it's going to be the day that florida goes to vote so if you're up at 5:00 a.m. turn us on. see you then. bill: here we go. we are wondering if florida is going to be sunny tore mitt romney a day before the state's primary. romney ahead of newt gingrich by 14 points in the latest "quinnipiac poll"ing. 43% of the vote to newt's 29%. average of all the state polls shows romney up 11 points in that state. remember what they said about south carolina. does anybody know anything? i'm bill hemmer. martha: hope you had a great weekend. welcome back. ite's monday, everybody. i'm martha maccallum.

these polls are showing a pretty wide lead. quinneypy yak say that we may change our minds by tomorrow rolls around. bill: that holds some drama, right? the two top candidates crisscrossing the state launching verbal grenades at each other. romney in the orange. phil keating. at his post in miami. long week of back and forth. >>. >> reporter: yeah, bill a lot has been very negative especially between mitt romney and newt gingrich. negative attacks on tv. nonstop in the i-4 corridor. down in south florida as well. lots of campaign events just like today. tomorrow is the big primary election here in florida. 7:00 p.m. tomorrow night mitt romney certainly expects to be attending a joyous victory party. four or five of the most recent polls come out last three days, all showing romney with a strong lead, ranging from seven percentage points to 14.

newt gingrich was up at the villages where 1,000 people turned out. the villages known for its trademark golf carts, all tricked out by the elderly retirees. he was there hitting romney hard. once again, hammering him for being a liar in the debates, for being liberal governor of massachusetts who was, pro-choice on the abortion issue and romney's team yesterday really hitting it hard on all the campaign stops that he is is a pro-life candidate. bill: gingrich is on the talk shows saying he has been carpet bombed essentially with all the advertising with romney's money and his team. what does gingrich need to do to show the pollsters they're wrong? >> first and foremost before south carolina romney was down here a year, organizing extremely well better than all the other candidates. with all the absentee votes and early votes coming it was perceived romney

definitely had an advantage prior to south carolina when votes were already tallying in. 500,000 of those, 600,000 of those early votes already in. of the two million expected. so what gingrich really need tomorrow is a surprising surge like he got in south carolina on that saturday. he is going to need to pull, according to the analysts half of all votes from people turning out at the polls across the state tomorrow. keep in mind, two time zoneses. central timezone. it will be 8:00 p.m. eastern time tomorrow night when we finally hearing the results how florida's weighs in. bill: thank you, phil, we'll talk to you later this morning, phil keating leading our coverage there. here's martha. martha: meanwhile sarah palin still not endorsing a candidate in this race. she comes very close to it when she talks about what she thinks about newt gingrich. listen. >> i say, you know, you got to rage against the machine

against this point in order to defend our republic and save what is good and secure and prosperous about our nation. we need somebody who is engaged in relentless reform and isn't afraid to shake up that establishment. so, if for no other reason, rage against the machine, vote for newt. annoy a liberal. vote newt. keep this vetting process going. keep the debate going. martha: very interesting, right? so palin says that the republican establishment is trying to anoint mitt romney as the gop nominee. she doesn't like that. she believes newt gingrich would, quote, clobber obama in november election. bill: gingrich also picking up the endorsement of former candidate herman cain making a surprise appearance at a weekend fund-raiser announcing support for the former speaker. >> i hearby officially and enthusiastically endorse newt gingrich for president of the united states! [applause]

i know that speaker gingrich is a patriot, speaker gingrich is not afraid of bold ideas. bill: gingrich was caught by surprise a little bit. herman cain is standing by live. he will join us in a matter of moments to talk about this race and why he now is behind newt gingrich. stand by there. martha? martha: ron paul basically skipping ahead to florida, he is headed to maine where caucuses begin next weekend. the texas kong man is placing a big bet on the west heading to colorado next week. he same in second in nevada four years ago right behind mitt romney. rick santorum is heading back to the campaign trail after his daughter bella quote, had a miraculous turn around according to his family. santorum had headed home to pennsylvania after his youngest daughter was hospitalized with pneumonia. the 3-year-old suffers from

a genetic condition. his eldest daughter elizabeth stepped in for her dad at a rally in florida. >> he will be back. right now family comes first. >> can you give us status update on your sister, what happened and how she is doing now? >> she got sick and right now she is in the hospital. we're hoping she will be better soon. martha: bella is said to be doing much better. santorum is expected at campaign stops in missouri and minnesota today. she looks like her dad, doesn't she? bill: what is trisomc 18. it is a genetic disorder where the child is born with extra copy of chromosome 18. is it is also known as edwards syndrome. most children die within first three months. only 10 to 20% of children live past the age of one. one doctor says bella

santorum is already an exceptional. martha: 15 plus trillion in debt. guess how much of that is your individual share? it is an ugly number, folks. three years ago, the breakdown was like this, $34,000 per american. fast forward to today, our share individually is now $48,000. that shows you how much the debt climbed past several years. no question about it could keep going up. no reason to go any other direction by election day. start varney is with it us. >> good morning, martha. martha: these numbers add up to a pretty ugly picture. >> these are objective numbers. you can't spin the numbers. do the math. each and everyone of us owe $50,000 by election day. we go from 34,000 to 48,000 to, 50,000 since president obama took office. you can not spin those numbers. you can't contradict very hard numbers. the president in his

campaign may try to say that he saved two million jobs. that the economy and the jobs picture are going in the right direction or that the banks did the housing mess but you can't argue with the objective dollar numbers of how much we each and everyone of us owe. it is very clear, there is no jargon here. we're not talking about unfunded liabilities. we're talking about the debt per american. you take the total outstanding debt, divide it by the population that's what you get. the an objective number. you're right, martha, it will keep going up. martha: it has gone up for many, many years in fact. you know when you take a look at that number, you think about the state of the union address, there really wasn't that much attention to trying to cut down cut down that number in that speech. doesn't seem like that is not much of a priority for the president. >> martha, if you go back to the campaign of 2008, then candidate obama said $30,000 in debt per american was

irresponsible and unpatriotic. he was blasting the bush administration and republicans, calling it, unpatriotic. now the number is not 30, 34,000, it is 48,000 and going to 50 and beyond. martha: stuart, thank you. stuart varney from the fox business network. see you in a little while. bill: we heard that over the weekend. some of the stories we're watching include this. a top house republican says the president has the country, quote, on a fiscal train wreck filled with doubt and dekay in the future. fair and balanced debate. martha: plus iran using oil as a weapon. the rogue regime threatening to stop shipping oil to europe. they are a huge recipient of iran oil. what will that do? ambassador john bolton will be here on that. bill: a lot of opinions on that he said. things getting ugly at a occupy protest. why police turned to tear

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martha: some chaos in california and it was all caught on tape. look. [shouting]. martha: police in oakland used tear gas and stun grenade on the occupy movement over the weekend. cops say they had to respond after protesters started throwing rocks and pipes. some protesters crashed city hall and spraying graffiti and the california flags. 400 activists were arrested. >> if you will notice, when you get outside the zone where romney carpet bombs with wall street money you look what is happening with the with of the country, i'm ahead in all three national polls that were released this week. bill: that was newt gingrich talking about the nation. now we're talking about florida and gingrich talking about getting hammered in florida with these ads. now he will not be hammered by our next guest because initially herman cain endorsed the people. today herman cain endorses

newt gingrich, the former republican presidential candidate is now live with me out of his home state of georgia in atlanta. sir, good morning to you, for your time. >> good morning, bill. i still endorse the people and newt gingrich. they're not exclusive of each other. bill: all right. correction noted. why newt gingrich? what do you like about him? >> i like, first of all, he has embraced idea of replacing the tax code and one of the major considerations now in his mind is my "9-9-9" plan, which was a very important issue for me as you know. he hasn't said he is definitely going to do it but he is giving it serious consideration and he has shown that by asking me to be co-chair of his economic growth and jobs plan. secondly, i do believe that newt gingrich can better present the distinction between barack obama and the things we need to do to get this country back on track. it will be clear --. bill: what is wrong with mitt romney. >> i didn't say anything was wrong with myth romney.

the voters are trying to died whether they want mitt romney and his negatives and newt gingrich and his negatives. we don't have a perfect candidate, bill, you know that. this is what the voters are wrestling with. there is nothing wrong with mitt romney. he has a difficult skill set. i think newt's communication skills connecting with the people are stronger than mitt romney. that doesn't mean mitt romney is a bad candidate. bill: have you talked to sarah palin or rick perry or fred thompson or anyone else giving a nod to newt gingrich before your announcement on saturday? >> no. this was an independent decision i made with my people based upon some considerations that i was looking for and we've gotten those considerations. let me also say, i didn't ask newt to promise me anything in terms of a cabinet position. i'm not looking to be vice president. my number one objective is to help newt gingrich replace the tax code when he is president. secondly, to keep the voters focused on solving problems.

rather than all of these distractions that eaten up so much of the attention that really doesn't have anything to do with the ultimate objective of do feeting barack obama. bill: you know, i'm curious to know or, maybe perhaps what your understanding is at the moment, for why the polls have gingrich trailing romney in florida? what's happening there? >> well, what is happening is, romney and his surrogates are outspending newt gingrich five to one. advertising does have an impact, and a lot of it is negative. and you and i both know that negative does put a cloud in some people's mind. same thing happened in south carolina but it backfired. we don't know if it will backfire but, you know, we know it will have an impact, all of the negative against the candidate, yeah it will have an impact but i still think newt is going to do very well.

bill: does newt gingrich win tomorrow? what is your expectation? >> my expectation isn't necessarily that he will win because of the sheer difference in spending but my expectation is that he is going to have a much stronger showing. that the weekend polls have been showing. there is one last night by, one last night that showed that gingrich is a lot closer to romney. so this thing is so dynamic, bill, we won't know until the votes are counted tomorrow night in florida. bill: what do you think happens then if newt gingrich finishes second? >> if he finishes second, i would consider that a win because next he goes to nevada, maine and we've got super tuesday coming up. there is very important state right that is on super tuesday, georgia. and so i happen to believe that if he comes in second, he keeps on going. because he has --. bill: you don't necessarily think if mitt romney is

winner tomorrow in florida that he has it wrapped up? >> absolutely not. and you know, here's where i agree with sarah palin. the establishment wants everybody to think that mitt romney has this thing wrapped up if he wins florida. no, he does not. and so try, trying to preordain who the nominee is going to be by the establishment i don't like that as much as some other people. that is not the main motivation to cause me to support newt. i think newt has superior communication skills, which is what we're going to need to beat barack obama and be able to draw the clear distinction between obama and the solutions that newt wants to put on the table and i want to help him get that message out to the people. bill: one more question. is this primary battle wounding the eventual nominee? >> yes. primarily because of negativity. now, who started it?

governor romney. in ours they tried to pummel newt to death and it did have an impact. what it ended up doing was splitting electorate. you had three people very close. i happen to think you're going to see a splitting of the electorate in florida. if newt were to win i don't think that is slam-dunk. all negative test, -- negative activity, and all digging into the past and all the things relative to tax returns that most the mean american people don't care about, at least most of the voters don't think about, it will be a negatives the nominee will have to deal with in the general election. bill: others argue, you get the dirty laundry out now and not so much of a shock anymore come fall time when everybody votes for real. herman cain thank you for your time this morning. we'll keep tabs on you and talk again with you real soon, okay? >> thanks, bill. thank you. bill: herman cain in

atlanta. martha. martha: there are new developments this morning in the search for a the missing maine toddler, ayla reynolds. the disturbing discovery has police calling her father a person of interest in this case. bill: there is survivor says that it looked like the end of the world. look at this picture carefully. this is deadly pile up in florida that killed 10 people. now what in the world causes this thing? >> i figured if we stayed in the car we would have been dead. i mean you've got cars coming in like 80 miles per hour popping you like that. i didn't know what to do. i got out of the car and just prayed. across the golden state,

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bill: they said it looked like the end of the world. a smoke-filled highway became the scene of a devastating multicar pileup in florida. check out this video of the aftermath. at least 10 were killed

along interstate 75 early sunday morning. at least 18 others injured when the smoke and haze from a nearby brush fire apparently blinding drivers, coupled together with fog in the area. once people started crashing there was almost nothing you could do. >> out of nowhere, boom somebody crashes into him and literally his car goes under the semi-truck, like he is smashed into the semi-truck. we didn't have enough time to react to get out of the car because i'm glad he didn't. as soon as he got hit at least another car came in doing 80 knocked us forward into the first truck. it knock t knocked us along the side of the truck where we didn't do what he did. bill: he is so lucky to be survivor. rescuers were listening for screams. visibility was so poor it made it difficult to find victims. martha: police in maine made

a very disturbing discovery over this weekend in their search for a missing toddler. this is story we covered for you throughout the last few months. six weeks ago, she was then 20 months old, this little girl, ayla reynolds, when she disappeared. police say they have found some of her blood in the home of her father, justin dep.a. throw. rick leventhal live in the newsroom. rick, this is the first major development in terms of any potential evidence we've seen in this in some time. >> reporter: the police spokesman said baby ayla's blood was found earlier in this investigation. some visible with the naked eye and some found with the chemical luminol. the family told me blood was found that. a small cut would produce. ayla has been missing five weeks. saturday at a vigil for the little girl, ayla's father and mother, both appeared in public at same place for the

first time, speaking privately to each other for several minutes. local and state police searched the father's home extensively after all la was missing. justin, the girl friend and ayla's aunt. they said someone must have snuck in and snatched ayla and left. maine department of public safety spokesman says the adult stories don't pass the straight face test. saying quote, the verse. events in the adults told last night are not backed up by any evidence. police have not named suspects. justin said all along he has no idea who might be responsible, martha. martha: what are the parents saying about this blood being found? >> reporter: ayla's mother was clearly upset at vigil and she was trying to process the information. justin wouldn't answer any questions. he came to the event to at waterville city hall to support his daughter and the community. you see the couple together. the bliss call the blood find significant and troubling.

they released news because they need information from the public and think this might help. police say no one has been ruled in or out as a suspect in this case, which could be abduction, accidental death or even murder, martha. martha: very sad and a lot of questions about the adults who were in that house. rick, thank you very much. rick leventhal. >> reporter: sure. martha:. bill: we're hearing more about new threats out of iran. vowing to stop oil exports to european countries. the ripple effect that might hit you the at pump. martha: not good news. the gop using words of one of the president's fiercest supporters against him. democratic chairwoman responds. >> right when that primary ended two days later i endorsed president obama and spent the rest of the campaign fiercely advocating for him. now i'm proud to support hill for his re-election.

martha: we have new reaction coming in from dnc share, debbie wasserman schultz after the rnc released a new web ad calls out the florida congresswoman initially supporting hillary clinton back during the 2008 presidential elections. here is a walk down memory lane. take a look. >> florida is going to deliver a tremendous victory tonight for senator hillary clinton who will be the next president of the united states!. >> hillary. hillary.

hillary. hillary. hillary. hillary. hillary. hillary. hillary. ♪ . martha: hmm, very creative. this morning the dnc chairwoman stressed her support now for president obama and here she is, doing that on "fox and friends" this morning. take a look. >> remember how forcefully i supported hillary clinton you know, when i grew up i was raised to believe that a little girl in america could be grow up and anything she wanted to be, even president of the united states. actually right when that primary ended two days later i endorsed president obama and spent the rest of the campaign fiercely advocating for him. now i'm proud to support him for his re-election because he has done a incredible job as president of the united states. martha: there you have it. joined by bob cusack, editor of "the hill." when you pull these things out it takes

you back to those days of that fierce fight between hillary clinton and barack obama. you see that rnc ad that says debbie wasserman schultz schultz refused to back barack obama until a couple days later until he turned out to be the nominee. this happens in elections, right? >> that's right. martha, democrats think mitt romney will win the nomination. this is all about that. the rnc going after debbie wasserman schultz. we know what the dnc is going to do shut mitt romney win the nomination. they will recycle what his competitors, his rivals said during the primary. there is lot of material there. newt gingrich calling mitt romney a liar. there are more of this out there. the rnc will be using later this year. this is just the beginning. martha: you bring up such a great point, bob. they are preparing themselves perhaps, for what they know is to come. mitt romney ran once before. he has got several years of people who will now be supporting him pointing the finger at him and pointing out what they saw then as his foibles, right?

>> that's right. that's right. the other weakness that romney has democrats likely already gone after him is being a flip-flopper. republicans are getting ready research of what president obama promised as, on the campaign trail but hasn't delivered as president. so, there are weak spots on both sides. they want to shore up their weaknesses going into the fall. martha: you know, the one thing i wonder about the rnc ad, obviously, i would imagine trying to influence independent voters, you know, who look at the president now and maybe they voted for him and maybe they were going to vote for hillary clinton early on too. >> right. martha: perhaps who they want to watch the ad, say, hmm, i don't think things turned out that well. i want to look at this gop candidate whoever they may be? >> no, that's right. democrats believe romney is the strongest candidate as far as the general election. that's why they have been going after him so hard. conservatives dispute that, saying they have nominated moderates before. this is the kind of research

we'll see. independent voter, martha is very important. they supported president obama in 2008. they abandoned him in 2010. so, 2012, who gets independent vote will probably win this thing. martha: huge issue, absolutely. bob, thank you so much, bob cusack, good to talk to you. >> thanks, martha. bill: there are new threats, new threats over oil out of iran as u.s., as international inspectors arrived to check on tehran's nuclear program. meanwhile the nights -- united states for its part plans to send a floating military base dubbed the mothership as tensions continue to rise. defense secretary leon panetta says the u.s. will do whatever it takes to make sure the iran does not go nuclear. >> if we get intelligence they're proceeding with developing a nuclear weapon we'll take whatever steps are necessary to stop them. >> including military steps? >> there are no options that are off the table. bill: ambassador john bolton, former u.n. bam ambassador

to the u.n. and mr. ambassador, good morning to you. the inspectors, do they get anything done this time or not? >> i think this is largely propaganda effort by iran to try to show cooperativeness and transparency to buy more time frankly to avoid the impact of the new sanctions and continue to make progress on their new program. bill: they have been coy about the stalling operation for years now and you say it is only going to continue? >> right. for example, they made a big deal the u.n. inspectors will visit the fordo facility, deeply buried plant. but the u.n. inspectors have been there before. there is possibility they will pickup new information. you can expect iran rehearsed meetings very carefully so they don't tip off about their weapons program. bill: the oil could spike to 150 bucks a barrel. that is always possible during times of tour mill. do you believe that? >> they're trying to threaten an intimidate

europe and the united states with obviously very weak economic recovery in both space as massive spike in oil would have very negative consequences. bill: this is all intimidation? >> it is all an effort to get the united states and europe to back off. they have used negotiations very successfully in the past. i think they're trying to do it again. bill: you heard what panetta said. listen to that carefully. that is the first time he has suggested this. >> that is the problem. he keeps suggesting it and we don't do anything about it. if we have evidence toward a nuclear weapon we would take action that is what they have been doing for 20 years. we don't need anymore evidence. there is simply no explanation for any number of things involved in the iranian nuclear program unless it is weapons-related. they're now very close as secretary panetta sate himself, within a year. bill: you say the spotlight this year is still on israel. why? >> i think it is clear the obama administration will not use military force against the iranian nuclear programs. i wish i could say i was

wrong on that. i just don't see it. which means the only alternative sis rail. they have to make an extraordinarily hard decision whether overobama administration opposition they will use force pause iran is so close to getting the weapons capability. bill: israel doesn't like to telegraph anything in terms of a military hit. nobody does. >> they won't telegraph anything. we'll learn about it after the raid is already over. bill: mr. ambassador, thank you. the attention of the 60 minutes speech got our attention. thank you for coming in today. >> thank you. bill: martha, what's next? martha: attorney general eric holder is set to face congress. a congressional hearing once again. it will happen this week. there are new questions now being raised what he knew about "fast and furious." we're going to talk to the first congressman who called for holder to step down. we'll ask him what he plans to ask the attorney general when he comes face-to-face with him on thursday. bill: also paul ryan saying that the president is misleading the country about the real estate of that number there, the debt.

while questioning his policies. did you hear this? >> the president can't run on his record. it is a miserable record. he is not going to change his tune and moderate like bill clinton did in 199. he is really stuck with his ideology. he has no choice but to divide. [ hermann ] there's always something that's going to have to be done by a certain date. you always have homework, okay? i don't have homework today.

it's what's right here is what is most important to me. it's beautiful. ♪ ♪

martha: here are some of the stories we're watching in "america's newsroom." the u.s. embassy in cairo is offering shelter to u.s. citizens working in egypt. a crackdown on pro-democracy groups caused serious concerns there after the u.s. transportation secretary's son was not allowed to leave the country. tensions rising there. >> you're looking at what will be the world's most expensive office tower. "wall street journal" says the price tag for one world trade center now more than $3.8 billion. that is up 700 million from the last public estimates. one expensive building. another small step towards sending americans back into space.

nasa set to launch the orion spacecraft for a test flight sometime in early 2014. the orion is the potential replacement for the now retired space shuttle fleet. that will help us get a moon colony going though. bill: how about that? we will be the first residents that will be a road trip. accusations from top republican that president obama is not being truthful about our economy. congressman paul ryan came out swinging questioning the president's policies. as the national debt clock ticks past the 15 trillion dollar mark. here is ryan on "fox news sunday" with chris wallace. >> this war savings is mythical money. we'll not spend all the extra money in afghanistan and iraq in the future. therefore we take that money we would have otherwise borrow and spend on all the other programs. the president isn't leading. the president isn't being truthful with the american people what kind of fiscal train wreck is coming. bill: mitt romney supporter

and jeb bush spokesman. kirsten powers worked on the clinton-gore team. writes for "the daily beast" and fox news contributor. does everything. ryan came out swinging i mentioned with chris wallace talking about a fiscal train wreck and talking about future of debt, doubt and decline. what are we to make of this, justin? >> right on. i say right on to representative ryan. members of congress and republicans need to call president obama out. where is his deficit reduction plan? we have a 15 troll trillion deficit. it is a top issue for many voters across the country and he hasn't done anything this year to seriously propose reducing the federal debt. kudos to representative ryan. i hope more republicans in congress do that. bill: where is the debt plan, kirsten? the white house talks about 2 trillion whether from this pile or that pile. what do you say to justin? >> well, i think it is right that obviously the debt is out of control and i don't think a lot has been done to

address that issue and it's a huge issue, particularly among independent voters who are really ones that will decide the election. bill: indeed you're right about that. is he haver inable on that front, do you think. >> sure, absolutely. independent voters have a major concern there is too much spending. democrats come into sort of ironically, in my opinion considering how much money republicans spent when they were in control but democrats do sort of come in with this idea the they're the people that spend a lot of money. he already has that built in against him. he has to, you know overcome the fact that the deficit has been increasing and show that he is serious about decreasing it. bill: if that is the case, this will be a huge issue whether it is romney or gingrich, justin. >> absolutely it will be a huge issue. here in florida, almost 50% of the homeowners in south underwater on their mortgage. the home is worth less than the mortgage. add on top of that trillion and trillions of dollars of

federal debt being passed on to our children i think it will become a huge issue. there is too much debt, too much red ink. the people that propose solutions to getting at that red ink and getting at the debt they will have electoral advantage. president obama is leaving himself very, very have anotherable in swing states like florida if he doesn't have a plan to take on the national debt. bill: kirsten, let's talk about leadership. that is what paul ryan was talking about in the interview. talking about pole tested lines in the state of the union address with no follow-up what ryan accuses. outsourcing leadership to committees and decrying results of those committees. >> well, i have to say i thought paul ryan's interview sounded like a bunch of republican talking points. i don't think he elevates the discussion very much. i know a lot of republicans think he is really great but he is person to help helped start the fire. bill: you're the one said the president is vulnerable on the debt? >> the president can be vulnerable and the debt and

paul ryan could be giving political speech. those two things can be true. i think the way he makes it out somehow this, that paul ryan so so serious about this and barack obama isn't. the truth is neither of them are particularly serious about it. paul ryan found religion when barack obama became president. prior to that he was voting for tarp and bailouts and every single deficit budget president bush put up there, deficit spending for the wars. i could go on and on. bill: paul ryan put forward entitlement reform too? >> which nobody really wants to adopt in the republican party. so, you know --. bill: he is the one who signed his name to it. justin what about this. >> well, yes. president is president of the united states. he is the leader of our country. it is up to him to lead. if he is not willing to lead on issue he needs to be replaced. i mean for him to say that paul ryan didn't get religion. okay, when will president obama get religion on tackling the federal debt? he barely even mentioned it

in his state of the union address last week. i think that tells voters all they need to know where his priorities are. he is trying to soak the rich. he wants to increase taxes on well think. that seems to be his only plan to reduce the deficit. that is not going to sell well. bill: sounds like a campaign that will be borne out for nine months. justin i asked you about florida. kirsten, can president win florida given this climate with foreclosures and issues about health care and, and the unemployment rate in florida at 9.9%? >> well, i mean these are the big, i mean across the country the unemployment rate is obviously a huge issue for him. hard to say what will happen with obama until we know who the candidate will be that he is running against. if he is running against gingrich, yes. if he is running against romney he has a much tougher race. bill: kirsten, thank you. interesting stuff. >> thank you. bill: justin, thanks to you as well. >> thank you. bill: big vote tomorrow in florida. thanks, justin. see you guys later. martha: who wants to be a billionaire?

you know that game? would be nice to be billionaire. facebook going public. this is a huge story, folks. can you get rich by friending facebook? bill: how about it. martha: how about it? bill: a new twist to a murder mystery. a woman found strangled in the back seat of a mercedes-benz only miles from her home. the person of interest that put her family in shock. >> i'm doing what i need to do to cooperate with the authorities who find who did this to my wife.

martha: facebook is about to update its status you might say. according to "the wall street journal" the social networking giant could go public this week and the company is reportedly valued, hold onto your hat, folks, somewhere between 75 and $100 billion. so that means the market cap of this company would be

similar to mcdonald's, citigroup, amazon, and bank of america. some of the country's biggest names. fox business network's cheryl casone joins me now. cheryl, good to have you here. this drama has been unfolding since the big movie, the social network. you watched the guys make all the money off this company and facebook is absolutely everywhere. now the excitement regular shareholders at some point may be able to own a piece of it. >> a lot of excitement but how is this ipo actually going to perform? remember, we already had a few examples of internet ipos over last six months trading below their ipo price. pan door remarks the music site. zynga, was kind of a disaster when it went public. looked a linkedin, groupon. you have to be careful. there is a lot of hype around this. remember a lot of big money investors already have massive stakes in this company. even if the journal reports they go public between april and may average investors

can't get into this, day two, day three, after the money has already been made by the banks. martha: exactly. >> all the guys that got into facebook back in 2004. martha: there is huge drama going on between morgan stanley and goldman sachs. both of them want to be the company to bring this company public because it will be a huge, huge headline but as you point out in terms of small investors should they try to buy this stock on, day two or day three? is it sort of, is it a safe, considered a safe investment by analysts on wall street?. >> analysts at this point, i have coming on my show on fbn at noon, says you need to be careful because of valuation. a 100 dal billion valuation at top of the range? that is massive. google, an internet valued the same as amazon internet site but different stream of businesss? even google. compare google to face back. -- facebook. google has several difficult lines of businesses. they have been using their

cash since they went public to buy extra lines of businesses for cash flow. it is all about cash flow. you can have 800 million come to the site but will they stay there? are advisetores growing to pay enough money to keep the users on the site and keep money flowing into facebook? also, remember, martha, zuckerberg is 27 years old. no offense to the kids out there, but i hope you're in harvard making a new one but 27 years old, guys. he will be under a lot of pressure. wall street wants results every three months. if you think about it, --. martha: steve jobs, look at back at some of the companies people said were overvalued early on and steve jobs made millions when he was still a very young man. you can't get through your day without tripping over that little blue f in the box somewhere along the line. seems like it does have potential, long-term growth as well. changed the way we all communicate. >> there is so much excitement. this is the biggest ipo that we have seen frankly in a decade.

the biggest internet ipo potentially ever. he was creating facebook in his dorm room when google was going public in 2004. >> i wonder when they get to the dorm room. >> bring them in. martha: thank you, cheryl. interesting exciting day with the facebook story. bill: they have a lot of friends. martha: a lot of friends. bill: for a life time. first a disaster. now this massive lawsuit. how much money some of the passengers on that doomed italian cruise ship are suing for. will they get it? can they get it? and do they deserve it? martha: fresh new numbers, folks that answer one of the big questions on the campaign trail this morning. which candidate stacks up best against president obama as florida voters give some advice now to the candidates? >> i will have the full recommendation for newt gingrich, mitt romney, residents of florida to address the economy and some of the decisions before i mention, before they start talking about foreign policy. or even 20 years?

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martha: trailing the president by about 14 points in those same numbers. that's how we start a brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." good to have you with us on this monday morning, i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. the numbers tell part of the story. newt gingrich vowing a fight to the finish in this race. >> we will go all the way to the convention. i believe the republican party will not nominate a pro-abortion, progun control, protax increase moderate from massachusetts. i think they will not nominate

somebody who raises millions from wall street to run ads that are false. martha: chris stirewalt joins me now, fox news. there are a lot of people out there that are not sure who they are going to vote for. >> reporter: when you see what has gone, the huge swings. we are watching the latest polls coming in. there is some reason for newt gingrich to be hopeful but obviously mitt romney is in the cat bird seat right now in florida and hopes what he does there re-establishes him as the inevitable nominee for the gop jo . martha: a really interesting story in "the new york times" that pats the campaign staff on the back saying that after south carolina they realized the mitt romney team, that they were in a tough spot if they were to lose

florida to newt gingrich. that began a barrage of what was seen in this really very negative campaign back and forth between the two of them. what do you make them, do they deserve the credit in this story? >> reporter: obviously governor romney deserves the credit. he was willing to deal with the issue that was hanging over his head when he left south carolina, his tax returns. he went down to florida, let them out. he put the tax returns out, took the heat and did that. that was the thing that he needed to do to get beyond a lot of what was doing him in south carolina. martha: there is also a story, a florida bush, a jeb bush, of course stays silent and to many that says a lot, is the headline. does that say a lot that jeb bush is silent? his father backed mitt romney, how about jeb wish. >> reporter: he's on chroni on

chroniseen as iconic in the republican party. mitt romney may be running out in front in floor, he's a controversial candidate in florida because of the things the speaker was attacking him for when he was governor of massachusetts. i think it's probably the discretion is the better part of value or for jeb bush. he's going to hold that become and keep his vie little and attractiveness to conservatives. martha: thank you so much. chris stirewalt, we'll be seeing you during the process as we get rolling in florida tomorrow. bill: mitt romney laughing off comments by newt gingrich who referred to the norme former massachusetts governor as the establishment candidate. here is romney responding earlier today on fox & friends. >> it's a nice try on his part but it's not selling here in florida, it certainly didn't sell in ham happen. he was abl new hampshire.

he was able to get away with it in south carolina. if there is anybody that is a washington insider it's gingrich. he spent his career there since 1978, he's been selling influence in washington for the last 15 years. if people believe you can change washington by elec electing the same people and putting them in different chairs he's their guy. but if they want change they have to vote for me. bill: mos some believe also within tomorrow. there is a new brand-new poll out that came out about a half an hour ago. these go to the 12 battleground states that are up for grabs right now. if you take a hypothetical at the moment and were to say that mitt romney is the republican candidate up against barack obama, there are 12 states in play and i want to show you on a map based on the results of 2008 just how close some of these staeurts. re states are, red is

republican, blue is democrat in the background here. this is south carolina, in the race four years ago, 50% to 50% automatic of more than 4.2 million votes cast. obama won north carolina by .4% of the vote. the another close race was down here in florida yet again, a couple of years ago, mccain losing to obama by 2.5% out of 8.3 million votes cast in the sunshine state. that is very close. that's why again florida is a battleground state. we always have to mention ohio, the buckeye state will be critical again. you see the difference in the vote margin here. obama winning by about 4.5, almost 5% in ohio and ohio is back in that battleground area, that pile of states as well. also virginia, this is a state that barack obama won defeating john mccain four years ago. virginia went with a democrat for the first time since 1964, four years ago. those are four of the 12

battleground states that are so close right now to determine the outcome and who wins this thing come november. we'll keep an eye on owl that. martha. martha: mitt romney is not only surging ahead in the polls in florida, politico is reporting he's also outstanding newt gingrich by nearly $12 million on the florida airwaves. we've heard so many times money is a huge, important factor in the florida race, such a big state, so much to do with that money, the romney calm main and the super pack, restore our future stepbding just over $15. gingrich wink our future, nearly $3 million. former candidate herman stain announced over the weekend his support for newt gingrich. mr. cain joining us in "america's newsroom." he had in to say about tomorrow's primary. >> the establishment wants everybody to think that mitt romney has this thing wrapped up if he wins florida. no, he does not.

this thing is so dynamic, bill, we won't know until the votes are counted tomorrow night in florida. martha: herman cain wants to keep this thing open and phofplgt he says it's a fluid race in florida. keep it here on fox news, we will be reporting on the florida primary all through the day tomorrow and special coverage tomorrow night which begins at 6:00pm eastern. herman cain and sarah palin want to see this thing stay hop. mitt romney would like to wrap it up tomorrow night. bill: we have a vote tomorrow, a couple ones in february and super tuesday, on the 6th of march. major development on the crackdown of syria. they say they have retaken control of key suburbs around damascus. the blood sed said to have left 20 people dead in the last 24 hours alone. leland vittert has the story. how significant is this.

>> reporter: it seems like the syrian free army is trying to spin this as what they are calling a strategic withdrawal. from first-hand accounts on the ground it sounds nothing less than the syrian army wanting to wrurb any resistance that was there inside of the suburbs. the arab league observers have left and the violence is only getting worse. this is the first real battles we are seeing between the syrian free army and government loyalists and it's showing the huge difference here in the amount of fire power. the syrian free army is made up of rebel deserters, people who left the government forces and went over to the other side and want to kick president bashar al-assad out. they are fighting with ak-47s and rocket procee rocket-propelled grenades. bill: is there any sign that their support is wea weakening. >> reporter: not exactly. they are protecting syria not only by the arab league but also in the united nation,esess

special lee russia that holds the key veto power. there has been talk that there will be talks but it's uncertain about military options from the western world. martha: talks with iraq over a long-term security issue. this is one of the biggest issues as we close the chapter. the two sides are expected to sit down within the next two months to discuss future security ties and whether iraq can continue to defend itself without u.s. assistance. u.s. combat troops officially withdrew from iraq in december. since then more than 400 people have been killed in attacks across the country. bill: the attorney general eric holder said in testify yet again on fast and furious.

this after the murder of brian terry. >> brian ultimately came home that christmas. we buried people here the house where he was raised, on christmas day. bill: the call for holder's resignation and ask him what we want to know and what we node to know when the attorney general faces congress yet again, martha skwhrao coming up on thursday. speaker of the house pwoepbd house saying john boehner foreign policy could be unamerican? coming up. bill: you would not believe what the bidding war is out for a sit down with kate middleton's little sister. pippa i say, huh? martha: pippa. [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery?

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bill: and american aid worker rescued by seal team six from satisfactory molly pirates in a daring raeusd on her way home fine hraoefpl the defense part saying she is on a commercial flight back to pennsylvania after spending several days recuperating at a base in italy and reuniting with her husband. the same team that took out osama bin laden freeing buchanan and a fellow aid worker in a nighttime mission on the ground in somalia about a week ago. martha: today, there are new questions about the justice department, as they have released another document dump late friday afternoon, these new emails came out and they refer to the botched gun-running operation known as fast and furniture rust. th furious. eric holder will testify this week at. they will talk about what he

knew about fast and furious and what he knew it. here is testimony from eric holder on two different occasions on this matter. >> what did you know about the program officially known about fast and furious. >> i'm not sure of the exact date. but i probably heard about fast and furious over the last new weeks. my testimony before the house committee did say a few weeks. i probably could have said a couple of months. i don't think that what i said in terms of using the term a few weeks is inaccurate base owned what happened. martha: that was november of that year. raul labrador was the first lawmaker to formally recall for eric holder to resign. he's on the committee that will be questioning the attorney general this week. good to have you here, congressman, welcome. >> thanks for having me, mart in a. martha: what do you think is revealed in the new documents dumped friday evening from the department of justice. >> the question all along has

been what did he know and when did he know it. he has been denying he knew anything about the program. now we find out the death after the death of agent terry, the border patrol agent that died because of this program, his chief of staff found out about it, his chief of staff told him about the shooting of brian tear re, but we don't have any evidence about what information was given to the attorney general. but it's pretty amazing to me the attorney general would actually find out that one of his officers was killed by some guns and he didn't ask any in-depth questions about it. martha: i mean, that shutting of the border agent, i remember we reported it here when it happened. so that became public knowledge pretty much right away. the questions are how that information was transmitted in terms of whether or not there was a connection to the guns that were found at the scene. let's pull up some of this email that has gone back and forth here, because this comes from

mr. burke in arizona, in the attorney general's office there, and it goes to the deputy chief of staff for eric holder. it says i've alerted the ag, holder, the acting ag, et cetera. he followed updates that day with wilkinson the contact from arizona, and told will con son who was holder's deputy that the guns that were found at the scene were from fast and furious. he says guns -- the guns found in the desert near the murder of the officer connect back to the investigation that we were going to talk about. they were the ak-47s purchased at the phoenix gun store. it begs a huge question here, if he told eric holder the attorney general that this border agent went down and he died subsequently, why would they not go back to them and say, and they also just told us that the guns found at the scene were connect towe connected to this program? >> that is the question. they told him about the

shooting, they told him that the agent had died and now he wants us to believe that he didn't ask any additional questions. so, as i said from the beginning, i said, he's either lying, or he's incompetent. this is a man h has such callous indifference that he wasn't going to follow-up on what happened to agent perry and how the people got these guns. that is preposterous. martha: if mr. wilkinson who worked for eric holder was told in this email that they believe the guns found at scene had a connection to fast and furious, has he been questioned, mr. wilkinson? why would you not then pass that information along to the attorney general? >> you know, that's what the questions have been asked to all the people. he's no longer in the office of the attorney general. martha: right. >> we have been asking the question of all these questions, and we are going to continue to ask. that's why we're having this

hearing on thursday. we want to know exactly what the attorney general new. now we have the information that the chief of staff found out the day after terry's death and had information with the attorney general, how could he come to congress and tell us he didn't know anything about fast and furious and didn't know anything about the death of brian terry, or the link between fast and furious and the death of brian terry jo that is the big questio. martha: that is the big question in my mind. why wouldn't he translate that information while he was telling him all this other stuff. euflt doesn't makit doesn't make a whole lot of sense. basically the department of justice is saying that the information was never transmitted to the attorney general, that he knew that brian terry was killed, did not know until the time period that he references that he was familiar with the rest of the story. bill: we'll await another hearing and there will be headlines from that for sure. costa cruise lines offered

passengers a few thousand bucks for the tragedy in italy. they made a counter offer in court. martha: she was found strangled in the back seat of her car found in a dark alley. the mystery unfolding in the motor city. >> i was shocked and devastated and i can't believe that such a violent crime took her life. >> it's horrific to be honest with you. there is not a lot of information about what actually happened. ♪

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martha: 23 minutes past the hour now. investigators are looking at the investment firm mf pwhroebl sayinpwhroebl saying thatf

global saying that the money lost, it's doubtful it will ever be found again. 30 people are dead following a devastating cold snap. emergency crews are urging people to stay inside in parts of eastern europe. temperatures dropping below minus 4 degrees. a curbing blow for dozens of students mistakingly told they had been accepted to vasser college. unclear how the historically female school made such a huge faux pas. very tough story for those kids that thought they got in and that turned out to not be the case. bill: they sent the email too soon. martha: i think snail mail might be the better way to go. bill: recall that sucker. lesson learned too. a motor city mystery. her husband a person of interest after he flunked a pol a polygraph test.

per bod her body was found strangled in the back of her car. here is her husband after they spent hours interrogating them. >> it's unthinkable what she had to suffer. they say start closist to the home and spread out. i'm doing what i need to do to cooperate with the authorities to find who did this to my wife. bill: former f.b.i. investigator bill daley here on this. good morning, bill. there has not been a murder in this town in 20 years. now you have a case here where hard drives are taken from inside the house, photographs eve are taken, search dogs are going through the woods to look for evidence. they are looking for a motive, aren't they. >> they need to rule out the husband. that's usually what happens in these cases the nearest of kin, family members the spouse need to be ruled out so they can focus on who at large may be responsible for this.

looking at computer drives, cellphone activity. in other cases cellphone activity, where they were used is very information in determining where people are. this will be very information to perhaps rule in or rule out a member of the family. bill: police are saying they do not believe this mother, a mother of two by the way, and a marketing executive was killed in her car. why is that significant? >> well, it's significant because you would say to yourself, well then what is the motive? if she wasn't killed in her car was she, you know, killed elsewhere in some other establishment? was she killed, someone trying to carjack the car, which doesn't make sense because the car is found with her in it. it really raises a lot of questions as to exactly where the ultimate crime scene is as opposed to where her body was found. bill: how would you know that? or do you even know that answer? >> i don't know that answer, but what you can do is you can start to look at activity, you know,

perhaps in the car, you'd look at signs of struggle, you'd actually want to also look for cameras, perhaps in the area where this car was dropped off. we found many times that leads are found by all the closed circuit cameras that are in nearby buildings. understanding how this car got there, who left it off at what time will be very important in understanding the time of death. a pathologist can determine the time somebody died. if it was there or elsewhere they can pin that time of death a little bit more accurate. bill: the husband was interviewed on four hours on friday night. he called his children around 11:30 at night wondering if they had heard from their mother. has there been any movement in that investigation with him since friday night? >> we understand he was called into the police station. he underwent a polygraph examination. certainly his ability to be able

to provide an alibi, a timeline, activity, whether it's on a computer, cellphone, pda, what have you is important whether the police look at him as a suspect or person of interest or rule him out. bill: bill, thank you. bill dale lease, it's unfolding as we speak on the outskirts of detroit, michigan. martha: house speaker john boehner is standing by his comments saying that president obama's economic message is quote, almost unamerican, he says, so what exactly did he mean by that? senator ron johnson will join us live here, he's already here in the studio, coming up in a moment. bill: also only donald trump can make death seem like an exloose clues exclusive a affair, he's carving out a new resting

place for the biggest spenders.

martha: fox news alert for you right now, a bit of economic information for you that might be a hopeful sign for the u.s. economy. incomes up half of a percent. the commerce department reporting that incomes rose last month .5%, that is the biggest jump, folks, that we've seen in nine months for incomes. it's the strongest increase since a similar gain back in march. consumer spending, however, was unchanged. people making a little bit more

but not spending more. following weak gains in october and november. people may be saving some of that new income, not a terrible idea. bill: president obama's economic message is quote almost unamerican. that from the most powerful republican in washington, house speaker john boehner sipping the president for, quote, running on the politics of division and envy. >> the president doubled down on the same failed policies that have not worked, as a matter of fact they've made the economy worse, higher taxes, more spending, more regulation. what i'm talking about here is the politics of dividing america. i mean this is not the america way. and, you know, if the president won't work with us to help create jobs i'm sure the american people will elect someone who will. bill: senator ron johnson is a republican on the senate budget committee. good morning to you. nice to see you in person instead of those marble hauls on

capitol hill. nice to see you. where are we going with this argument? >> let's face it the president is trying to divide us. after running a campaign where he said he was going to unite us all. and we have a totally different world view. this president wants to grow government, he wants government to control our lives. he's all about government intrusion into our lives, where as republicans we understand that it's the private sector that creates long-term self sustaining jobs. that's what we need to focus. we have to grow our economy if we expect to create jobs. it's a fetal lee different view. bill: a lot of republicans talk about the politics of envy, and that may or may not be true, but will it work? >> i think if we just layout really what our prescription for america is, really putting us on a path to prosperity, where we want to actually utilize our domestic energy resources, we would like to enact progrowth

tax reform, we certainly don't want to see the healthcare law get implemented, that's going to destroy our healthcare system and our budget, and let's face it, this administration has put its regulatory agencies on hyperdrive. it is choking off businesses and job creation. one of my pieces of legislation was a regulation moratorium, let's call a time out to give businesses a time to heel. bill: i know hour a businessman yourself and that's the background you brought to washington. that's what propelled you to a stunning upset over russ feingold, a longtime serving senator in your state. john boehner was asked over the weekend if there was anything in the state of the union that he liked. did you like -- >> it was small ball. to me it's a magician slight of hand, don't pay attention to what is happening behind that curtain, look over here. this president is amassing debt. 4trillion in the last three years, it will be over

$5 trillion when he hopefully leaves the president seat. and so he doesn't want to concentrate on that. he can't run on his record. no, he is trying to divide us. i know all the stuff that is poll tested, i know it sounds g. i think his hope and change has become, i'm for the grand bargain what is it. it's not on a piece of paper, he's never described it to the american public, it's all pull-tested phrases, fair, bad. we actually need to seat proposal. bill: we are a little fair & balanced around here. >> that's great. bill: it sounds like paul ryan was talking with chris wallace over the weekend. the house has passed a number of measures that they call their jobs bills and they go nowhere in the senate they have heavy criticism toward the democratic laden senate over there. we saw a poll that came out two hours ago. is your home state on that list? is wisconsin still a swing state or do you think that is solidly democratic. >> absolutely not, we are a swing state. bill: make your case. >> let's face it look what

happened. in the last election we totally replaced a democratic senate and we elected a republican senate, republican governor, republican u.s. senator and we kind of turned wisconsin red. again we realize that we have to enact real programs, concentrate on growth and creating jobs, that's what governor walker is doing, that's what i'm trying to do here in congress. bill: ron johnson, thank you for your time, we'll speak to you down the road okay? >> thanks nor having me in. bill: fair & balanced. >> the right way. bill: thank you, senator. martha: tomorrow's g.o.p. primary in florida is not the only race being closely watched tomorrow. some 3,000 miles away in oregon the first congressional election of the year could tell which way the political winds are blowing in 2012. dan springer is on the story live. how deep can we look into the crystal ball on this one. >> reporter: all politics are said to be local.

in some cases you can look at the crystal ball and say it does look at the mood of the country. the big question, martha is how much of the economy is weighing on voters and how much if any blame will stick to president obama. he won this by 20 points four years ago but his popularity has taken a hit in the state where the unemployment rate is above the national average at 9%. the democrat in the race is a state senator, considered a rank-and-file democrat who has led in the polls consistent leave. democrats have an 11% advantage in registered voters here. in recent weeks she has been attacked by her opponent for her ties to the district's former congressman david woo, his bizarre behavior like degrees up in a tiger suit and allegation -fs a sex scandal led to his resignation in august. >> your husband was david woo's attorney. and he fought against writing anything about woo at stanford. >> david woo is gone from office 0, it's a good thing he's gone from office, he needed to

resign. >> reporter: though attacks may be taking some effect early polls have her leading by 11 points. a recent poll had her lead down to 4 points. martha. martha: who knew we'd get another chance to look at david woo in a tiring suit. >> reporter: can't see it enough. martha: how important is this for democrats? how badly do they need to hold this seat in oregon. >> reporter: they've had the seat since 1974, 38 years. they want to keep with the democratic congressional committee has dumped $1.4 million in ads. he is a moderate that has failed to light a fire under the conservative base. he's angered tee partyers on a number of stancess. he hopes moderate positions will lead him to get democrats that are unhappy with the direction of the country, martha. martha: thank you very much, dan springer, not in a tiger suit, a regular suit. bill: at the moment. martha: exactly. bill: the donald wants to spend eternity on the golf course.

donald trump considering an exclusive new cemetery next to trump national in new jersey, a members only burial ground he says. a special section reserved for trump and his family. he needs state approval to pull it off. folks are dying to get in there. badum, badum. martha: everybody wants to spend the rest of their lives in new jersey. we have to look into that. this is not a funny story at all, it's that pleasure cruise that turned into a huge tragedy and disaster . what kind of compensation, think about this should these passengers get? wait until you hear how much they want. bill: also, erin brockovich investigating a mysterious illness affecting high school girls, they still don't know what is causing this. she says she is not getting a whole lot of cooperation. >> it's really upsetting because these girls are all really good

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bill: follow-up on a group of teenage girls in new york state that developed torette-like symptoms. getting attention from erin brockovich. she sent a team to leroy high school over the weekend. they were apparently met, we're told with some resistance. >> it's been limited access. we were not allowed to take any samples. we were policed rather closely. we will continue to seek that approval, and i hope that the community will seek that out with their school district and the authorities in the community. bill: the state health department tested the school and ruled on it sraoeurpb menta out environmental factors in upstate new york. martha: brand-new reports from the italian cruise ship tragedy. we are hearing that a massive lawsuit is in the works now here in the united states. six passengers reportedly suing

the costa condoria cruise line in a florida court, and they are demanding, ready for this. $460million in compensation. could they have a case? michael winkleman is a maritime attorney out of miami. he joins us once again. >> good morning, martha thanks for asking me back. martha: when i heard the cruise line was offering them about $14,000 a piece i thought, that is not going to cut it, that won't be enough considering what happened on the ship, but 460 million? how does that sound to you. >> i think they are both arbitrary numbers. the 460 i don't know where that came from. the 14,000 i think that's incredibly low. my judgment on that is just as fair as anyone else's. it's a question of fact for a jury. if i'm a father with my children, my wife my irchildren on that ship and i have four hours of shear terror i'm going through, you tell me a fair value sore having gone through

this. these people have suffered a significant trauma. martha: i guess it depends on how easily you got off the ship, what your experience was. there were lives lost as well. i think those families would have the first priority in terms of compensation. >> absolutely. i think you're raising and important point, martha which is there is a huge spectrum of the people who got off with lesser injuries all the way to the people who died. there are two cases that have been filed, one in chicago, one in miami. i would say both of them are premature to file. i think an experienced attorney would be much better served to continue to negotiate with the cruise line. i think there are other advantages to that as far as keeping fees and costs down. i'm surprised as an early filing of these cases. martha: you are such an experienced attorney in these cases. you've sued carnival roughly a thousand times, and the costa condoria roughly a hundred times. >> my firm has been doing this, we have a combined experience of about 75 years. over the past four decades we've

sued carnival roughly a couple times. the cruise line roughly a hundred times. we have a dozen cases going against them in italy. we are handling these cases. we work with a leading maritime firm and we want to give all these passengers and crew members all of the rights that they deserve. martha: we are looking at the video of what happened on that ship. there is so much documentation as to what the people went through. the crew they say had no idea what they were doing, lots of testimony from different people as evidence of very lacks ability to handle this situation, to say the least. but, you know, when you look at this. off-shore, lots of legal problems in suing at all on a cruise liner. i know you've done it a lot, how difficult will it be in this case for these people to get this money? >> i think it will be exceedingly difficult even so costa has offered a paltry sum, i think it will be really difficult. the facts are eyes, the facts are clear. costa is negligence, carnival is

negligence if they can be on the hook for it also. the tpa*rbgt facts are simple. they are facing a huge uphill battle which i've tried several times. the contracts that they signed are routinely enforced. it will be a question of italian rights. italy does offer rights and remedies for the passengers, but you're right, it's going to be a long, hard-fought battle, but i look forward to fighting it. martha: it seems like it should be very clear-cut but it's not. thank you so much for being with us. talk you again on this soon. >> thank you for having me. bill: as they continue that operation in italy we'll check in with jon scott on a monday morning. check out what is happening in about ten minutes. how you doing this morning, jon. jon: i am doing well. i hope you are to. brand-new polling, it confirms mitt romney is the man to beat in the race for florida. newt gingrich promises to push onto try to regain some of the momentum he got from south carolina.

we've also got new head-to-head match ups of president obama versus mitt romney in the swing states. interesting numbers there to tell you about. new saber rattling from iran as it case u.n. inspectors can stay. what does the world make of those mixed messages? our fox news watch panel takes a look at the ugly turn in the campaign and we'll lock at the growing power of those super packs. a lot to get to on "happening now." bill: we'll see you a couple of minutes away. it is a must do for any candidate on the trail. you've got to stop and press the flesh and check out the local diner. the favorite for all the locals, now we'll talk about the strategy behind political eats. martha: how do they keep in shape doing all that? plus a field trip that some high schoolers will never forget. a man stuck in mud and muck for days, the incredible rescue for reand the reaction. >> he started saying, he's distressed. he needed help. he said he was stuck, he couldn't move, his leg was hurt

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martha: high school kids in new mexico got a field trip of a lifetime when they came across a man who they found stuck in the mud of the rio grand. the biology students and their teacher making a discovery after they heard him calling for help. he said he had been stuck there for three days and that he couldn't feel his legs. >> i called out to him, like where are you? i asked him to throw something in the air and he did, and three of my other students saw it. then we knew where he was. martha: here is the rest of the story. it turns out he was a wanted felon. police saying this he's headed to the jailhouse after he's released from hospital. that's what i call a biology class. bill: that's what i'm talking about. martha: really in the field of study. bill: so the florida primary

kicking off in a matter of hours now and one popular strategy is the lunch breaks you take at some of these legendary eateri eateries. a candidate stops to taste a local kasea cuisine and that gets a headline. >> reporter: we tried to take a look at what the successful strategy is behind these stops. >> is it really 6.95 for all you can eat? >> reporter: legendary eateries which are must-stops for presidential candidates have some common features. >> they want to be seen as mingling with the middle, working class, that is the market they are aiming at. they also want to pick a place that the media will cover that is accessible. >> reporter: soufrbgs wings plus featuring 18 players of buffalo rings including xxx spicy hits the bill.

>> i think it's the hot sauce and maybe the voters. >> reporter: gingrich came three case after a visit with rick santorum. mitt romney has also been to wings-plus. >> if you find a spot that works well then i think it gets put on the list. i don't know where that list is, and i don't know where it's kept, but there is a list somewhere, because they do seem to go back to the same spots. >> reporter: veteran wing eaters arrive hours early on the day of a big visit. >> watching a person on television is not the same thing. it doesn't capture the vibes or excitement. >> reporter: the key of a wings visit is the same. >> they have to be friendly, honest, and respectful to the hard-working people that do come in here. >> show respect. >> show respect, absolutely. >> reporter: the owner said things do get a lot easier, a lot less chaotic once the candidate becomes president and then visits the wings restaurant. that's because secret service shuts down the entire street

during the visit. bill: we'll send you or zip code anyou our zip code and get some takeout up here. martha: they said she stole the show at the royal wedding. find out who is in a huge bidding war to have the first sit down interview with that young lady, pippa middleton, when we come back. when bp made a commitment to the gulf, we were determined to see it through. here's an update on the progress. we're paying for all spill related clean-up costs.

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good, folks. it's the war over pippa! media reports saying heavyweights basha walters and oprah winfrey are in a bidding war to sit down with the young lady pippa middleton in the blue jacket there for her first u.s. interview, she of course the sister of kate middleton. word that the sitdown with the duchess of cambridge -- with the sister of the duchess of cambridge could get half a million dollars, not bad. it's about ploating her new book, about how to be the perfect hostes, saying s will donate