good evening, everyone. i m erin burnett. it is an absolutely gorgeous night here in the high desert. high stakes in the high desert, because we are live in mesa, arizona. in just one hour, the candidates will face off in what could be the everyone hear that bird? i m sure you hear it too. must be excited to go outfront. well, it has been a bruising and surprising primary season, and it s going to be a really big debate tonight. what a difference from the last time these men shared a stage. take a look at january. just before mitt romney s landslide victory in florida. he was riding high, but tonight, a very, very different story. a lot has changed and the former massachusetts governor knows it. he is feeling the heat from rick santorum, who surge shows absolutely no sign of abating right now. he won, colorado, minnesota, and missouri. and just today, another national poll shows him leading mitt romney 35 to 26%. in the two states voting on tuesday, arizona and michigan,
of almost like front-runnerish position. that was the 20th gop debate last night on cnn and really hit from all sides accused of being a big spender and accused of being a washington insider and accused of being a fake at which point he s like, i m real, i m real. some of the toughest attacks came from mitt romney. they literally yelled at each other. listen. while i was fighting to save the olympics, you were fighting to save the bridge to no where. just as torturous as they were kind of going at it. al stewart national press secretary for the santorum 2012 presidential campaign. nice to have you with us this morning. there were some comments from if you scan the headlines. some people said he did a great job in the debate and others said he was deep in the weeds of the debate. he outlined his record and also pointed out the fact that despite the distortions from other candidates, he never voted to raise taxes in washington and voted against the wasteful spending i
jury in the lacrosse place. that player convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend in a drunken and jealous rage, but did he actually come out better than he could have? and there are new fears about chemical weapon sites in syria. the military is saying it would take almost as many troops as there are in afghanistan to protect those chemical sites. they re also concerned about those chemical weapons falling into the wrong hands and perhaps being used against civilians. and in america s constant battle of the bulge there may be yet another magic diet pill. it s the first prescription drug to battle obesity in a decade. we are going to tell you all about it. it s getting a lot of buzz. the pros and the cons. duel in the desert as they re calling it. five days left until arizona and michigan. it s been forever since we ve had a primary, right? rick santorum has had his turn at the top, but is it over? a lot of score cards saying that he may have actually missed his chan