fear of the assad regime. a rear window inside a brutal crackdown. i want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m blitz and you re in the situation room. a tightening race heading in to south carolina s republican primary one week from today. a new american research group poll of likely primary voters in that state puts mitt romney on top but, but in a statistical tie with newt gingrich who is just ahead of ron paul. the texas congressman has surged in south carolina from 9% just a week ago while rick santorum has taken the biggest hit down from 24% last week to 7%. joe johns is joining us in south carolina right now following that increasingly bitter battle in the state. joe, what s going on right now, look ahead a little bit. this will be a tough week. reporter: that s true, wolf. the 30,000-foot view here is all about independent expenditures being made by so-called super p.a.c.s breathing fresh new life into campaigns that may be on lif
we talked to one of the convicted killers pardoned by mississippi s governor. we re going to hear his reaction to the outrage over his release. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. mitt romney, the clear front-runner in a cnn/orcp poll out just now. romney with a double-digit lead, asking republican voters their choice for the nominee. look at the battle for second place. newt gingrich, ron paul, rick santorum are all in a statistic cal tie, each getting between 15 and 18%. let s get more from gloria borger, taking a closer look at all of this. he s rising nationally, at least it looks like that. yeah, it is, and rising at newt gingrich s expense. we compared the numbers you just showed with the numbers from december. what a difference a month makes. romney in december, 28%, now 34, up six. newt gingrich down ten points, and again paul has been pretty consistent. santorum almost quadrupled his support. i think the big news here, wolf, to me is that mitt romne
victim s family stunned and afraid. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. the republican candidates are scrambling to cover as much ground as they can. the south carolina primary only nine days away and early voting in florida starting at the same time. it s now make or break for the stragglers in the gop pack. some are trying to cut into mitt romney s lead by slamming his record as a financier. romney is mounting a counter-offensive in florida today. jim acosta is joining us from west palm beach with the latest. jim? reporter: wolf, don t let all the florida sunshine fool you. mitt romney is coming up a blizzard of attacks from the gop rivals over the issue of corporate layoffs, so the gop front-runner returned to a familiar theme of the campaign, and that is he understands the plight of the unemployed. mitt romney hopes he s found the message to remain his bain in the neck. being unemployed for a long period of time means families are having a hard time ma
with jon huntsman. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. the first primary beghaj at midnight in new hampshire. most polls close three hours from now. we ll have complete coverage. here is what we re watching for. first, mitt romney s margin of victory. final polls show him with a nearly 20-point lead. if romney wins big he may see almost invincible heading into south carolina. if he doesn t win big, he may seem beatable, at least some experts predict. second, who comes in second, jon huntsman gambled on a good showing in new hampshire. he has the chance to show he s a viable candidate. they play very well among many in new hampshire, and could help him emerge as the anti-romney candidate. finally, independenting can stroh in this open primary, so how will they vote? they may decide the winner, who will that signal for next november? we re watching all of this unfold. new hampshire state officials are expecting a record turnout of a quarter million prima