we'll see if that story has legs. >> paul steinhauser, thanks so much. see you 4:00 eastern hour for our hour of politics. thanks so much, paul. >>> meantime an e-mail war raging right now between some of the country's leading evangelicals over candidate newt gingrich. at issue, gingrich's three marriages and his kale that sism. in 15 minutes i will talk with dan, the religious editor for cnn.com. he just published an extensive article about gingrich and religion on cnn's belief blog. >>> former penn state football coach jerry sandusky will be in court for a preliminary hearing. he faces more than 50 charges of child sex abuse. sandusky posted a $250,000 bond and is now under house arrest. last week he was arrested a second time following new allegations by two more reported victims. cnn national correspondent susan candiotti has been following the developments and joining us now from new york. what's to be expected this week in court? >> well, there's a preliminary hearing coming up on tuesday, fred, and it's difficult to say how many victim could be tes

paul steinhauser, what's he buying? >> this is classic.goes to best buy and not only any best buy but this is the same shopping mall -- remember when the first lady went to that target? same shopping center. we were just talking about the president's poll numbers where they were doing pretty well and he's giving himself some pretty good numbers, i guess. he doesn't feel the same way when it comes to shopping. take a listen. >> in case you guys were wondering, just dance for the wii, the girls beat me every time on these various dance games. so i'm going to every time. merry christmas to you. >> i guess if it came to dancing, that was the most important thing. the president -- >> he would be a no go. >> the economy is more poor to america's minds. he's okay for now at least. >> you know who else we can't get dancing on tv, wolf blitzer. both of them have been on ellen but i guess they don't dance when we'd like them to have a little bit of time. >> keep working it with wolf. you're going to get him to dance. >> i try. paul steinhauser, than

let's bring in paul steinhauser who joins me from washington. conventional wisdom gingrich gets this support. it's been a week he's been skiing a big surge of cain supporters leaving. does it hold up? s>> >>. >> what is that everybody is looking out. who will he endorse now? a lot of his support over the last month came from cain supporters fleeing cain after first the allegations of sexual harassment and then, of course, the allegations of a 13-year affair and both from atlanta. it was interesting on saturday soon after cain announced he was suspending his campaign, newt gingrich in an event was in staten island, new york, actually said nice things about cain so we'll keep our eyes on gingrich. only thing we know about him he is at an event, 1:45 news conference. not sure what that is about. will herman cain show up? we don't know. we'll see. >> gingrich met with donald trump today in new york. how important is donald trump's endorsement? >> no, it's actually before gingrich has that 1:45 news conference, he goes to trump tower and becomes the

paul steinhauser is in washington. paul, the same poll shows gingrich struggling in a head-to-head race against president obama. tell us about that. >> that horse race poll and two others indicate the same thing. way ahead in the horse race. look at this, hypothetical matchups next november. president obama versus gingrich and president obama against mitt romney. president obama 11 points ahead of gingrich. among all voters. but, basically, dead even with romney. so, the nbc/"wall street journal" poll maybe an electable issue for newt gingrich. you've seen the democratic national committee go after romney left and right over everything. not so much about gingrich. but yesterday, this is interesting, jessica yellin and i were at a briefing and some of the top obama re-election advisors giving us their briefing and this is what david axelrod, the senior, senior strategist said about newt gingrich. the higher a monkey climbs on a poll, the more you can see his butt. so, you know, the speaker is very high on the pole right

paul steinhauser is in des moines with more on this three-way battle. and no clear front-runner at least for iowa, paul. >> reporter: no clear front-runner. and that poll you just showed from arg came out on friday. the most receipt polling we have of people likely to take part in that caucus on january 30. it also indicates with just a week to go 1-10 still say they haven't made up their minds. and a sizeable amount are saying, i'm backing this candidate or that candidate, but i may change my mind. three-way traffic jam, i guess you could say, for the top spot. ron paul, though, and here is the story, look at this, this is this morning's "des moines register." could ron paul win? that's what a lot of people are talking about. however, we have seen his poll numbers climb over the last month or two in iowa. also nationally. he made a bid four years ago, and he got about one in 10 republican voters. this i'm around, time around, i different. >> let's talk about iowa. it's not a predictor historically of who ends up being the nominee. why is it important fo

thank you very much, paul steinhauser. we appreciate it. cnn has the best political coverage on television. make sure you stay with us all day with these interviews. congressman ron paul in the "cnn newsroom" at 3:00 p.m. eastern. and congresswoman michele bachmann will join john king's guest, 7:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn and then real estate mogul, debate moderator, that's right, debate moderator, you can add that to his resume, donald trump will join piers morgan at 9:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. our next political update in half an hour. for all the latest political news, go to our website, cnnpolitics.com. >>> other news now, a 19-year-old man claims former penn state assistant football coach jerry sandusky gave him whiskey then sexually abused him. an attorney for the accuser says the alleged incident happened on the penn state campus back in 2004 when the accuser was just 12 years old. joining us now to talk about this new development is patriot news reporter and cnn contributor, she has been covering this from the very beginning. ri

i'll have details coming up. >> reporter: i'm paul steinhauser at the cnn political desk. stay positive. is he? details at the top of the hour. >>> martin, alison, paul, thank you all. we'll see you here shortly. we'll be talking with congressman steve king of iowa. the state at the center of the political universe right now. polls have been all over the place this year. republican presidential front-runners have come and gone. newt gingrich is currently on top. we'll ask him who he thinks who could come out on top and why he hasn't endorsed anyone yet. to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today. not quite knowing what the next phase was going to be, you know, because you been, you know, th

paul steinhauser, live from des moines. reporter: ron paul at the top. you're right. it is a three-way traffic jam i guess you could say, drew, right now with eight days to go. a little windy here. i'm not wearing a coat. it is in the 40s right now. there's no snow. very warm. i want to show you this. look at this, this is the "des moines register." could ron paul win? i guess it is no surprise. 's got a lot of enthusiastic supporters here. he's got a lot of people to come out and vote for him in this caucus which kicks off the primary caucus calendar. drew, a lot of people are saying four years ago when ron paul ran, maybe he was the extreme candidate. now people are saying that a lot of the republican party has come to ron paul on some of the issues. it is the buzz of iowa right now. >> let me ask you a question, paul. if ron paul does win iowa, what does it mean when he heads into new hampshire where he's right now way down in the polls against mitt romney? >> is there going to be a significant enough bump to get him acro

i want to bring in cnn deputy director paul steinhauser for this. paul, can you give us any sense of how much this may hurt gingerich at this point? >> you know, it is -- his comments seem to be at odds with u.s. policy which does support a two-state solution with israel and the palestinian people. but among the republican presidential candidates, it seems maybe a little further than they've gone, but in line with the idea of all the candidates trying to prove that they're the best friend of israel. other than ron paul, all of the republican candidate these year have been stepping over each other to prove they're bona fide when it comes to oil and to criticize president barack obama for weakening its security. we just saw gingerich and five other of the candidates at a presidential forum right here in d.c. sponsored by a republican jewish group the other day and we heard similar language. this one goes a little further. was it politics? sure. but i think more of this is directed towards social conservative voters. they're very influential in iowa and

cnn's deputy political director paul steinhauser standing by. ul, is there a strategy behind what newt gingrich said about the middle east? >> reporter: yeah, don. here's the politics. because gingrich is doing it and just about every other president are deshl candidate other than ron paul is doing the same thing. gingrich went a little further maybe. all year they've been major supporters of israel, pointing out what they would do to help the jewish state. at the same time they've been pointing out that president barack obama is not a real friend of israel and his policies have made israel less secure. maybe gingrich went a little further. whoo's the politics? jewish republican voters? yeah, to a agree. social can conservative voters, strong backers of israel. that's what all the candidates are dog, reaching out to those voters. here in iowa and in south carolina, the soercial conservative voters are very influential. don, some politics at play. one of the campaigns has responded. mitt romney's campaign, one of his surrogates poinltsing out that

paul steinhauser, thank you so much. >>> coming up next, a man facing a life sentence. sentence gets thrown out after he realizes where he actually was during the crime. it's bizarre. >>> plus this -- >> he pauses, he thinks, reflects before he answers questions and he really postures on what is the best way for him to respond. >> that was jerry sandusky's lawyer trying to explain why he has been fumbling after a wild day in this courtroom in pennsylvania. we're going to go to sunny hostin. she is fired up over this one. sunny is next. the employee of the month isss... the new spark card from capital one. spark miles gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. the spark card earns double miles... so we really had to up our game. with spark, the boss earns double miles on every purchase, every day. that's setting the bar pretty high. owning my own business has never been more rewarding. coming through! [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on ever

paul steinhauser, thank you. >> lucky paul.in des moines, at 6:00 in the morning, morning time. >>> republicans risk losing a seat in the senate if he don't back indiana's dick lugar for a seventh term. and this is from dick lugar. the 79-year-old senator is facing a primary challenge from a tea party backed candidate in his state. senator lugoo lugar saying he b as win by the tea party could set the republican party back in a big way. >> republicans running for re-election ought to be supported by people who want to see that majority. so i think the majority of tea party people understand that, too. what they're hopeful is -- >> so i understand what you mean, you think that you have the best chance of keeping this seat republican? >> yes. >> that's what you're arguing? >> no doubt, from all of our polling and understanding, that that is the case. and as a matter of fact, if i was not nominee, it might be lost. >>> six minutes after the hour. other new stories this morning. more worries about iraq's future after yet another dea

>> thanks to paul steinhauser.he hour. >>> stargazers got a treat about this time yesterday. something amazing, a total lunar eclipse. bob kronk, one of our ireporters, sent this video. about to check in with weather and bonnie schneider, let me bring you in here, bonnie. you were telling me this is pretty rare. we got a treat last night. >> we real de, especially people on the west coast. t.j., you got the chance to see the bright red hue over the moon. beautiful colors. a lot of pictures coming from san francisco and the pacific northwest where we saw terrific colors. the problem for the east coasters is the sun came up, and we missed it. we have to wait again to a partial eclipse that will occur in june. then the next total lunar eclipse will be april 15. a day we all know, the deadline, right? >> tax day -- >> not until 2014. that's funny. we'll never forget the date. so we missed it, but it's definitely going to be back again. >> amazing how the guys can plan it out. they know exactly when the next will happen

paul steinhauser is here to break down the latest numbers. morning, paul. >> good morning, carol. let's get right to it. an nbc/"wall street journal" poll of people likely to take part in the republican prime ears. newt gingrich at the top. seen him there two, three weeks saying they would support him for the nomination. romney, 17 points back and everybody else in single digits. a pew poll out yesterday showed the same thing pretty much. alluded to this. electability problem probably for gingrich. this poll suggests that. hypothetical head-to-heads next november. there's president obama 11 points ahead of gingrich in this poll from nbc "wall street journal" but look at romney and obama. basically all knotted up. gingrich that the add vac vanta the primaries but not in the presidential election. and remember newt gingrich and mitt romney, that debate, squabbling continue add couple days. yesterday morning gingrich puts on a message to his campaign saying no more. we're not going on the attack anymore against any of the other candidates, other

cnn deputy political director paul steinhauser is live in des moines, iowa. busy week. many are spending time in iowa and moving on too, right? >> reporter: it is going to be a busy week here. but the week starts pretty -- more busy in new hampshire. that's the second state to vote. they come one week after the iowa caucuses. tomorrow you'll see newt gingrich, the front-runner now in the battle for the gop nomination, and jon huntsman, they're going to be teaming up in a lincoln douglas style debate in new hampshire tomorrow afternoon. we'll have a lot of coverage of that, sending our jim acosta to that. three weeks until the caucuses. it is first contest in the primary and caucus calendar. later in the week, all of the candidates except for huntsman right back here in iowa. on thursday, another presidential debate, this time in the western part of the state. and i tell you, fred, with the clock ticking, you'll see a lot of campaigning right here in iowa and new hampshire, of course, between now and the beginning of the primaries. fred? >> people will be watc

let me bring in paul steinhauser, our deputy political director. man, from the tone of this last night is it clear we are getting closer to the time it is time to start counting some votes? >> i think you could tell from that. we're just over three weeks away from those iowa caucuses, the first contest in the republican primaries and caucuses. yeah, time's awasting for these candidates, no doubt about that. a lot changed since the last debate. that was our cnn debate in washington, d.c. before thanksgiving. back in those days newt gingrich's poll numbers were on the rise but he wasn't the front-runner. according to our polls and other organizations as well, the former house speaker is the front-runner here in iowa. some of the other early voting states and nationally. what happens then? you get a bull's-eye on your back. we saw that last night. the other rivals for the nomination going after gingrich. listen to this exchange between mitt romney who used to be the front-runner and gingrich over who was the career politician and who isn't. take a lis

political editor paul steinhauser joins me now.lk about new hampshire going forward and difficult to do, since we're not exactly sure how it will shake out. but what are we hearing about the plans of some of these campaigns? >> i know you were just talking to peter ham bee and governor of texas rick perry. you will be in new hampshire. he will be there and any other candidates that survive, like michele bachmann. they have been outsized compared to what you and i have seen. >> the candidates sometimes get fueled by what happened on tuesday night. others will begin to take on some water. and then there's candidates like ron paul who i think we look at and say, it doesn't matter what he does. he may do quite well, according to our poll, but he's going to go on. >> he's going to go on. he may go all the way to the convention. you know, i was watching you with all of these tossed events but we didn't see ron paul. he's back home in texas spending the weekend with his wife. >> applaudable. we applaud that. you know, the thing i think ab

paul steinhauser is live in washington for us. paul, a lot of speculation cain could endorse newt gingrich as early as today? >> a lot of speculation. on saturday when cain suspended his campaign, newt gingrich was quick to compliment, both from georgia, both friendly on the campaign trail. at 1:45 today newt gingrich added a news conference up in new york city. we don't know why and we don't know if herman cain will be there, we're calling trying to find out what's going on. last week all eyes are on herman cain to see if and when he would drop out. he suspended his campaign on saturday. >> i am suspending my presidential campaign. >> reporter: the ride's over for the cain train, but herman cain promises he'll still make an impact in the race for the republican nomination. >> i will be making an endorsement in the near future. >> reporter: new front-runner newt gingrich was quick to compliment cain. >> i think he deserves a great deal of credit for having had the courage to run, the courage to have big ideas and the clarity to say

our paul steinhauser has new poll numbers for you next.ng on vacation, so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. >>> just two weeks before p iowa caucuses and just release poll numbers show is it's anyone's game to be the republican nominee. paul steinhauser joins me. what's the latest with the numbers? >> natalie, if you don't like the poll numbers just wait a couple of days. remember we talked about gingrich, how he was peaking right at the right time, just before the caucuses and primaries started? maybe speaking too soon. take a look, brand new numbers cnn/orc, this is among republicans and independents who lean toward the gop, all knotted up again. if u go back a week or two, gingrich was way ahea

paul steinhauser is live from the campaign trail in des moines. hat dangerous? >> reporter: it's one of the two -- maybe, maybe not. here is the story. it's one of the front-runners out here in iowa. that's congressman ron paul. fred, that's where he's going, back to texas. they tell me he's going to spend tomorrow and sunday, new year's eve weekend with his wife and back here monday to campaign. here's my take. listen. we know ron paul supporters in iowa and nationwide very energetic, enthusiastic. they will come out on caucus night even if he's not here for a day or two. it is kind of interesting, fred. >> it certainly is. newt gingrich, let's talk about him. he is there still in iowa. he's holding an event right now, in fact. it's kind of a coffee event, right, for mostly moms in the audience? >> yeah. a lot of pictures, as you said, right here in des moines. just a couple blocks from where i am. it's the secretaond stop this morning. he was the front-runner here in iowa just a couple of weeks ago. all those negative ads against him on the air w

cnn's political deputy paul steinhauser covering all the angles.e news out of iowa. >>> let's start with these brand-new numbers. remember today, four weeks until those iowa caucuses. four weeks from today, january 3rd, iowa kicks off the primary. this is an abc news/"washington post" poll of people likely to take part in the iowa caucuses and look who is on the top, the former house speaker. his campaign was almost left for dead in june. 33%, a third of the likely caucus goers say he's their choice for the nomination ahead of mitt romney and ron paul, the congressman from texas. two other polls in iowa showing the same thing. let's go to south carolina as well. brand-new numbers out of there. south carolina votes third in the calendar. it's the first southern state. here is a poll and there's newt gingrich again. this poll indicating the front-runner, 15 points ahead of romney with perry at 9%, the x texas governor there. this is among people most like hadly to vote in the south carolina primary. the big thing for gingrich now, take these surging

paul steinhauser has been watching this chart. ight here, this is cbs/"new york times" poll. newt gingrich 14 points ahead of romney and ron paul, a congressman from texas and rick perry the governor of texas lowered down. an abc/"wash" poll. newt gingrich, by far, the frontrunner in south carolina. one caveat here. in all these polls a lot of likely voters in the primaries say we may still change our minds. four weeks to go until the first votes, christine. >> is that giving mitt romney any hope? if i'm mitt romney, i'm pretty depressed right now. >> here's what romney told us and told reporters in arizona we'll see more of him on the campaign trail. take a listen. >> i'll be on the air a good deal more than in the past doing the very best to communicate to the american people why i'm running for president. hopefully getting their support and i know the beginning is going to be january 3rd. this will take longer than a week or two to sort out. this will be a campaign that will go on for a while and i expect to win it. >> here's th

now wait -- >> i mean -- >> all right, cnn's deputy political director paul steinhauser joins us from des moines, iowa this morning. paul, nice to see you. romney's offer to make a bet with rick perry, another moment last night. >> reporter: yeah, that may be -- maybe it backfired a little. a long-standing argument between the men we've seen play out and previous debates rick perry suggesting mitt romney and his book "no apologies" took out a little chapter where he says he has support for the mandate on health care. listen to how it played out in the debate saturday night. >> you're for individual mandates, my friend. >> you know what, you've raised that before, rick, and you're -- >> it was true then and it's true now. >> rick, i'll tell you what, 10,000 bucks -- 10,000 dollar bet. >> i'm not in the betting business. >> reporter: here's the problem. okay, we all know mitt romney, very wealthy man. multi-millionaire. when you're trying to maybe reach out and associate with average americans, a $10,000 bet, a little steep. a lot of people saying maybe this backfired. democrats critici

cnn deputy political director paul steinhauser covering all the angles for us. let's start with this news out of iowa. >> newt gingrich surging at the right time. today four weeks until the iowa caucuses. look who's right at the top. newt gingrich right at the top. 33%. mitt romney the former massachusetts governor and ron paul just tied for a distant second at 18%. another poll out of iowa shows it much closer. let's go to south carolina, as well. south carolina, of course, the first southern state to vote, it goes number three in the calendar and votes on the 23rd of january. this is also, again, showing newt gingrich on top. far ahead of mitt romney. romney at 23%. gingrich 18 points ahead and rick perry at 9%. kyra, i guess newt gingrich to take his national poll numbers and translate it into an operation and make sure he gets the teams in place in the early states to get the voters to the caulks and primary sites, kyra. >> nancy pelosi is saying that she has information on gingrich and newt is sending her a warning. what the heck is going on here? >> yeah,

cnn's political editor paul steinhauser joins us with more on that. paul, good morning.cking mitt romney. no doubt about this. here we're talking about former president george herbert walker bush. this is the daddy. and in "the houston chronicle" he called the former massachusetts governor the best choice of the 2012 presidential nomination. he went on to say i think he's mature and reasonable and not a bomb thrower. romney himself said he had no idea the endorsement was coming. what did bush have to say about gingrich? not a lot of good things. he said, i'm not his biggest advocate. >> and, paul, you know, looking at those pictures there we also think that another person who endorsed mitt romney, governor chris christie, but now his name is back in the rumor mill, not for president, but for a different position potentially. >> yeah, deb, i tell you, listen, i lost my ear piece here, i'm sorry, it fell out and i'll be putting it right back in as you show this video of christie and romney together. a lot of republicans wanted christie to run himself. now i can hear you, a

paul steinhauser is live in washington. the big test for cain will come friday when he meets face to face. >> two messages from her man can cain. >> yesterday he sounded forceful, determined to march on. talking to reporters he said yes, it is going to come down to a meeting with his family starting friday. take a listen to what he told reporters last night in new hampshire. >> number one, since i have been campaigning all week i haven't had an opportunity sit down with her and walk through this with my wife and my family. i will do that when i get back home on friday. secondly, re-evaluate the support of my supporters. it has been overwhelming so far. thirdly, re-evaluate the impact that this has on fund-raising. >> fund-raising is very, very important here. cain in a news conference acknowledged his fund-raising took a hit earlier this week after a georgia businesswoman came out and alleged she had a 13-year affair with cain but he said the numbers are starting to rebound and also said some of his fair weather or warm wea

paul steinhauser joins us now. paul, where is the cain train on this timeline here? >> the cain train. it's in new hampshire, but herman cain, the presidential republican candidate says it could come down to his wife and family whether he stays in the race for the white house or drops out. take a listen to what he told reporters late last night in new hampshire? >> number one. so, since i've been campaigning all week, i haven't had an opportunity to sit down with her and walk through this with my wife and my family. i will do that when i get back home on friday. secondly, reevaluate the support of my supporters. it has been overwhelming so far. thirdly, reevaluate the impact this had on fund-raising. >> fund-raising. of course, herman cain in that meeting with reporters acknowledged that fund-raising has taken a dip after an atlanta businesswoman came out and said she had a 13-year affair with herman cain this after four women claim sexual harassment allegations against cain when he was the head of the restaurant association back in the 1990s. his fund-raising dipped

we'll check in with paul steinhauser. paul? >> reporter: hi, kyra. we're here in des moans.itics are hot. mitt romney is taking it to newt gingrich. >>> hi. i'm zain verjee in london. there were major protests in russia this weekend. it is a really big deal. i'll tell you what newspapers around the world are saying about it as well as vladimir putin. >>> i'm george howell outside the memphis police department where investigators are looking into allegations of sexual abuse by the former director of the aau, amateur athletic union. >>> all right. thanks. also next hour we go in depth on the closing days of the iraq war. thousands of u.s. troops getting ready to come home for good. what battles await them at home? veterans already tell me it's been anything but easy. >> seeing them deal with alcohol abuse, drug abuse, homelessness, that was the most difficult thing for me to see. i witnessed them save someone's life in iraq and they can't save their own anymore? it hurt me. forty years ago, he wasn't worried about retirement. he'd yet to hear of mutual funds, iras, or annuitie