once again from columbia, south carolina, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. thanks, south carolina, for giving us one of the wackiest weeks of the campaign. john house man came to south carolina then he left. rick perry came to south carolina and he left. rick santorum, who lost in iowa seems now to have won there, and newt gingrich, who finished out of the top tier in both iowa and new hampshire is staging a remarkable comeback. i spoke to him yesterday. if mitt romney wins on saturday, you stand by your statement if a that if he wins in south carolina the republicans will nominate a moderate who will lose to democratic barack obama in the fall? >> i think it becomes harder but he's not doing well enough to be very convincing. if you add the conservative vote together between santorum and me we would betemit mitt by 60-40. gwen: rick santorum pushed back later that night. >> grandiosity has never been a problem with newt gingrich. a month ago he was saying that it's inevitable that i'm going to win the election. i don't want a nominee that i have to worry ab

gwen: what about jon huntsman? he spent all of his time and put all of his attention new hampshire and still isn't in any double digit in polls i have seen recently? >> he wants tobt rick santorum of new hampshire. and he refers to himself that way. i did the state work here in new hampshire, just as rick santorum did it in iowa. santorum, by the way, did a lot of work in new hampshire and south carolina. wlopt it pays off in the end, we don't know. he's done all of the work but romney is much more tore mid-able here than he was in eye a. and we're also seeing one other thing on romney, his numbers are starting to go up in south carolina, which challenges this notion he has got a ceiling of 25%. he absolutely did in iowa. it seems to be written he cannot get more in iowa than 25%. early polls in south carolina are showing, one showed 17-point bump for romney. when has romney jumped 17 points? that's a surge, word not associated with him in this race. so there's some potential for romney to grow. gwen: one more poin

gwen: but not so fast. before romney can take on the president directly, he has to win more than a single caucus and a single primary. and, lest we forget, newt gingrich, rick santorum, ron paul, jon huntsman and rick perry are still in this thing. gingrich, who is within striking distance so far in the palmetto state, appears to be the one running hardest, targeting romney's business background. >> i'm all for people becoming successful. they're out there creating jobs, engaged in exactly the kind of competitive behavior we want. this is a question of governor romney's character. it's not -- it's not capitalism that's on trial. gwen: indeed, gingrich and the others all hope voters put romney on trial. how is that playing out so far, beth? >> well, it's giving voters a preview of the general election because the argument the are making is similar to the one we've been hearing from the democratic party and allies of obama, that romney is not the job creator he makes himself out to be, but actually, you know,

once again, live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. was it only a week ago that we were wondering what was going too happen in south carolina? well, the political world has shifted and reshifted multiple times since then. newt gingrich, who used debates and big ideas to score a major win in the pal meto state less than a week ago brought grandiosity to florida. >> we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be american. i was attacked the other night for being grandiose. john f. kennedy standing there saying we'll get to the moon in eight years was grandiose. i accept the charge that i am an american and americans are instinctively grand owes. gwen: mitt romney, who saw his political life pass before his eyes after losing to gingrich in south carolina, took direct aim at that. >> if i had a business executive co-le to me and say they wanted to spend a few billion dollars to put a colonny on the moon i'd say you're fired. this idea of going state to state and promising what people want to hear, that's what got us into

. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the newshour tonight, judy woodruff is in on the ground in the sunshine state with the latest on the fight for conservative voters. >> woodruff: with only hours to go until the polls open here in the state of florida, the republican contest for president, instead of quieting down, has only grown louder and meaner. >> brown: and stu rothenberg and susan page look ahead at the critical contests to come. >> ifill: then, from brussels, margaret warner reports on how european leaders are attempting to tackle the continent's financial crisis. >> brown: ray suarez sits down with doctor hans rosling, whose unique take on global health and development statistics has made him an online sensation. >> can you see that? the green that the american companies are moving towards smaller families. >> ifill: and we talk to author adam johnson about a new novel that offers a rare window into life in north korea. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has

and now for more on the campaign margaret warner talks with gwen. >> warner: hi, gwen. you, that was a fascinating discussion. are you quite a veteran of new hampshire primaries. what struck you about those voters as compared to, say, voters in republican primaries past? >> ifill: well, i was interested in the degree to which they really were not talking about the candidates as much as they were talking about what it is the candidates have to say. now four years ago when we were here in new hampshire, margaret, when two primaries going on. the democrats and the republicans, so theres with a lot more going on. a lot more information, even a lot more television advertising. right now because it is a republican primary which undeclared voters can participate, people are thinking very carefully about what these candidates have to say. there's a reason why rick perry's name didn't come up. he's at 1% in the latest poll. he hasn't been really campaigning in new hampshire. on the other hand, someone like jon huntsman who has been campaigning here is only at 8% in the poll. so

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 performed 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

. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill, in manchester, new hampshire. on the newshour tonight, we have full coverage of the final flurry of campaign appearances, as the republican rivals each aimed for a strong showing. >> i feel good because we've done everything humanly possible. >> i feel like i'm an episode of survivor. just keep me on the island. >> woodruff: we get analysis from new hampshire pollster andrew smith, stuart rothenberg of the "rothenberg political report," and newshour political editor christina bellantoni. >> ifill: then, jeffrey brown looks at today's supreme court arguments about government regulation of profanity over the airwaves with marcia coyle of the "national law journal." >> woodruff: margaret warner updates the bloodshed in syria as president assad threatens an "iron hand" against protesters. >> ifill: ray suarez examines north carolina's move to compensate people sterilized against their will. >> woodruff: and we close with some final thoughts on the campaign from mark shields in new hampshire and david brooks. that's al

i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, we get the latest on the battle for 50 delegates in the sunshine state, and we talk with its junior senator, marco rubio. >> ifill: then ray suarez interviews susan rice, u.s. ambassador to the united nations, about the security council resolution calling for syria's leader to step down. >> woodruff: from germany, margaret warner reports on reaction to the european union's fiscal discipline deal. >> ifill: as florida votes, jeffrey brown examines the foreclosure crisis that has depressed housing prices there and around the country. >> woodruff: and we close with more on the political campaign from mark shields and david brooks. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and with t

we'll go basket to judy now who has a guest in des moines. >> thanks gwen.here with debbie wasserman schultz, congress woman from the state of florida. beshe is the chairman of the democratic national committee. what brings you to des moines? >> well, we thought it was important that we demonstrate the dramatic contrast that exists between the direction that president obama has been taking with this country standing up and fighting for the middle class and working families and beginning to get this economy turned personal. the entire republican field which is embrace extreme and embrace the tea party and fake back the republican mom sees has brought usz&:;2ceconomic disast. >> every one of these republican candidates has been saying he or she would be a better president than barack obama and they talk about the economy. they talk about the fact that so many americans feel the country is headed in the wrong direction. how does the president begin to chip away at that perception which the republicans just relentlessly hammered out. >> try as they might to crea

>> woodruff: i think it's a mixture, gwen. i think truly people, a lot of voters i've spoken to, i think you and i talked earlier today and i think i told you of the 25, 30 voters i've talked to just in the last couple of days. only one of them was completely committed. everybody else said, you know, i could change my mind. i'm leaning. probably going to go romney, paul or whomever else they like. but they let the door open. there are some, i think, who are genuinely undecided, who are going to go to these caucuses tonight, listen to the arguments and make up their minds then. as you and i both know, there are always people in a situation like this who just don't want to tell reporters or pollsters what they're thinking. there really is an element of inpredictability tonight. >> ifill: part of it is always in the closing moments in these kinds ofampaigns things happen that you and i don't necessarily see. there are phone calls made. there are flyers that are slipped under front doors. we see signs of that happening in iowa as

gwen is in the weather center with changes on the way. hi, gwen. >> hi, maureen. you are right. it did feel like spring. unbelievable numbers. let's show you some high, 68 at national airport. are we in december, january, winter? does not seem like it at all. 64 in dulles, 66 degrees at bwi. 64 in b.c., 64 at dulles. skies not too wad. we're going to see some clearing skies as we move through the course of the night. not all bad. winds have picked up a little pit, however. we have a few gusts out there from 16 to 23 mile-per-hour wind gusts. today's temperatures, some 22 to 25 degrees above average but get ready. the mercury is getting ready to take a plunge. i'll have those details coming up. >> turks gwen >>> a texas teenager is now back home months after being deported to colombia. how could a minor be sent to a country where she is not a citizen, has no ties to the country does not even speak spanish. julie banderras investigates >> reporter: u.s. officials deported the teenager because she was an illegal immigrant. at least that's what she is telling the official. how could