we re breaking down the major races. and president obama stealing some of the spotlight from the republicans. he holds a news conference in about 15 minutes. we re keeping our eye on that. the president, he s going to outline a new mortgage relief plan for the military, obviously, take questions from reporters. we ll bring that to you live as soon as it starts. but first, we want to bring in our political heavy hitters, wolf blitzer and chief political analyst, gloria borger, great to have you both here, onset, in the atl. we re watching closely here. wolf, you just got back from a roundtable that was streaming online. you had a chance to talk to voters live. what s the most interesting thing that they re interested in. you know, a lot of republicans, and these are traditional, conservative republicans, they re worried about what s going on right now within this republican race for the white house. they think it s doing damage to the republican brand, to the republican part
i m candidate crowley, and you re in the situation room. just coming in, a new snapshot capturing the big picture, a cnn lorcp poll shows support for president obama up slightly from last month 67 this new poll shows a five-point lead over romney, though still within a sampling error. the same poll shows a seven-point lead for the president over rick santorum. that is up only slightly from january. we want to bring in cnn s chief analyst gloria borger. so i look at this and think maybe a problem for mitt romney? absolutely a problem for mitt romney. as you pointed out, in january neck and neck. now president obama is up. what s mitt romney s calling card as he campaigns he electability? what do republican voters say they want in all those dpit polls we ve been taking and all those primaries? somebody who can beat president obama. he kind of loses that argument. it s early, this is good news for president obama. we should say it s february, these numbers can change. an
good evening. i m erin burnett. and outfront tonight, the middle east on the verge. countries across the region from iran to libya on high alert reacting to the highest tension there in decades and all eyes are on the united states. what will america do? the big story tonight is a massacre in syria. the death toll mounting tonight as the government cracks down on protesters, demanding president bashar al assad step down. 74 people died today, many in the western city of homs. we re not animals. we re human beings. we re asking for help. asking for your help. if you don t help, they will kill millions. no one will find out about us. right now, the united states has been withdrawing, shutting down its embassy today. a source who has spent a lot of time with al assad says the situation is deteriorating to a blood bath and saying america s military may need to step in. meanwhile, the regime hoping turmoil in other part of the renal will buy it time. that is, of course, in s
crucial state this november. winner take all in the general election and winner take all for mitt romney tonight. mitt romney. florida s choice. a win that helped him look like the front runner again. a competitive primary does not divide us. it prepares us and we will win. a new setback for newt gingrich and his roller coaster campaign. we re going to contest every place and we re going to win, and we will be in tampa as the nominee. four candidates with four contests behind hem, with the fight to the nomination is just beginning. the votes are in. florida has spoken, and now the campaign goes west. the campaign does head west, but the story tonight is what happened in the east in florida. if you re just joining us, welcome to our ac 360 special primary coverage. live until midnight. after wild swings in the polls, withering attack ads, million s spent by the campaigns and super pacs as well, romney has beaten gingrich. romney claimed victory and looked ahead t
chuck, do you think we re going to start if gingrich wins here, will we hear the republican establishment a cry go up for someone else to get in this race? and if that happens, is it possible? reporter: you know, i would say not yet. it would have to you would have to see romney collapse in florida too. i think ultimately the romney campaign has always seen florida as the real fire wall. they talked about new hampshire, that was the launch, but the real fire wall s always been florida. and you ve got to be careful with florida because it s a closed primary, it ll be as conservative of a voter of an electora electorate, frankly, as south carolina will look, even though if you had independents come in, it would look a heck of a lot different in florida. but that will be a tricky place for romney if suddenly he s losing momentum. if suddenly he has a hard time. now he s got the resources to actually advertise in all the markets, to actually get a plane and be able to do stops from t