keep us posted throughout the afternoon. the battle for election delegates kicking into high gear today in the state of maine. republican voters have been kaw cu caucusing there for weeks and tonight we find out the winner. let s go to shannon travis where mitt romney and ron paul are campaigning today. so what s the feeling as to how these caucuses just might turn out? yeah, i mean the feeling about how they might turn out, ron paul seems to have a bit of an edge there. you remember, fred, that while the other candidates a few weeks ago were campaigning in florida, ron paul packed up his v-neck sweaters, packed up and headed north. he s got a lot of young supporters here and libertarian supporters here. not so fast. mitt romney is saying obviously he s a favorite son of new england, former massachusetts governor, and he came here with an 11th hour appeal. today he did something for the first time appearing at a caucus site and has been very involved in republican circl
assault. troops are surrounding the city. at least 30 people are reported killed today. saudi arabia has drafted a formal condemnation saying the government there is violating human rights and the u.s. ambassador to syria directly blames the syrian military for killing hundreds. here now is ivan watson. reporter: residents of the besieged city of homs a woke once again at dawn on saturday morning to another day of sustained bombardment. that is routine. a deadly routine they have lived for for the better part of a week, a routine that has killed hundreds of people and wounded hundreds more. at the hands according to the u.s. ambassador to syria of the syrian military. take a listen to what ambassador robert ford had to say to wolf blitzer friday night. we know who is shelling homs and it is not the armed opposition groups. it s the government. and that s why i wanted that picture put on our facebook account so people could see there is the artillery and that s what s firi
candidates. so does this mean that some are struggling to throw their support behind any one of the four candidates? somewhat. there is certainly enthusiasm here for defeating barack obama and hear that from the candidates. that s their mission here. the problem is that republicans are not generally fired up about the field. polling bears that out. electability is obviously also a concern. the states that mitt romney won, for example, exit polls show that had electability was a american concern. but romney got a pretty good reception. rick santorum got a far better reception. but still, it wasn t a raucous bring the house down kind of applause for rick santorum who could be the republican frontrunner right now. so that speaks volumes about how republicans feel about this fred. in the meantime, there was a straw poll that will take place and the results may come somewhere in the 4:00 eastern hour. any hints or any real feeling as to which candidate might be the most execut
and sharp and sudden turnaround by the obama administration. the white house now says it s tweaking the health care reform provision that sparked a sudden confrontation between church and state as well as republicans and democrats. our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is here in the situation room watching all of this unfold. it was pretty dramatic what happened. it was, and all of this caught the white house off-guard. there s no sign that the uproar is dying down. the president plays cleanup. they will not have to pay foror provide contraceptive services, but women who work at these institutions will have access to free contraceptive services just like other women. a law that requires prepreventive care will not discriminate against women. the catholic health association says this resolution protects the conscience rights of catholic institutions. e.j. dionne who helped kick up the firestorm now writes president obama did today what he should have done