now. >> reporter: other news to catch you up on. first on capitol hill, this afternoon the house rejected the president's recent request to raise the debt ceiling by $1.2 trillion, although the party line vote of 239-176 disapproving of the request is seen really as a split stall gesture since it's still likely the federal debt limit will be increased in the end. meanwhile, one presidential candidate did his day job today. texas senator ron paul was in

washington where he signed copies of the constitution for students on the house floor. paul spoke against raising the u.s. debt ceiling. the measure voted on by the house today heads next to the senate. thanks to some fourth graders at emily dickinson elementary school in bozeman, montana nasa's new orbiters now have names. ebb and flow. so cute. their suggestions beat entries from about 900 classrooms in 45 states. scientists hope the orbiters which got to the moon at the first of the year will give them a better understanding of its gravity field and interior. unfortunately more troubles for o.j. simpson. his half million dollar florida home is facing foreclosure. simpson who's in jail for kidnapping and robbing some memorabilia dealers, you'll remember, hasn't made a mortgage payment since 2010. he bought the home after he was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, then was found liable in a civil case. here's a rock you won't be able to get on your ring finger,

ladies. it's the world's largest-cut emerald. 25 pounds of emerald. it was mined in brazil. there's a line of people apparently, john, offering to pay $1 million or more for this. first off, doesn't that look more like kry p tonite than emerald? it's a little intimidating. >> if it can't be a ring how about a pendant? hunched over walking warned that i think. >> 25 pounds. it's about the weight of an average 2-year-old. i don't know what you're going to do with that thing. >> i think you put anytime a case somewhere. i think that's what you do with that. >> very safe. if you want to spend $1 million for it. >> just give me the million dollars. i don't need the emerald, john. >> i'll check the budget. we'll work on that one. kate, see you in a few minutes. winter in seattle usually means rain. but not this year. in a minute the city hunkers down for nearly a year's worth of snow. problem is it came in one day. plus the reason why today is blackout day on the internet.

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in a busy half hour ahead, seattle braces for nearly as much snow in a day as the city typically gets in a year. plus we'll dig into the controversy that shut down some of the internet's most popular web sites today. they claim a new law would censor the web. plus the truth about the next 48 hours and mitt romney's hopes to move into the white house.

we begin with the shipwreck that claimed at least 11 lives off the coast of italy. tonight the ship's captain is out of jail but under house arrest. judge today released his preliminary findings saying the captain admits he changed the ship's course, steering way too close to the shore, and that he was navigating by sight when the ship hit some submerged rocks. many people are denouncing the captain as cowardly and incompetent, which made us wonder what kind of people get to be cruise ship captains? and exactly what type of training do they have to go through? here's cnn's brian todd. >> reporter: john, this accident has left many people asking can they count on the captain of a given cruise ship to ensure their safe passage? how tough a job is it? we came here to one of the busiest cruise ports in the world to find out. bill wright remembers the first time he took the helm of a major cruise ship. he calls it a humbling experience. >> as soon as we had left the dock it was a departure from miami. the ship was the sovereign of

the seas. and immediately after having left the dock we had to go back to the dock to take on or to evacuate a medical emergency. >> reporter: wright is a captain with royal caribbean international. he's piloted at least half a dozen cruise ships in their line over 20 years. wright says the average captain has four to five years of college-level training, then has to build up to 10 years of hands on sea time as a junior officer before being given command of a cruise ship. he says most captains make between 125 and $225,000 a year in salary. they're pilots, he says, but his diplomats, policemen on on a floating resort. your average shift as a captain? >> sometimes we'll be up at 4:00 in the morning to arrive at a single port. training drills during the days and also in the evening time you obviously have departure from that port. we work what we call a one-one system, meaning that the time that you spend on board is equal

to the time that you have off. in our case, ten weeks on board and ten weeks off. >> reporter: wright says it's not stressful because you can build in rest time, especially on a so-called sea day when the ship's not coming into port or departing. others disagree about the stress. one maritime attorney says many cruise ship captains are overworked, underpaid, not given the support they need by the cruise lines who are into cutting corners, he says, for the bottom line. jack hecky representing made cruise lines for 17 years. he now represents passengers. he says this about captains. >> they work basically 24/7. they're on duty seven days a week, and they go out to sea for months at a time, which is something that captains all around the world are faced with. but these are stresses. and these are people who are in charge of 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 people. >> reporter: i ran that by greg purdy who monitors captains and crew members or royal caribbean. >> i think again you just have to consider the source.

and where i workday to day with the captains, this isn't the message that i hear. >> reporter: one captain says most of his come leagues can manage whatever stress they face because of the tradeoff. one of the best things about the job, he says, is that every day is different. john? >> brian todd reporting there. all across the internet today you can't find the information you're looking for. wick paid yeah, boing boing, other popular web sites down for the day. google similar working but splashed with protests over censorship of the internet. all about piracy bills now in congress. dan, nobody at least publicly is in favor of piracy. so what's the fight really about? >> reporter: if you talk to folks in hollywood it's about jobs and money. if you talk to people in silicon valley, it's about whether or not you would grant the government broad authority to say which web sites are good and which web sites are bad. they want to be the deciders when it comes to this battle.

they don't want the government to come in and say, we want you to block these web sites, john. >> and so help us through this, dan. a little piracy 101 how easy is it these days to download a movie if you're on the internet, especially a movie that's in the theater right now. >> reporter: first of all, i add that these two bills in front of congress are basically on life support right now. you had several key members of congress today back away from these bills. so i think you're pretty much going to have to go back to the drawing board. but let's look at the legislation as it is written right now and the way you deal with piracy. you asked whether or not piracy is a difficult problem. yes. i mean, if you were to look at every video store right now in the united states, it would be filled with all these people taking videos right off the shelves. that's essentially what you're dealing with right now on the internet. there are these web sites that are overseas that basically it's free rein. if you want to go on right now you can basically get any movie you want that's right in the

movie theater, and that's the difficult problem that we're facing today. >> dan simon outlining the obvious problem there. we'll see how congress works on the solution. dan, thanks for your time tonight. this important full disclosure footnote, the parent company of cnn, time warner, supports this legislation as you'll see logging on the internet today, there is a fierce debate. we'll follow it to the finish line. this afternoon, president obama rejected republican demands for speedier approval of a controversial oil pipeline. the 1700-mile expansion of the keystone pipeline would stretch from canada's oil sands all the way down to texas. congressional republicans argue this project will create thousands of jobs as well as ease american dependence on middle eastern oil. but in a written statement this afternoon, the president says the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by congressional republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline's impact, especially the health and safety of the american people as well as our environment. the house speaker john boehner

accused the president of breaking his promise to create jobs. >> president obama is destroying tens of thousands of american jobs in shipping american energy security to the chinese. there's really no other way to put it. the president is selling out american jobs for politics. >> our chief business correspondent alley velshi is with us to help us break down fact and fiction. are republicans exaggerating the jobs associated with this? >> john boehner certainly is exaggerating it. john boehner has has said tens of thousands of jobs. the most optimistic view from transcanada that would build the pipeline. says construction would be about 10,000 jobs a year. a total of 20,000 jobs. that's on the high end. the state department which is the group that actually said no to approving this thing has said as high as 6,000. and cornell university, a study there says between 25 and 4600.

so the bottom line is, there would be jobs created. it's less about the jobs than it is about the oil. the oil sands in alberta are the richest piece of oilen the continent in the western hemisphere. i'll show you. i've been up there a couple times as you know. this is what it is. this is oil sand. it's basically sand that has oil in it. it crumbles. and to get the oil out of it you basically have to inject steam into the ground, melt the oil. it takes natural gas to do that. it's very intensive. and i've got here again a little tough to see, john, but this is oil sands. this is the oil that comes out of it when you put the steam. then this is the oil that gets shipped in a pipeline. the complaint isn't just that the pipeline might be dangerous. it's getting the oil from the sand into shippable, usable crude oil is a very energy intensive and somewhat dirty process. so that's what the environmental complaint is. and then there's the jobs complaint. so basically both sides on this thing have exaggerated their claims. but it was probably the rub here, john, is that if this oil

pipeline doesn't get put into the united states, that oil could well be going to china. canada gets to sell every drop of oil it makes because it's a net oil producer. >> alli velshi, a chemist in addition to our chief business correspondent. >> thanks, john. up in washington state, seattle's forecast calls for nearly as much snow today as the city gets in any given year. seven inches. the annual total normally about 11. it's part of a northwest storm that could bring record snow to olympia and tacoma. seattle's thelma guitterrez is in seattle. thelma, not as bad as it could have been. but that doesn't mean it's not dangerous and a serious situation, right? >> reporter: yes, absolutely, john. in fact, this is a city where people are used to rain. lots of rain. much of the city is built on steep hillsides. so that makes for very

treacherous drive if you have to try to navigate in this kind of weather. john, i want you to take a look at this. we did this for you. our producer went out and she got this ruler just to give you an idea of how much snow has fallen in the capitol hill area. you can see it's about 3 1/2 inches, 4 inches has fallen here in the downtown area. john, this is very scientific. but you can also take a look at these folks who are building snowmen out here. they literally are not used to the snow. they've been flooding. in i think one of you guys was using one of these dish buckets, right, to go sledding out here. so again, an area that's just not used to snow. john? >> thelma gutierrez. you can join the snow mann-building campaign. i'm a little jealous. we were in iowa for the campaign, no snow. new hampshire no snow. mark me as envious.

i'd like to be out there of making the snowman. thelma gutierrez live for us in the snow in seattle. up next, new polling and other new evidence indicate mitt romney's frontrunner status is at risk right here in south carolina. next the truth about why the next 48 hours are absolutely critical for governor romney and his team. e day with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaids, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported.

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it is decision time in south

carolina, and that means testing time for mitt romney. the former massachusetts governor is leading here. and a win would make him virtually unstoppable in the race for the republican presidential nomination. but here's tonight's truth. that lead is at risk. and governor romney and his team now face the most critical 48 hours of the campaign. governor romney's challenges are three fold. the attacks on his record, running bain capital are taking a toll here. so are the demands that he release his income tax returns. add in these attacks and others are not coming from democrats but from fellow republicans. >> obama supported the wall street bailouts. so did romney. obama gave us radical obama care that was based on romney care. >> a trademark of the romney campaign so far has been its ability to make quick adjustments and quick counter attacks. our cnn debate thursday night will test the governor on the taxes and the bain questions and test his strategy now to try to stop this late newt gingrich

surge here. four trademark of this campaign is the help romney is getting from his friends at the pro romney superpac, restore our future. their shifts are like clockwork. evidence of a gingrich surge, bang. >> newt attacks because he has more baggage than the airlines. newt was find $300,000 for ethics violations, took 1.6 million from freddie mac and cosponsored a bill with nancy pelosi. >> just about every stop on the stump, speaker gingrich trying to persuade voters block those ads out. >> i fully expect the romney campaign to be unendingly dirty and dishonest for the next four days, because they are desperate. they thought they could buy this. they're discovering they can't buy this. >> truth is, the speaker's friends have their own superpac. and they're playing just as tough with governor romney now. it is testing time and the stakes couldn't be higher. plus unlike new hampshire we enter the final hours and the

final debate here with absolutely no certainty about who will win, which is why the attacks are getting more pointed and more personal. let's continue the discussion now. joining me here in charleston, jim dyke a republican political consult and and president of mda frontline and amy kramer the chair of the tea party express. jim, you know this state very well. since the debate monday night our polling shows it if you talk to the campaigns they see it. our poll says governor romney. if you take the full poll has a 10 point lead. if you look at the last day, if you talk to the campaigns they think right now we have a single digit race. why? >> i think that nobody's ever questioned whether newt gingrich was an effective campaigner. it's when he's not an effective campaigner is the problem. and he's been very effective in the last several days. he was very effective at the debate. he's been out on the stump. mitt romney is also -- needs to step up his game a little bit. he needs to show confidence in who he is. i don't know that the attacks about his record are as damaging as him seeming uncomfortable

about the issues and particularly his personal issues. if he feels uncomfortable with it it makes others feel uncomfortable with it. >> for him it's releasing your taxes. people say you're wealthy, you don't get it are, you paying more than the average joe in south carolina? governor chris christie, a romney guy, a romney guy. listen to him on the question of the tax returns. >> what i would say to governor romney is, if you have tax return toss put out you should put them out. put them out sooner rather than later. because it's always better in my view to have complete disclosure and especially when you're the frontrunner. >> one of your most influential and important surrogates, essentially that's a kick in the you know what. release the tax returns, governor romney. does that have an impact? do average voters care? is it about the specifics of the tax returns or about well if he's not willing to do it is he hiding something? >> i think there's so many dynamics in play here. i think people truly don't know who going to vote for. there's a large percentage of

people that are still undecided. but you know what? i think they all should release their tax returns. go ahead, put it out there. it's one less thing for somebody to attack you over. you get it out there. it's front and center. you disclose it. i think that's better for everybody. but at the end of the day, i think the voters are going to decide not on tax returns so much but on who has the best ideas and solutions and the ability to turn the economy around and create jobs. it's all about jobs jobs jobs. and when president obama today denied the keystone pipeline, i mean, that is unbelievable! and that's what americans are focused on right now is turning the economy around and getting people back to work. >> the question south carolina has essentially is, bless romney, coming out of new hampshire the big win say yes, we agree which would make him the prohibitive favorite. or some would say not so fast. let's send this campaign on to florida, to arizona, to nevada and to michigan. i've asked you several times, will the tea party step up and assert itself here?

if you look at our new poll, support for republican nominee among likely tea party voters in south carolina, speaker gingrich getting 31%. that's up 8 points from january. governor romney at 26%. that's down 6 points from january. what is it that's causing the tea party vote to move some toward the speaker? >> well, i think that they're just focused on the issues at hand and who has the ability to beat barack obama. i mean, that's what it's going to come down to. and individuals have to make that decision. i know the social conservatives have a role here. but at the end of the day, and this is why the tea party's been so influential, is because we focus only on the fiscal issues. and we don't focus on the social issues or the foreign policy. so the voters are going to decide who is going to -- who's best suited to turn the economy around. and i don't know. i mean, i've said before and i think i probably said it on your show, newt gingrich was involved with the tea party movement from the very beginning.

he's put together a good ground game here in south carolina. and i hear from a good source that there is a large number of tea party leaders from across the country coming out tomorrow to support somebody. and so i mean, the tea party movement i've always said no matter who wins this, they can't win it without the support of the tea party movement. >> so if you're governor romney and you're in this hall tomorrow night, on stage you and your four our rivals, governor romney's tragedy has been if it's a slight hit to let it go, pivot, let's focus on president obama. can he do that now or does he have to one answer the questions about his record or taxes more aggressively and two turn and counter pun snmp. >> certainly. he needs to provide certainty to voter that is he's comfortable with who he is, with his record. he got a little wobbly on monday night. he needs to reassert himself the confidence that he had in the debates prior. he does need to stay focused on barack obama. that's the issue.

the passion that you saw in monday night's debate was over beating barack obama. that's what republicans are rallied around in the state of south carolina. >> so we have what i call the two parallel universes right now. i call the two parallel universes. we could wake up sunday, romney wins new hampshire and south carolina or say iowa went back and checked the results. senator santorum won iowa. if he did, only by a few votes, just like we say romney won by eight. but if we wake up sunday morning and have santorum in iowa, romney in iowa, gingrich in south carolina, we've got a very different race, a very different conversation than we were having yesterday and through part of today, do we not? >> no question. you would have three candidates who could claim they're viable. i suspect you'd see money going and we'd have a different race. >> and people just simply don't know. >> let's run the calculation.

is it better for the republican party when you have a well funded, well organized president to have thisover or better to have replay of the democrats in 2008. that long, clinton obama race. a lot of people worried would it weaken them in the end. senator obama was a better candidate having survived that. >> a better candidate one and two, it allows the party to organize those states. if you have a contest, you bring more voters out, more republican voters. going into the general election, the organization, the passion. >> they're better suited for the attac attacks, but on the other hand, barack obama, you know, they've claimed they're going to raise a billion dollars to run this campaign. >> they say somebody else came up with that number. it's not there. >> these candidates now are raising money to fight each other, so that's the downside of it. but a t the end of the day, i think the, all of these

republican candidates would be better than you know, president barack obama. i can't see any of them turning down the keystone pipeline for jobs and that's what's important to americans. >> a couple of the other let's mention talk about couple other candidates. ron paul was an impact player in iowa, in new hampshire. most see him in this for the long haul because he has an organization, a movement. he going to register here in south carolina? >> ron paul has a following everybody where. not enough to win the election, but he's got a fl lowing everywhere. >> is rick perry done? >> rick perry's still in it right now. >> if he comes in fifth here, will governor perry go on? >> i don't know. we know that money plays a significant part of these campaigns, so you know governor perry has to decide that. >> do you suspect if he's fifth here -- >> it's tough to see a path forward. >> fascinating couple of final

days in south carolina. many of you if you're sports fans, you know him as kareem abdul-jabbar or maybe the nba's all time leading scorer. well, he's adding a new title. ambassador. plus, officials in indonesia tracking down on how train riders get to work by teaching them a potentially painful lesson. there is a platform built for the purpose of driving innovation. one that's transforming how companies from every industry-- and of every size-- are doing business. a platform built for now. and for what's next. this...is the cisco intelligent network.

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welcome back. kate bolduan's back with the

latest news you need to know. >> having too much fun in south carolina. got to come back home. less fun. this probably your fear as well as everyone's. you're on a plane and you hear a message informing you the plane is going to have to make an emergency landing, on the water. it happened last week on a british airways flight from miami to london. an automated female voice warned passengers while the plane was cruising at 35,000 feet. the pilot hit the wrong button. claiming they were too close together. george lucas says he doesn't want to deal with you anymore. he says in an upcoming issue of "new york times" magazine he is retiring from making the films he is so famous for. instead, he plans to make more ek per mental films. if you think your come meet the rough, take a look at this video. notice the chains and concrete

balls above the train? that's what indonesian officials have installed above the tracks to stop commuters from riding on the roofs of trains and on the sides during rush hour. critics argue the move distributes against the -- that is a story i had to read three times. like one of those, what? >> brings all new meaning to commuting giving you a bit of a headache i guess. all right. let's try again. today's moments you most likely missed. slight hike difference here. secretary of state hillary clinton just named babble hall of famer kareem abdul-jabbar as ambassador of the united states. next week, the ambassador heads to brazil. basketball fan? >> i am. not quite like you, but i am a

basketball fan. i'm so nervous what's coming next. >> as ucla, kareem abdul-jabbar was who? >> a starting player -- >> and airplane the movie. >> this is really mean. what did you say? >> who was he in airplane the movie? >> he was the co-pilot. roger roger. >> he was the co-pilot. roger murdoch and leslie nielsen. the kid coming in says my dad says you don't rebound. come on now, it's a classic. i am sweating. that was like the most nerve wracking bit of live television. >> as a celtics fan, i can't like a laker's guy. see you tomorrow. you be sure to watch tomorrow night, also tomorrow night's southern republican debate, the last before south carolina's krit tall prent