romney made no difference of gingrich other than mocking reference to president obama s disney world trip. he may run into speaker gingrich in fairy tale land. he exceeded expectation in january 3 caucuses, santorum exceeded the romney vote count. we defeated mitt romney in iowa. still, paul may be poised to take third place in the first southern primary. that would be a huge setback for santorum who could have his iowa triumph eclipsed should he come in dead last in south carolina saturday now that perry is out of the race. capping off this most eventful campaign day on the trail, debate tonight at the north charlton auditorium. the g.o.p. 2012 field is now down to four, bret? bret: most eventful by far. carl, thank you. one very coveted group of people in south carolina are
race, because the shape of the race changed by santorum not coming out of there as the declared winner. romney being the declared winner before and going into new hampshire with more of a head of steam. well, andrea, i think as you remember, in the wee hours of january 4th, when we announced the unofficial results, i explained that we had a two-week certification process by which all the volunteer-led precincts had to submit their, essentially their verified paperwork as to the official vote totals in those districts, in those precincts, and the deadline for those was last wednesday night. and we received and were able to verify and certify 1,766 of the 1,774 precincts across the state, and that s where you saw rick santorum come out on top by a 34-vote margin. and largely what we found out, like any race this close, we went through the certification process, at one of the volunteer call centers, where we were taking incoming calls on caucus night. we had a volunteer that entered a 5
challenge to romney:all three of them got together and coalesced behind one guy? if perry and santorum got out gingrich would be competitive with romney in the early pollings. it ended up half for romney and half for the other candidate. but you are making a big assumption that two of those three challengers decide to get out. this poll we are talking about was conducted just before last night s debate. all said that speaker gingrich had a tremendous debate. he was really sharp last night. he s saying i m the alternative. one third of the voters in south carolina say they could change their mind. some might make gingrich the candidate with the late surge. but as long as the candidates are dividing that not romney vote, romney is in great shape. going to florida he s likely to be in great shape. megyn: scott, thank you so much,
getting some fuel. an american icebreaker helped a russian tanker get through the frozen barring see to deliver gas and oil. there is still a mile of ice between the tanker and the harbor. fuel will have to be piped in through a hose that is being laid out on top of the ice. on what would have been dr. martin luther king jr. s birthday, a wreath was laid at the new king memorial at the mall today. the interior department announced a correction will soon be made on an inscription there which paraphrases a quote from king. and now to the 2012 contenders and the race to the white house. a new cnn sfch/orc poll shows m romney as a clear front-runner, 34%, ahead of newt gingrich. another poll saids light on the possible reason a huge majority of republicans, 71%, said they would rather nominate a candidate that can beat barack obama in the fall than a candidate who agrees with them on the issues. romney s lead isn t set in stone. 56% of gop voters say they may change their min
they waited to vet last debate to start going strong against romney who is an incredibly flawed candidate with incredibly flawed economic record that has a lot there to go after. but unfortunately in new hampshire, i think his lead has solidified, the big story is who comes in second, john huntsman that is a big story there he is on the rise. who know it is it will be enough, or if santorum comes in second, start consolidating the anybody but romney vote, the story out of new hampshire as well. will? i don t see anybody making an 11th hour push to catch romney. i do agree it is a race for second, third and fourth, but that s interesting to me for these reasons f it is jon huntsman what does that say about his future? is his second or third place finish close enough to romney to justify put putting money into his campaign? his dad one of the richest men in america l he put money in to push him to south carolina? if it is rick santorum talk about for second, third or fourth will rick