>> tonight we celebrate. tomorrow we go back to work. >> dana bash is in manchester. christine romans is in the election center digging into who voted and why. peter ham by is in south carolina, the next stop in this grueling presidential primary. let's begin with dana there. romney's two for two. he won iowa, he won new hampshire. this victory wasn't a surprise, not to most. he was expected to win. it's the size of his win that's really grabbing attention, however. is it enough to get the party to finally rally behind him? >> reporter: well, fred, that's probably not going to happen immediately because as you mentioned, all of these other candidates are still in the race. effectively, look, this was no question a huge win for mitt romney. you said certainly he was expected to win here because he was governor of a neighboring state, but the size of his win in terms of the overall number, but also the kind of voter that he got, namely the conservative voters in this state. there was always a question of whether or not he could actually get those real conservatives. according to the exit polls, he did that. he also defied history because if you look back, there has been no one who has not actually been sitting in the white house who has won iowa and new hampshire. history shows you that he is in very, very good shape. he is already looking towards his general -- a potential general election fight talking over and over about president obama. listen. >> you've got almost 2 million people that have lost their jobs under this president. you have median income that's dropped by 10% over the last four years. you have 24 million people out of work or stopped looking for work. this is a failed presidency. >> reporter: so, again, focusing on president obama which he had done before. now, look, this particular time in new hampshire he's not leaving without some scars. he had some verbal missteps. he talked about some things that could potentially hurt him in the future, but by and large he is in a very, very good position coming out of the state of new hampshire, fred. >> also in a fairly decent position, ron paul. he did well here in north carolina. he did well in iowa. how does this position him to be the real threat for mitt romney? it was ron paul who said he is nipping at mitt romney's heels. >> reporter: that's right. ron paul, his campaign, he has said is more of a movement. there is no question that he is in this for the long haul. what does that mean? how long is the long haul? who knows. it really depends largely on how much money he can raise. he is definitely feeling very good after his pretty strong second last night. i had the chance to speak with him exclusively just last night, fred, as we were getting the results knowing that he did come in second. i asked him about that. take a listen. >> reporter: are you the buffer between mitt romney and the rest of the candidates? >> i don't know what you want to call it but i know we're next in line to him so i would say that we're the only ones really in the race with him t. remains to be seen what turns out. >> reporter: now, fred, ron paul does not have the kind of organization and fer very in south carolina that he did here in new hampshire and certainly before this in iowa. he is going to compete there. he's heading there right now. he'll have a rally at noon in south carolina. he is going to put some money in in television ads, mailing, the kind of thing that they did here. they're hoping that they get a bounce from their strong showing here that continues on in south carolina and beyond. >> dana, jon huntsman put all of his eggs in one basket in new hampshire hoping that spending all of that time there would mean he finished stronger. where does he go now and will he have the financial backing to keep going? >> reporter: that's the question. financial backing is the question. money is what you need to survive. it is the oxygen of politics. he is going to keep going he says. he's going to continue into south carolina. we talked to his campaign. they say he does have some key supporters down there who could potentially help him keep going. you have peter hamby on after me. he'll talk about the organization. this was it. his eggs were all in one basket. third was better than last which is what he was pulling for quite some time. it's hard to see his campaign going much further than south carolina but you know what, not going to make any predictions in this race because it has been such a role ler coaster ride. >> anything can still happen. thanks so much. dana bash there in manchester. let's turn to christine romans here in the election center. christine, you've been dilging through the exit poll data. what are the numbers telling us? what is this about romney's edge? >> let's talk a little bit about what it is that new hampshire voters were looking for in their candidate. for the top candidate quality, 35% said, fredricka, that they wanted someone who could beat president obama. 26% said they wanted experience. 22% character. 13% a true conservative. you can see who won those categories. it was mitt romney with the ability to beat the president and his experience, character and true conservatism, that went to ron paul. we also asked people as they were leaving the polling places what the most important issues were to them. no surprise the top issue was the economy. that category mitt romney came out with 45% of those who said that the economy ras the top issue. it was mitt romney who took that category followed by ron paul and then jon huntsman. when you look at the deficit, it's mitt romney with 34%, ron paul with 33% and newt gingrich with 12%. i want to come up here and take a look at where things looked different. on abortion, this particular issue, this is where rick santorum who did well in iowa, he rated well. 44% who said if abortion was their top issue for their candidate, that was how that fell out. then paul and romney there. then finally on health care, it was kind of interesting, fredricka, because we've heard a lot on the campaign trail from people who say, look, we want to repeal so-called obama care. the president's health care victory at the white house calls it. they want to repeal that. in iowa and here was only a few percentage points their top issue. it's not really rating so far among the people in iowa and new hampshire as one of their top issues overall health care. >> christine, thanks so much for that breakdown. next stop, south carolina. all six gop candidates are holding events in the state there today starting with newt gingrich. he's holding a town hall in rock hill this hour. you're seeing the live pictures now. we're going to listen in to some of that as soon as it gets underway. for some, it could be a make or break state. here's what rick perry told cnn's piers morgan. >> south carolina is a winner take allstate, and so winning here i can promise you wipes out the caucus victory and new hampshire. so if mitt's thinking he's got it in the bag, i think he's going to be in for a great surprise in south carolina when he shows up here. >> political reporter peter hamby is in columbia, south carolina. peter, south carolina votes saturday, the 21st. is it a last chance for the rest of the republican field to stop mitt romney? >> reporter: you know, there's been a lot of talk about whether this is a delegate race or momentum race. it really is though one of the last chances to stop mitt romney, frankly. this is the last state where it's kind of affordable to run a campaign and a lot of these candidates don't have the kind of money and resources that romney has, both to run tv ads and have political organizations in statsds like florida and beyond, arizona super tuesday. frankly, this is a state that is more amenable to the messages of somebody like newt gingrich or rick santorum. the problem for those guys as we have been saying all morning, it's a divided field. mitt romney doesn't need evangelicals to win. he doesn't need tea party activists to win. he can win with the fiscal-minded voters. he can win on electability message. he can win along the coast where there aren't tons of social conservatives. he is the man to beat here. his numbers might slip a little bit under a flurry of attacks from his rivalries over the next 11 days. certainly it could be the last chance for people like rick perry, rick santorum or newt gingrich, fredricka. >> we just heard from rick perry who spoke with piers morgan who says it's not in the bag just yet for mitt romney. so what does the perry camp plan on doing, plan on saying in which to appeal to south carolinian voters? >> i've been with governor perry for the last week or so. not a week, a few days. he took a break in austin. i've been out here for a week. rick perry's really hammering home this attack on mitt romney and his time at bain capital calling him a corporate predator, a vulture is what he called bain capital basically saying that bain capital bought out and took over two companies here in south carolina and fired your friends and your neighbors here in south carolina. he's really trying to localize that message. he's going to try to kind of hammer this populus theme, kind of paint mitt romney as an elite, out of touch voter, i think -- excuse me, candidate. you're going to hear a lot of that. you might hear a lot of romney care attacks from rick perry. this is rick perry's last stand. he has to win here, frankly, read reek ka, to advance in this nomination fight. >> all right. peter hamby, thanks so much in columbia, south carolina. thursday, january 19th the gop presidential candidates debate. it's next thursday, january 19th, 8:00 eastern time. now to a story making headlines around the world. an iranian nuclear scientist has reportedly been killed in a bomb blast in tehran. it's the latest in a series of deadly attacks against nuclear scientistness that country. cnn's zain verjee joins us from london. zain, what are the details of this attack and who is believed to be responsible? >> reporter: good morning, fredricka. iran is pointing the finger squarely at israel for this bomb attack and the death of this nuclear scientist. iran is saying this is the work of the zionists. the details that we've learned is that this was some kind of a motor bike attack, fred. essentially someone on a motor bike just drove by a car and then put a magnetic bomb underneath it of this nuclear scientist and it exploded killing him and wounding at least two other people. this man was a really important man in iran. he was a supervisor. he was of the natans uranium enrichment facility. that's an important site for the u.s. to keep its eyes on. it's suppose today have 8,000 centrifuges in operation. the u.s. believes iran is using this program to build a nuclear weapon. this isn't the first time a nuclear scientist has been killed, fred. a couple in the last two years have died the same way. >> zain, still talking about iran and other interests here. another american rescue of iranian mayor rin ners. the second one in the week. what other details do we know about this? >> reporter: i know. this is diplomacy on the high seas. there's more goodwill than tensions. that's right. early on tuesday the u.s. coast guard rescued six iranian marine ners that were in trouble on the north side of the persian gulf. basically what happened was that this iranian vessel, it was kind of like a dow actually, it started flooding. these guys were in real danger. the u.s. came and helped them out. in fact, the owner of the vessel says without your help, we were dead. thank you. the government also from the iranian foreign ministry have this to say. the minister spokesperson said, rescuing iranian sailors by the u.s. was a humanitarian act and we well come such acts. the iranian navy operates in such operations. it is the responsibility of all nations to rescue nation nals from other countries from pirates. >> a backhanded compliment on that one, huh? >> reporter: yeah, sort of. little slap as well saying you're obliged to under international law. >> all right. zain verjee, thanks so much. mitt romney makes history with back-to-back wins in iowa and new hampshire. now the question is can anyone or anything stop the gop front-runner. we'll talk about that and other topics from the trail with radio talk show host paul wescott. that's next. things get very testy at indiana statehouse. why voters' anger boils over. >> it's dictatorship. >> american lives have been lost. tired eye relief with hydroblend™, only from visine®. just one drop instantly soothes and revives tired, overworked eyes. and comforts them for up to ten hours. visine® tired eye relief. try now and save $3. okay... is this where we're at now, we just eat whatever tastes good? 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[ male announcer ] 80 delicious calories. fiber one. forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future. but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. for our free usaa retirement guide, call 877-242-usaa. all right. checking stories cross-country now. orange county father is convicted of throwing his son off a tour boat in august. sloan briles was sentenced to three years of probation and two treatment programs. he originally claimed he and his son were just having fun but later pleaded guilty to child abuse and endangerment. bakersfield police said a driver's steering wheel kept him from feting impaired. a metal pipe shot through his windshield. the steering wheel deflected it and he was treated for minor injuries. >> the veeters of indiana will remember. it's dick taltorship. indiana house committee's vote on proposed right to work legislation meets with loud objections mr. protesters there. right to work means employees cannot be required to pay for union representation costs. the committee approved the republican-backed bill without any changes and sent it onto the full house of representatives. mitt romney is celebrating a convincing win in the new hampshire primary and the other candidates are putting their own spins on the results. we want to go beyond the spins to find the real take-away from new hampshire. here to do that is paul wescott who hosts the morning show at wgir in manchester. paul, what are your listeners saying today? >> well, you know, honestly, i would say the big story is about process. we all knew mitt romney was going to do extraordinarily well in new hampshire. the fact that he got close to 40%, that was the number of people were saying would be an extraordinary win, he came close enough. that was understood. what they're talking about today is the fact that, you know what, the new hampshire primary kind of turned into a nationalized type of spectacle. you had so many debates. you had so many other national platforms thor these candidates to work on that they somewhat ignored that retail style of politics we're used to. >> are you saying people didn't like that? that kind of stood in the way of them having person-to-person contact with the candidates? they were missing that? >> oh, yeah. in the state of new hampshire it is all about going to the house parties. it's all about going to town hall meetings, getting to meet these candidates. i know i spoke to one of the older new hampshire voters here in the granite state. she said to me, listen, i usually get to meet them five or six times. it was only once or twice this time around. there is certainly a higher standard for meeting the candidates that didn't happen. >> so then given that, the explanation behind romney's big win because people there felt like they were more familiar with him because he's from neighboring massachusetts? >> yeah. absolutely. it's that and the fact that he's run before. we saw that with george h.w. bush who had won before and lost. john mccain run before and lost. they like that with republicans. they like to see somebody who's run before, lost. mitt romney is that guy. >> didn't they have the opportunity to get to know jon huntsman? he spent so much time if not most of his time there in new hampshire doing just that, going door to door, being in the coffee shops so people could understand who he was. what happened? >> this is the beautiful part of it. this is a testament to the retail politics side of it working. the fact that jon huntsman did go door to do, 160 events. he was able to pull off 17% of the vote. whereas, you look at him nationally he's nowhere near that number. it shows that. he used advertising, but it was within the state. it was retail within the state. it shows that that actually worked. >> okay. so the style of campaigning very different in new hampshire. the primary very different. the issues very different in new hampshire versus that of south carolina. so how do you see these races sizing up? how would you compare what is likely to happen in south carolina with that primary and what just happened in new hampshire? >> you know, i had an interesting caller who had moved from south carolina to new hampshire saying that there are so many northeastern transplants in south carolina at this point. people from ohio, the west coast. you'll see a bit of a different electorate especially this time around as the baby boomers from new england are retiring. it's not going to be driven by those christian conservative voters. when you look at that, you might say mitt romney if he wins, i wouldn't be as shocked this time. i totally agree with that analysis. >> paul wescott with wgir. thanks so much for being up with us this morning. >> you got it. any time, fredricka. >> stay with cnn for the best political coverage on television. tonight 6:00 eastern time john king has a one-on-one interview with rick perry. tonight at 9:00 eastern newt gingrich sits with piers morgan. on wall street orange juice surges after it's testing imported oranges for traces of illegal pesticides. will it affect the price of your morning juice? 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[ male announcer ] osteo bi-flex. the #1 doctor and pharmacist recommended brand. members of britain's royal family get loaded down with gifts every time they make an official visit overseas. some of the items that they get are, shall we say, unique. cnn's zain verjee joins us now live from london with the official gift list which has just been released, zain. >> hi, fred. you should be able to answer this question. what do you get someone who has everything, right? >> big old question mark. >> you have that problem. it's a good problem to have, right? this gift list, the royal one has come out. these are gifts given by government officials and other state representatives around the world to the royal family. so prince william has been given gifts when he was in australia and new zealand of things like baseball caps. a little bit of aboriginal art