we were out at the reagan library for ronald reagan's 100th birthday and we had lunch with george schultze who said how often you have to get hit over the head by a 2 x 4 to figure out you need to have a national energy policy. so my vision is that we should have a policy of developing so much american energy that we're not just energy independent but we actually have a surplus to be reserve for the rest of the world in case the middle east disintegrates. [ applause ] part of that involves oil and gas offshore, part of it is coal and nuclear, part of it is wind and solar. iowa is the second largest wind electricity producer in the world after denmark and part of it is biofuels. some of you are old enough, you'll remember in 1984 i voted

for something called gasgasohol. it then became known as ethanol and we renewed it. big oil tried to kill it and chuck grassley said i was the one person that saved ethanol from big oil. why do i believe in ethanol? pretty simple. if i have to choose between the next billion dollars going to saudi arabia or south dakota, i pick south dakota. if i have to pick between iran and iowa, i pick iowa. and the fact is, if we could make sure we retain the renewable fuel standards, go to e-15 as a blend and move towards flex vehicles and flex stations we're better off. brazilians have flex vehicles. auto companies say it's hard to do, every one of them do it in brazil. brazilians are independent of the middle east in their energy

supplies. we can do this. we can get it done and it's important we do so. let me give you two quick examples of how totally wrong barack obama is on energy. as opposed to drilling offshore he put a moratorium in the gulf and he goes to brazil and he tells the brazilians how proud so of the fact that they are drilling offshore. how glad he is that we can guarantee $2 billion in loans to buy equipment from a company that george soros has invested in and then he goes on the say which was an astounding thing for an american president. he said i want to us be your best customer. now that's exactly backwards. we don't send the president of the united states around the world to be foreign purchasing agent. we send him around the world to be a salesman for america. [ applause ]

so i am deeply committed if you look at the productivity of iowa we have to be in foreign markets to absorb our production and i'm deeply committed to finding the toughest most aggressive trial lawyer available and having them book our u.s. trade representative so we can take the right attitude in negotiating with china and other countries to open up markets on our behalf and make sure we in fact are leaning forward to sell our products overseas. but the -- [ applause ] . the second example of the president's absolute inability to understand the real world is the keystone pipeline. you know, it's one thing if the white house can't play chess. it's another thing if they can't play checkers. but it really worries you if they can't play tic tac toe.

i think when he was paying off his friends in san francisco it didn't occur to him that the canadians have alternatives. so he was going to drag this out and not approve the pipeline, not have the unions mad at him because they want jobs, not have the environmentalists mad at him because they don't have the pipeline. he doesn't realize that prime minister of canada has a pretty easy alternative. all he has to do is turn to the chinese, get them to fund the pipeline and build it from central canada west to vancouver. and when prime minister harper said after the president announced that he didn't want to make a decision, i think he shocked bambi saying that's all right we'll go talk to the chinese. now, if you build the pipeline through the united states you have 20,000 construction jobs immediately. and you are bringing oil to the

largest refinery center in the world, houston, so for the next 20 or 30 years, we're making money processing it, we're making money in the port of houston shipping it. it's a total win-win for the united states. and the president can't see it. and if you had said to me three or four years ago we get to a point where the canadians would think that the chinese were a more reliable ally than the americans i would have thought it impossible. but that's the kind of stuff this administration is doing. and that's why it's so important that we defeat. if you help me next tuesday night and with your help i become the nominee i'll challenge the president to seven three hour debates in the lincoln-douglas tradition of a timekeeper but no moderator. [ applause ]

i will contincede in advance hen use the teleprompter. after all if you had to defend obamacare wouldn't you want a teleprompter. so if i might toss it open for questions for a few minutes. we have a couple of my microph i think. >> yeah. i have a question. now iran has nuclear weapons. if you were president what would you do to iran to say of save america from the nukes? >> right now they are trying to get nuclear weapons. they don't have them yet. but they are trying to build them right now. that's right. i think it's in our interest to replace the dictatorship. i don't think it's just about

stopping the weapons program. this is a dictatorship that has been actively anti-american and seen itself at war with america since 1979. if you go back and look at president reagan and prime minister thatcher and pope paul ii they developed a strategy against the soviet union which worked brilliantly. it was not primarily military. it was economic. it was propaganda. it was political organization. we should do the same thing against iran. our goal should be to replace the iranian government with a moderate government and to do so with nonmilitary means by undermining the regime, by organizing the opposition, by developing propaganda, doing all the things we did so well in the 1980s. but i don't think -- one of the places i disagree deeply with ron paul i don't believe you can be comfortable with a nuclear armed iran. i think it's a mortal threat to us. and my reasoning is very simple.

if you're faced with a religious fanatic willing to path body bomb on and walk in a grocery store or mall or bus and blow themselves up in toward kill, if you give them a choice of doing that with a conventional weapon or a nuclear weapon, they are going pick a nuclear weapon every time. the idea these guys will be passive with it is out of touch with reality. we do have to replace the regime. yes, sir. [ inaudible ] >> no, i don't think we're safer but i don't think he were safer under bush. we're faced with problems much bigger than we understand. we have enemies out there who are much more serious than we realize and we have not yet developed a strategy that is the size of the problem. i mean i think we have two different challenges. one is china. but that's primarily an american challenge. if we fix our schools if we fix

our manufacturing base, if we fix our science and technology the chinese won't catch up with us for about a 100 years. the other is radical islamist. neither bush nor obama has realized how deep the problem is and how serious the threat it is. so i think that we have not gained any great security since 9/11. if anything, our enemies are more numerous today, more sophisticated and working very hard to get dangerous weapons to kill us. that's my view. >> yes, sir. >> a statement before i ask a question. i'm lick being my chops for that first debate with obama. and secondly, i've chosen to be a speaker for you at a caucus. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you very much. >> i'm 76 years old and i've seen a lot of you fellows come and go but only sought to shake

their hand of two others. and they both went on the win so i would like to shake your hand. [ applause ] >> that was a good omen. [ laughter ] >> now the question that i have, as i go to that caucus, i know i'm going to get asked, it's not about the economy directly, but i got all the information from you when they told me i was going a speaker at the caucus and they explained everything but one thing that my son wants to know and i want his support too, you see. he's worried about global warming and your stance on that and i said i'm pretty sure he's going to be with us and it hasn't been proven yet. so can you -- >> first of all, it hasn't been totally proven. second if it were prove enthere are a lot of different solutions other than cap and trade and

turning over the entire economy to the epa. you know, the dutch faced the problem of oceans. they decided to build dikes instead of lowering the sea. [ laughter ] a lot of different things you can solve things. i think global warming is not proven. one thing that one of the ads is that the most dishonest that was wrote about me i opposed cap and trade. i testified -- you can see it on newt.org. we that have video. i testified at the u.s. house immediately after al gore and i testified against cap and trade. and sony ad that says anything different is plain a lie, which is one of the problems. we haven't frankly figured out yet how to deal with the number of ads that was dishonest without ending up looking stupid ourselves. tell your son i'm opposed to cap and trade. he's safe. i also am an amateur paleotologist so i've looked at the earth's temperature a long time.

i'm harder to convince than just looking at a computer model. yes, sir. ing? >> thank you, for coming to southwest iowa. right now the ag economy is in the best shape we've ever been. but we hitched our wagon to china. we're sending half our beans, pork, corn. how do you be tough with china as far as currency and still trade with them. we have extraordinary price and we want to save that but realize also they've been -- their currency has been manipulated. how would you, what would your attitude be towards china. >> my answer would be one of constant patient negotiation. callista and i were in beijing three years ago. we went to a place called the pearl factory sway six story

tourist trap. and we were looking for wherever they went, we were looking for pajamas for those two. two guys were with us who were americans but graduates of the university of beijing. and one of them loved to negotiate. he said okay go in and ask them hat the pajamas cost and whatever number she gives you, come back with 10%. so she said something like 110 yuan and i said i'll give you ten. he said she will now say you're killing me. [ laughter ] so she said you're killing me, i can't do that. i'll come abandon to 90. he said okay, go up a little bit. so because of my american, i'm impatient i went up to like 20. he said she will now say you're going put me out of business i'll go bankrupt. exactly what she said.

this goes on to iv minutes. as an american i'm uncomfortable doing this. we walk in, we look at the prirks bit. it doesn't occur to us to negotiate wait store owner. so, we start at 110, i ended up paying 50 and the guy was disgusted. he said you could have got end it for 30 or 35 and made a big profit and been happy. here's what i realized. i was thinking about this experience. we send diplomats who want to get a deal. they send diplomats who want to negotiate until they get the right price. and we're not used to dealing with countries like that. it's a permanent struggle. not a this week, next week. not a crisis. it is every week having somebody who is very clever and figures out how to cause them pain in a way that they decide to change little bit and i think we have to decide co-existing with china will involve permanent

negotiations and that's just part of the deal. >> that is newt gingrich, newt gingrich in atlantic, iowa along with his wife. you got a very good feel for what a town hall meet is like here in iowa. usually the candidate gives what is a pretty much regular speech that he gives every where and taking questions which can run the gamut from fwlarm global wao china. you saw newt gingrich talk about the negative advertising out there against him. he's not the only one. things can get ugly i during a presidential race. coming up some of the nasty words and ads. still even as we talk politics we're bringing the new year celebrations from around the world. this is how tokyo, japan welcomed 2012. those balloons you see there floating in the darkness are filled with wish cards. it's a japanese tradition to put wishes in balloons on new year's

eve and then set the balloon free in unison as the midnight bell rings.

there were lots of verbal jabs on the campaign trail this week and in the ads. take listen. >> mitt romney is the guy running the most ads attacking mean doing it through the disingenuous i don't control my staff and friends. if he wants to defend his negativity show up in iowa 90 minutes face to face. let the people decide whether or not in fact he'll back up what he's been saying and let him back up his moderate record not conservative record as governor and i don't think he'll do it. >> he's running his campaign the way he thinks best. obviously the virginia setting was not the best hour of his

campaign. more like lucille ball at the chocolate factory. so you got to get it organized. >> is this campaign really ugly or is this just sort of standard fare? that's why i brought in mark preston. you know, this doesn't strike me as particularly horrible. >> it isn't from any past campaign, candy. every four years we seem goert what happened four years earlier and how these negative ads are helping to shape the race and what we've seen in the past month that it's really been directed at newt gingrich. right? he even just mentioned, you saw this in the live town hall where 45% of ads in the move december were run against him and that's absolutely correct. the analysis was done by a cnn television consultant, and they showed that it was newt gingrich

that was takie ing fire. >> the fact of the matter is he went down 19, 20 points in the poll over the course of that same time frame three weeks sponsorship it says, it tells you right there when people ask all the time why do they run those negative ads. guess what? >> they work. you know who has been, who has jumped in the polls in the past week or so is rick santorum and how many negative ads have you seen against rick santorum? zero. one or two but very negligible. newsmax is running a 30 minute infomercial endorsing newt gingrich. trying to pump up his candidacy. while he's been attacked he's getting support. >> he is. michael reagan wrapping newt gingrich in warm, fuzzy ronald

reagan. in the end do we have any kind of idea who has taken the most incoming. is it newt gingrich? it seems to me that michele bachmann didn't particularly undergo, when she was the front-runner. it makes sense that they go after the front-runner, but i don't remember that many about rick perry who kind of did himself in the debates or against michele bachmann. >> the reason being is when they were the front runners, or at least one of the leading contenders at that time people were holding their money they were not spending on television advertising. if we look at rick perry, he came on in august. everyone thought rick perry would be the conservative alternative to mitt romney. that was the guy. he fell by the wayside. before that michele bachmann came out of the new hampshire debate in june. she was going take it home. she did herself in. herman cain came out of nowhere in the month of november. nobody was spending money at that time on television ads. they are now. >> we're closer to the time where it count. we've seen ron paul is just, i

don't know what percentage of ads have been run against him but on the campaign trail we're hearing he's unelectable. we can't elect him. he's taking a lot of incoming. >> that's true. it's coming from the gop establishment which doesn't want to see ron paul win the republican nomination. it's republican on republican, but not necessarily folks that are for rick santorum or folks that are more mitt romney. all of them against ron paul. >> the thing is it's always been a delicate balance for a republican to go after a fellow republican because while you may want him to fail you want his support towers couple to. >> which was interesting when mitt romney went after ron paul in a couple of speeches earlier this week. i thought he would let ron paul be ron paul and then maybe those folks would come to his side. but he decided to take him personally pap lot has to do with ron paul's views on foreign

policy. >> in the end, those it says to me that mitt romney does see ron paul as a threat to his march, what he hopes is his march towards the white house. it does. specifically when you get to the convention time. ron paul, a lot of people don't think he can win the nomination. very hard for him to win the nomination. while some of his views are embrasd by the republican party a lot of those views are outside of the republican mainstream thought. that's his toughest hurdle to overcome. by the time you get the convention ron paul will not endorse the nominee if it's not him but he can still control part of the convention. >> shouldn't they also be worried that they can so tick off ron paul who won't commit by the way to endorsing whoever wins at this point that he could take his marbles and go play at the independent party. >> there's a lot of thought on that. i don't think he necessarily would do that.

he could cause more damage to the republican party by staying in the republican party and as a republican, you know. now you have him tomorrow. >> right. >> i'm really interested to see what he says tomorrow on your show especially because he decided to take this weekend off and go home and recharge the batteries and come back on monday with his son rand paul who is the kentucky senator. a lot of people think that was a mistake. >> what's interesting to me is i have to say, i don't think there's much you can say don't veins ron paul supporter not to go caucus for him. >> very true. especially these are young kids. probably the biggest problem for ron paul about leading this weekend is not ron paul not appearing at a rally in cedar rapids or des moines, it's the news immediate area it's us pointing out the fact that he's left the state and highlighting it to all of these caucus goers. if you're a ron paul supporter -- >> he could lead now.

>> you want to vote now. >> mark preston, thanks so much. we'll talking to later this afternoon. we'll have more of the contenders 2012 coming up next. wolf blitzer will sit down with mitt romney. as, or annuities. back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement solutions for our military, veterans and their families. from investments... to life insurance... to health care options. learn more with our free usaa retirement guide. call 877-242-usaa. what's going on? we ordered a gift online and we really need to do something with it... i'm just not sure what... what is it? oh just return it. returning gifts is easier than ever with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. plus i can pick it up for free. perfect because we have to get that outta this house. c'mon, it's not that... gahh,

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[oinking] [hissing] [ding] announcer: cook foods to the right temperature using a food thermometer. 3,000 americans will die from food poisoning this year. check your steps at foodsafety.gov. i'm jim acosta in knoxville, iowa. thanks for tuning into the contenders. a raw look at the candidates. i'm inside the national sprint car hall of fame museum here in knoxville, iowa. it is where rick santorum is talking to supporters right now. and he was just in indianaola, iowa a few minutes ago talking

to supporters there. he's making his final arguments basically to the people of iowa this weekend. he has been the iron man of this iowa caucus, hitting every county in iowa and that's part of his appeal to voters here. he said he's the one that put the time in, he has invested in campaigning in this state and he thinks that should be rewarded. let's go rick santorum right now and hear what he has to say. >> contrast between what we believe in as conservatives and what barack obama is doing to this country. this election is about a foundational election about freedom. it's not just about economic freedom and the economy, but it's about freedom generally speaking and this president as you've seen from his speeches believes that america is a broken model. that america needs more government control and intervention, that we need to become more like western europe,

we need more regulations. this administration -- let me step back. in the last two presidents, president bush and then prior to that president clinton promull ga -- promulgated 60 regulations during tharms peir terms. this president is about to do 150 this year alone. this president is crushing it. we need someone who can go without a plan like mine which i'll prael every one of those regulation. you can't repeal every law but a president can repeal regulations. some we'll repeal completely and some we'll repeal with less

costly choices. farmers are being crushed by these regulations and the uncertainty of more regulations. it's not just that what they are doing now but the uncertainty of what is to come. so we've gone around iowa, we've learned from that. we've put forth a plan, a bold plan on the economy to balance the budget in five years, put forth a plan to get this economy growing with tax cuts and particularly focus on manufacturing where we zero out the corporate tax and create an opportunity for manufacture towers compete in this country to create the quality jobs that we need. those are the things that i'm hopeful and believe that the people of iowa have responded to. we've been work very hard in making sure that we're accountable. we've done, as i mentioned before, i think, maybe i didn't mention it here, 362 now town hall meetings where we've gone and talked to the folks and made time for questions.

i know we're a couple of days before the caucus, we're doing a little speed dating here the last day or two. but i had a meeting in davenport twoing nights ago that was two hours. i had a meeting last night in marshall town that was an hour and 20 minutes. we take our time. with iowa voters and respecting them enough to take a question and answer the tough ones. so i'm going stop right there and just ask you if there's any questions you have, if you would like to ask them and before we wrap up and to this little -- we're at this museum. sprint cup. we have to do something fast. [ laughter ] so i'm going to try to see if i can speed answer your questions. any questions out there? yes, sir. >> in dealing with the congress is there anyway somebody can clean up the mess in congress with all the bribery and

everything in appointing an attorney general to investigate? >> i would say this. if you're looking for someone that has a track record of cleaning things up, i went to the united states congress at 32 years of age, the second youngest member of congress, second youngest to a guy from iowa. nussle and i came to congress with john boehner and formed a group of gang of seven that focused on corruption in the congress. we were in the minority. we were a pathetic majority. we were small, ineffective grouch republicans who had been whipped for 38 years of being in the minority. we didn't even know what it was like to think about being in the majority. they had that minority mentality. so when corruptions came up they got sort of talked out of doing anything about it. there was a group of young freshman that said we're not

whipped and we're going to go out and fight those things and if you look at our track record not only did we expose the check bouncing scandal that was in washington, d.c. that toledo the conviction of members of congress, and other people, but we also exposed the post office scandal which led to the conviction of the chairman of the house ways and means committee. so if you're looking for someone who has that reputation, and has done it, when i came to the united states senate same thing. i reformed the entire process of how we purchased things. i was on the committee that cleaned up the huge subsidies we were giving to senators for food and other types of perks. we did the same thing when it came to term limits. i put term limits on committee chairmen. so we got a strong record of reform and taking on folks. what's going on in washington

right now with the insider trading is a sad state of affairs but just tells you bad behavior. people not leading to decent lives threads what, more laws, more paper work and more tax dollars from you to monitor people that common sense would tell you not what to do. but when you lose common sense and values you have to have more laws to enforce what otherwise we never thought you would have to have a law to do. when you're a member of congress and you have a piece of legislation before you that could dramatically impact a business and you think that legislation will pass, well you don't go out and then trade on that information and hope to profit from it. because it's wrong. there shouldn't have to be a law there. now there is. why? looks like some people did that. that's the kind of thing that

i've said if you really want to transform america, can't be just about reform it has to be about changing the culture of this country. it is to be about values and faith and freedom and that's what we've been talking about across this state. take one or two more. if there are one or two more. there don't need to be one or two more. [ inaudible ] >> on children's issues? like education? people that harm children? [ inaudible ] >> oh, by and large those issues are state issues not federal issues. i guess my feeling on that, as far as federal crimes in that area i'm not sure there's a need for a federal crimes in that area. those are generally state crimes and i think they are probably best left for the states to implement those. okay. thank you. anybody else? yes, sir. >> if you were elected would you do something with the epa to

call them off -- >> congresswoman bachmann, we're here at your urbandale, iowa headquarters. how are you feeling? >> wonderful. fantastic. we just completed our 99 county tour. no other candidate has attempted that period we saw verbal enthusiasm. we had thousands of people flip and go my way so we're looking forward to tuesday night. >> why the choice to race through the 99 counties at the end. >> we did. probably no other candidate spent more time going through all of iowa last summer and that's why i won the iowa straw poll. we wanted to make sure we went back a second time and so we went to all 99 counties to make sure every iowan when they make their final decision had a chance to be able to come back. i could listen to them. they could ask me questions and that's why we literally saw

thousands of people flipping and they are very excited and now they are going to tell their friends at church, their co-workers, sending out e-mail list, facebooking. so they are our best recruiters. they will bring their friend out and we're very excited about what we see on tuesday. >> since your ames straw poll, you talked about your poll numbers flipping or plummeting. you're sixth in iowa. not doing so well in new hampshire. what's the strategy going forward beyond tuesday. >> tuesday we intend to win here in iowa. that's our plan. we think we'll do extremely well here in iowa. that's the cannon shot that will launch us across the country. we'll take on state after state because the ultimate victory is to defeat barack obama, make him a one term president so the country has a chance to grow again and that's my plan to repeal obamacare, repeal dodd-frank, abolish the tax and

give these kids a chance for their future. >> new hampshire. what's the strategy after tuesday going into new hampshire? >> we worked hard. we laid a lot of foundation in new hampshire. so we'll go there and make our case to the voters. we have a lot of tea party support up in new hampshire. we see this sassas a full race. we sent in our application to the ohio ballot and kansas ballot. at the end of the day we'll be the nominee to defeat barack obama. we need a strong woman in the pattern of ronald reagan and margaret thacher to take him on. that's what happened one 1980. everyone said a conservative couldn't win against jimmy carter. it was the opposite. it's the same thing now. i've proven i'm the strong consistent core conservative in this race. that's what we need. i'm fearless. i've already taken barack obama on on obamacare, dodd-frank and all these issues. i'll stand on the stage

fearlessly look him in the eye, take him on the issues, hold him accountable for his 15 trillion in debt. take him on to defeat him and then turn the country around. >> in terms your rival, some have been campaigning heavily in new hampshire in the past few months? is it your acknowledgement or do you think you have a lot of ground make up in new hampshire? >> our goal is to do very well here in iowa. that is a game changer. people will make up their minds based upon what is happening at the time of their primary. this is a caucus state, snam a primary state. it's very different. so we absolutely will be there but we'll also go on the south carolina as well. again this, is a 50 state race and so this is where i want to show very well. remember there's only been one statewide race so far in this presidential election and i'm the one person of all the candidates that won the only statewide race that was the straw poll.

so i intend to win the second statewide race which is the iowa caucuses and go on from there to new hampshire, south carolina, florida and ultimately to defeat barack obama. this isn't about me. about me winning. this is about this demographic behind me. we have a lot of young people. of all the candidates in this race no candidate does better with people who are 18 to 29 years of age. that's because this next generation recognizes we need a strong candidate who cares about them and their future to make sure that they don't have the $15 trillion and growing debt that they have to pay off and i'm a very unique candidate who draws not only broad support from young people but also i bring in democrats, independents, senior citizen, people who don't necessarily vote republican, i bring in those people. i'm the first republican ever to win in the state of minnesota. i do it by bringing in democrats and independents and they don't

agree with me on every issue. but they do ek i'm real, i'm sincere, i'm authentic. i won't through people. i tell them what i'll do. they put their trust in me. they know i'll turn the country around. >> we're he 72 years away from the caucus, how do you feel >> we feel fantastic. people right now all over iowa going door-to-door all over iowa and as soon as we're done here they will be right back on phones. making tens of thousands of phone calls. that's called victory. this is called win, win, win behind me. this is victory. we're thrilled. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> there you have it. congresswoman talking about the momentum that she feels that her campaign has heading in to caucus just few days from now. back to you.

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own words. in just about an hour we'll hear from mitt romney he'll be campaigning in lamar, iowa. we'll bring to it live when it happens. but first, we want to take you back to rick santorum. he is right now in knoxville, iowa, actually, talking in a small town hall meeting. let's listen in. >> people started to focus in and started to listen to the message and the difference between candidates. we were able to defeat a 14 year democratic incumbent and then defeat a united states senator to win a senate with a million more registered democrats than republicans. two democratic incumbents head on. two or two. so, if you're looking for someone who can win, don't listen to these pundits, they think the only thing that allows them to win is if they are not

ka conservative. because they are not conservatives. the only way to win is to be like us. that's what they said back in 1980. jimmy carter is a disaster. you got to take somebody who can win. ronald reagan said no. he said let's have a victory that actually if we win that we can actually make the changes that america needs and that's what i'm asking you to do today. to support us to we can make the changes that america actually needs. if you would be willing to sign up -- so we have some sign ups outside you can take some information. take some signs. we would greatly appreciate your help and support. we need caucus captains to go to the caucus on caucus night and help us out and if you can do that i would really appreciate it. thank you all very much and god bless you. thanks. [ applause ]

>> that is a former senator from pennsylvania, rick santorum. he is in knoxville, iowa. he has a lot on his schedule today. more than anyone else. rick santorum has been in iowa over 100 days during this election season. he's visited all 99 counties. i'm actually a little bit surprised to hear him say they still need precinct captains. i want seems to have paid off. i want to bring in jim acosta. santorum had a great week. this is a man who has toiled in the also running category up until this week when suddenly we look and he's third in the polls. >> reporter: well that's right. we've seen throughout this campaign we've seen different candidates emerge as unromney and this is rick santorum's turn. what better time than right before iowa caucuses to emerge as the latest unromney.

he has been as you just said a few moments ago been can strava the state. he's hit all 99 counties and hoping that hard work will pay off in the long run and here comes the former pennsylvania senator now. he's walking up to our site and we'll talk to him for a few minutes live on the contenders. senator santorum, jim acosta. we were just listen towing. it sounds like in your comments of a different stops you've been thanking people of iowa. almost a part time resident in this state leading up to these caucuses. what is your message in these final days going in? do you think that message can put you over the top? >> i feel very good that, you know, the people of iowa have seen us out there. kicked the tires. done 360 town hall meetings. they know the vision i've laid out that i'm the strong full speck truck, consistent conservative and someone who will make the kind of changes

that america needs. and that they don't need to settle for something less. they don't need to settle for something less because some folks convinced them that's what we need to do to win. we can't elect someone who is not ready to do what needs be done. >> you emerged as the latest unromney. do you feel he's a full spectrum conservative the way that you describe yourself? >> look, i feel we're a much stronger and have a better record of showing that we stand up in good times and in bad, when it's popular and not popular for the principles that made our country great that believing in the bottom up, believing in free people and free markets and not in government control whether it's health care or financial services or controlling energy and global warming. that we believe in markets and we believe in people, and that's the plan i put forward and it's a clear contrast to barack obama and i think that's what we need

in this election. >> let me ask you about the way you wage this campaign because you've done at any time old-fashioned way. you visited all the counties. you've done it basically with very little tv time or ad time. you look at the other candidates in this race, mitt romney and ron paul, they profited primarily because of advertising, p.a.c. advertising. you haven't done that. what message do you think iowa caucus goers should take from that. we heard newt gingrich say don't reward candidates who are doing that. >> up reward the candidate that you've had the opportunity to test and see what their, not just their ads say but what's really in their heart, in their head. how well they can handle the tough questions because they are going to get them. we've seen that. we've seen candidates that have not gone through the trial, have not been tested and when they go out there they don't too particularly well. after 360 town hall meetings i can answer most questions now and i have a good idea why i

believe what i believe not just trying to form tans that may sound the best. >> senator, one of the things we focused on this week is if mitt romney wins these iowa caucus and then wins the new hampshire primary no republican candidates has done that since gerald ford and lot of people think he's unstoppable. is that would that be bad for your party, essentially make it impossible for this process to go on in any way? fnchts there fnchts. >> we've been through the process while it's a two-person race and you can go through "it's a two-person race" every six weeks and it's two different people. the pundit class has blown it in this election. why? because it's not like a typical election. no matter what happens here today, this is not going to be over in two states. a lot of folks are concerned that we get a reagan-style conviction conservative who's a stark contrast, that paints in

bold colors, contrasting with the very bold colors of president obama. and i think that -- i believe i'm the best candidate to do that. and i think mitt romney, while a good man, doesn't draw those contrasts. >> i was just about to ask you because you've been pretty nice in this interview not to go after governor romney. but if you look at the two top candidates in this state, you said, let's put a reagan conservative at the top in iowa. do ron paul and mitt romney qualify as reagan conservatives, in your view? >> i would say that i'm a much better reagan conservative than they are. that's why i'm running. >> you're not very tough on these guys. how come? why is that? >> i'm being tough. i'm contrasting myself. i'm just not going to be mean. i think i'm better than they are. i think ron paul's -- as i've said many times in the dennis kucinich win in the democratic party on national security. that's not a good thing to contrast with president obama. i've mentioned mitt romney's

problems with respect to a lot of the issues that i think are important to contrast in this election. health care being first among them. so, yeah, i'll draw my contrasts. but they're good people. i'd vote for them over barack obama. but we need something better. we can't settle at a time when our country needs major changes on national security and economically and with our culture. we need someone who can paint a very different vision than barack obama, to be able to lead, not only win the election, but to be able to rally the american public with that mandate to do something that's going to save our country. i think we provide a much better remedy than what they do. >> and rick perry is going after you. it's been sort of a battle of the ricks this year. some have called it a race for third place. but let me ask you, i know you want to win, but he's gone after you on these earmarks that you supported when you were a senator in washington.

and he's talking about these rain forest museums and all that. can you be a consistent, full-spectrum conservative the way you describe it and be supportive of earmarks. >> the rain forests were here, i've voted for lots of appropriation bills that had things in it that i didn't vote for. governor perry hired people to go to washington, d.c. and get money for taxes. when taxpayers send their money from the state of pennsylvania, my job is to make sure the state of pennsylvania gets their fair share of that. what happened after i left congress was there was an abuse and an explosion of spending. i along with others like jim demint who earmarked said this was a abuse. after the 2010 election when it became it was important to the public, i stood up and said, there should be a moratorium on earmarking. for governor perry to rewrite history as to earmarking,

earmarking was not the plague that it was for hundreds of years because members of congress thought it was their responsibility and there wasn't abuse. when abuse came, we ended the process and i supported it. >> let me ask you about translating poll numbers into boots on the ground on caucus night. your spokesman told me before this interview that he believes that your campaign has roughly 70% of these caucus sites staffed for tuesday night. that's pretty impressive. >> when you say staffed, i'm not talking about staffed. we're not paying a lot of people. we have who we call -- >> volunteers. >> caucus captains. these are iowans who are going to be helping us there at the caucus sites. >> we heard mitt romney winning big in '08. does he have that kind of manpower this time around? >> you'd have to ask governor romney. i don't know what the other campaigns are doing. >> ron paul has serious ground game. >> i'm sure he does. >> how does your contrast with theirs? >> i don't know what they're doing. they haven't briefed me on that. all i can tell you is we had a

bunch of people in today. we had caucus captain training. we had well over 100 people in to pick up their packets and pick up their signs and placards and talk to our folks about how tair going to present the best case for us. they're anxious to get there and work the door and work their colleagues. that's what it's all about. that's why caucuses are a little bit more fun than going to a regular polling place where you have to stand so far back. you can actually get in the polling place and you can talk to folks and wear your buttons and if we have people who are enthusiastic because they've met me, i think that's going to make a big difference. >> do you understand the caucus process? do you understand how it works? >> i've been to them. i actually spoke at a caucus back in 2004 for president bush. i've experienced a caucus -- i think it's a -- what you're really doing here is folks who are really paying attention,

folks who are active, who are screening, if you will, people who are coming are not your average voter. they're voters who are really focused on the issues. they're focused on the character and quality of the individual. and they're performing, i think, a very important function. i bet if you asked -- i've done this at almost every event i've had the last couple of weeks. i said, how many of you have met the other candidates other than me? and just about every hand went up. they're giving these candidates a scrubbing and then making a recommendation. >> senator, thanks for your time. best of luck to you. so there you have it. there's senator rick santorum. he stopped for a few moments to talk to us. he's going to be going on throughout this day well into new year's eve trying to convince caucusgoers to support him on caucus night. he's got a tough challenge. he was way at the back of the pack here in iowa throughout

this campaign. but he has surged here in the final days before the iowa caucuses. we'll see how he translates that into a final performance on caucus night. we'll be right back with "the contenders" in just a moment.

a little bit of breaking news for you on this very political new year's eve day. newt gingrich, one of the republican contenders has now joined a lawsuit with some of his fellow presidential contenders against the way the republican party selected folks to be on the ballot in virginia. the lawsuit specifically was filed by rick perry. and it seeks to stop the state

of virginia from keeping rick perry, newt gingrich, jon huntsman, michele bachmann and rick santorum off the ballot. under virginia rules, as they now exist, you have to have a certain amount of certified signatures to get your name on the ballot in one way or another, all those candidates failed to meet virginia's law -- election law as to how they should qualify for the ballot. they are now suing both members of the election board and the republican party chief in virginia to stay on it. newt gingrich now joining huntsman, bachmann, santorum and perry in a lawsuit to try to get on the virginia ballot. we'll be right back after this break.