this is your "a.m. wakeup call." . good morning to you, it is tuesday, november 22nd. i'm carol costello. here are this morning's top stories. republican candidates gathering in the shadow of the white house tonight for the big cnn national security debate. it's the first test for newt gingrich as the front-runner. a new poll shows he leads mitt romney by 4%. giving up a lot of the blame, not much shame is the congressional super committee calls it quits. lawmakers announcing they cannot reach a deal to cut at least $1.2 trillion worth of deficit now even more painful cuts loom. part of a major highway between memphis and dallas reopened after an intense down pour washed it away yesterday. 88,000 cars and trucks sat on a 30-mile detour and more rain is on the way this morning. so let's check in with jackie gerris in atlanta. good morning. >> good morning, carol. yeah, flooding is going to continue to be a big problem across the mid south this morning. the rain continues to come down in little rock. we have this big system really that's affecting much of the plains heading into the lower mississippi river valley today. if you're traveling, please do not drive over any roads that are covered in water. there you can see the flood watches and warnings which remain along i-30, i-40 up towards 55 and on up into paducah, kentucky. severe thunderstorms are possible also later this afternoon from eastern texas stretching on up into the lower ohio river valley, over towards cincinnati as well. so a big issue for travelers all across the east and southeast. even though not a lot of rain up and down the east coast, you're going to be clouded in. so that makes things tough at the airports. strong system in the pacific northwest, too. so from seattle along i-5 into the portland air, expecting heavy rain and heavy snow. the temperatures much colder in the plains. we're pushing 80 in atlanta. carol, we'll talk more about what can you expect for travelers at the airports coming up in about 15 minutes. >> all right. we'll be waiting. jackie gerris, thank you. there will be a new front-runner when the republican presidential candidates square off tonight live on cnn. a brand new poll shows that 24% of republican voters now support former house speaker newt gingrich. he's ahead of mitt romney for first time. gingrich was at 8% in a cnn poll just last month. for a while the debates were the only thing gingrich had with top staffers bailing and n. key states. his campaign was left for dead. tonight is his first big test at the top. the republican presidential candidates face off for the 11th time tonight. just a few blocks from the place they hoped to call home, the white house. the focus tonight, national security. a chance to convince voters that they will be the best commander in chief. moderator wolf blitzer has a preview to show us. thanks, very much. we're here in historic constitution hall. in washington, d.c. we're only, what, half a block away from the white house, a couple blocks away from the washington monument, the lincoln memorial. this is a real beautiful building. very historic. every president, by the way, since calvin coolidge has been to this building. tonight there's going to be a significant republican national security debate. the eight republican candidates, they're going to all be up here together with me on this stage taking questions on national security, foreign policy, the economy. we have our partners, the american enterprise institute and the heritage foundation, experts from both of those think-tanks. they'll be asking questions as well. i'll be directing the questions, making sure that the viewers out there, especially the voters, republican caucus voters, republican primary voters will be a little bit more knowledgeable about where these candidates stand on the most important issues after the debate than they are right now going into the debate. we want to know where the candidates agree, where they disagree. where they agree with president obama on critical issue, where they disagree, where they agree among themselves and disagree. so we'll have a good strong debate. it's going to be important. i hope you'll all be watching tonight, the cnn national security debate at constitutional here in the nation's capital, 8:00 p.m. eastern. >> we'll be watching, wolf. after 2 1/2 months and after all that talk about how failure is not an option, the super committee called it quits. the six democrats and six republicans on the committee have announced they can't reach a deal to cut at least $1.2 trillion from the budget. and the $15 there a15 trillion debt is not going to go away. >> reporter: when congress voted august to let the government borrow more money, there was a catch, a super committee charged with cutting $1.2 trillion in spending over the next decade. high stakes and by monday's deadline, below expectations. >> we're still talking. we'll see what happens today. >> reporter: all the six republicans and democrats could agree on was they could not agree on how to bridge the partisan divide. >> our democratic friends said we won't cut one dollar more without raising taxes. i think that tells you a lot about the philosophy in washington. >> the whole deal is really being held hosa ahostage in ide the wealthiest people in america should get a bigger tax cut. >> reporter: without a deal, mandatory budget cuts will be imposed. divided equally between defense and nondefense spending. defense secretary lee on panetta warned these cuts would cripple the military. after the deal collapsed, president obama vowed to veto any attempt to roll back the required reduction. >> the only way these spending cuts will not take place is if congress gets back to work and agrees on a balanced plan to reduce the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion. >> reporter: as far as political blame, a new cnn/orc international poll shows democratic leadership approval dropped six points. neither can claim even 30% support. the super committee issued a statement last night. they didn't even face the cameras. but senator john kerry did call in to "out front" with erin burnett last night. listen. >> what didn't happen is the job didn't get done for the united states of america because what was the deficit reduction committee became a tax cutting committee. and we got totally hung up by people who were insisting that not only could they not raise any additional revenue from the wealthiest people in the world, but they wanted to give them an additional tax cut. i mean this is insanity. and what we couldn't get passed them was their resistance to doing anything. we had $1.3 trillion in cuts on the table. we put serious things on the table that we were very, very, you know, very difficult for us. i had thousands of people that are demonstrating against me for the things we put on there. but we also put $1.3 trillion of additional revenue. they should know that is too much. and then it turned out that a trillion was too much, 900 was too much, 600 was too much. 250 was too much. i mean we wound up not being automobile to get thable to get because they wanted to know that the tax cut for the wealthiest people in the country was going to be permanent. we couldn't do that. >> so you heard what happens now acro across the board cuts in spending, that's what no one really wanted. it was supposed to be the swortd hanging over lawmakers heads. some are already trying to wiggle out. the president saying, no way. >> i will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. there will be no easy off ramps on this one. we need to keep the pressure up to compromise, not turn off the pressure. >> but the president is taking a lot of heat himself for not being more involved before the committee collapsed. new york mayor michael bloomberg saying it's a failure of leadership at all of the highest levels. >> i just think that the failure of the super committee to come to an agreement is just a damning indictment of washington's inability to govern this country. i don't know how you reach an agreement if you don't sit down at the table and talk to each other. i think it's a failurement people say who do you blame? blame is both sides of the aisle and both ends of pennsylvania avenue. >> so the committee's failure now triggers automatic cuts to almost every level of government. the $1.2 trillion will be split evenly between domestic programs and national defense. but some politically sensitive things like medicaid and social security are spared. defense inspect leon panetta warned that military cuts could tear a seam in the nation's defense. s & p issued a statement saying it's not going to downgrade america as long as these automatic cuts remain in place. in other news, calls for changes to alabama's very strict new immigration law that's been called the toughest immigration crackdown on the state level. much more harsh than the one in arizona. ten democrats from congress heading to birmingham to begin a campaign to repeal it. it requires proof of citizenship for any person with the state. birmingham's mayor told congressman that the legislation smacks of apartheid and jim crow. >> we have a beautiful mercedes plant here in alabama. and then you go and arrest the executive from germany that come here? i mean do you want the jobs and the commerce or do you want the stain that comes with the discriminatory legislation? >> one republican co-sponsor of the law says if the congressman went back to washington to pass immigration reform, we would not have to do their job for them. a standoff in an air force base in colorado ended peaceful think morning. air force officials say an airman with a gun surrendered to authorities more than 12 hours after barricading himself in a building at the base. no shots fired. no one was hurt. officials say the airman was facing a discharge over legal action in a civilian court. still to come, u.c. davis outraged. students protesting the pepper spraying seen around the world. the police chief is now on leave. students say that's not enough. egypt, protesters calling for a million man it is in. they're vowing to stay until more resignations are handed in. and it's the number one complaint of airline travelers, too much carry on luggage hauled on by other passengers. a couple lawmakers have an idea on how to stop it. this is your "a.m. wakeup call." booking a flight by itself is an uh-oh. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal. that's a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia. aflac... and major medical? major medical, boyyyy! 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[ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. 15 minutes past the hour. this is your "a.m. wakeup call." republican candidates are ready to battle it out tonight. they'll face off in a debate only a few blocks from the white house. they'll talk national security and foreign policy. you can watch it live at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. the super committee is throwing in the towel after the bipartisan panel just could not reach a deal on how to cut $1.2 trillion from the deficit. thousands of students gathered calling for the resignation of u.c. beshg wloi apologized to the crowd for last week's clash between police and occupy davis protesters. the rally sparked by this video of cops pepper spraying peaceful protesters in their faces at point blank range on friday night. two officers and the police chief are on administraministed leave. they came out with a statement last night. listen. >> both the president and i were simply shocked and appalled by these images. we agreed that he will convene all ten chance lorz and immediately begin to develop system wide procedures to insure that students can engage in peaceful protests. >> in the meantime, uc davis officials say they are conducting their own investigation. in money news this morning, delta is coming back on international travel, much of the cuts come from transatlantic flights. the airline says changes are necessary because of high fuel costs and economic uncertainty. delta plans to trim the flight capacity by 2% next year. in sports, nba players filed an amended antitrust case against the league to consolidate a pair of lawsuits filed last week and to hopefully speed up the process that could lead to a settlement in the lockout. labor talks dissolved last week after the players union and the nba could not reach a deal. let's head to atlanta and check in with jackie gerris. thanks giving is shaping up to be a cold holiday for some. >> yeah. but much of the weather woes are moving out by thursz. the bad news is it's going to be here when everybody is traveling, right? so that's kind of the bummer of it all. so keep this in mind before you head out the door. take a look at the national map today. there is so much red on it. we're concerned about the severe thunderstorms developing from texas all the way up into the ohio river valley. there can you see that big focus, new orleans, places like birmingham and nashville, memphis, all could see strong to severe thunderstorms this afternoon not to mention the flooding that is on going across the mid south. it's been a terrible mess in places like little rock as much as five inches to the north and west of there. parts of the interstate shut down yesterday. that's back open. so that is good news. there were new water rescues that took place overnight. so something we have to continue to monitor and watch. now if you're traveling by the airports, the list is lengthening today. expecting delays. atlanta and d.c. metros, new york it is yes and philadelphia will see showers this morning and fog. memphis and st. louis, because of the storms, chicago and cleveland primarily wind issues. and then expecting some fog in san francisco. tomorrow, of course, the busiest travel day of all throughout the seven-day holiday week for those of that you have that many days off in a row, good for you. our nation's midsection looks good. great traveling from minneapolis to houston. even though we're not expecting a lot of severe weather tomorrow, there could be strong storms. you get that rain in there, carol, you just know it's tough to get around, especially at the airports. >> i know. >> you have to remember, it's holiday time. >> that's right. jackie gerris, thanks. violent protests in cairo. thousands of protesters, at least 24 are dead, hundreds injured. the violence is escalating after four days of clashing between security force ands protesters. so let's head to cairo and ivan boston. good morning, ivan. >> reporter: good morning, carol. that's right. thousands of people slept here overnight on blankets that were being brought in to support them. the crowds are swelling throughout the day. meanwhile, in the streets leading away from the square in direction of the interior ministry which is a five-minute's walk away, that's where the battles are raging between riot police and angry young ee jipgszs. there are clouds of tear gas back therement we just came from there and we had the good fortune to be equipped with gas masks. the young people in there don't have them. they are spitting and puking from the effects of this gas running up to us with canisters. one of them i saw today showed that the gas had been manufactured in jamestown, pennsylvania. and we can see another cloud billowing up right there and people running away from them. it's really nasty stuff. but despite that, these people show no signs of leaving. they're demanding that egypt's ruling military council which took over after mubarak was forced out of power, they're demanding that the military council step backment they're furious that at least 24 of their compatriots have been killed in these battles since last saturday. carol? >> i understand tourists have not escaped this kind of thing, either. two tourists are placed under arrest? tell us about that, ivan. >> reporter: yeah. let me just say, you know, we're zooming in on what you can see are people running away from the gas which appears to be being fired from some of the roof tops here, carol, just to give you a sense. and the fact that the kids keep running into battle shows they're not going to give up this symbolic ground here. they're not run ago way from this standoff with the authorities. as for the people detained, we talked to egyptian authoritiesment they say they've captured three americans that were shown on television, state television last night. one of them appeared to have an indiana driver's license and they also appeared to have id cards from the american university of cairo. the u.s. embassy is looking into these reports and the authorities here are accusing them of saying they were caught throwing molotov cocktails and had in passports on them when they were picked up. also the u.s. embassy telling us that a female american student was detained by egyptian police yesterday and later released. i've talked to what seems like at least one american tourist who was mixed into the crowd down there. so it's likely that foreigners are going to be caught up in these running street battles. carol? >> so ivan, just to be clear, these three americans were apparently charged with hooliganism. were they taking part in the process? was that person, that american taking part in the protests? >> reporter: i'm going to quote here the general prosecutors office's spokesman. "the three boys were throwing molotov cocktails and had no passports on them when they were picked up." that's about all we know about their identity right now. and the u.s. embassy says they're looking into this case. the much bigger drama taking place right now, carol, is a massive political crisis in egypt just days before the country is supposed to go to the polls in the first phase of parliamentary elections. egypt is the most populous arab country, some 70 million people. a lot is on the line right now. and those elections are up for question right now whether they can even be held when the center of the egyptian capital right now is the scene of a running street battle. carol? >> ivan wattson, thank you for wi filling