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
by our election team and around the country and the world. stand by to learn more about edith and carolyn, who solved the case of the missing votes. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. so long, iowa, hello, new hampshire. the republican presidential candidates are zeroing in on the next battlefield and a big primary coming up on tuesday. the front-runner, mitt romney, is following up his squeaker win in iowa with a new endorsement from senator john mccain who beat him in the new hampshire primary four years ago. several of romney s opponents also are in new hampshire right now. but rick perry says he s heading south. he sent out a tweet today saying here we come, south carolina. and a photo from his morning run confirming he s staying in the race despite his poor showing in iowa. michele bachmann made a very different decision, ending her presidential bid today after a crushing defeat in the state where she was born. rick santorum lands in new hampshire later
that was a lifetime ago. that was a lifetime ago. but, you know, she made a big point, if she was born in iowa, this was going to be her state. this was going to be so you think she might drop out or, given her money situation? soul searching is what you i think, yes. and if you re rick perry, what justification do you have for going forward? just because you ve got money in the bank? the justification of going forward, i talked to rick perry today. he said he s the only conservative who can mount a national effort, fund-raising effort, against mitt romney. can he make that case after tonight? harder, but we ll see what happens with santorum. see how santorum performs in new hampshire. perry s not going to new hampshire. perry s going to south carolina. southern governor, conservative, a tea party message. look, he understands, he blew it in the early debates. the voters in iowa never forgave him for those gaffes. he s going to try one more time in south carol
tonight, the first test of the republican presidential candidates that counts. anyone could win. what should the role of government be? and everything could change. we are not going to spend more money than what we re bringing in in this country. it s iowa s choice. will iowans embrace mitt romney? i want to restore america. i want to turn around america. make ron paul the spoiler? i think we have too many laws is what the problems are. turn back the the establishment witches i d go away. choose rick santorum? if we don t have strong family, we won t have a strong family. or another come-from-behind candidate? we will repeal obama care, it will happen. only one republican will face off against the president. i believe in america. in a new year of challenges and economic pain. there s no more important task for the next president. the candidates have spoken. vote for me on january 3rd. thank you all very much. god bless you. good l
captions by vitac www.vitac.com under two hours from the start of iowa s presidential caucuses. a vote to shrink the field and perhaps give us a front-runner. mitt romney predicting, quote, we re going win this but his opponents are promising the governor will have a much harder time after tonight. this afternoon the former house speaker newt gingrich told reporters his ads will start drawing, quote, a sharper, clearer contrast with governor romney and on cbs this morning, the former speaker, remember, he s the candidate who keeps promising to stay positive, well, gingrich called romney a liar. are you calling mitt romney a liar? yes. why are you saying he s a lier? this is a man whose staff created the pac, his millionaire friends fund the pac. he pretens he has nothing to do with the pac. it s balogna, he s not telling the american people the truth. it s like a pretense he s a conservative. governor romney s laughing off gingrich s attempt to be more aggress