by the end of the day this could be the story of two candidates, mitt romney and perhaps john huntsman. huntsman pegged his chances on new hampshire and based on numbers, the poll numbers it looks like that might have been a smart move. >> reporter: this is bedford, new hampshire's largest polling place, statewide 250,000 people expected to vote in the republican primary. >> i think it was pretty clear who the upfront candidate is. >> reporter: it's mitt romney slipping, but stronger today than yesterday, according to suffolk university's overnight poll. >> i have strong faith and feeling that he'll turn this country around. >> reporter: he's double digits ahead of ron paul but moving up overnight, jon huntsman. he's doubled support in new hampshire in four days. focusing on romney and trust. >> whoever is our party's

. >> as we know, mitt romney perhaps t the preresumpve nominee -- who knows, actuly. unning against barack obama and always o on the economy and jobs. >> gas prices this summe as they go u the obama administtion is bracing for a whole new line of atta on gas prices. you are going to hear the president talked a lot about how there arere fewer oil imports than before and domestic oil production is up. i am sure mitt romneney will take that attack if he becomes the nominee. >> whehere is the president going to go for his state of the union? " i think there will be manufacturing announcements and things that have to do with job creaon. there is whole mantra coming from the white house that they have abandoned working with congress. >> what is the volcker rule and white publicans hate it? >> the volcker rule tries to stop trading for the house with customerer deposits that are injured by the government. the proboblem with this is the government was to ensurere that the banks keep doing market making the kinds of trades that alwed our markets to function smoothly. figuring o

mitt romney or newt gingrich? >> they would rather face newt gingrich. he's prone to blowing himself up. i think mitt romney, perhapsarning, a negative lesson or the wrong lesson from his experiences in this primary. so, if you go to the movie and there's a guy -- a guy sitting there and the phone starts ringing but he's too into the movie and he doesn't listen, sir, your phone is ringing. i'm watching the movie. newt gingrich is that guy. he has been surpassed by a pizza man chain. newt gingrich has 35szed him twice on the platform of launching moon bases and having taken million-plus dollars from fannie and freddie. what mitt romney took from it, he shouldn't change his pattern, it just sit first and do nothing, because they'll blow themselves up. if they start gaining, dump all of the negative you have on them. just try to make it about them and scandal. >> think that's right. i think romney is still learning a great lesson, it's very risky to be cautious in presidential politics. this man has gone last fall couldn't get ethanol right. life is full of complicated questions. that's not one of them. >> george, i th

mitt romney. does this perhaps put the brakes on for him? >> that's a really good people. i talked to the mayor of greenville, south carolina, today, the second largest city in the state who endorsed mitt romney and he doesn't know, nor do any other south carolina contacts know if it's going to really make a difference. from the myrtle beach debate a couple nights ago newt surged and blew away the competition. this clearly won't help, but the question is will it slow him down enough to have mitt romney emerge? >> people already knew he wasn't exactly mr. faithful, so perhaps it doesn't hurt as much. let's talk about mitt romney for a minute. we all know he's very rich, but he's handled that very poorly the last week or so and now we learn that he's perhaps got some offshore bank accounts trying to dodge taxes in the cayman islands. how big a liability is this and perhaps could this cost him south carolina? >> i don't think so. romney first of all came out today and said he's paying full blown u.s. taxes on his investments in the cayman islands, but i think the whole bain ca

about tax reform and tax and millionaires and billionaires at a much higher rate on a day when mitt romney, perhaps the presidential primary or general election later this year, released his tax rates showing that he only had an effective tax rate of about 14%. this was a first opportunity for the president to take the limelight and not just talk about a policy agenda for 2012 but also campaign agenda. he shot a big rocket over mitt romney. >> critics of president obama and some of his potential rivals say that he did not talk about what americans most want to hear and that is job creation. he touched on it. was it enough? >> there was a lot of populism. he spoke about jobs and the economy and try to bridge the gap between the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. but the republicans -- and you saw this in mitch daniels' response and on the republican side during the primary -- they are saying this is akin to socialism, this is really trying to engineer the way that the economy works and not give people opportunity economically, not give them incentives economically to do with the money

predicted the race for the republican nomination will boil down to a contest between himself and mitt romney, perhapshful thinking. but santorum used his final day pitch to give an anti romney history lesson of sorts. >> let's put up, you know, bob dole because it's his turn. let's put up john mccain because it's his turn. let's put up those moderates that can win, right? those moderates that can win, according to who? >> former senator taking a break from the campaign trail to join us live. thanks for your time on such an important evening. governor huntsman, speaker gingri gingrich, governor perry right now seizing on this comment, governor romney saying today, you know, i like being able to fire people provide services to me. you said earlier today, i'm not making it a liability. i believe in the private sector. not an opening? >> well, look, you know, let people judge what his comments are. i'm going to talk about his record. his record as governor is plenty of fodder for me to show someone who is not a limited conservative. someone who believes inch government solutions to the problems and not b

his job and that struck a lot of people watching this campaign as perhaps an off-moment for mitt romney. perhaps later on in the day, the romney campaign had to come out with an explanation saying, well, governor romney was really talking about that time after he was coming out of college. there were some moments when his employment was not a sure thing. and so this was not a good 24 hours for mitt romney. is it enough to throw him off of his game right now and dash his hopes of winning the new hampshire primary? it would take a tim tebow-style comeback for one of these other contendners the -- contenders in the field to beat mitt romney. >> speaking of that tonight, we were all watching and know what you were talking about. jim, we saw new jersey governor chris christie there with mitt romney today. there was a moment he got heckled. i think it was christie kills jobs or something like that? tim, can you hear? >> oh, yes. i'm sorry. i thought you were talking to one of the other panelists. >> no, we're talking to you. >> there were some of the other panelists -- there were some protesters at th

>>> millionaire mitt romney perhaps understandably is having a bit of a problem persuading us that hehe plight of the common working man. unem polite is at 8.5%, one in seven americans is now deemed to be poor according to the census bureau. so see if you can figure out mr. romney's problem. >> what's the effective rate you could make. >> what's the rate i've been paying? probably closer to the 15% rate than anything. and then i get speaker's fees from time to time. but not very much. >> 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. i like being able to fire people who provide services to me. rick, i'll tell you what, 10,000 bucks? >> joining us william cohen, a former banker and author of "money and power, how goldman sachs came to rule the world." bill, as this campaign goes forward, we seem to have a continuing revelation with mitt romney. we hear him talking about being unemployed as a joke last year in a cafe. we then have him talking about earning $375,000 a year for speeches and

in south carolina, that will matter more at the end of the day than the head start that mitt romney has or perhaps has with early ballots. >> it is still far from over. thank you for giving us your time tonight. today, congresswoman gabrielle giffords announced she is stepping down. she made the announcement today via a video posted on social media. she says that she needs to focus on recovering from last year's shooting. she will make a special appearance at this tuesday's state of the union address. she is expected to formally step down by the end of the week. copperanti-abortion demonstrators will gather for a rally on the national mall at noon. at 1:30 p.m., protesters will march up constitution avenue toward supreme court. pro-choice demonstrators will also rally outside the high court. this will cause major traffic backups in the area. metro stations are also expected to be packed. it is that time of year again, the d.c. auto show. it gets underway this friday. more than 700 makes and models of cars are on display. parking will be limited, so metro may be your best option. still to come, we

and they're really going to be focused on mitt romney. so perhapst lead that we saw at the end of last week might be shrinking by the time we get to next saturday down in south carolina. >> interesting next week and a half for sure. karen travers live for us in manchester, new hampshire. thanks, karen. and don't forget abc's diane sawyer, george stephanopoulos and our entire political team will bring you the results live throughout the night right here on abc. >>> well, new government figures show health care spending grew at historically low rates last year. and this morning analysts are now debating whether that is good news, though. costs were up by nearly 4%. about $8,400 a person. but that's the lowest increase in 51 years. is it because recession-weary americans are avoiding expensive doctor visits and elective surgeries, or are employee cost controls i should say starting to work? that's what the white house would like you to believe right now. the jury, though, ultimately is still out. >>> well, georgia education officials are deciding wheth

mitt romney rolls into new hampshire with a monster-sized lead on the state. when we come back here, we'll huddle up around the water cooler to watch steven colbert warning mitt romney about his perhapsatal mistake. hey guys, breakfast! ♪ [ female announcer ] if whole grain isn't the first ingredient in your breakfast cereal, what is? now, in every box of general mills big g cereal, there's more whole grain than any other ingredient. that's why it's listed first on the side. from honey nut cheerios to cinnamon toast crunch to lucky charms, get more whole grain than any other ingredient... without question. just look for the white check. without question. [ female announcer ] everybody loves that cushiony feeling. uh oh. i gotta go. [ female announcer ] and with charmin ultra soft, you can get that same cushiony feeling you love while still using less. charmin ultra soft has extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent. so you can use four times less versus the leading value brand. ah. [ female announcer ] using less never felt so good. we all go... why not enjoy the go with charmin ultra soft. >>> with mitt romney commanding a major lead in the new hampshire polls, 30 points is th

mitt romney has 39%. >> i think mitt romney is more elitist than president obama. perhaps some voters have not made a choice. >> it is still up in the air. >> rick perry went to south carolina. rick santorum is running second there. mitt romney and the rest remain in new hampshire. >> the question is not who will win on tuesday. it is whether a single conservative alternately to mitt romney emerges as they had to south carolina. >> the man who served as press secretary to newt gingrich during the republican takeover of congress in the 1990's has died. tony blankley died last night in washington, d.c. the commentator and author had been suffering from stomach cancer. he was 63 years old. he served with gingrich in congress. this morning, former gov. bob ehrlich told us he is endorsing mitt romney for president. >> what does he have that makes him a contender? >> this country needs a leader- manager. jobs, the economy. this will not be a social issue campaign. this will be an issue of where is my smart, educated kid going to get a job? middle managers have been downsized. th

will it cause maybe some people to vote for rick santorum or mitt romney? perhaps, but i don't think in the main this would be a big mover and shaker in south carolina. >> as far as rick perry is concerned, he clearly saw the handwriting on the wall, he never really recovered from the early stumbles in those debates. >> he truly didn't. what's interesting to me is that we are talking about sort of two opposites here. rick perry, who pretty much was buried by the debates and newt gingrich who was resurrected by them. that's how important these debates have been. newt gingrich was running on fumes as of last summer, and the only thing that gave him any kind of energy going forward were these debates. just the exact opposite was true of rick perry who came in and almost was immediate in overnight place first in iowa. that first came and the second and third, and it was too late by the time he got better. people sort of stepped back and thought, ooh, may not be ready for primetime. >> mitt romney, what does he need to do tonight? >> he needs to put in a better debate p

mitt romney is doing well wl t with the catholic vote. he's polling well nationally with catholics that tend to be a little more moderate. mitt romney is completely acceptable. perhapsatholics have a communal memory of the bias they face for so long in american culture and they don't want to inflict that on mormons as well. i think that's an irony that kim was picking up on. you see those same evangelicals flocking to catholic candidates like rick santorum or newt gingrich who is a convert to catholicism. >> the big news for a whole lot of people in the news this week was the supreme court decision saying that religious organizations can hire who they want to without regard to the anti-discrimination laws. kim, pick up on that. >> for a lot of religious groups, the key part was without government interference. that the government can come in and second guess. >> people who are ministers? >> that's the term. although, that's the big question, who is a minister? the court left a little open wiggle room in that one. they didn't give a definition. that's the concern of some civil rights groups that this will be interpreted broadly so the janitor does ministry that he or

. >> with liberty and justice for all. [ applause ] >>> mitt romney is perhaps best known as a formerchusetts, but his family has deep roots south of the boarder. a big surprise for many people. we have more on this for tonight's edition of rock center with brian williams. >> it's a little known fact that there's a whole branch of mitt romney's family living in mexico, including his second cousin, laten romney, he is one of 40 romney relatives that first came here 125 areas ago. but they don't know mitt and mitt, with a media army shadowing him, doesn't know them. sg >> mitt romney has not written anything about his family south of the boarder. the most he said was that they left because of religious belief problems. strong and persistent anti-mormon feelings led to mitt romney's faith in america address four years ago. >> i do not define my candidacy by my religion. i will serve no one group or one cause or interest. >> he has not discussed the religion in detail. >> he has a right to his privacy how he worships. >> everyone has a right to not have to talk about that. >> the presiden

mitt romney? >>guest: perhaps. it depends. mcdonnell won virginia with 59 percent of the vote, a huge number.a first time gone for a democrat since 1964 and republicans thing they can when it bam and team obama thinks they can hold on. but outside of that, they are similar if you talk about mitt romney and mcdonnell but not argument is going to be, competency running against incompetent administration, mcdonnell would help augment the message. >>neil: and what about a a rand paul, you keep paul loyalists happy, it is not his dad but his son, i am getting goofy. what do you thing 1/2? -- think of that? >>guest: i had not heard that before, neil, that is outside of the box. again i had not thought about that or heard rumors but it is interesting idea. rand paul is a guy who was very popular and your point, ron paul is going to be a factor. he has a core of committed supporters and he will work, he will go through the process trying to organize for caucuses and he could be a big headache for whoever the nominee is if it is a guy like mitt romney. >>neil: you are the best. thank you, tom. taking

some of newt gingrich's attacks on mitt romney have perhaps not been as impact full as they were in southolina. for instance, in south carolina it's well-documented from the exit polls and the polls themselves that the attack on mitt romney's days in private equity and at bain capital were very potent in south carolina. here in florida there are some policy that suggest as many as 75% of republican voters weren't particularly moved by those criticisms. so endorsements and herman cain's support, the attacks back and forth on character, et cetera, it will be a frenzied final day on the campaign trail and tuesday as the candidates make their final push for involvements but in the end, newt gingrich, rick santorum and ron paul have all said they are going to continue to campaign. romney would love a knockout put away punch and he's been ramping up his own rhetoric trying to ramp up the score against gingrich. the beauty of the election is, we have to wait to see what happens. >> i remember former minnesota candidate tim pawlenty, that's his stomping grounds. he has supported mitt romney. itit

mitt romney is not simply going to -- a longer grace than expected. mitt romney is not of the going to emerged as the leader. that is, perhaps, a problem for the field of candidates, but it works to the advantage of mitt romney to some extent. if the others do not do better than him, then in the end, he will still be merged as the winner. the other candidates, newt gingrich, rick santorum, and ron paul really have a go at each other. you had ron paul accusing newt gingrich of not even been cogent. you have newt gingrich accusing or enough ideas for these -- accusing rick santorum of not having a big enough ideas for these challenging times. if mitt romney can maintain his lead, then he will probably emerge as the overall winner. how much is riding on the allegations being thrown around -- >> how much is riding on the allegations being drawn around by newt gingrich,'s ex-wife. how is he coping with it? >> very angrily. it was one of the first questions he got in the debate from the moderator, and he replied with fury, saying this was not a question to be asked at a presidential debate, and he accused the media of using those

for the election, we heard a lot of rumblings about mitt romney and axel rod and others focused on mitt romney. digs at newt gingrich. they are perhapsng more confidence that he will get the nomination. >> i would say that they expect romney to get the nomination at this point. they focused on him all along. i asked this question and why you guys focused on romney and do you think he will get the nomination. he said romney will be of the pop two no matter what. they focused on him from the beginning and also say that romney has been attacking obama instead of his republican rivals and they have got to come back and counter that. they do i think believe romney is the likliest person and will be the most difficult for them to face. >> we know that the president was successful in really getting people to believe in change. this time around, what do we believe will be the moniker here and what will we hear resonate with the people and the supporters of this administration and the reelection campaign. >> the reelection campaign knows this will be a more difficult race as david axel rod put it to me. they have straight head winds and this

in none of these areas, motive, passion or spopt neighity do i find mitt romney's greatness. perhapsthrough the rest of the

perhaps affect the safety of his fellow service members. we'll play that for you in a little bit next on reporter roulette, mitt romney faces perhaps the biggest test of his campaign. nine days from the primary in south carolina. today he's looking past that though to the florida primary at the very end of this month. jim acosta following mitt romney in west palm beach. romney's record with the bain capital, the equity firm he is getting hit from all kids. what is he saying today? how is he defending himself? >> reporter: well, brooke, you kind of heard him deliver an i feel your pain kind of speech today in palm beach talking about people unemployed and the hard times they're going through, how sometimes being unemployed leads to broken marriages or being depressed. it was something that we haven't really heard him talk a whole lot about. he even said during his remarks if he becomes president, he'll being out for your job and not his job. and it almost sounded like a rebuttal to this 30-minute attack ad that this superpac has put out this week. and it focuses on romney's days at bain capital and some of the companies downsized during his ten

perhaps if there were super pacs that were as well funded as mitt romney, perhaps we'd see those ads. the second thing, he put himself in a corner. he said i'm not going to go negative. well, by doing that, he could never go negative. he was never able to put up any kind of a defense which now we hear him say these things which makes us think, well, now you want to go negative when in some ways it's defensible for him to say enough's enough. what they're saying are lies about me, and this is what differentiates myself from mitt romney. but the way he does it, the anger comes out. and that's what's going to hurt him. >> erik erickson, cnn contributor and member of redstate.com is joining us as well this morning. can you chime in on this? what do you think about the way that gingrich is behaving? some people are saying that this is -- this is who he is. and this is what we should expect moving forward. >> you know, he has evolved over time. he has tried to become this fatherly figure in the party shepherding new ideas that he considers conservative, not necessarily others do. he conside

mitt romney has released his tax returns. his return for 2010 plus an estimate for 2011. no surprise, mitt romney is rich. perhapslike a lot of you would like to be. we're going to get to the numbers here in a minute, but first politics with chief political analyst gloria borger. romney had said he was going to wait until april to release these tax returns. the presumption seemed to be that perhaps he'd have the nomination sewn up by then. lo and behold this morning, boom, here they are. what happened? >> well, he got a lot of pressure. he got an awful lot of pressure from newt gingrich who happened to win south carolina. and i think the more pressure he got, there was a feeling inside the campaign that, look, we have nothing to hide. you heard mitt romney before he released his taxes say that he paid an effective rate of 15%. turns out to be 14%. we also know that he tithes his income to the mormon church, so you saw that he's given $4 million to the mormon church. so once those -- they dribbled out those details, then they were ready to kind of release his taxes and to sort of just stop the -- you know, the cha

because if you assume that the polls are right and mitt romney wins, perhaps jon huntsman or ron paulre you see the top three and that is not your traditional conservative base that a lot of these other candidates are going off, and so, yes, four and five, you know, they always say there's three tickets out, but here there will be a battle in south carolina on the 21st. and again we have that debate coming up on the 16th down in myrtle beach. there will be this effort to find the anti-romney if there is one still out there who can compete down the road. jenna: it will be interesting to watch. we'll be watching along with you. i know you've got a busy day ahead and special coverage tonight. thank you for joining us early on as it is. 6:00pm eastern time. a special new hampshire primary coverage. hannity at 11:00, greta at midnight. you do not want to change the channel all night long starting now. jon: let's hope it's not a 3:00am determination like it was in iowa. jenna: shouldn't be but you never know. jon: syria's president refuses to accept down. president bashar al-assad vows to u

mitt romney was 45 minutes early perhaps to avoid newt gingrich and he made remarks to a enthusiastict his remarks signaled the preparedness for defeat tonight. he said it is going to be a long race. not only florida and south carolina. but colorado and nevada. he's talking about the long slog. it is a strategic view. they are hoping the organization will rise up and help and they have governor halle's to romney only stayed 15 and newt gingrich stayed 45 minutes and he said where's mitt and called out the rival and talked about how he hoped there would be a debate. newt gingrich said he recognized there were a lot of romney supporters and thought they might come to their senses and join his campaign down the road. that is two candidates and there are two others. ron paul, the texas congressman is poling in third place and rick santorum has been successful in rousing crowd asks building on what was his iowa caucaus win . announced officially by state republican party officials in the hawk eye state. santorum one, and mitt romney won new hampshire and south carolina could be a flee way

and they're really going to be focused on mitt romney. so perhaps that lead that we saw at the end of last week might be shrinking by the time we get to next saturday down in south carolina. >> interesting next week and a half for sure. karen travers live for us in manchester, new hampshire. thanks, karen. and don't forget abc's diane sawyer, george stephanopoulos and our entire political team will bring you the results live throughout the night right here on abc. >>> well, new government figures show health care spending grew at historically low rates last year. and this morning analysts are now debating whether that is good news, though. costs were up by nearly 4%. about $8,400 a person. but that's the lowest increase in 51 years. is it because recession-weary americans are avoiding expensive doctor visits and elective surgeries, or are employee cost controls i should say starting to work? that's what the white house would like you to believe right now. the jury, though, ultimately is still out. >>> well, georgia education officials are deciding w