legendary funny man, steve carell and david steinberg and a tribute to a real all american hero on piers morgan tonight. good evening. our big story tonight, whitney houston, fallen diva laid to rest, buried by side her father in a new jersey cemetery and about the extraordinary performance at the funeral and the song the family asked him to sing and pat o brien and talking about whitney and his own struggle with addiction and david carell and steinberg. are you a funny person by nature? as evidenced by this interview, no. clearly not. i don t light up a room. i wasn t the person who can hold court and not a stand-up. i m not proficient at that at all. that s coming up. we begin with whitney houston s final farewell. joining me now, donnie clerk on whitney s friend and a preacher on long island. one of the most extraordinary performances i have seen by any singer. i was watching it live co-anchoring. it blew me away your singing in the church. what was it like for you
we begin tonight with presidential politics. new numbers that underscore just how important our big debate here is tomorrow night and a new twist in the campai campaign conversation. a new cnn times poll shows a statistical dead heat this arizona. 36% for mitt romney, 32% for the surging rick santorum. add in a small santorum lead in michigan which also votes next tuesday, and what you get is a tense, volatile gop race as the final four candidates prepare for their first debate in nearly a month. in a moment how the tightness of the race is playing out among the candidates. but first a campaign commentary is stirring controversy. listen here to franklin graham, the son of the reverend billy graham, when asked on msnbc just this morning if he can say categorically that the president is not a muslim. i can t say categorically, because islam has gotten a free pass under obama. how so? well, we see the arab spring. coming out of the arab spring the islamists are taking co
immigration debate confirms he is gay. another outspoken lawman sheriff joe arpaio weighs in on that controversy. plus, a natural wonder that isn t. what it seems a water fall that looks like red hot lava. more evidence tonight that if there is a front runner the republican race, it is at the moment rick santorum, not mitt romney. it the nomination is won state by state and arizona and michigan are up next a week away. as we prepare for a big debate wednesday night, check this out. santorum now surging to a ten-point lead over romney in the national gallup tracking poll. no surprise the former pennsylvania senator is getting more scrutiny from rivals annen democrats, too. some goes back to his record in congress. some focuses on new more pointed santorum rhetoric like his weekend accusation that president obama is imposing his own theology on americans. this is what the president s agenda, it s not about you. it s about you. it s not about your quality of life. it s no ab
he now acknowledges that he is gay but denies the other allegations. we ll talk to the reporter for the phoenix new times to talk about this story. iranian officials over nuclear program, iran s foreign minister is now saying he expects relations with europe to improve one day after iran cut crude exports to the uk and france because of sanctions. the iaea wants to clear the military program. back in november, the u.n. watch dog program carried out weapons-related research. iran needs to dis-prove the allegation. a washington skier is describing her terror. she knew two of the three skiers killed yesterday. on the today show she described what it was like to see an avalanche coming towards her. there wasn t much sound and it literally is just trying to figure out within seconds what is happening and how you re going to deal with it. there s not a lot of happen. it happens really, really fast. a backpack outfitted with an air bag saved her life. and now to the re
charges in egypt s crack down on non-governmental organizations. the trial is set to begin on sunday. this video from syria is said to show men rushing into a burning house to save a child in the city of homs. cnn can t confirm the you authentici authenticity, rebel commander calls the uprising an orphan revolution without the international support given to other revotes. an advisor said it s premature to decide to help armed the rebels. rick santorum surging to a lead over mitt romney. ahead by eight points, five point drop for romney, five point jump for santorum since last wednesday. just before the arizona primary, all four candidates meet in arizona, republican presidential debate, moderated by our own john king, that is coming up wednesday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. in washington state, an avalanche kills three skiers in the cascade mountains. police say 12 skiers got caught in the snow slide, but the other nine dug themselves out. a deputy tells us that one of the s