taken from her home, found in a field, on life support. the family has made the decision to take her off life support. she is the 39th casualty now of friday's storms. president obama preparing for a face-to-face showdown this morning with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. on the table, how to handle iran and its nuclear program. and rush limbaugh stepping in it big time and the advertisers are dropping like flies, folks, bailing, because it just ain't right to call a law student a slut. why doesn't he get it? can the champion of the right overcome this or would this possibly become his imus moment. >> is it ever okay to call someone a slut? >> having been called a slut by one of my colleagues on the air, i would say it's not. so shut your cake hole, limbaugh. >> i came back to this nasty talk. and this little girl we've been following. >> awful story. it's one of many we followed along the way following tornadoes. some of the pictures tend to look a lot the same. i keep calling it a massive blender. those pictures do look the same but for the stories coming from those images. >> we really appreciate it. >> very sad. >> the countdown to super tuesday and mitt romney's clicking on all cylinders. romney coming off three straight wins, michigan, arizona, washington state, he got two big endorsements also over weekend. he is sounding like a nominee, attacking president obama instead of his republican rivals. listen to what he told voters in georgia. >> it's pretty straightforward in my view. if barack obama gets re-elected iran will have a nuclear weapon and the world will change if that's the case. >> well, words like that and probably a couple of wins under his belt and the polls are definitely showing the momentum picking up for mr mrp. let me get you to some of the latest numbers from the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. not too shabby in a national contest. romney getting 38% from likely republican voters, that's to 32 for rick santorum. if you look at grin grich aingre back with 32% and 13% respectively. cnn's political editor paul steinhauser is live at cnn center in atlanta. i like to call it mojo but you like to call it momentum. i think mitt romney has three in a row from the last time around. is that momentum we're seeing closing that gap and knotting up the race? >> definitely that and probably ad spending in some of the super tuesday states as well, ashley. super tuesday will give mitt romney an opportunity to put daylight, some distance between himself and rivals for the gop nomination. here's why you mentioned it. all those delegates at stake, ten states, we're talking about more delegates at stake tomorrow night than all the contests we've had so far. more than a third needed to clinch the nomination. you know, romney has closed the gap in some of the states. ohio, this is a state where santorum is up just a week and a half ago. now all the polls in ohio, mitt romney is ahead. take a look at this brand new poll from tennessee, the same story. you can see, mitt romney has closed the gap with rick santorum in tennessee. rick santorum used to have a double digit lead there as well. you want to call it mojo, i love that word as well. let's say santorum wins ohio or oklahoma or one or two others, the race goes on for a long, long time. >> i knew you were going to say that. super tuesdayen is as super as it used to be. we keep losing states. >> there were about 20 states the last time around. the calendar changes every four years. >> so does mine. i think i heard a pundit say over the last couple of days if one of these candidates can prevail in five or six, i may have the math wrong, five or six of the ten states, it's over, baby. is that true? >> i don't think that's true. here's why. if romney does, maybe it's over. if romney has a bad night, he has the organization to continue on. he wants to have a very good night. newt gingrich, let's talk about him. he needs to win right here where i am in georgia. take a listen to what he told candy crowley on "state of the union." >> i'm very confident in the largest state that's going to vote on tuesday, georgia, which has more delegates than any other state we'll win a decisive victory and do well in tennessee, oklahoma and i had high and a number of other states. >> double digits right here in georgia. doesn't sound like he's going anywhere right now. ashleigh. >> i'm sure he'll have a good night there. there's ten states there. paul steinhauser, nice to see you. >> thanks. almost coming up on "starting point" our colleague soledad o'brien will have one-on-one conversations. and soledad will also go one-on-one with former house speaker newt gingrich. don't miss that. our tuesday coverage, super, super tuesday coverage, which means it's not only super tuesday but it's super coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow evening starts with "john king, usa" and complete coverage at 7:00 eastern time. a series of tornadoes turned towns into complete ruins from the deep south to the midwest, another deadly blow. this is what we were talking about a little while ago. this little girl, 14-month-old angel babcock has died. everybody was pulling for angel. she had somehow survived a tornado that killed her father, her mother and her two siblings in indiana. the toddler was three about 100 yards from her home. she suffered massive head injuries. she was in critical condition from the very beginning. and sadly she was taken off life support yesterday. she is the 39th fatality in five states from friday's storms. angel's grandfather, talked to a cnn affiliate about the agonizing decision. >> my pastor will go in with me and we're going to pray there and i'm going to tell that little girl that -- i'm going to tell her that it's time for her to meet her mommy and daddy. >> oh, my goodness. well, meantime, kentucky's governor requesting federal disaster assistance. the town of west liberty, one of the area's hardest hit, that is where rob marciano is this morning. he's joining us live. rob, i understand it is snowing where you are? oh, my gosh. >> very much so. yes. take a look. talk about adding insult to injury. if this isn't any sort of indication or illustration of how two different air masses cause a tornado outbreak like this, here it is. it was in the 70s just three days ago with tornadoes firing across this state and now it's snowing sideways and temperatures in the 20s. it's piling up. the roads are slick and obviously this is going to hamper recovery efforts and cleanup efforts today as we go through time. over 100 tornado reports across the united states on friday, 42 of those confirmed. that number will go up, as you mentioned, 39 fatalities. that number seems to continue to climb. 21 of those in the state of kentucky. mitch mcconnell was out here yesterday. he said he hasn't seen anything remotely like this since 1974. the state is reeling. the tornado that came through on friday was rated an ef-3 with wi winds wind speeds at 130 miles an hour. it was half a mile wide. it took out almost this entire town. there's 12,000 people that live here. and i haven't seen many buildings in this town that have been untouched. you're looking over my shoulder. this is the mobile command center of the bank that's been here for 100 years. there's the main street, the municipal building. that's probably -- has done the best. it's all brick there. just the windows are blown out. every other building in this town has seen major, major damage. residents have not been allowed to come back. they thought they'd be allowed to come back yesterday. i'm not sure if they're going to be allowed to come back today. a number of them are staying at a hotel about an hour away. i spoke with them last night. they're frustrated. they give me their phone number to call them and check on their homes and give them updates. it's so frustrating and sad. i don't have good news for them. like i said, there haven't been many structures here that have gone untouched. everything is either very, very much damaged, unlivable or completely destroyed. >> rob, i can feel that frustration coming from you. thank you very much for that report. and then our next hour, we'll talk with two tornado survivors from henryville, indiana. julie money and her brother, terry mock. his home, take a look, was leveled by that to storm. in just under six hours, president obama and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu will meet face to face at the white house. the two leaders are pretty much off completely on how to handle iran and its budding nuclear program. president obama really wants the israelis to hold off, exercise restraint, let diplomacy work its way. if your window closes you have no other options, you've got to act fast. that's now netanyahu sees it anyway. the american-israel public affairs committee meeting was held yesterday. this is what was said in front of a very powerful organization. have a listen. >> no israeli government can tolerate a nuclear weapon in the hands of the regime that denies the holocaust, threatens to wipe israel off the map and supports terrorist groups that is committed to israel's destruction. >>y know if you could spot it in the backdrop, there was a tight rope in there somewhere that the president was walking while addressing that organization and brianna keilar joins us live to talk more about this. get me up spo speto speed with d between these two leaders. they do not see eye to eye at all on the notion of a preemptive strike on israel. even though they kind of talk a little bit of talk the same, essentially they are nowhere near the same on the red line, are they? >> reporter: they say their objectives are the same, obviously to keep iran from having a nuclear weapon. probably one of the best ways to describe the relationship would be to say that it is cordial and that's almost kind of, i guess you could say, speak for get along because they have to get along. this is a relationship, benjamin netanyahu, president obama, they've met several times over the course of the presidents being in office. there have been times where it has been extremely tense. there is obviously some mistrust but i also think you hear from both sides, these are huge allies, the u.s. and israel. they do have the same objective here and they'll work towards that objective. but oh, yeah, this is kind of where you'd want to be the fly on the wall for sure, ashleigh. >> while you hear the eloquent and fluent speeches from the campaign trail, you're hearing the republicans are having some fun with this one , at least they're finding fresh ground to mine. they're critical of what's going on. >> reporter: this has been a huge issue for republicans in general and also on the presidential campaign trail. if you just open up the papers today, you look at "the wall street journal" and editorial saying mr. obama should make it clear he will do everything in his power to prevent iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability and that he will stand by israel if it must act. you go to "usa today," mike huckabee saying 70 years after the holocaust, the u.s. cannot turn a blind eye to iran, which is the focus of evil in the modern world. we must act soon or face the withering verdict of history. they see this as a big opportunity, republicans do, ashleigh, because obviously, when you're looking at this in the context of an election year, normally jewish voters very much go for the democrat for president obama. this is such a toughly contested election year that even peeling off a few votes, we're seeing this in all kinds of voting demographics really could be the key. this is something obviously republicans know and president obama is sensitive to as he really tries. we saw this yesterday when he addressed apac to say the u.s. is strongly allied with israel. >> more to come on this for sure. we'll be keeping a close eye on it. you are busy today. >> oh, yes. >> keep working. thank you brianna keilar, appreciate it. we're minding your business there. >> we're doing our job. >> the u.s. markets closed slightly lower on friday. if you were watching the bell -- >> stock futures pointing to a lower open. christine romans is here to explain why some markets are down. >> china, china and china. >> that's a good banner. china today, wen jiabao, the premier of china, the first time in eight years speaking to the national congress there saying to the peoples national congress saying we'll lower our growth target to 7.5%. that's still a lot. but that shows you china is trying to focus on quality in its economy, not speed. chinese growth has been gang busters for 30 years. at least double digit, mostly double digit growth in china's economy over the past 30 years. they're trying to slow it down just a little bit, reign it in, focus on quality over just speed there. this pertains to commodities, metals, stocks, anything you can think of in financial markets will be affect by this. i want to show you quickly how china compares to the rest of the world. china is the driver. eu growth is forecast at 0%. nothing. nothing. that's painful. zero is painful. europe still has a lot of work to do. china, even with a slower growth target if they can manage to slow it down, 7.5%. i want to real quickly focus on another thing, too. military spending. the chinese are boosting military spending by 11%, still a fraction of what the u.s. spends. this is after this pivot by the u.s. to focus more on the pacific rim area, china is responding by spending more money on its military. that's something that bears watching, too. >> all right. >> the growth number, i was trying to do the number in my head. how does that compare? >> it's 2% for us. 0% for the eu and gas prices came out, they're up again, surprise, surprise. 0%, 2%. >> i'm sure she's talking. did you see me? >> i forgive you. i forgive you. >> since i've never done that in my life. thank you, appreciate it. 16 minutes past the hour. time to check stories making news this morning. ten states and 437 critical delegates up for grabs on super tuesday tomorrow. a new nbc/"wall street journal" poll shows mitt romney gaining support from likely republican voters and conservatives. and that fast-moving tornadoes that hit on friday killing 39 people in five states. the latest victim, this little girl. an indiana toddler who had become a symbol of hope, little angel. she survived after being thrown into a field 100 yards from her home. her whole family was wiped out. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu goes face to face with president obama at the white house this morning. the two leaders will discuss iran and its nuclear program, with the president expected to urge israel to use restraint. a tragic ending to the search for a 4-year-old boy in new mexico. his body was found on sunday morning at the bottom of a 30-foot deep hole. that was in his neighbor's backyard. an amber alert had been issued to are that boy the night before. north korean leader kim jong unvisited the demilitarized zone for the very first time since taking control of that country last december. the visit comes amid threats of a, quote, sacred war with south korea over join the military drills with the united states. this just in. i was looking up the numbers, folks. gas is up again, rising for 27 days straight. your new national average for a gallon of gas is $3.77. it's up a fraction of a cent. in fact, 0.3 cent in the last 24 hours. aaa posted it on the website, again, why i was reading instead of listening to christine. we're getting close to the awful magic number, $4 a gallon of gas. it exists in a few places but not ubiquitously. >> it's tough. >> especially if you have an suv. folks out there trying not to drive as much. there's only so much when you have to get to work. >> and you're car pooling. >> take a train. >> when you have kids and you're taking them to games, it's complicated to do that. still to come on "early start," a tearful vladimir putin. he is declaring victory. the opponents are furious, alleging massive fraud and they're planning a protest rally in moscow later. and rush limbaugh, rush to judgment or is he really an idiot for saying what he said on the air? i don't know, this one's a real tough one, and it the? most people pretty much agree, you just shouldn't call women sluts no matter what. please, rush, really? good luck with those advertisers. back in a moment. 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