our chief political analyst gloria borger is here. oria, these republican candidates and these republican supporters behind us are trying to compare themselves to former president reagan. what's that about? >> everybody wants to have the mantle of ronald reagan. and if ronald reagan were running in this primary i think he would win. but newt gingrich has been saying he's the real conservative in this race. he's the person most deserving of the reagan mantle. the "new york times" today counted all the times that newt gingrich mentioned ronald reagan in the debates. it was like 50 times. now, what mitt romney is saying, he has an ad up saying, you know what, reagan only mentioned you in his diary in one sentence. so you're not really the heir to the thrown". >> let's listen to that ad. restore our future the romney superpac has that ad. let's listen to a little bit of it. >> reagan criticized gingrich saying newt's ideas would cripple our defense program. reagan rejected newt's ideas on leadership and character gingrich is no ronald reag

with cnn's gloria borger. at least two of president obama's republican opponents have caught up with him. there's also a new snapshot of how americans feel about issue number one in this election, the economy. as i said, cnn chief political analyst gloria borger here to take us through the numbers. i'll let you lead us off. which numbers did you find most interesting? >> i think the most interesting number really are these match-ups between -- and again, it's early, it's early, of course. between mitt romney and barack obama. and barack obama and ron paul. so you want to take a look at those? let's take a look. mitt romney in this match-up, 48%, you'll see, to obama 47%. so that shows this is going to be a very, very close race if indeed mitt romney is the nominee. but here's the really interesting number, jess. when you match-up ron paul with barack obama, take a look at this, still a statistical dead heat here. you know, we have a three-point margin of error in this poll. so we have ron paul. >> pretty amazi

let's go to gloria borger with rick santorum. >> i am, anderson, and senator santorum, this is the toughest, i think i have ever heard you, in any of these debates. you did not leave anything in the locker room, particularly when it comes to your former colleague, newt gingrich, and you said it's worrisome, there's this worrisome moment that something is going to pop. with newt gingrich. what do you mean by that? >> look, i love newt. he's been a great intellectual leader. but the difference between being an idea guy is to be glib in debate and somebody who is going to be a steady hand, a disciplined campaigner, somebody who is going to go out and make president obama the issue instead of being the uncertainty of you being the issue in the campaign because of things you say today that may not necessarily be consistent with what you said the day before or the next day, and the other thing is, as i said before, we're looking for someone who can beat the chief executive officer, the commander in chief of the country. that means someone who can execute a plan. he was giving a leadership positio

gloria borger, stay warm. >>> u.s.sailors rescued a group of iranians after they were attacked by pirates. the full story in our outer circle. >>> and the parents of florida's missing mom, michelle parker. her mother "outfront" with a plea. lue plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. we're getting back in shape. oh! try these. i sprinted here... wow! from your house?! from the car. unh! ooh. [ male announcer ] get back on track with low prices on everything you need. backed by our ad match guarantee. walmart. backed by our ad match guarantee. when bp made a commitment to the gulf, we knew it would take time, but we were determined to see it through. today, while our work continues, i want to update you on the progress: bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of envi

here are gloria borger and david bergin. wolf, back to you. >> anderson, it's going to be a busy night for all of us. we're watching everything going on. let's check in with reporters at various campaign headquarters. candy crowley is admit romney headquarters. rick october coos that and dana bash. first to you, romney headquarters a critically important night for mitt romney. if he can win in iowa tonight, it's a huge, huge potential bonanza. >> reporter: it certainly is. i asked mitt romney that very question today. if you win tonight, is it over? he holds such a big lead in new hampshire. he said, oh, no, it's a long race. by i tell you it would real grease the skids for him. first, do not harm, this is a hugely cautious campaign at this point. we sought newt gingrich try to engage mitt romney today when gingrich called romney a liar. romney basically tossed it off. reporters being kept somewhat at arm's length while on the campaign trail, very controlled audiences today, taking no questions. this is just a campaign that

gloria borger, stay warm. >>> u.s.rs rescued a group of iranians after they were attacked by pirates. the full story in our outer circle. >>> and the parents of florida's missing mom, michelle parker. her mother "outfront" with a plea. >>> we do this at the same time every night, our outer circle, where we reach out to sources around the world. today, to the north arabian sea where iranian sailors were rescued by americans stationed on the destroyer "uss kidd." the rescue happened just two days after iran said the u.s. shouldn't send any more warships into the persian gulf. michael adler is a public policy scholar at the woodrow wilson center and we asked him what this means. >> i don't think this will profoundly modify the confrontation we're seeing between the two countries over sanctions, the nuclear program and how to go forward, but it is ironic that a u.s. ship which was part of a group which the iranians want out of the gulf rescued an iranian ship. >>> and now to egypt and the trial of hosni mubarak. prosecutor

gloria borger is in new hampshire tonight.mer romney adviser and penny is the ceo of concerned women of america. you spent some time with rick santorum where he chose not to attack mitt romney. why, is he thinking about a future ticket? >> well, he might be, erin. i mean he might be thinking somewhere down the future that maybe he'd be that values conservative who could help mitt romney out, but i think, look, what i was asking him about was, you know, newt gingrich has said publicly that mitt romney could very well be the weakest front runner in the history of the republican party. and santorum wasn't willing to characterize it that way. he does disagree with him on a bunch of issues and i guarantee you in the debates here over the weekend, you're going to see mitt romney have a big red target on his back because, as you were just saying, the polls in new hampshire show mitt romney way ahead. that puts him in a formidable position going into south carolina and giving him the potential to really lock this race up pretty early.

joining me, david gergen and gloria borger. it's harkable, the history of dirty politics. >> it's always been a contact sport in south carolina. we're see aglot of it this year, but overall, i have to tell you, i think we're seeing lisz this year. there's not as much race being ejected into the campaign as we have in the past. often, candidates have been attacked because they're too close to blacks or they're in a marriage or have a child. we're not seeing that. we're seeing a barrage of negative advertising. >> what do you make of the surge of newt gingrich? >> i'm struck not only is he surging here, but gallup came out with a national tracking poll, and over the course of the week, mitt romney's lead over gingrich has gone from 23 point to 10 point, and they said the lead is collapsing. that is strikingering me, meani there's something bigger going on. >> to see the e-mail circulating to realize there are these dark tricks that are still out there. >> they are still out there. it's not the way it used to be. lee atwater was s

joining me, david gergen and gloria borger. it's harkable, the history of dirty politics. >> it's always been a contact sport in south carolina. we're see aglot of it this year, but overall, i have to tell you, i think we're seeing lisz this year. there's not as much race being ejected into the campaign as we have in the past. often, candidates have been attacked because they're too close to blacks or they're in a marriage or have a child. we're not seeing that. we're seeing a barrage of negative advertising. >> what do you make of the surge of newt gingrich? >> i'm struck not only is he surging here, but gallup came out with a national tracking poll, and over the course of the week, mitt romney's lead over gingrich has gone from 23 point to 10 point, and they said the lead is collapsing. that is striking, meaning there's something bigger going on. >> to see the e-mail circulating to realize there are these dark tricks that are still out there. >> they are still out there. it's not the way it used to be. lee atwater was sort of

. >>> david gergen is back along with gloria borger and david webb, any founder of tea party 365 and bb show. >> gloria, who do you think voters want to see at this point? which newt gingrich, the aggressive newt gingrich or kinder gentler don't speak badly of others? >> i think they want a little bit of each. what republicans want is somebody who can take it to barack obama and somebody who can win. what happened to newt gingrich in iowa is he got bombarded. and what he say said in the piece, gary did, is he couldn't win. i think there has to be a bit of nuance in a campaign and what we don't have from him. he went out of his way to say i'm going to be the positive person now he's turning negative. it's a bit of re-branding that takes a bit of adjustment. in fact, voters want somebody who can fight for himself. >> david webb, tomorrow night, no one is really asking if mitt romney will win new hampshire. that's considered guaranteed. the question is how much does he have to win by in order to blunt any momentum by other candidates heading to south carolina? what do you think? >> i thi

let's dig deeper right now with our chief political analyst, gloria borger and senior political analyst from the "national journal." let's look at the numbers in december and now. romney 20 from 20% to 37%. santorum from 4% to 19%. gingrich collapsed from 43% to 18. ron paul, he's doubled from 6 to 12%. rick perry collapsed as well, didn't have much to begin with, 8 to 5%. here has the question. i'll start with you gloria, everyone assumes on tuesday mitt romney will win in new hampshire where you and ron are right now. if he goes and wins in south carolina, is it over? >> reporter: i think you'd have to say it is. if he wins handily here in new hampshire and his opponents are trying to keep that margin down but he's still expected to win and then he goes to south carolina, where he's got the support of the governor and he looks like he's doing well, nothing succeeds like success, wolf. if he wins south carolina, you know, in modern history, no republican has been nominated without winning south carolina. you'd have to say, with his resources as he heads into florida, a very big diverse

gloria borr glor gloria borrow borrowi gloria borger was sitting but erin was standing. i felt bad for her. >> "the situation room," 4:00. >>> hello, everyone. thanks for joining us. i'm don lemon. the president makes his own choice for 2012. the battlefield shifts to primaries in new hampshire and south carolina and count michele bachmann out of both. it's time to play reporter rule let. david mattingly in south carolina, first. i'll show our viewers the map. we had the iowa caucus last night. new hampshire in six days, south carolina on the 21st. so there's a chance -- and let's be clear -- a chance that mitt romney could sweep all three and potentially sew up the republican nomination by the end of the month. that said, though, south carolina's deep south and an uphill battle for romney. so, david, do people there believe -- really believe that he can win? >> reporter: well, let's put it this way. it comes down to what voters are going to want. i spoke to the head of the republican party here in south carolina early today and he said that the voters here are very ener

our chief political analyst gloria borger is here. gloria clearly the nbc debate helped governor romney stop the momentum. he now has it. the interesting thing there at the polling look at the gender gap. if you look at our polling among men, beginning rich 35, romney 31 slight advantage gingrich. among women, romney 40, gingrich 42. in a bigger, more diverse moderate state looks at the moment the gender gap benefits romney. >> it does benefit romney. he needs to get some men start to vote for him, though. that's really important for him. we didn't see a gender gap for newt gingrich in south carolina because he whomped mitt romney throughout the entire state and did well with both men and women. but generally newt gingrich tends to have a gender gap, whether because of his personal issues or because men like the way he attacks and is very effective at that. but i think that this news with romney's such a wide lead among women is good for him. but he needs to get some men to start voting for him too. >> south carolina very conservative

gloria borger is standing by with david gergen, donna brazile, and ari fleischer. >> governor romney, what kind of debate did you think you had tonight? >> i thought it was terrific, and i was delighted with the debate. it was a big night for me and for the people who support me. you saw the response of the audience. it's a big step forward and it's going to give me the boost i need going into the last couple days before the primary. >> you were pretty aggressive, i couldn't help but notice, in taking on newt gingrich. you seemed to turn every attack he made on you into an attack on him. particularly the attacks he made on the campaign trail about your finances. >> when i'm shot at, i'll return fire. i'm no shrinking violet. thanks. >> back to you, anderson. >> it certainly was perhaps a more energized mitt romney than we have seen in privious deba s debates. earlier this week in florida, he appeared to be energized. he has a new debate coach. how much of a role that played, unclear. he and speaker gingrich went back and forth on a number of issues. immigration, what was said in vario

gloria borger is standing by in charleston, and she is next.ng a hurdle with a certain >>> all right. you know this by now, south carolina primary tomorrow, and it is getting interesting and closer and fascinating. you want to talk interesting? take a listen to the start of the cnn debate last night, as the question to newt gingrich from cnn's john king about mrs. gingrich number two. marianne there in beige standing by her man in 1987. take a listen. >> as you know your ex-wife gave an interview with the abc news and the "washington post" and this story has gone viral on the intern internet. in it she says that you came to her in 1999 at a time you were having an affair and she asked you, sir, about entering an open marriage. would you like to take time to respond to that? >> no, but i will. [ applause ] i think that the destructive vicious nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office and i'm appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like

plus, gloria borger is standing by live. is iowa even more important than this year?e're going to ask her, next. [ laughs ] ♪ and if you've got cut rate insurance, there's nothing you can do about this. so get allstate. the only insurance company that guarantees your claim experience won't be mayhem... like me. [ dennis ] introducing the claim satisfaction guarantee. only from allstate. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you from mayhem like allstate. >>> let's go back to iowa, too boone, iowa, where former pennsylvania senator rick santorum is campaigning this afternoon. i understand he's about to speak so we may have to pause. i understand that, jim accoosta. he's been to 99 counties, doing things the old-fashioned way, shaking hands, crisscrossing the state. it seems like it's paying off. >> reporter: that's right, and, brooke, if you had just been here 30 seconds ago he would have walked right behind me. he is getting ready to talk to this crowd here in boone, iowa. this is one of several stops -- well, better late than never. he has a slew of stops across the sta

gloria borger, thanks. >>> fess up, folks.we're looking for ways to keep a few more of our hard-earned dollars, in other words, pay a little less tax, of course legally here. we want to take a look at how mitt romney did it. so i'm going to walk over this way. what we've done is taken a picture of what's been released today, so some of his tax returns from -- we have 2010 and an estimate from 2011. so here you go. we're talking about romney's taxes. as i swipe this, this is actually a copy of part of his 2010 filing. he's going to release an estimate of what he'll be paying for this past tax year, 2011. so romney's taxes, take a look at this. this is the 2011 estimate. mitt romney plans just about $21 million in income for the tax year 2011. he plans to pay a tax rate 15.4%. ultimately do the math, it's about $3.2 million in tax dollars. so this is pretty fascinating. try to see where you fit in in this whole graph. so you look at the different federal tax brackets. they run all the way from 10%, the highest is a 35% rate. so

gloria borger will be with us the entire way. the fascinating race. the stakes here cannot be understated. in modern times every winner of the republican presidential primary in south carolina has gone on to be the republican nominee. if governor romney is to be stopped, it must begin here. he knows this, and he also knows his polling shows gingrich closing. so on the stuff today, governor romney mocked speaker gingrich for suggesting he deserves credit for jobs created in the ragan and the clinton administrations. >> it's the private sector that creates jobs. [ cheers and applause ] >> congressman taking responsibility or taking credit for help crieg ate jobs is like al gore taking credit for the internet. >> cnn's jim acosta is with the romney campaign tonight. jim it sounds like governor romney beginning to feel the heat, maybe hearing some footsteps, right? >> reporter: that's right. comparing your rival to al gore, those are fighting words down in south carolina, john. you know, when mitt romney is changing the script on his stump speech is happe

back to erin burnett and gloria borger. they're at the cnn polling center right now.owa voters, we're getting some information on what they're thinking all along, aren't we, erin? >> we are. it's interesting when you look, obviously as john's talking about, look at that state when it comes to the national election, it could be a dead heat. it's going to be a real battleground state. when it comes to the republicans in that state, you've got a group, evangelical christians, that are really important. let's look at 2008 just to see what happened here. these are the entrance polls we're looking at. you can see how mitt romney faired back then when it came to evangelicals. crushed by mike huckabee. >> crushed by mike huckabee. that was the key to mike huckabee's success. evangelicals agreed on one candidate. that was mike huckabee. and that gave him the iowa caucuses. it gave him his victory. didn't give him the nomination as we pointed out tonight. but so important to his win and so important to romney's loss. he cannot count on evangelicals this time around. >> now, oka

he talks with cnn chief political analyst gloria borger. >> host: welcome to "after words." i'm gloria borger of cnn, and with me is the executive editor of the "newshour," "after words," was just written a fabulous book called "tension city." my view from the middle seat. it's all about the presidential debate. in we will watch the presidential debate, some of us cover the presidential debate. but you're the only person i know who has moderate presidential debates. how many of them? >> guest: 11. >> host: and your the man, as you say, in the middle seat, at the center of the stage. you've written fiction about these debates. but you have never really told us what it's like to be in the middle of it. why did you decide to write a nonfiction book about debates? >> guest: i thought it was time to do it. i felt that 2008, i did one of the obama-mccain debates. i knew that this was probably going to be my last presidential debate. and so i decided pretty much that was the case, so i started collecting my thoughts that i had taken a lot of notes, to these previous 10, and i reali

erin burnett and gloria borger are watching this for us. >> we've got 19 categories of what we asked people in the entrance poll. because there are multiple waves some of the first data we have now are the highly motivated people to first arrive, not those to squeeze in at the end. that can mean very different results as the waves come in. >> exactly. >> when did you decide whom to support? this is a really important category when it comes to who may be the winner tonight or in that top tier. 12% of people decided today according to this first wave of the entrance polls, 25% in the past few days. that's 37% of people just deciding in the past few days. in december, 18% of people decided. and 44% had their minds made up. gloria borger, last time around in 2008 you pointed out that 60% of people made up their minds a long time ago. but in the past few days right before the caucuses in 2008, it was actually slightly lower and still huckabee got a surge. what do you interpret from this? >> first of all, i think this reflects the volatility of the race. if i were in the mitt romney campai