i want to bring in mark preston who knows this better than anybody. when you look at new hampshire, mark, for what happened in iowa in 2008 for santorum and huckabee, that territory, what happens in new hampshire coming up in the next few days? >> the difference between what happened in 200 a8 and what we' see in a few hours, huckabee decided not to play new hampshire. realized his views weren't going to mix well with new hampshire voters. libertarian and fiscal oriented. you know yourself growing up in iowa, caucusgoers tend to be a little more evangelical, a little more religious. so we'll see for rick santorum, though, heading over to new hampshire. >> he's going to do new hampshire and do it big? >> do it big, because he has to. he has no money. the whole national media is at the des moines airport heading east and going to get to manchester. i'll be in myself in a couple of hour. he's going it try to get as much free media as he can. he's got no cash. >> thinking about dropping out because of your showing in iowa, you also want to go? you don't w

mark preston is life this charleston. uch to talk about the big news here, mark. >> reporter: well, you know what's interesting about this, kyra, is that right after the iowa caucuses i was running to the airport about to get on the airplane. started getting telephone calls from people telling me that, in fact, rick perry was going to drop out of the race. that evening after he did so poorly in iowa he said he was going to give it some consideration. well, the next day there was a movement about that, in fact, he had decided to get out of the race. i've got to tell you, within a matter of about 15 or 20 minutes the ship had turned around and apparently rick perry's wife had a lot to do with it. she did not want him to give up. she wanted him to go on. they had the money. they had several million which they decided to come here to south carolina, invest t saturate the air waves and try to make their stand in sk south carolina. in fact public polls showed he could not get the boost he had hoped to. he's making a very calcula

thanks so much, mark preston. and join us every sunday afternoon 4:00 eastern as we dedicate an entire hour to the presidential contenders in this 2012 election. >>> gaby giffords returns to tucson, a look back at a day that stunned the nation as we mark a sad anniversary. a machin. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. have more fiber than other leading brands. they're the better way to enjoy your fiber. >>> tomorrow marks a horrible day in american history. one year ago sunday, a gunman went on a rampage in tucson killing six people. congresswoman gaby giffords was among the critically wounded. remarkably she survived after a bullet went through her brain. giffords is expected to attend a vigil honoring the victims. >> several people have been shot. the shooting occurred at a grocery store. >> we have discovered that we have 18 individuals that were sho

robert, of course, jim acosta and mark preston as well. we appreciate all of you.go before voting begins in new hampshire. cnn will have full coverage of all the late campaign appearances. you can join the best political team on television, tuesday night for special coverage of the returns. then, of course, it is on to south carolina and florida and the next stops on the race to the white house. i'm don lemon at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. more news right after this break. [ beep ] [ mom ] scooter? the progresso chicken noodle you made is so good. it's got tender white meat chicken. the way i always made it for you. one more thing.... those pj's you like, i bought you five new pairs. love you. did you see the hockey game last night? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

robert, of course, jim acosta and mark preston as well. we appreciate all of you.ust 32 hours to go before voting begins in new hampshire. cnn will have full coverage of all the late campaign appearances. you can join the best political team on television, tuesday night for special coverage of the returns. then, of course, it is on to south carolina and florida and the next stops on the race to the white house. i'm don lemon at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. more news right after this break. great guest experience. that makes my day. and during the four course feast, there's so much to choose from. [ male announcer ] the four course seafood feast is back at red lobster. still just $15. get soup, salad, unlimited cheddar bay biscuits, dessert, and your choice of 7 entrées, like new honey bbq shrimp skewers or shrimp and scallops alfredo. all four courses, just $15. [ jody ] it's really good value. all my guests love it. i'm jody gonzalez, red lobster general manager. and i sea food differently. try bayer advanced aspirin. it's not the bayer aspirin you know.

robert, of course, jim acosta and mark preston as well. we appreciate all of you.to go before voting begins in new hampshire. cnn will have full coverage of all the late campaign appearances. you can join the best political team on television, tuesday night for special coverage of the returns. then, of course, it is on to south carolina and florida and the next stops on the race to the white house. i'm don lemon at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. more news right after this break. [ kate ] most women may not be properly absorbing the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. [ male announcer ] why do we grow quaker oats? because there are mountains to climb. ♪ dreams to be realized. ♪ new worlds to be explored and hearts to be won. quaker oats. energy to get you going, fiber to help fill you up and help keep your heart healthy. super people eat super grains. ♪ hom

mark preston is here, cnn's political director. good to see you, again. we have been hanging out in south carolina for the past week. can we talk about eligibility? suddenly, it's a hot topic. meaning who is morabe electablen a showdown with president obama? >> newt gingrich is trying to say he's the one who has the eligibility factor. this is something he's been tagging to mitt romney. his biggest argument was that he's the person best suited to take on president obama in november. what we have heard from newt gingrich in the past 24 hours is that in fact he thinks he's the one best suited to take on president obama. as this race for the nomination continues to get nastier and nastier, they are also trying to say they are the ones who can reach out to that really important middle. the independent voters to try to beat barack obama in november. >> i listened to a lot of conservative radio in south carolina. they have been calling this mitt romney's homina moment. could he e have mishandled the tax return issue? >> he couldn't have done any worse. the fact

i'm joined here in the studio by cnn political director mark preston and in des moines, iowa, dana bash is standing by. dana, to you in a moment. mark is fresh off the airplane from des moines here to atlanta. welcome. >> thank you. >> and you have the front page of the "des moines register." so you should know what the pulse is and what the feeling is back in iowa. >> absolutely. spent the last weekend in iowa. this is what's going on out there right now. the voters are trying to figure out who they want to support in this race for the republican presidential nomination. out of nowhere, multiple story lines. out of des moines, rick santorum has shown he's a strong contender right now. the des moines register poll which is considered the gold standard for the iowa caucuses shows that rick santorum has a good shot at it. winning the iowa caucuses. >> he hasn't been speed dating in the state either as he accused the other contenders. he's been there on the ground -- >> a long time. >> -- boots on. yeah. back to you in a moment. for dana, ron paul is running close to mitt romney, but why w

i'm joined in the studio by cnn political director mark preston and in des moines, iowa, dana bash is standing by live for us. dana, to you in a moment. mark is fresh off the airplane from des moines here in atlanta, so welcome. >> thank you. >> and you have the front page of "the des moines register," so you should know what the pulse is and what the feeling is back in iowa. >> absolutely. i spent the last weekend in iowa. this is what's going on out there right now. voters are trying to figure out who they want to support in this race for the republican presidential nomination. and out of nowhere, multiple story lines right now all working their way out in des moines, but out of nowhere, rick santorum has shown that he is a strong contender right now. we started with the cnn poll earlier this week, backed up by the nbc poll, and of course, the "des moines register" poll, considered the gold standard for the iowa caucuses, shows that rick santorum has a shot. >> he said he hasn't been speed dating in the state, either, as he's accused other contenders. he's been on the ground, boots

i figure mark preston probably hasn't slept in eight months. >> nine. nine more months. >> yeah, don't get too comfy, i suppose. john avlon. and rubin navarette in san diego, california. photo finish. i have two ideas going on in my very small braun. it's the story of ouch for newt ging and out for the bottom three. is that so off the mark? >> out for gingrich, but we knew that was going to happen. we saw him drop in the polls. then negative advertising took him down. michele bachmann tonight, though, didn't say she was going to get out. i was prepared to send out a tweet that said michele bachmann has said that she will leave. i had to pull it back down even before i hit send because she then said she was going to stay in the race. a short time after that rick perry, texas governor, said he's going to go back home and reassess his campaign. >> did you tweet that one? >> i did. it wasn't as dramatic. how can he get back in the race? >> and how can michele drop out in her home state, right? that's kind of tough to stay i'm going to call it quits here. >>

mark preston, john avalon i want to start first with this field. mitt romney, you say he defined himself, mark, in florida at the cnn debate. and he's turned the page. i want to listen real quickly to what he said that you think is a turning point. >> is he still the most ant anti-immigrant candidate? >> i think of the four of us, yes. >> go ahead, governor. >> that's simply inexcusable. senator mark arubio came to my defense and said that ad was inexcusable and inappropriate. mr. speaker, i'm not anti-immigrant. my father was born in mexico. my wife's father was born in whales. the idea that i'm anti-immigrant was repulsive. >> was that the moment for him to take the upper hand again? >> the republican candidates have been distracted by issues such as immigration, legal immigration and mitt romney had taken heat from that. newt gingrich seemed to get an upper hand on him. what we saw this week was decisive. a lot of people thought newt gingrich would be the one who could be decisive and take on president obama. this last week, we saw that, in fact,

mark preston with us. what's the deal?florida, he says it's too expensive to campaign down there, in fact, what he's going to do is go to caucus states. we've seen him over the past couple of days not in the warm confines of miami or tampa, he's been up in maine campaigning up there, which has just started their caucus process. where will he be on election night? primary night? out west in colorado. because there's also a caucus out there. now, the most interesting thing that has come out of this interview yesterday with candy crowley on state of the union, ron paul says he's going to stay in the race until the republican convention. and when asked if he could support one of those other candidates, kyra, he said it would be hard to. >> okay. more to follow. >>> meanwhile, the president of the united states sure taking advantage of social media, isn't he? >> yeah, somebody who really capitalized on it back in 2008 and helped propel his campaign, well, president obama is continuing to do that. what we'll see today is he's do

. >> political director mark preston joins us this morning. the history he was talking about, first nonrepublican incumbent to win iowa and new hampshire back to back. we did just mention with 95% of the precincts reporting, romney has 40%. a lot of people saying he was going to be somewhere in the 30s. he beat expectations here. >> he beat expectations and reached the threshold here. had mitt romney ended up 34%, 35%, 36%, there would be an argument made that he still was not able to grow the support, and he showed that last night in new hampshire. he grew the support. a lot of people will still say there's a conservative movement against mitt romney, but the fact of the matter was he has won the first two, and as ashleigh said, he's got momentum. >> he's got the freight train going, and it started with not only the 40% but this speech we're looking at now. i can't tell you how presidential that seemed to me. i was a maesly little viewer watching the set as the returns came in. i watched a teleprompted speech which he'd done away with before,

let's bring in cnn political director mark preston from new hampshire. l, randi, we've been talking for months now, for years, quite frankly, how bad the economy is and how the republican candidates have been talking about how they would be a better alternative to president obama. here in new hampshire, the unemployment rate is not nearly as high as it is nationally, but still it is a major major issue, so we're hearing from the candidates talk about how they would turn things around, how they would help the housing market get better. but the candidates are attacking mitt romney. we've seen it in the last 48 hours. he's the front runner expected to win on tuesday night. they're going after him now. >> are the candidates doing anything unique in the final hours to try to get more people to the polls? >> they're just rushing, rushing, rushing from all the different campaign events they can. 24 campaign events a month, campaign events here in new hampshire, and that doesn't include the handful that rick perry is doing in south carolina. rick perry the texas

and now, mark preston, following santorum today -- miss you man. haven't seen you in a long time.together. >> i'll be on the road with you guys in a bit here. listen, i've got to tell you, yesterday i can't remember if i was sitting here in a commercial break or in a meeting and i said, what would happen -- it was so close -- if santorum turned out to be the winner. what's this we're hearing about the caucus votes in iowa? >> well, so what we've heard in the last 24 hours is that there's a discrepancy about who actually won one of the counties in iowa. and there's discrepancy about who actually won the county. mitt romney was certified as the winner of the county. however, some people are saying that he might have gotten more votes than he actually deserved. but i really need to break this down into simple terms. the iowa party doesn't think that even if the votes rn counted incorrectly that mitt romney would have lost the iowa caucuses to rick santorum but it really doesn't matter because mitt romney only won by eight votes and many people think that rick santorum, by and large,

and he seemed very content afterwards. >> mark preston with his take on the debate. and also cnn senior political analyst david gurgen said gingrich provided one of the most explosive moments in history. each join us 10:15. and the road stops next in south carolina for hits primary election. watch cnn saturday night, 7:00 eastern as the contenders and you wait for those final results. >>> six u.s. marines have lost their lives after their helicopter crashes in southern afghanistan. they were serving as part of may toe's international security assistance force when their chopper went down. barbara starr joining us from washington. so what exactly happened? >> well, the nato peace keeping force was saying thches not enemy fire, that there was no evidence of enemy action in the area when this ch-53 helicopter went down yesterday. killing six u.s. marines on board. we can thousand con firm that the unit was out of hawaii. and they were serving in helmand province. the taliban took credit and said they shout it down, even e-mail willing one of our producers saying they sh

thanks so much, mark preston. good to see you. we'll see you next in florida. >> thursday night. >> i know. racking up the frequent flier miles. all right, thanks so much, mark. >>> tough talk from mitt romney. he says his rivals are trying to demonize a core conservative principal. romney in his own words next. one chance to hunt down the right insurance at the right price. the "name your price" tool, only from progressive. ready, aim, save! grrr! ooh, i forgot my phone! the "name your price" tool. now available on your phone. get a free quote today. i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. >>> welcome back to this special hour of the "cnn newsroo

. >>> let's start with our mark preston. >> hey, kyra, great to be here in the election center.t romney has got the organization and the money but newt gingrich has got the momentum. we've seen some fighting words from mitt romney just in the past few minutes. we'll have more at the top of the hour. >> and rob marciano. it happened again. deadly tornadoes overnight in alabama with a stretch of severe weather that started in arkansas. over 100 people injured as well. we'll have the damage plus where the storms are in the next hour. >>> and i'm sigh san candiotti at penn state. will the death of joe paterno hurt the state's case against former assistant coach jerry sandusky. i'll take a look at that coming up live. >> all right, guys, thanks so much. >>> why i hate religion but love jesus.attention, doesn't it? so did the online video. you'll see it and hear the debate next. [♪...] >> announcer: with nothing but his computer, an identity thief is able to use your information to open a bank account... in order to make your money his money. [whoosh, clang] you need lifelock-- the on

mark preston is standing by along with cnn's political correspondent jim acosta.s, good to see you again. saw you a couple minutes ago. jim, i'm going to start with you. you've been on the road today tracking the romney campaign. tell us what's going on with a little more than one day left to go. >> that's right, don. as you know, we've been talking about this. it's going to take a tim tebow-style comeback for one of these other contenders to beat mitt romney in new hampshire. they are seizing on some comments he made earlier today in rochester, new hampshire, when romney was talking about how he understands the struggles in today's economy. he made some pretty interesting comments and his opponents are seizing on them. >> i know what it's like to worry whether you're going to get fired. there were a couple of times i wondered whether i was going to get a pink slip. and i care very deeply about the american people. and it frightens me to see a president who has made so many mistakes when people are hurting so badly. >> it's worth noting that mitt romney, he is the

new hampshire debates, jim acosta joins us from exeter, new hampshire, senior political editor mark prestonolitical editor paul steinhauser also with us. but from manchester, so, jim, let me begin with you, i understand romney is getting hammered today over a few comments made. >> that's right. earlier today, in nash withua h at an event and he made a comment that took a lot of people by surprise. he said he himself has worried about getting a pink slip in the course of his lifetime and that struck a lot of the reporters covering this campaign as sort of odd because mitt romney is the son of george romney, who is the head of american motor cars, very successful businessman, also the governor of michigan. and mitt romney led what has been a fairly privileged life and so those comments are obviously something the other campaigns are going to be seizing on as the hours go on as we tick closer to the new hampshire primary. i have to tell you, i think the reason why governor romney said that earlier today is because he is being savaged now by newt gingrich. there is a pro gingrich super pac that

mark preston, thanks as well.a there's a pretty large caucus going on. >> hey there, wolf. we're continuing to peel back the curtain on this whole caucus process, literally and figuratively. one caucus that has not finished it voting but over here empty chairs. this group has finished it voting. this is the precinct captain agnes. you've finished with your caucus gathering. what are the numbers look beening like? >> ron paul was clearly the leader, then newt gingrich close behind him with four. >> how many people? >> 22 in our precinct. >> what happens now with those numbers? >> i'll turn them into the central committee and they send that on to the state level. >> and that gets tabulated? >> correct. >> this is where agnes is taking the numbers over to get tabulated. a nerve center for this arena of 6,000 people. some of the groups are still here but some of the groups have left and the voting is over. >> shannon travis has been living in iowa over the past several months watching what's going on. let's go to anke

delegates all up for grabs and it is winner take all, and i want to bring in the political director mark preston. mark, good to see you. so we heard romney hitting back at gingrich on immigration and we know that latino make up 1 in 10 primary voters in florida, and who did the best job of winning the latino vote? >> well, even before the debate happened, suzanne, mitt romney got a big boost from marco rubio who is a senator here who many believe is on the short list here, and he came right out and defended mitt romney. but as we saw from the clip, mitt romney did a very, very good job of delivering a sharp and concise answer defending his position on that, so you have to give it to mitt romney there, suzanne. >> all right. mark, you want to go to the moon here? the future space exploration was something that came up, and didn't really expect it, but gingrich promoting the plan to build a colony on the moon. listen. >> i will tell you, i do not want to be the country that having gotten to the moon first turned around and said it doesn't really matter, and let the chinese dominate space and what

mark preston joins us in atlanta. mark, great to have you in the studio but what is going on?n to this from the congressman from utah. >> gingrich is more qualitied. >> you are following him instead of romney. >> no, just going to offer a little perspective. >> on why you think gingrich should be president? >> on why i think romney should be president of the united states. >> usually you would have a reporter asking those questions but now you have gingrich saying, what are you doing here? not to be outdone, a supporter of romney let's look to what he has to say. >> i mean, mitt romney seems to have a congenital defect. >> wow. >> as you can see, it's very loud and you can see there's a lot of background noise but it just shows you that this is getting very nasty on the campaign trail. >> social media and you want instant reaction and push back immediately and they are not waiting. if you have your person there, you can tweet it out and keep the momentum going. >> and i want you to talk about rick santorum because he's canceled all of his events in florida with his daughter be