will it be the intellectual newt gingrich unafraid or the sour, nastier newt gingrich that is not likeable? i think the first newt gingrich was at your debate last night. >> certainly he surprised all of us, given where he was over the summer. everyone thought his campaign as it was beginning was already over. all of a sudden, the new polls show he's right in the thick of things. >> what a testament to the power of the debates and the way it changes the way they run for president. >> we'll see if this last debate winds up helping or hurting him. don't go too far away. we have a lot to discuss. the candidates were united in slamming the tsa. some calling for profiling of muslims. also, a sharp clash over the u.s. military mission in afghanistan. act my age? -why? -why? -why? [ female announcer ] we all age differently. roc® multi-correxion 4 zone moisturizer with roc®retinol and antioxidants. lines, wrinkles, and sun damage will fade. roc multi-correxion. correct what ages you. the sleep number bed. with the sleep number bed, it's not about soft or firm. it's about support where you find

interesting thing, perry couldn't take on newt gingrich. newt gingrich is newt gingrich. he'll surprise you and you never know which newt gingrich will throw up. the unafraid or sour, nastier newt gingrich that is not likeable. i think the first knute bring ri ging /* gingrich was at your debate. >> all of a sudden, new polls show he's right in the thick of things. >> it's changing the way you run for president. >> we'll see if this last debate winds up helping or hurting them. don't go too far away much woo. we have lots to discuss. and the candidates calling for profiling of muslims? and a clash of military position in afghanistan. [ male announcer ] sometimes, a hint is all the wrapping a gift needs. is that what i think it is? ♪ [ male announcer ] the lexus december to remember sales event is here, but only for a limited time. see your lexus dealer for exclusive lease offers on the 2012 is 250 and, as a gift from lexus, we'll make your first month's payment. congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire business

mitt romney and newt gingrich. listen to what romney is now saying about newt gingrich. >> he and i have very different backgrounds. he spent his last 30 or 40 years in washington. i spent my career in the private sector. he's a lifelong politician. i think you have to have the credibility of understanding how the economy works. and i do and that's one reason i'm in this race. >> he spent 30 or 40 years in washington. he's a lifelong politician. on the other hand, mitt romney's a business person. the gloves are a little bit beginning to come off. >> it's about time. look, this is supposed to be a change election. all the issues will boil down to the economy and so, mitt romney has to offer that contrast and it is an absolute joke for newt gingrich to stand here and talk about he's an outsider when he is an ultimate insider. this whole deal with all his institutes and these organizations, he's trading on the level of influence in the nation's capitol, so it's smart for romney to go after him aggressively. >> you use

cain votes. >> newt gingrich is well-known. it's the carry on kind of baggage. people know about his past. they know about his mistakes. they know about the scandals he's been involved in and because of that, conservatives who are still looking for an alternative to romney, they might park temporarily in the newt gingrich camp, but i still believe that some of the others may have an opportunity to move up. >> what do you think? >> you had it right on your blog. it's not predictable at this point. what is to be sure, is the bigger the field, the better for romney. worse for him rather. so -- >> his latest developments have been good for gingrich. not so good for romney. but we'll talk about that later. thanks very much. the "cafferty file" is up next, then at the top of the hour, mitt romney secures three key endorsements in one critical state. could he also be securing his front-runner stat or not? with less chronic low back pain. imagine living your life with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymba

there is an unromney and his name is newt gingrich. take a look at new polls that came out, first the -- let's look at the first poll first. mitt romney on top 23% and then newt gingrich at 19%. he has moved into that unromy position. he is sliding it with herman cain. and then you see ron paul and rick perry. this poll, we should note, is interesting in that it was taken in part after the gop debate on wednesday night when rick perry had that big oops moment. so that potentially has hurt him in this race for the gop nomination. now to the cbs poll which also confirms newt gingrich in a near front-runner status. herman cain there at 18%. mitt romney at 15%. not good news for mitt romney there. but newt gingrich right there at 15%. so what is old is newt in the race for the gop nomination. he has been bouied by the debate performances. you see him go after the media. conservatives love that. >> he's been slow but steady on the increase. he is clearly moving up. rick perry's been massively involved in what we call damage control. >> he h

the thing about newt gingrich though, you never know which newt is going to show up. when you interview him or when he's on the campaign trial. during the debates, he's often seen as the adult in the room. he uses the press as his foil a lot, but now that he's under the mike scope, we're going to have to see how he reacts to the stories. >> he's really doing well in new hampshire. 40% say they like romney, gingrich is at 11%. cain, 8%. you see the numbers there. almost a resident of new hampshire, mitt romney. does this make iowa the first contest even more important? >> yeah, it makes iowa much more important and i'm going to show you some more numbers because take a look at this. iowa is really a very, very close race. according to a new iowa poll taken by bloomberg news. you can see the top four candidates there are really bunched together. with cain at the top, but that can change. iowa is the first time that really votes are cast and some campaigns have to win iowa or the money's going to dry up. i think that would be michele bachmann or rick santorum. and romney

>> newt gingrich might just have it, timing. just as former house speaker surges in the hol polls he is also getting key endorsements. for starters the new hampshire editorial leader is backing gingrich. they say he has improved washington before and in this race he has the best shot of doing it again. this conservative stamp of approval can do a long way in helping gingrich, especially at a time when many conservatives are taking aim on his stand with immigration. >>> sarah palin, remember letter? she could throw her supported behind gingrich as well. one suggest, atds to palin, say gingrich is the most likely to score her endorsement. and it is not just conservatives who have nice things to say about newt gingrich. former president clinton praises gingrich in an interview with a website news max. calling gingrich articulate. saying he tries to think of an idea that will solve a legitimate problem. that's a clinton quote. he suggests that it will make independent voters take a hard look at him. all of this has to be keeping mit

newt gingrich raises to. top. >>> i will talk about that race with the republican candidate rick santorum. we will also discuss what he calls the horrific and devastating scandal of his alma matter, penn state university. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in the situation room. >>> but first, a stunning new shift in the republican race for the presidency. our new polls shows gingrich gained 14 points since october. that puts him in a virtual tie for the lead with mitt romney. herm yan can dropped 11 points. that puts him in a battle for third place right now with rick perry. ron paul and michele bachmann follow with jon huntsman and rick santorum rounding out the field. herman cain's plunge comes as he struggled with allegations of sexual harassment going back pour than a decade. now herman cain's wife is speaking out, but she isn't the only one. cnn's joe john says tracking the latest developments for us. and there have been many joe, what's the late snef. >> with herman cain losing status in the polls, the latest pe

newt gingrich on the defense again. new reports he was paid tens of millions of dollars by the health care industry. ♪ do you believe in magic? [ male announcer ] there's just something about werther's caramel that makes a chocolate so smooth and creamy, you don't just taste it, you feel it. ♪ magic [ male announcer ] werther's original caramel chocolate. what comfort tastes like. >>> embarrassing and potentially dangerous security slip-up in australia. brianna is joining us in bali in indonesia. what happened? >> hi, wolf, the sidney herald is reporting the president's visit to australia's capitol the middle of this week, it was found lying on the street, obviously not where it was supposed to be by the paper's national security reporter. it included details, such as phone numbers for top administration officials, australian military officials and detailins even down to the seating arrangement of the president's motorcade and which door of his limousine he would be getting into and out of. it's unclear how signific

>> some candidates are stepping in it, newt gingrich is stepping it up. what's old is newt. he's back. >> it is a wide open race. >> consider campaign road kill over the summer, newt gingrich is peaking at just the right time. he is leaping ahead of herman cain in a new poll and falling within the margin of error for the lead in another poll from cbs. the former house speaker may be scoffing at his numbers. >> all of this effort to create a two-man race when it was perry and romney. >> reporter: he already has a new racer line attack for mitt roxny. >> you're not running to be super governor. this is more complicated than being governor. >> reporter: the campaign lost its luster in may surrounding the tiffany's jewelry chain. but he hung on and serving up red meat filled debate performances along with a tax on the immediate gentleman. >> i have yet to hear a single reporter ask a single rational question about the economy, who's going to pay for the park you're occupying if there are no businesses making a profit? >> reporter: he's also benefited from the clouds hanging over

newt gingrich tweeted this. he invited his followers to take a tweet down memory lane and then there was a clip from a 2007 romney interview on "meet the press." here's that clip. >> my own view, consistent with what you said, those people that have come here illegally and in this country, the 12 million or so here illegally, should be able to sign up for permanent residency or citizenship. >> now, we asked the romney campaign for a response to that and they sent out a more complete quote from that interview. let's put that up on the screen so we can read that to you. right after that clip that you just saw, romney goes on to say in that same interview, but they should not be given a special path way, a special guarantee that all of them get to stay here for the rest of their lives, merely by virtue of coming here illegally. it appears that they took romney's quote out of context but when asked if gingrich did just that, the romney campaign did not want to go there because they admitted that they took the presid

newt gingrich has been all over the map. so, i think these candidates, while foreign policy is not going to be at the top of the voter's agenda, there is still a threshold you have to cross when you want to be president of the united states and americans understand that and believe it and want somebody who's strong, credible and plausible. >> over the past many decades, the republicans have been the ones that have strong and defense and national security. >> now, that's been the republican calling card. strong on defense and what's interesting for barack obama is that he, his highest poll ratings come on national security. don't forget he's had some successes. he got osama bin laden and in this field, wolf, as you know bitter than i do, there is no john mccain. there is no republican hawk here like we saw in the 2008 elections. mitt romney disagrees with barack obama on iraq and afghanistan, but really, much more on the timetables of the withdrawal of the troops than anything else. so, these republicans are going up, whoever

newt gingrich as well. stand by. gingrich, he's charging hard right now for the republican presidential nomination. he often comes down hard on the news media. gingrich though has profited hand s handsomely from his own media activities. joe johns will join us when we come back. [ male announcer ] what if we told you that cadillac borrowed technology from ferrari to develop its suspension system? or what if we told you that ferrari borrowed technology from cadillac to develop its suspension system? magnetic ride control -- pioneered by cadillac, perfected in the 556-horsepower cts-v. we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. perfected in the 556-horsepower cts-v. we are the tomorrow makers. we're making tomorrows like clockwork. ♪ for all the different things our customers planned for. like a college education. or, the perfect wedding. ♪ ♪ i love ya, tomorrow! [ male announcer ] we're making them a better financial future. what can we make with you? transamerica. transform tomorrow. >>> governor rick p

>> wolf, newt gingrich says his recent rise surprises even him. when we sat down with the former speaker, he said this candidly, last summer was the worst time of his political career. that was when his senior staff resigned, but all of that is now behind him. meet the gop's latest fresh face. newt gingrich. >> yesterday afternoon in jefferson, iowa, somebody introduced me as the front-runner. >> yes, the same gingrich who was a walking dead candidate last summer. drawing big crowds in iowa, he is candid about his near death political experience. did you feel dead? >> no, i felt desperate. i didn't feel dead. i've done this for 53 years and the two hardest months of my career were june and july. i am the only candidate running who has actually led at national level. >> but humility has its limits and assessing what went wrong with his campaign, he compared himself to two conservative giants. where did you go wrong? >> i think it was a big mistake to try to bring in conventional consultan consultants. i am such an unconventional political figure th

get this, newt gingrich, the new front-runner. and is the taliban playing any role in libya as herman cain suggests? susan wright is just back from a surprise visit to tripoli. >>> i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." we're live here at constitution hall, here in the nation's capitol, where in just a little bit more than 24 hours, the republican presidential hopeful will face off for the first time in a major debate on national security, foreign affairs and the economy. he will be mod rating the event co-sponsored by the her kaj foundation and american enterprise institute. on the eve of this critical contest an eye-popping shift? the republican con taft. a new cnn poll just released minutes ago, shows newt gingrich on top of the republican pack for the first time. look at this wp 24% of republicans asked, if the former house speaker is their choice to be the presidential nominee, compared to mitt romney there is a dead heat, with gingrich and romney nationwide. other candidates, all in single digits. our chief politi

and newt gingrich firing back amid swirling questions about whether he was paid more than $1 million by troubled mortgage giant freddie mac. and congresswoman gabrielle give fords breaking her silence this week for the first time since being shot in the head. just ahead. her emotional trying road to recovery and the dramatic new message she has for her constituents. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzerment you're in "the situation room." first the battle for the white house. the issue is national security on cnn. i'll be moderating a debate tuesday night right here in washington with the republican presidential contenders. and with the spotlight getting brighter on those at the front of the pack, they could have the potential to -- the potential to be a game changer. joining us now for a preview, danielle pletka. she is with the american enterprise institute. james carafano, director for foreign policy at the heritage foundation and norm orenstein. he also writes a weekly column for "roll call." i want to point out the debate will

i mean, as newt gingrich said, it's not as easy as it looks. at the same time, voters are looking at how candidates handle matters that are in a crisis like he's doing now and they make certain evaluations about that. obviously, he's not handing it in a smooth way and i'm sure that can't help him at all. >> can he bounce back? >> i don't know. it depends on republican primary voters. in the end, it helps the favorite, which mitt romney. i don't see cain coming back in a strong way unless he actually has policy prescriptions that people are interested and feel are valuable. >> 9-9-9, we've heard that for weeks, months. thanks very much. by the way, excellent cover of the new issue of "time" magazine. can you still move up in america? it's a powerful question. an excellent article on it. thank you. >>> police car slams into a plane. ahead, details of what's behind this unbelievable chase caught on videotape. plus, two workers trapped on a church steeple for hours and hours. we're going to have the latest on a rescue effort. that is somen i would

she had an spornt interview with newt gingrich today. we'll hear what he has to say about all of this and a lot more. stay with us. ♪ [ multiple snds ng melodic tune ] ♪ [ malennounc ] at northrop grumman, makthworld a feplace. th's value performance. northr gruan. there's no time like the present to consider all your health insurance options. does medicare alone meet your needs? would additional coverage be better for you? well, now is a good time to take a look at an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. get started by calling for your free information kit and guide to medicare. as you probably know, medicare only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. a medicare supplement insurance plan helps cover some of it. that could save you up to thousands of dollars a year in out-of-pocket costs. and you can visit any doctor who accepts medicare patients. with medicare supplement insurance, you'll find a range of plans to choose from to fit your needs and b

. >> newt gingrich says he's the tortoise and mitt romney's the hare. quote, the rabbit runs by, falls asleep. the tortoise just keeps coming, so hopefully in this game, mitt romney will be the rabbit, i'll be the tortoise, unquote. and gingrich has reason to be hopeful. he's seen a jump in poles. puts him third inost polls behind romney and cain. these are national poll, he's also in fourth place in iowa. gingrich thinks there's a big opportunity for an alternative candidate since romney seems stuck at about 25% in the national polls, cain risks fizzling out with recent sexual harassment allegations. gingrich thinks there's more in the race for him. he's performed well in the debates so far, acting the role of elder statesman. gingrich's campaign was left for dead by many in the spring. several of his advisers had quit after he took two weeks off to go on a cruise in the medicine terror yain yan. several candidates have seen temporary jumps in popularity, only to slide back. rick perry, michele bachmann and now maybe herman cain. all the while holding

and newt gingrich, by the way, he's moving up as you point out in these polls. so we'll be watching at the top of the hour, john. thank you. >> we're also getting new information coming into "the situation room" about a senior u.s. general in afghanistan who is highly critical of the afghan government and president karzai. there are breaking developments. >>> another u.s. general in deep trouble because of comments made about what's going on in afghanistan. let's go back to barbara starr. what's going on here, barbara? >> if this were just coming in from afghanistan, major general peter fuller, one of the top u.s. commanders in the effort to train afghan forces relieved of duty, fired by the top commander general john allen. this follows general fuller making remarks to a reporter from politico here in washington yesterday where he certainly disparaged, there's no question about it, the afghan government. he made remarks that afghan leaders, including hamid karzai, the president, are isolated from reality. at one point he told the politico reporter quoting, you'

as for some of the others, newt gingrich, ron paul and others, they are back in the pack fighting for position, long shots at best at this point. that leaves mitt romney in the lead. after the cain allegations, romney is now the prohibitive favorite to take the checkered flag, win the nomination and take on president obama next november -- at least for now. romney is the same guy the republicans wanted no part of four years ago when john mccain was the nominee. polls show most republicans think romney has the best chance to beat president obama, but even if he does, so what? what difference does it really make? given the bitter partisanship of congress how much does it matter if romney wins unless the republicans win the senate, regain control of the house romney can't get any more done than president obama has. our country hasn't been this divided since the civil war. there was a time politicians from both sides of the aisle acknowledged their differences and worked together. no more. here's the question. with the nation so badly divide, how much does it really matter who the preside