in northern florida, interstate 75 is closed after a string of crashes overnight that killed at least nine people. officials tell us the highway will be closed in that area for most of today. the sheriff's office says visibility was poor because of smoke from a nearby brushfire. all right, in just two days, florida's primary, most delegate rich contest so far. and candidate newt gingrich is heading into it with a new endorsement. >> i hereby officially and enthusiastically endorse newt gingrich for president of the united states! >> will herman cain's backing influence primary voters in the sunshine state? a live report straight ahead. and now to the campaign trail, extending beyond florida. ron paul spent the weekend in maine where several towns are holding caucuses over the next several weeks. rick santorum did some fund raising in washington, d.c. yesterday, but skipped appearances today in florida to be with his young daughter who is being hospitalized in philadelphia. newt gingrich and mitt romney, they're both campaigning all over the state of florida. a new poll just released this morning shows romney with a sizable lead in the sunshine state. 15 points ahead of gingrich. santorum is in third place with 16%. and paul has 11% of the vote. the poll was taken wednesday through friday before and after cnn's thursday presidential debate. today, ron paul isn't on the trail, but he was on cnn's "state of the union" this morning. he says while there have been ups and downs in his campaign, he intends to stay in the race through the republican convention in august. >> no, i think we'll continue and it is a rough road, but the rough road isn't, you know, presenting our case. the rough road is competing with, you know, establishment money, the big money, you know. you talk about not a billion -- a million or two, and we can raise those millions, but we can't compete with tens of millions of dollars for each individual state and that's what, you know, came up in florida. you need a lot of money. so it is a money game. and i think that's one of the things that frustrated a lot of people. >> leading the fund-raising race in florida, mitt romney. today he campaigned in naples, florida, a community where people over the age of 65 make up 42% of the population. romney went after newt gingrich saying it is time the former house speaker, quote, looks in the mirror to realize why he's not ahead in the florida polls. romney reserved his harshest comments for president barack obama. >> i think we see a president who wants to make america into a european-style social welfare state. i don't want to go that direction. i think he believes that fundamentally government is a better source of direction for the nation than free people choosing their own course in life. i disagree with him. i believe that america should hold fast to the principles that made us the greatest nation in the history of the earth. i want to restore the princip principles. [ applause ] i mean, he looks -- he looks at the national debt, think of this, he looked at the national debt of $15 trillion and says, can i add a trillion more? i mean, can you imagine? he will, by the end of his first term, and his only term, by the way -- [ applause ] he will -- he will have amassed as much debt, as much public debt as almost as all the prior presidents of our country combined. and he keeps on adding and adding. and then he had the state of the union address the other day, do you think he mentioned the deficit or the massive overhang of debt on our nation? of course not. doesn't even rise to his psyche that we could hit a greek-like wall. my view is very different than his. i take a different course. the right course for america is to cut federal spending, to cap federal spending and to finally balance the budget. and i'll get it done. [ applause ] this is -- this is a president who looks and thinks if the government can do a better job than the free market at picking successful enterprises. >> newt gingrich is fighting hard to gain ground in florida. and pull off the same dramatic come from behind victory he accomplished in south carolina. the former house speaker attended sunday services at a baptist church in lutes florida, outside tampa. last night, however, in west palm beach, gingrich got this sought after endorsement. >> i hereby officially and enthusiastically endorse newt gingrich for president of the united states. one of the biggest reasons is the fact that i know that speaker gingrich is a patriot, speaker gingrich is not afraid of bold idea. >> gingrich is representing -- or presenting rather his ideas today to florida seniors in the villages retirement community. joe johns is joining us live now. joe, before, you know, talking to you about the residents there, let's talk more about the endorsement he got from herman cain and how hard did gingrich work for that endorsement? how important is it to him? >> reporter: well, i think it is important to him, fredricka, but, look, the bottom line is these are two men who have known each other for a long time. and, frankly, i was just a little surprised that herman cain didn't endorse him before now, you know. they both have ties to the state of georgia. and, in fact, first time i ever met herman cain, it was at the united states capital when newt gingrich was the speaker of the house. he introduced me to herman cain. so i always suspected this was going to happen. what does that mean as far as the people who have been so supportive? hard to say. it probably would have been a lot more valuable had it come a few weeks ago, if you will. nonethele nonetheless, there are a lot of people who think very highly of herman cain so it can help. >> you bring up an important question then, so why did it take so long given their history together? >> reporter: yeah. your guess is as good as mine. we do know that herman cain has really tried to just sort of string things out a lot of times on his campaign. it even took him a really long time to go ahead and say he was suspending his campaign, even after all the swirl and all the allegations involving various women. so herman cain has been sort of a guy who likes to slow walk things in politics. and that was probably something he was trying to do here, you know, frankly just slow walking it to see as much mileage as he can get out of it. because at the end of the day, herman cain's in it to push herman cain's views and that's what he's doing. >> here you are at the villages, a retirement community, many candidates are there in florida, rich in retirees but a lot of the candidates are being accused of not being specific about medicare and social security and that is certainly not sitting well with a lot of the seniors there. what are some of the people telling you? >> reporter: yeah. well, honestly, this crowd, very large crowd here at the villages, which is, what, about an hour outside of orlando, very republican crowd, and these are people who, while they're interested in medicare, they're interested in social security, what have you, the fact of the matter is they're also very interested in their nest egg, they're interested in what is going to happen to the economy, jobs for their children, and their grandchildren. so that's a kind of thing that people were talking about here. the speech by newt gingrich, for example, was a speech that very much played into those republican values. we didn't hear a whole lot about medicare and social security, but you're right on the other side of the equation there are a lot of people very concerned about what is going to happen, fred. >> all right, thanks so much, joe johns, from the villages, florida. so florida very diverse, it is not expected that the electorate is voting as a monolith so we'll break down for you a look at florida. the street a scriptt off and had them read it. no, sorry, i can't help you with that. i'm not authorized to access that transaction. that's not in our policy. i will transfer you now. my supervisor is currently not available. would you like to hold ? that department is currently closed. have i helped you with everything you needed ? if your bank doesn't give you knowledgeable customer service 24/7, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. all right, welcome back to this special hour of the "cnn newsroom." we're taking this time out every sunday to let you hear from the 2012 presidential contenders in their words out on the campaign trail. and among those out on the campaign trail, mitt romney there in high leah, florida. that's a city right in south florida in dade county. it is actually the sixth largest city in the state of florida, mostly made up of cubans and cuban-americans. now he's appealing to that sector of south florida there in hiyalea. we'll have more on mitt romney's campaign. so his lead, mitt romney's lead in florida voter polls is on the rise after last week's cnn debate. and in a winner take all state, that's pretty big. the florida voting population is very diverse and candidates must work hard to appeal to different electorates relative to different parts of the state. john king breaks down the numbers. >> here is where we go next, wolf. you look at florida, an incredibly diverse state, much more conservative up here, more moderate in here, miami population, latinos, you heard gingrich daughters talking about let's go back in time to look what the we're talking about here. come back to '08, john mccain is the lighter red, mike huckabee up here. you see the diversity. much more conservative in the panhandle. mitt romney does have a base of support from last time up in here. you come down the population centers, big populations here, here and here. h a lot of conservative voters up here. a bigger, diverse state, and wow a challenging and expensive state. >> the northern part of florida is like the south and the southern part of florida is like the north because of all of the people who have moved to the south. >> right. >> mitt romney was on the offensive. newt gingrich on the defensive. ron paul seemed indifferent. >> that subject really doesn't interest me a whole lot. >> wolf blitzer was the moderator of that cnn florida republican debate and he'll join us next. i'm good about washing my face. but sometimes i wonder... what's left behind? 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[ female announcer ] purifying facial cleanser from neutrogena naturals. secondhand smoke affects ] purieveryone's health.ser it's not just irritating. it can cause heart disease and even death. speak up about secondhand smoke. your health and the health of your family depend on it. all right, we continue to delve into the issues on the presidential campaign. every sunday we're spending this hour in the "cnn newsroom" to allow you to hear from the conternd co contenders as they spell out their ideas for the future of the united states. mitt romney took newt gingrich head on at the cnn debate last week. they went back and forth on who profited from fannie mae and freddie mac. remember? >> speaker gingrich was hired by freddie mac to promote them, to influence other people throughout washington, encouraging them to not to dismantle these two entities. i think that was an enormous mistake. i think instead we should have had a whistle-blower and not a horn tooter. he should have stood up and telling the american people that these entities were causing a housing bubble that would cause a collapse that we have seen here in florida and around the country. and are they a problem today? absolutely. they're offering mortgages, again, to people who can't possibly repay them. we're creating another housing bubble which will hurt the american people. the right course for our housing industry is to get people back to work so they can buy homes again. we have 9.9% unemployment in florida. it is unthinkable. 18% real unemployment here. get people back to work, we'll get people into homes, get the foreclosures out of the system. let people get into homes, rent properties if necessary, and get america's housing industry growing again. >> speaker gingrich? >> let me start by saying, florida's one of the two or three most hard hit states on foreclosures. how many of you know somebody who had a house foreclosed? just raise your hand. raise your hand. okay. the governor has cheerfully been attacking me inaccurately and he knows it. the contracts we released from freddie mac said i would do no consulting, i mean no lobbying, none. there is a more interesting story. we began digging in after monday night because frankly i had enough of this. we discovered to our shock, governor romney owns shares of both fannie mae and freddie mac. governor romney made a million dollars off of selling some of that. governor romney owned shares -- has an investment in golden sma sachs who is today closing on floridians. let's be clear. >> this is fun. first of all, my investments are not made by me. my investments for the last ten years have been the blind trust, managed by a trustee. secondly, the investments that they made, we have learned about this, as we made our financial disclosure, have been in mutual funds and bonds. i don't own stock in either fannie mae or freddie mac. there are bonds that the investor has held through mutual funds and mr. speaker, i know that sounds like an enormous revelation, but if you check your own investments, you also have investments or mutual funds that also invest in fannie mae or freddie mac. >> debate performances have the power to make or break a campaign. and romney's strong showing at cnn's presidential debate in florida thursday night may have helped the former massachusetts governor hold on to his lead in the polls. here is the latest poll information taken before and after the debate. it shows romney with a sizable lead in florida, capturing 42% of the vote compared to gingrich with 27%. a turning point in the cnn debate came when wolf blitzer asked gingrich if he was satisfied with the level of transparency regarding romney's personal finances. here is how gingrich responded then. >> wolf, you and i have a great relationship, goes back a long way. i'm with him. this is a nonsense question. [ applause ] look, how about if the four of us agree for the rest of the evening, we'll actually talk about -- >> mr. speaker, you made an issue of this, this week, when you said that he lives in a world of swiss bank and cayman island bank accounts. i didn't say that. you did. >> wouldn't it be nice if people didn't make accusations somewhere else that they weren't willing to defend here? >> okay. all right. >> joining us by phone, cnn's wolf blitzer. so, wolf, you know, it seems that that was a turning point in the debate. gingrich trying to have it both ways, denounce and deflect. how telling a moment was that to you? >> i thought it was very significant because if you make an accusation out there on the campaign trail, and you're reluctant to make the same accusation face to face with the rival candidate, it says something. and obviously newt gingrich didn't want to do that in front of the other candidates, the specific case that romney earlier, rick santorum said let's move beyond this and these two guys are just fighting each other. newt gingrich, you know, had been successful in several earlier debates in deflecting a tough question by simply attacking the questioner. whether it was on williams or john king or maria bartiromo from cnbc or others, brett bear, he was making an issue out of it. i suspect that he may try to do that in my debate and as a result i wanted to go in and make -- and i had all the background and justification for it in case he did. i wasn't going to let him go through with it. and that's what happened in this particular case. in the end, he had to back down, especially after mitt romney did not back down. the irony, of course, fred, as you know -- he's very good in these debates, but the last two debates this past week, you know, he real didn't show his real strength on the offensive and mitt romney had a better -- had a new debate coach and went in fully prepared. he didn't back down at all and i think that's part of being reflected out in the polls right now. >> i wonder if what we're really underscoring is this is gingrich's style in which to find it adventurous in his view to turn the question on the moderator just as you laid out most recent examples, or is this something that is catching on with other candidates? are they feeling empowered, you know, when debating to take on those who are asking the questions and also win some support from the audience? >> you know, it is not a new technique by any means. going after -- or some conservatives call it the lame stream media or whatever they call it, that's -- it is sort of popular with some conservatives out there, to take the messenger and go to the reporters and try to criticize them and deflect attention. and sometimes it is justified. sometimes, you know, the journalists are simply trying to stoke some sort of fire or whatever. but, you know, newt gingrich tried it successfully several times and this particular case it didn't really work out the way i suspected he had planned. and as he himself -- i covered him for a long time, and, you know, we have always had a good relationship and he pointed that out even in his decision to go after and say this was a dumb question or whatever. whatever he said. but, look, it is part of the game, you deal with it and move on. right now these last two debates i suspect were not very helpful. much more helpful to mitt romney. >> wolf, you covered decades of campaigns, moderated many debates. however, are you noticing, as, you know, mitt romney pointed out, he said some of the candidates, namely in his view, gingrichpandering to the voters or is that the technique that all candidates take no matter what the political season? >> you know, they come into these debates and there are a lot of debates. 19 or 20 debates among the republicans in this cycle, which is a lot. a lot more than usual. and the debates are always important. i moderated five debates four years ago. and they're always important including the last debate four years ago that i moderated when there were two democratic candidates left standing, hillary clinton and barack obama at the kodak theater in los angeles. that was important. but my sense is that these debates in this cycle among the republicans have been much more significant in affecting people's attitudes. and by and large, newt gingrich was really doing well in almost all of these debates. and i don't know what happened. i'll try to speak to newt gingrich this week and talk to him about what happened the last two debates. it is just a good question. >> yeah. >> i'm not exactly sure what happened. >> we can't wait to hear that answer that you'll get out of him. wolf blitzer, thanks so much. of course, we'll continue to watch you this week with the florida primary, just two days away, tuesday night, our coverage led by our wolf blitzer. thanks so much, wolf. ron paul says he thinks we should be trading with cuba, but first his response to gingrich's idea of colonizing the moon. >> well, i don't think we should go to the moon. i think we maybe should send some politicians up there. welcome back to this special hour of the "cnn newsroom." we're focusing on politics, allowing you to hear from the 2012 presidential contenders. absent from the campaign trail today, gop candidate rick santorum. he canceled his events today in florida to be with his 3-year-o