captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: former massachusetts governor mitt romney has won the new hampshire republican presidential primary. good evening. i'm judy woodruff. we'll have the latest results and analysis of the nation's first primary. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: the william and flora hewlett

foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> it is mitt romney's night in new hampshire. the associated press and the major television networks have projected him the winner in the first republican primary of this presidential election year. with vote counting still underway the former governor of massachusetts was winning 36 percent of the vote. now, that is a dozen points better than ron paul, who is in second place. john huntsman was in third, with newt gingrich and rick santorum fighting for fourth. rick perry trailed the field. romney claimed his victory at a celebration with support in other words manchester, new

hampshire, just a short time ago, here is some of what he had to say. >> in difficult times we can't abandon the core values that define us as a unique nation. we are one nation under god. >> make no mistake. make no mistake . in this campaign, i will offer the american ideals of economic freedom, a clear and unapologetic defense and we are going to win with that message. >> but, you know,, you know that our campaign is about more than replace ago president. it is about saving the soul of america. this election is a choice between two very different destinies, president obama wants to fundamentally transform america. we want to restore america to the founding principles that made this country great.

>> he wants to turn america into a european style social welfare state. we want to ensure that we remain a free and prosperous land of opportunity. this president takes his inspiration from the capitals of europe. we look to the cities and towns across america for our inspiration. this president puts his faith in government. we put our faith in the american people. this president is making the federal government bigger, burdensome and bloated i will make the federal government simple, smaller and better. >> he raised the national debt. i will cut cap and balance the federal budget.

he has enacted -- mitt, mitt, mitt! >> this president, this president has enacted job killing regulations. i will eliminate them. he lost our triple a credit rating. i will restore it. he passed obama care. i will repeal it. of and when it comes to the economy, my highest priority as president will be worrying about your job, not about saving my own. >> you know, internationally, president obama has adopted

appeasement strategy. he believes america's role as leader in the world is a thing of the past. i believe a strong america must and will lead the future. he doesn't see the need for overwhelming american military superiority. i will insist on a military so powerful no one would ever think of challenging it. >> that is some of what mitt romney had to say just moments ago at a celebration in manchester, new hampshire after being declared the winner of the new hampshire primary tonight. as we said, our guinn ifill is in manchester tonight and gwen started out by saying we made history, and indeed he is the first, by our count, non nonincumbent republican to win both iowa and new hampshire, but, gwen, he won iowa, won new hatch differently from how he pulled it off in iowa. >> gwen: and he perford tonight in his succession speech much differently than he did in iowa. you were there, judy, you remember he came outlast week

and he spoke off-the-cuff and gave kind of a truncated version of his regular stump speech in part because it was too close to call still by the end of the night. this week, of course, we see he is far out ahead and that, networks were able to call this right at 8:00 o'clock, the minute the polls close so he came out and gave basically a convention speech, almost every line in that speech was directed to president obama and talking about president obama's failures. i was struck there was only one line in which he said, well let's talk about what is happening here in new hampshire this last week and that is when he said that in the last few days we have seen some desperate republicans join forces with president obama. that was his way of saying they were, gingrich, obviously, rick perry down in south carolina have been criticizing romney and he is, of course, accusing them of consorting with the enemy but he didn't go off message for any of the rest of the speech, it was basically behaving as if he is the nominee based on these two early voting results.

>> woodruff: and you are right. and with this 36 percentage point victory in new hampshire, many people are going to be saying he is the prohibitive favorite but they do go on to south carolina, there is florida, after that, gwen, i thought it was interesting that he took time to single out his republican competitors to call them to task for criticizing him for how he made his success in business. that says to me that he is worried about his colleagues coming after him again, his republican colleagues as this contest continues. >> gwen: i think we have already heard from some of the remarks from his republican colleagues that they have every intention of coming after him again. nobody is making noises about leaving, although we are hearing so far is ron coming in a very firirm, solid second, and newt gingrich may be fighting for third or fourth or maybe fifth. it is not clear yet in some of these down ticket out comes but it is clear that john huntsman who was hoping to breakthrough

at the end and come in second and be that ron paul, beat out ron paul for the chance to be anybody but mitt romney company came third, he acknowledged that as much himself tonight and we will see whether he has some place to go with this in south carolina and the other more, even as conservative primaries to come. >> woodruff: that's right, huntsman saying he will go on to south carolina despite what as you say has to be for him a somewhat disappointed third place finish here. he we will go now, gwen to ron paul, who we mentioned he is talking to his supporters there in manchester. >> i told governor romney a short while ago before he gave his talk and congratulated him because he certainly had a clear-cut victory, that we are nibbling at his heels. >> but there was another victory tonight. he had a victory, but we have had a victory for the cause of

liberty tonight. there is no doubt, there is no doubt that this whole effort that we are involved in will not go unnoticed. let me tell you. i think the intellectual revolution is going on now, restore liberty in this country is well on its way, there is no way they are going to stop the momentum that we have started. >> woodruff: now let's talk about that momentum and that intellectual revolution with analysis from shields and brooks, syndicated columnist mark shield whose is here with me in manchester, new hampshire, and new york times columnist david brooks, david brooks, how did mitt romney in the end pull this off? >> broadly. you know, to me what is most impressive about the thing is that he did well just about among every group, among mod rats, among independents, social conservatives tea party conservatives so he is competing against a bunch of guys who are

niche brands, he is not, she the mass brand and so, you know, the next electorate, the next four or five electorates or all of the other electorates is different than new hampshire but if he can keep support among the social conservatives, the tea party times he will do pretty well and i thought the big thing today he took the attacks on bain as you and judy mentioned and turned them into a referendum on capitalism, that's the kind of fight he wants to have. >> woodruff: when you talk about bain you are talking about the company, the venture capital company he once ran, he came under some assault for his management of that. hey, mark, you listened to mitt romney's acceptance speech tonight, what did you think of it? >> well, i think you made the point, gwen, most salient that is it was stark and dramatic contrast to his speech last week in iowa, which was rambling. this obviously had a focus. and it was the focus of almost a general election speech. going forward from here.

and i thought it was -- it had more of a theme, the last couple of weeks, in new hampshire, and in iowa, it has been a theme less pudding of a campaign. last night in his wrap up he said give me a boost tomorrow. and tonight there was more of a sense of what we were about and that we had to do and certainly more expression of optimism. i thought that is what the crowd responded to most hartley. >> woodruff: so, mark, what is your sense on how he won this, and what he had to do to win it this big? because he not 32 percent last time four years ago, losing to john mccain and this time it looks like he is besting that, at least. >> yes, he is, gwen, and david is right, he went with catholics and he went can protestants and republicans, he went with the people who are the back ben of the republican party here. he won across the state, and regions from the seacoast all the way to the north country.

he -- was a very solid victory, and the only person who really gave them any kind of a run for his money was ron paul. >> gwen: let's talk about ron paul, david brooks, and he is now, he now has come in a very firm, clear second place in both iowa and new hampshire, is that something the republican party is concern about or is that something they don't care about or that they welcome .. there has been some concern whether he would run third party. i think the conventional view right now with his son rand paul in the senate he doesn't want to do anything to anger the republican party so he probably won't do that. the best is he takes a lot of young voters he has energized, capitalist, and he energizeds those people to sign up to vote against obama in the fall. so i don't think they see him as a negative. he has the problem which huntsman has is that new hampshire is his best state. strong support there

historically, and long time war for the last four years. and so it is going to be tough for him to go into south carolina and florida and those other states that there are just fewer of his sorts of people but he will contribute to what is shaping up as the big debate maybe of the year, what sort of capitalism do we want? does the country really buy the argument that barack obama is the european? i am not sure they will but that is sort of the different kinds of capitalism, that is what ron paul contributes to and on mitt romney's side on that big issue. >> gwen: of course -- >> we disagree. >> i wanted to say that ron paul came in second in iowa. >> he. >> okay, mark. >> let me disagree with david. this is ron paul's best state. i think you will see ron paul do very well in a number of western states, especially caucus states, and his support, his is contradict triin many respects as far as political

categorization, he gets the young voters, mitt romney won the oldest and richest voters here, ron paul won working class voters, blue collar voters and the youngest voters. he also expanded the electorate, the people who are voting for the first time in the republican primary he carried strongly. and so i think that ron paul also addresses problems to the republicans and the whole question of civil lints and surveillance and undeclared wars as well as defense spending, i agree with david. he is an unequivocal and unswerving supporter of free enterprise, and nonintervention in the marketplace, but this is a man who is against bailouts. he is more interesting and more contradictory than most conventional politicians, and i just don't see that this has to be the best state for him. i can see him going to a lot of caucus states and doing very

well. >> mark, david, we will be back with you later. judy, back to you. >> woodruff: well, now let's sort through some of what we are learning so far tonight. joining me in washington is stewart rothenberg, ed for of the rothenberg political report and kristina bellantoni, the news hour political editor. so not to rain on mitt romney's parade, he is a winner in new hampshire, stu, but he won 36, 37, the latest votes with 47 percent of the precincts reporting what about the other percent, not to put too fine of a point on it but if he is such a strong frontrunner the party what does he still have to do? >> well, just the kind of groups that he lost or didn't do as well with, ron paul, won younger voters, lower income voters, first time voters who are in the republican primary, a lot of these are independents and a lot are democrat leaning independents, john huntsman self identified democrats, four percent are independents but they do identify. >> a small number. >> yes. ron paul people with no

religion. so, you know, there are constituencies in this primary that are not in the sweet spot of the republican party, and, look, judy a lot is personal, john huntsman was up there campaigning for months, meeting people, huntsman is the kind of candidate that some people see as a conservative alternative to mitt romney, other people see as a moderate alternative to mitt romney. ron paul has a certain significant appeal among libertarian kind of voters. so, you know, the republican party is big enough so that other candidates are going to get support. >> kristina what do you see in these exit polls you have been studying. > > what what, well what is interesting the most conservative voters and the one that consider themselves the most liberal are going for romney which is interesting. santorum came in, you know, looking like he could -- >> opposite ends of the spectrum. >> yes. and that's where the electability argument which many voters came to the polls for that reason, that's what they were looking for in a candidate plays in here.

but santorum was winning a lot of this very conservative vote, and you are seeing rick perry who is down in south saying it is clear that from the results of this you have got a viable conservative alternative and i think that romney and a lot of the pro romney forces are trying to shut that down saying i am the conservative alternative. >> let me point out quickly 22 percent of these new hampshire primary voters did describe themselves as born again christians or evangelicals, so i know there is a tendency of stereotype each state, iowa is evangelicals, new hampshire is the nonequals. but, no evangelicals. >> santorum, newt gingrich, they have republicans to talk to in new hampshire. >> if you are ron paul or if you are john huntsman or rick santorum form or any of the other candidates, christi na, what do you see that you can hang your hat on and say ah, maybe i can take this and develop it somewhere else. >> the question is i think is very interesting, one thing is

in the exit poll data as well that is interesting is they talk to different voters who chose a certain candidate, and said would you be satisfied if this other candidate won the nomination? romney voters, would you be satisfied if ron paul won the nomination, 43 percent say no. paul voters would you be satisfied if romney won the nomination, 42 percent say no. that number, if i am ron paul's campaign and i say well i have young people and i have this coalition and he says there is no way we are going to stop with this momentum, we have got a ton of it, i do take that to the commission. i try to sort of, i don't worry about my son's future in the senate. you know, he doesn't have to face reelection for a number of years, so i take that forward. and whether he does or not is a big question and as for huntsman, you know, winning democrats in this election is not the pass forward in south carolina. >> gingrich and santorum, i think they look at these numbers and they still say there is no single conservative against mitt romney, and at some point sooner or later, whether south carolina or florida or beyond, this is

going to come down to a one-on-one race, and rick perry said the same thing so their incentive is hang in the race until it becomes one on one. now reality is the race may be over by the time it becomes one on one and for huntsman, if there is -- >> certainly not coming out of new hampshire. >> right. so they say, look, the fundamental choice in this party, mitt romney, the moderate, versus a conservative, that is fundamental choice has not yet been made and i have to stay in the race and emerge as the alternative and i guess huntsman says i finished third, ahead of santorum and gingrich and perry maybe i can be the conservative alternative but, you know, pure john huntsman after spending weeks and months, your prospects are dim. >> kristina quickly on the map, we put together, we are starting to put together how the ten counties in new hampshire broken down and just to take a little bit of time right now, what do we know in these early results about how romney did? >> well, these counties in the

southeastern part of the state, very close to massachusetts, where nashua and manchester are here, is romney's real stronghold, that's what he won in 2008 and did really well down there, and the northwestern part of the state, john mccain did very well, and so the fact that romney is doing well all over the state is exactly why he is the winner here. and this down here in keen,his is cheshire county andon paul is edging romney just a little bit down t he won one prefrom singt in that same area in 2008 when he came in with eight percent of the vote inin fifth place. so -- >> but this is a low population area. >> yes. >> so -- >> yeah. the populations are centered in sort of this southeastern part of the state and again that is where romney is pretty strong. >> so stu, again on any of the other candidates, or romney, do they look at this map and look at, you know, their strength,mns we are told he does well, in the mill income and upper income suburbs. >> i think the combination of these results, ron paul

finishing second, emerging as the alternative to mitt romney, plus the speech that romney gave, the momentum is going to come out of new hampshire is going to be very considerable. >> well, that is what we have for now. stewart rothenberg, thank you, kristina bellantoni, we will have more on the new hampshire primary later in the program but first the other news of this day. here is. >> wall street rallied today in part to an up beat source, alco, a the the aluminum company projected demand for the metal will increase in 2012. that is taken as a sign of economic growth and improved earnings for more sectors of the economy. the dow jones industrial average gained more than 69 points to close at 12,462. the nasdaq rose nearly 26 points to close at 2702. a bomb tore through a busy market in northwest pakistan today, killing at least 30 people. the blast hit vehicles of an anti-taliban militia in the khyber region, near the afghan border. local officials reported more than 50 people were wounded.

there was no immediate claim of responsibility. across the bord, in afghanistan, taliban insurgents stormed a government building in the east. ten people died in the firefight that followed. the target was the government telecommunications office in sharan, the provincial capital of paktika province. the region is one of the main routes for taliban fighters infiltrating from pakistan. u.s. forces staged another sea rescue of iranians in distress early this morning. this time, a u.s. coast guard cutter plucked six crewmen from an iranian cargo ship that was foundering in the persian gulf. the cutter was part of a u.s. naval task force. last thursday, a u.s. navy warsp in the arabian sea rescued 13 iranian fisherman from somali pirates. the first phase of egypt's parliamentary elections wound to a close today. the muslim brotherhood and other islamist factions were expected to take 60% of the nearly 500 seats in the lower house of parliament. meanwhile, a leading secular party said it would boycott upcoming elections for the upper house. it said it was protesting alleged voting violations by the islamist groups.

those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: the high court takes a look at free speech and tv indecency. jeffrey brown has the story. >> brown: cher, nicole ritchie, "saving private ryan," and the pbs documentary, "the blues." what do they all have in common? well, they've been on broadcast television, they've used or included profanity, and they're all now part of a constitutional debate over federal regulation of indecency, in a case argued before the suprreme court today. marcia coyle of the "national law journal" was there, and is back with us tonight. >> thanks, jeff. >> brown: this is one, as opposed to some we talked about, this is one that everybody understands quickly. >> absolutely. >> brown: what can be on television? what's indecency in the eyes of the f.c.c.? >> the federal communication commission defines indecency as material that describes or depicts sexual or excretory

organs or activities in a patently offensive manner as judged by contemporary community standards. >> brown: sounds so easy. >> it does. in fact, the fcc brought the case to the supreme court today because a lower federal appellate court found that the definition was so vague that it violated the due process and first amendment rights of broadcast medium. >> brown: bring us up to date. what are the facts of this case? i mentioned some of these people: cher, nicole ritchie. >> yes, and they are in this case or the stations are in this case. the lower federal appellate court was ruling on challenges brought by fox television and abc. fox was found to violate the indecency policy because it aired in 2002 and 2003 the billboard music awards in the 2002 show cher used the f-word. in the 2003 show nicole ritchie used the f- and the s-word.

abc was the challenge here because it found that the fcc found that it violated the policy because of a 2003 episode of "nypd blue" in which a nude woman was shown from the rear entering a shower. >> brown: that brings us up. then a lower court says these are vague. what happened in court today? you had a lively time today. >> it was a lively argument. and the issue before the court is exactly whatame out of the lower federal appellate court. that is, is this policy unconstitutionally vague? justice ginsburg went right at it by saying to solicitor general of the united states donald ver ill a.... >> brown: who is arguing on behalf of the fcc. >>. right he's he said that the major objection here seems to be that one can't tell what is indecent and what is not. she said vulgar words and showing the movie "saving private ryan" is okay, but vulgar words used by blues musicians in a pbs documentary is not. nudity shown in the movie

"schindler's list" is okay, but it's not okay in the "nypd" episode. so mr. verilli made two arguments here. he said, one, the policy is not vague because, he said, it is context driven. and when the fcc is looking at each instance in terms of its overall context you're never going to have perfect clarity. his second key argument was that the broadcast medium-- and we're not talking about cable, jeff. let's make this clear. >> brown: let's make it very clear. just over-the-air.... >> public air, right and not satellite tv either. he said the broadcast medium has benefited for years from free and exclusive use of the public air waves. and in return for that, he said, the... in return for a government license to do that, they have an enforceable obligation to create a safe haven for parents who do not want their children to be exposed to vulgar language or

nudity. >> brown: the aument for the broadcasters. >> the broadcasters, of course, feel that this policy is vague for the very examples justice ginsberg gave, and it's inconsistent they said. they're arguing for something a little more here. they're saying that the indecency policy is hopelessly out of date. they point to the fact that broadcast medium is no longer, as the supreme court found in 1978 in the case involving george carlin's filthy words, that the broadcast medium could be regulated for indecency because it waso pervasive for all americans and so uniquely accessible to children. so the broadcast medium here is telling the court this is out of date. there's cable. there's satellite. the chief justice.... >> brown: an explosion of media which is why we have to limit this and make clear it's just about broadcast.

>> right. chief justice roberts said in a way that cuts against the broadcast medium's arguments because if this is so pervasive, there's so much more now, then maybe we need a few channels that provide a safe haven. the justices also went into questions about v-chip technology. justice kennedy said, "well, what about v-chip?" >> brown: that allows parents to.... >> parents to block. mr. verilli for the fcc said it's inadequate technology. it won't help you on live television. also justice kennedy raised the question of whether, you know, there's a symbolic value to american society to have a segment of television that isn't vulgar. justice scalia who showed his hand almost immediately said, "sign me up for justin kennedy's symbolism." >> brown: it's interesting.

it sounds as those justices watch television, right? >> they do. >> brown: these black-robed... they go home and actually watch television. they knew what they were talking about. >> justice ginsberg said, for example, that the language... that children today would not be shocked by the language used today as children a generation ago would be. >> brown: briefly, i understand that justice sotomayor took herself out of the case, recused herself. >> she did. >> brown: that's because she was involved in the lower case? >> right. she sat on the lower federal appellate court when this case was moving through that court. >> brown: that means there's a potential for the tie. >> there always is when there are only eight justices. i have to say that it did seem as though there could be a split decision here. >> brown: marcia coyle, as always, thanks so much. >> my pleasure. >> ifill: now, an update on the turmoil in syria, as that country's embattled president fights back. we begin with a report from john ray of independent television news in cairo.