is spending millions of dollars to flood the airwaves with anti-romney attack ads. is this payback time for newt gingrich? i'm wolf blitzer and you're in the "situation room." president obama dropped a bit of a bombshell a little while ago in an unscheduled appearance announcing bill daily is stepping down after just a year. he'll. replaced by the budget director, jack lou. here's jessica yellin. she's working the story for us. jessica, what's going on over here? >> well, wolf, first of all the president actually said that bill daley wants to spend more time with his family. let's listen to part of what the president had to say and then we'll talk about it a little bit on the back end. here's the president. >> 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 that's been synonymous with the daley family for generations, was too great. >> so what's this about, wolf, as you know, this has been a fraught relationship from the start. daley has been here for almost exactly one year and there have been management challenges in the white house. another issue, the top priority for which daley was brought into address, repairing the white house's relationship with the business community. no longer became as important to this white house when the campaign decided that the president's top focus would be reaching out to the middle class and fighting for consumers. so that's another issue. then, of course, the number-one -- the overarching challenge has been there's so many senior advisers here who are insiders going back to the campaign. and it's just incredibly difficult to break into that club and there were clashes and challenges as we've reported throughout the year. and in the end, senior administration official made it clear to me that this was daley's decision. and as the president said, daley came to him last tuesday, first, and said, mr. president, i decided in the end, it's just not right. this white house is going to be better off if i'm not the chief of staff. the president said -- no, no, think about it. as he said. daley came back and said, no, i've decide. i need to end thor my resignation and it was decided that -- and then the president asked daley who he thought would be breast to replace him, according to this administration official, wolf. >> a dreary day in washington. it looks like snow is beginning to come down. jessica, we'll get back to you and learn more about jack lou and bill daley out. stand by. we're hours away from the nation's first primary. on the eve of that vote in new hampshire, the frontrunner mitt romney is drawing new fire from his rivals. they're fighting for second place and trying to stay in this presidential race. romney has given them, today, some new ammunition, jim mccosta is joining us. romney under fire for talking about firing people. jim, what's going on here? >> reporter: that's right, wolf. mitt romney has had a couple of stumbles in the last 24 hours over the issue of layoffs. and while the comments may not hurt him here in new hampshire where he's way out in front they could haunt him down the road. touring metalworks factory mitt romney saw the day before, it has manufactured nothing but trouble. at a breakfast event romney used an unfortunate choice of words touting the health care plan he passed in massachusetts. >> 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 fire people who provide services to me. >> reporter: it didn't take long for the rivals to pounce, starting with jon huntsman. >> governor romney enjoys firing people, i like to hire people. >> i was talking about insurance companies. we like to get rid of insurance companies that don't give us the service that we need. >> mitt romney, them guys, they don't care who i am. >> reporter: the remarks come as a pro gingriinge pac -- a pro gh package. >> it hurts so bad to leave my home because of one man that's got 15 homes. >> reporter: and over the weekend, romney told a crowd he knew what it was like to fear for his job despite his privileged upbringing, despite being the son of a one-time presidential candidate. >> i know whether it's like to worry if you were going to get fired. there were a couple of times i worried about if i was getting a pink slip. >> looking ahead to south carolina, rick perry couldn't resist. >> i have no doubt mitt romney was worried about pink slips, perry said, whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out. romney said he was talking about how he worked his way up from the bottom in the business world. >> like anybody that starts at the bottom of an enterprise, you wonder when you don't do so well if you can hang on to your job. >> reporter: democrats are also piling on. back at the breakfast event a woman from the united autoworkers' union chajd him on the auto motors bailout. romney stood by his comments. >> i believe the market works better than a president stepping in to take care of his friends. >> reporter: when we tried to talk to the woman, the romney campaign sound man cranked up the music. as we tried to catch up with the soundman he threw a sheet over his head. and the barrage of attacks on mitt romney has caught the attention of the pro romney super pac "restore our future" the sam pac that took down newt gingrich in iowa plans to talk up mitt romney's accomplishments. pac can do their dirty work for the candidates, wolf, but they can also do damage control and we may be seeing that in south carolina, wolf. >> i'm always amazed at how ridiculous some of these people are. they think they can pump up the music, avoid the sound. we'll hear what the woman has to say. whooi do they do ridiculously stupid things like that out there on the campaign trail? >> reporter: well, the romney campaign is about message control and message discipline. that's why you don't see the former massachusetts governor doing a whole lot of media. the one he did taze f today was the first one he did in more than a week according to reporters that cover his campaign hour by hour, day by day. so when he gave that one news conference, he only took five or so questions. even at the news conference he held today here in new hampshire. so this is really all about message control. it was surprising, though, being in that room, we were all just trying to talk to this woman about her comments about general motors and the bailout and it was right in the middle of those comments when that music went full blast. it could only have been the reason of the romney campaign trying to drown out this woman's comments. we tried to go over to the sound technician and ask miami what did the campaign put you up to this and he said, check with the campaign. >> they always do these ridiculous things and it always comes out and then we move on and learn. i'm sure they learned from this as well. thank you very much, jim mccosta. good reporting. next gotle ground is south carolina. next battleground is south carolina. newt gingrich has been going after romney with a vengeance and now a pro romney super pac has received $5 million from the casi casino sheldon adleson. they are experted from romney's record at ceobain capital. >> the story of greed playing the sk system for a quick buck. a group of corporate raiders led by mitt romney. more ruthless than wall street. for tens of thousands of americans, the suffering began when mitt romney came to town. >> let's go live to our political reporter, peter hambee in south carolina. $3 million, $5 million, what does that buy in the next two weeks if you're looking for a lot of commercial time over there? >> reporter: wolf, that's a good question. to put this in perspective, a campaign typically, if they want a healthy statewide ad on broadcast on able in south carolina, will spend between $300,000 and half a million. when you talk about $3 million, $2 million, $5 million, that far surpasses what campaigns typically see. i talked to one republican strategist here today and i was picking his brain about how many commercials he would see and he said this would put geico to shame. that's the amount of super pac commercials we'll see from this pro-newt gingrich super pac 23 they put in $3.4 million hammering romney on bain. >> the pro romney super pac, they killed newt gingrich in iowa when i was there. you couldn't turn on the tv without seeing an attack ad going after newt gingrich and it really paid off. these ads right now, what are you seeing on television as we speak? i know you've been watching what the ads are right now. >> reporter: i've been down here in south carolina for about a week and it's almost starting to remind me when you watch television of that final week in iowa when you couldn't turn on t the tv without a political ad. romney has a positive ad calling the need to cut spending a moral responsibility. there's a negative ron paul ad calling rick santorum calling him a washington insider. rick perry, positive ad talking about values. a gingrich campaign ad criticizeding romney on his tax plan. those are already flooding the tv airwaves from watching television over the last few days so when the super pacs come in it's going to be nonstop for two weeks until the january 21st primary, wolf. >> rick perry, he got out of new hampshire as quickly as he could. he'll probably come in dead last, the polls show, maybe 1 over 2% in new hampshire. he's in south carolina, presumably, his last stand, to see how he does in south carolina. he really hammered mitt romney in person today, didn't he? >> reporter: he really did, wolf, this is his last stand. he's planting a flag and moving through the conservative upstate and talking about his faith and his conservative values. but you really see this bain attack emerging in the last 24 hours as a common theme among all the candidates. huntsman was hitting romney in new hampshire and perry in anderson, drilled mitt romney on this and he said he looted with bbain, he tried to localizend and he said that romney was profiting off failure. so it's an interesting attack in a republican primary. the romney campaign is defending this saying that these other republicans are attacking the private sector and sound like democrats. but this is a state that's lost a lot of jobs and manufacturing jobs, a lot of textile industry jobs and the unemployment rate is almost 10% here. so it could be a potent theme hitting the sort of wall street corporate-raider mentality in the state where there's a lot of populist frustration with the tough economy, wolf. >> did rick perry, peter, mention the tens of thousands of jobs that bain capital helped to create, staples, domino pizza? other companies? i take it he didn't mention that, did he? >> reporter: curiously, that went unmentioned today, wolf. maybe he'll say it here at stax's restaurant here in greenville. >> and if romney gets the nomination he'll talk about the tens of thousands of jobs bai nichlt capital created. i suspect that will happen down the road. peter, doing an excellent job in south carolina. jack cafferty is next with "the cafferty file." and john mccain, last time around, is backing mitt romney. i'll skl senator mccabe about the escalating attacks on his candidate. plus, a bungee jump disaster. the cord snapped, but the jumper lived to tell the story. a look at the day's other top stories and a lot more news coming up right here "the "situation room" yeah, i'm married. does it matter? you'd do that for me? really? yeah, i'd like that. who are you talking to? uh, it's jake from state farm. sounds like a really good deal. jake from state farm at three in the morning. who is this? it's jake from state farm. what are you wearing, jake from state farm? [ jake ] uh... khakis. she sounds hideous. well she's a guy, so... [ male announcer ] another reason more people stay with state farm. get to a better state. ♪ ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. less go to jack cafferty with "the cafferty file." >> there's a growing debate about the debates and rightly so. an ever-louder chorus of voices is suggesting that the presidential primary debate process is out of hand and needs to be reined in. i couldn't agree more. so far there have been at least 15 debates among the presidential wanna-bes including two in a 12-hour period over this past weekend and more to come. republican 'strategist mark mckinon said the primary debate process has gone rogue and suggests that the media took control away from the parties and candidates and focus is on entertainment and eyeballs, his words. mckenan said as mr. are more and more debates there's less time for candidates to talk to voters on the campaign trail and he also criticizes the format where the moderators of the story, questions are meant to spark conflict and some of the questions are downright silly. and serious questions are limited to 60 second solutions and 30-second rebuttals. and since media outlets can decide which candidates participate they effectively handicap the candidacy of those who are not allowed in. mckinan suggested the republican national committee. the democratic national committee should get together and agree before 2016 to some guidelines for their primary debates. several top republicans agree the party needs to take more control over the process but not everybody's on board with that idea. for example, the lower-tier candidates stand to benefit from more debates because it's free air time for them. candidates like newt gingrich and herman cain spiked in the polls following their debate performances and news organizations have been getting big ratings from many of these debates suggesting there's an ongoing appetite for them. anyway, here's the question -- how would you reform the political debate process? go to cnn.com/cafferty file and go to my blog page. >> let the free process go forward. if people like those debates and if they're interesting and they are, let them have all the debates they want. the more the herier. that's just me, jack, as far as i'm concerned. >> but you're opinion matters. you're one of the foremost political debate moderators in this land. >> i moderating those debates. >> i know you do and you do a good job. >> they always learn a little bit more about the candidates and they get more informed about what's going on so that's good. i say the more merrier. thank you. cnn gets a first-hand look at what's going on in syria. lisa sylvester monitoring that. >> reporter: wolf, cnn international core respondent nick robertson is on the ground in syria and said thousands of people gathered for funerals in damascus, many chanting with "down with the regime." but there was a pro government rally in damascus. they had the live broadcast equipment confiscated on arrive value and they are often accompanied by a government monitor. the former pakistani president tells cnn he's succeeded where others failed as leader of his nuclear armed country. and he says he'll return from exile by the end of this month to run for offers despite the threat of arrest. he's wanted in connection with the 2007 assassination of former prime minister. in britain, investigators identified the body found on queen elizabeth's estate. they say it's a 17 year old l-year-old female immigrant from latfia. and take a look at these injuries. this is what happened to a young australian woman who was bungee jumping in africa when the bungee cord broke. aaron langworthy plummeted more than 300 feet into a crocodile infested river. breaking a collarbone and blacking out on impact. amazingly, look at this picture here. she survived and she's expected to fully recover. i'm watching this video along with everyone else. that's unbelievable. and she survived and she's expected to be just fine. >> that's why i will never, ever, ever, ever, ever bungee jump. i don't know about you lisa but that's something i have no desire to do. >> cross that off my list. not doing that one. >> thank god she's all right. that's a dangerous thing to do. wouldn't do it. john mccain, he's backing mitt romney. standing by to talk to us live about the attacks on his candidate by the new super pac supporting newt gingrich. plus the surprised departure of president obama's white house chief of staff. that and much more. donna brazil and mary mat lin are standing by live for our strategy session. [ monica ] i'm away on a movie shoot and it hasn't been going exactly as planned. cut. cut! [ monica ] i thought we'd be on location for 3 days -- it's been 3 weeks. so i had to pick up some more things. good thing i've got the citi simplicity card. i don't get hit with a fee if i'm late with a payment... which is good because on this job, no! bigger! [ monica ] i may not be home for a while. [ male announcer ] the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. jon huntsman rolled the dies on new hampshire and now with the primary only hours away will his bet pay off? we'll go live. dan, what's going on with jon huntsman? >> reporter: well, first of all, wolf i'm inside a bakery where jon huntsman wrapped up his event here in new hampshire. the most recent polling he's been moving up a bit but he understands there's a lot of work to be done in the final hours and that's why he's been criss-crossing the state and going after the frontrunner, mitt romney. >> i need votes. i need help, i need support. >> reporter: fighting to close the deal with voters and close the gap with his opponents, former utah governor, jon huntsman, portrayed himself as the underdog as he rolled across the granite state scheduling seven campaign events. >> we have a terrific grassroots organization in this place all over the state. they're excited and they're fired up and we're moving. >> huntsman couldn't pass up the classic political photo op in this cafe. no kid gloves for frontrunner mitt romney as he quickly pounced on comments the former massachusetts governor made about firing health service providers who don't cut it. >> governor romney enjoys firing people. i enjoy creating jobs. >> reporter: it's the latest effort to chip away at the frontrunner. over the weekend, they questioned huntsman's conservative credentials during nbc's "meet the press" debate. >> he criticized me while he was out raising money for serving my country in china. yes been like my two sons are doing in the united states navy. they don't ask what political affiliation the president is. i want to be clear with people in new hampshire and this country, i will always put my country first. >> reporter: huntsman hammered that theme at every stop. >> i'm willing to put my country first. as compared to and contrasted to mitt romney who wants to put politics first. >> reporter: sengs sing it has caught on and at this stop in concord, supporters insisted huntsman's job under president obama was not a liability. >> the ambassador serves the country not necessarily the president. >> i think that that shows that he can work with the other party. that's a good thing right now. >> reporter: now the huntsman campaign released a new tv ad today paid f