a new front in the battle for the republican presidential nomination, nevada, which holds its caucuses this coming saturday. mitt romney is there along with newt gingrich and ron paul. instead of relishing his victory, a huge victory in the florida primary last night, romney and his team are now in full damage control mode after something romney said right here on cnn. our senior congressional correspondent dana bash is in las vegas with us. she s watching what s going on. what s going on with mitt romney, dana? reporter: well, wolf, i think we ve auld had something like this happen to us. you say something, it doesn t quite come out like you mean it, but when you re the front-runner in a presidential campaign, you can t afford to be the one who trips yourself up. making the morning show rounds, mitt romney inadvertently handed opponents an eight-word give on cnn i m not concerned about the very poor reporter: to be clear that made for a bumper sticker line was only
the republican candidates take the stage in this, their last face-off before the florida primarily. i ll moderate tonight s republican debate right here on cnn. everyone s talking about the tension on the tarmac. in your face airport encounter between arizona s republican governor. what was that all about? and newt gingrich vows to establish a permanent colony on the moon. will that idea take off with voters? i m wolf blitzer on the campus of the university of north florida in jacksonville. you re in the situation room. just four hours from now, the four remaining republican candidates will square off right here in jacksonville. it s the final debate before next tuesday s crucial florida primary. it s become a grudge match between the front-runners, mitt romney and newt gingrich. our chief analyst gloria borger is here and jim acosta has been covering this campaign. jim. let me start with you. it looks like romney may try to go to the jugular. somebody may go to t
middle-class families pay. we ll explain what s going on. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. dramatic new developments today in the cruise ship disaster off the coast of italy after blasting holes in the capsized costa philosopconcord the massive liner hits rocks and ripped open the hull friday night. it shows the dramatic escape as people clamor off the sinks vessel. the ship s captain is under house arrest, and he may face charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship. now a stunning the transcript between outrages authorities on shore and the captain. matthew chance is faults this unfold. what s the latest, matthew? reporter: these transcripts and recordings that have emerged of astonishing. they show conversations that were taking place between the captain of the costa concordia. his name is francesco scampino. the coast guard asking about the situation. he sounds confused. then emerges much to the astonishment of is the coast guard that the captain
is they re independent-minded voters. look back to 2008, president obama winning in iowa but they didn t necessarily believe here that that that s something they should rubber stamp. so the president did not win when he came here to new hampshire. they don t like people here don t like being told who to vote for. they want to be able to see the candidates and events like this one or even when a candidate may show up to their home or a neighboring restaurant. they want to meet them one-on-one before they make their decision, wolf. all right. dan, thanks very much. let s go back to jack. he s got the cafferty file. jack? the probing question of the hour is, what do the iowa caucuses really mean? to me, jack, the iowa caucuses mean 6 to 8 months of news breaking edge of your seat, fingernail biting electoral incision. though for the gop boys and girls it s apparently a combination, caucus, book tour, and fox news anchor audition. conner in chicago writes, it means iowans, news pun
this is decision day in iowa. just four hours from now, republicans will gather in caucuses across the state and cast the first votes in the 2012 campaign. the candidates have spent months of the trial paving the way with millions in campaign cash. much of that money has gone towards a barrage of negative advertising. now, in a final flurry of appearances, the rhetoric has reached a new peak or maybe a new low. you said mitt romney, somebody who will lie to you to get to be president will lie to you when they are president. i have to ask you, are you calling mitt romney a liar? yes. you re calling mitt romney a liar? you seem shocked by it. yes. why are you saying he s a liar? this is a man who s staff created the pack. his millionaire friends fund the pack. he pretends he has nothing to do with the pack. it s balogna. it s like his pretense that he s a conservative. wow. let s go live to our chief political correspondent, candy crowley. she s in des moines. you