fred thompson is here and he will announce who he is endorsing for president. also karl rove will join with us the preview of the state of the union address. union address. all this and more c i refer to her as "that woman with the great gums." as jill's dentist, i know that her gums are a foundation of a healthy smile. jill knows that, too -- so she uses crest pro-health clinical gum protection toothpaste. it helps eliminate plaque at the gum line, helping prevent gingivitis. it's even clinically proven to help reverse it in just 4 weeks. and it protects these other areas dentists check most. crest pro-health clinical gum protection. because healthy smiles are built on healthy gums. life opens up when you do. >> sean: fred thompson spent much of his life in washington as a lawyer and then as senator. following 2008 he endorsed john mccain but he is here in a hannity exclusive who he is supporting for the republican nomination. welcome back. >> fred: thank you sean, good to be with you. >> sean: i read your statement. i think it's really important. i'll let you

. >> sean: fred thompson, thank you very much. karl rove is coming up. and we have our great, great american panel straight ahead. ee with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaids, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those for migraine and while on cymbalta, call right away if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles or seriouallergic skin reactions like blist

the fact is that fred thompson was viewed as a viable candidate. it is not necessarily so that he took all of huckabee's votes. i had a lot of votes there. all i can see to governor huckabee, good luck in your programming on fox, but you're not telling the truth. >> anyway, this morning fred thompson denied making any arrangement with john mccain. this time around it's mitt who could sneak away with a win if conservatives don't pick one and just one of their own. instead dividing the vote. mccain took a break from sparring with huckabee to sit down with david letterman discussing among other things how his party is faring in the leadup to this 2012 election. let's watch. >> howe do u think things are going for your grand old party? how's it going, senator? >> well, we've had better days. >> it seems now like everybody has gone hwacky in the republicn party. i just wondered, was it the influence ever the tea party, or am i overexamining this. >> you're overscam frning it as usual. how many people have watched one of these debates? i bet you everybod

so they get former tv star, turned politician, presidential candidate fred thompson. remember all the pundits how sexy he was? around the time he was getting in the race. he had so much movie star charisma. i realize this is not my area of expertise, i never got that. you look at the way people talked about him, very excited about the prospect of fred thompson including his animal mag ne magnetism. he was the dream candidate early in the primary process for 2008. as the dream conservative candidate, as soon as fred thompson got in the race he immediately rose right to the top of the national polls. then almost instantly collapsed. his campaign seemed lazy, didn't know what he was talking about an honestly, fred thompson was weird in debates. >> i would like to see a show of hands, how many of you believe global climate change is a serious threat and caused by human activity? >> i'm not doing hand shows today. >> no hand shows. >> no hand shows. >> i'm with him. >> is that yes or no for you, do you believe global climate change --. >> do you want to give me a minute? >

i feel like he's having his fred thompson time. he came in with a lot of energy, just like fred thompson did. fred thompson took a nap in the middle of the election. i don't want perry to take a nap in the middle of the election. who could take out mitt romney? rick santorum cannot take out mitt romney, neither can ron paul, neither can newt gingrich. perry seems to me one of the stronger candidates to take out. >> that was his calculous for staying in. >> here's, again, what's so important in this race. whether there's a significant anti-romney wing of the republican party, and it's playing out tonight. who was running the smartest race, focused on the economy, jobs, disciplined, doesn't take the bait? mitt romney is running a straight campaign. again, give him credit for it. his problem is he still has a lot of republicans and this is why rick santorum surged, who aren't for him. as long as multiples stay in, that's what gets fascinating if perry drops out. if perry is out, bachmann is out and it's a four person race in new hamps

fred thompson's vote totals took into ours. john won handlely in the south part and that's what did it. but that's politics. >> do you think john mccain knowing that one let one go? think again. here's him hitting back. >> it's false for him to say something like that. maybe it makes him feel better, but it's not the truth. if fred thompson was viewed as ç viable candidate. it's not necessarily he took all of huckabee's votes. i had a lot of votes there. all i can say is good luck in your programming on fox, but you're not telling the truth. >> any way. this morning fred thompson denied making any arrangement with john mccain. this time around, it's mitt who could sneak away with a win if conservatives don't pick just one of their own. instead dividing the vote. mccain took a break to sit down with david letterman discussing how his party is fairing in the leadup to this 2012 presidential election. let's watch. >> how do you think things are going for your party? how's it going, senator? >> we have had better days. >> it seems

former senator fred thompson is a newt guy. he predicts very hard feelings if romney is the ultimate nominee. >> you got to be concerned about the turnout and whether conservatives can come back together again. >> would they? that's a question for another day. if and only if governor romney puts a win streak together but truth is, the tone of the campaign is getting rather personal and that does matter now. the more bad blood now, the more wounds to heal later. here to discuss florida and the road beyond, ralph reed is back with us, plus jenny beth martin and eric eriksson -- a cnn contributor. eric, willet me start with you. it is personal. you have governor romney almost taunting speaker gingrich for the debates last week. you're in touch with the base. is it bad blood or is this just standard fare? >> there is bad blood. this is something even 2008, there was blad bad blood in 2008 but it healed quickly. people began to quickly move towards john mccain after south carolina. it's not happening for mitt romney. a lot of debate

fred thompson was viewed as a viable candidate. it's not necessarily he took all of huckabee's votes. i had a lot of votes there. all i can say to governor huckabee, good luck in your programming on fox, but you're not telling the truth. >> anyway, this morning, fred thompson denied making any arrangement with john mccain. and this time around it's mitt who could sneak away with a win if conservatives don't pick one and just one of their own. instead dividing the vote. mccain took a break to sit down with david letterman discussing among other things how his party is faring in the lead-up to this 2012 presidential election. let's watch. >> how do you think things are going for your party? the grand old party. how is it going, senator? >> we have had better days. >> it seems everybody has gone whacky in the republican party. i just wondered, was it the influence of the tea party? or am i overexamining this? >> you're overexamining this. as usual. how many people have watched one of these debates? i'll bet you everybody in this -- it

fred thompson beat him there. who? yeah, that fred thompson. put aside all of the coronation stuff, all the mitt romney in evidence vicinity storyline. if you took a snapshot, look at the presidential race right now, iowa, first contest appears to have been won by rick santorum. new hampshire won by the massachusetts maguy. heading in south carolina, the massachusetts guy has the big s campaign, last time south carolina had the chance to vote on him they game him a buck 50. 15%. he lost to who? he lost to fred thompson. it's true that mitt romney is the default nominee. that everybody assumes he has it wrapped up. we opened the show last night by saying yesterday was a disasterous day for mitt romney, today was worse. today mitt romney actually did something on tape if he is the nominee will haunt him all the way through november. this is one of those issues for him that started small, back in june in the early days of the full-time seven days a week campaign. you may remember the romney campaign making its opening argument, unveiling what they

thompson. he stayed in there and pulled votes away in governor huckabee and that led to us, at least in our opinion it took away the opportunity for governor huckabee to be successful in south carolina. this year, similar dynamic. we have mitt romney who is not the person that the faith community looks to and as opposed to him we have newt gingrich and rick santorum. we have similar dynamics in terms of the candidates and we'll see how things turn out. people are very, very energized and engaged and we learn more than anything else in this cycle, similar to '08, two words, debates matter and it made a big, huge difference for newt gingrich and that's what's given him the momentum that he has going from double digits to passing mitt romney. >> as usual, you give me a perfect segway as we talk about the dynamics of this race and whether, in fact, mitt romney is a john mccainlike figure and whether santorum equals huckabee and ron paul equals fred thompson. i know several people wrote books about

now, fred thompson ran for president briefly. i covered all ten minutes of his presidential campaign four years ago, but fred thompson is a skilled communicator and he knows how to communicate with voters, and he did it very well when he was in the senate and if he chose to or had the energy too, he could do it well even right now. and i actually think that having fred thompson at newt gingrich's side is going to help newt gingrich in the big super tuesday primary that will be coming up. might even help him here in florida. if fred thompson gets interested in it, interested in the project, he could be a very good salesman for newt gingrich, because he appeals to the same kind of disaffected, middle class, resentful voters in the south that newt gingrich won running away in south carolina. >> wendy, it seemed to me that newt gingrich made a conscious decision to not do what everybody was expecting him to do. you know, where's that right out of the gate, shot at brian williams. just take a real hard whack at the moderator and at th

the fact is that fred thompson was viewed as a viable candidate. it is not necessarily so that he took all of huckabee's votes. all i can say to governor huckabee, good luck in your program on fox, but you're not telling the truth. >> well, there you go. let's bring back the panel. i couldn't help myself. this was yesterday. you had john mccain, mike huckabee talking about this issue of rallying around an alternati alternative. you heard richard land, the mistake they made was not rallying around huckabee in '08. john mccain convinced fred thompson to stay in the race. that sparked that outrage. but it gets to the issue of not rallying around one candidate. >> right. and i had a conversation with the santorum campaign and this is their pitch. they're saying, newt has blown himself up this week. huntsman has blown it. ron paul is unelectable. i'm it. now is the time. if you did what you did in '08, you'll have a divided conservative field and mitt romney will win the race. >> what happens in texas? do you think some of the conservatives say, you kno

like our fred thompson signifier. mitt romney said banks aren't bad people. i think this is going to stay. mitt romney had a very, very bad day. that is coming up. ♪ he was a 21st century global nomad ♪ ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. car insurance companies say they'll save you by switching, you'd have, like, a ton of dollars. but how are they saving you those dollars? a lot of companies might answer "um" or "no comment." then there's esurance. born online, raised by technology, and majors in efficiency. so whatever

thompson we play this. ♪ ♪ the law and order sound effect, we're talking about fred thompson, if mitt romney keeps this banks are people too thing we will have to use the monopoly guy top hat. like our fred thompson signifier. mitt romney said banks aren't bad people. i think this is going to stay. mitt romney had a very, very bad day. that is coming up. >>> the banks aren't bad people they are overwhelmed right now. banks are scared to death of course. they are feeling the same thing that you're feeling. >> you know the bank people. mitt romney campaigning in florida where the primary vote is less than a week away. florida has one of the worst foreclosure problems in the country. bad every where but horrendous in florida. worse than anywhere else. mitt romney was standing in front of a foreclosed home in florida when he made his banks aren't bad people comment yesterday. that is not going to help him on this housing issue. an issue which he really already needs political help. >> don't try to stop the foreclosure process, let it run its course and hit the bottom. >> president obama i

. >> just to remain everybody, last time around you endorses fred thompson. any candidate that you feel that deserves your support because a lot of people see you as being inspired by fred thompson last time around. why don't they look for your endorsement this time? >> well, i planned all along that i would make an endorsement, starting clear back last january 6th, when we did our first meetings to set up some of the things that have to do with caucus in the early states and, as we moved forward, i thought september, october would be a good time, it became november, december, now it's january. and yesterday afternoon i finally came to a conclusion i just don't have that deep conviction and without that, it's inappropriate for me to make a recommendation to iowans. so i'm surprised that it came to this, i never anticipated, it wasn't my intent at all. i like a lot of the candidates and that's some of the difficulty is the balance between them, it's not one at this point that has emerged to the point i think they're the one -- i need the one who has made the s

fred thompson got, what, 16%. what are you saying to some of these other republicans about dropping out potentially, assuming you're going to be emerging from iowa as a front-runner? >> well, i think there's a very strong movement. we've seen it here in iowa. i saw it in -- even in new hampshire. where people are concerned about the -- really about the electability, not just the electability of governor romney but also about making sure that we elect someone who's going to do what's necessary to make the changes that america needs. and, you know, i think we want someone that we can trust in that position. so i'm very confident that as we come out of iowa, and if we come out in a strong position, and we hope that we do, that it shall -- con tefshive wills start koelessing around the person that has the best chance of carrying that conservative message and dividing that vote obviously is a sure fire election of someone who doesn't reflect those values and hasn't been that stallwart that i have in my time of service.

thompson we play this. ♪ the law and order sound effect, we're talking about fred thompson, if mitt romney keeps this banks are people too thing we will have to use the monopoly guy top hat. like our fred thompson signifier. mitt romney said banks aren't bad people. i think this is going to stay. mitt romney had a very, very bad day. that is coming up. the employee of the month isss... the new spark card from capital one. spark miles gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. the spark card earns double miles... so we really had to up our game. with spark, the boss earns double miles on every purchase, every day. that's setting the bar pretty high. owning my own business has never been more rewarding. coming through! [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? >>> the banks aren't bad people they are overwhelmed right now. banks are scared to death of course. they are feeling the same thing that you're feeling.

this time it's from fred thompson. it came has gingrich debated the other night. >>> coming up at 6:00, we had a close call for a mon who got -- man who got stuck on a tray track. we have more news on his escape. >>> it is a tough decision for any expecting mother deciding on a birth plan. we have information for women. we'll continue to follow that breaking news out of timonium and lutherville. here's what's on world news at 6:30. >>> we're heading to washington, d.c. for the president's state of the union address. the republicans have been hitting him hard. tonight his turn to make his case. we'll bring you the big picture tonight on world news. >>> the iphone sells more than $4700 square foot of stuff. the run are up, tiffanies. but the luxury jeweler lags behind. >>> meanwhile, verizon sold more than 4 million eye phones in 2011. the wireless profits fell 5% in the fourth quarter. that's because verizon heavily subsidizes the cost. x

is rick perry the fred thompson of this cycle? can he win? he wants to win south carolina but if he doesn't win, does he end up taking this candidate? most people believe that the bulk of this had thompson dropped out, it would have gone to mike huckabee. i'm going to turn this off. huckabee wins them all. if you go deep into these counties, this is where fred thompson did his best. 12% here, 20% here. and then he did very well out oh here. 20% again. 21%. 17%. 14%. taking votes in the christian bible belt from mike huckabee cost mike huckabee. if mike huckabee won south carolina in 2008, most likely john mccain would not have been the nominee. >> all right. thank you very much, john. we're just hearing that the gingrich ton hall is wrapping up and we've been showing live pictures of that. when you look at this election, gingrich, santorum, we can look at history and it shows us something. but this election really is a bit different, especially with the tea party influence and with the evangelical different. economy, jobs, what have you. >> n

thompson, welcome to both of you. i want to make a quick note to the viewers. we had an interview scheduled later with rick santorum, but we got word his daughter has been hospitalized in philadelphia, and certainly our thoughts and prayers are with senator santorum this morning. now we will turn to politics and the all-important race in florida. senator mccain, you know it was florida in 2008 where you effectively shut the door and got the nomination. what does florida mean now? >> i think it means more than it did in 2008 because you got a split between new hampshire and south carolina, as you know. so it's a vital race here. i am glad to see that mitt is doing so well. >> for your candidate, newt gingrich, he has to be looking at the florida numbers after a win in south carolina saying this could put a lot of pressure on him and make romney the frontrunner again should he win. >> yeah, first of all, i know we both want to express our concern as far as rick is concerned and his family. rick has been a guy, a warrior