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New Hampshire Primary Tuesday; Syrians Mourn Protesters; U.S. Debt Now Equal To Economy; Novartis Voluntary Recall; Sandusky's Book Gave Police Clues; Obama Honors Dallas Mavericks; 30 People On The New Hampshire Primary Republican Ballot; The Case For Obama-Clinton; Interview With New Hampshire GOP Chair; Youth Vote May Be Key In New Hampshire

Aired January 09, 2012 - 13:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: And hello, everyone, it's 1:00.

With the New Hampshire primary now less than 24 hours away, we are reminded why it's called running for president. Five of the six remaining GOP contenders have held 13 events in the grand states so far to date.

Events number 14 and 15 are scheduled this hour, and the pace doesn't let up until Newt Gingrich's college football party at 9:00 tonight. Here's the score from a weekend tracking poll by Suffolk University. Mitt Romney holds on to a solid lead, but Ron Paul has eaten into his margin. Jon Huntsman, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum are bunched up in third, you see it there, the only one who's not in New Hampshire today, is alone at rock bottom. Perry's trying to salvage his run in South Carolina. Gingrich says the more people get to know Romney, the harder they look at alternatives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 2002, he said he was a moderate. So, you look at the contrast and I think that that's what the South Carolina is going to be all about. I think that's what tomorrow's all about. The Suffolk poll this morning said that he -- that Romney's lost a great deal of momentum in the last four days, and I think that's because people looked up and instead of being told, oh, he's inevitable, they said, who is he? And the minute they say, who is he? They say, oh, I'm not sure I want to vote for that. So, we still have 24 hours, I mean, I think this is still a very wide-open primary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: And remember, our coverage of the New Hampshire primary starts Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time.

We'll get right back to politics in a moment, but first, we want to tell you about other stories making news right now. Tens of thousands turned out today for funerals in the Syrian capital of Damascus, lying in the streets holding up pictures. At one funeral, crowds chanted, overthrow Assad, overthrow the regime, as they blame the man's death on government forces. Opposition activists claim seven people have been killed today. And as the violence rages, Arab League officials think they will increase the number of observers in Syria.

There are reports Iran has started enriching uranium at a new nuclear facility in the north. According to a fundamentalist newspaper, the plan is deep inside the mountains, safe from any military attack. Iran says the enrichment program is medically based aimed at helping 800,000 cancer patients. There is also word today that Iran has sentenced an American to death for espionage. 28-year- old ex-marine, Amir Etemadi was arrested in August while visiting relatives and convicted of spying. Etemadi's parents say they are shocked and terrified by this news. Stunning news regarding the national debt. It's now roughly the size of the entire U.S. economy.

According to "U.S. Today," the amount the government owes its creditors, combined with IOUs, the government retirement, and other programs, now tops more than $15 trillion. However, some economists say a better measure of the debt is how much the government owes creditors, not counting $4.7 trillion owed to future Social Security recipients, and other government beneficiaries. By that measure, the debt is roughly $10.5 trillion or nearly 70 percent the size of the economy.

You may want to check your medicine cabinet. Pharmaceutical company, Novartis, voluntarily recalled a number of over-the-counter drugs that may contain broken pieces of other pills in their bottles. They include several Excedrin and NoDoz products with expiration dates of December 20, 2014 or earlier, as well as Bufferin Gas-X prevention products with December 20, 2013 or earlier expiration dates. The company said there have not been any reports of problems. However, Novartis is urging people to get rid of or return unused products that are part of this recall.

We're now learning one of the major clues that helped police break the Jerry Sandusky case wide open came from the former Penn State assistant coach himself. In the form of his autobiography "Touched," CNN Contributor and "Patriot-News" reporter, Sara Ganim, reports that the mother of one of Sandusky's alleged sexual abuse victims pointed police to the book. The book contains photos of boys who attended football games together. That, in turn, led police to identify four more alleged victims. Up until then, the case moved at a snail's pace with only one state police investigator digging for any evidence.

President Barack Obama just congratulated the Dallas Mavericks for taking the NBA title. He met with the team less than an hour ago. But that's not what has a lot of people buzzing. Rather, it's who was missing from that meeting. Delante West reportedly claims he was banned from going to the White House because of his criminal record. He told the "Fort Worth Star-Telegram," quote, "That's what happens when you make bad decisions in your life." West was arrested back in 2009 and pleaded guilty to weapons and traffic charges. A U.S. secret service agent is disputing West was banned, telling "ABC News," West was listed for entry today and was never advised otherwise, to his knowledge. All right. Now back to the race for the White House. The Republican nominee is still up in the air but is the Democratic ticket really set? Robert Reich and a possible Democratic shake-up coming next.

But first, our Politic Junkie question of the day, how many Republic candidates are listed on the ballot for Tuesday's New Hampshire primary? How many? Tweet me the answer to @RandiKayeCNN. If you're first to get it right, I'll give a shout out to the winner, right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back. Before the break, I asked you how many names are on the Republican presidential ballot in tomorrow's New Hampshire primary. The answer is 30. Among them still are Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain who both dropped out but remain on the ballot. And kudos to V.J. for tweeting me the right answer. Nicely done. I have -- actually have the list. These are the 30 people on the ballot. Amazing.

While Republicans go through the costly and painful process of choosing a candidate for president, Democrats can sit back and watch and cringe and sometimes chuckle. But is the Democratic ticket really set? A number of influential voices have made the case for a job swap of sorts. And not President Obama and Vice President Biden, but Vice President Biden and secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. An Obama- Clinton ticket is exactly what a lot of voters expected after their hard fought battle in 2008. And my next guest thinks it makes even more sense today. Robert Reich was labor secretary under President Clinton, he is now a professor of public policy at the University of California Berkeley, and a very busy author, very busy blogger.

Professor, nice to have you on the program. You said that Mrs. Clinton would fire up the Democratic base. How so?

ROBERT REICH, CHANCELLOR'S PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY: Well, I think she was -- she's a proven campaigner. She is obviously sharp and intelligent, She has a huge following. The most recent gallop poll showed that she and the president are the most respected woman and man in America, and this is for several years running right now. On top of that, she's done, I think, an exceptionally good job in foreign policy. Foreign policy is an area where the Obama administration has shined and even though the economy is likely to be a little bit lackluster by election day, having Hillary Clinton on the ticket would enable the president to put forward his foreign policies successes --

KAYE: KAYE: Yes, so -- I know you make several points --

REICH: -- a little bit more easily. But Randi, one other -- one other thing.

KAYE: Well, you make several points about this. I just want to go through one at a time here, because each of them really is worth a discussion. You also suggest, as you just sort of started to talk about here, that it would divert voters' attention -- putting Hillary Clinton on a ticket would divert voters attention from the struggling economy back to the global stage. And you think, obviously, that would be good for Democrats.

REICH: I do think it would be good for Democrats. Again, the -- you know, the foreign policy successes of the administration, in terms of, you know, Al Qaeda, getting rid of the head of Al Qaeda, Libya, getting rid of Moammar Gadhafi, basically dealing with the Arab Spring in a very sophisticated way and onward around the world. I mean -- the world's problems are still with us, obviously, but the administration has done an exceedingly good job, even Republicans admit that. Hillary Clinton would enable to administration to put that forward. You know, the economy is probably not going to be all that good on election day.

KAYE: And what about 2016? I mean, this would -- this could possibly set her up, right?

REICH: Yes. The Republicans have experienced, in recent years, or at least in living memory, you know, 12 years. I mean, they had Ronald Reagan and George -- the first George Bush, but Democrats have not had 12 years running since FDR and Harry Truman. And when you have 12 years, you really can put your mark on government. You certainly can have a very formative effect on the Supreme Court.

And I think Hillary Clinton has a better shot at becoming president in 2016 than Joe Biden. And I don't mean -- by the way, I'm not -- I don't mean in any way to denigrate Joe Biden, I think that Joe Biden has done a very good job as Vice President, but swapping places with Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden becoming the next secretary of state would not be bad. He's always been very interested in foreign policy.

KAYE: Let me ask you, though -- I mean, really -- you know, this is a lot of fun to talk about and you definitely make some good points, but you also have said you don't have any inside information that this really could be a reality. I mean, this is just something that's interesting to discuss at this point, right? There is no talk or no report in the administration?

REICH: You know, I don't have any inside information and you have to be always very cautious because political predictions, economic forecasts and astrology all bear something in common. Except astrology is sometimes correct, so you have to be a little bit careful about all this. But I think -- look, an even at this early stage, I -- it just simply makes a lot of sense and a lot of Democrats are coming to the same conclusion.

KAYE: How would this work, though? I mean, how would you -- if this was even a possibility, how would you slide Biden out and slide Hillary Clinton in?

REICH: Well, very easily. I mean, becoming secretary of state is not a bad thing for a vice president. I mean, I think that if the president were to go to Biden or maybe Biden were to go to the president and say, look, secretary is the next obvious place for Joe Biden.

You know, being vice president, he's done a very good job, but he doesn't added a the kind of luster to the ticket that Hillary Clinton is likely to add and the Democrats do need a little bit of luster, I mean, the -- and some excitement. There is a bit of an enthusiasm gap, shall we say. A lot of Democrats, although obviously are going to vote again for the president, they are -- they're not going to vote with quite the enthusiasm they had before. Democrats -- or Republicans never voted twice for the same incumbent, that is, with the same degree of enthusiasm.

KAYE: Right.

REICH: And also some people are concerned that the president has caved in too much to these (INAUDIBLE) Republicans. So having Hillary Clinton there, I think that would give a big boost to the Democratic base and also attract the votes of many, many independents.

KAYE: All right. So, that could be the Democratic ticket, but the GOP ticket you also have a prediction for as well. Romney and who?

REICH: And Rubio. I'm making a lot of predictions.

KAYE: You sure are.

REICH: This is my -- this is my beginning of the -- you know, I figured the beginning of the -- of the year, why not? By the time the election rolls around, nobody's going to remember your predictions any way.

KAYE: Oh, I'm taking notes.

REICH: Romney -- I think Marco Rubio, who is the junior senator from Florida, makes a lot of sense in many respects. He's young, he's 40-years-old, he's Hispanic, obviously, very important to court, the Hispanic vote, and is he from Florida, a key swing state, a very, very centrally important state with a lot of electoral votes. I think that Romney is likely to choose Rubio. Also, one final point, if it is Romney, and I do think it is going to be Romney to be the Republican nominee, Rubio will at least nullify the right wing of the Republican party because Rubio is quite -- very conservative. He is very, very much over on the right.

KAYE: All right. I will take note of your predictions and I will check back with you later on in the year. Thank you Robert Reich.

REICH: Well, forget them. Again, if they -- if it doesn't come true, don't ever go back to this interview.

KAYE: OK, we won't.

REICH: But if -- but if I'm right, I really would request you to replay this interview.

KAYE: Every day.

REICH: I think that would be very useful.

KAYE: Every day, right here.

REICH: OK.

KAYE: Thank you.

REICH: Good. Thank you.

KAYE: And be sure to keep it right here Tuesday as New Hampshire voters head to the polls. Join Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Erin Burnett and John King for live coverage of the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night, 7:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

We're just a day away from the nation's first primary. But unlike Iowa, this race already has a sure front-runner. Mitt Romney. So the real question is, who could emerge as the next anti-Romney? We'll ask the New Hampshire chairman of the Republican Party, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: This time tomorrow, folks in New Hampshire will be casting their votes in the nation's very first presidential primary. But by all accounts, it's not going to be a nail biter, like Iowa. In fact, Mitt Romney is expected to win.

And if you look at recent polls, well, take a look, you can see why. Romney still holds a commanding lead over the others. But that doesn't mean the rest of the pack isn't trying. One of the key question coming out of tomorrow's primary, who, if anyone, will emerge as the anti- Romney. Joining me now from Manchester, Wayne MacDonald, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party.

Wayne, thank you for coming on the program.

WAYNE MACDONALD, CHAIRMAN, NEW HAMPSHIRE REPUBLICAN PARTY: My pleasure.

KAYE: Your state's known to root for the underdog. Last time around, New Hampshire voters brought a then come from behind Hillary Clinton back from defeat. Do you see something like that happening tomorrow?

MACDONALD: Well, it's been a very unpredictable situation for the second place. Congresswoman Bachmann, Governor Perry, Herman Cain, you know, they've all been in second place at one time or another and others have, Speaker Gingrich. And now it appears that Congressman Paul is moving up to be in second tomorrow if the polls are accurate. One thing about New Hampshire polls, though, a close race is sometimes not close and vice versa. So we'll see what happens.

KAYE: Let's talk about the issues for folks there in New Hampshire. New Hampshire has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, 5.4 percent. You say that the number one issue for voters there is jobs. But you know what, when you hear the candidates talk there, you don't hear a lot about jobs. We're hearing a lot of questions about social issues. So what really would you say is the number one issue on voters' minds there?

MACDONALD: Well, the economy is a matter of concern for every state in the country. And, yes, our unemployment rate is low compared to the other states and it's certainly much lower than the national unemployment rate. But at the same time, many New Hampshire families are underemployed. They are unemployed and just not looking anymore. So they've kind of fallen off the radar screen. And our unemployment rate is higher than we're used to having it.

So jobs and the economy are still very, very important. And, yes, social issues do weigh in. It's something that New Hampshire voters care about as well. It's part of the mix. But if you had to choose a number one issue, I'd say it was the economy and the fact that, you know, how that connects with jobs.

KAYE: Your state certainly has an historically independent streak. If you look at the number, 40 percent of registered voters there are actually unaffiliated with a party. And take a look at this polling here from WMUR that we have. Thirty-seven percent of voters still undecided about who they'll vote for tomorrow. I mean do you think that these independents and the undecideds with them could tip the vote possibly towards someone like Ron Paul?

MACDONALD: Well, you know, Governor Romney has consistently placed very strong throughout this presidential contest in the last several months. So it seems like it's gelled (ph) for (ph) him (ph). But having said that, the race in 2000 was projecting a close race between Governor Bush and Senator McCain on that occasion and it was a blowout by McCain.

And there have been other surprises over the years in different polls that have been taken. Governor Romney was up here certainly in 2008 and Senator McCain proceeded to defeat him.

So, yes, it's absolutely possible. Anything could happen in New Hampshire. We are an independent state. We respect what Iowa did, but we're going to make up our own minds. And knowing Governor Romney and many of his people, I'm sure they're working hard to make sure there are no surprises tomorrow. And we'll see how that works.

KAYE: Wayne MacDonald, many thanks.

MACDONALD: Thank you.

KAYE: And, remember, our coverage of the New Hampshire primary starts Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

New Hampshire college students reportedly graduate with the highest average of debt in the country, and young voters want solutions. How the youth vote could be a lifeline for at least two candidates.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor Romney, what do you have against labor unions? Workers shouldn't have any rights?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi. Rick Santorum, I really disapprove of your stance on gay rights and I really don't think that being gay and having gay marriage is the same thing as polygamy. You need to talk about the economy more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Those are just a couple of questions New Hampshire voters have for the candidates. They sounded off on an open mike for CNN. What else they have to say is coming up later this hour. You don't want to miss it.

With the first primary just a day away in New Hampshire, we're going to focus our attention right now on a group of voters often dismissed as unreliable and apathetic. I'm talking about young voters. But the youth vote could be key. And that may be especially true in the state of New Hampshire. Here's why.

Take a look at this latest poll by Suffolk University out of New Hampshire. Just as he did in Iowa, Ron Paul is proving he appeals the most to young voters with 39 percent there. Twenty-five percent say they'll vote for Romney in tomorrow's primary, while 7 percent are backing Jon Huntsman.

But look at how many young voters between 18 to 34 are undecided. Twenty-five percent. Keep in mind, young voters were a crucial, passionate, and loyal base to President Barack Obama in 2008. But four years later, that could possibly change, which is why so many of the Republican presidential candidates are fighting for their vote right now.

Now, very few have their pulse on the youth vote as closely as our Noah Gray, who founded The Virgin Voting Project before he was old enough even to vote.

So, Noah, all right, you're a young voter now. You talk a lot to young voters. I mean they're expected to come out, be pretty active and give a big voice to New Hampshire. They could really play a big role here.

NOAH GRAY, FOUNDER, THE VIRGIN VOTING PROJECT: Absolutely, Randi. I mean when -- like, as you said, when you think of young voters, sometimes we don't vote enough as we should be doing. But that's a different case in New Hampshire.

Since 1998, more young people -- young people in New Hampshire have voted on a higher rate than the national average. So come tomorrow, we might see, you know, a pleasant surprise. Young people getting out there and voting. There are 197,000 eligible voters between the age of 18 to 29 in New Hampshire.

KAYE: Wow.

GRAY: So we're hoping that all of them come out tomorrow. But 43 percent of them voted in the 2008 primaries.

KAYE: All right, let's talk about numbers here. I mean you can't doubt the power of the youth vote when you look at these numbers. Let's share them with our viewers at home. Nationally there are 46 million 18 to 29-year-olds eligible to vote, making up 24 percent of the voting eligible population. The youth came out big for Obama, as we said, in 2008. Will they do it again, do you think, again this year?

GRAY: That's the big question we all want the answer to. Certainly, I hope that young people get out there in record numbers again this year. Will it happen? Maybe. Maybe not. We're still trying to find that out. But I'm hopeful that they will get out.

KAYE: Yes. Do they talk a lot about Obama and as well as the other candidates?

GRAY: Right now it's kind of -- it's kind of hard to map it out because there's not much going on, on the Democratic side. But among the young people that I've been speaking to about the Republican candidates, obviously a lot of them are focusing their support towards Ron Paul. I saw that in 2008 as well because of his stance on civil liberties and his anti-war message.

But Jon Huntsman, I think, is becoming popular among young people as well, which we may see in New Hampshire tomorrow because that's where he's been spending all of his time in New Hampshire. And I think third -- he was polling in third place among young people.

KAYE: Yes.

GRAY: So we might see an increased turnout for Jon Huntsman tomorrow. I think that would be interesting to see what happens.

KAYE: And you actually had a chance to speak with his daughters.

GRAY: I did. I caught up with them at the last CNN debate. I asked them about what their father would do to make a college education more affordable. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's much bigger than that. I don't think there's one thing you can do to make it more affordable. I think you need to see a turnaround with the economy. I think every -- there are a lot of things that need to take place for things to start turning --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE). I mean the -- (INAUDIBLE) economy right now. Anything that effects college, you know, loans. I think it effects (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean a lot of people can't pay off their loans now because they can't get a job. And so they're sitting here years after they've graduated and they're saying, I still have this huge loan to pay off. So I think it all goes back to just getting the economy back on track. I think that's the best place to start. And then, after that, you start looking at solutions and ways in which to make it a lot better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Nice get there, Noah, as we like to say, talking to them.

Listen, I know one of the things certainly in New Hampshire is, college students graduate with the highest debt in the country. State tuition is very high as well. What are young voters there talking about? What do they care about?

GRAY: In 2008 it was the war, the economy, and health care. Right now it's mainly the economy. Making college education more affordable and getting jobs. Coming out of college with jobs. Our unemployment rate, young people, are the largest amount of -- young people make up the largest group within the United States that are without a job. So -- in speaking to some young people, I found out that they want to come out of college. They want to not owe so much money when they come out of college. But, also, they want a good job when they get out of college. I didn't make it to New Hampshire, but I'm going to be speaking to young people in South Carolina and Florida for The Virgin Voting Project and seeing what they have to say down there, Randi.

KAYE: And I heard a rumor you have a bus tour of your own planned.

GRAY: I'm working on plans for a bus tour in fall 2012 to go to areas with low voter turnout among young people and try and raise that. And also do a documentary on it and see why it is that young people aren't voting in certain areas.

KAYE: Well, I think it's great. It's an important voice, just like everybody else's, but certainly an important voice to be heard.

GRAY: Absolutely. Thanks, Randi.

KAYE: Noah, nice to see you. Nice to have you on the show.

GRAY: Nice to see you. Thank you very much.

KAYE: Thank you.

And be sure to keep it right here Tuesday as New Hampshire voters head to the polls. You can join Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Erin Burnett and John King for live coverage of the New Hampshire primary. That's Tuesday night, 7:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

Momentum is the name of the game in primary politics, but one former presidential point man says Santorum blew it. It's "Fair Game" and it's next.

But first, another political junkie question for you. Which candidate won the Republican primary in New Hampshire with the smallest percentage of the vote? You can tweet me the answer to @randikayecnn. I'll give a shout-out to you if you're the first one with the right answer. Get tweeting. I'll be back after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAYE: Welcome back. Before the break I asked who won the New Hampshire primary with the lowest percentage of the vote. The answer is Pat Buchanan. In 1996, he carried New Hampshire with just 27.3 percent of the vote. He beat out potential nominee, Bob Dole, by 1 percent. And congrats to Jay Curry from Texas. You tweeted me the right answer and I'm giving you this shout out.

This is the part of the show where we go to the heart of the political debate where all sides are "Fair Game." A lot of people have already anointed Mitt Romney the winner in New Hampshire. After all, he has a commanding lead in the polls.

Joining me now is Gentry Collins, who was Mitt Romney's point man in Iowa back in 2008; and Democratic political consultant, Ed Espinoza.

Welcome to you both.

Take a look at these numbers with me. In late October, Romney held a 27 percent lead. Two weeks to go, it was still 27. And look at that number. 44 percent there. But now the latest Suffolk University tracking poll has him at 33 percent, on 13 points ahead of Ron Paul.

Gentry, to you first. Why do you think he's falling and is a narrow win for Mitt Romney really a loss in New Hampshire?

GENTRY COLLINS, FORMER POLITICAL DIRECTOR, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I don't know if you can call a 13-point win a narrow win. By the time you get to 10 points, you're in landslide territory. And I think just about any Republican candidate over the course of the New Hampshire primary history would have liked a 13-point win. I think this keeps the momentum going for Mitt Romney. I think that the other candidates have failed to consolidate a single not-Mitt candidate, which is really what they need to do if they wanted to eat into his lead. So I think Romney is poised for a great night tomorrow.

KAYE: Ed, what do you think? Certainly, Romney has got to like the fact that these folks are playing this game with him, all part of the field still.

ED ESPINOZA, DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL CONSULTANT: And Gentry's right. A 10-point win, 13-point win, those are good things for Romney. But there's two things to keep in mind here. New Hampshire is basically a home state for Mitt Romney. They share the same media markets with Massachusetts. If you want to go up on the Internet (ph) state, you have to buy a Boston TV in surrounding areas. Mitt Romney should do very well here. He needs a blow out win for two reasons. One, it's his home turf. Two, because there's proportional delegate allocation with victories in these races, a bigger race means he creates more separation between himself and the next-closest Republican. A closer win means he gets fewer delegates for that victory.

KAYE: Gentry, let me ask you about Rick Santorum? How do you think he's done in terms of capitalizing on Iowa? Is he making the most of it?

COLLINS: I don't think he is. I want to be clear, he had a great campaign appearance in Iowa. Not only Santorum personally but his campaign staff, the people around him ran a brilliant campaign. I think he should have gone straight to South Carolina. New Hampshire not as good of a fit for him. He's not been able to consolidate his status as the not-Mitt candidate. South Carolina would have been a better fit. For a campaign just getting its sea legs under it, you don't have the ability to do one state at a time. So he's wasted the time in South Carolina that he could have spent this week.

KAYE: What do you think, Ed? Is Santorum playing it smart? And how about the others?

ESPINOZA: Again, agreeing with Gentry here, I think Romney basically owns New Hampshire. If you're going to go there to compete with him, you have to put that in relative terms. You have very short windows right now to build your organization in these early states. If these guys want to take advantage of their momentum and really build on that, South Carolina is the next real contest in this nomination. New Hampshire is virtually irrelevant when it comes to someone demonstrating their strength.

KAYE: Gentry, what has been the impact of the Tea Party on this race so far?

COLLINS: I think it's had an interesting impact. Interesting because we haven't heard as much in the media about the Tea Party, but clearly they were active last week. They were very active for Ron Paul. They've been active for Mitt Romney. They have split their support among the candidates. The most interesting part is I think they have driven turnout.

Turnout last week in Iowa was at an all-time high. And notwithstanding the fact that campaigns didn't have the big robust kind of traditional turn-out operations that they normally have in previous years in Iowa, and notwithstanding the fact that there was a lot of indecision about which candidate. The turnout wasn't driven by excitement for a single candidate. It was driven, I think, in part by Tea Party excitement, residual excitement from 2010, and by a real desire among these people, these voters for anybody but Barack Obama in 2012.

KAYE: You know, we've talked a little bit about Jon Huntsman earlier in the program. He has certainly put all of his eggs in the New Hampshire basket. Listen to what he said recently.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON HUNTSMAN, (R), FORMER UTAH GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All the others have gone up and down. You know, I'm getting a stiff neck just watching all of my friends go up and then down.

(LAUGHTER)

Perry, Cain, Bachmann, they all come in and they all go up to 22 and then down to 2. I said, I don't want that to happen to me. I don't want a war holly and 15 minutes of fame episode. I want a gradual, steady, substantive rise, like we're getting here in New Hampshire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: So, Ed, what do you think? How well does Huntsman have to do to do this?

ESPINOZA: It's one thing to make the comment that you don't want and up-or-down campaign when only have one direction to go and that's up. He's been at the bottom of the poll for a long time. The problem Huntsman's got, he's not very different than Romney. When you look for an alternative to Romney -- there's already an enthusiasm gap for Romney. He's not the guy. He doesn't have the conservative credentials to do that.

Your next best option in this race are Santorum and Gingrich. The problem we have in this race is that Santorum and Gingrich are competing for the same voters. If there was only one of them, they would both do -- one of them would be in the lead. But with both of them in the race, they are both going to be in second.

KAYE: Ed Espinoza, Gentry Collins.

That is "Fair Game" today.

Thank you both.

Keep it right here Tuesday as New Hampshire voters head to the polls. Join Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Erin Burnett and John King us for live coverage of the New Hampshire primary tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. eastern only right here on CNN.

With Mitt Romney leading in New Hampshire, Newt Gingrich is resorting to some name calling, despite saying he won't run a negative campaign. he's called Romney everything from a flip-flopper to a liar. So is the new Newt returning to his old ways? We'll ask one of his supporters next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: He says Mitt Romney is a flip-flopper on core issues and even calls him a liar. In fact, Newt Gingrich has pretty much thrown that campaign promise not to go negative out the window. These are live pictures, by the way, of an event he's holding right now in New Hampshire. But is his new strategy one that's going to work? If the latest New Hampshire polling is any indication, Gingrich doesn't have much to lose. The Suffolk University poll puts the former speaker in fourth place behind Jon Huntsman. So is there still hope?

My guest next sure things so. Bud McFarlane is a former national security adviser under Ronald Reagan and a Gingrich support.

Mr. McFarlane, thank you for joining us.

Before we begin, I want to play some sound for you from the weekend's NBC debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH, (R), FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Can we drop a little bit of the pious bologna. The fact is, you had a very bad reelection rating. You dropped out of office. You have 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Gingrich has never been one to hold back. Do you think this call-it-like-you-see-it approach is going to work for him or could it possibly backfire?

ROBERT "BUD" MCFARLANE, CHAIRMAN & CEO, MCFARLANE ASSOCIATES, INC & FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR TO RONALD REAGAN: Randi, thank you for having me on. I think really that in our elective process, telling the truth is never meanness. It's fact. Always fact based with Speaker Gingrich. I think he has transcended the set backs of Iowa by beginning to tell the truth more candidly. Here in New Hampshire, we're seeing gains every day. We are hopeful we'll come out of here in third place and go into South Carolina with some momentum, based on the substance which distinguishes him from all of the other candidates.

KAYE: You're there in New Hampshire supporting him, helping to stump for him. Why do you think Newt Gingrich is the best man, the best candidate to go up against Barack Obama?

MCFARLANE: Going back more than a year, I looked at what each of the seven candidates, at the time, had done based on the threats that we're likely to see here at home. And only Speaker Gingrich had looked at vulnerabilities; the terrorism that may include, in the years, bio terrorism; and our energy problems, our reliance generals on foreign oil and so forth. but also right here at home and what we're going to have to do to reform the size of government and so forth. And only Speaker Gingrich had both the knowledge of what to do about the several stresses we're going to face but also the experience.

Randi, when you ask your viewers what they are most upset about, it's probably paralysis in government. When you ask yourself, when is the last time it really did work, it's 15 years ago when Speaker Gingrich, working with a Democrat President Clinton, was able to produce four years of balanced budgets in a row, also to reform significant costly measures like welfare reform and get people off the doll and back into the workforce. In short, it takes knowledge, experience, and the ability to make the government work. He learned that with Ronald Reagan when he and I worked together.

KAYE: Let me ask you about South Carolina. Looking ahead to South Carolina, if you look at the polls, Gingrich is in much better shape. He's running a close third behind Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney. And now tomorrow, we'll have this super PAC supporting Gingrich. They will be running a multimillion dollar ad that will be attacking Mitt Romney.

Let's go listen to that for a second and I want to get your reaction to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD NARRATOR: Mitt Romney became CEO of Bain Capital the day the company was formed. His mission? To reap massive rewards for himself and his investors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mitt Romney, them guys, they don't care who I am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's for small businesses? No, he isn't. He's not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: So very quickly, based on that, what do you think Newt Gingrich has to do to convince social conservatives that he's their man and also to go up against Mitt Romney?

MCFARLANE: Randi, I think if they look at his record and what he has done in support of President Reagan and in looking hard at what he has succeeded in doing in reforming welfare and in balancing the budget, it's going to appeal to the fiscal conservatives. His values, his strong faith -- all of the things that appeal to conservative South Carolinians are going to be resonating between Newt Gingrich and that population. And there's no question in my mind he's more appealing to the solid traditional conservative than any other candidate in the race right now, South Carolina especially.

KAYE: Thank you very much, Robert McFarlane. Appreciate your time today. We'll continue our countdown to the New Hampshire primary throughout the day. Remember to join us tomorrow, 7:00 p.m. eastern as we begin counting votes from New Hampshire.

And Archie Comics making its statement. The issue making headlines with its social stance.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: And now for a look at stories making news at "Street Level."

We start in New York involving an apparent serial killer. Police have released this sketch, which is a victim of the killer. They're refusing to comment on the details of her death. They say remains of her body were found in 1996 and her skull was discovered on an ocean parkway beach last April. So far, 10 sets of human remains have been found on Long Island beaches.

To Virginia now, and the making of history. The Army has enacted the 437th Civilian Affairs Battalion, the only one in its kind in the state. The Army says Civil Affairs soldiers are the middlemen and women between the military and civilians living in war zones. Their jobs include digging wells, building schools and rebuilding entire communities. Many of the Reservists with the battalion are multi- lingual and are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.