victim's family stunned and afraid. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." the republican candidates are scrambling to cover as much ground as they can. the south carolina primary only nine days away and early voting in florida starting at the same time. it's now make or break for the stragglers in the gop pack. some are trying to cut into mitt romney's lead by slamming his record as a financier. romney is mounting a counter-offensive in florida today. jim acosta is joining us from west palm beach with the latest. jim? >> reporter: wolf, don't let all the florida sunshine fool you. mitt romney is coming up a blizzard of attacks from the gop rivals over the issue of corporate layoffs, so the gop front-runner returned to a familiar theme of the campaign, and that is he understands the plight of the unemployed. mitt romney hopes he's found the message to remain his bain in the neck. >> being unemployed for a long period of time means families are having a hard time making ends meet. it means that in some cases people having trouble in their marriages, losing faith, becoming depressed. >> his remarks in the upcoming primarily state were almost a rebuttal to the 30-minute attack ad. >> that was very stressful. it took a strain on our marriage. >> reporter: the film focuses on a florida washing machine company which went bush after being bought by bain. the movie accuses romney and bain of gutting businesses to make millions. >> if they had left us alone, i think umac would still be running right now. >> reporter: in other states with companies were downsized by bain, romney said his firm always tried to create jobs. he pointed to some of the success stories like the retail chain staples. >> every time we invested in the business testify trying to encourage the business to have ongoing life. >> his rivalling are pivoting to other attacks. a town hall rick santorum all but called romney untrust worthy. >> aren't you looking for someone whoic truth. on a. >> can we drop submit pie olympics baloney. >> reporter: a new ad gingrich has goes to the tune of "pop goes the weasel." >> newt gingrich's attacks are called foolish, out of bounds and disgusting. >> reporter: a romney super pac is hitting back and prominent conservatives have risen to romney's defense, that may explain weyrich perry, who called him a vulture capitalist is now singing capitalism's praises. >> free market capitalism in the state of texas has created over a million jobs. we understand how capitalism needs to work. but this corrupt and fraudulent activity that's been going on in washington, d.c. between them and wall street has to stop. >> mitt romney needs no reminder how important south carolina and florida are to his presidential ambitions. this is where the last race to the white house ended four years ago. south carolina maybe nine days from now, wolf, but florida comes ten days after south carolina. >> and the assumption -- the working assumption is there will be some republican candidates with a ticket from south carolina to florida, and that is the main reason why mitt romney is spending time there right now, spending a lot of money there. is that right? >> reporter: that's right. he'll be here tomorrow morning. it was just added to his schedule tomorrow he'll be meeting with cuban-american leaders in miami. he'll be attending a cafecito with prominent leaders. he knows that florida is also important right after the state of south carolina. >> jim acosta, one of our favorite cuban-americans himself. so we assume you'll get the inside story for us, jim, on what's happening tomorrow morning in south florida. you got it? >> reporter: you bet. you got it. >> thanks very much. while republicans try to collect primary votes in the south. president obama's campaign has been collecting money, lots of it. let's go to our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. bottom line, how much did the president's campaign raise? >> reporter: wolf, the president's campaign raised $68 million in the final three months of 2011. that surpassed their goal of $60 million for that quarter. that goes to both the campaign and what's called their victory fund. in total they raised a whopping $224 million in 2011. in a video to donors made by the campaign's manager jim mecina, he pointed out 200,000 of the donors were brand new, hadn't given in 2008 or 2010, and 98% of their donors gave -- 98% gave $250 or less. they're trifing to drive home the point that they have enthusiasm on their side and not all their donors are so-called fat cats, a lot of them gave little checks. fair point. how does this compare to the republican presidential candidates? >> let's look at the candidates who have reported. not all of them have. we want president obama raised $224 million. mitt romney's campaign has reported they've raised $56 million. ron paul $26 million, and newt gingrich $12 million. obviously a very big difference there. not unusual for an incumbent to raise more. >> so he's raised more money than all the republican presidential candidates combined, and he doesn't even have to work about a democratic challenger right now. what does all of this tell us about his reelection strategy? >> well, wolf, they did, as i mentioned, release a video along with this announcement, and one of the themes they emphasized is we've heard a lot about how they're going to raise $1 billion this cycle. jim messina, the campaign manager said, and this is a direct quote, the billion dollar figure is completely untrue. then he went on to say that the obama campaign has enthusiasm on its side, unlike the republicans who don't, and pointed to turnout in iowa and new hampshire, and also argued that corporations will be given to the reps and not to the obama campaign. so what does all this say? it tells us that they're trying to build a narrative, a campaign in which the obama team has grass roads enthusiasm on their side, sore of the david in the face of competition from a republican goliath. now, we'll watch over time and see if that bears out, but that's the story line they would like us to follow and they would lookic to build. >> sounds like a story line right now. in terms of cash, the president has a lot more than any of his potential republican challengers. those don't include, by the way, the various super pac numb gere going to the republicans or the democrats. >> they report on january 31st so we're follow up. >> jessica over at the white house. let's bring in candy crowley, the host of "state of the union." i know every incumbent president at this stage in a first term, they're focusing in on their job, they just want to be president, but they're spending time worrying about being reelected. >> completely. you want to be above the fray, and you want -- i'm sorry -- you've got -- >> we're not hearing you because the microphone is not working. hold on one second. >> here's a handheld. >> every president -- you can take it too far. the rose garden strategy didn't work for jimmy carter, but every president likes to be above the fray. i'm too busy, i have too much work to do, and this circus, i'm just not paying attention to it. first of all, he pays people to pay attention. he knows what happened in the new hampshire primary. he knows his likely opponent is mitt romney. so it's a myth that you can separate policy from politics in an election year. they are one and the same. >> let's talk about republican presidential politics. mitt romney won in iowa, barely, but he won. won in new hampshire. is he convincing some of the republican skeptics that he's the guy? are they ready to jump on board? >> we saw peter reporting yesterday that a perry fund-raiser aligned with jim demint has jumped over and is now behind romney. people want to fund and be on board the train before it leaves the station. the romney people have lined unendorsements that you can sprinkle out there to give that forward-motion feeling. but, you know, south carolina is it. south carolina is it, in the sense there has to be a strong second coming in, or there isn't going to be a second at all. >> apparently that handheld mike wasn't a lot better. but we're fixing things. thank you very much, candy. republican rivals are hammering away at what they call romney-care. how is it different? our own doctor sanjay gupta has been doing a fact check. convicted murderers on the loose, set free by the mississippi governor, now the former governor amid the outrage talk. plus the disturbing image apparently showing u.s. marines urinating on taliban bodies. officials now say they know who some of these men are. we're going live to kabul. 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[ female announcer ] need help keeping your digestive balance? align can help. only align has bifantis, a pantented probiotic that naturally helps maintain your digestive balance. ♪ ooh baby, (what) can i do for you today? ♪ try align today. a u.s. marine corps officials tell cnn two of the marine shown in a video have been identified. the defense secretary leon panetta calling the behavior and i'm quoting utterly deplorable, and he reached out to president karzai by phone, promising a full investigation. cnn's nick peyton walsh is in kabul and has more. >> reporter: they've endured some of their worst losses in helmand provinces. recently deployed, but not much else is clear. the video you're about to see is hard to watch, but listen how casual, almost cheerful the member sound as though they're recording a trophy video rather than evidence of a possible war crime. there are some clues that the helmets worn here adapted to the sniper rifles they hold, consistent with the complain they're a marine sniper unit. all of it sparking university condemnation. a video recently posted on a public website appears to show u.s. military personnel committing a disgusting act with insurgents corpses. any acts which treat the dead, enemy or friendly, with disrespect are utterly unacceptable, and do not represent the standards we expect of coalition forces. >> president karzai's spokesman called it simply, and calling for, and the taliban condemned this act and called it an action against every human an ethical value. for once, rare agreement with isaf, the afghan government, and the taliban. and nick is joining us live from kabul. i've spoken to u.s. officials. they're worried this could endanger even further -- they're already in danger to begin with -- u.s. troops on the ground in afghanistan and elsewhere. what are you hearing over there? >> reporter: we're going to see how this perk lace through society. what we have seen today is immediate physical reaction, the presidential palace, isaf, the taliban, all having their say in the social media wort. it's going to take days to go through to the people who may form protests or express that popular theory. another 20 or 30,000 nato troops, i think. have you had a chance to speak with them individually, get random reaction to what's going on? >> reporter: not desperately keen to get out in front of it, but of course i can tell you from spending time, they mostly -- great tension at the hostility they fear, and huge fear and loathing roars from those troops who patrol these villages, but at the end of the day nothing excuses it. in a muslim society here, disrespect for dead bodies is pretty much one of the worst things you can do. so this really could infuriate many. >> a lot of us remember how specific the u.s. military was after the killing of bin laden, making sure he had a proper religious burial at sea, if you will. they didn't want to do anything to give ammunition to al qaeda, the taliban or others who were fighting the u.s. in that part of the world. nick peyton walsh on the scene for us, thank you very much. more on the story coming up later. president obama as i mentioned is now in full campaign mode. he's working for his reelection, raising lots of money. we'll hear what he's actually telling his supporters in his own words. stand by. he spoke at length in chicago last night. laura bush makes a surprising revelation about whom she wanted to be run for president. it's not invite current republican contenders. lisa sylvester has the latest on the soldier accused of committing the biggest intelligence leak in u.s. history. >> the soldier accused of giving secrets to wikileaks is one step closer to a court-martial. the investigating officer says reasonable grounds exist that private first class bradley manning committed the offenses. if convicted he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. warm weather may be or way, but home depot is gearing up for spring. it's planning to hire 7 on,000 temporary workers to handle the spring shopping rush. the busy season starts in mid-february or early march. home depot says about half the company's seasonal positions last year turned into permanent employment. the fda is halting shipments of orange juice after coca-cola found pesticides in orange juice. the fda is not raising safety concerns because it says only a small amount has been detected. 11% of orange juice consumed in the u.s. comes from brazil. take a look at this, wolf. that is a picture of a teeny tiny frog sitting on a u.s. dime. not a quarter, but a dime. it is the world's smallest vertebrate. it lives on tropical wet forests, and it is believed to be born directly as a frog without going through a tadpole phase, which makes me wonder, is it truly an amphibian then? but they're learning more about this tiny, tiny frog right now, wolf. >> very, very impressive, i must say. i'm sure the scientists will be thrilled to study it. romney-care versus obama-care. how do they compare? our own dr. sanjay gupta is on call to take a closer look sfa. and who laura bush wanted to see run for the presidential nomination in 2012. ghes what? none of the above. 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our chief correspondent dr. sanjay gupta takes a closer look. >> obama-care, we'll get rid of it. it's bad law, bad medicine. >> reporter: but critics say that plan was modeled off his plan in 2006. one economist and also served as a adviser for obama-care is m.i.t.'s jonathan gruber. >> at the core they're really the same plan. the basic goal of the massachusetts plan was to build on what worked with our health insurance system and to fill in the cracks, to cover the uninsured and fix the broken market for individual insurance purchase. >> reporter: both laws do share the same core foundation. most employers are required to provide coverage. government programs like medicaid expanded to cover more people. both plans require individuals to have insurance. it's an individual mandate. but romney hates that comparison. >> mandate is a seven-letter word, his mandate -- should mandates be a part of reforming health care? >> you're not going to put people in jail for not having insurance. no one is talking about that, but there are various ways to encourage people to get insurance, one is to give everybody a tax credit that you only get to use if you have insurance. >> reporter: there is another important it's also easier to get free health care, because the income guidelines are lower, and that's primarily paid for with new taxes. >> do you want more of obama-care? >> no! >> do you want promises of of higher taxes? >> no! >> reporter: you've cede he's lying or at least misleading people. what parts do you take issue with? >> first of all, he says, i didn't have to raise taxes and obama did. he didn't have to raise taxes, because the federal government paid for his bill. it's unfair to him to say, gee, i didn't have to raise taxes and ignore the fact he got a huge subsidy from the federal government to make that possible. clearly that's not possible at the federal level. >> instead of imposing on states, how they work, i'm going to take those dollars and those programs and give them back to the states and let states craft their own solutions to their own problems. >> people in massachusetts love their health care plan, according to romney. today the state says rom 90% have insurance. that's the highest in the nation. >> you would say what happened was successful, in terms of getting people who didn't have insurance getting them insurance. is that correct? did it accomplish the goals? >> i think the bills had two goals. it was to be the uninsured insured, and it was to fix a broken individual insurance market. i cannot emphasize it enough. >> reporter: but romney insists not every state is like massachusetts, and the new goal. >> the first on the list is to get rid of obamacare. >> reporter: dr. sanjay gupta reporting. let's discuss in our strategy session. joining us our cnn political contributor donna brazile, along with cnn distributor will cain for theblaze.com. first, will, if he is the nominee, will he have a hard time going after president obama and health care because there are these similarities out there? >> right. big if. we're not calling it for romney yet, but yes, it will be difficult. there are basically two options for criticizing obamacare. first it's a philosophical argument that no government should be imposing on citizen what they can and cannot buy or rather what they should or should not buy. that argument will not be available to mitt romney. the second is one of federalism, that states are constitutionally permitted to and should become little laboratories of democracy, to experiment with things like romney care. mitt romney can and will make that argument. the problem is it will be difficult. >> what about the argument he'll make and already made, donna, that there's one thing for states to do what they said to do. each individual states has different needs, different populations, they could craft something unique to their state. it's something else for the federal government to impossible a specific policy o