hitting the trail. the candidate comfortably leading the polls, already setting his sights on another big prize, south carolina. jenna: this morning, romney visiting the palmetto state. south carolina's primary is more than two weeks away and romney's southern visit is drawing criticism from one of the contenders who skilled the iowa caucuses to focus exclusively on new hampshire. >> the establishment is teeing up mr. romney as the choice for the republican party. and i say the people of new hampshire will not be told for whom to vote. the people of new hampshire don't want a cornerration. you know what i sneen -- coronation, you know what i want? they want people to earn the vote. jenna: molly line is in new hampshire with more. what's happening now? >> reporter: as you mentioned, governor mitt romney spent the morning in south carolina. he has been down there promoting his endorsement with john mccain, john mccain endorsed him, as well as the governor of south carolina, nicky haley and returns to the granite state tonight for a spaghetti dinner. that's the essence of what mitt romney is doing, he made a trip to south carolina and right back to the granite state, despite the criticism you hear from jon huntsman. rick santorum, also barn storming across the state, setting a tougher road. he has long held himself up to be a consistent conservative, and in that fact, he has always consistently supported his social conservatism principles. that's catching a little flack in the more liberal areas of new hampshire. he actually was booed at an event bay small contingent when asked a question about gay marriage. gay marriage is legal in the granite state. take listen. >> thank you for your time and attention. thanks. >> [booing] >> the new hampshire voters can be tough, even if they like you and plan to vote for you, they may still ask tough questions. that is tradition here. they like to talk to the candidates, look them in the eye and ask those tough questions. newt gingrich also on the ground here, has been for the past several days doing town halls, talking to a lot of people. yesterday he said he's will to go go before the ncaap at the annual convention and talk about why african-americans should demand paychecks and not settle for food stamps. to jon huntsman, you mentioned that he kind of ripped into mitt romney as the establishment candidate. he actually, jon huntsman, has spent more time in the granite state than any of the other candidates, including mitt romney, who has a vacation home here. hey got the endorsement of the boston globe, a big endorsement that is romney's home town paper, at the same time, mitt romney was endorsed by the boston herald, the more conservative paper in the state of massachusetts. that is the state of the race, it is in flux, those poll numbers are altering ever so slightly, romney is still holding a commanding lead. jenna: we talked about mitt romney, gingrich, huntsman, santorum. what about ron paul and rick perry? >> >> reporter: ron paul took a couple days after after his finish in iowa, went back to texas. he arrives today, has a big rally and a town hall. he is still polls second place in the granite state. rick perry also taking time off. he was reassessing his campaign, waiting for word, then he announced he was going forward on to south carolina. he will also return to the granite state this weekend. there are two debates. that will be sort of the final staging in the two debates before the candidates have the last chance to talk to the voters who head to the polls on january 10th. jenna: we'll continue to watch it, molly line, thank you. jon: a fox news alert. a deadly bombing strikes syria's capitol. syrian tv reporting a homicide bombing in damascus, killed at least 25 people, and wounded dozens more. state media blames terrorists for the second attack on the capitol in two weeks. reena ninan is live in jerusalem for us now. do we know who's behind this attack reena? >> reporter: jon, no one has actually claimed responsibility but as you mentioned, the protestors say assad's regime is leading the protestors, calling them terrorists and the protestors against assad's regime say they are doing it, assad's regime is doing it on purpose to try and put the blame on them and get the people of syria to turn away from the protestors. we also know that syria has very well been a route for suicide bombers going into iraq, so it's not difficult to penetrate. it's hard to really tell who's behind this attack. what's interesting, jon, the area of this bombing is where antiassad protests have been growing, jon. jon: i know a lot of protests have continued on fridays. has that gone on today? >> reporter: yeah, that's right. thousands of people took to the streets throughout syria, some, in as many as 50 different locations around the country. video on the internet showed protestors running away from heavy machine gunfire that was being fired by assad's security forces. they chanted in arabic, the protestors did, calling for the world to intervene, they said if the international community did not intervene, they're calling on god to do it for them. jon. jon: reena ninan, live for us from jerusalem. thank you. jenna: provocative video and we'll continue to watch it. the military is trying to make do with a smaller duty active force, one of the changes the president announced yesterday to adapt to nearly half a trillion dollars in budget cuts in the next decade but some military historians are warning this could be a bad move and point to previous drawdowns as a lesson. jennifer griffin is taking a closer look at that for us. jennifer, what is the historic context for all of this? >> reporter: essentially they've tried this after every war since world war ii. you remember truman after world war ii drew down the size of the army, eisenhower tried to draw down the size of the army and rely on air power on the b52 bomber, on nuclear weapons, then of course most recently, there was donald rumsfeld and the notion that at the beginning of the bush administration, before 9/11, that they could make a smaller, more lean, agile military. then the unexpected happened, 9/11, and then with the iraq war, that was supposed to be one with shock and awe. jenna: it was dejavu all over again. it was very similar to what president carter did after the vietnam experience. so it was an unpopular war, america was war-weary, they were looking for a peace dividend, the economy was in shambles, they were trying to look to cut -- somewhere cut federal spending, so they go after defense and do it off the backs of defense. >> reporter: according to military historians, there's nothing really new about the strategy that president obama rolled out yesterday to cut defense at the end of the two wars we've been fighting. jenna: and the de intait whether it's the right strategy. k.t. mcfarland worked with the reagan administration and let's look at that particular area she was talking about, when carter made those cuts to the army. what was ronald reagan's response at the time? >> reporter: remember, the nation was very war weary after vietnam so there was high inflation rates, essentially there were 58,000 u.s. troops who had been killed in that war, nixon began the drawdown, carter carried out cuts, k.t. mcfarland as you mentioned worked in the pentagon under ronald reagan and she describes how hollow the army was when they took over. >> when i was in the reagan administration, when we came into the pentagon after that trough in defense cuts of the carter years we were stunned by what we found. we had plane that is couldn't fly, because the pilots didn't have enough hours of training to be qualified as pilots. we had ships that couldn't sail because they didn't have fuel oil to motor rise and sail around the world. >> reporter: what historians will tell you is that the danger after these wars, when the army is cut, that that will project to america's enemies they can take advantage of the u.s., so there is concern, and some concerns that with all this going on in the world, in the persian gulf, in north korea, that it's the wrong time to project that the army is being cut, because while the pentagon officials will tell you nobody wants to fight another land war, and nobody plans to fight another land war any time soon, nobody has ever wanted to fight a land war, and the problem is when the army looks like it's weak, that's when america's adversaries take advantage of the situation, according to military historians. jenna: good point, and a lot for us to think about today. jennifer, thank you. jon: right now n. colorado, the air force academy is dealing with a sexual assault scandal, stephen klaxman, kyle cressy and robert amenson, all three are free right now, two even attending classes at the air force academy. alicia acuna has more live from denver. >> reporter: the air force academy is planning to hold a air force conference within the next hour. we're told the way they discuss the way they go about investigating these types of charges and cadets report sexual assault. we do have details on the charges. according to documents released by the air force academy, stephen h.claxton is charged with attempting to have sex with a female cadet while substantial eincapacitated, end quote, also accused of trying to choke her, kyle a.cressey is charged with sexual assault of a victim last spring, that victim was also incapacitated and cadel robert evanson faces rape, aggravated sexual conduct and engageing in an unprofessional relationship. officials at the academy say the three incidents were separate and happened over the course of the last 15 months. the reason it's being made public they say is each investigation wrapped up around the same time. in a statement, academy vice superintendent tamra rank wrote the accused in each case is presumed innocent until proven guilty. we take these allegations seriously, sexual misconduct with a particularly egregious offense and we have a zero tolerance policy in the air force. according to a report by the defense department, reports of sexual assault at all of america's military academies went up 50 percent in comparison to 2010, an official at the defense department says that is because now students have become much more comfortable with reporting crimes. jon. jon: alicia acuna, sad to see that kind of thing happen, and the accusations. alicia, thank you. >> exactly. jenna: this fox news alert, unemployment rate dropped to 5.8% last month, the lowest in three years, better news, of course, but is this actually sustain -- sustainable? a panel breaks down what the new numbers tell us about the jobs outlook. jon: also his favorite meal turned out to be his final meal. the evidence that suggests this billionaire was poisoned. wait until you hear who policehink is behind his murder. jenna: mitt romney, snubbed today, massachusetts' biggest paper endorses someone other than the former governor of that state. who got it? we'll tell you, coming up. 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[ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fru and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8. insurance ... but afraid you can't afford it? well, look how much insurance many people can get through selectquote for less than a dollar a day. selectquote found, rich, 37, a $500,000 policy for under $18 a month. even though dave, 43, takes meds to control his blood pressure, selectquote got him a $500,000 policy for under $28 a month. ellen, 47, got a $250,000 policy for under $20 a month. all it takes is a phone call. your personal selectquote agent will answer all your questions ... and impartially shop the highly rated term life companies selectquote represents for your best rates. give your family the security it needs at a price you can afford. call this number or go to selectquote dot com. selectquote. we shop. you save. jon: let's talk a little politics now and maybe it comes with the territory of being a frontrunner. right now mitt romney's rivals are trying to present themselves as the best alternative to his candidacy and they are stepping up their attacks. adding insult to injury, for the former governor, massachusetts' largest paper, the boston globe, is opting not to back romney, who used to be governor of that state. instead, the publication is endorsing jon huntsman, former governor of utah. kevin ladrigan with is the national telegraph, his newspaper has endorsed romney for the pub li indication, it's the second largest newspaper in new hampshire and kevin, thank you very much for being with us. >> thank you for having us on. jon: let's talk a little about this boston globe endorsement. how much of a slap is that at mitt romney, how much might it affect the results? >> it's certainly not helpful to mitt romney to have your home town newspaper not endorse him. obviously the more conservative boston herald has endorsed romney and that's helpful. i mean, the boston globe has a lot of influence in new hampshire, particularly in the southern tier, but the people who it is going to most influence with its editorical policy aren't voting in the republican primary tuesday and that's good news for mitt romney. they are democrats, liberal leaning independents. the more conservative republicans and conservative independents are boston herald readers and mitt romney got that endorsement and that is helpful. this gives jon huntsman a little bit of a bump, and he needs a big bump, as he talked about yesterday. the tyranny of the clock is running against him. like a lot of candidates, he's running out of time to close this huge lead that mitt romney has over all his rivals right now. jon: bill hemmer just spoke to him live and pressed him time and time again and said what kind of a number are you hoping for, and he wouldn't give us a number. he wanted to beat expectations, he said. really, the right in new hampshire is for second place, it seems to me. >> it truly is, jon, you're right. and it's an interesting election in that respect. it's a very aggressive fight to second place. it's a lot like the 19 # # democratic primary. why do i mention that? well, it happened to be a democratic governor at that time of massachusetts, mike dukakis, who was the overwhelming favorite, and you had this fierce fight, firefight, between some significant democrats at the time, dick gech heart -- gephardt, a guy named al gore, you'll remember was in that fight, jesse jackson, paul simon and it was all about who could finish second and we're seeing that here, some real sharp elbows being thrown not just at mitt romney but at and between the potential second place finishers, whether it's rick santorum, ron paul, newt gingrich or jon huntsman. jon: how is ron paul playing in new hampshire? it's kind of an independent state, he's got a lot of independent sort of libertarian leaning support. how is that playing? >> we're a libertarian leaning state as well. we're certainly not center right, we're center center, and independents as you know can play a huge part in this race, just as the independents played a huge part in ron paul's pretty strong showing in iowa. i expect that to happen here. he's got a firm hold right now on second place. why is that? it's because independents who are against the war, and many of whom by the way voted for barack obama in 2008 want to play a part in this primary on tuesday. i think many of them are going to vote for ron paul, because there's antimilitary intervention polices. i think that gives him at least 5 percent or 6 percent bump on tuesday, and could help him hold on to second place. jon: so you've got this fight for second place going on. you've got mitt romney expected to win. but a lot of division among the potential second place finishers, and that could mean that this race goes on for a long time. >> reporter: that's correct. and what's really interesting about this race, jon, is we're already seeing the potential second place finishers playing on the stage for the states down the road. let's take rick santorum and wednesday. that argument he had with students about his position about same sex marriage, not a smart play in the state of new hampshire. one of only five states where same sex marriages are legal. and where they're very popular. but he is playing to those every longelical cris 00 evangelical christians that make up 11 percent of the vote. jon: you got to hand it to him for not being a politician that says what the audience wants to hear just to get elected though. >> that's true and that's one of santorum's endearing quality, he's a trusting conservative and unapologetic conservative. i think you can say the same against newt gingrich who is turning up the heat against mitt romney, saying it's a joke to call mitt romney a conservative. that's pretty harsh words. that's what we're going to see in those two debates this weekend. it's going to be a foot fight and all the cafeteria trays are going to be aimed at mitt romney. jon: we'll see who comes out of this the messiest. kevin landrigan, i know you have a lot of work to do, thank you for joining us from the telegraph. >> thank you very much. jenna: that food fight leads into our next segment, completely unrelated to politics, by the way. a chinese billionaire dies after having his favorite meal. wait until you find out what that is. his family claims he was murdered. >> reporter: it's a local del cassy, cat stew and this billionaire was in the southern province and the very latest on the story is that there is an investigation looking at one of the other men who had dinner with lonley juan, made his money off on forestry company years ago and was in the area having dinner with two other gentlemen to see land. they were going to look at property, have a little meal. now one of the men he was eating with is being looked at by police. more on that in a moment. but first of all, leon rwam died while eating this cat stew and when they looked at this closer look, it had a secret ingredient, something they hadn't suspected, a poisonous plant indigenous to this part of the world, this toxic herb ends up in the cat stew. he ate more of it than any other person at the table. the guy they're looking at is gu -- at juan wong, they are looking at him because he got up to go check on the stew and was gone about ten minutes before everybody started eating it. lonley juan's family says they believe it was murder because he's eaten there many times before without a problem. jenna: guess we should all stay away from the cat stew. just saying. i don't know. jon: i won't you ordering that. jenna: no. jon: the murder trial against joran van der sloot underway and aon surprise from his defense team. that's coming up. 4 nutritious grains come together for more taste, more healthy satisfaction. get more with honey bunches of oats. jon: our fox news alert. the murder trial of joran van der sloot has been postponed. he was inside a courtroom in lima, peru, wearing bullet-proof vest, ready to go on trial apparently for the murder of a young peruvian woman, nearly seven years after he became the prime suspect in the disappearance of american natalee holloway in aruba. van der sloot faces charges of killing 21-year-old stephanie flores in his lima hotel room back in may of 2010, but now that's on hold steve harrigan is following the breaking developments live from miami. what's going on, why the delay steve? >> reporter: jon, a real moment of decision for joran van der sloot, the 24-year-old dutchman is accused of murder and we saw him debate inside this make-shift courtroom next to his maximum security cell inside peru, with his attorney, about whether to accept a deal by the prosecution of 30 years in jail or not. it looks like van der sloot is going to accept some sort of deal. he wants to make