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Battleground in New Hampshire; Most Americans Care More about Jobs than Wedge Issues; Reviewing the GOP Debate

Aired January 08, 2012 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We're going to look at the 2012 presidential contenders in this political hour. But first an update on some of today's top stories.

One year ago today, gunfire at a Tucson, Arizona, shopping center left six dead and 13 wounded including Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Several events are happening today to remember that tragedy including a vigil tonight. Giffords and her husband will be there.

And about 100 soldiers are on lockdown at a military base in Washington state. That means no one in, no one out. Commanders at Joint Base Lewis McCord are looking for anyone who may have possession of some sensitive military equipment that didn't turn up during an inventory last month.

And crowds of people packed public spaces across Syria again today demanding the ouster of President Bashar Al Assad. Officials from the Arab League are talking today about whether to increase the size of their monitoring mission in Syria. A human rights group says 11 people died today in clashes between security forces and army defectors.

All right. There is a lot to digest in New Hampshire where just hours ago the Republican presidential contenders wrapped up unprecedented back-to-back debates. The two debates had striking differences, while the first last night on ABC felt like a fight for second place, the latest, this morning, on NBC, appeared to be an all-out battle against candidate number one, Mitt Romney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, if his record was so great as governor of Massachusetts, why didn't he run for re-election? If you didn't want to stand before the people of Massachusetts and run on your record, if it was that great, why didn't you bail out? I mean, the bottom line is, you know, I go and fight the fight. If it was that important to the people of Massachusetts that you were going to fight for them, at least you could stand up and make the battle that you did a good job.

I did that. I ran for re-election a couple of times. We want someone who is going to stand up and fight for the conservative principles, not bail out and not run and not run to the left of Ted Kennedy. MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I can tell you this, I think it is unusual and perhaps understandable that people who spend their life in politics imagine that if you get in politics, that that's all you want to do. That if you've been elected to something, you want to get re-elected and re-elected. I went to Massachusetts to make a difference. I didn't go to begin a political career, running time and time again. I made a difference.

I put in place the things I wanted to do. I listed out the accomplishments we wanted to pursue in our administration. There were 100 things we wanted to do. Those things I pursued aggressively. Some we won, some we didn't. Run again? That would be about me. I was trying to help get the state in the best shape as I possibly could. Left the world of politics, went back into business and now I have the opportunity I believe to use the experience I have - you have a surprised look on your face. It is still my time.

SANTORUM: Are you going to tell people you're not going to run for re-election for president if you win?

ROMNEY: Rick, it is still my time.

SANTORUM: I'm just asking.

ROMNEY: OK. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor Romney, take 30 seconds there.

ROMNEY: What I'm going to tell you is this for me, politics is not a career. I don't seek term limits in Washington. As the president of the United States, as the president of the United States, if I'm elected, of course I'll fight for a second term.

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I realize the red light doesn't mean anything to you because you're the front-runner, but can we drop a little bit of the pious baloney. The fact is you ran in '94 and lost. That's why you weren't serving the Senate with Rick Santorum. The fact is you had a very bad re-election rating, you dropped out of office, you had been out of state for something like 200 days preparing to run for president, you didn't have this interlude of citizenship while you thought about what to do.

You were running for president, while you were governor, you were going all over the country, you were out of state consistently, you then promptly re-entered politics, you happened to lose to McCain as you had lost to Kennedy. Now you're back running. You've been running consistently for years and years and years. So this idea that suddenly citizenship show up in your mind, just level with the American people. You've been running for - at least since the 1990s.

GOV. RICK PERRY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think you to ask the question of who is it that can beat Obama, who is it that can invigorate the Tea Party, who is it that can take the message of smaller outsider government that is truly going to change that place?

JON HUNTSMAN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was criticized last night by Governor Romney for putting my country first. And I just want to remind the people here in New Hampshire and throughout the United States that I think - criticized me while he was out raising money for serving my country in China, yes, under a Democrat. Like my two sons are doing in the United States Navy. They're not asking who - what political affiliation the president is. I want to be very clear with the people here in New Hampshire and this country. I will always put my country first. And I think that's important.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, well -

SANTORUM: The serious issue with Congressman Paul here is you're right, he's never really passed anything of any importance. And one of the reasons people like Congressman Paul is his economic plan. He's never been able to accomplish any of that. Has no track record of being able to work together. He's been out there on the margins and has really been unsuccessful in working together with anybody, to do anything. The problem is that what Congressman Paul can do as commander in chief is he can on day one do what he says he wants to do, which is pull all our troops back from overseas, put them here in America, leave us in a situation where the world is now going to be creating huge amounts of vacuums all over the place and have folks like China and Iran and others, look at the Straits of Hormuz.

As I said, last night, we wouldn't have the Fifth Fleet there. The problem with Congressman Paul is all the things that Republicans like about him he can't accomplish. And all the things that he's worried about he'll do day one. And that's the problem. And so what we need to do is have someone who has a plan and has experience to do all the things Republicans and conservatives would like to do and -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lt me get him to respond.

REP. RON PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is not actually a simple task to repeal hundreds of years of us sliding away from our republic and still running a foreign policy of Woodrow Wilson, trying to make the world safe for democracy. And, look, we have elections overseas and we don't even accept the elections. Change in foreign policy is significant. That's where a nation will come down if they keep doing this. We can't stay in 130 countries, get involved in nation building. We cannot have 900 bases overseas. We have to change policy.

What about changing monetary policy? Yes. We do. But we had that for 100 years. And right now we're winning that battle. The American people now agree about 75 percent of the American people now say we ought to audit the Federal Reserve, find out what they're doing and who are their friends that they're bailing out constantly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So is Mitt Romney still the man to beat in New Hampshire? The state's all important primary just two days away. CNN political correspondent Jim Acosta is in Exeter where Romney will be joined next hour by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. One more time on that, they have become quite the duo there, Jim. JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That's right, Fred. It's going to, you know, generate talk all over again that this could be a potential ticket for the Republicans later on this year should Mitt Romney go on and win the nomination. Obviously, Chris Christie will be very high on his list of potential vice presidential contenders.

But just to get back to that debate that was on NBC earlier today, I mean, this was certainly one of the liveliest, scrappiest debates we have seen in this cycle so far. And it was amazing to see all of the other un-Romneys on the stage go after Mitt Romney and try to draw some blood. It may be because if you look at the latest daily tracking poll that comes out from Suffolk University every day up here in New Hampshire, it shows that Mitt Romney dropped about eight points in last week. He now has only a 15-point lead over his nearest contender Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich seems to be inching up just a bit.

Jon Huntsman is in third place with a surprisingly strong showing there. And Gingrich really had the line of the day, Fredricka, when he went after Mitt Romney and that so-called pious baloney, that has been blowing up on Twitter all afternoon. People have been kind of seizing on those comments as a sort of a way to go after Mitt Romney in the coming days. And it is going to be interesting to see how the former Massachusetts governor responds later on this afternoon.

The only problem for Newt Gingrich is that he's now only going negative. He didn't do this out in Iowa. So you know, the Romney team response just might be that that pious baloney tastes a little like sour grapes at this point. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, isn't that the kind of mean streak kind of talk that a lot of voters have said that they're tired of hearing, whether it be on Capitol Hill or elsewhere and so it would seem that kind of approach might back fire for these candidates on the campaign trail.

ACOSTA: Well, and that's right. That's what Newt Gingrich used to say out in Iowa was that the voting public doesn't want to see this kind of mud being thrown but Newt Gingrich, after what happened to him in Iowa, not only Mitt Romney, it was that pro Romney super pac, restore our future, that was going after Newt Gingrich on a daily basis when he was the front-runner out there. They really tore in him, pulled down his poll numbers and they were able to drive him basically out of that race in Iowa.

And so Newt Gingrich is just sort of responding fire with fire, and he's firing with his own super pac. His super pac, the super pac that is for Newt Gingrich, winning our future, has just come out with a documentary. It's now previewing it on its website that goes after Mitt Romney's days at Bane capital and it talks about how people were laid off in their factory towns when Mitt Romney came to town. So it's certainly going to get nasty. This might be one of the biggest tests for Mitt Romney so far in this campaign, these next couple of days. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jim Acosta in Exeter, thanks so much. All right. Meantime, Rick Santorum also back on the campaign trail. And looking ahead to South Carolina. He's in the Palmetto state at this hour. But last night, he was pretty fired up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANTORUM: We're looking for someone that can win this race. Who can win this race on the economy and on the core issues of this election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY SANDBERG, "RICK SANTORUM": Just as I did in Iowa, I'm going to skip the slick TV ads and take my case directly to the people. This is a big country with 50 states and 3,141 counties. But tonight I make this pledge. Between now and the Republican convention in August, I intend to campaign in every one of those counties. Monroe County, Tennessee, is an isolated back woods region with a heavily armed population and a long tradition of hostility to outsiders. It was the inspiration for the film "Deliverance." I'll be there too. As it is probably inevitable that at some point I will cross the U.S. border by mistake, spending precious days pointlessly campaigning in southern Quebec, or Mexico. In fact, it is possible that I won't even live to see the end of this campaign. If the lesbians don't get me, the Mormon death squads probably will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: That was Andy Sandberg on "Saturday Night Live" as Rick Santorum. All right. Welcome back to the special hour of the "CNN Newsroom," we're taking this time out every Sunday at this hour to let you hear from the 2012 presidential contenders in their own words out on the campaign trail.

Rick Santorum needs a strong showing in New Hampshire to become the true challenger to front-runner Mitt Romney. So last night the former Pennsylvania senator attacked Romney's past experience as a reason he isn't up for the job. The top job. And Romney fired back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANTORUM: The commander in chief of this country isn't the CEO, it's someone who has to lead and also being the president isn't a CEO. You can't direct, you know, members of Congress and members of the Senate as to how you do things. You got to lead and inspire.

ROMNEY: I think people who spend their life in Washington don't understand what happens out in the real economy. They think that people who start businesses are just managers. People who start as entrepreneurs, who start a business from the ground up and get customers and get investors and hire people to join them, those people are leaders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Rick Santorum is a formidable candidate and he could be a big game changer within the Republican Party itself. That's the thinking at least of Ron Brownstein, our senior political analyst and editorial director of "The National Journal," joining us live from Manchester. Good to see you.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to see you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Is Santorum a solid contender when for so long he was trailing or is this kind of a flash in the pan type of little taste of near victory?

BROWNSTEIN: Right. I think the answer is we'll see. Historically New Hampshire has not been kind to Iowa candidates who have depended on social conservatives to do well in Iowa simply because this is a very different state. About 60 percent of the vote in Iowa identifies the evangelical Christians, only a quarter of the vote in New Hampshire, much less socially conservatives, independents are a bigger part of the vote here.

And you have to say in the first couple of days, Santorum's very strong social conservative message doesn't seem to be helping him capitalize momentum that he had in Iowa. He has had a lot of headlines about gay marriage and that gay marriage leads to polygamy. That's probably not where he needs to be in New Hampshire.

In New Hampshire, he needs to be emphasizing his kind of roots and kind of blue collar western Pittsburgh, trying to create almost a class contrast with Mitt Romney, focusing on the growing working class white population part of the - in the Republican coalition, hasn't really gotten to those notes in either of the debates and there's a sense that he may not be capitalizing as much as he might have on the breakthrough in Iowa.

WHITFIELD: So if it is not his social conservatism, what is it that he can take credit for as to why he hasn't been able to enjoy this kind of surge since Iowa and possibly taking that momentum right into New Hampshire?

BROWNSTEIN: The answer is there are two elements of Rick Santorum's agenda. The social conservatism is what propelled him in Iowa. But like Mike Huckabee before him or Pat Robertson back in the 1980s, that's not enough by itself to win the nomination. He does have a distinctive second strand though. He has a kind of economic nationalism. He talks more than any other Republican candidate I think I've ever heard about upward mobility, the decline of upper mobility and blue collar America that he links to the decline in manufacturing jobs. And he has a very specific agenda focused on completely eliminating corporate tax for companies that manufactures in America. By design he tries to recreate and revive that sector of the economy.

And that potentially contrasts interestingly with Mitt Romney who is more affluent, whose background is in venture capital, kind of moving money around rather than making things. But Santorum, he does that very well in the stump event we did yesterday in Atlantic (INAUDIBLE) he was at. He does it very well in making that case on the stump, but he really hasn't gotten to that argument in either last night or this morning's debate and it is the scene that I think he has to find. Fred, it is hard to imagine him really dislodging Romney with the upscale more secular Republican voters. He's got to kind of consolidate that blue collar more socially conservative part of the party if he's going to make a real challenge.

WHITFIELD: So Santorum and Romney certainly coming across as foes right now and it's hard to believe that at one point Santorum was offering his support to Romney back in 2008. Should he be at all concerned that he's coming across as a hypocrite because now what he's saying about Romney is he, you know, "wouldn't stand up for conservative principles, period."

BROWNSTEIN: Right. Well, of course, what Santorum would say I think fairly is he chose Romney as a more conservative alternative to John McCain. And the personal relationships between McCain and Santorum, (INAUDIBLE) that McCain endorsed Romney, you know, this time even though he was critical of him last time.

Look, this is an urgent moment for everybody whose name is not Mitt Romney. If he wins New Hampshire convincingly, especially if Ron Paul comes in second, it may be very hard for any of them to get past him in South Carolina on the 21st and kind of a compounding interest effect here. If he wins, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, given his financial advantage, he's a strong favorite in Florida. So they need the - the opponents need a way to kind of change this story line. Unlikely they will overcome his lead here in New Hampshire, but they at least have to begin ceding doubts about him that they can harvest in South Carolina.

And I think you saw a much more concerted effort at that today than you did last night and today's debate where they're basically saying this is not a reliable conservative, a message they want to deliver in South Carolina, which is a more conservative state than New Hampshire.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ron Brownstein, thanks so much. We'll see you later on in this hour as well. Thank you.

So just days before the nation's first primary election, the GOP race is certainly heating up. Watch the New Hampshire Republican debate on CNN tonight at 8:00 Eastern time. It will be playing one more time, the New Hampshire debate that you saw on another network last night.

All right Meantime, a former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, he's not backing down. He says he's the only one who can take on President Obama and win.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We continue to delve into the issues on the presidential campaign. Every Sunday we're spending this hour of the "CNN Newsroom" to allow you to hear from the contenders as they spell out their ideas for the future of the United States. Republican contender Newt Gingrich hopes to do well in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. But he is also focusing on South Carolina, which has a stronger conservative base. He says that's where voters will see that Mitt Romney is more moderate than conservative.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: I am running because this is about these young people and about my two grandchildren. I'm going to run a campaign worthy of my grandchildren. The American people can decide if they prefer to have vicious consultants in secret pacs that refuse to reveal who their donors are decide the fate of the United States, that's up to the American people. I am not going to use those kind of techniques because I couldn't govern if I used those techniques any more than Barack Obama can or any more than Governor Romney will be able to.

You try to win the presidency with that kind of stuff, you have no reservoir of goodwill, you have no capacity to draw on the American people, and in the end you can't govern. George W. Bush helped prove it in 2004, he beat John Kerry in a nasty, vicious campaign in which the anti-Kerry vote was bigger than the anti-Bush vote and he turned around and tried to pass social security reform and he couldn't get it off the ground because he had 48 percent of the country opposed from day one.

Now, I don't have any desire to run to be president. I have a desire to run to help the United States of America. I think I can help the United States of America by being an honest citizen and telling the truth and I believe actually in the end we will win doing that. I think we'll do better in New Hampshire than people expect because when you start to describe a Massachusetts moderate and you remind people of his record, you go, "Oh, yes, he's not a conservative. This is a joke for him to call himself a conservative. It is a "Saturday Night Live" skit."

And I believe by the time we get to South Carolina, it will be vividly clear that there is a real choice. You have a Reagan republican who is determined to run a campaign. I don't mind contrast. I'm saying some fairly strong things tonight that are issue-based, public policy, differences about things like liberal judges versus conservative judges. But I'm not going to attack him personally. I'm not going to defame him. I'm not going to lie about him. If that's the price of being president, I don't want it. Because I don't think that presidency is worth having because it won't fix anything in Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So while most of the Republican contenders are vying for the conservative vote, at some point they need to reach out to moderates and independents, right? Well, our political panel tackles that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back to this special hour of the "CNN Newsroom." We're focusing on politics allowing you to hear from the 2012 presidential contenders. The candidates are talking about a variety of issues this weekend in New Hampshire, two days before the state's first in the nation primary. During a debate last night on ABC, the candidates weighed on the religious institution's right to oppose gay marriage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: I just want to raise the point about the news media bias. You don't hear the opposite question asked, should the Catholic Church be forced to close its adoption services in Massachusetts because it won't accept gay couples, which is exactly what the state has done? Should the Catholic Church be driven out of providing charitable services in the District of Columbia because it won't give into secular bigotry. Should the Catholic Church find itself discriminate against by the Obama administration in key delivery of services because of the bias and the bigotry of the administration? The bigotry question goes both ways and there is a lot more anti-Christian bigotry today than there is concern on the other side and none of it is covered by (INAUDIBLE).

PERRY: I am for a constitutional amendment that says marriage is between a man and a woman at the federal level. But this administration's war on religion is what bothers me greatly. When we see an administration that will not defend the Defense of Marriage Act, that gives their Justice Department clear instructions to go take the ministerial exception away from our churches where that's never happened before, when we see this administration not giving money to Catholic charities for sexually trafficked individuals because they don't agree with the Catholic Church on abortion, that is a war against religion and it is going to stop under a Perry administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Joining us now from St. Louis, Missouri, Danielle Belton, editor and writer of the blog, "The Black Snob" and from Washington, Crystal Wright, the editor of the blog, conservativeblackchick.com. Good to see you, ladies.

DANIELLE BELTON, EDITOR "THE BLACK SNOB": Nice to be with you.

CRYSTAL WRIGHT, EDITOR, CONSERVATIVEBLACKCHICK.COM: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: OK. So we're hearing the GOP candidates tout their social conservative credentials. So how will the eventual nominee try to transition one's self to the general election and win over the more moderate Republicans in the independence in particular. Crystal, you first.

WRIGHT: Well, you know, I got to say that ABC debate last night was kind of like that Spanish inquisition of the presidential candidates on their gay rights positions, on abortion and contraception. And I think Newt Gingrich nailed it when he said, look, this isn't about; this is an assault on Christian values. But at the end of the day, whoever our nominee is, you know Romney is playing it safe because he knows he has to appeal to those all important independent voters.

Americans, whether they be conservative or Democrat or liberal, Tea Party, they don't care about these social issues, these wedge issues. You know what they want? They want jobs. This is why governor in Virginia, we saw Governor McDonnell win because he talked about the economy. This is why Governor Chris Christie won New Jersey, because he talked about the economy.

I think it was just really inflammatory all the questions that, you know, George Stephanopoulos and Diane Sawyer spent asking these candidates about social issues and people's bedrooms. They were never asked this of Obama and Hillary in 2008. We didn't see any of that. At the same time, I think candidates do need to appeal -- put those on the sidelines. They don't even need to address the moderators with this crazy talk about people's bedrooms.

WHITFIELD: So you wonder, Danielle, you know so some of these candidates are appealing to a certain electorate when they do say that they are the social conservative. However, we all know that they're also all vying for that independent voter, the moderate voter. So how might you see the strategy changing for these candidates? Is it based on which state in which that primary or caucus is unfolding?

DANIELLE BELTON, BLOGGER, THE BLACK SNOB: Well, they're going to have to make adjustments. The reason why you have these issues come up in a debate or even when you have moderators bring them up is because in a lot of cases they are talking about the government being involved with what goes on in people's bedrooms and what goes on in their personal lives. And so they're trying to appeal to a base that wants the defense of marriage act, that wants to talk about whether gay people can get married or not, that wants to talk about whether or not a woman can get an abortion under what way she can do that. So the problem is when you go to a broader audience and you are trying to appeal to a broader base, it gets a little hinkey.

WHITFIELD: Is this issue -- then this conversation perhaps didn't work, the social conservative issues for us didn't work because it was New Hampshire. But perhaps it might work in a state like South Carolina, which is where Rick Santorum is today.

WRIGHT: Most definitely. Most definitely.

BELTON: And I think --

WHITFIELD: Go ahead, Danielle first.

BELTON: That's OK.

WRIGHT: Sorry.

BELTON: As you go to different states like South Carolina, you go down south, you go to Florida, you go to Texas, you're going to want to appeal to these certain social issues because you have a lot of Republican voters who do care very deeply about it, who are going to make the decision who to vote for about it. They all pretty much agreed with each other on these issues, they tried to one up each other on who was going to stand strong in the defense of marriage.

WHITFIELD: OK, Crystal.

WRIGHT: I think that's the point. What I'm saying is that whether it be Romney, and Romney did a good job in not trying to one up everybody else on traditional marriage, and the Republicans need to talk about traditional marriage and then move on and talk about the economy and jobs. I mean I think trying to give the American people a litmus test on whether, you know, their gay rights positions is really ridiculous like today when NBC asked -- we had the debate today and we saw Santorum ask what he would do if he had a gay son.

It is like he should just say, you know what, and we're here to talk about the economy and jobs, that's what the American people care about. I think to Danielle's point, they need to pivot on what is really important. Not shy away from their stances, but say, where we are today is about the economy and jobs and Barack Obama is --

WHITFIELD: So here we are focusing on the strategy of the Republican contenders. Yet the White House is watching very closely. And might the White House be trying to decide what is the strategy going forward depending on who that Republican nominee will be? Will it be a more moderate conservative? Will it be a social conservative and so how is that dictating in your view, you know, Danielle, the White House strategy?

BELTON: I believe the White House wants to see the Republican race go even further and further to the right. So they can paint whoever the eventual nominee is as an extremist. That's the most natural path to take, is to take what happens in these debates, to take what happens on the stump as the candidates hammer out over who should be able to win the conservative base and to appeal to the more issue -- the social issue conservatives. And the Obama administration will try to hang them on it, try to paint them as a --

WHITFIELD: OK. Crystal, ten seconds on that.

WRIGHT: Yes, you know, the Obama administration is going to paint any Republican -- whoever the Republican nominee is as an extremist because President Obama has nothing to run on. And the fact is Romney looks more and more like he's tightening this up. If he wins New Hampshire and he is ahead in South Carolina, he's not running on an extremist agenda, Romney is running on a safe agenda, he is appealing to independents and moderates, and at the end of the day, Barack Obama has zero record to run on.

We have 44 million people on food stamps, 13 million unemployed, and, you know, the president said unemployment, if just give me $800 billion and I promise unemployment won't go above 8 percent, well, we all know what that is. Barack Obama should be worried about running on a record which he doesn't have.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ladies, thank you so much. Crystal Wright, Danielle Belton, appreciate it.

Just days before the nation's first primary election, the GOP race does heat up. Watch the New Hampshire Republican Debate, a replay of last night's debate on CNN tonight 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

All right. There is a huge conservative voting population in South Carolina, which is where most of the candidates will be midweek. Already a couple are there. We'll talk to our Peter Hamby about how the contenders stack up there in just a few minutes.

Plus, the American economy back on track? Many of you are rethinking retirement and the American dream.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM:" Because we have seen so many ups and downs in this race for the Republican presidential nomination, I'd like to recommend that we all take a deep breath and let the process play fully itself out. I say this because so many pundits already assume that Mitt Romney has it in the bag. He certainly is the front-runner right now for the nomination, but he is not there yet.

There are still plenty of Republicans who don't want him to face President Barack Obama. For months they have been looking for an alternative, a non-Romney, if you will, and they're still struggling to find out who that candidate might be. If Romney wins in New Hampshire as he almost certainly will and then wins in South Carolina, is this possible given the fact that the conservative vote will be split among several candidates? He will be well on his way to wining the nomination.

Remember, John McCain won in South Carolina because Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson split up the very conservative vote. Romney has a solid organization and lots of money. Backed by cash heavy super pacs that will be very active and going after any Republican deemed a real threat to the former Massachusetts governor. They did a powerful job in hurting Newt Gingrich in Iowa and they're ready to continue the assault.

But money isn't everything. Take a look at Rick Santorum's remarkable come from nothing success in Iowa. He came in a very, very close second, eight votes, by campaigning the old-fashioned way. He visited all 99 counties and met with lots of Iowa Republicans. As other candidates faded including Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Newt Gingrich, he moved up and up and is energized to follow further in New Hampshire and South Carolina and potentially in Florida. He's raising money and building an organization. It is nowhere near what Romney already has.

Wolf Blitzer, CNN, Washington.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Let's get back to our focus on the issues in the presidential campaign. On Sunday we're spending this hour of the CNN NEWSROOM letting you hear from the contenders as they spell out their ideas of the future for the United States and two big election contests are about to happen. New Hampshire's primary is Tuesday. And in two weeks South Carolina holds its primary, first in the south. The latest CNN/"Time"/ORC Poll show Mitt Romney with a sizable lead there getting 37 percent of the vote. Nearly 20 points ahead of his closest rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich after South Carolina, but nothing is set in stone. This poll shows a whopping 49 percent of likely GOP primary voters saying they might change their minds before the January 21st primary in South Carolina.

So the conservative vote will be likely determining who comes out on top in South Carolina in particular. CNN political reporter Peter Hamby in South Carolina and he is joining us live right now. So Peter, how will the conservative vote affect the outcome of next week's primary in a couple of weeks?

PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, it is going to be pivotal. It is up for grabs. As you said Mitt Romney has the lead. But he only has the lead because the conservatives are split up among themselves. Rick Perry just arrived in South Carolina, he made -- he's going to make an aggressive play for Christian voters here in the upstate of South Carolina. He talked a lot at this greasy spoon that I'm at about how he gave his heart to Jesus Christ as a youth.

Rick Santorum is also here today, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul. All of them are going to be scrambling to line up Evangelical voters, Tea Party voters, so it is going to be very decisive. But again John McCain won the state in 2008, precisely because Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney divided up the right side of the Republican electorate and McCain was able to escape by kind of cobbling together moderate voters, military voters along the coast, and that's exactly what Mitt Romney is trying to do here and he came here late last week for a 24- hour swing and went to those exact places where John McCain went in 2008 along the coast to try to gobble up some of those military and moderate votes Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So, Peter if being a social conservative is so important and pivotal in Spartanburg, South Carolina and that is exactly what Rick Perry says he is why is it that at least according to some of the polls he's not doing so well there in South Carolina?

HAMBY: Yes, it is really interesting. I think you talked to voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, his debates really made an impact. Voters do consider elect ability important. They also consider, you know, principles and values important, but the more voters you talk to, they want somebody that can beat Obama and they saw Rick Perry's performances and thought hey can this guy really go toe to toe with Barack Obama and three nationally televised debates next fall?

However, in South Carolina, Rick Perry has an appeal to veterans, he is a veteran himself, he has a cultural appeal, and he's a Christian and a southerner. Don't underestimate the impact of those things here in South Carolina. He's also got at least from what I can tell from talking to sources a million dollars, possibly as much as $3 million, he can run a lot of television ads here and those can also have a pretty big impact in South Carolina, but, again, Rick Perry also ran a lot of TV ads in Iowa, almost $4 million worth, and he came in a disappointing fifth place. So two weeks, the key number as you said earlier, almost half of voters here are undecided, so there say lot that can happen in the next two weeks, Fredricka and we'll be here the whole time.

WHITFIELD: Anything can happen. All right. Thanks so much, Peter Hamby there in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Still on the topic of Rick Perry, he's talked about ways to expand on one of his priorities. Jobs and how he can create them.

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GOV. RICK PARRY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Americans want to have a job. That's the issue here. And the idea that there are people clamoring for government to come and to give them assistance is just wrong headed. And that's what we need to be focusing on as a people, is how do we create the environment in this country where the entrepreneurs know that they can risk their capital, have a chance to have a return on their investment and create the jobs out there so people can have the dignity to take care of their families. That's what Americans are looking for. I've done that for the last 11 years in the state of Texas and I have the executive governing experience that no one else up here on the stage has.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So the sputtering economy is the number one issue Americans keep coming back to when asked about their concerns for the future. All state and national journal conducted a series of polls over two years assessing how people see the future of the American economy. Ron Brownstein is back with us now. And he published the poll results in "The National Journal" and wrote extensively about what people are thinking and feeling about the future. Joining us again from Manchester, where, my goodness, it is already starting to look dark there in Manchester, New Hampshire.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, yes.

WHITFIELD: So, Ron, you know, people are assessing the future very differently based on racial and social economic lines, no surprise there. But what is different about the results from these studies?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think the big point overall about this is that we're looking at a public now that is reel really racked by a series of anxiety that goes way beyond the immediate downturn, having to do with the projectory of opportunity, financial risks and kind of the overall direction of the economy's ability to provide good paying jobs. You know we have done over 12,000 interviews over three years in this poll and if there was one sentence that sums it all up, to me, it is that Americans believe they're navigating much more tumultuous financial waters than earlier generations.

They're exposed too much greater risk and they're fundamentally paddling along. There really is no big institution that they trust to be looking out for their interests. Not only government, but also the big institutions of the private sector, major corporations, banks and so forth. When you look forward, when you pitch it forward, you see I think a very surprising but consistent result in our polling and others, which is that minorities, African-Americans and Hispanics, are now considerably more optimistic about opportunity for the next generation than whites are. There is a great deal of anxiety across the board really in the white community --

WHITFIELD: Is there an answer as to why?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think the answer has a lot to do with -- yes, I think there is an answer. I think largely it has to do with the personal story of a family. I think in many minority families whether Hispanic or African-American, if you look back to where your grandparents may have been, living under segregation, for example, to the opportunities that are available to you and the ones that you see available to your kids, there is no question that you see a kind of personal progression. It has to do with doors opening and society really non-economic grounds.

I think especially in the white working class in many ways is the most alienated part of kind of American society now, you kind of look back to the 1960s, you can see -- you can imagine a guy working on the line at a Ford or GM and you see him on Friday afternoon driving his boat up to his house on the lake. Now you're in the same condition that you probably can't -- you have trouble affording sneakers for your kid. There is no question the generational story in the white working class is one of much greater strain. Even though the minority communities may not be the same absolute level of income, they see a more positive trajectory and that family generational saga.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ron Brownstein, thanks so much, from Manchester, clearly that just might be some impetus for some of the candidates to kind of change their vernaculars as to how they talk about the economy while they are on the campaign trail based on some of those discoveries. Thanks so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Just days before the nation's first primary election, the GOP race heats up. Watch the New Hampshire Republican debate in its entirety again. This time on CNN tonight, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

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WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back to this special hour of the CNN NEWSROOM, we're taking this time out every Sunday to let you hear from the 2012 presidential contenders in their words out on the campaign trail.

Jon Huntsman picked up an endorsement this week from the heart of Mitt Romney country. "The Boston Globe" newspaper says this of Huntsman, "The priorities he would set for the country from leading the world in renewable energy to retooling education and immigration policies to help American high tech industries are far-sighted." Huntsman has spent almost all of his time campaigning in New Hampshire hoping that state will push him forward. Here is the former Utah governor talking about the economy and congressional term limits. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON HUNTSMAN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe this country, 25 percent of the world's GDP, the most productive worker on earth still right here in America is on the cusp of a manufacturing renaissance. And I want to be the president that takes us there because I see those trends around the corner. And I know it is totally within our grasp to make that happen. Do we need to fix our taxes? Of course we do.

Do we need to improve our regulatory environment and deal with the overreach from Dodd Frank and Obama care and stuff like that? Of course we do. Do we need to take steps toward greater energy independence? Of course we do. And it all can be done and it will all play right into addressing our economic deficit. Which is the deficit that we have to fix in the name of the next generation.

The second deficit, ladies and gentlemen, is not an economic deficit. It is a deficit of a different kind. But I would argue it is just as corrosive as the economic deficit longer term for the people of this country. It is called a trust deficit. Because the people of this nation no longer trust our institutions of power and the people of this nation no longer trust their elected officials. I say how pathetic is this?

How did we find ourselves in this spot? A nation founded on trust, on institutions of trust and today we find ourselves running on empty. I look at Congress, 8 percent approval rating, where are those people hiding out for heaven's sake? I want to be the president, ladies and gentlemen, who leads the charge in this country that gets term limits for Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Coming up at the top of the hour, a somber day in Tucson, Arizona. It has been one year since Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' was shot and others injured and six killed. Giffords' chief of staff is speaking exclusively to CNN telling us the representative returned to the Safe-Way Store just yesterday where that shooting happened one year ago today.

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