13 sailors being held captive by somali pirates in the straigts f hormuz and draws the fury of the iranian military. up first tonight, the enormous stakes of new hampshire s presidential primary. remember, it was in this state, the hillary clinton come back four years ago, sent the democratic race into the historic obama/clinton marathon. tonight, starkly new numbers suggests former massachusetts governor mitt romney could all but lock up this cycle s republican race this month with a one, two, three punch. his iowa victory was by a mere eight points, but consider this, a new wmur poll just out tonight in new hampshire has romney leading with 44%, ron paul a distant second at 20%, rick santorum, gingrich, tied third at 8%, governor huntsman one point behind them at 7%. the race moves next to south carolina and this is eye-popping. new cnn/ time /orc polling shows governor romney leading 37%, a two to one lead over the second place rick santorum. governor romney is in the dr
mitt romney what is behind these dramatic numbers? well, you know, it is starting to look like a lot like the mccain path to victory in 08, had the divided conservative field like we saw romney this week, where he can skate to whip the primary. this state has been perceived a long time as being this hive of evangel evangelicals and conservative state. [ no audio ] where i am in greenville, yes, a lot of megachurches but also a lot of international companies. romney is a business guy. you go down to the coast there is a strong military and veteran presence. he was there with john mccain today. romney running on a really strong national security platform. got a lot of commuters around the charlotte suburbs, so it s a very, you know, broad cross section of republican voters in this state. as you and michael pointed out, romney is running well among all groups, running well against born again christians, college grad, down scale voters, doing