Joining g ing us right now are correspondent dana bash, and david is our political director. And donald trump has tweeted about the numbers and very happy, and these are impressive numbers for him, and especially the poll taken after the most recent cnn debate. Yes, and what a way for the donald trump to close out the year, because he has dominated and now, looking inside of the nu numbers, wolf, on issue after issue, he has more support of trust to handle the economy, and isis and Foreign Policy and immigration. And so that means that those who were going to be voting for ted cruz or marco rubio, they trust donald trump more, and this is impressive. Yes, it is more impressive since other National Polls taken by quinnipiac and fox poll. Yes, and this is in line, and he is occupying a universe of support unto his own here, and the other stuff happening underneath him, but he is in such a far and away domination, which is not what we saw the quinnipiac poll which is different than the other polls around it. And the thing that struck me about the poll, david, is exactly what you said, looking at the issues and how much more support he has on issues than the general kind of the headtohead matchup. But if you are looking inside of the kind of people who say they support him, he has probably the highest support from Republican Voters who make 50,000 or less. So, the whole, again, one of the latest examples of how he is turning the whole concept of politics on its head, because people like mitt romney didnt want to talk about his wealth, because he was afraid of kind of making a wall between him, and other te other people, but it is the opposite. Because his whole approach trump saying, i am really, rich, and i am really rich, and it works for people who are aspiring to be or know he has done something right, and they support him. And they like the blunt talk. And now, dana, there is a story out today on ted cruz that he is fundraising off of it, but there was a controversial cartoon in the Washington Post and two daughters leading him as monkeylike characters, and he has gone out to do some fundraising as a result of this. Listen to what he said. It used to be for a long time, the rules across the board, the kids are off limits, and that should be the rules. Dont mess with the kids. Dont mess with my kids or marcos kids or hillarys kids or anybodys kids. Leave them alone. And if the media wants to attack and ridicule every republican, fine, but dont use the kids. Fair point, but he is using that cartoon and trying to use that cartoon to raise 1 million, and this is controversial. It is, and start by saying that ted cruz is 100 right, the kids should be left alone, and especially little kids, and he has little girls. As a mo ether, i would not want my child to be dragged into anything that i am a part of, and the same should go for any politician running for office. Having said that, he is certainly a big part of ted cruz appeal, and when he appeals to the conservatives is the mainstream media, and you remember a couple of debates ago, that is the mantra to attacking the media, and that is a gimme for the kconservative, and especially so for him. And so he is taking that, and taking the cartoon, and incorporated it into the line that works for him, but i am not shure i would have done that or suggested that, but it is probably going to work. And the cartoon has been pulled by the Washington Post and the post cartoonist originally tweeted that ted cruz has put his kids in a political ed and dont start screaming when the cartoonists start drawing them as well. And the editor said it is the general policy to leave the children out of it, and i failed to look at this cartoon before it was publish and i understand why anne thought that there was an exception to the policy was warranted, but i do noting a e gree. So it is controversial, but the post is acknowledging they should not have posted it to begin with. And i dont believe because ted cruz used the kids in an ad, they are now fair game, but that is what fred said there in the statement that you read, it is one thing to use for it a campaign ad and came up with with the idea for the cartoon, and it is another thing for the newspaper to print it, and obvious willy, they didnt agree and pulled the ad. And now, out in iowa, she is responding to donald trump, Hillary Clinton is commenting to the nasty comments he has made about her in recent days. I really deplore the tone of his campaign and the inflammatory rhetoric that he is using to divide people. What do you make of the response . Truthfully, considering what has bp going on, it was kind of muted. That has been the strategy all along, well, for the past 48 hours since this whole thing erupted for them to try to kind of let trumps comments speak for themselves, and kind of take the high road. I have talked to some democrats anecdotally who are not that thrilled with it, and they say that if Hillary Clinton is running as a woman, she should stand up, and defend women and womens rights and that is lowkey considering. And i remember Hillary Clinton back in august in iowa gave a big speech, and started to take on trump and poking fun at him, and she uses just like trump uses going after Hillary Clinton to rally his base, she has used sort of the trump as a foil to the rally democrats around him. I think that here she is a little concerned in talking to some of the folks around her campaign that perhaps playing the victim too much here in some way, and i dont think that she wanted to take that on, and i also think that she sees now, she does not want to play into his strategy. He is clear now that he wants to show the republicans that he can take the fight directly to her, and she does not want to play. David cal ian and dana bash, chau both very much, and now more with the race on the white house, and are the republicans beginning to accept the possibility of a donald trump nomination . In a brandnew poll, 40 say that the gop has the best chance of winning the white house with trump at 46 . That is up since august, and joining us is tara setmayer, and active progressive sally kohn and our correspondent ron brownstein. And now sh, what are you seeing when republicans are embracing a potential President Trump . My first thought is no it is very frustrating, because i look at the bigger picture, and the long term, and i say that donald trump is not president ial material. Every week, we are seeing him do things, and behave in ways that are president ial, and unbecoming of what this country represents and unbecoming of the oval office and hypocritical that the conservatives continue the support someone like donald trump in what he is doing. He has offered no specifics, and he continues to be an entertainer, but because he shows some strength what people consider strength and blunt talk, and it is such a contrast to what we have in the white house now, and people are gravitating toward it without thinking of the full consequences of what someone like donald trump would be as president of the United States, and as actual executive. I dont think that people thought it through yet, and it is starting to concern me actually. And ron, only one percent of the republicans in the poll think that jeb bush has the best performance in last weeks republican president ial debate, and so why is his campaign not resonating . Well, i think that he has been an establishment republican in the year that the party looking for something else, and he has had a long time since he ran for office, and the bush name is a mixed blessing. The point about donald trump is the widening gap between the republican assessments of him and the assessments of the overall public. As you have noted, the republicans, the numbers are improving, would you be proud of him as president , and does he share your values and all of those are about up to 60 yes, but with the public overall, not getting in better and onethird of americans say for example that he shares their values or that he has the right experience to be president , and it is, i think that in those numbers that you will see the real cost of the way that he has approached the campaign and the language and the demeanor and the style, and the risk of course for republicans is being swept away by a candidate whose general e erectie reck election problems are an equal, and this is the first time that a shared me lil r lineli me le millennial millennials will vote. There is a greeing favorability of republicans to this the insular and hardedge message that he is offering. Isnt it true, ron, that the Older Americans vote in much higher percentages than the younger americans . Well, particularly in the primaries, wolf, yes. 60 of the Republican Voters in 2012 were over 50, bhu the generje but in the general reelection for the first time the baby boom will be matched by the millennials, and by 2020 millennial millennials will exceed the baby boom in the electorate, and if you look at the coalition of the millennials and the collegeeducated socially liberal whites, trumps numbers are terrible. They are great among the working class can whites who are more culturally conservative and if he is nominated you would see the test of two competing theories of how the win. The conservatives say to turn out more socially conservative whites and you could havent a better test case than donald trump, and in the other case, you could not have more of a coalition of the a ascending of the coalition of the groups grow ing in the society, because the numbers are really bad at the groups that are at the core of the people who provided president obama the maer jor is in 2004 and 2008. And yes, the younger american america americans, percentage wise, they dont show up and vote as much as the parents and the grandparents show up to vote. Sally, lets talk about the democratic race for a moment. Bernie sanders hold on one moment, sally, are there is some breaking news that we are plo ploeling out of california. I want to update the viewers on this right now. We are watching and waiting for a southwest commercial plane to land in oakland, california. There you can see the aircraft right now. It is apparently having some problems with the landing gear. These are live pictures that we are showing you of the plane. It ha has made one flyby and circling the Oakland International airport, and it is burning the fuel before it lands in oakland, and we are not sure of the mechanical issue, but they have to check it for maintenance and it is a story we have been following, and we are getting the live pictures coming in from the oakland area. And mary ski vau oschiavo is joining us, and we are watching this plane approach the oakland airport. Yes, and the problems with the landing gear, we have covered them in the past, but good news is that ordinarily they can get the load lightened by burning the fuel, and many planes can dump it, but we are talking about not on the southwest planes, and it is something that you can do so that you can burn the fuel, and the pilots will will bring it in as slowly as they k and put it down as lightly as possible, and the outcome of the we are lost mary, but this plane is about to land. Okay. Lets watch it land right now, and then hopefully we will re n reconnect with mary. [ no audio ] all right. That is looking pretty good right now. This is a Southwest Airlines plane. It had taken off from Oakland International airport on the way to is chicago we are told. And it had a mechanical problem, and the pilot decided they wanted to check some sort of item, maintenance eitem and mad this return. 139 people are on board we are told as a result of this flight, and this is flight 2547, and it departed oakland not that long ago for chicagos midway airport, and 139 passengers on board, and we are told that after takeoff the captain and the command made the decision to return to oakland to check what is described as a maintenance item on the aircraft, and everything that this is a statement from Southwest Airlines, everything that we do, safety is of paramount importance and we appreciate the customers patience while we work to get them to the final destinations for the holiday. It looks like that plane has made a very safe landing in oakland and all is fine there, and we will find out what the Maintenance Issue is, but fortunately all is good in oakland. That southwest flight 2547 back on the ground, and all 139 passengers and plus the crew there on board, they will be off of the plane soon, and southwest says they will be rerouted to chicagos midway airport, and all good there. Back to the political panel. I was talking to sally cohen. On the democratic side, Bernie Sanders in the polls is not doing that great, and Hillary Clinton has the commanding lead, but in iowa and New Hampshire, he has significant support there, and what is your analysis right now . Is it possible from your perspective in New Hampshire that he is ahead of some of the polls that he could upset Hillary Clinton in the first two conte contests . I mean, anything is possible, and you know, the great thing about that we talk about it now, but fouch natalie a lot of time for the voters to make up their minds and the Iowa Caucuses are unique. I was in iowa a few week ago and i have to say that not only the apparent support, but the strength of support for Bernie Sanders is really part of the asset there that hill are ri clinton may is have numerical support, but it is tepid. And the people who support Bernie Sanders really support him, but the democrats are in a good position, because the republicans are not giving them a strong contender whoever the democratic nominee is. And we will see who the republican fom knee is. And tara, the fox debate coming up, maybe only six republicans on the main stage and there were nine at the cnn debate last week, and with only six on the main stage, and that could have serious implications for the certainly, other three who are dropped to the second tier. Yes, and i am fwlad to sglad see it, because we are at the point where the voters have to seriously look at who could potentially be our next president of the United States. When you have so many people like that on the stage, it is difficult to get the real answers, and real distinctions between the candidates. We started to see some of it in the last debate, and you saw how it affected marco rubio, and he has dropped a couple of points in the polls since that debate, because ted cruz, and rand paul, and Chris Christie were going after marco rubio and competing with him on the issues of immigration, and how he felt about fighting isis, and Foreign Policy, and that what we need to see so that the voters can look at the substance of what these candidates are offering and not just the entertainment value of what donald trump has continued to offer, and the more that voters see it, the juxtaposition the more they will come to the senses, especially the c conservatives who will see that donald trump is not who we need as the gop nominee, but as the next president of the United States. And guys, we will leave it there, and we will continue the conversations down the road, tara, and ron an sally, and thank you very much. It was a deadly attack at the hands of the taliban and now we are learning more about the six u. S. Service members who were killed in afghanistan this week. Coming up, what their grieving families are now saying about the american heroes. Santa has a magic snow globe for every family. And whatever he puts in our snow globe, shows up at our house. And this year, look at what he put in our driveway. Santa can do that . He sure can, honey. The lexus december to remember sales event is going on now, with some of the most magical deals of the year. This is the pursuit of perfection. Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer reporting from washington. As the taliban is pushing further into the Helmand Province in afghanistan, we are learning more about the six u. S. Members killed in a suicide bombing earlier in the week. Today, the new York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered the flags on government buildings to fly at halfstaff for Sergeant Joseph lemm and tomorrow for louis bonac ashasa. We are joined by Jason Carroll who has learned more about the background of the six Service Member, and what have you found out . Well, wolf, each story unique, and each story tragic. Six families in mourning today, and six fallen heroes, and we have heard about technical Sergeant Joseph lemm who surprised his family two years ago when he are returned home in afghanistan to surprise his daughter who was performing at a singing contest. Lemm was a 15year veteran of the nypd. There is the video there from two years ago when he surprised his family. The governor said that lemm embodied the bravery of police offic officers and soldiers everywhere. Also killed is Louis Bonacasa from manorville, new york, and i spoke briefly to his mother who described her son as a hero and someone who loved his family and being a soldier, and he has a daughter who turned 5 a few days ago and his brother speaking out about their familys loss. It was always a blessing to have him in my life. He was cut from different cloth. And he is a mans man, a gentleman and he loved his family and country, and he died doing what he wanted to do. He was a real soldier, a real hero. Also killed is Sergeant Peter taub from pennsylvania. His father said that he skyped with him a few weeks ago and he thought that his son was in saudi arabia, pu now knows that he didnt tell them that he was i