full fledged congressional showdown with a tax hike for millions of americans hanging in the balance. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. this just coming in. our brand new poll numbers hitting pitting president obama against the republican candidate. the survey puts each toe to toe the president and even though the election is still almost 11 months away, the results still troubling for the gop. let s go inside the numbers with ron brownstein of the national journal. thanks very much for coming in. these numbers, hot, they re fresh right now. hypothetical match-ups between the president and the republican challengers out there. look at this. in a hypothetical match-up between president obama and mitt romney. right now, president obama would win 52 to 45%. margin of error, 3%, but he would still win national. those are some of the best numbers we have seen for president obama in any of the head to heads recently. seven points ahead of mitt romney, wider than
these items. the payroll tax cut before the holidays. party leaders in the senate now say they re trying to come up with terms come to terms with something and that may be more likely now that democrats have given up trying to pass a new tax on millionaires. but wait, there is more. in less than 36 hours, much of the federal government will run out of money. the latest as seven budgetary stop gaps runs ot out at midnight tomorrow night. while lawmakers scramble to come up with a plan, nobody s voted on anything. we ll certainly keep you posted. in baghdad today, the end became real. u.s. forces lowered the flag of command, closing the book on a controversial war that claimed almost 4,500 american lives and cost more than $800 billion. defense secretary leon panetta was there. to all of the men and women in uniform today, your nation is deeply indebted to you. you have done everything your nation asked you to do and more. your dedication, your commitment to this missio
plus, the shocking end to an equally shocking case in saudi arabia. a woman beheaded for witchcraft. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. just 24 hours ago, the mud was flying between newt gingrich and mitt romney as they campaigned in the first primary state of new hampshire. now gingrich is vowing to run a clean campaign and refrain from initiating the kind of attacks that have come to characterize the modern race for the white house. some question, though, whether newt gingrich means it, whether he can live up to that commitment. joe johns is working the story for us. what are you finding out? well, wolf, the last few days have certainly been ugly, but now both candidates are saying they re going to do what a lot of voters have said they want and that is have a campaign that is free of negativism. of course, newt gingrich, the former speaker of the house running for president has gone as far to put his words actually in writing. though a lot of people out th