let's go "outfront." i'm erin burnett, tonight, live from a seasonably chilly new hampshire. polls open less than 12 hours in the state's gop primary. the second contest in the race to the white house. it's romney's race to lose here tonight. we went to some l of the campaign headquarters today. we talked to volunteers, went into a cigar shop and i smell a little bit and some passion for a guy that a lot of people say doesn't spark passion. now, we got some good shots of the candidates calling supporters and asking for their vote tomorrow. we also got to talk to mitt romney's only brother and he revealed something interesting about his brother that i had never heard before i will virtually guarantee you have never heard. but the romney campaign has a reason to be confident. let's run through a couple of the latest polls. romney at the 33%. paul with 20% and jon huntsman, who has spent basically all his time in this state in third with about 13%. there's a second poll which gives romney a bigger legal. huntsman and santorum tied at 11. mitt is on top and his opponents have attacked him today. gingrich super pack set to blanket south carolina with ads like this one. >> mitt romney became ceo of bain capital the day it was formed. his mission, to reap massive rewards for himself and his investors. >> they don't care who i am. >> he's for small businesses. no, he isn't. he's not. >> now, romney defends his record, but today, he said something that caught the ears of his rivals. >> i want individuals to have their own insurance. that means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. it also means that if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. i like being able to provide people that provide services to me. >> all right, critics jumping all over that last line, rick perry's selling it as a ring tone, dnc made an attack ad in a matter of hours. he was simply talking about the virtue of competition. senior adviser to romney, russ, good to see you. what was he really trying to say? was this just a bad joke and he's trying to say we all like the fire the cable guy? >> we'd all like to be able to fire our insurance company. we've all had experiences with insurance company that gives us bad service. choice of insurance companies is a good thing and the ability to tell your insurance company you're not going to job for me that we want a new company is a good thing. the difference is that under obama care, you won't be able to fire your insurance company. it will be one and the other. >> so, i understand what you're saying. that context is important. is it fair to say you wish he hadn't said it that way? >> i think as you're talking about wanting to fire your insurance company and about choice in insurance, that's a good argument to have. we like to have that. >> so, no kind of i wish you hadn't of made that joke, it wasn't that funny? >> it's important to talk about the differences. we would like choice and urn the obama administration, you won't have that. >> let's talk about what happened with bain today. you've got that 20 some odd minute film that -- newt gingrich is going to put ads in south carolina. had stories in many newspapers including "the wall street journal" and bain. i mean, that is where this whole sensitivity on firing comes from. >> sure. >> in private equity, you fire people to make companies stronger, but firing is part of it. >> listen, we always expected that the obama administration would put free enterprise on trial in the campaign. free enterprise is something governor romney believes in strongly. it believes in the free enterprise system. we never thought that the first witness would be newt gingrich. it seems he's attacked from the left. this is the third time he's done this. first, he sat down on the couch with nancy pelosi to talk about climate change. he called the paul ryan plan on medicare reform and spending cuts right wing social engineering and now, he's attacking from the left in the same playbook as barack obama and the liberals. we're very comfortable in defending free enterprise and romney's record and creating jobs. >> and you're sure it's going to end with a creating? >> if you take a look at the companies governor romney's been involved in, there's clearly more jobs have been created. >> so, let's talk about tomorrow. looking back in 2008, 32%. 32.2 or something that he got. a big part of the narrative has been he's got to do better. he's got this threshold nationally. >> i think if 32% is going to win, we're fine with that. if we get 35%, we win, that's great. 29% and win. i think what we'd like our bar, we won by eight votes last tuesday. we'd like to win by more this time. >> that's a low bar. >> we'll start there and work our way up. >> let me ask you a question about the campaign. i was at your headquarters today. people of all ages there. a lot of young people. it looked like you guys have little kind of laptop computers that were issued from the campaign. is that true? and can you tell me what it is that you're running this campaign in here, so it's got this reputation. of being really organized. >> they're call lists. and we've identified people who we know are going to turn out or indicated support for governor romney and our goal is to make sure we get as many people who indicated they're going to turn out for governor romney to show up and vote. >> we're going to meet some of those people. as i said, it's in here. >> you got your cigar. >> i got a cigar. >> cool. >> thank you very much. >> anytime. >> with mitt romney. i met a lot of romney supporters today and one told me something about the candidate that i didn't know until today and as i said, i'm pretty sure you may not have heard this either. where's the human side of mitt romney? what's this guy really like. when i ran into his older brother who had just come into town, just for the day, he was knocking on doors. here's what scott romney had to say about mitt. >> what makes you think he's the right guy? >> he's a great leader. a true leader and has a vision for this country and he's the guy that can make, that can turn this economy around. >> do you have any kind of a good little story about something he did when he was a kid he shouldn't have done? >> well, they also loved cars and could always make the great sounds of cars when he was a little kid. i'm an older brother, so i heard him often making the sounds of skeeling around corners. he's a fun guy and a terrific guy. great brother to me and he'll be a great leader to this country. >> have you been knocking on doors? >> i've made calls and i'll do whatever they need me to do. stand in the back of the bus if they want. >> we got to hear mitt romney's car noiss. a little formula one action. good to see both of you. i didn't know that. you probably didn't know that. good at car noses, looging for the human side. >> that's one of the equal kagss for being president. >> so today, when mitt romney made the comment about firing your insurance company. how damaging is this going to be to him? >> of course it's out of context, but it's going to be the last thing that a lot of people hear before they wake up to go to the polls. it is out of context, but does confirm the negative stereostip types. doesn't help, but i don't think it's going to dominate the campaign. >> it was completely rehearsed. >> the description is also true that historically, presidents have gotten into trouble because they do not like firing people. if president obama fired eric holder, that would be butter than if george burn fired donald rumsfeld. roosevelt wouldn't -- they don't like to do it. if you have a president who's a little bit more willing to say you're not measuring up after all those people worked for us, too, you want them to do a good job. >> you and i saw this this morning. john allen and i traveled up here together. todd palin endorsing newt gingrich. you're laughing. what does that mean? is that a sarah palin endorsement in deguise? >> the reason it's resognating is because it's seen as a de facto win. that's significant. the palin family has a real influence among this party and they're the kind of people gingrich is going to need to rally around. >> rick santorum says he'll be handing mitt romney. >> doesn't look that way. if santorum comes out of this state not in the top one or two or three, then he becomes to look like the original candidate and gingrich is in fourth place, this race pretty quickly comes down to the ron paul protest candidacy versus the mitt romney juggernaut. >> in new hampshire with the signs, mitt romney, ron paul. see you begin in a few minutes. coming up, we talk to some of these candidates today. had a chance to walk around with santorum and also surging in new hampshire, jon huntsman and a surprising departure. president obama's chief of staff. how interesting is it that tonight, one of the p president's top advisers is here in manchester. we'll be back. cut. cut! 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"wall street journal" today op-ed rick santorum's economy. the take away was we'd score mr. santorum's economic agenda is bolder as romney's, but not as huntsman and gingrich. what do you think? >> it's fairly accurate. i'm not a -- a wall street kind -- "wall street journal" necessary kind of plan because we do focus on the manufacturing sector of the economy. they don't like that idea of looking at sectors. they sort of like things across the board, but we're losing a battle for our jobs that are dramatically affecting blue collar workers and small town america where manufacturing is and that's going to continue to happen because tax policy, regulatory policy, is making our manufacturers uncompetitive with our biggest trade partners so we've got to adjust government policy so they can compete. i know it wouldn't be popular with the folks, but i don't really care. >> you're okay -- >> but i've got to do what i think is in the best interest of the people of the croountry. >> so you're not worried about charges of oh, you're picking winners. then they say well, why just manufactures. how do you pick them? >> every processor in america gets treated the same. but you know, for example, we're not going to give a tax break to cnn. cnn's not moving china. walmart's not moving to china. we're losing jobs in this cou y country because the competition to make things. those are the jobs that move where you have global come pettiveness. it is that sector that provides the opportunity for average people in america to be able to rise and get that job instead of paying $55,000, that's the average paying job in america, for manufacturers, it's $77,000. that's a difference in the lives of people. you can upgrade skills, move up not just to those manufacturing jobs, but a lot of guys move up into the management, into those positions of leadership. it's a ladder. for a long time, the lower and middle rungs have broken. we need to repair those and that's what i think we're doing. >> i know you're in a rush and are leaving. i see your sweater vest has rick santorum on it. >> we're selling them online. $100. part campaign donation and part, be in with the vest. should i give the line? no. >> just gave you the look. hogan -- >> one of my supporters said this is my second amendment vest. the right to bear arms. you like it? >> it's so bad it's good. >> it's not my line. one of our supporters sent that in. >> i heard you have these in like nine colors. you got them at joseph a. banks. >> we did. so i've heard. there's a report on that. we're actually and for the record, we're out there finding vests made in america to embroider and sell on our website. >> all right, 100 bucks. >> well, come on. >> help me out a little bit. you want to participate in it, you've got to help us. >> thanks so much. good to see you. >> pleasure. >> all right. i'm here now to talk about the president's side of all of this. with bill burton. right to bare arms. you don't have a coat on. >> i'm from buffalo. this is like an unseasonably arm summer. >> i was joking to bill that i had on little -- first of all, what brings you to manchester tonight? >> just thought i'd come and see how the political process is unfolding. >> for those who don't know, one of the president's super packs. so, what have you seen? anything to make your wor ared? >> this mitt romney's not really ready for prime time. he goes out on a day which is pretty important for the romney campaign, he makes one of the biggest gaffes possible and jokes, makes light of how much he enjoys firing people. something that demonstrates he's not really ready for a general election. >> all right, so you come out on the attack, but what about in your hood today? bill daily reasoning. a lot of talk there had been tension. he's resigning to run the president's re-election campaign. tough time to make a switch, isn't it? >> i think a lot of people are transitioning from jobs in government to jobs on political campaigns. keep in mind that he was a great chief of staff for the president. he was there on his very first day. congresswoman giffords was shot and throughout his tenure, there was a lot of tough things to deal with. osama was killed. the payroll tax debate. now he goes on to help with one of the biggest jobs, re-election. >> your job is to sell the president's re-election. what's easier to sell? obama-biden or obama-hillary clinton? >> i think there's been a lot of chatter about this notion that secretary clinton might join the ticket, but i tell you what, even privately, president obama would tell you that one of the best decisions he's made in politics was putting biden on his ticket during the campaign last time around. joe biden is a strong, important, close adviser to the president. he was. he remains that and he's not leaving the ticket. he's a great adviser if the president, but also a great guy to have around and the president's not going to stop that for anything. >> all right. and if you're not right, you'll hear this sound bite many times. thank you very much. good to see you. as you can see, manchester important for both parties and shows it matters for the current president as well. a former u.s. marine is sentenced to die in iran. they say he's a spy. the american government's condemned the decision and demanded his release. more on that and newt gingrich spending millions upon millions in south carolina. it's casino money. we're going to tell you how much in tonight's number. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ can you enjoy vegetables with sauce and that's pretty cool. and still reach your weight loss goals? you can with green giant frozen vegetables. over twenty delicious varieties have sixty calories or less per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce. running a campaign is a costly endeavor and one of the biggest expenses is advertisinging. so today, mitt romney's super pack announced it would spend $2.3 million in ads that will air in south carolina on tuesday. but he's not the only one with supporters making a big ad buy. >> everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people. >> the super pack supporting gingrich will be spending $3.4 million on ads beginning on wednesday. now, this leads us to our number tonight. 309,000. that's how much winning our feature the gingrich super pack be spend on ads a day. the median household income in south carolina is $42,580, which means gingrich supporters will spend seven times as much on campaign ads each day as the average south carolinan will make each year. traditionally, spending 300 to $500,000 would buy you a week's worth of advertising throughout the state and that's how much they're spending per day this time around. coming up next, we went to a man cave here in manchester. we got some cigars and we talked to some of the smokers. that's why i smell right now. and my interview with john hunts ma man and his wife, listen carefully. is that the campaign's fault? >> i think it's beginning to come -- see it through. today, while our work continues, i want to update you on the progress: bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of environmental samples from across the gulf have been analyzed by independent labs under the direction of the us coast guard. i'm glad to report all beaches and waters are open for everyone to enjoy. and the economy is showing progress with many areas on the gulf coast having their best tourism seasons in years. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. we're committed to the gulf for everyone who loves it, and everyone who calls it home. we start the second half of our show with stories we care about or focus on, let the reporting do the work. number one tonight, we are live in new hampshire ahead of tomorrow's gop primary and mitt romney seems to be the man to beat. rivals have been going after him today after he said he'd quote, like to be able to fire people while talking about health insurance companies. ross schaffer said he doesn't regret that romney said that because it was an important point about