Gingrich Urges Santorum, Perry To Drop Out
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Newt Gingrich was seeing some good-sized crowds today with a lot of energy, hoping his use of hot button language on the campaign trail would get him some badly needed traction.</s>JOHNS (voice-over): Some things never change in South Carolina, especially around election time. The uglier the symbolism gets, the better some folks like it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I've been looking for in my candidate is fire in the belly. We've got to bloody Obama's nose.</s>GINGRICH: I don't want to bloody his nose, I want to knock him out.</s>JOHNS: This is Newt Gingrich's kind of audience and his kind of talk. Like at the last debate, there's cheering when the former speaker doubles down on his frequently repeated line about Obama being a food stamp president.</s>GINGRICH: The fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history.</s>JOHNS: Applause when Gingrich defense his called for poor kids that clean their schools for money.</s>GINGRICH: We actually think work is good?</s>JOHNS: He says he doesn't see this whole focus on work and food stamp as a double-edged sword, though, it's been called coded language and racially insensitive.</s>GINGRICH: This is a very work-oriented country and there's overwhelming support for the idea of work.</s>JOHNS: Sure. He's been using welfare to rile people up since he was in the Congress, but the calculation is that in South Carolina with its high unemployment, it's going to play pretty well these days, especially on his home turf. People you think you're getting a break because you're in the south right now.</s>GINGRICH: Oh, sure. Look, I think, if you're a Georgia conservative, and now, you're back home, it's a big advantage, I think.</s>JOHNS: Gingrich also sees the response he's getting as a response to straight talk.</s>GINGRICH: We have been spent so much baloney by our liberal elites. And we are so sick of people who don't get it. I think people are just grateful to have somebody with the courage to tell the truth.</s>JOHNS: It's the truth according to Gingrich, though, it doesn't always work when he starts trying to explain the race. Why a guy like Rick Santorum ought to get out of the race. Before you listen to this, remind yourself that numerous values voters and conservatives have thrown their support behind Santorum, and that he essentially tied Mitt Romney for first place in the Iowa caucuses.</s>GINGRICH: I'm respectful that Rick has every right to run as long as he feels that's what he should do, but from the standpoint of the conservative movement, consolidating into a Gingrich candidacy would, in fact, virtually guarantee victory on Saturday.</s>JOHNS: Despite what he says, it's still a long way to the winner circle for Gingrich. Skepticism have bounced. Loren Spivack is a nationally known Tea Party activist.</s>LOREN SPIVACK, TEA PARTY ACTIVIST: He is -- he likes to come up with grand plans for things, which is, unfortunately, more of a socialist tendency than a capitalist tendency.</s>JOHNS (on-camera): The Gingrich campaign sees that standing ovation he got at the debate last night as a big plus. They've already put together a television ad to promote it -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Joe Johns on the scene for us, thank you. Rick Perry was once seen as the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. Now, he's trying to become politics newest comeback kid. Can the Texas governor rebound or is it time to ride off into the sunset? And the Costa Concordia was once Italy's largest cruise ship, now it's a massive headache.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What are they going to eventually do with that massive vessel lying on its side off the coat of Italy? I'm Brian Todd in Port Everglade, Florida. We talked to salvaging experts about how to dispose of the Costa Concordia once the rescue operation is complete. That's coming up.