electorate is different. 83% in iowa were very conservative. here it s roughly 55%. independenting play a much bigger role here. also the evangelical vote and the christian conservatives in iowa, huge factor. here pretty small about 21%. so it s a different electorate and a different feeling completely. jenna: you talk about the independents and the indecision going into the polls today. we are getting word out of new hampshire that a lot of folks haven t made up their mind yet and they only have a few hours to go. i wonder if that is specific to the g.o.p., people feeling undecided about the republican candidates or undecided in general about politics in this country right now, what do you think. reporter: i think it s a mix. here in new hampshire there is a long tradition of deciding late, deciding up until the last day. the recent polls over the past
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 prima
going to take any advice from someone who told hillary clinton that the way to get the nomination for the democratic party in 2008 was to go out there, say she had a lot of experience and let him be the candidate of change. he gave her bad advice then. he s giving bad advice to the president now, and the president is on it is right track, because he s standing up for what he believes in. all right. even with the gameso gains, though, we see a poll where the independents has romney beating president obama among independenting by 12 points. why? and what do you think the president s reelection campaign has to do to try to bring more independents over? we8, as much as there s a far right in this country, the tea party, and the far left, folks who are doing occupy wall street. those would be members of the far left. but there s a grand silent
his comments come across? he s certainly throwing sharp el goes. he s saying we got rid of taxes, got rid of regulations and made it a good place for business to operate. so he s out there trying to draw contrasts. i think the independenting will have to azest that and see if that s the style and person we want leading the country. will that be effective messaging, specifically to independent voters in american? certainly all of candidates need to be talking about jobs. the thing about rick perry, though, he s a very shrewd and savvy politician, but at the same time he s showing how far to the right the republican party has actually moved. he s extremely far to the right, and hurling rhetoric, he s hurling things that are disturbing, saying that making an implied threat against ben bernanke, the chairman of the federal reserve. whether you disagree with him on
now, you ought to know tell me about new hampshire. that s your old turf. what makes you think she can beat a local in up in new hampshire. that would be stunning. yeah, that would be stunning. he has a how in win pa sackee in you don t think that s enough? i don t think it s enough. i think mccain showed him by cleaning his clock last name it baunt enough. conservatives do not trust mitt romney. the reason he has big numbers is because independenting can vote in the primary, so independents are being polled. you can t get to the left of mitt romney in this race. there s no room for jon huntsman, there s no room to the left of romney. there s only room to the right, and michele bachmann is the natural alternative to mitt romney, except for rick perry. if he gets in, he could unite conservatives in a way nobody else in this race has been able to do.