with jon huntsman. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." the first primary beghaj at midnight in new hampshire. most polls close three hours from now. we'll have complete coverage. here is what we're watching for. first, mitt romney's margin of victory. final polls show him with a nearly 20-point lead. if romney wins big he may see almost invincible heading into south carolina. if he doesn't win big, he may seem beatable, at least some experts predict. second, who comes in second, jon huntsman gambled on a good showing in new hampshire. he has the chance to show he's a viable candidate. they play very well among many in new hampshire, and could help him emerge as the anti-romney candidate. finally, independenting can stroh in this open primary, so how will they vote? they may decide the winner, who will that signal for next november? we're watching all of this unfold. new hampshire state officials are expecting a record turnout of a quarter million primarily voters on this day. at one polling place, the candidates got caught in the crush as did last-minute campaigning. let's go liv to jim acosta joining us from manchester right now. what's going on there, jim? >> wolf, this polling place in manchester was the perfect backdrop. plenty of candidates and plenty of chaos. >> do you have a shot at working your way closer there, jim? >> reporter: outside this manchester polling place it was time to catch a candidate if you can. we're live on cnn, if you can. do you feel like the comeback grandfather? >> somebody said i was the comeback kid and i said at my age it's more more correct to be the comeback grandfather. romney raised taxes, i fought to lower taxes. he was for gun control and raised the tax on guns. i am for the second amendment rights. i think you'll find there's a real contrast. >> it's unclear whether newt gingrich found knit voters. they were trapped inside the media mosh pit until they made their way back on the bus. >> it was mandi grau, without the fun, the alcohol, the excitement. >> it was wild. >> certainly crowded as mardi gras. >> but new hampshire's version of fat tuesday wasn't over. it just got bigger when mitt romney and his entourage arrived on the scene. unfortunately for the front-runner, the protesters were ready for him. they were all too eager for remind romney of his comments about how he likes to fire people. as he held up a child one demonstrator asked, are you going to fire the baby? are you going to fire the baby? jon huntsman was also looking for some polling palooza magic, in the hopes his campaign will live to fight another day. new hampshire has a knack for big historic upsets. sup what you're hoping for here? >> we always thought new hampshire was a place to come, where you can upend conventional wisdom and i think tonight wisdom will be upended again. we have worked this market harder than anyone else. we've given it our heart and soul and done everything humanly possible. >> reporter: last but not least ron paul came to play, too, defended romney. >> in reorganization is a proper function in a free market, so i think this is just typical politi politics, and i think they're unfairly attacking him on that issue. >> reporter: the new hampshire secretary of state is expecting a record turnout, a big surge of moderate and independent voters could give jon huntsman the strong showing he's looking for, wolf. >> he really wants a strong second-place showing in order to show he's viable. he'll have to beat ron paul for that. it's very close, all these polls coming in, for second place. jon huntsman, ron paul, i'll be speaking with both of them live, this hour and next hour, here in "the situation room." the latest indication is that jon huntsman is getting a bit of a surge over the last couple days? >> reporter: that's right. you can look at the crowd just outside this polling place today, wolf, there were as many huntsman signs as mitt romney signs. he et cetera lofbly the front-runner. as you heard jon huntsman say in that quick interview, he really is counting on something big happening in new hampshire, for new hampshire to really go back to its history of producing historic upset victories. he says if he gets that, he's going to keep fighting. as you heard him in that interview, wolf, if he doesn't have a strong showing, it sounds like he'll drop out of this race. >> jim acosta in manchester, thank you very much. john king is at the magic wall for us. the demographics are intriguing from anyone's perspective. >> intriguing and the potential opening for jon huntsman. let's be honest. he hoped to do win iowa. this is physical in live as results come in tonight. i want to go back to 2008. i want to show you the southern part of the state. most of the population in new hampshire is from manchester down. the dark recent, that's mitt romney in 2008. gna nashua, a lot of transplants from massachusetts, a lot of undeclared voters here. the most interesting demographic, this is a largely white state like iowa. not that many evangelical christians like iowa, but they can all come into play today. look what happens down here. mitt romney has to run it up big down here. if jon huntsman is performing well down in the southern part, that would be a good sign. a lot of democrats moved up from massachusetts and now undeclared, if they're coming into the primaries, this is a place to look for the huntsman factor. we need to turn this part off. this in here, gritty, blue-collar communities, the attacks on bain capital, they just started in the last 24 hours, if they have an impact, you'll see it. where else do you look for? i want to come over here, we're on the 2008 map here. this is hanover, a largely democratic part of the state, did you college campus, dartmouth is right there. if rowan paul is doing we, as he did in iowa, he could have an impact. the two orange spots carried by mike huckabee, that is the question. can rick santorum carry the iowa momentum into new hampshire. he's campaigned here more as a blue collar economics messenger than as a christian conservative, but let's see if santorum can match up the magic. again, a huge night for huntsman. he has to have a strong second place. the biggest question tonight in terms of long-term prospects, can newt gingrich continue to come in at the bottom of the pack and makes the case he's a stronger contain as nominee. and governor romney had 32% last time, john mccain won with 37%. just about every strategist tells you romney not only has to outperform the 32%, pell better be in the 37 closer to the 40% rain to call what we expect to be a win tonight. all pos show romney is going to win, but new hampshire, ask barack obama four years ago, sometimes surprises us on election night. >> they had barack obama winning in new hampshire. hillary clinton surprised a lot of folks when she actually won. john will be with us throughout the night. thanks very much. jack cafferty has "the cafferty file." >> john king has those maps down, doesn't he? >> he certainly does. he makes miracles work. >> very compelling stuff. thou shalt not speak ill of another republican. that was president reagan's 11th commandment and the mantra for the republican party. these days not so much. for a while newt gingrich was all about running a positive campaign. remember back in iowa? he called on his supporters to stay positive and aavoid attacking fellow candidates. the former house speaker said he would refrain so the reference yell nominee could elearning to face president obama unbloodied. the plan was to devote his energies to the economy and unemployment, real issues. that lofty rhetoric matched his one-time lofty standings in the polls. when his numbers started to drop, so did hi civility. eventually he imploded in iowa, finishing a distant fourth. flash ahead to new hampshire. guess what? the old newt is back, snarky and snarly as ever, spewing personal attacks on an almost daily basis. gingrich called romney a liar, said he's full of pious baloney. he described romney as unconservative and a relatively timid massachusetts moderate. it's the same old story. they all say going negative is not their first preference. newt says he needs to defend himself, but pat buchanan writes the bad blood between several candidates could wind up damaging the eventual nominee. he likens the process to a circular firing squad. it could play right into the democrats' hands, quote -- such wounds take time to heal. some never do, and some won't be closed before the republican convention, unquote. so the here's the question -- what happened to gingrich's promise to take the high road? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile, post a comment on my blog or go to a post on "the situation room's" facebook page. >> politics is a tough business. you get hit, you get hit right back. >> then don't tell me up front you're going to be a nice guy. tell me the minute you throw a punch i'm coming at you. don't give me the crap in the beginning i'm going to be honorable, do the right thing. don't lie to me. >> okay. fair enough. thank you. two of the candidates are standing by to join us live in "the situation room" on this important primary day. ron paul is up next. i'll ask him about the attacks on mitt romney for his venture capitalist past. will ron paul condemn them or not. coming up in the next hour, jon huntsman will join me live. will his gamble pay off? [ todd ] hello? hello todd. just calling to let you know i'm giving you the silent treatment. so you're calling to tell me you're giving me the silent treatment? ummm, yeah. jen, this is like the eighth time you've called... no, it's fine, my family has free unlimited mobile-to-any-mobile minutes from at&t. so i can call all i want. i don't think you understand how the silent treatment works. hello? [ male announcer ] buy unlimited messaging and get free unlimited calling to any u.s. mobile on any network. at&t. [ driver ] what do i want? ♪ i want horsepower. cleaner horsepower. i want power that dominates the road. and fuel efficiency that respects the earth. gimme 43 miles per gallon. and the rush of 200 horsepower. what i want is the best of both worlds. [ male announcer ] introducing the reinvented 2012 camry hybrid. from toyota. ♪ some new hampshire voters are still making up their minds as they walk into the polls places today. as dan lothian is joining us. what's going on over there, dan? >> reporter: well, wolf, you know, some of the voters here said they really struggled with nailing down their choice. yes, they did get a chance to meet some of the candidates. they watched a lot of the debates, but each after months of these kaentsds campaigning very hard, some of the voters told us they only made up their minds in the last week, the last day or the last minute. >> at the hot it's polling place in man chest, the candidates made one final pitch, amid a crush of cops, supporters and the media. and melissa rose and her mother donna, both still trying to find clear skies in what has been a murky political process. >> it doesn't seem like there was a lot of love involved in this process. >> there wasn't, really. there wasn't a lot of love. >> she finally settled on a choice yesterday, but melissa walked in still undecided. >> so you're going to decide when you walk in and pull that curtain. >> i suppose so. >> and nervous. >> i was shaking my hand as i was trying to right. >> inside ward 1 as voters streamed in moderator diane beaten saw signs of uncertainty. >> even as they're walking up they're going, i still don't know who i'm going to vote for. >> reporter: some voters ballet the indecision on the republican field, that it failed to inspire them. >> however, i agree more with ron paul and where he stands on the issues. >> back of the voting booth, donna rose was in and out quickly. her daughter melissa stayed behind the curtain for almost a minute and a half, finally emerging from her first voting experience, no longer undecided. >> i ended up voting for ron paul. >> reporter: her mother decline to say who she voted for, but seemed convinced her choice was the right one. will your mystery candidate be able to beat president obama? >> i think he will. >> reporter: just another example of how fluid the situation was right up to the last minute. this morning jon huntsman and his wife were at a local diner. they ran into a couple undecided voters. mrs. hadn'tman made the hard sales pitch, and the voters said they would vote for her husband. so, wolf, a lot of voters there trite down to the wire still trying to decide who to vote for. >> historically the last person an undecided voter hears from usually has the good shot of getting that vote. i suspect that's what's going on right now. dan lothian, thanks very much. here's a look at some of the other political news. the stroke of mid rot brought the traditional votes in a small down of dickville notch. dixville notch. newt gipp rich's wife says his campaign has been an emotional experience for her. here she is with her husband in new hampshire earlier today. >> what's it like traveling? it's extraordinary, like everything else hanging out with her. >> we have a lot of fun together. >> in fact, if she wasn't with me, who would fix my hair in the morning? >> that's right. thinchts this has been a tremendous experience, and, you know, just getting to know people across the country. i loved being in iowa, back in the midwest. i group up there. new hampshire has been great. >> she was very sentimental last night. >> i was. >> i think she had gotten back -- >> i got a little teary. it's all been a fabulous experience. her story has inspired people across the u.s. and beyond. now gabby giffords is getting her own comic book. the new edition of female force tells giffords' store from her starred as a tucson business woman to her remarkable comeback from an assassination attempt one year ago. it's profiled the likes of hillary clinton, margaret thatcher and sarah palin. for complete political coverage be sure to go to cnn.com/ticker, for the place to go. they sound like democratic talking points, but it's republicans attacks mitt romney for past business deals. >> is capitalism about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money? >> we'll go inside the surprise debate now dominating much of the republican race for the white house. we'll talk about that and much mower in our "strategy session." donna brazile and mary matalin both will be standing by. up next, ron paul, the presidential candidate, i'll talk with him about the attacks with mitt romney for his venture capitalist past. will ron paul condemn him like several other republican candidates? stand by. 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[ male announcer ] buy unlimited messaging and get free unlimited calling to any u.s. mobile on any network. at&t. coming up shortly, my live interview with ron paul, the republican presidential candidate. in the meantime, let's check in with lisa sylvester. she's monitoring other top stories, including another american rescuing of iranians. >> the u.s. coast guard rescued six iranians after their small merchant vessel apparently flooded. the americans responded to flares and flashlights. they treated one for injuries and gave them all water, blankets and food. just last week the u.s. navy rescued iranian sailors whose ship was taken over by somali pirates. and pregnant women in texas who want an abortion may be required to have an ultra-sound first. a three-judge panel overturned a lower court's decision, meaning texas can enforce the law while the court ballots continues. it requires a look at the fetus and a description of the development before having the procedure. and the family of a student who announced today they will sue the bus company for negligence gens and wrongful death. robert champion died in november from trauma he suffered as part of an alleged band hazing rituals. relatives believe the fact that she was gay may have been one of many factors leading him to be beaten more severely than others. a family attorney says his death was not a hate crime, but a hazing crime. and an oil tanker and coast guard escort are within 100 miles of their destination. the tanker is carrying more than a million gallons of fuel for the ice-bound city. the cutter hayes broken through ice ridges as high as four feet. there's no land way to land deliver gas to nome. the dow and s&p closed at the highest levels since july. the dow gained nearly 70 points and the s&p was up nearly 1%. investors reacted to optimism about europe's debt crisis, as well as a decent start too quarterly corporate earnings report. >> good news on weight. thank you, lisa. up next, we'll go inside the surprise debate now dominating the republican race. donna brazile and mary matalin are standing by in new mexico. we're standing by to speak live with ron paul. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about the personal attention tdd# 1-800-345-2550 you and your money deserve. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, that means taking a close look at you tdd# 1-800-345-2550 as well as your portfolio. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 we ask the right questions, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 then we actually listen to the answers tdd# 1-800-345-2550 before giving you practical ideas you can act on. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck online, on the phone, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 or come in and pull up a chair. glue all right. let's guess more on the surprise debate all of a sudden over capitalism unfolding in new hampshire. congressman ron paul is joining us live from new hampshire. congressman, always good to have you here in "the situation room." >> thank you. >> i want to play the clip, the full context of what mitt romney said yesterday, causing some of your republican colleagues out there to condemn him for what he said. i'll play the whole thing and then you and i will discuss. >> i want individuals to have their own insurance. that means the company will have incentive, that means if you don't like -- i like being able to fire people that provide services for me. if someone doesn't give me the good service, i want to say i'm going to get somebody else to provide that service to me. >> several of your republican counterparts -- but you're stopping short of that. give us your perspective on what's going on here. >> well, if the other candidates criticizing mitt are serious, then they don't have the vaguest idea about the market, because he's talking about the market. if they do understand the market, they're just politically demagoguing this to get a political point, about you to pick and choose your consumers and customers, that's the basis of the free market. also to condemn him for restructuring and making some money, if somebody restructures and doesn't get any money from the government, doesn't commit fraud, restructuring is a very important part of the free market. this is how you cleanse the system. this is how you clean up a corporation. if you don't restructure when they're on the roping, everybody loses. as a matter of fact, that principle ought to be applied to the federal government. that's what i've been trying to do, restructure the federal government and get rid of the wasteful departments and wasteful spending. >> if you don't -- and i totally understand what you're saying. you obviously don't want to cry kiz mitt romly when he was ceo of bain capital, he was involved in capitalism, if you will. where do you have your biggest problem, though, with mitt romney? >> i think it's been not knowing exactly where where he stood in the past. he's taken different positions on quite a few things. of course, the single mandate that he had in massachusetts, that worries me a bit. and he's supported t.a.r.p. bailouts and pretty supportive of the monetary system, which is friendly to banks. those are the areas, and of course we have strong disagreements on foreign policy. so, yes, we have our disagreements. but in this case, i just think that it was undermining basic free mavgt principles that annoyed me a bit. that's why the made the comments. >> newt gingrich launched the broad side against you. i don't know if you heard it. some of our viewers probably did not. here's what he said. >> they're young, enthusiastic, and at some point people will think this is actually the legalized drug group, and paul has two great driving groups. don't worry about iran's nuclear weapons, and legalized drugs. each of those ultimately shrinks his appeal. >> do you want to respond to the former speaker? >> yeah. i guess he's worried, because his appeal isn't quite as good as our apea. we're talking about freedom. freedom of choice, freedom across the board, economic liberty, and a foreign policy that makes sense. but when he says i don't care about the iranians, that's nonsense. i'm just trying to avoid another war. but to say i don't care about them getting nuclear weapons, that's complete nonsense. so, yeah, i think he's struggling and probably pretty desperate, so he's saying those kinds of things. but when he talks about the supporters, that gets annoying. i don't like him to attack my supporters. there are a lot of them. i don't know why he would want to annoy supporters if he wants to be a candidate. he's attacking a lot of people by saying supporters do this and that. they believe in freedom. i'm not so sure that newt clearly understands what that is all about. >> is he right, though, when he says a lot of supporters support you because of legalizing drugs? >> no, i think he's wrong on that. legalizing freedom of choice. this is sort of like saying if they support me because i believe in the first amendment of legalizing freedom of choice and religion, that means that -- and they know i wouldn't interfere, that means ron paul is legalizing atheism. because you legalize something, you don't endorse it. that's something a lot of people have no understanding on. legalizing freedom of choice doesn't mean you endorse the choices people make, whether it's personal or religious or economic. the way people spend money. this is why -- this whole idea of liberty that i talk about is so important, and it allows people to make choices on economic choices as well as personal choices. this is what the young people really like, because they might want to make a choice, go off and gamble, do something else, they have to assume their own responsibility for themselves. if we allow people to pick their own religion and their own intellectual pursued, i argue the case, why is it that people don't have enough brains to make their own choice being their own body. i mean, today you can hardly pick up any food without getting permission from the federal government to el what's in it or not in it. we depend on the government to take care of us, yet we allow a lot of freedom of choice when it comes to intellectual matters and when it comes to religious matters, so why the obsession with telling everybody what they can do and not do? as far as people say they support me main by because they want to legalize drugs, that is not exactly my position. i just want to get rid of the federal drug war. that's the disaster. triance of dollars of expenditures, and if you want to regulate drugs like alcohol, that is fine, that would be up to the state. that's quite a bit different than him demagoguing saying everybody wants to legalize drugs and that's why they support ron paul. he's completely offbase on that. >> explain, congressman, will you campaign aggressively in florida, or are you effectively going to bypass florida and move on to some of the caucus states that are going to be taking place in february? >> at the time moment we're going to move to the caucus states. we've been a little concerned. we get a lot of money in, about you we spend it. that's why we've been doing well in iowa and expect to do well here tonight. it's hard to commit to, you know, a candidate -- our lead candidate gets a lot of money from goldman sachs. he's going to have a lot of money to run a campaign, winner take all. there's a bit of logic to this. besides, they gave up half their delegates, but that doesn't mean we won't doing anything, and we'll weigh this as time goes on. i'll be in south carolina tomorrow, we'll see how we do tonight and see how we do in south carolina. who knows what will come about. i'm always amazed how much money the supporters send. so much is spontaneous, but still even with their generosity, it's hard to compete in a state like florida in tiesing when you need $50 or $60 million in the bank all the time. so we have to use strategy and going to the caucus and going to the states where you get a proportionate share, why not use common sense rather than going and spending money that might not bear fruit. one final question -- do you think you'll scum in second today? >> i do. i really expect to, but, you know, a real, real close third i guess is conceivable, but i think the polls are holding up, and we're pretty optimistic about tonight. >> good luck, congressman. always good to have you back on the program. >> thank you. >> so will the attacks on mitt romney's business experience from some of his fellow republicans help barack obama win reelection? jessica yellin standing by. also our strategy session. and minutes from now, the first exit polls in new hampshire. what's on the minds of voters, as they cast their ballots? when i grow up, 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. 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[ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. mitt romney's republican rivals have been slamming them, at least some relendlessly, for his background as a financier. they accuse him for getting rich by laying off and bankrupting companies. jessica yellin is looking into this part of the story. what are you finding out? >> reporter: democrats are trying to brand mitt romney early as a wall street jobs killer, but in doing that they run the risk of being branded as anti-business. now they're getting help from an unlikely quarter, the other republican candidates. 3r50e tent mitt romney being the the republican nominee. would you hear president obama say this? >> governor romney enjoying firing people. i enjoy creating jobs. >> reporter: or this? >> is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of others and walk off with the money? >> reporter: top democrats expect to run insurgence romney. for months have been trying to define them as a fat cat who, well, gingrich says it best -- >> i do draw a distinction between looting a company, leaving behind broken families and broken neighborhoods and leaving behind a factory that should be there. >> reporter: it almost seems republicans stole democrats' talking points on romney's old company bain capital. here's david axelrod sunday on abc. >> they closed down more than 1,000 plants, stores and offices. they outsourced tens of thousands of jobs. >> here's rick perry today. >> i will suggest they're just vultures. they're vultures that are sitting out there on the tree limb waiting for the company to get sick. then they swoop in, they eat the carcass, they leave with that, and they leave the skeleton. >> reporter: romney tweeted his -- >> i thought it was going to come from the president and the democrats on the left, but instead it's coming from speaker gingrich and apparently others. you know, that's just part of the process. i'm not worried about that. >> reporter: wolf, today newt gingrich came until attack by both rush limbaugh and -- for growth for his assault on mitt romney and his business background. gingrich defended his attacks, saying in part he's defending himself from romney's attacks and, quote, he's for free markets, but against rich guys looting companies. i should also add he says these attacks against mitt romney's line, saying he likes firing people aren't fair, because that was taken out of context. jessica is at the without for us. thank you. let's get to our strategy session right now. our cnn political contributors are joining us, donna brazile and mary matalin. they're joining us from new hampshire. mary, this tough talk on mitt romney, it sounds like it could come from democrats, but it's coming from republicans. how does that make you feel? >> it has come from democrats and mitt romney's right, and it's good practice for him. but for the republicans to be doing is philosophically incoherent, intellectually dishonest. i think it's shameful, other than senator santorum and congressman paul, they've been shameful on it. on the issue of firing people, if we don't have choice and competition, we don't have the kind of insurance that we've come to enjoy in this country. that was 100% right. he's not an evil man looting companies. he saved companies and created jobs. i'm saying this as an unaffiliated person, but in philosophical incoherence and intellectual dishonesty will be a shame for some of these candidates to wear going forward. >> it's pretty amazing when you think about it. donna, it's not amazing that the democrats are going after mitt romney, taking that one comment about liking to fire people totally out of context from what he said. we played the whole clip about insurance companies, if they're not doing the job, consumers have the right to fire those insurance companies, but look at the dnc. they have already come up with an ad just taking that one clip. i want to press you, you'll tell me the truth how you feel about it. >> i like being ability to fire people. >> the good news is -- >> you're fired, you're fired, you're fired. >> you're fired. >> i know why jobs and why they go. >> you're fired. >> you're fired. >> you're fired. >> i'm going to need your key card. >> i know how jobs are created and lost. >> you are fired. >> you are fired. >> fired. >> fired. >> i know how jobs come and how they go. >> you are fired! >> i like being able to fire people. >> you see how they took that one line. are you comfortable with using that snippet out of its full context, donna? >> you know, when mitt romney's campaign ran that ad a couple weeks ago, taking something president obama said out of context, the democrats were all up in arms. i said, you know what? this is the modern political world. look, mitt romney is running as a person who has created jobs. he's touted his private sector business. he's contrasted it with washington insiders, so there's no question that the republicans, as well as the democrats, should question his validity in terms of job creation. he has a report at bain capital. we're going to use that record against him. we're going to look under the hood and kick the tires to see if it's factual or not. i don't think there's any foul play here, especially when the candidate himself said some of the things you just played. >> donna, if you had an insurance company that you were totally unsatisfied with not doing a good job for you, wouldn't you want to fire them? >> wolf, let me say this. this is a presidential campaign. mitt romney has said some things that clearly it's coming back to bite him. he said things on choice, on gay marriage. you know, i keep telling people, i mean what mitt romney are we talking about? the '94, the mitt romney that ran for governor? the mitt romney that ran for president in 2008? or the mitt romney today. he has a huge playbook that the democrats will likely use against him. the republicans decided that the coronation is over with, we're going to question his record on job creation. we're going to credit his background in the private sector. it's fair play on the republican side. it will be fair play if he becomes the nominee and president obama has to run against him. >> mary, are you ready to ask the republican national committee, whoever gets the nomination to promise they won't take any of president obama's comments totally out of context? >> no. wolf, that's a completely separate issue. these spots -- people are -- voters are increasingly impatient with this. they're smart enough. they can figure it out. what i would like the national party to do is to demand some philosophical coherence to why we are conservative, to not vilify capitalism. i would like some of these candidates to talk about there can be no free markets or capital markets without virtue, without morality, and that's the evidence of our philosophy. to do the dirty work of the democrats by republicans is offensive to me. all this campaign stuff, looking at his record, all that is legitimate. goofy spots, it ain't being -- but we have to stay true to why we are conservatives. and the policy that is flow from it that will beat this president, because that's where the country is. >> the the republicans will have a difficult time painting president obama -- painting a president who's cut taxes for small businesses being antibusiness, when he's trying to give the incentives to create the kind of jobs we need to grow or economy. >> one of the reasons why so many people are cynical and hate politicians, because both sides, they totally distort the other side, and that's just the nature of the business and politicians go ahead and keep on doing it, but we can discuss that philosophy on another occasion. >> and the media also plays the back and forth, and there are so many reasons why we know that the public is turned off from both make political parties, but the media has played a large role in that. >> that's why so many are voting in new hampshire, calling themselves independents, because they don't want to be identified with the republicans. they don't want to be identified with the democrats. guys, thanks very much. donna and mary will be with us throughout the night. jack cafferty is asking about what hammond to newt gingrich's promise to take the high road. we'll have your responses. and what voters were thinking when they actually went in to cast the ballots. the first exit polls, coming up. jack's back with "the cafferty file." >> the question is whatever happened to gingrich's promise to take the high road. david writes -- he lost his luster a long time ago, through no fault about his own. newt takes the high road, the low road, any road to get where he imagines he wants to go. ralph in florida writing -- it goes against his name. he's strictly a low-road kind of guy. curtis in philadelphia -- i don't know, what happened to his promise to love, honor and obey his first and second wife. that's right, promises are made to be broken. terry writes -- staying positive only works if everyone is doing it. it's like nuclear disarmament. if everyone gets rid of their weapons, it works wonderfully. >> much like the promises of all apology 'tis, it went away when it was no longer convenient. tom in texas says zebras don't change their stripes. new leaf newt is hofbly from the same toxic tree. is anyone surprised? he's been that way all his life. rarely is there a stage at change in someone's character. >> tom in new york wrote he cashed a political reality check. anyone who knows anything about politics knew that wasn't going to happen. go to my blog, cnn.com/caffertyfile, or through our post on "the situation room's" facebook page. wolf? >> jack, thank you. eye-popping pardons. a governor uses his last days in off to set convicted murderers free and families of the victims are outraged. coming up in the next hour, the first exit poll results from new hampshire, giving us our first snapshot of this critical contest. 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>> wolf, it was the pardoning of four convicted murderers yesterday by governor hallie barber that sparked outrage and anger by many in mississippi, especially victims' families. now we've learned that may have been the tip of the iceberg that state officials are working on an additional 200-plus pardons that were executed or signed off on by governor barber before he left office today. why did he do it? we may never know. he doesn't have to explain himself. there's no way to go through the details, but of the four, there was one case that was definitely eye greejous, david gatling, who in 1993, broke into his estranged wife's home, shot her in the head while holding a 2-month-old baby, and shot another person there, a friend of hers, and left them for dead. the mother of the victim is absolute slid shattered by this information. listen to what she had to say. >> is governor barber going to pardon us for our aches, pains and hard ache that we have to suffer? is he going to pardon a child that had to grow up without a mother? is he going to pardon me from never being able to feel her arms around my neck again? >> for victims' families all they got was a phone call, a heads-up this person was going to be released from prison. there is no recourse, there is nothing they can do. the pardons are final. wolf? >> martin savidge, thank you. a deadly explosion in a crowded marketplace, lisa has that and other top stores. >> at least 35 people are reported dead in the attack in northwest pakistan and more than 60 wounded. it happened in the country's volatile tribal region. officials there say a bomb was placed in aic belonging -- the initial investigation shows the bomb was detonated by remote control. military officials in pakistan say they're going to raise the hou-- raze the house osama bin laden spent his time. the house first being pup meld by rocket-propelled grenades and blend bulldozed. they say they want to prevent the home becoming a shrine. >> lisa, thank you. to our viewers, you're in "the situation room." happening now jon huntsman new hampshire's gamble may be paying off. i'll ask him about the lay gains, and whether he with go the distance against mitt romney. also the first snapshot of who is voting today and the issues shaping the race. we're going to unveil early exit poll information coming up this hour. mitt romney has the advantage in his political backyard, but south carolina will be a whole different ball game. we're taking a closer look at the key toss victory in the next contest, when one or two candidates or more could fall. breaking news, political headlines and jeanne moos all straight ahead. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." we're down to the final hours of voting in the new hampshire primary. look at this. we're going to show you a live picture of a polls place in manchester, new hampshire, white mitt romney clearly is favored to win, the contest is a very important test of the republican presidential field. we're driving home these key points about the votes and what to watch tonight. assuming romney wins, and we all assume he will, how big will his margin of victory be? the battle for second place or even third could be critical. who will have momentum against romney going forward. how are independenting voting? that could give us a clue about the republicans' chances against obama in the fall. let's talk more about these key points. gloria borger is here. we all assume romney was going to win, but who comes in second could be important. >> who comes in second could be important and the margin between first and second. right now you have ron paul and huntsman in a fight, and they seem to be neck and neck in all the polls wire looking at. what's interesting is those are the two that mitt romney would like to have coming in behind him, because those are the two who have less legs, if you will, going into south carolina, because ron paul may not have the resources. huntsman may be more interested, for example, in florida. then, wolf, there is also fourth place we should by thinking about, believe it or not, because that could be a fight between newt gingrich and rick santorum. you know, gingrich has been campaigning, santorum has been campaigning after his win in iowa. will he or his second-place showing in iowa. will he be able to take that and capitalize on it in new hampshire and use that going into south carolina by even placing fourth would be considered pretty good for rick an sorm from new hampshire. >> going into system system, rockne wants all of them to stay in. he wants santorum, gingrich and rick perry, for that matter, to divide up that vote. >> and they will, because they believe that south carolina is much more fertile territory for them. they are that super pac money. newt gingrich is poised to attack mitt -- but when you speak to the romney people is not only will all these people continue on, but they're hoping the negativity will effectively cancel each other out and in the end voters could stay let's go to the status two, that being mitt romney. does it make any difference if he guess 25, 30 or 35%? >> yes. >> why? >> he has to have a large enough margin to show this is his backyard, his hometown or summerhouse. he has to show he hasn't lost any altitude, which is what others are trying to get him 20 do, so they can say we had a moral victory here, because we got him below 45 or 35 points. he has to do better than in 2008, so i think it's important his margin is really, really important. that's why -- i was in derry, new hampshire on saturday, went to a romney event. romney was saying to everybody there, you know what? don't think just because you read the polls and you think we're going to win that you can stay home and not worry about it. every single one of you needs to get out and vote, because he wants to make sure his margin is up there, which is why they have such a later get out the vote operation goods going on today. >> they can rest after they get that nomination. >> that's exactly what he said in new hampshire. we have to fight for every last vote. >> gloria will be with us through the night. if we look at new hampshire right now, south carolina, i assume -- except for ron paul who told us he's not gearing up all that much for florida, the other candidates think florida could be the decisive state after south carolina, assuming one or two of those non-mitt romneys emerge. >> florida takes a lot of money. it's very large, diversion, a very important state particularly if you're the republican nominee and want to win in the general, you want to win it convincingly. there aren't that many candidates with enough money left to compete that way in florida. nothing succeeds like success, so if you win you can raise in psychopsycho, for example, and you upset mitt romney. clearly you can raise more money, but florida could really, really be sort of the most important determining factor here for who actually is going to glide through to the nomination. >> this new poll that came out in florida, it showed mitt romney ahead in florida. the other poll shows him ahead in south carolina. he's going to win in new mexico. it's not over until it's over. did you have a chance to read my blog. >> wolf, i've been very busy. cnn.com/situati cnn.com/situationroom. i write about -- you know what i write about? my salute to politicians. >> right. >> i praise politicians for willing to put themselves through -- they don't have to do it, all of them basically have money. they could be coasting at this point in their lives. they have to answer our tough questions and be annoyed by us. so i salute them. i want you to read it, and let me know. >> i will. cnn.com/situationroom, my blog post, as we say. >> great. the last polls close in new hampshire in less than three hours. the republican hopefuls are already starting to shift their focus to the next challenges. as we know, south carolina's primary, then on to florida and nevada. our own brian todd is looking at the next battle grounds for us. it's more of a marathon than a sprint. >> this is where it becomes an endurance test after new hampshire. how the candidates do after new hampshire will depend a great on the resources they have going forward. key to that, of course, fund-raising where we believe mitt romney that is a comfortable lead. for the last three months, campaign soshz say romney has raised about $20 million. ron paul raised $13 million, newt gingrich raised $10 mitt on. the others did not reveal exact numbers yesterday, though we have to say the santorum campaign got a bounce after the iowa caucuses. they tell us they brought in $3 million just that week since the way caucuses. wolf. >> the ad buys are crucial in the upcoming states, but what do we already know about the ad buys? >> they're really ramping up. let's look at south carolina, site of the january 21st primary. that's where the ad war has already started. so far the campaigns and political action committees have already made small ad buys, indicated by the gold and silver. that's as reported by the campaign media analysis group, but here's where you have to look close here. look at where the dark lines take us. this is where we know so far by the campaigns and the super pacs supporting them. the pro-gingrich super pac is key here. they have reserved $3.5 million in tv ads in the south carolina media markets. those ads will attack mitt romney's record at bain capital. at for ads for romney, add in $2.3 million from the super pac supporting him. he's coming up toward gingrich. rick perry has some -- and so far they have spent or planned to spend between 1.5 and $2 million on ads just in south carolina. rick santorum's surge has given him a boost in ad spending, between his campaign and super pac money, planning well over a million in campaign spending. ron paul's campaign has already spend $9 $95,000 on ad no reported ad buys for huntsman there. let's head to florida. 9 only contain so fare, mitt romney between his campaign and the falk supporting him, $1.2 million in ad buys in fla. florida a big state for ad buys, so the other campaigns are going to have to ramp up as well. >> the great economic stimulus package for a lot of these states. >> what about the ground game? any kind of word about the manpower the candidates are throwing in? >> what we call retail politics. from what we have found so far, the romney, gingrich, paul santorum and perry campaigns have multiple offices. jon huntsman has one office there. the campaigns each average about a half dozen staffers in the state, but working around the clock. we're told that romney has pullet pal offices, resources to set up early. some of the others are just getting set up with offices is there. but they have all mobilized volunteers all over florida. that's obviously a state where you've got to get your volunteers going and going early. >> and we'll be there every step of the way watching what's going on. brian, good record. jack has "the cafferty file." >> they're appealing to voters on a wide range of issues, everything from the economy to foreign policy, but the candidate that the republicans wind up choosing may ultimately say a lot about what matters most to the voters. recent polls show americans on the whole overwhelmingly concerned, other top concerns, health care, entitlement programs like social security, medicare, and the threat from terrorism. farther down the list, the size of government, illegal immigration, foreign policy and moral issues. the so-called wedge issues always play a large role in the primaries. if mitt romney turns out to be the republican nominee as a lot of people are now expecting, to some extent his support could come from voters who see his business background as a strength in turning around the economy. of course, all the republicans have been voc pal in slamming president obama's economic policies. when it comes to foreign policy, ron paul has strong views against the wars, and a more isolationist perspective. jon huntsman comes to the table with his experience as ambassador to china. on health care romney could have a tough time opposing obama's health care law because of a similar law he supported when it comes to massachusetts. and rick santorum's appealing to social conservatives in large part for shies like gay marriage and abortion. what issues do you think will ultimately decide the republican nomination? post a comment on my blog or go to our post on the "the situation room's" facebook page. >> good question, jack. thank you. while we're under just three hours from the last polls closing, we're mere minutes away from our first look at what matters like this one in manchester. the first exit poll results from the first in the nation's primary that's come out. capital one's new cash rewards card gives you a 50 percent annual bonus. so you earn 50 percent more cash. if you're not satisfied with 50% more cash, send it back! i'll be right here, waiting for it. who wouldn't want more cash? 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[ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? sorry i'll clean this up. shouldn't have made it rain. in what passes for common sense. used to be we socked money away and expected it to grow. then the world changed... and the common sense of retirement planning became anything but common. fortunately, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. take control by opening a new account or rolling over an old 401(k) today, and we'll throw in up to $600. how's that for common sense? and we'll throw in up to $600. hey, i'm really glad we took this last minute trip me too. you booked our room right? not yet, thanks for reminding me. wait, what? fret not ma'lady. i have the hotels.com app so we can get a great deal even at the last minute. ah, well played sir. download the free hotels.com app and get exclusive mobile deals. hotels.com. be smart. book smart. our chief political correspondent candy crowley is joining us from romney's new hampshire headquarters. romney got support today from an unexpected place. what happened? >> reporter: well, he did, except for if you step back, it makes ultimate sense, when you look at what romney's been under fire for. first of all, his business dealings at bain, and second of all, a statement he made, which has been taken, as we know, a bit out of context saying he really likes to fire people. who has been the biggest offender of free enterprise, are coping government out of business? who has often complained about the media likes gotcha tactics. you put that together, and you may find that he's found an frenemy in ron paul. >> i think it's typical politics and they're unfairly attacking him. he never literal le said what he's saying he said. they're taking him way out of context. >> reporter: so ron paul coming to the defense of mitt romney. he was even fiercer in an e-mail that he put out later, a press relesion says all these attacks by santorum, by gingrich, just proves they're not electable and why it should come down to -- wait for it, wolf -- a race between mitt romney and ron paul. for this moment, anyway, mitt romney's found a friend in ron paul. >> i don't know, candidate, if you saw the interview i did with rowan paul in the "the situation room" in the last hour, but he went even further. he was adamant in saying what newt gingrich and what some of the other candidates are doing is simply unacceptable. he has his own criticisms of mitt romney, went through some of them, but very much saying all of these attacks on mitt romney and his record at bain capital, if you're a capitalist, totally unacceptable. strong words from ron paul here in "the situation room." but if romney were to get the nomination, how much would this hurt him? >> reporter: part of what they did at bain was to take over businesses, some of which were shut down, some people were fired, some people's jobs and businesses were saved. so the democrats already knew about it. in a certain way this draws a sting. if it's going to happen, better it happen now in january of 2012 than september and october of 2012. as we move along, people will hear the explanations, mitt romney will come out. he has some time to talk to people to try to get his message out, about you how he approached his job at bain and house his business acumen will help being president. it's not going to hurt him here in new hampshire tonight. we don't know what they're going to go after him for and how they're going to go after him in south carolina, but for the moment, it's not going to hurt him in the poll right here in new hampshire, and probably over the long run, you want to talk about this in january, not september and october. >> candy is over at romney's headquarters where presumably they'll be celebrating later tonight. candy will be with us throughout the night. gingrich is not backing off from his sharp attacks even as voters cast ballots. in fact, he says romney is to blame for the race getting uglier. joe johns is joining us from newt gingrich's headquarters. >> reporter: he spent the day moving around the state, wading for all the people popping into polls places, also giving a number of interviews. he has been very much raising questions about mitt romney and his role at bain capital, whether he was a corporate raiders getting rid of people's jobs, a layoff specialist, if you will. newt gingrich sees this, he says, as distinguishing himself, contrasting himself with mitt romney, but it's also push-back from all those negative ads that came out and the run-up to the iowa caucuses? >> if i'm now being forced by romney's tactists into a much clear are -- i think most people realize i'm doing it reluctantly. you can't walk off the field unless you're going to quit. so romney set the terms for this. >> reporter: now, the gingrich attack on romney obviously is causing heartburn -- but things like corporate responsibility, raising questions about capitalism, things that democrats love to talk about, but republicans think more in terms of the free market. but it's important to say this. one thing newt gingrich did not do is go after mitt romney on the slip of the tongue, if you will, when he suggested that he likes to fire people. newt gingrich said he's just not going to go there. listen to this. >> we're doing everything we can to draw a sharp and clear contrast with governor romney on the record. we're not getting into personal stuff. and in fact, on his comment yesterday about i like firing people, as soon as i saw the whole quote, i said it's not fair to take it out of context. he clearly was talking about the right to choose between service providers. he wasn't talking about actually firing people per se. >> reporter: but before you thing gingrich is completely letting romney off the hook on that issue, he's not. he does say that in his view, the slip of the tongue if you want to call it that is basically an example of why mitt romney would not be good in a debate against barack obama, which is very important to some republican voters. wolf? >> joe is over at newt gingrich's headquarters in new hampshire. we're going to be hearing from all the candidates tonight. they'll be making statements, speeches, after we get all the results, and of course we'll have live coverage of all of that. the first new hampshire exit polls are just coming into the "the situation room" right now. our own analysts and experts are going through the number. get ready. that's coming up. ♪ [ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, impact life expectancy in the u.s., real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. what's going on? we ordered a gift online and we really need to do something with it... i'm just not sure what... what is it? oh just return it. returning gifts is easier than ever with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. plus i can pick it up for free. perfect because we have to get that outta this house. c'mon, it's not that... gahh, oh yeah that's gotta go... priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $4.95. only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship and return. the president candidates are making a final push in new hampshire today, as they make their closing arguments to voters. sometimes they end up chatting with each other. they crossed paths today at wrko radio. >> hello, governor. >> hello, rick. how are you doing today? >> great. this is a great experience. >> politics in new england is an exciting sport. i hope you're enjoying it. >> so far, so good. we'll find out tonight. >> he won't make any predictions, rick. >> no. well, you know, that's a smart candidate. >> with me, the democratic strategist james carville and dana lash in manchester, new hampshire. 9 he hayes also a contributing eder where the new blog, what does it say, david, you don't have -- a lot of maybe 40% out there today, a quarter of a million voters will be independents. what is that going to mean? >> well, in the past it swung the party a little bit to the left. john mccain owed his success in 2000 and 2008 to support more centristants, but the binge growth in independents since 2005 has been defection shuns. these are people who used to be very conservative republicans who call themselves independents. that could have an effect of moving the party to the right. those are people among whom ron paul may be able to trawl. you may call them ex-republicans for greater clarity. >> you remember the comeback kid in '92. that's bill clinton when he came in second in new hampshire, but that was a huge, huge second place for him, and he went on to win the democratic nomination, but become president for two terms. what if anything will we learn potentially tonight in new hampshire that could help us better appreciate what's going to happen in the general election? >> unfortunately i think the main thing we're going to learn is something we knew before tonight, and nobody in this field other than mitt romney has any chance to beat -- he still has to go through the paces here. he would like a larger win, because i think somebody is ready -- a lot of people are ready to end this thing. i'm sure mitt romney is one. he's going to win the election, but he's had a bad time in new hampshire on a lot of other fronts. >> dana, you're not a huge fan of mitt romney. is it a done deal for all practical purposes? >> for new hampshire at least. south carolina you, i know he's leading, opened up a double-digit lead in florida, i think we still have time. probably after south carolina if there's a non-romney candidate, that candidate will emerge, but he hayes inevitable in new hampshire. he will take new hampshire. >> do you see somebody else, potential a path, for a santorum, gingrich, ron paul, rick perry, anyone else coming up, taking this away from mitt romney? >> at this point it probably would be nude gingrich. perry is not polls very well. i think after the iowa loss and him saying he's going to reassess his campaign and go back to texas, that did a lot to shake voter confidence in him. so i think gingrich, make santorum. >> gingrich has an ad he's putting out in south carolina. i'm going to play it for our viewers. this is an ad from the gingrich campaign going after mitt romfully. >> what happened? he governed pro-abortion. romney appointed a pro-abortion judge, expanded access to abortion pills, put planned parenthood on a state medical board, but failed to put a pro-life group on the same board, and romney signed government mandated health care. massachusetts moderate mitt romney, he can't be trusted. >> i'm newt gingrich, and i approved this message. >> that's a pretty powerful ad, some saying this is payback. >> i think it will be difficult for newt gingrich, though. how does he raise money for those ads? hype going to be very curies to see the actual size of the ad that newt gingrich makes. there was a lot of loose talk about how he had received a big check the super pac had done. i don't think a lot of republican donors will be comfortable with the tenor of the kinds of attacks gingrich wants to make. he may find money very scarce. i don't think we'll see much hope of a gingrich comeback. i think really it is a local issue that needs to be paid a lot of attention to. south carolina badly needs to deepen the port of charleston. the tea party senator has opposed federal funding for that port, putting at risk jobs from big employers. the non-tea party republicans in south carolina have supported the port. i think because of that dispute, you're seeing abating of the energy of the tea party movement in south carolina as people realize, a lot of this talk can have real negative hometown consequences. >> very quickly, james, what did you think of that ad? >> if i'm a pro-life voter, i'm troubled. >> i believe so, yes, definitely. that's going to work for him well and it will have an impact. >> guys, stand by. i know all of you will be with us through the night. jon huntsman has been making some dramatic gains, a surge from behind. will it be enough to make him a serious contender in the race for the white house? jon huntsman is standing by live, right here in "the situation room." ♪ baby, baby, come along ♪ baby, baby, come along with me ♪ [ air horn blows ] ♪ i love you and i need you ♪ just to hug and squeeze you ♪ baby, why can't you see? 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[ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. possibly no one stands to gain more or lose more tonight than the former ambassador to china, jon huntsman is banking everything on coming from behind and essentially shaking up the entire race. our own jim as costa spoke with him a little while ago. >> reporter: is this do or die for you? >> we have to do well, and we have worked this market harder than anyone else, 170 events. we've done everything humanly possible. >> let's bring in our own lista sylvester. she's joining us now with more. a lot of our viewers don't know much, but you're going to change that right now, right? >> jon huntsman favors cutting taxes, he is against abortion, and wants to undo the health care reform law. all things very appealing to grassroots conservatives. he he was also an ambassador under president obama, essentially living in the state of new mexico the last few months with more than 170 campaign stops, hoping voters will see what he's really about. ♪ . >> thanz jon huntsman playing a mean chuck berry on "the david letterman show." and he may go from fledgling candidate to rock star. he's staked everything on new hampshire. mitt romney has a big lead, but the latest american league has him edging out for the number to spot. >> he's starting to gain traction. maybe he can have that breakthrough in new hampshire. >> huntsman is not your stodgy, ordinary politician. he rides a motorcycle, speaks fluent mandarin chinese, and in high school played in a band called "it is wizards." he also has a lot of experience, former ambassador to china and singapore. as governor of utah, he was reelected with more than 70% of his vote. >> if he focuses his energy, he's going to do a good job. >> huntsman's campaign has been a family affair. he and his wife have seven children, including two adopted. both mormons, both former governor, and both with prominent wealthy fares. jon huntsman sr. started a successful chemical company, making built onspending his latter years giving much of it away, but ironically what's holding him back? a lack of money. huntsman hasn't asked his father to put up the big bucks to move the politically meter. his campaign says it's a matter of principle. huntsman's daughters were asked about it by wolf blitzer in "the situation room." >> my dad, like he did in utah, he's not going to pay his way to the white house. you know, you want support of the people. he said the people's candidate, and so i think you'll see the resources come with momentum. that's exactly what we're seeing on the ground. >> huntsman's poll numbers may be going up, but is the tide turning fast enough? >> one boost came from "the boston globe" which endorsed him. his super pac has been raising more money. so we'll see how he does tonight. does he beat expectations. can that give him momentum going into south carolina and florida? >> certainly he's blessed with a great family. lisa, thanks very much. governor, thanks very much for coming in. >> a pleasure, wolf. thanks for having me. >> give us your assessment. how do you think second and third -- how well do you think you're going to do? >> you know, i was just over at radio row, where you've got a lot of the members -- the radio press gathered. there was a lot of chatter about how things are lining up. i think we're doing well. you've got to remember, wolf, as we talked last time, i was in single digits about a week and a half ago. so the thought there would be a surge next to the name huntsman is something altogether new that i'm trying to get my mind around. it really is a result of a lot of diligent work on the ground. we have done this the old-fashioned new hampshire way. we'll see if it translates into that people in new hampshire do care about the candidates earning the vote and not taking it for granted. ma that means and how it is translated into a finish, i can't tell you exactly what that mean. we'll know soon enough. i increasingly feel we're going to beat market expectations. >> like everybody else, though, you assume mitt romney will win tonight. is that right? he is certainly strong, and the home state favorite, next-door governor. he has a home here. he's campaigned for the presidency here for a whole lot of year. he has a built-in advantage. certainly from a name recognition standpoint, it will be interesting to see if that name recognition does translate into political support. i'm not sure you can always assume that. >> 40% of the people voting in new hampshire are believed to be independents. i know a lot of them will support you. a lot of them support ron paul as well. tell us why they support you instead of ron paul. some people have still not voted. >> i can go on to beat barack obama. ron paul has capped out about 15% of the vote for the last couple election cycles. >> there's no reason to believe he will win over more than that. so you have to start with the premise that electability is an important consideration. if they're going to put their investment in someone, it ought to be a candidate who can actually go the distance. >> certainly getting ugly out there between gingrich and romney. the name-calling, if you will. you certainly haven't crossed the line. how due feel about the discourse of this campaign right now among republicans? inch you know, wolf, we don't reflect on history very often, but i think every cycle would suggests, whether the republican or democrat side, you see this int internascene warfare that plays out, and it puts the candidate to the test. all the information is brought out, the arguments are made, the accusations are thrown out there, and then there has to be a discussion that follows. i think there's a process that makes the ultimate nominee a whole lot stronger. a lot of the information is vetted openly and responses are developed for those accusations, and i believe that that makes for a better general election candidate. i do believe what you're seeing right now poisonous as it might sound from time to time, is likely to make a stronger nominee ultimately. >> in the last hour, ron paul, who is also fighting for second place in new hampshire tonight, told me he really doesn't have the resources to spend a lot of time or money or effort in florida. he probably will move beyond that after south carolina. have you looked ahead beyond tonight into what happens in south carolina, florida, nevada, and so forth? >> we sure have, wolf. we've spent a lot of time in south carolina. we have people like henry cmaster, who was the former attorney general just lost the governorship there. the carroll campbell -- remember, carroll campbell was the most respected and beloved governor in the last 50 years. people like alan wilson, the attorney general just to name a few, we have an excellent team, and instead we've made multiple visits there. our name recognition is low predictably, because you need a market-moving event. and if all goes well tonight, as i think it will, new hampshire will be a market-moving event for us. as it moves downstream into south carolina, where we hope to find ourselves tomorrow, people will begin paying attention to the new order of the universe, which will be much different than beer thinking about it today. why? because the people of new hampshire always tend to upend conventional wisdom. >> you may want to stick around and listen to our next report, governor, the first exit polls are countrying owl. we'll share some numbers. governor huntsman, we appreciate you joining us. good luck. >> thank you. good to be with us, wolf. we'll learn more about the exit polls. wee dissecting what's going on. our expert analysts are going through the numbers right now. stay with us. more of our coverage right after this. hello, how can i deliver world-class service for you today ? we gave people right off the street a script and had them read it. no, sorry, i can't help you with that. i'm not authorized to access that transaction. that's not in our policy. i will transfer you now. my supervisor is currently not available. would you like to hold ? that department is currently closed. have i helped you with everything you needed ? if your bank doesn't give you knowledgeable customer service 24/7, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. can you enjoy vegetables with sauce and still reach your weight loss goals? you can with green giant frozen vegetables. over twenty delicious varieties have sixty calories or less per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce. first exit polls are just starting to come into the cnn election center. let's go straight to cnn's erin burnett, and gloria borger. interesting stuff coming in, and we're only just starting. >> that's right. we are only just starting. that's what we want to emphasize. we're only going to use the first wall, everyone, because we won't touch any of these. it's still flooding in. we're just going to give you the headlines. vote by income, gloria, interesting, under 230,000, 30 to 50,000, not as much voters there. in iowa obviously that had skewed for ron paul with the young voters, college students. 50 to 100, 100 to 200,000 -- that's where you e -- >> that would be, of course, good for mitt romney, though rick santorum in iowa got a bunch of these voters in the 50 to 100,000, but you have to look at they numbers and say he skews well. >> and we were looking at home prices. it's interesting to the exact number 20% from the high, but still 189,300 to buy a home in new hampshire. it's a wealthy state, unemployment is low, not enough to stop the most important issue by a huge landslide, more so than in iowa, the economy. >> 60% thinks that's important, the country believes this, no surprise. that's good for mitt romney. again, the deficit question in iowa, people who cared about the deficit went for ron paul. >> that's right, with romney a close second, worried about the economy, 69%. i say this, everyone, even know new hampshire has the lowest unemployment rate in new england. the economy sit front and center. only time will tell if beneath these headlines are good numbers for mitt romney or not. jack cafferty is asking, what issues will ultimately decide the republican nomination, use you are e-mail is coming up. the gop presidential candidates and their laughs. jeanne moos has that as well. i'm always looking out for small ways to be more healthy. like splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweeteners. this bowl of strawberries is loaded with vitamin c. and now, b vitamins to boot. coffee doesn't have fiber. unless you want it to. splenda® essentials™ are the first and only line of sweeteners with a small boost of fiber, or antioxidants, or b vitamins in every packet. mmm. same great taste with an added "way to go, me" feeling. splenda® essentials™. get more out of what you put in. let's get to jack for the cafferty file. jack? >> question this hour is what issues will ultimately decide the republican nomination. kenneth writes i think it will always be the economy, especially jobs. the candidate who puts his focus on that will get the attention of the electorate. paychecks are more important than abortion, foreign policy, terror, whatever. no job or the fear of losing one transcends all other issues. carl writes, no issues will really decide the nomination. the issues will be the same old tired wedge issues that dredge up every election to get the homophobic evangelical wing nuts to vote for them. the nominee will be decided when the old money republican billionaires with a "b" whom we haven't heard from so far tell the wanna be gop millionaires with an "m" who they're backing. jean writes issues? it's all about money, jack. plain and simple. richard in kansas says the republican nomination won't be decided by issues. it will go to the candidate who is the farthest to the right. they've created a party where purity of thought and loyalty to party trumps everything else as if the more conservative you are, the more right and just you are. and any hint of moderation is pounced on as weakness. who cares what the people think or want. the entire process is to give the people the elusion that democracy is alive and well in america. give me a break, the powers that be, big banks, etc., have already anointed romney. the issues are irrelevant. peg says the issue is electability. if you want to read more on this go to ply plaug, cnn.com/caffertyfile. wolf? >> jack, thank you. you certainly can tell a lot by lis yeng to the candidates' laugh or can you? jeanne moos will break that down when we come back. nice ring. knock it off. ignore him. with the capital one venture card you earn... double miles on every purchase. 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