night. i'll be back in just one hour. it's my honor tonight to moderate the debate. hope to see you then. right now, erin burnett "outfront." take it away. >> thanks so much. one hour away from the last debate before the south carolina primary. rick perry suspending his campaign today. we are down to just four. sound like an agatha christie novel. and lindsey graham out front tonight. an endorsement from him would be a big boost for any candidate going into this weekend's primary. he's here. just saw him behind our stage. the question is, will he give an endorsement? and the bottom line on newt gingrich in the center of a big storm today, picking up a big endorsement from rick perry on the same day, a shocking interview with one of his ex-wives is set to air. which will have a bigger impact on saturday? on saturday? let's go "outfront."

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening. tonight, we are live in charleston, south carolina. and you know, it's a chilly night. a beautiful day, little chilly. the men don't wear jackets, the women do, isn't that the way the world works? cnn is going to be hosting the four remaining republican candidates in a high stakes debate tonight. in just two days, voters are going to go to the polls and south carolina has an impressive record. the winner of the south carolina republican primary has gone on to win the nomination every single presidential election since 1980. and despite new polls showing a very tight race between mitt romney and newt gingrich, an explosive interview with one of gingrich's ex-wives threatens to derail his momentum. marianne gingrich slammed his

character and said he asked her for a quote, open marriage. on the trail today, newt slugged it off. >> look, i'm not going to say anything about marianne. my two daughters have written to abc about this. it's tawdry and inappropriate. i'm not getting involved. >> the comments overshadowed the other big story of the day. rick perry dropping out of the race and endorsing gingrich. >> i have come to the conclusion that there is no viable path for ward for me in this 2012 campaign. therefore, today, i am suspended my campaign and endorsing newt gingrich for president of the united states. >> well, perry was supposed to participate in tonight's cnn debate. the podiums and everything were ready to do. the announcement shuffled out plans a little l bit.

you'll look at perry's plan being -- what, did we kick it over? there is a lot to talk about. i think it's safe to say it is rare to have this happening on one day. john avenue lan, ari fleischer and david gergen. your hometown in a lot of ways. >> i love it. >> spent a great day here in the barrier islands. went out. signs every window. >> this is the height of politics and a good time to be in south carolina. >> i even got behind the santorum express. >> was that a big express? >> it was a big bus. i was looking for traffic violations. i didn't see any. but we have a lot to talk about. so let me start with you. of all the things that happened today with santorum winning iowa -- perry, the interview with newt gingrich's ex-wife. what is the most important headline?

>> we've been in a peaks and valley day. we opened like newt gingrich had a momentum behind him. he went ahead slightly of mitt romney in three different polls. then got the perry endorsement. that looked like mitt's in trouble. then we get this potentially explosive interview with marianne gingrich, his second wife that's to play tonight. what we have, we've had a help snapping day and a rip snorting campaign going on here. >> ron paul arriving. the candidates do arrive during the next few minutes, we're going to start to see them coming in. literally in the deep depths of the coliseum, there are rooms with mithe candidates' names tyd out. get a little makeup on. they all wear makeup. >> we don't want to have a shiny head. >> no. >> 100% right except there's 48 hours to go --

>> and who knows what's going to happen. >> south carolina always does its politics on steroids. it is the most exciting state for politics and it's meaningful and especially now because if tonight, mitt romney can get on the way to a knockout punch and if he wins south carolina saturday, it's hard to see anybody staying in. if newt wins and i got a sense newt's going to win. if newt wins, we have a long spring. >> no question newt's been getting momentum in the state. that was before a perry endorsement. he gets to be a savior instead of the spoiler in south carolina. that whole mitt inevitability narrative has takeawayse taken . a lot of questions about not just bain capital, but now carried interest questions, came cayman island questions. >> this is actually a crucial moment. i can't remember a debate in which all year they've all been

very important, but this one could determine the out come of south carolina and south carolina could be make our break. >> and if you're john king and there are questions to ask, i've got really hard ones for mitt romney. and rick santorum -- >> rick santorum can just fly on the santorum express. >> and of course, ron paul is back. we've got some great ingredients. >> if funniest part about today, first of all, the ad blitz, but then there's the sign for rick santorum, mitt romney, newt gingrich. i saw three of those, but when the ron paul ad came by, it was like a big truck up on hot wheels, ron paul revolution. energy and passion. >> you go around talking to the political commentators and analysts over here, everybody will sort of you know, south caroli carolina, it's going to be over here. like this is what politics -- which is what excites people about politics. who? what? can you believe it? >> as long as you're not working

in one of these campaigns. exactly right. three hard attacks a day. i was talking to one of the campaigns this week and i said to them, my old motto was if every day's a crisis, there's no such thing as a crisis. crisis is routine. >> mitt romney's got all these tax questions, but the personal questions for newt gingrich, how important are those? john, you've done a lot of reporting on it isn't as evangelical, traditional as stereotypes suggest. >> rick santorum has not gotten the bump he was supposed to. that's one indication of that. i think a lot of newt's personal stuff is already backed in the cake. i don't think it's news when an ex-wife says lousy things. i think it's news when john mccain's ex-wife said lovely things about him. we have to see the content of this ad. >> what marianne gingrich said is a shocker. this goes above and beyond what

you normally hear is a negative statement and if there's truth to it and none of us know, it's a reprehensible thing. i can't imagine women having any other reaction. >> it stood out to me all week when we had newt on a week ago, you had newt winning among evangelicals, but a huge gap, women preferring mitt romney and how this affects that is a big question. >> romney has to deal with the tax issue as well tonight. and newt gingrich's case, there's a reasonable possibility he can win south carolina, but i think this is a real drag on him in the longer term and he's got to be concerned about that. >> all right. we've got rick santorum arriving now. we're going to show some footage as he walks in and that brings me to you, john. i'm going to pound your chest for you. you are the one who day after iowa, ari and david, i don't think it really turned out this way. and everyone said, all right. we know you're passionate about this, but you were rilgt and you

came out and you made the stand, got the numbers and a victory's a victory. >> this morning, woke up, des moines register, rick santorum, 34 votes up over mitt romney as opposed to the eight-vote win. the real benefit of iowa is the money, the the attention. that went to mitt romney. what's insane actually is there are eight precincts that we are never going to know apparently. all that stone walling and saying the outcome would not change and zero credibility to every true statement proven to be false, rick santorum gets a vikt and what mitt's been running on, the only l guy to win iowa and new hampshire, that's not true. >> even though the delegate count doesn't change. the psychologicay. >> if you're santorum, i think there would be a bunch saying you got a raw deal out of iowa. >> but he still got a significant bounce out of it. the last minute surprise.

but i don't think it would have changed if he was the outright winner. >> howard and victory. >> people are still discounting his iowa success because he's lived in iowa. it was a different type of state and he lived there. that really changed his ability to go on. >> we're going to hit pause there. we're talking a lot about this newt gingrich interview and what happened with his ex-wife. the man who did that interview is brian ross. abc's brian ross is coming on our show next to talk about this interview, to talk about what newt gingrich's ex-wife said to him. the tone in which she said it. he's going to share that interview with it. and then former candidate, herman cain, finally made his endorsement today. we're going to ask him how and why he came to his decision. and new developments from the cruise ship which crashed into the rocks off the coast of italy. what the ship's cook said the captain was doing just moments after the ship ran aground. my job is to find the next big sound.

they sound awesome tonight.

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this way, if you change your mind once you get home you can adjust it. wow! that feels really good. it's hugging my body. you can adjust it to whatever your needs are. your body changes over time. the bed can adapt with you. not only does it work for you today, but it's going to work for you 20 years from now. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. and now, the company that redefined sleep is redefining memory foam. save $400 on our all-new memory foam bed - the only bed that combines cool, contouring gel foam with sleep number adjustability. and stock up and save on our exclusive bedding collection at our white sale. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. explosives comments from newt gingrich's ex-wife who says newt gingrich wanted an open

marriage when he admitted to having an affair to another woman, callista. she is now his wife. here is an excerpt from abc news. >> i said to him, we've been married a long time. and he said, yes, but you want me all to yourself. callista doesn't care what i do. >> what was he saying to you, do you think? >> oh, he was asking to have an open marriage and i refused. >> he wanted an open marriage? >> yeah, that i accept the fact that he has somebody else in his life. >> and you said? >> no. no. that is not a marriage. >> marianne gingrich was talking to brian ross and brian joins us now. this interview to air in full tonight. i guess a lot to ask you, but first, let me ask you, what do

you think her motivation was to talk right now? how did you get her to do this interview right now? >> well, we started talking to her about doing an interview back in november. it took until now, last friday, to sit down and talk with us. we began with questions primarily about newt and some of his actions in congress as speaker to led to ethics investigations and it came out during the course of our discussions with her and our interviews, she wanted to talk more and entirely about what happened in the marriage. as to the ethics investigation, she actually defends newt and says the deals she was involved with were above board, but on the question of ethics in the marriage, a much different story. >> she was saying that when he was married before he met her, there had been an overlap in that marriage and when he met her, correct?

>> she began to see him when he was in divorce proceedings from his first wife, who he asked for a divorce when she was undergoing cancer treatments. marianne said when she was diagnosed with -- at that point, newt had a six-year long affair with a congressional aide, callista. >> who is now his wife. back in 1995, i know marianne told "vanity fair" she could derail any motivations. quote, he can't do it without me, i undermine everything. i don't want him to be president and i don't think he should be. did you get a feeling of vengeance or anger or not and i will just say, viewers, we'll now show you newt gingrich who is arriving with callista right now as you can see for our debate tonight. >> well, i think there was a sense of anger still, 12 years after the divorce. less of bitterness, but more of

anger and that of long-term betrayal that she still feels, that she had given a lot of her life to help newt build his political career and she was dumped for a younger woman. a blond, who she says newt told her would help him run for president, so she feels i think a betrayal about that, but more than that, she's coming forward because she does not think that newt gingrich has the moral character to be president. >> and brian, i know that obviously moral character is an important quality. you got this interview now, three days before a crucial primary. i know it was a tough decision, to decide whether to air it ahead of that. what made abc and you come down on the decision of choosing to air it tonight? >> we did the interview last friday. and we had a story, also, that

went on last night that went on about mitt romney and some of the offshore accounts in the caymans and we felt the stories about romney and gingrich should run in tandem at the same time before the south carolina primary. we didn't want to run it friday, so it ended up being thursday, and we wanted to give gingrich a chance to respond and late in the day, we did hear from his two daughters, who asked their father about the open marriage allegation and he told them it was not true. >> all right. brian ross, thank you very much. brian ross is the chief investigative correspondent for abc and the full interview tonight on "night line," 11:35 p.m. newt gingrich will be my guest tomorrow night. we're going to talk about all of this the day before the crucial primary here in south carolina. all right, we are about 40 minutes away from a debate. as good and exciting as a debate

could possibly be and ahead of that, the senior senator from south carolina, lindsey graham, going to come "outfront." i'm hopeful. senator? >> yeah. >> he's over there. i see you behind the lights. maybe he will have an endorsement. and what's the number one car company in the world? hint. guess what? made in the u.s.a. we'll be right back.

we are live from the north charleston coliseum in south carolina. the site of tonight's cnn debate. it's going to begin as you can see in just over 30 minutes time. tonight, exclusive interview with lindsey graham, who's endorsement has been highly coveted. >> unbelievable. >> is it going to come out tonight? >> it's been highly coveted for the people who want to win, for the other guy. >> why have you been reticent to endorse? >> i don't know who i'm going to vote for. you've got good people, every time something good happens, it makes me reevaluate. we know we pick presidents and we want to make sure we send the best to end the obama preside presidency, so there's a lot of pressure on us and i don't know who i'm going to vote for. >> i thought i would put together a fun little skit

listening to the ads. >> and the other part is that you should not only let these people be president, you shouldn't let them come to your house. this is ridiculous down here. at the end of the day, i miss car commercials. you cannot turn your tv on in south carolina without some super pac. the lesson of 2012 is what do we do about super pacs. >> do you think we should get rid of them? >> regulate them. you don't want to tick off a certain billionaire because they can ruin your life. five or six people can fund all the ads in america is not healthy. >> one thing that seems very disturbing about it, you set up a super pac, a little charitable arm and you don't have to disclose your donors. gl the public's going to rebel. >> i hope so. it seems that way. so, let me ask you about some of the things out there. mitt romney, there's going to be

a lot of scrutiny. he pays a capital gains rate. newt gingrich. questions about personal character and integrity now being raised again. which of those two thing, i'm not asking you about individually, but which do you think is a more important measure of the man when it comes to being president? >> well, there's a contest for one's heart and mind. we don't vote for the person who's most conservative, who says the things we like to hear. we also require that person to convince us they can win in november. romney's time in bain capital, he needs to be more aggressive. turn to the camera and say, i made my money honestly. nobody's going to lend them money. staples wouldn't exist if i didn't believe in the idea of investing in something no bank would lend money on. he needs to tell folks what i

did not private sector needs to be done in washington. as far as newt, nobody's got a better resume of delivering change in washington than i do. there's no person who can articulate the message against obama than i. rick says i'm the total package. at the end of the day, step it up a little bit. we want passion. intellect. but we want to make sure we're sending the best person into the arena that can face a billion dollars worth of attacks and sell people who are inclined to vote conservative, but need to be sold. >> are you going to vote on saturday? >> i'm voting. i may vote twice. >> but you don't know for whom? >> tonight will be helpful. the wind's to newt's back and the personal stuff, people are going to judge themselves. i used to do divorces for four year, so i got my own view about how marriages end is tough. a lot of presidents have had problems on the personal side.

what i'm looking at is the person who can best carry a message and win in november and i think south carolina has a history for 30 years of getting it right and we feel an enormous amount of pressure and we're still unsure as to who that person is. tonight will be helpful. >> all right. maybe you can give me a phone call before you vote on saturday. all right. good to see you, sir. thanks very much. just over a half an hour until the debate. mitt romney, the front-runner, although some polls today showing it to be within the margin of error with newt gingrich. what does mitt romney need to do to clinch the nomination, which has been near his grasp, and what does newt gingrich need to do to catch him? and herman cain finally made an endorsement. we're going to ask him how he made the decision, why. he's going to be sitting where senator graham is sitting right now. be right back. all energy development comes with some risk,

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you are looking at a picture of the north charleston coliseum where the debate is going to take place. the last time we're going to see all the candidates together before the the crucial primary on saturday. a primary which every presidential year since 1980 has chosen the nominee. we begin the second half of our show with stories we care about. and tonight, we want to start

off with rick perry. dropping out of the gop this morning, throwing his support behind newt gingrich very quickly. in a cnn poll released yesterday, which is the last poll we've got, the texas governor polled at 6% in south carolina, ahead of saturday's primary after jon huntsman got out, that meant perry would have finished last. there are four candidates. all four will take place in tonight's debate. it starts after "outfront." we will not mess it up. two, general motors today regaining its title at the world's biggest automaker. gm selling 9 million cars in 2011, beating on volkswagen. former number one was toyota and gm is not the only u.s. automaker with good news. ford did not get a government

bailout. gm did. announced the company's white collar workers will get a pay rise and a bonus. 9 million cars. you know at the peak, we were at 16 million cars a year. does that say something about how far we have to go to get back? kodak filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy today. 131 years old. says it's got a billion dollars to keep paying vendors an employees. despite developing the first digital camera in 1975 and improving on it in the '90s, kodak's been unable to keep up with competitors. that's precious. we looked at the numbers. last year, more than 100 billion photos were uploaded to flickr and facebook. it's estimated more than 10% of the photos ever taken were

snapped in 2011. 352,000 filing for first time unemployment benefits last week. that's down 50,000 from the pyre week. well below the closely passionately obsessed about level of 400,000, the line between growing and shrinking in the labor market. economists do not expect the unemployment rate to drop rap rapidly. they're expecting the jobless rate to drift slower. it comes down to that when it comes to the president's chances for re-election in november. it has been 167 days since america lost its top credit rating. inflation remains in check, which will help. ben bernanke indicated for the day, the consumer price index, which measures what you pay for goods and services was flat for the month of december. all right. he has been promising an unconventional endorsement for weeks and weeks and herman cain just delivered. >> my unconventional endorsement

is the people. we the people of this nation are still in charge. that's who i'm endorsing. >> all right. fresh off that announcement, herman cain "outfront" now. i know you've been spending some time with stephen colbert. what made you make that announcement? i understand the passion, the point, but i also understand it means you didn't feel that passionately about the people at the podium tonight. >> i wanted the american people to be energized about this primary election, to remind the people that they are still in charge of this country. i could have endorsed an individual, but then a couple of things would have happened. my supporters might have been disappointed if i didn't pick the one they like. i want people to stay engaged and inspired and remind people it's the voters, the voters, we

the people, are still in charge of this country and on top of that, empower yourself to make a difference. >> this is a even if you don't love who's running, you go out and vote. that's your responsibility and passion and you can't be so angry at washington if you don't do something about changing it. >> i heard too many people saying once i dropped out that i've lost interest. we can't lose interest, so it was intended to get people reengaged and the other thing is, who ever gets the nomination, we've got to then rally around that person because even though i'm not seeking the position of president, i have not lost my passion for the mission, which is to defeat barack obama in november. >> so, you'll be out on the trail helping whoever it is finally gets that. let me ask you about the big event today and i know youf a point of view on this. so newt gingrich's second wife, comes out, gives an interview to brian ross about their relationship. says he asked for an open

marriage, had a six-year affair, ended up marrying his now wi. a lot of people are saying the moshl integrity. what do you think about this newt gingrich situation? >> i think it's irrelevant. it's only important to the people running the story. it is not important to the people. i talk to them all the time. they are sick of the negativity. they're sick of somebody digging up somebody's past or even fabricating stuff like that. people don't care about that stuff. i think it's irrelevant and i happen to think what the people are looking for, they want to hear solutions. they want to be better educated about the things that matter. the economy. the national security. they want to hear more of how they're going to fix things, not just what's wrong. so i think it's irrelevant. it's only important for people looking foreasy stories to conjure up running through somebody's personal background. >> you personally felt that

happened to you, but you do believe, i am sure, that the morality and integrity of a person matters a lot. >> of course it does, but it command the attention it gets in the immediamedia. it does not. that was no secret in terms of what was in his past. that's been brought up before, so why bring it up again now. it makes you kind of wonder that somebody would do it on purpose as a distraction from what's really important and i don't think that's important. >> since you've gotten out of the race, what have you been doing? >> i started cainconnections.com. i'm still going to promote my 9-9-9 plan. you mentioned about those 9 million cars, when we pass 9-9-9, we'll with able to sell 9 million more cars. i'm promoting solutions to get

people's minds off the negativity and get their attention on solutions because that's how we're going to be beat obama in november. >> i'm glad you said 9-9-9 because i love hearing you say it. >> i can't leave home without saying that. >> as you can see, just over 20 minutes to go. mitt romney heading into tonight as the front-runner. what do the other candidates need to do to catch him? this is going to be one amazing debate. there's sam feist. our head of political coverage. and the shocking developments from the italian cruise ship crash. what the ship's cook says the captain asked for right after the cruise hit the rocks. we're going to tell you about that, next. they want a big hat.. ...'scuse me... they want a big hat.. ...or a big steak... ...or big hair... i think we have our answer.

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we do this at the same time every night, our outer circle where we reach out to our sources around the world. tonight, we begin in italy, where we have new details about the cruise ship situation. this is amateur video from youtube which shows water rushing down the stairs inside the cruise ship. which ran aground. this literally was taken by a passenger who was on the costa concordia and we are learning new details about that night about what the captain was doing as well. the cook who worked on the ship tells a fill p know station that the captain ordered dinner for

himself and a woman staff member after the ship collided with the rocks. he is currently under house arrest in italy, facing possible charges of manslaughter, ship wrerk and abandoning ship. meanwhile, the decision looms over whether to continue the search for survivors. 21 people are still classified as missing. 11 confirmed dead. dan rivers is in italy and we asked him when authorities were going to switch to a recovery mission. >> i think that point is sadly approaching quite quickly. they've continued to use explosives to open up parts of the boat they haven't been able to get to before, but we're being told they're going the start the salvage operation to start pumping the more than 2,000 tons of heavy fuel off the costa concordia before the weather starts to deteriorate and the boat becomes even more

unstable. >> thanks very much and now, to russia. the country's foreign minister announced that russia will be rejecting sanctions against syr syria, also ruled out the idea of deploying foreign troops. 25 people were killed across the country today and that 6,000 have died in the conflict since march. andrew is the director of the russia and eurasian program -- >> it will make it impossible for the u.n. to do anything because of russia's status, they can veto this. that will reduce the credibility of anything that the international community takes and the russians believe they made a big mistake in the libya case in their position of abstaining on the u.n. security counsel. they're not going to repeat that again.

>> thanks very much. we are now as you can see, about 15 minutes away from the debate. fireworks here begin in just a few minutes, but as gloria borger was just saying off camera, what a day it has been in politics. this debate is crucial and the big question is what does each individual need to do to clinch a victory on saturday? let's bring in our own political big guns. all joining us. of course, kevin, i need to disclose you're a romney supporter and adviser. so let me start with you. your guy, mitt romney, has been under intense scrutiny for taxes for being a successful business man. what does he need to do to make people feel comfortable for that? >> two things. the first thing is go out and make the case that he's the best candidate right now to fix the economy. from the coastal part of this state all the way inland, every one of these voters, their number one concern is the economy, so they want to know --

they want to vote for somebody who knows how to fix it. the second part, electability. it's factoring heavily in how these republican voters are looking at these candidates. because he's the best candidate on the economy, governor romney can make a case he's best positioned to beat barack obama. i think third is he has been under attack this week. he's going to continue to be under attack. whether it's the moderators or other candidates taking an opportunity, he has to show poise against those attacks because that's what folks are going to want to see in a president. >> does he need to say this is a difficult situation. there's a lot of complexity about his taxes. some of the tax breaks in there i don't think are fair. they're legal, but wish no one could take advantage of them. some are standard and normal and everybody would agree, but it's really hard to say you're at 15 when everyone thinks they pay more. how does he drasz that, like i'm

this guy with all this money and you don't. >> i think he acknowledges he is going to have a level of discloeg closure, but most importantly, what is he going to do as president? >> he's going to say i want a fair system. >> ultimately, elections are about the future. they're a contest for the fup. so if he talks about what he's going to do to help american, their taxes, that puts him in a better place. >> this is a republican primary. everyone wants lower taxes, so this hurts him less than if it were a general election, i believe. >> you don't think he has to really defend the rate. >> i think he does, but i think it hurts him less than you think. >> americans have lekked rich presidents before. >> in fact, our presidents are all rich, pretty much. >> from the point of view of the typical voter who makes $49,000, the difference in barack obama's 7 million and mitt romney's 250 million, it's equally remote.

candidates break through that when they show i'm not just about me. i'm about you. this is a place where mitt romney remains weak. this has driven him too far to the right. under pressure. he's in a conservative state. he may be tempted to take another fatal step, like endorsing the ryan plan or worse. >> he's done all of that. >> he remains, he has the least regressive tax plan of any of the candidates and even -- >> i was looking, very similar to barack obama, in certain key ways. it is a progressive tax plan. it's more progressive, actually, give him credit for this, on capital gains than anyone else running in there. >> he needs to go past it saying, i understand what it's like not to be me and that has been one of the things we've been wondering. >> now, let's talk about newt. >> yeah. >> newt's problem is just as tough as mitt romney. and it's on the personal side,

so one could argue it's tougher. >> he's got a bunch of problems. first of all, he's been running as somebody quite conservative and a lot of people say he's not that conservative if you look. he health care main dates. the first thing is say, i'm conservative, i'm very rational and i'm really a dependable person. what the romney campaign is saying is this person is not dependable. he governed in chaos and forget about it. >> yeah. >> so -- number one. number two, i think he needs to talk taxes. and i bet he will take it to romney on taxes and say, okay, everybody needs to have that low 15% rate. he's made some headway on the tax issue. i think he'll challenge governor romney to release his tax returns. maybe the governor will release it sooner than april. seems to me there's been a debate going on in the campaign about that. so maybe he will. he's smiling. okay. and then number three, i think when family values comes up, as i'm sure it will. >> right. >> i think he needs to respond

not in anger but with a certain amount of contrition. and say, this has been my past. there are things i've done that i apologize. i don't know if it's going to fly. >> you're shaking your head. >> if he's talking like that, he's losing. i would say he needs to do -- i would suggest the opposite approach. if the question is which of these guys would make a better more responsible, more grown-up president, which would you rather have as a dad, a friend, a neighbor, that's the comparison, newt gingrich loses. the only way he wins is he has to knock mitt romney off the stage. he has to say, you have no choice but me, santorum or paul. >> then he has to say i'm more conservative. >> i brought this up earlier. south carolina the past two weeks has been pretty clear, women have preferred mitt romney all the way through. >> 2 to 1. >> and i don't know that this is -- >> 2 to 1 in this state -- i'm sorry, not 2 to 1 -- >> this is women that vote -- >> i'm sorry, not 2 to 1.

in gingrich's numbers, men outweigh women 2 to 1. >> that's right, yes? >> romney's winning across these different graphics. because he's talking about the economy. he's talking about the future. he's crystalizing, i think, right now. i think that's what's going to happen. he's going to crystalize the choice before a lot of these voters. who is our nominee against obama? i think he's winning women then, conservatives, tea party, not tea party. the reason that speaker gingrich comes under indictment by a lot of these voters because of that is because he is a creature of washington. he's not going to be able to challenge the status quo when he's been essentially working out of k street for a while. >> thanks to all three of you. interesting how different people, different backgrounds, can have different views on what they should say. they don't have easy jobs in there. of course, we are less than ten minutes away from the debate. john king getting ready to ask all these tough questions of the

candidates. wolf blitzer "outfront" next. 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. cisco.

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of these debates. this is going to be one exciting debate to watch. >> i think the kid gloves are going to come off. it's one thing for these candidates to be critical, very critical, another candidate when they're talking to you or me or a journalist. it's more difficult when the candidate is standing right next to him and they have to look in their eyes and say, you are bad. and i disagree with you. it's a lot more difficult. if they don't do it tonight, they'll probably miss an opportunity. so i suspect it's going to get intense. >> so you and i were talking in the commercial, but obviously romney's got all this focus on the taxes and that side. and then newt gingrich obviously has these personal questions which has risen again. which of those is worse i guess, which is harder? >> i think newt gingrich problem's more difficult. it's such a personal thing going on right now. second wife is making these accusations. it comes at a really awful time for him because since the last debate monday night, he has

really surged here in south carolina. he's narrowing that gap. he potentially could win on saturday. you know, south carolina is to georgia what new hampshire is to massachusetts. you know, so he does have a base here. it's very close to his home state of georgia. so if mitt romney can do well in new hampshire, newt gingrich should be able to do well here in south carolina. but these last-minute assertions could hurt him. >> i know there's been conventional wisdom that rick perry getting out, trying to be a statesman, hand his support to newt gingrich, will it go that way, is it quite that simple? >> i think most of his supporters here in south carolina probably will go for newt gingrich. some will go for rick santorum. very few will go for mitt romney i suspect. maybe a few for ron paul but not many. i think rick perry dropping out, that's good news, by and large, for newt gingrich, but i got to tell you, he was only doing maybe 5% or 6%, rick perry, in south carolina, so it's not like a whole lot of votes but if it's

close, it could make a difference. >> what if romney comes out and says, i'm going to put my tax returns out, i'm putting them out this year, and i'm putting them out a few other years too and he's strong and firm on that, does that do it for him? obviously, still will have the issue of the fact he's wealthy and obviously most americans aren't -- 15% is a hard -- >> everybody knows he's worth $250 million. he's paying 15% on long-term capital gains, that's the law. it's not breaking any law. if he's keeping some money, i don't know, the cayman islands, that's not illegal, you can do that. but politically is might cause him some aggravation. i don't know. i would agree with chris christie, the governor of new jersey, just do it, get it over with. >> the cayman island things is interesting. it's one of the largest holders of u.s. treasuries because so many u.s. funds are domicile there so certainly not an uncommon thing. >> i don't know how it plays with rank and file but they all know he's very rich to begin with so they sort of discounted that. >> yeah. all right, wha