the in the hospital with heart problems. >> i dedicated the piece to her. >> are you trying to kill her? >> no. i'm just trying make her proud. >> reporter: he made her proud and made himself an eye-popping 14,000 bucks. that's how much a huge fan of the show paid for them. the tennessee computer programmer plans to computerize and put speakers in them so beavis and butthead can talk and butt head with each other. jeanne moos, cnn. >> how'd he look? >> not attractive. >> reporter: new york. >> that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. the news continues next on cnn. good evening, everyone. tonight newt gingrich tries to stop mitt romney's florida moment woman a scathing new tv ad. but it back fires. in 2010 mike huckabee complains

his past romney criticism is being used out of context. a new report says ron paul personally signed off on racist newsletters back in the 1990s. congressman paul gets testy responding to us. former mississippi governor halee barbour, new information about his final hours pardon and we'll get a take on the gop presidential race. >> it's been a long hard week for all the candidates in florida. perhaps especially newt gingrich. his showing in last night's debate was mostly panned. gingrich now trying everything he can to slow mitt romney's florida momentum. but just four days from the state's big primary the former speaker appears low on energy, some say running out of gas. today even his attacks to romney seemed to lack their usual zing. this is about an hour ago. >> the longer we campaign, the clearer we are about governor romney's record in massachusetts, the more people realize the degree to which he

governed essentially is by what republicans would consider a liberal. >> also today the gingrich campaign launched a scathing new attack ad aimed at romney but only created some new troubles. >> if a man's dishonest to obtain a job he'll be dishonest on the job. >> what kind of man misleads, distorts and dereceives just to win an election? this man would. mitt romney. >> that clip at the top there was governor mike huckabee from 2008. this afternoon huckabee said its use was taken out of context and "not authorized, approved or known in advance by me." cnn senior correspondent joe johns, it appears newt gingrich energy is down. the wear and tear of the campaign beginning to show here? >> reporter: i think so, john. he looked tired today. everybody associated with the campaign did on that schlep from jacksonville after the debate here to the south florida area. not only that, he's up against organizations issues here.

romney's been organizing in florida especially south florida for years, quite frankly. he's up against a money deficit, he's up against an ad war that is far superior being waged on the romney side. and generally it's just a tough row to hoe here for newt gingrich. even if he hadn't lost his debate mojo, if you will. a lot of challenges for newt gingrich who's going to try to pick up the pace with his travel schedule over the weekend, john. >> joe, as you know, speaker gingrich runs his own campaign. he's the top strategist, scheduler and so forth. two very energetic, passionate debates in south carolina. how do they explain two definitely flatter and less combative performances that may have hurt him in florida? >> reporter: i've asked the campaign that. they don't have much of an answer for that. in fact the answer i got from them was that in their view romney was untruthful on several occasions during this debate, and newt gingrich felt as though if he addressed some of these

things he would have appeared as if he had been nitpicking during the debate. they did put out an ad to try to address some of the things they think were untruthful. but it's quite clear that yesterday during the day newt gingrich was very energetic, very much on the attack, and then when he hit the debate he seemed just a little bit flat, john. >> joe johns tracking the gingrich campaign tonight live in florida. republican presidential candidate ron paul has repeatedly denied any role in writing racist newsletters published in his name in the 1990s. the "new york post" quoted several ron paul associates who said he did sign off. i asked congressman paul about this. >> they quote your former secretary about these newsletters that went out in your name in the 1990s, some racially tinted. this is your form secretary. she says "it was his newsletter and it was under his name so he always got to seat final product.

he would proof it." you have said in the past, sir, that you didn't always see what was in that newsletter. what's the truth? >> she's made that story up. she also said that i was in and out of the office every single day. the office wasn't even in the town that i live so that's a completely false reporting. and they should have verified that. because i think somebody from my staff answered it but that's completely false. >> completely false. i just want to follow up on this point. she said you reviewed every newsletter. there are some other people in the article saying you were too busy to do that. others say they recall you sitting at your desk and proofing then. one said you met with ed crane head of the cato institute. you acknowledged how out there these statements would be you'd be more likely to get subscribers. >> i don't know what he's talking about. >> i don't recall that conversation. i just think that you're talk about something i didn't write 20 years ago or so.

and i don't know how you want to beat a dead horse. you always get the same answers from me. i didn't review them. i didn't endorse them. and i've condemned them. and if you want me to talk about race and that's what you're trying to imply from these questions, some type of a negative attitude about me, if you want me to talk about race go look at my record and look at my answer to stefan op husband in the debates and you might get something worth reporting other than trying to demagogue this issue. >> much more of that conversation with congressman paul later including where he currently cease his campaign matching up in this tight gop contest. tonight a new poll dramatically shows how speaker gingrich is losing the momentum. romney leads 38 to 29% from likely florida republican voters. on sunday and monday gingrich had a 40% to 34% lead over governor romney. gloria borger is here. that's a quick turn around. takes something to change a campaign that fast.

what was it? >> it could be a few things. first of all you had the stories about marianne gingrich. that came out. and it didn't affect south carolina but it now could be sinking in in florida. because what this poll also shows is that mitt romney's winning back men but he's also really winning women, 40 to 30. so that's very big. also, romney's favorabilities have gone up. and that's kind of interesting to me. maybe people are getting more comfortable with him as he feels a little bit more comfortable with himself. his favorability is up to 61%. gingrich is only at 50%. and rick santorum had a very good debate is at 53%. >> rick santorum not only had a good debate today, he picked up an endorsement from latino builders in the miami area. romz any, gingrich and santorum all spoke to that group in may. he hasn't spent a dime on tv in florida. can he be a strong enough for people to say he's heading on. >> what he wants to be when you talk to his campaign, he wants

to be the conservative alternative to newt gingrich. we saw that in the debate where he sort of said, okay, you -- on the issue of healthcare, healthcare mandate's a key issue with tea party voters. so he would like to be seen as the alternative to newt gingrich. but he doesn't have the money, he's not spending money in the state. he does have a superpac sugar daddy, which could help him heading on to other states. but it seems unlikely that he's going to catch fire. >> they need somebody to stumble to give him a break. gloria will be back with us when we map out the road in the republican campaign. three weeks ago mississippi governor halee barbour -- a hearing scheduled for next week. before the furor died down, authorities revealed they can't find some of the freed inmates, including a convicted murderer. and now they can't find the

paperwork on some of the pardons either, they say. here's mississippi's attorney general jim hood. >> we have a list of about 20 files that are missing. the vast majority of which are murder, manslaughter, several murders. and we have made a request of the governor's office and received correspondence indicating that they do not have these files. >> you'll you're going to hear from the former governor halee barbour. our reporter is in mississippi tonight. ed just heard the attorney general mr. hood there saying they're missing records. what's the significance? >> reporter: well, there's a couple of different things going on here, john. one of them and what the a.g. here in mississippi is trying to convince a judge of is that these pardons didn't follow the constitution of this state, and that is that these pardons needed to have been announced in various newspapers or wherever for 30 days leading up to the pardons. the a.g. says that did not happen in the vast majority of these cases.

perhaps there is some information in the paperwork that would help bolster the a.g.'s case. the other thing too here and is what many victims' families want to know is to get a better understanding of what governor halee barbour was thinking. were some of these people turned down for parole? was he advised against releasing some of these people? some of that background information that many people feel they want to see to help them understand the decision process in releasing many of these people, four of which included murderers that worked as trustees on the governor's mansion grounds. >> and the state has located three of the four pardoned murderers. what's the latest on the search for the fourth, joseph osmond? >> reporter: well that's what brings us to the town of hernando, mississippi to the south of memphis along the state line with tennessee. it's believed that mr. osmond still has several family members in this area. the attorney general's office here in mississippi says that they have made contact over the last few weeks with several family members of joseph osmond, but they haven't had any luck

getting them to cooperate in having them point them toward where mr. osmond might be at this point. that's why we're up here and that's why this search has really intensified and been focused on for the several last few days. >> former mississippi governor halee barbour joins us next to talk about the firestorm he started with these pardon and whether he's having second thoughts and we'll will ask him about a very contentious republican presidential race. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before,

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former mississippi governor halee barbour stirred up a firestorm after he pardoned several convict before he left office. governor, in the previous segment the attorney general said files are missing. he said the files were sent to your office when you were going through these decisions and now they're missing. >> what the attorney general won't admit and we have told him repeatedly, there are no files for the mansion inmates. there's no reason for them to have a file. they don't apply. they lived in the mansion. that's been the -- or on the mansion grounds. for decades our governor's mansion has been served primarily by inmates from the state penal system. almost all murderers because the experts say people who committed one crime of passion in their life, after they've served 20

years and these have served on average 20 years, are the least likely to ever commit another crime. that's why they have always been the people who served. i have pardoned 15 or so over eight years. every one of them was a murderer except one. and we've sent seven back. they didn't get pardons because they didn't play by the rules, they don't do what they were supposed. to but there is no file for them because their file is working around the governor, around the security at the mansion. let's just make this plain for the attorney general. they are classified as minimum security prisoners. they can't come to the mansion until they've been minimum security prisoners for years. so the idea that these are people out who the public ought to be afraid of. and john, you said that we pardoned 200 something inmates. well, 189 were people who were out of jail, most of them had been released years and years ago. some of them have been out since the 70s.

so ten people were pardoned and released. we have 21,342 inmates in mississippi. pardoned and released, less than 1 out of every 2,000. so i don't get what the big issue is about. >> of the four murderers who were pardoned, one of them has not identified himself to the state. as you know you disagree with this they're going through this process, want to see if they can reverse this even though you think you have the authority. you disagree with the democratic attorney general. mr. osmond has not identified himself and checked in for the hearings. does that give you any pause? >> not at all. he has no obligation to do anything. he has been pardoned, he's a free machblt these others, the attorney general sent somebody out and served them with process in a civil hearing. let's make that plain. this is not a criminal case. this is a civil case saying the department of corrections shouldn't have released these people because or shouldn't be able to release future ones because of the pardon not being -- the applications not being published in advance.

the department of corrections took responsibility for that publication. you know who did it? the special assistant of attorney general who reports to jim hood, wrote my office. and it's been published in the paper. we'll take care of the publication. so jim hood's guy failed to do the publication on time, which by the way doesn't matter under our constitution. and now jim hood is suing to take these people's liberty away because his guy didn't do what he said he was going to do. >> now, you in the case of mr. hood think this is all politics. he's the senior democrat in the state of mississippi. you think he's got future ambitions. i want to give you a chance, then. as this is played out and maybe he's stoking it in your view. but some of the victims' families say they wish they had some time with you. i want you to listen to this right here. >> he's in jail for 18 years. she was 20 years old when she died. and had her child laying in her arms when he shot her in her head. and he's pardoned?

>> is governor barbour going to pardon us for our aches and pains and heartache that we have to suffer? is he going to pardon a child that had to grow up without a mother? >> what do you say to those people who have come forward? >> that family actually came and met with my lawyers two years ago. because they understood that if any of these men, including that one, successfully served at the mansion, they've been serving almost 20 years on average they served 20 years, and that if they successfully completed they would be pardoned. i pardoned all of them at the end of my first term. it's very unpopular to pardon people. i was roundly criticized for that. but the power of pardon in the state is to give people a second chance who have repented, been rehabilitated and redeemed themselves. in mississippi's correctional system only 28% come back.

our recidivism rate is 24%. nationally it's 50%. i am comfortable every one of the mansion inmates are rehabilitated and have redeemed themselves and they deserve a second chance. that's what we as christians believe. my wife and i are christians. our state constitution is based on the christian idea. and for some people, it's hard to forgive. and i don't blame them. i understand them. i'm not mad at them. i respect the fact that if you lost a loved one or a friend, that it's very hard to forgive. but the state doesn't take that position. we spend $350 million a year, john, on rehabilitation. and we don't rehabilitate everybody. i wish we did. but when we have people who get rehabilitated and after 20 years of service and they deserve a second chance, it's the governor's job and the governor's job alone to let them have a second chance. that's why i'm very comfortable with this. comfortable we're going to win on the law. but i'm comfortable that these people are no more a threat, and

certainly the 189 that have been out of jail are no more a threat the week after i pardoned them than the week before i pardoned them. >> during the presidential politics, you and i knew each other when you why chairman of the national republican committee in the mid 1990s when the republicans took the house you were chairman. speaker gingrich talks about his role in that. you see leaders now who were leaders back then, bob dole issuing a statement, a lot of the establishment saying if newt is the nominee of the republican party john boehner will lose the speakership, we'll be devastated in the house races. we won't get the senate back. when you look at speaker gingrich do you see that risk? >> look, every one of these guys have got strengths. newt is doing really well because the debate format suits him. he's a historian, he's a professor. he is really really bright. >> do you worry about him at the top of the ticket? is he a drag? >> right now both of our principal candidates but also rick santorum who i believe is still in it and also ron paul, they all have got to improve their game. the thing i don't like about

what's going on, i hope it doesn't become so personal -- >> it may be too late for that. >> i don't think so but that's a president bush. but the b -- that's a problem. we need to be talking about obama's terrible record. g.d.p. went up 2.8% in the fourth quarter. it went up 1.7% of all of last year. that is so anemic that the federal reserve board said this week, we don't think the recession or the anemic economy is going to end until 2014. now, that speaks volumes about the real shape of the economy. i came out of the reagan white house. in november and december 1983, we created 759,000 new jobs in america. november and december of last year, president obama's been pounding on his chest about, we created 300,000 new jobs. less than half. we've still got a long way to go. and that's what this election will be about for most americans. >> once you get a nominee

perhaps. at the moment they're going back and forth. one of the things, i agree with you this might be a little silly given the consequences in the country, who's the legitimate heir to ronald reagan. you just mentioned you cut your teeth in the reagan white house. newt gingrich likes to say he's that person. what did ronald reagan think of newt gingrich? >> as far as i know it was a friendly relationship. but i have nothing to the contrary to that. i think mitt romney has a lot of things about president reagan. i mean, mitt romney's a guy who goes out and says, we have an entitlement society. that takes courage. ronald reagan had that kind of courage. that's why we did social security reform under ronald reagan, by the way with a democrat house. here is barack obama because he's got a republican house acts like he can't get anything done. he won't lead. ronald reagan never felt that way. and thank goodness bill clinton never felt that way. just because the other party's got one or both houses, the president doesn't get to complain all the time. presidents need to lead. that's what this election needs to be about, the kind of

leadership we've had for the last three years. >> governor barbour appreciate your coming in today. good to see you. next relatives of a massacred family go to court where a judge sentences one of the killers to die. later, the head of one of wall street's biggest banks says the occupy protesters have a point. t 2 1/2 weeks of my life. and i'm not usually this impulsive, but, um... ♪ sarah... will you marry me? ♪ i think we should see other people. in fact, i'm already seeing your best friend, justin. hey, tim, she's in good hands, buddy. love you. we're going to hawaii together. ♪ wow. um, i would have appreciated a proactive update on the status of our relationship. who do you think i am, tim, quicken loans? ♪ at quicken loans,

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welcome back. here's kate bolduan with the latest news you need to know right now.

>> welcome home. nice to have you back. good evening, everyone. after an emotional hearing today, a judge sentenced josh ca comb a komisarjevsky to death. he and an accomplice were convicted of entering a family home, raping and killing the mother as well as tying the two daughters to their bed where they died of smoke inhalation after the home was set fire. and the man who runs one of wall street's big banks says he's worried about the growing antagonism toward the rich and that the "haves versus the have-nots is becoming an entrenched view within society". listen here. >> people are angry because a lot of people on wall street made a lot of money, i agree with them. >> also good news and bad news from the folks at ford motors. 2011 was the carmaker's second most postable year in its 109-year history. but a closer look at the numbers shows ford's losses in europe

qaudrupled in the last quarter because of the debt crisis. flooding in thailand, losses in asia and increased competition hurt its profits in south mech. g in south america. the auto industry was one thing the president talked about today in michigan. >> he says it's on the uptick. part of the blueprint. >> we'll have that debate for months and months. kate, thanks. we'll see you in a little bit. coming up, congressman ron paul discusses his plans for the rest of the presidential campaign. >> we have a long way to go. we're going to accumulate as many delegates as we can get. >> also fact checking some of those candidates' claims. expers at bausch + lomb. as you age, eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. [ male announcer ] ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health.

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did mitt romney only vote republican when -- congressman paul takes about his chances of winning the in many nation. plus a legoman's trip to the edge of space. of course, complete with a of course, complete with a camera. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com a short time ago i had a conversation with the texas congressman ron paul. he is not in florida. like the rest of the republican candidates for president. what is his strategy for trying to win the nomination? >> congressman paul joins us from lewiston, maine today.

want to start with policy questions. you have been very firm in all the republican debates saying we need to cut spending. you say cut 1 trillion in your first year. i want you to listen to president obama on the road today on his plan to help make college more affordable. >> we're telling the states, if you can find new ways to bring down the cost of college and make it easier for more students to graduate we'll help you do it. we will give you additional federal support if you are doing a good job of making sure that all of you aren't loaded up with debt when you graduate from college. [ cheers and applause ] >> you haired the president there sir saying additional federal support. if it was a paul presidency would the federal government get out of the student loan and the student aid business? >> well, we have a problem with debt. so how do you solve the problem of debt by accumulating more debt? so he's just talking about who gets the debt. and he says the federal government does it that just puts a debt on somebody else.

maybe another young person will get it, somebody that didn't get to go to college. so that's just a gimmick. but they don't address the subject which i have in the debate so often is why is the cost of education so high? and it's high because there's inflation. you pump money into something, you push prices up just as we did with the houses. so it's a failed policy. when went to college it was much cheerp and you had jobs and we could work our way through. this is all a result of too much government interference in trying to give everybody something for free. it just doesn't work. >> another big issue on the table right now is the pentagon is working on a plan, defense secretary panetta says he's supported to slash about 100,000 troops from the active u.s. military. a lot of conservatives say whoa, that's too many. how about you, sir? that is a good number? >> you have to look at that. i don't know where he's going to cut. but i think that's a good idea. but even rumsfeld used to talk about that. remember when he was talking about a smaller and elite army? what you have to have is a small and elite foreign policy.

if you're still going to maintain all these bases and pretend you can do all these things and cut out the troops, i think there's a conflict there. that's why rumsfeld never got very far and panetta won't get very far, either. you have to downsize the appetite for running the world and policing the world and doing all this nation building. so it's inconsistent. i don't think he can do it. >> you're in maine today. most of your rivals are in miami or elsewhere in florida. you just told the audience in maine you're there because of the delegates. you're in for the long haul. help me answer this one, sir. a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being yes, 1 being probably not, where do you view the likelihood of ron paul getting the republican presidential nomination? >> probably about equal to the other candidates in the race. i mean, there were nine of us, remember? so, no, i mean, it's going to be difficult. but to say that i have it sewed up, no. we have a long way to go and

we're going to accumulate as many delegates as we can get. >> the former g.e. ceo jack welsh doesn't think you'll win the nomination but he also says the republican party better be careful. let's listen. >> ron paul is going to exit left on this stage sometime down the road before august or in august. and the gop doesn't want to lose those wonderful voters that he's brought on board. so how well they treat ron paul going forward is a very big deal. >> do you feel the party's treating you well, sir? >> i think they're making an attempt to do so. and i think he has something going there. but the part of that interview you should have reported on was his wife saying that their four boys all supported me. so that was the magnificent part of that interview. and maybe tonight he's going to have to discuss it with his sons why he wants me to get out of

the race. >> that's an excellent point. good sense of humor there. you had a great sense of humor at the debate last night including when wolf blitzer asked you about the prospect of your medical records. let's listen. >> if you were elected, are you prepared to release your medical records so voters out there know what your health is? >> oh, obviously. because it's about one page if even that long [ laughter ] >> but i'm willing to -- [ cheers and applause ] >> -- i'm willing to challenge any of these gentlemen up here to a 25-mile bike ride any time of the day in the heat of texas. [ cheers and applause ] >> a couple of questions there. do you ride 25 miles in the heat of texas? and i think i'd pay money to come see that event if you could get the others to show up, sir. >> well, i can. i don't have the time. i usually satisfy myself with about 12 to 15. when i'm not engaged in strict campaigning i'll walk for an hour in the morning and ride my bike in the evening and i love

it and i enjoy it. but an hour or so in the morning or the evening, i mean, there's a limit to how much time i can give to it. but i can do the 25 miles. but you know, i've been thinking about bringing up my medical records. and now, i don't know where to go. i don't know who has my medical records. they're all in my head. i can't go to a physician and say, hey, print out my medical records. because you know we have a lot of physicians in the family. and i don't take any medications. and so therefore i don't have a medical record. so i was really my reflective attitude was, i don't even know if it would fill a page. i guess i could put a page down. i had a surgery here to fix some knees. but other than that i don't have any medical problems. >> congressman paul there a bit earlier today from lewiston, maine. he's a funny man. a lot of claims and allegations thrown around by the candidates in last night's debate. how much truth do they contain? with us tonight bill adair

editor of the pulitzer winning -- let's start with something that governor romney said that has now become a source of contention because speaker beginni speaker gingric think it's true. has he ever voted for a democrat when there was a republican on the ballot? >> i've never voted for a democrat when there was a republican on the ballot. and in my state of massachusetts, you could register as an independent and go vote in either primary happens to be very interesting. and any chance i got to vote against bill clinton or ted kennedy i took. >> put that one to the truth test. >> we gave that a half true on our truth meter. its with a really tough call. we had a pretty passionate discussion about it. weened up giving it a half true because it depends on how you look at it. as he said he voted as an independent, could vote in a democratic primary. he has said he voted for paul songas in 1992 when there were no other republicans on that particular primary ballot. however, he could have voted as

a republican. he could have chosen to vote in the republican primary. so half true on the truth meter ton that one. >> half true. so he does songas. maybe he didn't want to be a pat buchanan guy or george h.w. bush guy. newt gingrich says during his time as speaker he worked closely with president cl-- pre reagan. >> when we balanced the budget with the 1997 balanced budget act and had four consecutive balanced budgets. we doubled the size of the national institutes of health because we set priorities. it is possible to do the right things in the right order to make this a bigger, richer, more exciting country. >> true statement? >> mostly true. and this is an interesting one. because he has been saying this wrong repeatedly. he has repeatedly been saying "when i was speaker i had four balanced budgets." he didn't. two of those budgets occurred after he left office. and what happened is, and it seems to be actually after you asked him about this, he has

now -- he's now getting it pretty much right. the way he said it, the balanced budget act in 1997 and then four consecutive balanced budgets is accurate. just two of those occurred when he was not speaker. the wrinkle for us, his statement kind of attributes the whole thing to the balanced budget act when there were many other factors. mostly the bibooming economy of the late 1990s. so mostly true on that one. >> wouldn't the current president love that big booming economy of late 1990s. one of the testier moments last night, for former massachusetts governor mitt romney came when rick santorum was pressing his case against the massachusetts healthcare plan. what governor romney just said is that government-run top-down medicine is working pretty well in massachusetts and he supports it. now, think about what that means. >> that's not what i said. >> going up against barack obama who you're going claim, well, top-down government-run medicine at the federal level doesn't work and we should repeat it. he's going to say, wait a

minute, governor. you just said top-down government-run medicine in massachusetts works as well. >> senator santorum trying to make the point about government-run top-down medicine. >> we call that mostly false. the reason is, this is a claim that's been made repeatedly about the massachusetts healthcare plan, at one point michele bachmann called it socialized medicine. is it government-run? no. what it is is a system that requires people get private insurance, allows them to keep getting treated by private doctors overwhelmingly. so it's not accurate to call it government-run. the one part of truth to it is that you could say it's top-down in the sense that there is an individual mandate and a requirement for businesses to provide health insurance. so that's the only part of this that's true. so mostly false on the truth meter for that one. >> bill adair, excellent work as always. truth, justice and facts in debates, right? that's what we want? >> you bet. >> it will happen someday. thanks so much. sarah palin is now going

after the republican party establishment and defending newt gingrich in a facebook page posting titled can balances of the gop establishment. she writes "we need a fair primary that is not prematurely cut short by the gop establishment using alinski tactics to kneecap governor romney's chief rival. this primary should not be rush today an end. we need to vet this." the truth about what mitt romney says he doesn't know. plus a new study says girls need to put down all their social media gadgets and try interacting with real people. they want a big hat... a ...'scuse me... ...or a big steak... ...or big hair... i think we have our answer. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

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about last night. mitt romney was by most accounts judged a winner if not the winner of our cnn florida presidential debate. he entered with a lead in momentum. tonight he maintains that lead and his camp believes, anyway, a decent wind at his back. tonight's truth, governor romney wiggled out of a few questions with the i don't know excuse. may have worked last night but he should know better and know more heading into later debates. here's one example. >> you've had an ad running saying that speaker gingrich called spanish "the language of the ghetto." what do you mean by that? >> i haven't seen the ad. i'm sorry. i don't get to see all the tv ads. >> after the debate, romney's spokesman told reporters the candidate does review every campaign ad but can't be expected to recall every one. that's not unreasonable. but maybe future prep sessions

might include a run of the ad actually on the air the week or the day of the debate. when governor romney used the i don't know answer another time, speaker gingrich took issue. >> you'll notice that the governor wasn't aware of the ad he was running. he's not aware of the investments that were being made in his name. >> of course i can't. that's a blind trust. >> comparing my investments with his is like comparing a tiny mouse with a giant elephant. >> truth is this one is a bit birth more problematic for governor romney. not all governor romney's investments in fannie and freddie were -- some not in blind trust. today governor romney's financial advisers says they are part of a separate trust romney uses for charitable contributions. the trustee says governor romney has no role in those investment decisions. okay. so maybe he didn't know. but if he followed his own advice he might have avoided the question. here's what romney said back in 1994 when he raised senator edward kennedy's blind tufts

trusts as a campaign issue. >> the blind trust is an age-old ruse if you will which is to say, you can always tell the blind trust what it can and cannot do. you give a blind trust rules. >> now let's be clear. there's nothing to suggest governor romney's answers were anything but the truth. but truth is, you're on the record about giving a blind trust rules, you can't complain if someone else raises a politically controversial investment. let's begin there with our political pros. senior romney adviser -- to those points there, he knows he's on the record saying this about ted kennedy. shouldn't he be just maybe a little bit more briefed on this and be a little more transparent? or should he maybe have issued rules saying let's get out of fannie and freddie? >> first of all the fact remains the governor when he sat down and discussed where he was going to place his finances when he decided to run for governor, i think going through that course of consideration with whether it was lawyers or other financial advisers, particularly also as well as ethics advisers about

the best way to do that, they probably suggested to him and i suspect the best way to do that was a blind trust. that goes counter to some of the arguments that he made in 1994. but the fact remain that is that decision was made and he has to live it. i think what's more important is the level of tranz parnsy the governor admits to now. that's what the american people are looking for. and they're more inclined to worry about the bigger issues at hand. we saw a lot about this last night. we're talking about adds, financial disclosures, who owns what stock where. that's probably not as important to the american people. i know it's a part of that debate, but i think the governor has worked past those distractions and now is very focused on the issues and i think that's one of the issues cht i think that's what voters care about. >> let's say governor romney, i'm going to put this in a blind trust. i'm not going to be involved so i don't have conflicts of interest. then a political conflict comes up. freddie mac, fannie mae.

especially with housing, the bonds, mutual funds. in the middle of it -- >> but that means in advance. you have to say okay, now, here's a list of all of the entities on the planet and these are the ones you're not allowed to invest in. that's kind of a hard call to say. oh and let's don't forget freddie and fannie. you run for something in 1994 and then 112 years later, somebody comes up with this eight millimeter film of you. >> that's not hd tv back in those days, but you know, if you say something once, fair -- especially today. >> it's hard for me to believe that anybody will, that anybody will change their vote because of fannie and freddie thing. i think what people will change on is how the candidates connected themselves on the stage, in the heat of battle. i thought last night as opposed to last week when gingrich wiped up the floor with everybody, i

thought governor romney did a good job. >> he was more assertive and less defensive in talking about those issues. you know him well. they say he's just a private person. clearly the staff or he's nudged himself into saying, i git. it's a question. i need to open up more. fair? >> fair. also what we had is about a week and a half's worth of experience, mistakes. so, i think that is, but to your first point, too, i think it is something it's not really polite conversation. i think there is a recognition that the media's going to focus on it and the answers are more direct and firm this time. >> so, you know newt. what happened? if you look at the quinnipiac numbers right here, right now, you've got rom n aheney ahead 3.

sunday, monday, gingrich is ahead 38-34. it's a romney wave. >> first of all, clearly, the wave of the first night and those early polls were a reflection of what happened in south carolina and now that the seas are no longer royaled and they're flatting out. i felt very strong, i wrote this for the daily beast, i think newt's tired. he's trying to run every bit of it by himself. he's 68 years old. >> looked and sounded tired. this is the point where everybody's tested. you've done iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, now you're into florida and looking at february and march and starting to wobble a little bit. >> january's a slowest month. >> you get into february the 6 or 7, march, there's like 20 and they start cascading. >> real quickly, too, i am very shocked by the fluidity of this race. we are seeing 15, 20-point swings right now.

i think newt gingrich came out of south carolina with a positive information flow, but once florida voters started to learn angry information, they have seen a very erratic newt a last couple of days and that's not sitting well. >> have a great weekend. florida tuesday, then into february, march and beyond. still ahead, earlier this week, it was google, now, it's twitter announcing a major shift in their privacy policy. plus, the north korea government is warning anyone who uses a cell phone could be punished as a war criminal.

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welcome back. kate bolduan's here with more. >> hello, again, everyone. when north korea declares a period of mourning, they mean it. the telegraph newspaper reports the north korean government reports that anyone who uses cell phone or tries to defect to china during the mourning period for the late kim jong-il will be punished as a war criminal. reuters writes a million north koreans actually have cell phones. twitter is going to start deleting tweets on a case by case basis in countries that require it. for instance, it will delete pro north ameriazi messages in d france. the deleted tweets will remain outside the countries. very, very interesting and facebook could be preparing to

file its initial ipo paperwork next week. the deal is between 75 and $100 billion. "the wall street journal" reports if it is worth it, it will make facebook worth as much as mcdonald's. and too much social media makes you antisocial. a study of 8 to 12-year-old girls suggest young people need to put down the digital gadgets, get offline and engage in amazing, real conversation. the more face time, the better. the reason, one of the researchers says face to face communication helps the person learn about emotions. i think that's probably accurate. >> you watched the debate last night. a pair of canadian teenagers saved up $400 for their own space mission. they strapped lego man to a helium balloon and let