easy to attack. >> i want individuals to have their own insurance. that means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. it also means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. i like being able to fire people who provide services to me. if someone doesn't give me good service, i want to say i'm going to get somebody else to provide that service to me. >> seven of those words, i like being able to fire people, knocked front-runner romney back on his heels. jim acosta joins from us bedford, new hampshire. i get the bigger context. not so controversial if you listen to it all and hear it out. isn't he supposed to know better? >> you would think so, john. i was in that room with governor romney when he made those comments. the people listening to him, it was granted a chamber of commerce audience. they didn't really notice this as any sort of gaffe or stumble. but in the context of the narrative that he has been in in the last 24 hours, these were not good comments. if you take a look at what he said, he said i like to be able to fire people who provide services to me. yes, he said that in the context of health insurance but the words themselves, it's really up to interpretation. you know, a viewer or listener could hear those comments and say, well, he's talking about providing services. what service is he talking about? is he talking about health insurance or could there be other services? >> so it is no surprise that the perry people have come out with a ring tone now that you can find on their website where you can hear those words repeated over and over again. the obama campaign, the dnc, they've all seized on these comments, john. it was becoming such a barrage by the end of the day, the romney campaign came out with an e-mail to reporters reminding us in the press, john, as to what mitt romney was talking about when he made those comments. john? >> and jim, what's their sense? obviously they're heavy favorites in new hampshire. this does play into the narrative, whether you're taking it out of context or not that he's affluent, he doesn't get, it doesn't understand our struggles. what do they see is the impact beyond tomorrow and the new hampshire vote? >> well, i mean, i think that's why he came out today and answered those questions even though there were only five or six questions. all of this is difficult for the campaign given the fact in the last 24 hours, he's made other ill advised comments. take what he said on sunday in rochester talking to a crowd unprompted by the audience when he talked about how he felt in times in his life he is worried about getting fired or getting a pink slip. let's play a little bit of that comment and i can give you context. >> i know what it's like to worry whether you're going to get fired. there were a couple of times when i worried whether i was going to get a pink slip. i care very deeply about the american people. it frightens me to see a president who has made so many mistakes when people are hurting so badly. >> so there you hear mitt romney talking about worrying about pink slips. the other campaigns have seized on this. he was asked about this at that media avail. he said i did start at the bottom at bain. when i started at the bottom, i was worried about my job. he had a meteoric rise. he didn't have to worry about being fired for very longing. >> we'll assess the impact in the next 24 hours. you need proof his rivals saw an opening there, huntsman was quick to pounce. >> i will always put my country first. it seems that governor romney believes in putting politics first. governor romney enjoys firing people. i enjoy creating jobs. >> also in new hampshire today, this bold prediction from former pennsylvania senator rick santorum. polls show him trailing by double digits. he predicts the race will boil down to one between himself and mitt romney. >> over time, it's not going to be this primary or the next, but we'll have several races down the road. this field will narrow. it will be a one-on-one race and it will be mitt romney against rick santorum and we'll win this race. >> we'll talk to santorum in a moment. call this the golden rule, politics edition. do unto others as they have done unto you. remember the group in iowa? now a pro gingrich group is making a buy in south carolina. the target of the nearly $3.5 million pro-gingrich add by, you guessed it, mitt romney. >> wall street's corporate raiders made billions of dollars. >> private equity leaders getting rich at the expense of american workers. >> their greed was only matched by their willingness to do anything to make millions in profits. nothing was spared, nothing mattered but greed. mitt romney became ceo of bain capital the day the company was formed. his mission, to reap millions for himself and his investors. >> speaker gingrich says he welcome the help. >> given the weight of negative activity that romney threw at us in iowa, you would be less than human if you weren't pretty happy you're going to see more of an even playing field. we'll see. >> cnn's peter joins from us south carolina. the speaker getting help from friends, getting more negative. being negative sometimes takes down the other guy. it doesn't help you though. what's the gingrich calculation in south carolina? >> well, i think the speaker learned his lesson in iowa. 49% of voters in south carolina, according to our most recent poll are undecided. romney's at 37%. a lot of republicans here think that's pretty high. so why not bring mitt romney down at this point. nothing to lose for newt gingrich. i just want to the put that total ad buy in perspective. $3.4 million will buy a ton tv buy here. half a million is a good heavy buy. you'll see stuff during morning shows and watching shorts. rick santorum has $200,000. i've been casually watching tv down here. i've seen that ad five or six times. with the newt gingrich superpac up with $3 million, south carolina voters are going to get swamped with that anti-romney message here in south carolina, john. >> and peter, the message being he can echoed by texas governor rick perry, no? >> he's seizing on the same theme that will huntsman and gingrich are hitting romney with. listen what he said earlier today talking about bain capital. >> i had to shake my head yesterday when one of the wealthiest men i suppose that's ever run for the presidency of the united states, the son of a multimillionaire, mitt romney, he said i nope what it's like to worry about whether you're going to get fired. there were a couple times when i wondered whether i was going to get a pink slip. i mean, he actually said this. >> john, rick perry is speaking right behind me in greenville at an event and really tore into romney in even harsher terms just now pointing to a factory in gaffney, south carolina, basically saying that mitt romney fired your friends and your neighbors. really personalizing this, localizing it here in south carolina in almost tougher terms than anything knight gingrich or jon huntsman said about bain capital. he's drilling this message home in south carolina where people have been affected by bain capital, john. >> peter hamby, thank you. ron paul's campaign is war gaming now how to keep the texas congressman in the race for the long haul. today he told dana bash that may mean putting money and resources into caucus states instead of focusing on big primaries like florida which companies first. >> we don't have plans for you know, like a $10 million, $20 million because we don't have the money in the bank. we'll have to wait and see, but it is planned that we at this moment, we don't have a big campaign planned there. but they'll know we're there, and we have the caucus states that we'll be paying for attention to. >> president obama's losing his right-hand man at the white house. bill daley who took over for rahm emanuel about a year ago will leave around the end of this month. >> obviously, this was not easy news to hear. and i didn't accept bill's decision right away. in fact, i asked him to take a couple of days to make sure that he was sure about this. but in the end, the pull of the hometown we both love, a city synonymous with the daley family for generations was too great. >> replacing daley will be the president's budget director, jack lew. here with the inside story, white house correspondent jessica yellin. the president says you want to spend time with your family. what really happened here? >> first of all, there are a lot of top insiders who have been with barack obama and now president obama since he was in the senate. a lot of chiefs, if you will, and it was hard for bill daley to break in because the president has so much advice from so many top people. so that was a challenge. the other thing, he was brought here to improve releases with the business community and with the hill. relations with the business community no longer a top priority given the president's campaign message, reaching out to working americans. you know how relations went with the hill. there you go, john. >> well, put, family friendly. he will advise the campaign. it strikes me as a fearful omen. remember bill daley was al gore's chairman in recount year. >> right, he is one of the co-chairs in the campaign. and you know, that's a bit of a ceremonial role. it's a lot of i think helping with fund-raising and counseling and advice. one point to point out is that this -- it makes three -- depending how you count possibly four chiefs of staff in one term for the president. some would say that seems like a lot of turnover. the white house bats an eyelash at that and says not at all, this is a very busy time to be chief of taf. and that explains all the many who have come and gone, john. >> chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. whatever happened to no drama na obama. rick santorum says voters, it isn't romney's turn to be the republican nominee. the former senator joins us live next. and later, what today's half foot of rain did to parts of houston. if there was a pill to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? 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>> well, look, you know, let people judge what his comments are. i'm going to talk about his record. his record as governor is plenty of fodder for me to show someone who is not a limited conservative. someone who believes inch government solutions to the problems and not believing in free markets, free people and free enterprise. that's what the president -- the presidency is about in this electionet, getting this economy going. certainly every comment, everybody makes, is certainly fuel for fodder for voters to talk about. but i'm going to keep focused on our economic message of making sure that everybody in america prospers particularly as you've heard me talk about the manufacturing sector in small towns and blue collar workers having the chance to rise in society. >> you come from that blue collar background and talk about your grandfather in the coal mine and your work to try to bring back the steel plants that closed down. i know you think you have potential long-term in this race. the other guys are trying to say mitt is rich. he doesn't understand working class voters. when you look at the rest of the field, is that fair for them to make that argument or if not you, who would you pick? >> you know, i don't know. they all come from different backgrounds. rick perry has come from a humble background. newt came from a relatively humble background. this is a different republican party. i certainly can attest to that. my grandfather was a democrat. he was a union guy, a union coal miner. so the idea that the republican party is the party of you know what used to be called the rockefeller republicans, that party's long gone. this is a much more diverse party focused on small business, talking about the values that made this country great of limited government and believing in small community solutions and family solutions to the problems and that's what we know, would. that's what we know common sense values of america and that's what the republican party represents today. >> you're telling the voters of new hampshire make me the commander in chief? i have the most experience if you look at my time in the senate. you use sometimes provocative language to what a president santorum would do if we're in the dicey situation we're in right now, iran perhaps developing a nuclear weapon that can deliver a missile. listen to senator santorum campaigning earlier today. >> ultimately saying that you know, if none of this is working and we are concerned about this happening, then we set a deadline. and we say if you don't meet that deadline and open up this facility and begin 0 dismantle it, we're going to take it out for you. declare war? no, but take out with tactical strikes to take out this facility. >> would a president santorum do deadline strikes or deadline last ditch dialogue strikes. >> well, of course, i think you heard the beginning of that quote. i said ultimately. i had gone through a whole series of things we would do before we would hit that point. but i've made it very, very clear and made it repeatedly clear when a theocracy that has the same kind of vir ru lent jihadist ideology that the iranian government has that is similar almost identical except shiite versus sunni to al qaeda is in control of a nuclear weapon, the world is a fundamentally different place, a world the united states cannot let happen if we have the opportunity to stop it from happening. some have suggested by taking strikes, again if that is absolutely necessary, to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon will start a war. i disagree. it will stop a horrible war that will happen when iran will be funding terrorist organizations and other groups that will be waging jihad around the world and particularly here in the homeland of this country. so this is not a -- this is not something that i take lightly. i take it very seriously. we're going to give iran every opportunity to step away from the brink of being a nuclear power, but if they do not, we cannot let that happen. >> what we're going to be learning what the conversation will be inside your inner circle tomorrow night. you are the candidate who ran very close toes candidate romney. you come into new hampshire with moment momentum. if you can outperform speaker gingrich in new hampshire, if you outperform speaker gingrich, you know the calculation if we go to south carolina. it was bob dole's turn, john mccain's turn. if mitt romney hassan tore rum, perry, to his right he may win south carolina. if you can outperform the speaker again, would you turn to him and say we need him to get a clear shot at governor romney? i've beat you twice, you should step aside? >> i'm not going to ask anybody to get out of this race. i'm going to try to get the people of south carolina if we do well here in new hampshire to line up behind the strongest candidate here. obviously, we finished in a tie for first and speaker gingrich finished fourth in iowa. we're hopeful to do well here. obviously, you know, speaker gingrich got the union leader endorsement which some have said is worth ten points here in new hampshire. they've been working hard for him in the newspaper here. he's been spending money here. we haven't spent a of penny on broadcast television here in new hampshire. we've only spent five days campaigning here in the last month. we just came here starting at 2 or 3 points pretty much tied with rick perry in new hampshire. we've been working hard and now into the double digits. hopefully we can finish well. if we do better than these other twoer conservative alternatives, if you will, i'm hopeful that they'll take a look at making sure we don't keep dividing the vote and we can line up behind another candidate. but that's their decision to make. >> senator santorum, 24 hours from now, we'll see how all that shoe leather pays off for you. we'll see you tomorrow. >> thank you very much, john. >> thank you. next on the trail today, senior congressional correspondent dana bash caught up with ron paul. he's not ready to predict tomorrow's outcome but he knows how important it is. >> right now we're waiting to see how we do tomorrow night and see how the money comes in. teoa. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaids, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those for migraine and while on cymbalta, call right away if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles or serious allergic skin reactions like blisters, peeling rash, hives, or mouth sores to address possible life-threatening conditions. talk about your alcohol use, liver disease and before you reduce or stop cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. welcome back. here's kate bolduan with the latest you feed to know right now. >> good evening, everyone. a couple quick updates for you. today officials at the white house and state department condemned iran for ordering the execution of a captured american, amir hekmati is an ex-marine arrested in august while visiting his grandmother but iran's news agency says he's in the cia and caught red handed working for an enemy country. his family and the u.s. government deny that. also, severe storms left a mess around houston, texas today. at one poi