i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." we begin with a stunning turnd around in south carolina where mitt romney has nearly downed his support in the past month to take a solid lead. in our latest cnn orc poll, 37% of likely voters are now backing romney in south carolina. santorum and gingrich are battling for second and 18% respectly. but santorum is soaring. while gingrich has dropped 25 points. paul has jumped up to 12%. perry has slipped to only 5% in south carolina. jon huntsman stands at 1%. with a look at what's behind romney's south carolina surge, let's go to joe johns. >> wolf, taking a detour from new hampshire, mitt romney decided to go somewhere he thought he could use some help, hoping a little extra attention to the palmetto state would pay off. looking stronger than expected in south carolina, mitt romney wrapped up his brief swing with a rally in conway. it's a state where the candidate came in fourth in the last presidential primary, but this time around, romney is hoping his antiobama message and a few tweaks add up to traction. >> let me tell you by the way how the free market works and compare that with this crony capitalism. this kills jobs and innovation. >> he's got a lot more help this time including south carolina governor and tea party favorite, nikki hailey. she's endorsed him even though some tea partiers in the state aren't on board. >> he has flip-flopped on so many issues. he is not at all a conservative, never has been. if he were conservative, he would have never gotten elected as governor of massachusetts. >> thank you for such an awesome turn out. >> also supporting romney is the last guy to win the south carolina primaries. senator john mccain. who's popularity here endures as a vietnam war hero and former prisoner of war. mccain has been reaching out on behalf of romney to his old circle of friends in south carolina. >> any way that i can help and i can probably help, i think, with the large veterans population here as well as the people -- very patriotic state. if romney wins here, he will be the next president of the united states. >> while campaign supporters say they are under no illusions it will be easy to win this state, they are aloptimistic. here's what governor hailey said when asked if she thought the state would have problems electing a candidate who is a mormon. >> this is a state who elected a 38-year-old indian female. no, i'm not worried about that at all. >> governor hailey says she hopes more voters will see romney as the most electable choice, echoing what many see as his biggest selling point. >> joe johns from south carolina. rick santorum's rivals have hammered away at his record of spending on pet projects while in the u.s. house and senate. now, questions are being asked on whether that helped pave the way to substantial income. our senior congressional correspondent, dana bash is here in "the situation room." what are you finding out about rick santorum's income since leaving congress? >> on election night, you said three letters, o-m-g. cha ching. $1.3 million is what he made in the beginning of 2011. a far cry from what he made in the senate, just $162,000. now, where is he making this money? first of all, he was a fox news contributor. he made almost $240,000 there. he worked at a conservative think tank. almost $320,000. but let me show you a couple of others. universal health services, sat on the board. almost $400,000. consol energy, 142,500. those are companies based in pennsylvania. santorum's home state. he didn't officially lobby for them. did some consulting, helped them out. when you see what some complain about in washington, particularly these high pro file members who leave, they don't become lobbyists, but they do political intelligence for these companies. good information, don't necessarily give information to people. >> speaking of lobbyists, there have been a lot of reports over the past 24 hours of while he was in the senate, he had close calls as well. >> he did. this comes from opensecrets.org. this is just the top five members of the senate who received contributions from lobbyists. almost $500,000 just from lobbyists. he was the top recipient in the senate. >> that was when he was defeated, 2006. i want to play this little clip. listen to this and we'll discuss. >> when rick santorum, sponsored earmark after earmark, i went down to the floor and fought against those. my friends, earmarks are gateway to corruption. >> if earmarks were the problem, spending should be going way down right now, shouldn't it? so, this was john mccain trying to put his imp madder on the republican conservative movement. >> i don't think he and rick santorum like each other. >> i think that's an understatement. some of the things that i heard privately from at least one of them about the other, i can't repeat on family show. they just didn't get along. the genesis of it was earmarks. john mccain was an attacker of earmarks and the people who got earmarks. rick santorum didn't like that, so they really clashed over that. that rivalry continued in 2008 when remember, ironically, rick santorum endorsed romney over john mccain. he actually recorded some robo calls against mccain. so they've never really liked each other. >> that's a good point. thanks very much, dana, for that. santorum meanwhile is keeping that feud going with mccain. gloria borger is joining us from new hampshire, where she just had a chance to speak with rick santorum. seems like these two guys, they don't really like each other. >> right, they don't. it is kind of family feud. here i am in beautiful dublin, new hampshire. we caught up with rick santorum after he had kind of a feisty town hall meeting here today where people were challenging him on the social issues like gay marriage and don't ask don't tell and but i caught up with him in a crowded hallway afterwards and i asked him a little bit more about the so-called revolving door that dana was just talking about and also, about that feud with john mccain. take a listen. >> senator mccain and you mentioned inside, has been on the attack on you. >> not surprised. >> not surprised, but he's called you sort of the ultimate insider, has criticized your support for earmarks. >> i think it's sort of funny that john mccain has severed in the senate longer than i did and he's calling me an insider. john mccain was in the senate a lot longer than i was and you look at my record, you know, i was a big reformer in the house and the senate. gang of seven and what we did in the senate with just reforming the senate itself and putting term limits in place. i mean, term limits is a big reform. >> but today, "the washington post" had a piece, which also echoed the kind of insider theme and said that you parlayed your connections as a senator for lucrative consulting contracts after you left the senate. what's your response to that? >> i went to work after i left the senate to provide for my family. with companies like universal health services as a board member. >> do you agree with newt gingrich when he says that mitt romney could be the weakest front-runner in history? >> i don't -- i'm not a political analyst. i'm a candidate for president. i used to may one on tv, but i don't anymore. i am a candidate for president and i'm going to talk about the things that i want to do for this country and why people should vote. >> you're not taking on mitt romney. >> oh, i'll take on mitt romney, rest assured. i'm not going to make judgments about his character, about whether he's going to be weak r or strong. i'll make the arguments and let people make the decisions. >> are you going to finish here? >> just stronger. that's always we want to believe. and that's the same thing. in this case, we had about ten days to two weeks in iowa to ramp up. and it's just hard and you have democrats and independents who are coming in and so, we don't have any grand expectations here other than to show that i think what you're seeing, i mean, there's some energy and excitement here. >> you know, and gloria, good questions to him, but why isn't he going after romney in a more aggressive way? >> well, i think there are a couple of reasons, wolf. first of all, here in new hampshire, romney's pretty popular and he's got a summer home here and santorum is really introducing himself to the voters now. i think there's another reason, little subterranean, which is i think in the back of rick santorum's mind, there's probably the possibility that perhaps mitt romney might need him on the ticket. he's from after all, the state of pennsylvania, a big swing state and maybe he figures e he would be the person to bring along conservatives, evangelicals, who knows. that could be somewhere in his mind. >> also in his mind, supporter's mind, he might need romney to be on his ticket somewhere down the line as well. >> right. maybe. >> we've seen some strange vice presidential picks over the years after a lot of bad blood during a campaign. all of a sudden, they sort of make up and move on jointly. >> hillary clinton, barack obama? >> that didn't necessarily happen, but biden said some nasty things about barack obama when he was challenging him for the democratic presidential nomination and of course, a lot of people remember reagan-bush back then. you and i can certainly remember them. voodoo economics and all of that. you want to say something else? >> i think i can guarantee, wolf, it probably won't be romney and newt gingrich. that's gotten really, really personal. >> i think you're right on that one. thanks very much for that. hiring is up. we're going to go inside the numbers. do they signal a turn around and we'll talk about jobs much more with jon huntsman this hour. what's his plan to grow the economy? i'll ask him. ♪ [ smack! ] [ smack! smack! smack! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum ta tum tum tums you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you want a firm bed you can lie on one of those, if you want a soft bed you can lie on one of those." we provide the exact individualization that your body needs. welcome to the sleep number year-end closeout event. not just ordinary beds on sale, but the bed that can change your life on sale. the sleep number bed. it calibrates precisely to your body and your comfort zone. now you can feel what happens as we raise your sleep number setting and allow the bed to contour to your individual shape. oh yeah. it's really shaping to my body. it's the final days to save up to $800 on selected 2011 bed sets. plus, free standard shipping on all beds. you can adjust it however you want so you don't have to worry about buying the wrong mattress. once they get our bed, they're like, "why didn't i do this sooner?" hurry in to the final days of the year-end closeout event and save on the bed that can change your life. the sleep number bed. only at the sleep number store, where queen bed sets now start at just $899. american businesses have been hanging out the help wanted sign. the latest employment numbers show continuing improvement, so are things really turning around? lisa sylvester has a closer look. >> you can see the unemployment rate ticked down from 8.7% to 8.5%. taking a look at the job growth numbers, 200,000 jobs were added in december and we can break this out now. you can see a snap of the last four months. september, 158,000 jobs. october, 100,000. november, 120,000 jobs and december, 200,000 jobs. this is what you want to see. you're actually seeing this upward trend, this is good news. here's another perspective. 200,000 jobs. that's ab a status quo. if you want to lower unemployment to really make a dent, you really need to be a lot higher, around 300,000 or 400,000 jobs every single month. here's another perspective. we can take a look at the unemployment numbers by race. here you see. 7.5% for whites. this was the month of december. that is actually down from 7.6%, but for african-americans, the unemployment rate went up. for hispanics, it went down and asians, it went up. we are in an election season and we know if the unemployment number is going down, it's going to help president obama. on the other hand, if you see the unemployment rate stuck or going up, that's going to be a challenge for the president, wolf. >> thank you. the latest employment numbers are clearly a boost for the obama administration. listen to the p president. >> all together, more private sector jobs were created in 2011 than any year since 2005. there are a lot of people that are still -- that -- that a lot of people that are still hurting out there. after losing more than 8 million jobs in the recession. obviously, you know, we have a lot more work to do. >> bring in our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin. i assume they're happy, politically speaking. 200,000 jobs is good. >> i describe them as cautiously optimistic, wolf. in terms of politics, the president's aides believe that with a few months of positive jobs growth, he's in -- the idea is that he could argue his economic plan is making slow -- the big picture cases don't change horses midstream. these have republicans on their heels, they they don't want to give president obama credit for them. listen to rick santorum today. >> i'm very gratified to see that in spite of president obama's policies that the job market is beginning to pick up a little bit. i think there maybe some optimism that republicans are going to take the genachowski white house and maybe that's u spurring people to start taking some risks. >> now, you have to keep in mind there's a danger here for the president and that is these positive numbers could be coming too early in the election cycle. if voters expect continued improvement and then this jobs growth collapses close to november, that's even worse for the president than if this never happened to begin with. >> he's been very aggressive lately, especially since he's come back from hawaii. >> right. he made this recess appointment this week. in a way, multiple recess appointments, in a way that could get the most notice. and then today, he did a victory lap with his new hire, richard cordray, director of the consumer financial protection bureau. first, let's listen to the president there. >> we can safeguard families and seniors and veterans from toxic financial products. we can help give everybody the clear and transparent information they need to make informed financial decisions and have companies compete for their business in an open and honest way. >> so, what is this move by the president this week say? he's sending a few messages about what's to come. first, to republicans in saying he won't take flat when it comes to pushing his agenda on jobs in the economy. to the democratic base, he's saying he won't be pushed around by republicans. they thought he was for a long time. and then to middle class americans, the key target of his campaign, wolf, he's just signalling he wants to champion middle class americans. >> so he's been getting much more assertive lately and i think that's only just beginning. >> just beginning. we're going to see a lot more of this kind of activity down the line. >> sort of in your face politic. thank you. we're going to have much more in our next hour. the chairman of the president's economic advisers will join us live. i'll ask why the positive new jobs numbers don't seem to apply to african-americans. and coming up, my interview with jon huntsman. what would he do to stop iran from developing a nuclear weapon? i'll ask him. i'd never ride without one now. and since my doctor prescribed lipitor, i won't go without it for my high cholesterol and my risk of heart attack. why kid myself? 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[ man ] still love that wind in my face! talk to your doctor. don't kid yourself about the risk of heart attack and stroke. if lipitor's been working for you, stay with it. lipitor may be available for as little as $4 a month with the lipitor co-pay card. terms and conditions apply. learn more at lipitorforyou.com. lisa sylvester is monitoring some of the other top stories. what's going on especially when it comes to iran and the strait of hormuz? >> state media made an announcement amid rising tension, the strait is the only outlet from the persian gulf. 17 million barrels pass through. iran just ended days of drills on monday. iran is threatening to block the strait if sanctions are imposed on its oil exports and dramatic images from minnesota. where a semitruck left the highway near monticello and plunge through the ice on a nearby creek. the state patrol says the driver managed to escape and crawl to safety. he was treated and released from the hospital. investigators are trying to figure out why the truck left the road. and british police are asking for help in identifying the woman whose body was found sunday on queen elizabeth's es kate. the woman was white and between the ages of 15 and 23. they're looking at people who worked or held events there in august of september of last year. and the dallas teenager who was mistakenly deported to colombia is on her way home. officials say she was an adult from colombia when arrested for theft in houston. her family has been looking for her since she ran away from home in 2010. now, they plan to sue the agencies involved in her deportation. very strange story. >> ed lavandera did a good report on that yesterday. four days until the new hampshire primary. jon huntsman is rolling the dice of a good showing. my one-on-one interview with huntsman is just ahead and can mitt romney actually wrap it up soon? we're taking a closer look at the latest polls. that's coming up in our strategy session. at liberty mutual, we know how much you count on your car and how much the people in your life count on you. that's why we offer accident forgiveness, man: good job. where your price won't increase due to your first accident. we also offer a hassle-free lifetime repair guarantee, where the repairs made on your car are guaranteed for life or they're on us. these are just two of the valuable features you can expect from liberty mutual. plus, when you insure both your home and car with us, it could save you time and money. at liberty mutual, we help you move on with your life. so get the insurance responsible drivers like you deserve. looks really good. call us at... or visit your local liberty mutual office, where an agent can help you find the policy that's right for you. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? the obama administration is trumpeting positive new employment numbers, but not the republican candidates who believe they have a better formula for creating jobs and joininging us from manchester, new hampshire, the former utah governor, the republican candidate, jon huntsman. thanks very much for coming in. >> thank you, wolf, it's an honor. >> first of all, jobs, the economy, issue number one. 200,000 new jobs created in december. six months in a row of positive job growth. at least 100,000 a mo