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CNN Saturday Morning News

Rescuers Race to find more Survivors; Ham House Face-Off; Spending Blitz by Super PACs; Getting Rid of Holiday Debt; Overtime Pay for Afterhours E-mails; Newt Gingrich Surges in Recent Poll; North American Auto Show Sees Increased Attendance; Apple Proposing Electronic Textbooks for Schools

Aired January 21, 2012 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center it's the top of the hour, and this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It's January 21st, 2012. Good morning. I'm Gary Tuchman.

While voters are making their choices in South Carolina a new poll shows Newt Gingrich way ahead of Mitt Romney.

Snow flooding, wild fires, wild weather across the country. Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf, will have a look at what else is on the horizon.

Big day in South Carolina as people are voting right as we speak in the Republican presidential primary. At a small Ham House Restaurant in Greenville is the center of a showdown between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich literally. Both candidates scheduled to arrive for breakfast, a meet-and-greet at the same place at the very same time, but Romney got there first. And maybe he needs that head start especially after a new American research group poll shows a stunning turnaround, Gingrich surging ahead with 40 percent of the vote, Romney a distant second now, 26 percent.

Our Jim Acosta is there. So Jim, tell us what's happening at the restaurant.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey Gary, we are live outside Tommy's Ham House in Greenville, South Carolina. Newt Gingrich is inside as part of this Ham House showdown that we've seen all morning long. You can see that the former Speaker was hamming it up inside this restaurant. He arrived, as we all know now, about 30 minutes after Mitt Romney left the scene.

And he asked the crowd inside, where's Mitt, he said he was hoping to have a little debate with the former Massachusetts Governor. That was not to be. We were expecting earlier that this morning these two candidates might actually collide inside this restaurant, but you can say -- you can pardon all these ham puns that Mitt Romney got the upper ham. He arrived a little earlier this morning than expected. I just got a boo there for that one. I'm sorry about that.

And then he made his way through the crowd. Reporters tried to ask Governor Romney as to why he was there just a little earlier than Newt Gingrich when we were all expecting both of these candidates at the same time. Mitt Romney did not answer those questions. He left pretty quickly with his entourage, got on the bus and -- and then Newt Gingrich arrived shortly thereafter that.

So it's been an interesting day. And this is just kind of summing up how this day is going so far on primary day here in South Carolina. As you probably know, there's some new poll out this morning showing a pretty sizeable lead for Newt Gingrich. An ARG poll released just this morning showing Newt Gingrich up 40 percent to 26 percent over Mitt Romney.

Gary that is a huge turn of events here in South Carolina. I was on the ground on Monday when everybody was talking about Romney as the inevitable GOP nominee. He was way ahead on the polls here. All of that has changed over the course of five days. It's been a very dramatic turnaround here in South Carolina for Newt Gingrich -- Gary.

TUCHMAN: Jim, thank you very much. It is crazy how the polls have evolved just over the past few days and I do think the story at the Country Ham House, one of the funniest political stories. I wish both of those guys showed up at the same time. I would love to have seen what would happen. But alas they did not show up at the same time.

So what did Tommy's Country Ham House owner, the owner of that restaurant have to say about his morning's visitors? I've talked to Tommy early and he told me even he was surprised to learn both candidates were stopping by.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOMY STEVENSON, OWNER, TOMMY HAM HOUSE: Gingrich people called me yesterday and told me he would be here about 10:45 and we were you know getting ready for him this morning. And -- well, during the night last night I got a call from Caroline Van Vick (ph), who is one of Newt's workers here in Greenville and she says -- they woke me up because I go to bed early and she said is Romney coming tomorrow, too, and I said well I didn't know if, he was. That will be fine.

So I went on back to sleep and this morning, and get to the restaurant at 3:00 and I opened the front doors and I come to my office and I look back out and here comes Caroline Van Vick and wanting to put up Newt Gingrich signs. And I said well, that would be fine and they are the ones that really told me that Romney was coming. Which we've never had the two here at the same time, but we'll take care of it. So we're glad to have them.

TUCHMAN: Well, I know you -- this is not the first time you've had a candidate stop by for breakfast. But I'm wondering at this particular time, how do you design the restaurant? I mean, do you allow them just to put it up their poster wherever they want, do you put up barbed wire to separate -- I'm just kidding about the barbed wire by the way. But I mean do you do anything to separate --

(CROSSTALK)

STEVENSON: No, we've got a -- we've got wide open restaurant. And we're just welcome them to come in, they -- they're not going to come in to do any talking or debating, I don't think. I think they just want to come in and shake hands and meet the people here at the restaurant.

TUCHMAN: Now will you be spending time with each of the candidates?

STEVENSON: I've got a lot to do here. I've got 70 coming in at 9:15, I've got to take care of before I get to -- get to them. But I hope they're going to be here about 9:00, you know later on and now wearing -- get my regular crowd out and get my, you know my regular people fed.

TUCHMAN: I think that speaks highly of you Tommy that you are worried about your regular people even though you have a man who maybe -- or two man but one of them who maybe the leader of the free world shortly coming into your restaurant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Tommy sounds like a great guy. And the next time I'm in Greenville, I am stopping at Tommy's Ham House.

Now South Carolina is the third contest in the Republican race but the Palmetto State may be closer to the national pulse with Iowa or New Hampshire. Here's the unemployment picture for the early voting state. South Carolina has the highest rate, 9.9 percent. That's above the national level, but Iowa and New Hampshire, are way down, in the five percent level.

There's also a big difference in racial make-up. African-Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population. South Carolina, 28 percent more than double the national picture.

Be sure to stay with CNN all day for coverage from South Carolina. It will be dramatic. Tonight we've got the results. Tune in at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time for the beginning of our special coverage of the winners, the loser of the South Carolina primary.

Wild weather crisscrossing the country, snow up north, heavy rains in South Carolina. Reynolds, is it affecting the voting, do you think? Is it heavy enough?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I would think so. I mean, if you're not motivated to go out. there's certainly a reason that might keep some people at home but for other people you know it's not going to matter what's coming out of the sky. They're going go out there and they're going to vote. You know we've had rough weather all over the country.

First, let's get things started, of course, in Reno, Nevada where firefighters are making progress battling a 3,000 acre wildfire. My goodness, that is just horrible to see. Authorities say it's been about two-thirds contained by last night. Certainly the good news the weather looks like it's going to cooperate, the additional moisture moving in the picture will certainly help. To the Midwest we go, Chicago, digging out from a snowstorm. About six inches of snow fell yesterday during the evening commute. Some places possibly as much as nine inches of snowfall. Again, the snow is moving out. So is the rain. Now the clean-up begins.

When we make our way back over toward Oregon, we're not talking about snow. We're either talking about some heavy rainfall. Look at the result. My goodness. Some families evacuated from their homes yesterday in the flood ravaged town of Turner.

Now we're going to show you what's happening here in Atlanta. Speaking of flooding, no flooding here for the time being. But we have certainly had heavy rainfall just moving into the city. Let's see if we can take a tower cam that we have outside that shows Centennial Park and you're going to see hardly anything except giant raindrops on the lens cap.

More of the same can be expected through the afternoon, evening hours. Shoot, it may even last all the way through Monday and here is the reason why as we go to the weather maps. We've got that slow-moving weather system, that frontal boundary that is just crawling across parts of Alabama into Georgia, the Carolinas, even at the Eastern Seaboard where they're transforming some raindrops into some snowflakes, actually towards New England where they could see several inches of snow.

One thing to keep in mind is with that frontal boundary there is a chance of flash flooding in parts of Atlanta, perhaps even North Georgia before the day is out and maybe even into the Carolinas. So severe storms all but a uncertainty we already had some big, big rumbles of thunder this morning in Atlanta, more of the same back in the Palmetto State and perhaps even places like Duke University up in Raleigh Durham you can expect that to continue to the afternoon. Even into the nation's capital.

Meanwhile the Pacific Northwest, we're talking about the snow. It could get heavy, in fact, not just today and tomorrow. But if you look at the clock in the upper right hand corner of the screen, you see Sunday, even into Monday, some places, the highest elevations, the Cascades, the Sierra Nevada, the central and northern Rockies possibly several feet of snow. Even Jackson Hill, Wyoming may get in on the action.

Snowfall totals for the Northeast, for the next 48 hours I'd say anywhere from maybe one to two, maybe as much as five inches of snowfall south of Boston. As you wrap things up here's a look at your temperatures nationally, 29 degrees in Chicago, Gary Tuchman's home town; 20 degrees in Minneapolis; 58 degrees in Denver; 62 degrees in Albuquerque; 58 degrees in San Francisco; 68 degrees in Atlanta; 37 degrees in Washington, D.C.; and 76 degrees in Miami.

Gary, I had to give your home town shout out.

TUCHMAN: I appreciate -- I appreciate you, Reynolds.

Speaking of home towns, though, this home town Atlanta where we now live, rainy, foggy, and that messes up air traffic cross country, the busiest airport in the world right here.

WOLF: Absolutely. And I think we're going to see delays possibly on and off through the weekend all with the certainty.

TUCHMAN: Reynolds, thank you.

WOLF: You bet.

TUCHMAN: Well, today is primary day in South Carolina. Today is also the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that gave birth to the politically charged Super PACs. Up next, we'll break down the Super PACs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUCHMAN: They are changing the GOP race with huge sums of money. We're talking about Super PACs. So what are they and which candidates are benefiting most from them?

Our Josh Levs is here to show us some specific numbers.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes and we've been talking about this. This plethora of ads that are all new this year, right? And it's part of a whole new picture of what's going on politically. This are the Super PACs, these new weapons and the political ad wars for this election cycle.

Basically these groups are allowed to take in unlimited contributions from corporations, unions, individuals, and then use them to run ads for or against candidates.

I'm going to show you some numbers. First I'm going to remind you that candidates are not allowed to coordinate with these groups on the expenditures.

All right, take a look here. We've got some numbers for you. The biggest spending Super PACs so far, restore our future which supports Mitt Romney. It has spent in total $11.4 million in this election season; that's according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics which tracks all this at OpenSecrets.org.

All right, the next one is the group, Winning Our Future, which supports Newt Gingrich, has spent $4.6 million. Here's another one, Endorse Liberty and a group supporting Ron Paul, they've spent $3.1 million. And I'll show you one more here Red, White, and Blue which supports Rick Santorum, has spent $1.8 million.

Now those are just a few of the Super PACs, there are a lot more and some Super PACs run ads against certain candidates. So you can't simply quantify who is coming out ahead from all the battles among them. And you probably notice the names just now, they all have similar-sounding themes. Our partners at Time.com say these Super PACs hasn't un-objectionable sounding vaguely patriotic names. It's a pretty good way to put it.

And they're changing the race. The write of the "Times" story joined us in the newsroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SCHERER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, TIME MAGAZINE: Every year, every cycle we tend to have more money spent on campaigns than before. The difference is in the past, most of that more money was coming in this -- in -- in $2,300 or $2,400 checks that were bundled together.

Now you have the ability of a billionaire to write on a Tuesday a $5 million check and then that money to go to a television station on a Wednesday. So it can really radically transform the race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: And he really summarized it there. One person can write that much money, boom a bunch of ads wherever you live.

These are highly controversial. Supporters say they are an extension of Free Speech. Critics say their way of circumventing campaign finance limits so that rich people, big corporations, unions can have even more influence than they already did.

We're talking about it today on all of my pages. Let's take a look here. CNN.com/josh, Facebook and Twitter, JoshLevsCNN, I will tell you, Gary, people are not holding back on this one.

TUCHMAN: Now it's really fascinating and it's really changed --

LEVS: Yes.

TUCHMAN: This -- this election is so much different than 2008.

LEVS: And we'll see where things go from here. There could be more and more super PACs in America potentially depending or there are some people fighting against it. Some people even want to create amendments to prevent it from happening. We don't know.

But yes, going ahead of the future with (INAUDIBLE).

TUCHMAN: We're going to have to sit here in 2016 and talk about it and see what happens during the next presidential elections.

LEVS: I'm there if you're there.

TUCHMAN: We'll still be young guys.

LEVS: We'll be -- young enough.

TUCHMAN: Thank you, Josh.

LEVS: Thank you.

TUCHMAN: How would you -- I should speak for myself.

How would you like to go to work and get a free lunch every single day or go bowling when you need to take a break. The companies that made the list of best places to work coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUCHMAN: Some companies dish out a lot of perks like free food and game rooms to keep workers happy. Fortune Magazine just named the best companies to work for after interviewing more than 250,000 workers.

Here's a look at the top five. As you see, number one, Google. Boston Consulting Group, number two. Edward Jones rounds out the top five. SAS Institute as number three and Wegman's Food Market, a number 4. There's a Wegman's in Syracuse, New York. It's indeed a good store and happy employees.

The National Foundation for Credit Counseling found that 62 percent of Americans say their top financial goal for 2012 is paying down debt. But where should you start? Earlier I got a little help from financial analyst Clyde Anderson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: A lot of us racked up some bills last month.

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: Yes, a lot of bills.

TUCHMAN: Yes, a lot of bills. And January comes along and you look at these credit card bills and you figure out how do you pay them off? Should you pay them all off right away? Is that the smart thing to do?

ANDERSON: It is. That's the very smart thing to do. But you've got to have a strategy and you've got to be smart about how you do it. A lot of people just want to go and start paying maybe the highest balance or pay the lowest balance.

What you really need to do is tackle the one with the highest APR. This is a smart strategy because what you're doing, you want to eliminate the one that you're paying the most interest on. By doing that, now when you get that down and then you go to the one with the next highest interest rate. And that's smart because you don't want to be paying more on these high interest rate cards just because you paid off one with a $100 balance. So you want to be strategic about that and hit those first. That's the first thing.

TUCHMAN: Should you be consolidating when you have a lot of different bills?

ANDERSON: Yes, I mean definitely. It depends on how many bills you have. So if you've got a few -- if you have four or five different credits with balances on them, the best strategy, again, just to go ahead and hit the one with the highest APR first.

You know, it's not necessarily -- a lot of people consolidate when they've got massive amounts of debt which they just can't control, they want to kind of lump them all into one with one interest rate.

I wouldn't recommend that until you get to that point where you're just -- it's out of your hands and you can't control it.

TUCHMAN: What other strategies would you recommend?

ANDERSON: Well, I've got a couple of different ones. One that people are kind of not recognizing, we have a little bit of a stimulus that we can do ourselves. Right now we have a break with payroll taxes from 6.2 to 4.2. To a lot of people it doesn't seem like a lot of money but the little things mean a lot.

TUCHMAN: I think most of us don't think about that.

ANDERSON: They don't think about it.

TUCHMAN: We say, oh, it sounds good. But we don't know how significant it can be.

ANDERSON: Exactly. That's what I'm saying. Break your calculator out. Now really kind of do the math. For the average household it's about $992 if they extend it for the rest of the year. Right now we know it's going through the end of February; February 29, 2012. If Congress can come to some terms, it's probably going to extend to the rest of the year.

So there's a good chance of that happening and that's what I've been saying. Take that money and apply it towards your debt.

TUCHMAN: So, is it as smart strategy when December comes, December of 2012 --

ANDERSON: Yes.

TUCHMAN: -- which is still 11 months away --

ANDERSON: Correct.

TUCHMAN: Maybe not to spend as much if it's problematic figuring out how they consolidate or how to pay off these debts.

ANDERSON: Right. I mean that's the best strategy. I mean the best strategy is to really not use so much of the credit cards. I'm one for cash -- use as much cash as much as possible because you pay in the end. It seems good and fine and dandy at the beginning that you're using the cards and it's easy to swipe them. We swipe until the back's gone but now, you're going to pay for it. And a lot of times you pay two times what you want to pay for cash. What's that saying here.

TUCHMAN: Speaking of cash, you know. A lot of us don't like to carry around a lot of cash.

You go to a store and you're going to spend several hundred dollars for gifts and you're not going to take several hundred dollars out of your pocket. ANDERSON: Right. Right.

TUCHMAN: The question is maybe it's smart to carry around more cash so you don't have to worry about these credit card bills. Is that something you advocate?

ANDERSON: I think for a lot of people, that's a smart strategy. And what you have to do is you have the cash in your pocket. You know exactly how much you need and then you use that cash. You won't use more.

When you see the cash coming out of your handing, it's a lot different than swiping that card. It's real money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Good advice from Clyde Anderson.

Well, can you imagine getting paid for answering work e-mails when you're at home. One country's new law could mean lucrative news for its work force.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUCHMAN: A new labor law in Brazil might mean employees who receive work e-mails or calls after hours could be eligible for overtime, but is this breaking ground or just causing more addiction to our phones?

Earlier I spoke to Nadia Bilchik in our "Morning Passport".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NADIA BILCHIK, CNN EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Dilma Rousseff, the President of Brazil, has signed a law saying that if you work overtime and if you have a great deal of action that has to be taken afterhours, it does make you eligible.

So who's going to really benefit from this? The lawyers, because what are you going to have to go through? Think about that. But also, Gary, in the last five years, think about how much your life has changed now that you are accessible 24 hours a day?

TUCHMAN: I think it makes it easier, though, for me.

BILCHIK: Yes.

TUCHMAN: Because I can do a lot of things over the weekend, and I don't have to worry about it when I wake up on Monday.

BILCHIK: Well, that's fair enough.

TUCHMAN: Yes.

BILCHIK: But really what they're saying is if it is being abused and you have a case. Now they're really formalizing something that was happening in Brazil anyway; a lot of employees were suing employers for taking advantage. So they simply legalized it. But it does need to go through the Supreme Labor Court of Brazil to review and that's going to happen in February.

But what lawyers in Brazil are saying is you're going to see more employees suing employers for overtime. So what it's going to make people do is think twice before they request an action taken. But how are you going to actually prove it? Because somebody can say, I didn't send you that e-mail at that time, there's a glitch on your computer.

TUCHMAN: I mean, is it practical?

BILCHIK: So there is so much more. It's going to take a lot to prove. But Brazilians typically do work many hours after work and they're also apparently very late for meetings. So what she's trying to do is instead of wasting your time and waiting for two or three hours for meetings, it's a way of just formalizing the whole situation and making it easier for the employee.

And by the way, Brazil is a labor-friendly country already, so there's concern about what is this going to do.

TUCHMAN: They are labor friendly, no kidding.

BILCHIK: Yes exactly.

TUCHMAN: I mean could this happen -- could this happen in the United States?

BILCHIK: I can't see it happening, but it would be nice if it happened here. I like Don Lemon's tweet. He said, if it happened to him he would be a gazillionaire answering all the e-mails.

But I want to go back to we now do publicly what we used to do privately. Think about this you used to answer e-mail where you would have to go into an office or even office in your home.

TUCHMAN: Right.

BILCHIK: But you'd have to open your computer. You can now both send e-mails and receive e-mails publicly from anywhere. So what this really is doing is just saying to people, let's not abuse the system. And what happens to these workaholics, crackberry addicts, Smartphone addicts what is this doing to us long term. It's hard to quantify because it's unprecedented.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Such an interesting story from Nadia.

Well, Newt Gingrich surges ahead of decision day in the polls in South Carolina. We go live to the State Capitol next.

And even in a bad economy, new cars at the Detroit Auto Show are drawing in big crowds. We'll find out why coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUCHMAN: It's the bottom of the hour, time for our top stories. Divers have resumed their search for survivors of the damaged Costa Concordia. And 21 people are still missing. Search efforts were suspended Friday because the ship began to shift. Italian authorities are expected to transition to a recovery effort soon. That's bad news.

Two days after an Internet outcry, House and Senate leaders pushed two anti-privacy bills to the side. They'll likely never come up again now. SOPA, the stop online piracy act, and PIPA, the protect IP act, aimed to crack down on online piracy. But many critics fear the new laws would go too far. Several popular websites went dark on Wednesday to protest the new bills.

New arrests at Florida A&M University. Four members of the famed marching 100 march band have been arrested. They allegedly beat other members of the band. These arrests are not related to an earlier incident, a tragic one, which led to the death of a drum major. The school promised to crack down on hazing.

A Nevada man has come forward to possibly take the blame for starting a devastating fire in Reno, Nevada. Police said the man admitted to improperly getting rid of some of his fireplace ashes. The fire has destroyed nearly 30 homes and 10,000 people have been evacuated. Firefighters do now think they have the upper happened on the blaze.

A big boost for Newt Gingrich's campaign. The latest American Research Group has him surging ahead of Mitt Romney among South Carolina voters. So what does this mean? Let's turn to CNN's political editor Paul Steinhauser. Paul, this is stunning, this turnabout just in the last several days.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: It really is. This poll, as you mentioned, by ARG, just out in the last hour, hour and 15 minutes, it was conducted Thursday and Friday. That was half before and half after our debate, our CNN Republican debate. Here's the new poll. Look at that. There's Gingrich now at 40 percent, Romney at 26 percent. This is among people likely to vote right now in today's primary in South Carolina. Look at that earlier in the week, basically dead even.

Now, Gary, this is probably the final poll. It's already primary day. People are voting, and this is just one poll. So, you know, the polls may differ. All of the polls, and there have been a lot, indicate Gingrich surging and Romney's lead evaporating.

TUCHMAN: Gingrich has been perceived to be weak among female voters. Does this poll break down male and female voters?

STEINHAUSER: It sure does. We saw the story line from the debate the other night, his ex-wife Marianne saying he asked her for an open marriage. We say how he strongly defended himself and got the crowd behind him at our debate.

But loot at this on the poll numbers. It goes against the other polls. Right here among women and men, look at that, Gingrich's support among men is 38 percent, women, at 42 percent. So at least from this one poll it indicates he's doing well with female voters likely to partake in today's primary.

TUCHMAN: These numbers are stunning. You're an expert, Paul, so I'm going to ask you this expert question. If Gingrich wins in South Carolina, and we didn't expect that necessarily five or six days ago, what will Mitt Romney have to do going into Florida?

STEINHAUSER: It's going to change the polling in Florida. Right now all the surveys down in Florida have indicated Romney ahead, and by a lot. But a Gingrich victory here, that will change the equation in Florida pretty darn quickly.

But let's talk about Florida. It is not as conservative a Republican electorate as here. Romney's campaign already up with a lot of campaign ads in Florida. So it will be a very different feeling in Florida. But a Gingrich win here would definitely change the landscape in Florida, Gary.

TUCHMAN: It's going to be a fascinating day and night when these numbers come in from South Carolina. Thank you very much, Paul.

STEINHAUSER: Thank you.

TUCHMAN: The new poll numbers Paul Steinhauser just talked about seem to coincide with Newt Gingrich's strong week. One of the most fiery moments was his debate performance on Thursday night. I talked with Republican strategist Lenny McAllister and CNN political contributor and democratic strategist Maria Cardonab.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: Do you think his answer helps give him momentum to give him a win in South Carolina?

LENNY MCALLISTER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It did. I think it galvanized them behind him. They feel there's a liberal bias in the media. He played straight to that. He also was able to attack the whole question of his ex-wife coming up, the timing of it, and still pivoted against President Obama. He did it in a brilliant fashion. He did it from the outset. He did it with passion. It was enough to get the crowd on his side and it may have been enough to get the conservative base here in South Carolina behind him, where if we leave South Carolina with a Newt Gingrich victory tonight, we'll have Santorum with a victory in Iowa, Romney with a victory in New Hampshire, Gingrich with a victory in South Carolina, and game seriously on in Florida.

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, let's hear what he himself has said which not long ago he said South Carolina has been the end all be all with him.

I think going into this, what we have seen with the Gingrich surge is a couple of things. First are his tremendous performances at the debate. Second, the question Lenny was just talking about, the slap down against the question about his ex-wife, but also this is interesting because as many voters say they don't like negative campaigning and as many of the political scientists say that this has been the nastiest campaign yet in South Carolina with all the negative ads -- they work. Newt Gingrich was able to put a lot of negative campaign ads up through his super PAC, and they work the same way they work for Mitt Romney against Newt Gingrich in Iowa and in New Hampshire.

And so I think this is to be all, end all for Newt Gingrich if he wants to go on and at least be considered to be competitive for the nomination against Mitt Romney.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: Well, the game is seriously on. Be sure to stay with CNN all day for coverage from South Carolina. And tonight, we've got the results. We're starting our coverage at 6:00 p.m. eastern, 6:00, our special coverage of the winners and losers of the South Carolina primary.

Well, this may be a weekend in most parts of the United States to stay inside and curl up by the fireside. A fierce winter storm has taken aim at the Midwest and northeast and rain elsewhere, lots of it. Reynolds Wolf joins us with our weekend forecast.

And American automakers are introducing several new cars at the Detroit auto show. We'll find out which car is just right for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER BREAK)

TUCHMAN: For the first time in five years attendance is on the rise for the Detroit auto show. And if you're in the market for a new car, gas prices are a big concern. But how can you get more for your money? Bill Perkins is the chairman of the North American international auto show, he weighed in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: Attendance is up. That seems like a very positive sign for our economy, right?

BILL PERKINS, CHAIRMAN, NORTH AMERICAN AUTO SHOW: Gary, we're having a great show. We've had so many people come in to see all the unveilings that we've had here in Detroit, and it's a real indicator of how much the market has improved, not only here in Detroit, but really across the country here in north America.

TUCHMAN: Give us an idea for someone looking to buy their first car or buy a car that won't bust the budget. What's affordable?

PERKINS: Well, there's a lot of new offerings. As a Chevrolet dealer, we have the Chevy cruise, it's an excellent offering. It's right around $20,000 to $22,000. You can get something a little cheaper than that. The sonic is around $16,000 to $18,000. But all of the manufacturers have so many offerings and all of these are on display at the North American International Auto Show, that anyone that is actually looking for a vehicle, they can go to just about any of their local dealers.

TUCHMAN: I rent add sonic recently. I enjoy the ride of the vehicle. What's the best if you're looking to not go to the gas station very much? What would you recommend?

PERKINS: Naturally I would say the Chevrolet Volt because it's a combination of electric and also gasoline. You know, you've about got the new Ford Focus that has been introduced. It's getting a lot of good reviews. You know, you've got the Chevy cruise. Anything within the Chevrolet line, they've done such a good job with improving the fuel economy throughout their line, that any of those vehicles are going to get you excellent gas mileage.

TUCHMAN: I tell you, it's been good times lately for gm. GM is having a resurgence. Let me ask you about foreign cars. The Honda was named car of the year. Why?

PERKINS: People like it, that's the main reason. It gets excellent gas mileage, it has new styling. People are very, very in tune, and they feel that a car like that fits their budget. So when you see a car with excellent gas mileage and good styling, people are going to buy it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: There's good news if for nut Gingrich. A new poll just released shows he's way ahead in South Carolina with Mitt Romney 14 points down. We'll look at the numbers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUCHMAN: Newt Gingrich is way ahead in a very new South Carolina poll, but it's been a rollercoaster ride for the Republican presidential hopeful. Check out this one-month swing in early December when Gingrich was out in front. After Iowa he dropped like a rock. As we got close to primary day, Gingrich started surging, and now he's surging even more, even as a big question mark that swirls around his campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: A new tactic on Gingrich with his relationship with his second wife.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Speaker, is it valid to bring up personal issues in the campaign.

TUCHMAN: The reporter seemed to get Gingrich's attention, so he asked again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Speaker, are personal issues valid in the campaign to bring up. TUCHMAN: His refusal to answer was a 180 from Thursday when standing with his wife and asked a similar question by a man attending one of the South Carolina rallies.

NEWT GINGRICH, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've been very open about mistakes I made and I have been very open about needing to go to god for forgiveness and to seek reconciliation.

This is an issue I confront every time it comes up, and I confront it exactly the same way every time it comes and people seem to be satisfied with it.

TUCHMAN: During the last two days, Gingrich's crowds have grown bigger and louder as the stakes get higher. On the eve of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, Newt Gingrich knew he wasn't going to win, but now he believes victory in South Carolina is within his grasp.

GINGRICH: If we win on Saturday with your help, I believe I will become the nominee because I do think South Carolina, in fact, has an enormous impact. You pick the winner every single primary since 1980. And I believe that we will go on to win Florida and then we'll go on to win the nomination.

TUCHMAN: Do you think it's critical that you win here in South Carolina?

GINGRICH: I think it's critical you win as often as you can. I think that this is -- the number one thing we now know is that when this becomes a two-person race, Mitt Romney has a huge problem because he's too liberal for most Republican voters.

TUCHMAN: As Gingrich's poll numbers have increased, so have his spirits. He's eagerly belted out one-liners, in this case talking about President Obama's Thursday visit to Walt Disneyworld.

GINGRICH: I want you to think about the president standing with Mickey Mouse on one side on Goofy on the other.

(LAUGHTER)

TUCHMAN: Gingrich doesn't want to be backed into a corner. But if he doesn't have a strong performance in South Carolina, which neighbors his home state of Georgia, he'll be increasingly unlikely to hear things like this for real.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President --

GINGRICH: Not yet, but with your help.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: No matter who wins the South Carolina primary, our Candy Crowley will talk to two of the contenders tomorrow. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are guests on "STATE OF THE UNION" tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.

Newsroom will continue at the top of the hour with Fredricka Whitfield. Fred is very thirsty. Take a drink.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: I just did.

TUCHMAN: She and I are gabbing. This is amazing with these polls.

WHITFIELD: I think we're all salivating over this race in South Carolina. It is extraordinary. Of course we'll continue to watch it all day long and of course our special coverage this evening as we await those results. But we've got a lot of other things taking place today, beginning at noon eastern time. Garth Brooks, you know, he's got friends in low places.

TUCHMAN: I know the song. Do you want me to sing it?

WHITFIELD: Go ahead.

TUCHMAN: No, no, I'm just kidding. That's a joke.

WHITFIELD: He's hoping he's got friends in the jury pool as well. According to our Richard Herman and Avery Friedman will be along to talk about the case of Garth Brooks making a $500,000 donation to a hospital in the hopes of his mother's name being put on one of the buildings, the facility at that hospital. But the hospital is saying, no, we thought this was an unconditional donation. So this is now finding its way in the courts.

And then when you take a bite of chocolate, the last thing you're probably thinking about is the labor force possibly involved in the cocoa plantations? Well, an investigation with the CNN Freedom Project unveils that there may be children involved in these plantations, kind of taking the real sweetness out of chocolate. We're going to reveal that investigation at 2:00 eastern time.

And then at both noon and 3:00 eastern time, you've heard a lot about the "Red Tails" movie that is out this weekend. I go face-to-face about one Tuskegee airman, Bob Friend. He talks to me about the 142 missions that he was involved in, and extraordinary first happened account of what it was to be a Tuskegee airman, and his ideas about the "Red Tails" movie and why he thinks it's so important that people understand this part of history, American history, he says, not just Tuskegee history.

TUCHMAN: What all our viewers need to know is that Fred's father was a Tuskegee airman.

WHITFIELD: That's right, my dad Mel Whitfield was a Tuskegee airman, and he just like so many of the other airmen, that was just one portion of their life, one phase of history of their life. They all went on to do extraordinary things. In the case of Bob Friend, he went on to have a career in the air force. He was involved in the USO project here in the states. My dad went on to be a five-time Olympic medalist, so they really are an extraordinary generation of men.

TUCHMAN: I know you're so proud.

WHITFIELD: I am. I'm very proud of him and all of them.

TUCHMAN: You're a great daughter.

WHITFIELD: You're so nice. Thanks so much.

TUCHMAN: We look forward to seeing you all afternoon. We'll be right back right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUCHMAN: Good morning. It's now four minutes away from the top of the hour. Let's take a look at news cross country.

(MUSIC)

TUCHMAN: Legendary singer Etta James died yesterday in a California hospital. She had been suffering from leukemia among other illnesses. Her husband and sons were reportedly with her when she passed away. Etta James, a marvelous talent, dead at 73 years old.

In Ohio a man is accused of duct taping up his 12-year-old daughter and sticking her in a dog cage. He's being held on a child endangerment charge. His attorney says it was a joke that got out of control. Prosecutors say he tied up the girl and put her in the cage twice. His 13-year-old son also took pictures of the whole thing and posted them on Facebook.

In Utah, Elizabeth Smart, remember her, she's getting a happy ending. The 24-year-old is now engaged. You may remember smart was kidnapped from her home in 2002 at age 14 and survived nine months of captivity. Her father told People.com that they are thrilled and looking forward to her moving on to the next stage of her life.

New details about the divorce of Lakers guard Kobe Bryant. All choked up about this. Wait until you hear this. According to records reviewed by the "Los Angeles Times" Bryant's wife, Vanessa, will get can say $75 million. Oh, I should add this, three mansions in the settlement.

WHITFIELD: I'm getting choked up.

PERKINS: Kobe Bryant's estimated net worth is more than that. He's worth $150 million. The couple obviously did not have a prenuptial agreement. They were married for 10 years.

WHITFIELD: Paper textbooks may soon be a thing of the past, that's if apple has anything to do with it. The tech giant wants iPads to help revolutionize how your kids learn. Tech guru and HLN digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong explains what this is all about.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: Is this the end of paper books in school, and when would that happen? MARIO ARMSTRONG, CNN DIGITAL EXPERT: Well, you know, I don't know if this is the end right now but certainly people have a choice and this is what we're talking about. Do we want to start carrying textbooks or do we want to start carrying tablets that can have thousands upon thousands of these textbooks inside of one device. What we do know for sure is that education hasn't really changed when it comes to curriculum and textbooks. And textbooks themselves are flat. They're just pieces of paper. You cannot interact with them, you can't search them, they're not digital. So this is, to me, a welcome shakeup to an industry that is so important, and that is education.

TUCHMAN: So how would they work? Are they practical to use this school?

ARMSTRONG: Yes. So I've downloaded a couple. It's using an app called iBook 2. This is an actual page in an iBook that you're looking at. For example, this is biology. If I wanted to dig into the cell, I could tap this image, go into the cell and actually start to manipulate the cell so I could actually see the changes inside of the cell. If I wasn't getting enough, I could tap on this person and start playing back a video. So it kind of does impress me on the different ways that I could actually interact and learn, and we know that many learners have different modes of learning. Different students learn different ways.

TUCHMAN: So is there an affordability issue, though? Will parents have to pay for this in the public schools or will taxes have to go up for the schools to afford to pay for them?

ARMSTRONG: That's the big question and one of the major concerns, because we have schools right now that don't even have digital classrooms. They don't even have laptops in the school. So is this only going to go to private schools that can afford this? That's a big, big issue.

So I don't know yet if apple is planning to do any major special pricing. None of that has really been announced in terms of schools. We know you can get educational pricing for certain things but will they go beyond those discounts. Will there be new grants made accessible? And will there be other ways, like public/private partners where companies step in and donate iPads or other tablets.

(END VIDEOTAPE)