rival with an apparent victory. chief political correspondent carl cameron is covering a busy day on the campaign trail. reporter: running last in south carolina polls, texas governor rick perry ended his presidential bid. today, i am suspending my campaign and endorsing newt gingrich for president of the united states. i believe newt is a conservative visionary who can transform our country. we have had our differences which campaigns will inevitably have. newt is not perfect, but who among us is? reporter: gingrich hopes to unite south carolina conservatives as the romney alternative. i was very honored and very humbled to have governor perry speak so well about endorsing me. reporter: his predictions are increasingly bold. we will, in fact, win decisively on saturday. reporter: two new south carolina polls put gingrich ahead.
things his rivals were tossing at him. he was forced to explain his record at bain capital. his various flip-flops on social issues and as we heard in the sound by the earlie sound byte earlier he said he may release his tax returns come april when he says traditionally that s when likely nominees have coughed up the record. not a great night for mitt romney. the big question is whether or not newt gingrich or rick santorum did enough damage to slow his momentum here. gingrich had a very strong night and it s been noted repeatedly that he came up with a standing ovation last night for his performance. now the battle is really between rick santorum and newt gingrich, they are both going at each other very, very hard trying to disqualify each other as the romney alternative. martha. martha: did they go anywhere in that distance last night to do that? did newt gingrich move himself up? what is the feeling on the ground there, or sapb
in the private equity industry. the former house speaker made no apology on fox and friends. it s not about the capitals. that is a question about a particular style of activity. with a particular person. romney going in to south carolina as the front runner, other candidates trying to potential themselveses with voters as the romney alternative. perry calls romney to task on healthcare reform. i have always been a candidate that believes it s unconstitutional for the government to be forcing individual mandates. he has been for all hof those before. romney is the anti-candidate. perry is touting his service for the air force, vying for portion of the state in large population of active duty and retired military. military service is important.
derail mitt romney in south carolina. there is a new poll that shows romney leading newt gingrich by two points. that s a statistical tie. santorum and ron paul appear to be fighting for third place. augusta chronicle newspaper and savanna morning news newspaper. mitt romney suspect by nine points in the real clear average of the polls. jonathan serrie is live in colombia, south carolina. jonathan. hey, shep. with mitt romney the apparent frontrunner in the state. you have the other g.o.p. contenders trying to portray themselves as the romney alternative. all they they are going about it in very different ways. for example, rick santorum, a catholic who appealed to religious conservatives in iowa is trying to do the same in south carolina where evangelical christian voters are a strong presence, especially in the upstate region. more people go to church on sunday in america than go to all the professional sporting events combined in america in a year. meanwhile rick perry is
11:20 eastern. going to bring you the remarks live. and just a week and a day until the south carolina primaries. one of them will be in florida. newt gingrich attends the opening of his campaign headquarters. that s happening this hour. mitt romney speaks in south carolina in the next hour and r rick perry is going to be in bluffton. he s made a career out of poking fun at the political process. but now comedian stephen colbert actually talking about running for president himself. it sounds like a joke, but it s no laughing matter. i am proud to announce that i m forming an exploratory committee to lay the ground work for my possible candidacy for the president of the united states of south carolina. now clearly my fellow south carolinians see me as the only viable mitt-ternative. happening now in peru. this is live pictures. joran van der sloot waiting to find out how many years he s going to send behind bars. a panel of judges is sentencing the confessed killer. this w