including the same unit that killed osama bin laden, stage another daring raid, this time on mission to rescue hostages from pirates in somalia. tears on both sides of the aisle. congress bids an emotional farewell and gets an inspirational message. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. but first this just coming in. we re seeing a tight race, a very tight race here in florida. that makes tomorrow night s cnn republican presidential debate potentially all the more important as the candidates try to make an impact. the new cnn/ time /orcp poll shows a virtual tie. ging r. has near will you doubled his support here, while romney has slipped. but that big jump by gingrich may not snell tell the whole story. there s another trend developing, and there s lots to explore. let s getting right to our chief political analyst gloria borger and mike all crowley of time magazine. on the face of it, it looks like a tie, but there s other trends developing. right, i thi
Press about gingrich. saying that newt gingrich is a lobbyist is just a matter-of-fact. he indicates that he doesn t fall within the narrow definition of lobbyist that he might have in mind but if you re working for a company getting paid for a company through one of your many entities and you re speaking with congressmen in a way that would help that company, that s lobbying. if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is a duck. reporter: very tough stuff from mitt romney who in five consecutive appearance necessa appearances in florida has attacked him as speak e of the house. he said gingrich was forced to resign in disgrace. reminding folks that 88% of house republicans voted to
Okay, you could argue that the two best debaters, doesn t matter if you agree or not, romney and gingrich, and number three has probably been rick santorum and he hasn t popped. i have my own theories on that. right. what is it that you ve found that gingrich is just doing better than romney, just simply as an observer? and throw in the fact that rick santorum is the true evangelical in the race and is getting nowhere. i had an epiphany and trying to figure out what he had in common with herman cain and donald trump and not being a true conservative consistently. the grandiosity and the way he delivers, sort of resonates like talk radio. he s sort of like rubbing limbaugh, also grandiose, a wealthy guy who appeals to people who are working class, and i think he has the cues, the sort of delivery that makes people feel like he s supporting the conservative movement and that he likes them, that he likes conservatives and romney doesn t deliver that. ben, you follow the money a lo
Volatile environment that we could in likely see third and fourth party candidates emerge. always have them on the ballot, but people that can get 10%, 20% of the vote collectively. conventional wisdom says that definitely guarantees the president s re-election but the re-election team yesterday in a briefing with reporters very much seemed fearful of a third party. i think it s what bill said. it s a very volatile electorate. i think anyone who is going to say one element will help one or the other party right now a year out, you know, it s just they are not understanding how volatile this is. chuck, the final thing i ll say, the gingrich candidacy surge is fascinating in this poll. i do think given the overall broader numbers and dissatisfaction with congress, it will be an interesting campaign against gingrich. you know, in some respects he is the original flahertior of this brand of politics and the question in a debate between
Least potentially appealing to the president and newt gingrich solves his problems in one fell swoop. what is it, the independent number between romney and gingrich, i think it moves like 25 points. i mean against romney the president is down by two points. against gingrich with independents he s winning by 22. the margin with seniors also gets better under gingrich. i mean, look, i think clearly the polls are all the polls would suggest that we have a better chance of winning against newt gingrich than mitt romney. i do think, chuck, the first graphic we showed about who would you not vote for, you know, it s still pretty high for the president, too. right. and i think even though it s higher for newt gingrich and even though the president has a double-digit lead, just the overall structure of the electorate, which we ve talked about since this poll came out, is going to really say it s going to be a close election. let s talk about the volatility of the electorate. going to