the momentum in the race. and the impact of that first debate can t be overstated. it s essentially a tie race. the polls now for the first time in the averages have mitt romney in a slight lead. we went from before that first debate, where mitt romney was behind in every one of the swing states. now he s leading in a number of the important swing states within striking distance of the others. so for mitt romney, it s more of the same. it s talking about growing the economy, connecting economic growth to middle class families, and the president has a very difficult challenge tonight. he can t be too hot. he can t be too aggressive. he can t not be presidential with that small sliver of voters, which shrinks every day now, that s making their decisions, that s going to the polls, that s voting in the early voting states. you know, so the president tonight needs to articulate where he wants to lead the country. where does he want to take us? what has been absent from the obama campaign f
i have had grits before. and knock each other out. i would like everyone to drop out. will all four candidates still be standing after three new contests in alabama, mississippi, and hawaii? it s america s choice. mitt romney is the clear leader in the delegate race, but he s still a long way from claiming the nomination. we re counting up the delegates for the convention, it looks good. and we re counting down the days november, and that looks even better. rick santorum is giving romney a run for his money after cutting into his super tuesday win. we have won in the west, the midwest, and the south, and we re ready to win across this country. newt gingrich with proven appeal in the south, thinks this could be his night. if we win alabama and mississippi on tuesday, for about the ninth time, the news media will suddenly be reporting a new race. the republicans competing in two red states and on president obama s home turf. when will they be able to focus on
43% for santorum. ron paul at second. and gingrich, 13% of the votes counted there. colorado, big lead, but only 1% of the votes in. santorum may be riding a wave in delivering a setback for front runner mitt romney. it s still very early. a lot of drama ahead. we ll check in with wolf. let s go out to colorado. paul is standing by in aroura, colorado. paul, tell us what is going on right now. they are just wrapping up, in fact, they announced the totals, 22 precincts in this room. that bell weather county, mitt romney, 78, 28 for santorum, and 20 for pule. so a great night for mitt romney in this room, and more shots of democracy at its best. you can see them collecting some of the money here. yeah, she says we re collecting instead of spending. she s a mitt romney supporter. tonight, they had to raise the money to hold this in here. 22 precincts in all in the county. this county divided very evenly like much of colorado where you have a third republican, a third democra
caucuses it starts counting. republicans will start choosing candidates in a campaign after everyone you see here and a few you don t, have been the front-runner or the front-runner or may soon become the front-runner. some of these boxes may soon be empty. politico s roger simon said iowa caucuses don t pick winners, they eliminate losers. a lot of people could continue on from here even if they don t place well. a loser here may take new hampshire. someone else could win south carolina and yet another may win florida. it s just been that kind of a campaign. the polls here reflect it. take a look. the latest from the des moines register, mitt romney and ron paul in a statistical tie. rick santorum close behind. newt gingrich fourth and fading. rick perry fifth and climbing slowly. michele bachmann in single digits. that poll came out over the weekend. arg showed romney in front. paul, santorum and gingrich essentially tied for second. it won t be dull and every move matt
they re acting as though it s today. is there any news in the last 50 or so minutes since we last spoke? reporter: since we last spoke, that impromptu meeting you and i were talking about between a bipartisan group of members of the super committee, that has broken p up. as members were leaving, senator max baucuss, facing a mass of reporters, the only way to describe it, he actually mentioned that there s possibly a new tax idea being floated possibly by senator john kerry. as you and i talked, this meeting was described by one aide earlier as kind of a hail mary pass to see if they could pull anything off in this 11th hour. unclear what the details are of this tax idea, but i will tell you that it does seem that it possibly could be a long shot as one gop leadership aide has already speaking to my colleague deidre walsh on this tax idea said, at the 11th hour senator kerry offered a new gimmick, in this person s word, to get to the democrats same trillion dollar tax hike