investigation. plus appropriate or despicable? we put my controversial opening question from last night's big debate to the truth test. and a deadly day in afghanistan leaves six u.s. marines and four french soldiers dead. the french now threatening to the french now threatening to pull out for good. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com we begin tonight in south carolina where the republican candidates for president down to their final night of campaigning before tomorrow's all-important presidential primary. everything we expected at the start of the week now turned on its head. polls show newt gingrich surging. the one-time frontrunner mitt romney sees the state slipping away. today governor romney fought back by demanding speaker beginning rich release more details of the ethics investigation back when he was the house speaker in the late 1990s. >> i think over 80% of republican congressmen voted to reprimand the speaker of the house? first time in history. and nancy pelosi has the full record of that ethics investigation. you know it's going to get out before the general election. sure, ought to get it out now. >> late this afternoon, a confident speaker gingrich fired back. >> he doesn't release anything. he doesn't answer anything. and he's even confused about whether or not he will ever release anything. and then he decided to pick a fight over releasing stuff? the report of the committee on ethics was like 900 pages. now, as soon as the governor reads the 900 pages, i'll be glad to chat with him. but in the interim, like he could have today released his tax records so the voters of south carolina could discover something. >> our chief political analyst gloria borger is with us now from south carolina. gloria, what's behind this newt gingrich surge? how much of it is the speaker going up and how much is governor romney coming down? >> reporter: i think it's a little bit of both. but the truth is that i think newt gingrich has shown himself to be a real street fighter here. he's playing to conservatives in the state, as he did in answering your first question in the debate last night, john. they like somebody who can fight. and what we've seen with mitt romney on the tax issue and generally on the issue of how to handle his discussions of his personal wealth is that he seems really uncomfortable with it. as if he's kind of uncomfortable with who he is. i mean, he knows that heading into this next election it's going to be about the wealth gap if he's the nominee. it's going to be between barack obama and whomever about the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer. and as a wealthy man, and by the way he is wealthy and everybody knows it, he still seems to have a difficult time in talking about his wealth or his income taxes. by the way, he said he paid a 15% tax rate. in a republican primary that's not a bad thing. people want lower tax rates for everyone. so it's kind of hard to decipher where he's coming from. whereas with newt, you know exactly where he's coming from. you know exactly what his message is. and you know that he's fighting. >> and gloria you spent some time with the gingrich campaign today. he may get another moment here. if he gets a win or a very strong showing in south carolina he is back again and back in a position to have a serious impact on this race as we move on. what was it like? >> reporter: well, it was interesting. because in the morning he was supposed to speak at the leadership conference here. it was canceled because there wasn't a large audience. and then the next event was at a hospital where in fact he wasn't talking to voters. he was talking to people on a hospital staff. and there wasn't much contact with voters. his wife callista was reading a children's book. and i think it was interesting that she was put in the spotlight today. i mean, i would argue that might remind voters of his infidelities. then in the afternoon he had a great rally in orangeburg with more than 500 people. so a slow start. but again it shows the kind of lack of organization that you might expect from somebody who may be on the cusp of winning the south carolina primary. >> and that is the big questigl. can the romney organization overcome the gingrich -- rick santorum is asking south carolina voters to focus on the fall campaign. the former pennsylvania senator says he's the man who can beat president obama. not he says newt gingrich or mitt romney. he drew a very interesting analogy today. >> you know, the way they're looking at this is sort of like goldilocks and the three bears. and you have one candidate that's a little too radioactive. a little too hot. then we have another candidate who's just too darn cold. who doesn't have bold plans. who doesn't have that clear contrast because of inconsistencies and flip-flops. and we need someone who's just right. >> with the polls showing newt gingrich surging there in south carolina, mitt romney now trying to lower expectations on just how he'll do in tomorrow's primary. >> south carolina is an uphill battle from a guy from massachusetts. i knew that. we're battling hard. the fact is that right now it looks like it's neck and neck. that's a pretty good spot to be. in i'm pretty pleased and pretty proud of the success of our effort. >> cnn's jim acosta spent the day with the romney campaign. he joins us now live. jim, let's get right to it. how do they explain this tun for the worst over the past week? >> reporter: you know, it's a good question, john. we caught up with mitt romney earlier today in gilbert, south carolina. there was a morning shower at his event. perhaps it was the weather because he was dampening expectations for tomorrow's south carolina primary. he said during that event where you heard him speak just a few moments ago, he was talking about newt gingrich's sort of regional advantage in the south, talking about the fact that he used to represent the state that borders south carolina. john, newt gingrich has not lived in georgia in the last 20 years. he's lived outside of washington, d.c. all of that time. so that regional advantage might be a stretch. stu stevens, a chief strategist for the romney campaign was telling reporters last night they could lose south carolina. mitt romney was reminding reporters earlier he finished fourth four years ago. he's not going to finish fourth this time around but not going to drive the rest out of the field as he hoped, john. they try to set expectations on the eve of this important primary. let's listen to something else the governor said today. >> i sure would like to win south carolina. but i know that if those polls were right, regardless of who gets the final number, we're both going to get a lot of delegates. >> doesn't sound like the mitt romney who first got to the state after new hampshire, jim, hoping that he could win new hampshire, win south carolina, and that this would be a sprint. people wouldn't be worried about delegates, it would be about momentum. what are his people telling you privately about the shift in the race for the long term? >> reporter: what they're talking about at this point, john, is the long term. they're saying that they're the campaign that is built to last, that can go the distance. they're already up with more advertising than any other campaign. probably all of the campaigns combined down in florida. and so that is the next step. if they don't do well here in south carolina, and it's looking like a gingrich spequeaker in squarkz then they go to florida. the field is a lot different. as you know, john, florida is one of those states where they have to compete in a lot of different media markets. the advantage then again goes to mitt romney mainly from his organizational strength. because of the fact that he's raised so much money. because he has the superpac that is able to blanket the airwaves with lots of advertising. that really gives mitt romney the advantage down in florida. he doesn't seem that worried about how he's going to do overall over the long haul. he told laura ingram on her radio show earlier today that newt gingrich may win some states here or there. and it made it sound as if they're ready to take this thing -- to take this thing the distance possibly, john. >> fascinating shift over the last few days. jim acosta live with the romney campaign in south carolina. jim, thank you on this important night. ron paul was an impact player in iowa, made an impact in new hampshire. in south carolina he spent the day on what his campaign called a whistle stop tour of the state. but without the train. in warrenville, south carolina this afternoon, congressman paul took a direct shot at mitt romney's campaign donors. >> there's a leader right now, supposed leader in this campaign. he gets -- his this top toledo nors are banks, including goldman sachs. [ audience boos ] >> now, our campaign has the top thr top three donors. army, air force, navy. >> let's turn overseas to a deadly day in afghanistan. about midnight six u.s. marines died when their helicopter crashed. then an afghan soldier turned his gun on a group of french troops, killing four and wounding 15. that attack has the french president threatening to pull all of his country's forces out of afghanistan. cnn's nick payton walsh joins us live from kabul. let's start with the helicopter crash that killed the six u.s. marines. the taliban claims responsibility. is there evidence of that? >> reporter: at this point it's fair to say no, to be honest they claim in a text message they shot the helicopter down. but officials saying to me mechanical issues that caused this hard landing. where these crashes occur the insurgents always leap forward to claim it was there. isap normally says technical reasons. at this point there's no evidence to back up either claim. although historically it does appear the majority of these crashes we've seen in recent months are all down to technical issues, john. >> nick, on top of these tragic deaths of the u.s. marines you have these french troops, four of them shot and killed. other international troops killed recently. sarkozy saying he may pull all 4,000 french troops out now sooner than anticipated. this is part of a growing trend, isn't it? >> reporter: yes. attacks by afghan soldiers against nato forces have been seen very regularly over the past year or so. this has people deeply concerned. this is basically affecting the exit strategy. u.s. forces say they have trained afghan to take over the country's security so they can leave. if this trust between them erodes, if they can no longer trust the afghan toss do that job, then that really does affect the ability for u.s. forces to draw down in the forthcoming year and eventually leave by 2014, john. >> nick, thank you. still ahead here tonight's truth tackles last night's debate. a first question that brought this and more from newt gingrich. >> i am tired of the elite media protecting barack obama by attacking republicans. [ cheers and applause ] this is an rc robotic claw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. you can adjust it to whatever your needs are. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. and now, the company that redefined sleep is redefining memory foam. save $400 on our all-new memory foam bed. and at our white sale, stock up and save on our exclusive bedding collection. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. we're live tonight at the cnn election center. before leaving south carolina this morning i went to the boulevard cafe near charleston to sit down with reporters. two gentlemen were undecided. i asked them do the controversy about newt gingrich as past, personal questions and questions about his tenure as speaker in washington, what the romney campaign calls baggage. does it bother them? listen. >> with everything that's coming out and more baggage and everything, i don't know. it makes the decision harder. >> some people say it's his management style as speaker, how he was a combative, polarizing time in the clinton days. others say it's the personal stuff. questions of character. is it one? is it both? >> i would say when he fined for ethics violations, that's a mark that his character and performance and perhaps his stance in office. and i have a concern about that. >> and you? >> if this is how someone manages their personal life, then how will they manage their public life as well? >> joining me now to discuss the day today, the big south carolina primary, ralph reid the chairman of the faith and freedom coalition, former chief executive of the freedom coalition. first i just want to come up here and just show this because i know you think this is important. and the reason we do that if you go back to 2008, this is mike huck a bee country up here. he didn't win the skate, mccain mccain d john mccain did. but this is where we have evangelical votes. where mike huckabee carries these areas but fred thompson did well. probably denied huckabee a victory years ago. in a gingrich and santorum will we have the same effect this time allowing governor romney to sneak out with a victory? >> i don't think we know yet, john. if we do know that it would allow mitt romney to squeak through. if you look at what happened in the up state in 2008 in greenville and spartanburg and pickens, you take the combined huckabee vote. in some of those counties it was 50%. in some it got as high as 57%. nowhere did huckabee get over 34% of the vote. so what we're seeing when we look at the polling, admittedly there's a lot of published polling going on, is that newt gingrich is particularly surging among two groups. number one, tea party voters, and number two, evangelicals. evangelicals are going to be 60% plus of the vote. he's right now leading romney among those voters as of today 2 to 1. >> let's look at them. if you look at the map here, the darker the area, the higher the percentage. this is evangelical voters. up here greenville, spartan burg, this is where we'll be looking tomorrow for the evangelical vote. you mentioned the tea party. same difference here. the darker the area and they overlap to some degree. >> a lot of overlap. >> and the challenge that romney is facing is. this he's doing well among self-described moderates, non-evangelicals, independents. >> find a lot of those down here. >> and he's doing well in the down state. the problem is, every one of those voter groups is a distinct minority. half the vote is going to be up here. 25% of the vote will be here. it will be won or lost right in here in the middle spine around columbia. and this is where bush did so well against mccain. this is where bush won it in 2000. >> show what you're talking about. the purple is rick santorum. you see he has spent a ton of time up here, evangelical, tea party voters. gingrich some. he's been more spread out, diverse through the state on his visits. governor romney a sprinkle up here, more down in the areas you say he needs to deliver. here's my question for you. governor perry drops out, endorsing speaker gingrich. again a lot of time up in here. do these voters listen to governor perry and go to one candidate or seen senator san santorum pushing. >> this really began in monday night on myrtle beach when gingrich mixed it up with juan williams with fox news network. >> right. >> and that's really where it began. and it's really happened in about 72 hours. and then of course that was repeated last night on the debate in the exchange between you and gingrich. >> you say that works with debates. >> there's no question about it. i've been doing this for 30 years. i was in the audience on monday night. i've never seen a spontaneous standing ovation for a presidential candidate in a debate. they were standing on their chairs chanting his name. so i think it was that. i also think the voters were looking. they weren't yet ready to close the deal for romney. and this is all happened very quick. if we'd have been together five days ago we would have been talking about romney maybe going 3 and 0 in the first three contests. never happened before in modern presidential politics. instead, if things continue as they look going into tomorrow he would be one of the three. >> santorum, romney, gingrich, wide open race heading into florida and beyond maybe. let's let the people of south carolina vote. >> but still a word of caution. romney spent 3 million in florida. it's a media state. he's much stronger there. he'd like to win tomorrow but i think his team is comfortable he can fight the long fight. >> ralph, thanks approach it. up next the obama administration is refusing to back down over a healthcare reform rule that one catholic leader says will cause people to violate their consciences. we'll also mark the passing of an iconic jazz singer who influenced, jazz, r & b singers and artists around the globe. all energy development comes with some risk, but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today. golly, that is deep snow! yeah, can you get me out of it? 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[ female announcer ] travelocity. get great deals on all kinds of beach vacations. welcome back. here's kate bolduan with the latest news you need to know right now. >> reporter: good evening, everyone. to catch you up on some news today, the obama administration is giving nonprofit religious institutions like the catholic church extra year before they have to offer women health insurance plans that offer free coverage for contra accept tiff services. delay puts an oven forcement of the new rule until after this next year's election. an angry statement from new york archbishop and soon-to-be cardinal timothy dolan's office says "in effect the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences." the united states is considering closing its embassy in damascus because of security concerns. the embassy has only a handful of people working with ambassador robert ford. most of the staff were evacuated earlier in the year, and the diplomatic team was further reduced last week. a senior state department official tells cnn that while no decision has been made, it is under "serious consideration." ♪ at last >> and some sad news today out of california. legendary singer etta james has died at the age of 73. she had a slew of hit songs. of course you know so many of them. but no more popular than her hit 1960s song "at last." james died after a long battle with leukemia. john it's always so sad to lose artists like that. but her songs will live on. >> we had an old crank record players. my dad used to play etta james, nat king cole. she will be missed. still ahead here, tonight's truth about the first question at last night's presidential debate. also details of the accident that killed the woman who put freestyle skiing in t