campaign in new hampshire at all, moved on to south carolina. mitt romney has a commanding lead. i want to talk about that in a moment. the big winner in new hampshire, mitt romney, lost no time tonight taking on the man he sees as his biggest challenger, president obama, and drew one of the biggest applause lines from the republican front-runner's victory speech. >> the president has run out of ideas. now he's running out of excuses. >> i'm going to be joined by somebody who was a candidate himself and now supports mitt romney, tim tau lpawlenty. mr. pawlenty, a pretty good night for your man. has he sealed the deal yet? >> that's an understatement to say pretty good. he won iowa, and now he won new hampshire convincingly. he's the first incumbent candidate to win both iowa and new hampshire. so it's a big win for mitt romney, a view for america, rather than president obama's declinist view of america. >> i notice he focused on president obama and on improving america. is that going to be the consistent strategy going forward? >> he's been consistent in focusing on barack obama when other republicans have criticized him, he certainly has responded. but for the most part, mitt romney has focused on barack obama. he's the real problem here. he's the person that needs to be removed from office. when you look at barack obama's vision of america, it's about class war fare, getting to fight over shrinking pieces of pie rather than mitt romney's vision of growing the pie. those are two different positions. i think america is going to like romney's view better. >> tell me about ron paul. he had another very good night, finished with 24% of the vote. are you taking him seriously now as a possible threat to win the nomination? >> well, ron paul and mitt romney don't agree on many things, but you have to tip your cap to ran paul, at least in terms of the results he was able to garner. in iowa he had a respectable third place finish and then coming in second in new hampshire. those are sharp wins for his candidacy. he and governor romney have different views on important issues. but you at least have to acknowledge that he's speaking to a slice of the conservative coalition. >> i've got an interview with rick perry coming up, governor, in which he slams your man. he says he's a vulture capit capitalist for his activities when he ran bain. how do you answer the charges that mitt romney's a vulture? >> first, it's inaccurate and unfair. rick perry's campaign has had its share of challenges, but the argument about free enterprise and economic freedom in this country is an important one, but we shouldn't take barack obama's side on it. the democrats are the ones who criticized private enterprise and economic freedom. i'm disappointed that newt gingrich and rick perry and others are criticizing a republican and using the democrats' arguments in a republican primary. it's really unfortunate, and i think is a very, shall we say, desperate or hail mary pass, if this were a football game. >> newt gingrich has played mr. nice guy until this week. it looks like the gloves have come off. he's apparently got $3.5 million to spend through a super pac in which it's clearly going to be an assault against mitt romney. are you concerned that one of your opponents now has the financial muscle to play dirty the way you have 1234 >> i don't think you -- you're saying we have money, not that we played dirt yichlt the point is these super pacs aren't controlled by the candidates. they're independent and supposed to be independent. this is going to be a hard fought campaign, no question about it. mitt romney isn't taking anything for granted. obviously, he has the momentum, he has the tail wind. when people see his vision for america and his experience in the government sector, not just the private sector, they're going to come to the same conclusion as iowa and new hampshire, which is they're going to vote for mitt romney. you'll see that in the next few states. >> governor, thanks for a successful evening. ron paul finished a strong second to mitt romney, a showing that energized his supporters tonight. >> i called governor romney a short while ago before he gave his talk and congratulated him because he certainly had a clear-cut victory, but we're nibbling at his heels. but there was another victory tonight. he had a victory, but we have had a victory for the cause of liberty tonight. >> joined now by ron paul man jesse benson. good night for you guys. must be feeling pretty happy. >> we're ecstatic. what a victory for us tonight. we've consolidated this down into a two-man national race. now we're the conservative alternative to mitt romney. we're nipping at his heels. >> what is fascinating about ron paul is he's the oldest guy in the race by a significant margin, but he appears to be attracting the most vibrant youth vote, especially on social media. how have you managed to pull this off? it seems an incongruous match. >> well, he has the youngest ideas in this race. he's on the ideas of freedom, limited government, personal responsibility, free enterprise and commerce. those are really, really appealing to young people. the other is he tells young people the truth. he's honest with them, tells them about the mess they're inheriting, but he offers them a solution -- our constitution, liberty, getting our free many dos back. young people just respond so well. >> mitt romney is running on this sense of him being electable, and the criticism of your man is that he's dangerous. tonight he kind of embraced the danger and said, damn right, i'm dangerous, an interesting strategy. but can you move from dangerous to electable, do you think? >> well, we're dangerous to the status quo. we're dangerous to the establishment. but we're the best choice for the american people. the people that want their freedoms back, want to obey the constitution, want prosperity back in this country. i mean, that's what ron paul is all about. danger to the establishment, the safe choice for the americans. >> it was a strange lone voice today supporting mitt romney as all the criticism heaped on him for his apparent comments he liked firing people. why did he stick his neck out like that? >> well, there are two things that should bring all republicans together, and that is, one, realizing that the media will pull some gotcha statements from time to time and take things out of context, and number two, we all rally behind free enterprise and capitalism. we think it's unfortunate that republicans are going to demagogue some things taken out of context and use the language of moveon.org to attack another republican. we want to have an adult conversation in this campaign. now that it's a two-man campaign, we want to focus on the issues and talk about the issues that are important to the american people. we're going to criticize mitt romney for his health care mandate, supporting t.a.r.p., supporting big spending, but we're going to have the conversation the american people deserve and not demagogue these silly little things and not sap the free enterprise system. >> you're on a great roll. south carolina will be tougher. the latest polls have ron paul 12%, fourth place. it's a bit of a battle you're facing now. how are you going to change the operation moving forward? it's going to get more serious, isn't it? >> it is. dr. paul hasn't campaigned in south carolina. we're going to be rolling down there tomorrow. we're going to have a great rally. we've got a wonderful program. we have great mail. we're going to pump in great tv, grass roots. we're going to carry the momentum from new hampshire down to the palmetto state, and we're going to do very well. again, as people coalesce behind ron paul as the only serious alternative to the establishment mainstream candidate mitt romney, we're going to see a surge in momentum. you can guarantee that. >> finally and quickly, where does he get his energy from? >> from the people, from the supporters. when we all start to feel a little bit tired, we just like to connect with the supporters. the energy of the young people especially. it just lifts everybody up. it's just absolutely amazing, and it's what fuels him and keeps him going. >> do congratulate him from us. thank you very much. >> thanks, piers. >> so a fascinating night again although not entirely unpredictable. wolf, what did you make of -- did romney do enough to claim a really big victory? some people are saying, if he didn't get 40%, it wouldn't have been a big victory. where do you think we've ended up? >> big victory for mitt rommy, 40%, very impressive in a crowded field like that. from his perspective, the two candidates he feared the most, rick santorum and newt gingrich, they did not do well, coming in fourth and fifth. it was a huge win for mitt romney today. >> john king, the big question, i guess, of all the other runners, have any of them got it in them to actually challenge mitt romney in south carolina and going forward? >> almost forget the candidates for a minute. south carolina republicans have a big decision to make. do they embrace mitt romney, who's 2-0, or do they say not so fast? if their mood is not so fast, do they coalesce around one person? that was an interesting interview, a two-man national race. we're one on one with mitt romney. the question has been who will emerge as the candidate to challenge mitt romney? that ron paul can claim that mantel is something else. think about what the other candidates have said. mitt romney is weak. ron paul is out of the mainstream, almost a freak show in the republican party. how can you claim you're stronger if you keep losing to the candidate you call weak or freak. it's an interesting argument. >> and we wonder whether it was to the party's advantage, the republicans, to have an extended battle. when barack obama had a win after months on end, they were the only story in town. obama appeared to get better as a candidate as the months went on, and that seemed to play well for him against john mccain. couldn't the same thing happen here? could romney become a more formidable opponent? >> there are some who would argue that. he was much better tonight than the speeches he gave in the past. it was the best speech he had all year. there is that argument. you have to remember with barack obama and hillary clinton they believe largely the same things. you got to be very personal about which one you preferred. in this case, mitt romney has a fractured party on his hands with different camps. so it's important for him to end this earlier so that he can unite people behind him and have time to sort of heal the divisions there so they go into their convention and go into the fall united. i think on balance he's better off to shove this down soon. >> we've got the latest poll. mitt romney, 37% in south carolina, rick santorum, 19. newt gingrich, 18. ron paul at 12. rick perry at 5. and huntsman at 1. we know that gingrich is going to spend $3.5 million. this is the first big financial assault on mitt romney. quite clearly, i'm interviewing newt gingrich for the hour tomorrow. it's fascinating. he's gotten rid of the halo. the nice guy stuff wasn't working. >> i'm not sure he ever wore the halo. >> the devil is back. he's going to go for it. >> there is that wall between them. look, i think newt gingrich never really wore the halo. i think newt gingrich had no choice but to be positive because he didn't have a lot of money and didn't have the super pac money. now he's got the super pac. he's been attacked by mitt romney's super pac mercilessly. talk about this getting personal. this is getting personal. early on in the debates, gingrich didn't really criticize mitt romney. he always kind of said, no, no, no, mitt romney's a good man, and i was thinking, well, maybe he wants to be in the cabinet at some point. who knows? now he is the man leading the charge against mitt romney and leading the charge against the entire republican establishment, who is appalled there is a class warfare fight going on within the republican party. >> let me ask you specifically about this bain issue. rick perry in an interview, he's about to come on the show, is pretty scathing here. he calls mitt romney a vulture capitalist. he's trying to use his time at bain as a weapon against him. my gut feeling is this may well backfire. romney is already turning it into an advantage, saying i had a great record there. i created jobs. at a time when there's a lot of people out of work, not a bad message. who's going to win this argument? >> this is going to be really difficult because private equity -- in theory, you buy companies that are in bad shape. you build them up, make money in doing so, and you sell them off. sometimes jobs are lost when you do that. "the wall street journal" did a fantastic analysis of whether mitt romney createded jobs or not, and it's almost impossible to tell. if bain bought a company and sold it and then the company did well and created jobs, do those jobs count for mitt romney or not? that gray area nuance is going to continue through the primary and through the general election, if indeed he's the nominee. it's hard to say. >> if you buy a company that's in trouble and it then goes bankrupt, did you cause the loss of jobs? it's hard to say if that's true. >> it's incredibly hard to answer that question. certainly, by every measure that i've heard all the people that i have interviewed over the years that have known him or worked with him, he is perceived to be a very capable manager. >> the question -- i don't think this is going to necessarily make newt rise, but will it make romney fall? i think that's the real question. >> i think $3.5 million worth of advertising in a place like south carolina, where that buys you a lot of air time. if they chip away, could somebody like jon huntsman come back into the frame? could he take some of that time and some of that voting away from mitt romney? >> here's the difference between south carolina and iowa. we saw mitt romney's super pac blasting away at newt gingrich. ron paul's pac blasting away at newt gingrich, destroyed newt gingrich. he was really running high in early december. he collapsed almost completely because he didn't respond. the difference in south carolina is mitt romney, in the face of this newt gingrich barrage, he has the money to respond. he can do what newt gingrich didn't do in iowa. he learned that lesson. he will fight back. he won't turn the other cheek and simply try to take the high road. they're going to fight it out in south carolina. it's going to be ugly. >> if mitt romney wins in south carolina, is he basically the nominee? >> it isn't a done deal yet. i think he'll still have to win in florida. >> erin? >> i would agree with that, but i would think the momentum would be so much behind him. >> i think, as george bush used to say, he's got the big mo going into florida, and he's got the money for florida. >> 3 out of 3, done deal? >> done deal. >> yes. there's your one word. >> unequivocal down the line. thank you all very much indeed. coming up, can rick perry revive his campaign in south carolina? i'll ask the candidate himself when we come back. i want healthy skin for life. 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[ female announcer ] only from aveeno. rick perry threw in the towel in new hampshire to concentrate on south carolina's primary on january 21st. so maybe a surprise that he didn't do well tonight as he struggles to keep his campaign afloat. he joins me now. 1% isn't great, particularly at the moment. being in the 1% is the last place you want to find yourself, isn't it? >> well, we didn't compete in new hampshire. so it doesn't surprise us that our score there was a bit on the low side. it's the reason we came directly to south carolina. the message here and the people of south carolina, they really -- excuse the pun. but they cotton to the message of job creation and particularly what this administration is doing to south carolina from the standpoint of going directly to war with them on the nrlb and telling boeing they can't come into the state. their justice department is taking on south carolina's immigration law. you're just seeing an all out war on this particular state. so having a southern governor standing up for south carolina, a job creating governor that's got an impeccable record on job creation and talking about washington, d.c., and the corrupt insiders we see between wall street and washington, a part-time congress that i've called for, i'm telling you, all of these places i've stopped today and yesterday, there's a great reception to that message. >> let's get down to the reality of political life here. you come fifth in iowa, running sixth in iowa, running fifth in the polls in south carolina. you know as well as i do that you can't really afford to come fifth on south carolina on the 25th of january. what are you going to do to turn around your fortunes given the state they're in at the moment? >> the fact is there's a lot that's going to happen in the next two weeks in south carolina. people are just now starting to focus on this. with mitt romney sitting where he is, there is a clear focus on on a real conservative candidate. mitt's not going to fill that bill. i feel really comfortable with not only our message but the people of south carolina are looking for a message that will talk about the real issues facing this country, which is the lack of focus on job creation and this administration's just abysmal record. when you look at $15 trillion worth of debt. i ask these people in south carolina, are you better off today than you were $4 trillion ago? they get it. they understand that this country is in trouble. we've got a president that doesn't understand economics. and then that's even before we get into foreign policy and the $1 trillion that he's talking about cutting out of our military budget. >> what is undeniable tonight is that mitt romney is on a roll and a roll that very, very few people in the history of caucuses and primaries have ever been on. the guy has won in iowa and new hampshire. a win is a win, and it's going to be very tough for any candidate now to actually seriously challenge him for the nomination, isn't it? >> well, i don't think so, and one of the reasons is south carolina is a winner take allstate. winning here wipes out the caucus victory and new hampshire. so if mitt's thinking he's got it in the bag, i think he's going to be in for a great surprise in south carolina when he shows up here. >> tell me, governor, i've been curious about it because it's the first time we've actually spoken on the show. my curiosity is arisen by i've seen clips of you speaking at public events where you've been eloquent and intelligent and funny and engaging and you grabbed the aaudience, and it's completely different to the rick perry that i see in the debate. why have you found the debates such a struggle? >> well, actually, the last three or four debates i've performed at a high level. but from a substantive standpoint, some of the earlier debates, i'll admit up front i wasn't at the best of my performance level. but the fact is, if we're looking for a good debater, we've got one in the white house. but it's not translating into leadership, and it's not translating into an economy the american people are looking for. so if they're looking for a record of job creation, the million jobs that i helped create in the state of texas over the last decade will resonate with americans. if they're looking for a great debater or an individual that reads the teleprompter well, they'll stick with what they've got. >