this is your a.m. wakeup call. . good morning to you, it is tuesday, november 22nd. i m carol costello. here are this morning s top stories. republican candidates gathering in the shadow of the white house tonight for the big cnn national security debate. it s the first test for newt gingrich as the front-runner. a new poll shows he leads mitt romney by 4%. giving up a lot of the blame, not much shame is the congressional super committee calls it quits. lawmakers announcing they cannot reach a deal to cut at least $1.2 trillion worth of deficit now even more painful cuts loom. part of a major highway between memphis and dallas reopened after an intense down pour washed it away yesterday. 88,000 cars and trucks sat on a 30-mile detour and more rain is on the way this morning. so let s check in with jackie gerris in atlanta. good morning. good morning, carol. yeah, flooding is going to continue to be a big problem across the mid south this morning. the rain continues to
republican candidates gather in the shadow of the white house tonight for the big cnn national security debate. it is the first test for newt gingrich as front-runner. cairo bracing for a million-man sit-in. police beating demonstrators on the fourth straight day of violence, and now late word three americans have been arrested. is there anybody out there? nasa relaunching a program to listen for alien life, searching for signs, on this american morning. captions by vitac www.vitac.com good morning. it s tuesday, november 22nd. ali and christine are off this morning. i m alina cho along with carol costello on this american morning. so glad you re with us. glad you re with us. up first this morning, breaking news out of cairo. three americans arrested outside the interior ministry in tahrir square accused of throwing molotov cocktails. thousands of demonstrators are packed into the square for a million-man sit-in. a short distance away, our reporter says soldie