let me finish tonight with this. jack kennedy was deadly serious about his four great debates with richard nixon. a week before the first debate he arranged a secret debate with don hewitt, who he knew would be broadcasting the debates. where do i stand, he asks you, trying to get straight on his positioning of the big night, the feel of the whole thing? when kennedy and nixon arrived at chicago studio the night of the debate the democrat grabbed another edge. he knew his rival had spent many days in the hospital nursing an infected leg wound. now he could see how awful nixon look and this triggered the historic battle of the makeup. kennedy had been in california and working on his tan.
hospital apparently with a leg wound and i m not sure what his condition swe re waiting to see my aunt to make sure she got out safely. i m praying that she s be fine right now and we can see her as soon as possible. reporter: the sikh religion started in south asia some 500 years ago. they have roughly 27 million followers worldwide and sikh s do not cut their beard or hair and wear turbianturbans, and rea rise in attacks since the 9/11 attacks even though they are not muslim. this is really uninspected happen to we never thought that someone would go that far about these things. and hoping through the media coverage there is aawareness that people shouldn t misidentified us based on what we wear because it s not we re actually from india.
mitt romney is wrapping up a rather tough week of being hammered and belittled by his republican opponents but he s trying to keep his sights on president obama and an issue that s problematic for both of them health care. the republican is taking some of his toughest shots yet at the controversial reform law the president signed into law two years ago exactly this week. let s bring in our senior correspondent joe johns working this story for us. it s going to be a huge issue not only in the days to come but in the weeks and months to come i have no doubt. wolf, that s true. and he may be the front-runner but mitt romney has had a very tough week, as you said. if you look at the polls just starting with the polls, it s pretty clear he s been running in double digits behind rick santorum in the state of louisiana in the run-up to the primary. then there is that other problem, health care. a pretty big problem in fact because not on is this the two-year anniversary of the o
korea plans to launch a long-range rocket. why tensions are soaring ahead of a world nuclear summit. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. captions by vitac www.vitac.com on this, the eve of a key gop primary in louisiana, rick santorum is charging hard. polls show him as a double digit favorite there, but santorum is also on the defensive today. he s taking a lot of heat from his rivals for hinting that reelecting barack obama might might be preferable to electing mitt romney. listen to this. you win by giving people a choice. you win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who is just going to be a little different than the person in there. if they re going to be a little different we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk of what may be an etch a sketch candidate for the future. strong words. let s go live to our senior correspondent joe johns. he s in louisiana. joe, i take it s
speaks for itself. reporter: bombarded for months. picked off by snipers. food and supplies running out. medical care, impossible. this is the story of a cnn team that got into syria s most dangerous city. to reach a handful of citizens risking their lives every day. to see firsthand, to bear witness, and to tell the world about the suffering, the grief, and the courage of homs. this is the account of 72 hours under fire. [ explosion ] reporter: for more than a year, the regime of dictator bashar al assad have used brutal force to put down a popular uprising in syria. across the country, protesters demanded change, chanting, down with the regime. this is homs. you can see over there another rocket. reporter: the city of homs became the beating heart of a growing uprising. but the syrian military sealed off one neighborhood as it tried to crush the revolt. the assad regime is shelling relentlessly these neighborhoods. there are snipers positioned in areas that