right here on cnn, political editor paul steinhauser live in charleston. paul, what do you think of gingrich's late momentum? >> yeah, look at this, kyra. this poll you mentioned, nbc marries pole was conducted mon and tuesday. both before and after that debate where a lot of the pundants say newt gingrich had a great performance. mitt romney looked a little defensive especially over the issue of his taxes. let's break down that poll. monday, monday only in that poll, there's romney at 37%, gingrich at 22%. 15-point lead for romney. go to tuesday. this is just the tuesday results from that poll. look at that. romney advantage down to just 5 points. also another new poll out in the last few hours from polico. romney is at the top, seven points over gingrich. this was first recognized by our cnn time orc poll, back just, what, not even 24 hours ago with romney's lead going from 19 points down to 10. things are definitely tightening up here. the romney camp starting to step up attacks on gingrich yesterday on the campaign trail. boy, kyra, it is getting really

paul steinhauser is live in jacksonville with a preview. hope you are as excited as you are earlier because we have a lot of folks that say they can still change their minds. >> 25% of the people could change their minds. one other number, take a look at this zoaraida. we broke down the poll number you just gave. look at this, sunday's numbers. sunday was the day after gingrich's big win in the south carolina primaries double-digit victory. he is ahead of romney among people likely to vote in the primary. look at the monday and tuesday numbers and maybe gingrich's momentum has started to slow down. so, so much on the line tonight. remember, 50 del gs here in florida and winner take all. three things i'm looking for tonight. mitt romney was very much playing offense. will he continue to do that tonight but still look president snl a second thing, newt gingrich seemed to be asleep on monday night's debate. more forceful in defending himself and going on the attack against mitt romney. remember, this is still a four-person race. the people on

let's turn to cnn's political editor paul steinhauser. his is stunning, this turnabout just in the last several days. >> reporter: it really is. this poll as you mentioned, just out in the last hour, hour and 15 minutes, it was conducted thursday and friday. that was half before and half after our debate, our cnn republican debate. here's the new poll. look at that. there's gingrich now at 40%. romney at 26%. this is among people likely to vote right now in today's primary in south carolina. look at that earlier in the week. basically dead even. now, gary, this is probably the final poll. it's already primary day. people are voting and this is just one poll, so, you know, the polls may differ. all of the polls, and there have been a lot, indicate gingrich surge and romney's lead evaporating. >> gingrich's lead is weaker when it comes to fee mamale vot >> reporter: we saw the story line from the debate the other night, his ex-wife marian saying he asked for an open marriage. loot ak this on the poll numbers. it goes against the other polls.

paul steinhauser here to talk about how much money we're talking about. paul?e he raised $750 million. maybe he'll do more this time. here are brand new numbers for the obama re-election team in chicago. for the fourth quarter. that's october, november, december. re-election team raised $42 million. and the democratic national committee added $24 million. they were trying to raise -- the goal was $60 million. so they beat that. if you add it all together, since they started the reelect campaign here the president himself was helping in the cause. he was at fund-raisers in chicago he had three in chicago. the money raised now goes towards the first quarter of this year. this is way ahead of what the republicans are raising. but right now they're battling each other for the nomination. and factor in the third party groups. the super pacs. a lot of money going to be spent in the 2012 election. >> some people say romney may run away with it. are we far away from anyone getting enough delegates to win the nomination. >> he's got momentum. you can see mitt romney on

let's bring in paul steinhauser in columbia where it's raining. paul, let talk about this latest poll indicating that it's very volatile, particularly between those two now leading candidates. >> reporter: oh, it's so true. let's take a look at the numbers. this survey from american research group. it was conducted thursday and friday so that means half before and half after our explosive cnn southern republican debate in charleston, south carolina on thursday night. newt gingrich with about 40% of support of people voting. romney at 26%. both ron paul the congressman from texas and rick santorum former senator from pennsylvania in the teen. as you mentioned this poll indicating a shift. gingrich going up seven points. romney going down six from earlier in the week. other polls taken over the last couple of days indicate a closer race between romney and gingrich. every survey here indicates the same thing. gingrich's numbers going up, romney's numbers going down. as you mentioned it is pouring here. you can see it is raining. there's thunder across

. >>> cnn political editor paul steinhauser live in jacksonville. t of big moments in those 120 minutes, paul. what stood out most to you? >> reporter: you condensed that pretty good there. that was very nice, kyra. a couple take aways from this. first of all, listen, it was a big night for mitt romney, no doubt about that. the second strong debate. even stronger last night than he did on monday night. what a difference from a week ago in south carolina when it came to freddie mac whrks it came to space exploration whrks it came to illegal immigrants. that was one of the story lines of the night. the second big thing there, it plays out of that, where is newt gingrich's game? listen, a week ago in south carolina he had two huge debates. newt gingrich was on top of his game, mitt romney was on the defensive. that helped gingrich win big in south carolina. a bit of a role reversal. take a listen to what mitt romney said after the debate. >> i think it's going to give me the boost that i need going into this very last couple of days before the primary.

. >> cnn political editor paul steinhauser live in charleston. gipg grish knows south carolina is a do or die state for his campaign. what do you think? how and can he mount an upset? >> reporter: kyra, he could because, listen, south carolina very different state than new hampshire. here southern social conservatives play a big jerl factor, so do tea party activists. so do retired and active military personnel. remember, gingrich is from neighboring georgia before you are, so i'm not saying he's got home field advantage here in south carolina, but it is a more favorable ground than it was in new hampshire for the former house speaker. you know that palin sound you saw played from an interview last night, the gingrich campaign definitely running with that this morning. they say it's a pretty clear call to arms. listen, palin still pretty important, pretty influential with a lot of conservative voters. as for gingrich's call for santorum to drop out, here's what santorum says about that. >> i think it's an enormous amount of hubris for someone who

paul steinhauser is live from tampa florida. we were talking about the fact that romney ahead in two polls but the gingrich took him in the national polls. what a difference a day makes. >> really a big difference in the national polls. the national polls are catching up sdplordzoraida, polls. five major polls in the last 48 hours to indicate the same thing. romney with a double digit lead. came out yesterday morning, late morning. this is from quinn pie yak. newt gingrich 14 points back in the survey. 29%. you can see rick santorum, the former senator from pennsylvania, the congressman from texas pretty low out of running here. they have moved on. i think it's obvious, romney, gingrich, maybe not so much -- so happy with each other. it's gotten uglier. this was a tough campaign, no doubt about it. it wasn't like it was pleasant in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, but things have gotten tougher and rougher in florida. we're zoraida, talking about big money. the romney camp an the independent super pac that supported it is ou

let's bring in cnn political editor, paul steinhauser, standing by live in des moines, and kay henderson, the news director for radio iowa. first to paul. paul, the latest poll numbers show rick santorum running third in iowa, but is it a true surge? >> reporter: you know, it may be, because you showed the overall poll from the "des moines register" at the top of the hour here, natalie. let's break it down. that was a four-day poll. let's look at the last two days, thursday and friday, there's mitt romney still on top at 24%. but look at this, at 21% within the sampling era, there's santorum with paul now at 18%. you add it all together and it really indicates like our poll did earlier in the week, santorum is starting to surge. and because of that maybe, just about two hours ago, mitt romney on the campaign trail here in iowa talked about rick santorum. take a listen. >> senator santorum was kind enough to endorse me last anytime around. i appreciate that. and we've been friends. i can tell you that our backgrounds are quite different. like speaker gingrich, senator santorum has spent h

let's bring in cnn political editor paul steinhauser who's live in the state capital of south carolina, columbia. paul, what does the south carolina vote tell us about the future of this race? >> reporter: it tells us, gary, that this race is far from over. it's not going to be ending any time soon. this is not a sprint. it's probably going to be a marathon. our exit polls also indicate that a lot of people, about two-thirds of the voters here, made up their mindses just in the last few days. a lot of people are also saying those two debates were pretty important to their vote. of those people, romney was behind gingrich by a 2 to 1 margin. gary, that tells me that debates really matter. >> thank you to everyone in south carolina who decided to be with us in changing washington. >> reporter: another comeback for newt gingrich. down in the polls just a week ago, the former house speaker stormed back to take south carolina's crucial republican primary by double digits over mitt romney. gingrich praised the former massachusetts governor, but he also got in a dig. >> we don't have the kind

cnn political editor paul steinhauser with the cnn election express in downtown columbia, south carolina. paul, thanks for joining us. what are we hearing from the candidates about what they expect today? >> you know, gary, i have to say i think don lemon had a lot of cups of coffee. no quail hunting here. we're at the university of south carolina campus downtown. expectations, newt gingrich very happy. he had a strong debate performance on monday and another strong debate performance most people say at our showdown? charleston two nights ago and seems the romney camp may be tempering expectations here in south carolina. here's what all four of the remaining candidates said last night. >> i think it really began to change dramatically after monday night in myrtle beach the debate. we were pretty good before then, because you could -- we're back home, as a georgian, i feel pretty good campaigning in south carolina, and we're getting a good, positive response. but monday night seemed to galvanize people and it got better and then sarah palin said she would vote for me. >> we have a long pr

paul steinhauser is in des moines for us. let's talk with ron paul who surged in recent weeks. what's he doing to mobilize his followers today? >> reporter: here's the thing about ron paul. he will be out on the campaign trail today. he'll be at that rock the vet event jim is at rye now in west des moines. everybody says that ron paul has the best ground game here. you've seen it from the white house as well. he has energetic followers devote devoted, energetic people who come to caucuses regardless of what's going on. and for ron paul, he would like to win here. sure he would. if he comes in second and third, he's continuing on. this man may go all the way to the convention in tampa in august. that's kind of ron paul's situation. he would like to win, but if he doesn't, he is going to march on regardless. rick perry, the texas governor, spent a lot of money here. his campaign has spent more money on ads, to put up ads on iowa tv than any other candidate. he's still in the low double digits. he would like to finish in third place but a fourth place finish may still be enough fo

so, we're going to get cnn political editor paul steinhauser to weigh in on this. f this? perhaps we were originally talking about south carolina that this was going to be a three peat for romney, but he already got the momentum going. >> he got the momentum going and what is done is done. if i was rick santorum's campaign and i already e-mailed them to see if they have reaction and i'm sure they are. if was rick santorum's campaign, i would be yelling and screaming about this. we saw rick santorum saying maybe he did when all the votes are recertified and maybe he won in iowa. if i was santorum i would be talking about this nonstop and the north charleston coliseum because he needs a shot in the arm right now. this may help a little bit. for romney, i don't think it will make much of a difference. he has other issues he has to deal with, the tax story and his poll numbers starting to drop here in south carolina. >> but how unusual is this? this craziness that is happening in iowa? >> it is very crazy. and if i was the iowa gop i would be maybe a little egg on their

and cnn political editor paul steinhauser and from chicago, lenny mcallister.ny, i'll begin with you. did you ride your snowmobile in this morning? >> i mussed dogs in. i try santa get back to the north pole. >> the leadership telling republicans to basically cool it. apparently rick santorum is listening. let's listen to this then we'll talk about it. >> we have a president who sees, well, america like king george iii saw america at the revolutionary war, a country that should be ruled for the benefit of the people. >> so here's a potential problem, right? lenny, nobody has actually won the nomination yet. so is focusing on obama a good strategy? >> it is a good strategy. here's the problem, though. you still have this civil war within the conservative base between the establishment republican party and the tea party movement that's never had a chance to pick a presidential candidate and now you have the establishment who's not supposed to get involved in primary elections, all of a sudden saying, hey, cool off because we kind of have our nominee, this isn't g

>> paul steinhauser there. arleston debate here on cnn thursday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. >>> as paul said, the republican presidential candidates are all over south carolina this weekend. the action starts with rick santorum's faith, family and freedom town hall at 8:30 eastern. romney, gingrich, perry and huntsman all have several events. ron paul is not on the ground in south carolina but they are hoping to launch a fund raising effort this weekend. >>> this month's scheduled felony trial of former presidential candidate john edwards has been put on hold until late march. a federal judge revealed he has a serious heart problem. he'll have surgery next month. edwards is accused of conspiracy and violatiing campaign laws. he denies the charges. >>> thousands of passengers and crew have been plucked off a crew ship. the relieved passengers are back in port. rescuers aren't done yet. they are trying to clear the ship. 4,000 people were on board when it hit a sandbar. here it is, the cruise ship is just sitting

paul steinhauser has more on the battle in the sunshine state. >> good morning. just three days away from florida's crucial primary. 50 delegates at stake. it's the biggest haul so far in this primary. you have mitt romney and former house speaker newt gingrich campaigning in the state all weekend. they are the only two. rick santorum, he's up in pennsylvania right now, today. he's doing his taxes, he said. he's also doing a little fund raising. you will see him back here in florida tomorrow afternoon. as for ron paul, he's not in florida at all. he's up in maine. he's looking ahead. maine holds their caucus next month. paul is up there doing a little politicking. take a look at this. look at the numbers on the left. that is tuesday, wednesday, thursday, just before our explozive cnn debate in jacksonville. romney with a nine point advantage. look at the column on the right, that was sunday and monday. it indicates gingrich has a big momentum out of south carolina. that momentum appears to be fading with people likely to vote here in florida. >> paul, thanks so m

paul steinhauser is live in des moines... with the latest. good morning, paul.uestions---1. - santorum have tte cash to keep the momentum going?2. at what point do thh candidates ho finished farther back in the pack last whether or not to continue on? 3..looking ahead to new hampshire, what can we expect to see from the candidates over the next week?4. what did president obama have to say to 3 democrats last night? coming up... it's the tool cooks just can't live without in the kitchen. natshow an immersion nder nats blender... can transform your meals. and becoming a pinball wizard... just got easier! we're taking you inside the brand new pinball museum... opening up in baltimore.you're all local.. all morning. &p((break 7)) what are some of the best tools to have in your kitchen? chefs tell consumer reports shopsmart one that they can't live without is an immersion blender. but what is an immersion blender... and do you really need one in your kit? kitchen? (v/o)chef leslie lampert is well known for her soups. she mmkes all kinds and says the immersion blender

cnn political editor paul steinhauser is live in d.c. paul, we're just about a week away until south carolina votes. are these attacks hurting romney at this point? what do you think, will his rivalries tone it down? >> reporter: yeah, this has been going on from sunday, the presidential debates in new hampshire. is it hurt sng we'll see. new polls in south carolina starting today. it may be hurting him. will their rivalries be toning it down? they seem to be. you played tape from rudy giuliani. a lot of establishment republicans. also some very conservative people that are not establishmenters saying the same thing, caught it out, guys. this is the mantra of the republican party. free trade. you're hurting not only romney but the whole party. you're giving ammunition to the democrats. a brand new ad out this morning from mitt romney in south carolina on south carolina air waves defending himself, defend gs his time at bain capital. that ad starting to run talking about sports authority where he helped create jobs. kyra, take a listen to

paul steinhauser is in manchester, new hampshire. paul, that was such a moment, wasn't it?ah. >> listen, rick santorum is also there in new hampshire stumping a bit at this town hall in dublin. he seems to be raking in the dough these days. just how much money has his campaign raised since that iowa caucus? >> yeah, i guess you could say he's really that strong second place finish, almost the first place finish in caucus paying dividends. i confirmed this morning, over $2 million now since that late tuesday night strong second place finish. that's what santorum has raised. that's a lot of money. a lot more than the former senator of pennsylvania raised going back to the beginning of his campaign last spring. randy, why does that money matter? because you can use it to buy time for tv ads. money does come in handy. it's not the end all but for someone like santorum, modest fundraising, this is a huge, huge boost. what sometimes helps is endorsements. randi, herman cain, remember him, the businessman who dropped his bid for the white house not that long ago? >> how could we f

. >> cnn political editor paul steinhauser live in tampa. paul, gingrich had a lot of momentum off of south carolina. what the heck happened? >> reporter: kyra, don't be joking about those chads. we don't want to go through that again. stop that right now. let's talk about that momentum. yeah, you're right. double digit victory for gingrich in south carolina. a week and a half later, my how times have changed. people likely to vote today, will look who's on top by 14 points. mitt romney over newt gingrich. santorum and paul pretty low down there. this is one of five polls, kyra, that's come out over the last 48 hours indicating the same thing. romney on top by double digits. how did he do it? listen, romney started -- he learned from his mistake in south carolina. he started going on the offense, putting gingrich on the defense. he came up with big ads in florida and that super pac that's been supporting him also spending a lot of money. between the two of them outspending the gingrich campaign by four or five to one and the beginning grer su

cnn political editor paul steinhauser joining us. paul, romney pretty much stumbled through that when he was asked about his tax returns? >> reporter: he sure did. this story line has been going on all week. let's go back for the first debate in myrtle beach. he's on the defensive and has been to a degree on taxes since then, kyra let's take a listen to how it was played out. this is when romney was asked by john king. your father in 1968 when he was running for president, he released his taxes for 10 or 12 years. will you do the same? take a listen. >> you asked me an entirely different question. >> beats me. i don't know. where are we at, john? >> reporter: well, that's exactly not the bite i was going to toss to kyra what he was asked about the taxes there, he was booed because he said, well, maybe. he kind of hedged on it. this has been a trouble spot for mitt romney, but overall he did have a better debate. no doubt about that than he did monday night. i wouldn't declare him the winner. definitely a much better debate. >> i'll se

with paul steinhauser. paul, electability. that's definitely the buzz word for a lot of republicans right now. could romney win without the support of the tea party movement? >> he could win the nomination, kyra, because as peter was talking about, the conservatives are fractured between gingrich, santorum, and perry and ron paul to a lesser degree. so romney winning this more establishment, moderate vote. we saw that happen in iowa where he eked out that little victory by eight votes and the same thing in new hampshire. could it happen in south carolina? sure. how do tea party activists feel about romney? they don't love him. some are actively working to defeat him. but check this out, kyra. this was the poll from friday. i broke it down just by tea party supporters, which is about half of the republican electorate. look who's on top? tea party supporters only, romney. 31% say he is their choice ahead of gingrich, santorum, and the rest. they may not love him, but some are actively trying to defeat him, and some are saying i

. >>> paul steinhauser is live in charlestown for us. paul, did any of those attacks on romney draw any blood? >> reporter: you know, watching the debate last night, to me, kyra, it seemed to me the first time mitt romney was uncomfortable since our debate in loss vague gays. i think former fell longs should be able to vote put romney on the spot, a little out of his game for the first time in a while. newt gingrich as you saw from those clips really going after mitt romney as well. gingrich, santorum, both of them here in south carolina fighting to be the conservative alternative to mitt romney. they had big rights. we know newt gingrich is a very good debater and he showed it again last night. romney did survive though. he was knocked off his game a little bit. made a little uncomfortable especially by santorum. he did survive. they get to do it again thursday night right behind me. north charleston coliseum. john king is the moderator. cnn debate. last chance for the candidates to go after mitt romney to try to knock him off his game b

paul steinhauser, senior political editor, here's newt gingrich. >> those of us who believe in free marketsus who believe, in fact, the whole goal of investment is entrepreneurship and job creation would find it pretty hard to justify rich people figuring out clever ways to elude a company, leaving behind 75,000 people without a job. >> paul, it sounds like romney took the bait on that. any fallout today? >> yeah, that's fighting words. as mitt romney runs for the republican nomination, he says, i am the best equipped of all the candidates to create jobs. he points to his years as a businessman, especially at bain kapt capital. we've heard a lot about bain capital, the private investment firm. gingrich says maybe you actually destroyed jobs at bain capital by ripping jobs apart. this superpack has acquired a 7-minute film, brooke, that basically bashs romney's time at bain capital. and they're going to blank at south carolina from this movie. and this is independent of gingrich, but it's going to be attacking romney. romney was asked about that a couple hours ago in new hampshire. take a lo

paul steinhauser joins us live from tampa.ls indicating the same thing. mitt romney with a double digit lead over gingrich among people likely to vote in the primary here tomorrow. take a look from the latest, quinnipac university. romney is on top at 43%. you can see he's 14 points ahead of newt gingrich with former senator rick santorum and congressman ron paul each at 11%. go to the next screen. this is interesting, too. before you think it's over, wait, look at that. 7% say they are unsure and 24% say i'm backing this candidate or that candidate but i could change my mind. so, isha, we have a day to go before the voting begins in earnest but one out of four people say that they could change their minds. >> that's an important figure. a lot of voters have already cast their ballots. how is early voting going and how is that going to affect this race? >> yeah, it is interesting because we didn't see this kind of stuff. there was no early voting in iowa. here are the numbers from the department of state in florida as the end

paul steinhauser's in manchester. paul, what's the latest?er: five days to go, as you said. look at, this brand new numbers on the horse race here. this is among people likely to vote in that republican primary on tuesday night. kyra, this poll is conducted on the 3rd and 4th. that was the day of the caucuses and the day after. no change in the top spot. mitt romney the former governor of massachusetts, you can see ron paul at 18%, everybody else at least on the top five there in single digits. 17%, that's pretty high, accord to go this poll, still undecided. talking about that front-runner, we saw him this morning about an hour agoing in salem, new hampshire. that's where my in-laws live. personal touch there. he was teaming up with john mccain again. mccain endorsed him, kyra. the two of them, plus nicki hailey, they're heading to south carolina later today. south carolina has the third contest in this primary caucus battle. mitt romney was talking about president obama. take a listen to what he had to say. >> this president is a crony capi

paul steinhauser is watching the candidates from columbia. schon na sheppard is watching the action. she's been watching newt gingrich for a long time. he's one of the two front-runner s at the ham house. it sounds funny. how did they end up going to the same restaurant in the same state at the same time? >> reporter: you know, gary, the candidates are saying it was purely a coincidence that the two are going to end up at tommy's country hamhouse in greenville. you know, i don't know if there's more to it or not. but you're seeing governor mitt romney right now. >> we voted for you already! >>> it's a little hard for us to hear the former massachusetts governor right now. we do hear the people cheering. what do we expect to hear from mitt romney, and why do we think he's shown up early? none of these candidates ever show up anywhere early. they show up late. do you think this is part of the strategy, to get there before newt gingrich? all right. i don't think she can hear us. that's what we can tell you. it's the most interesting scenario. th