as we count down to new hampshire, the economy is still the driving force in the minds of voters in the united states. but is it the driving force in the republican primary? welcome to your money. i m ali velshi. the latest cnn/opinion research corporation poll shows 57% of americans think that the economy is the most important issue facing this country. i want to bring in cnn senior political analyst david gergen. david, the polls say mitt romney has the best chance to beat president obama in the republican field. do conservatives still reluctant to get behind romney feel he lacks what it takes to turn the economy around or is it something else all together? he is actually doing well when people asked is your most important issue the economy in iowa. he won a healthy plurality of those voters who thought the economy was number one. he s having some trouble connecting with voters emotionally. they seem stiff, reserved, can t quite understand him, santorum in the case of i
say they can do better on the the job front than president obama. some are making claims about their own job-creating records that don t stand up to scrutiny. their case against the administration today got harder to make because new job numbers came out, unemployment fell again last month, down .2 to 8.5%. the economy gaping 200,000 jobs, 50,000 more than expected. these are decent, not spectacular by any means and president obama was cautious. there are a lot of people still hurting out there after losing more thain 8 million jobs in the recession, obviously, we have a lot more work to do. state and local government workers hardest hit, nearly a quarter million public sector jobs eliminated last year, including more than 100,000 teachers. jon huntsman called today s job report good news but said we can be doing better. ron paul said the same but warped the financial crisis is not over. rick santorum, the other gop candidates, were less generous. is great that the econ
race. he also got booed on stage. we ll show what you that is all about. first, the new polling from suffolk university. mitt romney with a commanding 41% of likely republican voters. he is followed by ron paul at 18%, rick santorum and newt gingrich at 7%. this, of course, in new hampshire. both paul and santorum are on the rise since iowa. congressman paul took the day off from campaigning. santorum had a full day trying to turn his near victory in iowa to gains in new hampshire and trying to sell his brand of social conservativism in a leave me alone state. today at a tinor in tilton, new hampshire, he was visited by protesters. then the first lady s 2008 line for the first time in my adult lifetime i m really proud of my country. he was booed lefrg the stage. let me thank you all very much for being here and for your time and attention. thanks. boo. boo. he spoke at a faith freedom and friendly hall. keep in mind other statements that are causing controversy because t
new hampshire union leader came out for gingrich, now the boston globe has backed huntsman, not the former massachusetts governor, mitt romney. we received the endorsement of about half the papers in the state. we just got the endorsement of the boston globe. we re moving forward. i feel very good about where we sit in new hampshire because i know this state loves an underdog. romney with a commanding lead in new hampshire polling. he s spending as much time as possible down south in south carolina. that state votes on the 21st. check out this poll, brand-new showing romney s hard work is paying off. he s now running well ahead of santorum, gingrich and ron paul who are all bunched up there in mid-field. romney will be back in new hampshire in time for dinner. in the face of republican outrage, president obama is standing by and with his consumer financial protection bureau and the man that he has chosen to lead it. mr. obama visited the bureau personally just two
but back to the ads and also keeping them honest, how clean are speaker gingrich s hands or rick perry or anyone else s. in his concession speech last night from beginning to end, speaker gingrich ignored the attack ads. they really wanted to get to the truth rather than the latest 30-second distortion. i would not have survived in this campaign against millions and millions of dollars of negative advertising. if it weren t for the thousands of volunteers who showed up and who helped us in every town and in every precinct, and every one of us that are members, what made part of these negative ads so shameful, every one of us should remember, this process survives because young and women risk their lives to allow us to do this. now here s a sampling of the ads that ran all over iowa in the last few weeks. has more baggage than the airlines. newt gingrich supports amnesty for millions of illegals. he was fined $300,000 for ethics violations. whatever you think of them