paul steinhauser is former cnn political editor, also joining us now live from manchester. paul, thanks very much for joining us. i want you to give us a lay of the land. you spend all of your time in new hampshire these days. donald trump maintains a sizeable lead over ted cruz in new hampshire, at least according to some of the more recent polls. but cruz has at least some wind at his back, coming off his victory in iowa. what's the state of this race right now, your best estimate? >> it's still a race for second place here. wolf, donald trump has been the front runner, the clear front runner here in new hampshire for quite some time. right now it's between cruz and senator rubio, between the three governors who basically are concentrating here rather than iowa. former florida governor, jeb bush, ohio governor john kasich and chris christie who you just played that sound from. wolf, i've got to chuckle. you played that sound from ted cruz a moment ago. i talked to ted cruz an hour and a half ago on board his campaign bus in portsmouth, and he had some choice comments abou

also joining us paul steinhauser, a former cnn political editor. he is now the anchor reporter for nh1 in new hampshire. let's start with you, paul. let's talk about rubio. he is surging in these polls. you had a chance to speak with him. you spoke with cruz. could this be new hampshire right now -- rubio's big chance to shine? >> it could be his big chance to shine. he is shining right now, wolf. i'll say one thing, though. higher expectations here. that's a strong third place finish in iowa. not much expectations. he beat them here. he has a lot on the line, and he has a lot more competition because the governors, well, they're battling pretty well here. wolf, you were just mentioning, though, it's like a circular firing squad right now between these candidates. so much on the line. less of them. a lot more ugly comments. take a listen to what rubio and what cruz told me yesterday. >> i like ted, but is he willing to do or say anything in order to get votes. >> well, you know, it is not surprising that my political opponents are attacking me. the

. >> paul steinhauser, thanks so much. >>> tomorrow morning we have a special commercial-free edition of cnn state of the union. jake tapper will be live here in new hampshire and will talk to donald trump, john kasich, chris christie and hillary clinton and bernie sanders. >>> coming up, bernie sanders' press secretary joining me live to talk about his strategy in these final few days in new hampshire. the polling shows him way out front. plus i'm talking to you about the down that has 100% voter turnout. it's been that way for 46 years. we'll be right back with the journey to this special place. i think it landed last tuesday. one second it's there. then, woosh, it's gone. i swear i saw it swallow seven people. seven. i just wish one of those people could have been mrs. johnson. [dog bark] trust me, we're dealing with a higher intelligence here. ♪ the all-new audi q7 is here. ♪ toto the nation's capitalut to support an important cause that can change the way you live for years to come. how can you help? by giving a little more, to yourself. i am running for my future. people som

i want to bring in our old friend and former colleague paul ste steinhauser who is in his element right now. trump has a big lead in new hampshire according to the latest polls but still feeling the sting from iowa. what did he say to you about it? >> reporter: i talked to him this afternoon. he didn't use any profanities. he was a little more reservd. take a listen. can you continue on if you don't finish first here and you didn't finish first in iowa? >> yes, i can. but i would love to finish first here and i think i probably finished first in iowa if you add in the votes that were wrongly taken away from ben carson so i think i did really great in iowa. it's a caucus state, not the place that i'm used to. i like this much better where you go in and vote. we're going to do really well in new hampshire. >> reporter: you know, he's been up in the polls here by double-digits for so long but if donald trump doesn't win by at least 10% here, others will look at it as a loss for donald trump. anderson? >> you also pushed him a bit on his conservative credentials compared to senator cruz. >>

my first question is to paul ste ste ste steinhauser. what do you do tomorrow? >> the polls showed donald trump is leading by double digits. do you think that's going to change? do you think his change in tone helped him here in new hampshire? >> let's be honest. he's been big time in the state for a long time. if he doesn't get it, that's a loss, almost. >> is anybody surprised by how much he's winning here because the word is his ground game isn't very big here, yet he's really farah head. >> the ground game is nothing you can necessarily pick up in the polls, right? it might explain why in iowa some of the polls had him leading and then he didn't meet expectations because he didn't have an operation to get people out. a primary is a little bit different, right? people can vote all day long. the ground game is not as important in new hampshire as it is in a caucus where it's sort of everything. i think the big surprising thing is you have a series of candidates not named trump that has let this guy advance in the polls and not done much to take him down. you h

former cnn political editor paul steinhauser and maeve reston. one of the fascinating things about what happened last night is the polls missed the mark. >> yeah. >> let me pull up a graphic of where the -- what they had would happen. this was over the weekend. this is the gold standard. everyone refers to the des moines register on the right. they predicted trump would win with 28%. but in fact, what happened was ted cruz won with 28%. trump came in second. rubio came in third. what do you see? >> and rubio outperforming his standing in that poll and some of the previous polls. the averages, the real clear politics average. you saw rubio outperformed that. you saw historic voter turnout on the republican side. yet it was rubio and cruz who were getting the voters, not just donald trump. elections belong to voters. that is what is so exciting about this moment. we cover elections two years out. once the voting starts we get a much bigger picture. donald trump, as i said earlier, was ostentatiously branding his polls. he is talking about having a

enjoying me to talk strategy, paul steinhauser, nh 1 news. you just interviewed a couple of the candidates, right? >> this is the beauty of new hampshire. jeb bush last night. and -- no, who today? ted cruz and marco rubio. they were a half mile from each other. >> do you feel an intensity? >> oh, yeah. listen, we've got the national media here, all of the candidates here, campaigns, volunteers, everything but snow. we'll get snow in a couple days, promise. >> so this is incredibly important what's your sense? who is relaxed? who is confident? >> they are all confident. they all say their ground game is strong. >> is it. >> three governors who have been spending a lot of time here, bush, case and christie, they are cranking it up. doing the calls, door knocks, making sure supports get to the polls. but momentum does matter and rubio got some of the momentum coming out of iowa, even cruz. he's not doing bad for a small operation. >> there's a fight for who will be the establishment alternative. how is that sort of looking to you right now? >>