we re in mesa, arizona, tonight s cnn arizona republican presidential debate. it s been about a among since they last faced off and since then even more upheaval. rick santorum is now the surging candidates and the one for mitt romney to beat tonight. both men we are campaigning down to the wire and may have given each other press ammunition. he s here with us, going through the details. what s the latest? for the top two candidates, the devil is in the debails. two potential flash points. tonight mitt romney s new tax plan and rick santorum s faith-based brand of politics. he made what could be a risky move, a plan that could come under fire. i m going to lower rates across the board for all americans by 20%. it will last setting the top bracket for the wealthier earners at 28%, and cut the corporate tax rate to 25%, lower than the 28% proposed by the president, but higher than his gop rivals. romney would offset some of those cuts by limiting popular deductions for th
we begin tonight with presidential politics. new numbers that underscore just how important our big debate here is tomorrow night and a new twist in the campai campaign conversation. a new cnn times poll shows a statistical dead heat this arizona. 36% for mitt romney, 32% for the surging rick santorum. add in a small santorum lead in michigan which also votes next tuesday, and what you get is a tense, volatile gop race as the final four candidates prepare for their first debate in nearly a month. in a moment how the tightness of the race is playing out among the candidates. but first a campaign commentary is stirring controversy. listen here to franklin graham, the son of the reverend billy graham, when asked on msnbc just this morning if he can say categorically that the president is not a muslim. i can t say categorically, because islam has gotten a free pass under obama. how so? well, we see the arab spring. coming out of the arab spring the islamists are taking co