lot of times have a drop in fund-raising, too, candy. >> right, right. it's like a political chicken and egg, which comes first, the drop in the polls or the lack of funds? there you go. thank you so much, joe johns. we appreciate it. we'll talk to you later in the day. we are going to continue with "the contenders 2012" right after this break. [ male announcer ] if you're giving an amazing gift, shouldn't it be given in an amazing way? ♪ ♪ the lexus december to remember sales event is here, but only for a limited time. see your lexus dealer for exclusive lease offers on the 2012 es 350 and, as a gift from lexus, we'll make your first month's payment. because for every two pounds you lose through diet and exercise, alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat. let's fight fat with alli. ♪

welcome back to cnn's "the contenders 2012." we are giving you a look at all of these republican candidates as they march through their final days, yes, even on new year's eve day they are out there campaigning. rick santorum seems to have the

most crowded schedule, five events. and one of the schedules that has a few more blanks than otherinothe othe others, rick perry. i want to bring in our peter hamby. peter, you have been with governor perry throughout this morning. i'm told he's wrapped it up for the day. is that right? >> reporter: yeah, yeah, i believe so. he's also -- you mentioned rick santorum, he's been carrying on a pretty robust schedule throughout his whole iowa campaign. rick perry this last month has been doing a marathon bus tour of the state hitting 42 cities. he's banging out four or five events a day. and he's getting very good crowds. the task for his campaign out here in iowa is to sign those people up who come to these events. they seem to like him, and get them out to the caucuses next tuesday. >> and that's kind of always the problem here. this is the final push for him. and he seems to be battling it out for fourth at this point

with newt gingrich. is that how they read it or do they have a larger target in mind? >> reporter: you know what, candy, i would actually read it that santorum, newt and perry are battling it out for third place. santorum is obviously surging but he doesn't have the operational abilities that perry do does. and the campaigns i've talked to have internals showing it to be extremely fluid in that third place spot. and the perry campaign, as you said, he's battling. they are flying in, i learned today, out of state, 500 volunteers from out of state. and then they have 1,500 precinct captains here in iowa, which is a very strong number for a campaign, basically. they're going to be at all these caucus locations speaking up for their candidates. and the perry campaign is very well-organized. even though he has mediocre poll numbers, they're hoping that operation can mean the difference between a ticket back to austin and a ticket to south

carolina. take a listen to what he said earlier today in ft. dodge, this is sort of your typical speech you hear from perry and he's traveling around iowa, candy. >> i want to share something with you that i've always believed in campaigns for president, they're not just about the candidates. it's really about the people of this country. it's about the values that we have that we share that we've been taught. and the fact of the matter is, the vote's not really about me. this is about our children, it's about the future of this country. it's about a statement of your values. and who you are going to choose is a reflection of your values. and i always would be honored to have your vote as a statement of that, of your values and you see reflected in me the values that are important for you, your family, for this country and together. we're going to build a movement to take this country back, to

get washington out of our hair as much as we can because washington is taxing too much, they're regulating too much, they're spending too much. and this campaign truly is about restoring hope for the next generation by changing that spending culture in washington, d.c. and ending this stifling debt of 15 trilli$15 trillion-p dollars that's on the backs of the next generation. it's making washington realize that it's we the people who are in charge in this country. >> so has that been basically the message that he's gone with most of the time throughout the last couple of weeks, peter? >> reporter: yeah, again, on this bus tour, his closing argument is kind of the way it was in texas when he ran for governor in 2010, that he's the

outsider, that washington has overreached. and his standard line to audiences is, i'm going to make washington as inconsequential in your lives as possible, sort of framing himself against mitt romney who he casts as a creature of wall street and newt gingrich who he says is a longtime washington insider. you see that on television relentle relentlessly. the perry campaign is dropping millions of dollars on television and in the mail. and they have a creative media team working on pandora. that's the message. that he's not from d.c., he's one of you voters out here in iowa, he's got rural roots and he's going to go to washington and fix things, candy. >> peter hamby in boone, iowa, for us, thanks so much. "the contenders 2012" with cnn will be right back. dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there?

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keep your family safer. check your steps at foodsafety.gov. welcome back to "the contenders 2012." this is sort of your chance to see what's been going on out here in iowa. lots of these events we're bringing to you are live. some of them are on tape. but we do large chunks hoping to give you the unedited version of what folks see when they show up at these events, at these town hall meetings or in these small cafes and get to talk to people who want to be president of the united states and want to be, in this case, the republican nominee for president of the united states. throughout this week, cnn has been blanketed across this state. one of those who has been with us and was with us earlier in the week, our wolf blitzer who sat down with both mitt and ann

romney, where we learned, among other things, that it was ann romney who wanted mitt romney to run this second time around. >> ann was convinced that i had to run again. she said, no one else can beat president obama. no one has the background to get the economy going, understand the economy in a very fundamental way. and she said, you've got to run again. and she pushed that for a long time. and i was open to her thoughts. but very much undecided. and then after several months, came to the same conclusion. i had to look at the other people who were running, think about their prospects of beating the president, looked at their backgrounds and felt that there really wasn't someone that had the private sector experience that i had to get the economy going again. >> and that's the lens i looked when i was making my decision. it's like, yeah, there's this whole other thing over here that's running. and then there's this whole other thing over here that's actually being president. and i knew that mitt being

president would be a very good thing. >> is it nastier this time around? >> i don't know that i can compare that. campaigns are by definition entities that point out distinctions between candidates. go back to the days of jefferson and adams, they were going back and forth with various attacks. people took a look at it, some things they discounted, other things they believed. but it was informative and ultimately people make their decision. i'm not going to complain about a political process that's been this way for a couple of hundred years. >> reporter: when newt gingrich says it's baloney that you can't control these super pac ads, what do you say? >> campaigns can't tell them what advertisements to run. i could get up and say, i decry all the negative ads but i don't. we could all wish we had a utopian-type political process.

but campaign process that exists is the way it's been for a long time. i hope that the ads that go up despite showing contrast and distinction or whatever you might want to say, i hope they always tell the truth. i would vehemently say to all these attacks running ads, stick to the truth. if they do, that's the nature of the process we're going to have. but i recognize, if you're going to get in a campaign like this, you have to have broad shoulders. and if you can't take on the negative that's a part of a primary, you're sure as heck not going to be ready for what's going to come from barack obama. if you can't handle the heat in this kitchen, wait till barack obama's hell's kitchen. >> reporter: let's talk a little bit about a sensitive issue but an important issue, transparency. you say you're not going to release your income tax returns. you're not going to release the name of your bundlers, the

people raising money for you. why are you not going to do that? >> i've said i don't have any plans to release my income tax returns at this point. no other candidates have released theirs at this point. i'll keep open. what will happen down the road, never say never. but with regards to other disclosures, we'll follow the law. and the people who have contributed and participated in our campaign expect us to follow the law. >> reporter: the question comes up, what do you have to hide? why wouldn't the american public need to be able to know who's raising money for you -- >> there's nothing particularly to hide. it's just when people say, what disclosures have you made, you say, you follow the law and you provide that information. i don't put out what toothpaste i use either. >> so that was mitt romney last week. he has since gone -- returned to new hampshire for about a day. and now he's in le mars, iowa,

where we're going to let you take a listen to him live. >> the right to pursue opportunity, we are an opportunity nation. in america, a merit society, an exceptional nation, people's hard work, their willingness to take risks, their dreams can build enterprises like this very restaurant. and by virtue of their dreams and their hard work and education and skill and a little good luck, their success can reward them and reward the rest of us as we work for them or as we see our entire society grow and thrive. we're a nation which is built upon opportunity. this idea that the best way to create wealth for all of our citizens was to give each of them the freedom to pursue their own dreams is what's so unique about the founding of this country. it is what accounts for our extraordinary strength as a nation. our dna is like the people in

europe, but we excel past them, way beyond them, in terms of the abundance in this land because of the principles upon which this nation has been founded. i don't think president obama understands america that way. i don't think he understands what makes our economy so powerful. i think he wants to change us into a european welfare state where instead of having a nation which thrives because of freedom and opportunity, we instead have a government that takes from some people to give to others in the name of creating greater equality. and all they'll create is greater poverty because only freedom has ever been an antidote to poverty in the world. i see this election as not just an election to replace a president. i see this as an election to save the soul of america. [ applause ]

this is an election to decide whether we're going to go further and further down the path of becoming more and more similar to a european welfare state or whether instead we're going to remain an exceptional nation with freedom and opportunity at our heart, whether we remain a merit society or an entitlement society. that's the choice i think the americans are going to face. and i know what will happen. if we continue along with president obama and his policies, you'll see government get larger and larger and larger because it has to take more and more and give to more people, government will get larger. our debts will get more and more immense and people will find that the hope that they've always associated with america is replaced with a sense of certainty that their future is not clear and bright. i know what the policies will be of an administration that would pursue that path. we would replace envy with ambition. and would poison the very spirit

of american enterprise because we would threaten the sense of one nation under god. i love this country. i don't want to become more like europe. europe isn't working in europe. i want america to remain quintessentially american with people coming here from all over the world seeking our freedoms, sharing in the wealth which was provided to us by the principles of our founding. now, i know that these have been three for different years. not been an easy time for a lot of americans. you've got 25 million people today out of work or stopped looking for work or are way underemployed, given their skills. you have kids coming out of college that can't find jobs. so it's a tough time. i believe this is a detour, however, not a destiny. i remember a time, i believe you remember a time when you weren't afraid to look at the headlines, when you weren't afraid to look at your retirement account, when

you weren't afraid to look at the gas pump. i remember a time when you were thinking about what movie you might take your kids to see at the end of the week instead of worried about whether you could make food for the table until the end of the week. a time when you were thinking about where you might retire as opposed to thinking that you might never retire. these have been three very difficult years. and i want to reclaim america because that america of our past that we remember so well is not gone. it's still in the heart of the american people. and it's in the heart of the principles that we have lived by and that have made us great as a nation. i will restore and bring back those principles. i don't want what the president said, fundamentally transform america. i don't want to turn us into something we're not. i want to bring back the principles that made us the hope of the earth. we are still a shining city on a hill. i will restore america's principles and by doing so get our economy going again, get people back to work, help middle income families struggling so

desperately. i want to make sure this is the best place in the world to be middle class. and i want to have every parent in this country have a conviction that the future for their kids is brighter than even the years they've enjoyed themselves. that's always been a part of the american experience, to have confidence in the future. that's been shaken today. this is a great land. the principles that made us the hope of the earth continue to drive our prospects for tomorrow. i'm going to do everything in my power if i'm elected president of the united states to restore those principles. and it begins with a number of things. one, i will finally get america on track to have a balanced budget and to stop spending your kids' future. [ applause ] i will get the government out of your health care by repealing obamacare. [ applause ] i will make america the best

place in the world imaginable for entrepreneurs and innovators, people who want to start small businesses, people who want to expand big businesses. i'll make sure all the regulations that have been enacted during the obama years are put on hold and then we'll get rid of the ones that kill jobs. [ applause ] and energy, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that we send hundreds of billions of dollars every year outside this country to go by energy from other people when we have ample energy here. and by the way, next door in canada, we'll open that keystone pipeline and develop our own oil and gas in this country. [ applause ] i could keep you all day here with all the things i want to do. but i can tell you this, we're going to get america working again. we're going to reclaim the dream that has always made us the shining city on a hill. i love this country.

i love its beauty. i love its people. i love the principles upon which it was founded and i'm going to make sure that we reclaim that america for ourselves and for our kids. thank you so much. great to be with you today. thank you. [ applause ] >> mitt romney in le mars, iowa, returning to actually a campaign theme of his announcement speech when he compared president obama's policies to that of a socialist europe. so coming full circle here, mitt romney looking pretty good in the polls here in iowa, something that was unexpected by the campaign. so we'll see him a lot over the next couple of days here as we move forward those january 3rd caucuses tuesday. we'll come back to "the contenders 2012." but first, it is already 2012 across many parts of the world. in vatican city, the pope held mass and gave thanks for the past year's blessings. ♪

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welcome back to this special

hour of "cnn newsroom." we're taking the time this afternoon to let you hear from the 2012 presidential contenders, unfiltered, uninterrupted and in their own words. it's like your on the campaign trail here in iowa. michele bachmann is campaigning in urbandale, iowa, in the latest cnn poll, she is second to last, drawing just 9% of the support here in iowa. only jon huntsman polls lower. cnn's shannon travis is following bachmann. shannon? >> reporter: hey, there, candy. i'm here at the iowa headquarters for michele bachmann here in urbandale. the room may look a little bit empty right now. but a lot of the volunteers and staffers just webt out and took a group picture in front of the michele bachmann bus. but for most of the afternoon, the room has been abuse with activity. a lot of the supporters and volunteers are calling various people across iowa saying, hey, are you coming out on caucus night?

will you caucus for michele bachmann or would you even be willing to speak on her behalf, be a caucus captain? michele bachmann showed up here a short while ago, candy, and she actually worked the phone herself. take a look at this -- >> hi this is michele bachmann calling. is this bob johnson? hey, bob. i'm doing great. what are you doing today? hanging out at home. that's exactly what you should do on new year's eve. it sounds good. i'm here in the des moines office just making calls to ask people to get out on tuesday night. and i'm calling to ask for your vote on tuesday night. awesome. can you bring more people with you? good. well, listen, i am, too. tell me where you live, bob.

oh, you are? okay, wonderful. you've got a lot of time between now and tuesday night. thanks for your support. be sure you tell everybody you know, tell your friends and your neighbors and everybody at church this election is wide open. we can win this thing on tuesday night. you know my brother? oh, man. he is hilarious, isn't he? he is an awesome guy. and actually he is going to be here on tuesday night. so why don't you -- yeah, why don't you come out to our watch party and the campaign headquarters and you'll see him. oh, yes, absolutely. >> reporter: candy, michele bachmann not leaving any

caucusgoers to chance, phoning them on her own in these 72 hours before caucus night. but one of the critical questions is what happens after tuesday? what's the strategy for new hampshire and south carolina? i actually spoke with the congresswoman, a little one-on-one interview with a little while ago. she said, we are going to go to new hampshire and campaign there. but we're also going to go on to south carolina. she said they're running a 50-state campaign. that all this talk about her potentially dropping out if she doesn't have a good showing here in iowa is not true, according to her, and that they're ready to go the distance in this campaign, candy. >> you know, shannon, i think -- i always say, people say, is this person out or are they going to get out? i say, they're never out until they are. they always say, i'm going to stay in until that moment of the decision, then they tell you. but i do think it's interesting that when we leave iowa, it will be interesting to watch how many

of these candidates, especially those appealing to social conservatives, will, by and large, skip new hampshire and spend the bulk of their time in south carolina. i'm getting from you the sense, she may be one of them? >> reporter: yeah, it certainly seems that way. i asked her, some of your opponents have done well in new hampshire. and the polls reflect their high standing in new hampshire. hers, not as much. she did say she's going to be going to new hampshire. but in terms of making up ground, she has a lot of ground to make up in comparison to them. maybe a little less so in south carolina because she has campaigned there a lot. it's been pretty much between south carolina and iowa. so she's talking about going ahead, again, no talk about dropping out if she doesn't do well here in iowa. but it is interesting that her

strategy from new hampshire maybe isn't as robust as some of the other rivals have been in the past few weeks and months actually, candy. >> there is a debate coming up in new hampshire, too. so i suspect they will all show up for that because debates always have resonance beyond the state that they're in. thanks so much, shannon travis. appreciate it. newt gingrich is on the defense. the former republican front-runner talks candidately with wolf blitzer about the onslaught of attacks he's facing in iowa when we return.

welcome back to this special hour of "cnn newsroom." we are taking the time this afternoon to let you hear from the 2012 presidential contenders unfiltered, uninterrupted, in their own words. newt gingrich has had a bull's-eye on his back in iowa ever since he leapt up in the polls. millions of dollars have been spent in negative attack ads against him. wolf blitzer talked with

gingrich about the negativity and how it's affecting his campaign. >> reporter: the attack ads, though, they are having an impact. >> sure, of course they are. >> reporter: i was watching tv, i don't know how much tv you've watched in iowa. but if you watch commercials, they are hitting you hard. >> oh, yeah. they will have spent $5 million, $6 million, $7 million, most of it false. and the amazing thing to me is we've held up as well as we have. and i think now we're going to come back, this entire jobs and economic growth tour is designed to counter the negativity. we always start out to be in the top three or four. i think we're going to be in the top three or four. we could end up as number one. it's a very confusing field right now. >> reporter: it looks like you're lowering expectations a little bit, which is understandable. >> a little bit, yeah. >> reporter: let's talk about this romney -- it's not romney directly. it's a super pac. >> it's a romney. >> reporter: backed by his supporters. he points out he can't have any involvement. i'll play a little clip.

watch it and we'll discuss for viewers who may not have seen it. >> barack obama's plan is working, destroy mitt romney, run against newt gingrich. newt has a ton of baggage. he was fined $300,000 for ethics violations and took $1.6 million from freddie mac before it helped cause the economic meltdown. newt supports amnesty for illegal immigrant and teams with nancy pelosi and al gore on global warming. that's a tough ad, not directly from mitt romney but from a super pac. >> this is one of the things that's false about american politics. that pac is run by his staff, paid for by his friends. >> reporter: but there can't be any coordination. >> all he has to say publicly is, only run positive ads. >> reporter: but that's not smart politics, is it? >> well, it's whether or not you think being negative and dishonest is smart politics. >> reporter: he was fine 30d $0,000 -- >> i wasn't fined.

i paid the cost of the investigation. the fact is a u.s. court later said i was totally right and the irs said i was totally right. the $300,000 i paid was for having a lawyer draft a letter that was technically wrong. out of 84 charges, 83 were thrown out. one ended up being a letter written by a lawyer. so it's not a fine. i paid for the cost of the investigation. >> reporter: the next one, he took $1.6 million from freddie mac before it helped cause the economic meltdown. >> this is like ascribing all the income of bain capital to mitt romney. he knows better. his staff knows better. the company was paid over a six-year period. the company has three offices in three different series. my share of that was probably $33,000 a year. >> reporter: that's it? >> really. and he knows better because he's a businessman. if we were to ascribe to him the gross revenue of bain as his

income, he would immediately scream foul. the only time i ever publicly talked about fannie mae and freddie mac to the house is in "the new york times" in july of 2008. and i told them to vote reque"n bailing them out. i am against giving them taxpayers' money. that piece of it is just fundamentally misleading. >> reporter: let's go to the next one. newt gingrich supports amnesty for illegal immigrants. >> i support residency as an option, without citizenship for people who have been here 25 years who have a family and have an american family willing to sponsor them. now, to jump from there to amnesty is a gross distortion. it would be like my running an ad saying, mitt romney wants to go out and track down every single illegal alien and forcibly kick them out of the country, even if he breaks up families. he would immediately scream foul. >> reporter: and the other point, he helped nancy pelosi and al gore on global warming.

we remember the bench -- >> two things. i've said publicly, dumbest single thing i've done in the last four years was doing an ad with nancy pelosi. but they then -- a number of these ads jump on to say i was for cap and trade. that's not true. you go to newt.org, we have the actual video of me testifying in the house against cap and trade. i was the first witness after al gore. he was for it. i was against it. >> our wolf blitzer with, of course, newt gingrich. just a few minutes ago, shannon travis talked with a representative of michele bachmann and you'll hear some of that interview in our next hour. right now, though, a quick break. yoo-hoo. hello.

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good afternoon from des moines. we are back with "the contenders 2012." i'm candy crowley. we're following the republican presidential candidates as they zero in on iowa. today the candidates make their cases to the voters here. why should they be the next president of the united states? i'm joined now by our joe johns

who is with newt gingrich and with jim as to ta who acosta whh rick santorum. we want to start with the latest iowa cnn time orc poll. mitt romney in the lead. rick santorum up. newt gingrich down. so i want to bring in both jim and joe at this point. i don't know any of us could have forseen where this race would be at this point. but it has been a pretty exciting one and seems to me going down to the end, joe, the big question here is whether newt gingrich has had enough time to recover what's been a pretty steep fall. >> reporter: yeah, he said here at this event in atlantic, ahl, just a little while ago that it kind of threw him off-balance for a while and he's just now regaining his balance.

the question is, how does he do that? we really hit him up on e questions about whether he's going to go negative in his television ads, to sort of go against those individuals who have brought, as you can see, a truck coming past us right now. i don't know if you can hear me. this is a soft drink bottling and distribution plant. anyway, the bottom line is, he did say he was off-balance. he is trying to recover. and he is suggesting that he's going to do a lot more contrasting himself in ads after we get out of the iowa caucuses. the big question is, what's he going to do about the iowa caucuses because he's dropped so much in the polls since the negative ads first started? back to you. >> also want to bring the other side of this poll, if you will, with jim acosta because some of what newt gingrich lost may have been picked up by rick santorum.

>> reporter: that's right, candy. ever since this process got started here in iowa, caucusgoers have been looking for an alternative to mitt romney and they've been shopping through a wide range of candidates. they sort of looked at herman cain for a while. then they turned to newt gingrich. now it seems that they are looking at rick santorum and giving him a hard look. and the timing could not be better for the former pennsylvania senator. he came to this national sprint car hall of fame and museum here in knoxville, iowa, just a little while ago. and it's kind of an odd fight that he would come to the sprint car museum because this has been a marathon for rick santorum. he's covered every county of this state. he told us just a little while ago, he's given 360 town halls in this state. so what he's asking iowans in the final days of this campaign is to reward him for all of that hard work. i had a few minutes to talk to him about this campaign and how this is shaping up for him.

he feels like he's peaking at the right time and has a real shot as pulling off a serious upsit, if not that, perhaps a very good showing that will make him a serious contender going forward. let's hear what he had to say. you've been thanking the people of iowa, almost become sort of 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 that message can put you over the top? >> i feel very good that the people of iowa have seen us out there. we've been 360 town hall meetings. they know the vision that i've laid out, that i'm the strong, full-spectrum, consistent conservative and someone who will make the kind of changes that america needs. and they don't need to settle for something less. they don't need to settle for something less because some folks have convinced them that's what we need to do to win.

>> reporter: if i can read between the lines, it sounds like you're talking about mitt romney. you have emerged as sort of the latest un-romney here in the final stretch of this campaign going into the caucuses. do you feel that he's a full-spectrum conservative, the way that you describe yourself? >> i feel we're much stronger and we 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 graed 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 whether it's financial services or in controlling energy and global warming, that we believe in markets and we believe in people. that's the plan i put forward. it's a clear contrast to barack obama. i think that's what we need in this election. >> reporter: let me ask you about the way you've wage this had campaign. you've done it the old-fashioned way. you've visited all the counties, done it with very little tv time, very little ad time. the other candidates in this case, especially the two at the top, mitt romney and ron paul,

they've profited primarily because of advertising, pac advertising. but you haven't done that. what message do you think iowa caucusgoers should take from that because we've heard newt gingrich say, don't reward some of these candidates that are doing that sort of thing. what's your message? >> i think you reward the candidate that you've had the opportunity to test and see not just what their ads say but what's really in their heart, what's in their head. how well they can handle the tough questions because they're going to get them. we've seen that. we've seen candidates that have not gone through the trial, have not been tested. we've seen candidates that have not gone through the trial, that have not been tested. and when they go out there, they don't do particularly well and handle it. >> reporter: rick santorum giving the message to iowans, he's doing it old school.

unlike what you've seen from a lot of the other candidates, which is heavy tv advertising, heavy pac advertising. that's changed the dynamic of this race. you heard joe johns a few moments ago talking about whether or not newt gingrich can even recover from this onslaught of negative pac attack that is he's been subjected to over the last couple of weeks. rick santorum did not have to deal with any of that. he's been slowly but surely, quietly it hitting every county in this state looking for votes. and this is almost for rick santorum, a race for third place, if you look at the latest cnn/orc poll, the nbc/marist poll that came out last week. that's why he and rick perry have been going at each other. i asked him about some of these attacks coming from rick perry, these criticisms from rick perry saying, rick santorum, you were a big proponent of pork barrel projects and earmarks. he had a sharp response to that. he said, look, governor perry has sent lobbyists to washington to lobby on behalf of the state of texas.

so rick santorum is not shrinking from the fight. he also had a little bit of a shot at mitt romney saying to iowans, don't settle for something less just because you think that is what is going to win in this upcoming general election. so he's starting to sharpen the edges just a little bit. but he's sticking with the retail politics kind of message. he's hoping that's going to deliver him on caucus night, candy. >> jim acosta, i should point out one of the reasons reporters love iowa is that in general, you can show up at an event with a candidate and say, come on over here and talk to me and they actually do. after this, they get much bigger and it's hard to get to them. >> reporter: that's right. that's true. we'll take what we can get. >> thanks so much to jim acosta. you're absolutely right. thank you so much to jim and to joe. coming up, political analyst ron brownsstein joins me to talk more about mitt romney's day.

welcome back to "the contenders 2012." we're taking the time this afternoon to let you hear from the 2012 presidential contenders, basically unfiltered, uninterrupt and in their own words. sometimes live, sometimes on tape, but always unedited. we want to go first and give you a little bit of an idea what mitt romney has done today. he woke up in new hampshire and he touched down not too long ago

here and was in le mars, iowa, giving a little bit of his campaign speech. >> this is also plymouth county, right? this is a republican county. this is a county that had the wisdom in the last general election to vote for john mccain. don't we wish the entire state and the entire nation would have done that? but that didn't happen. i can tell you this, though, if i'm the republican nominee, i'll be back in iowa to win the general election and we will win iowa. we'll go to washington with a mandate to make sure we get this country back on the right track. i'm going to be back in iowa. [ applause ] now, when i came today to town, i wanted to make sure that my family got a chance to know something about this corner of iowa. so i brought my son, craig. my son, craig, is the youngest in my family. and he has two boys of his own. but he happens to be with me --

what kind of ice cream? he had butter pecan. tell them something about your family or about your dad that they don't know. my son, craig. >> thank you. it's a privilege to be out here on the campaign trail with my dad, to be back in iowa. it's a pleasure to be out here. i want to tell you a quick story about my dad that you probably haven't heard before. my dad is a very competitive guy. and he's relentless. and we have this little tradition in our family where we do a family triathlon every year. we do a short little swim, a bike race and a run at the end. my wife had just had our second child a month previously. and she decides to go for it, compete in the race. all the boys finished at this point. it was down to my wife and my dad over here. >> i tripped her. >> and it was in the home stretch there. and she had a slight lead on him.

and he said that in that moment, he decided he was going to win that race or he was going to die trying. and you see this fight to the finish, and he went for this -- he gave it everything he had. he gave it a good kick and he beat her in the end. and he did almost die trying, by the way. he passed out in a lawn chair and we didn't see him the rest of the day. but it's that type of hard work, that type of determination, i think, that we need in the white house. we need someone who can go in there and solve the challenges we're facing as a country. my dad's the guy to do it. thanks, guys. >> thanks, craig. well, there's more to that. i changed the nature of the triathlon after that. i didn't like this idea that these -- swimming, biking and running. we had to add some sports. now we have log-sawing, nail-hammering. we've added some things i excel

at. so i don't come in last every year. i get a few other things i do well, it's a great family experience. >> all the things you learn out here on the campaign trail with the republican and democratic candidates. i'm joined now by ron brownstein, cnn contributor. did you know that story? >> just what america needs, a president who can be a new mother. who knew? >> so mitt romney, i have to say, i feel as though, just sort of watching this latest couple of weeks of theirs, that they really have set the bar pretty high here for iowa. they've done a great job at saying, iowa, we're not going to spend all our time there. all of a sudden, it looked like it was doable. now he feels as though he has to do well here. >> this race is so fractured and

fractionated that if mitt romney holds near the 25% that he got last time, he could finish very close to the top. the real story of this iowa caucus is the way it's embodying the national dynamic in the republican race all throughout the past year. on the one hand, you have romney making steady if not spectacular progress as consolidating the more centrist parts of the party, not non-tea party supporters and as we see nationally here in iowa, no one is really consolidating the tea party and evangelical vanguard that is more resistance to him. and that leaves him in a relatively strong position even without some commanding level of support. >> sure, because four years ago, we saw mike huckabee was the social conservative candidate, that whole bloc, the evangelicals, social conservatives all went to him. this time, it's, do you go to rick perry, michele bachmann, santorum? >> in both the cnn/"time" poll

and the nbc/marist poll, who one's getting what huckabee got in 2008, nearly half of it. most of the polls have said that paul, romney and santorum are in the top tier. from the romney campaign's point of view, if that ends up being the top tier, it doesn't matter what order they finish in. they have the two candidates in paul and santorum who they believe will have the most trouble goin growing into true national scale contenders. rick perry and newt gingrich have a broader coalition. both have suffered a lot of damage. they need a second wind. and if these polls hold up through tuesday, iowa will not give them that boost. and that will leave mitt romney in a strong position even if somebody else comes in first. >> and really we don't have a lot of time to change these polls. aren't they a little frozen right now? it's new year's eve.

nonetheless, people now sort of do turn their attention to a holiday. so it's really only monday to make what might be a major change in the polls. that doesn't seem doable. >> right. as you know, you run into plenty of voters here who are still weighing between santorum and perry or perry and romney. there could be some movement there. the other question is whether in those final hours, those more conservative voters who have been more skeptical of romney say, look, we've got to consolidate behind one candidate because obviously if he wins this state and then wins new hampshire where he has a big lead, it is very difficult at that point. no one's won south carolina, which will probably be the last stand for conservatives against romney without winning new hampshire since south carolina moved up since 1980. so the challenge is real and if iowa does not give kind of a reviving boost to gingrich or perry, the romney people think

they're in a very strong position. >> let's say they pull this out by some ways or means, that romney does come in first here. that's a pretty -- he is really -- those skids are grease for him, are they not? >> absolutely. since 1980, the iowa caucus assumed this modern form. south carolina moved up. you've had five contested republican presidential nomination fights. in each of those fives, it's followed the same patterns. one candidate won iowa, one won new hampshire, and another wins south carolina. given mitt romney's strength in new hampshire, someone would have to go into south carolina without winning iowa or new hampshire and basically stop him. now, just because it hasn't been done, doesn't mean it can't be done. but there's a reason why it hasn't happened in 30 years, which is that candidates kind of lose their viability more quickly than we often assume if they're not winning, if they're not at the top of the field f they're not in the conversation. and coming -- if you're rick perry or newt gingrich and you

don't finish near the top in iowa or new hampshire, going to south carolina and then mobilizing those voters, especially those conservative christian voters who might be more dubious of romney is a tall order. >> some of these folks, if they want to come out of iowa will say, let's debate in new hampshire but i'm going to south carolina. >> absolutely. for the conservatives who are dubious of romney, south carolina is the place to make the last stand. like iowa in '08, 60% of that electorate describe themselves as evangelical christians. now, the problem is, if iowa does not anoint one clear conservative alternative to romney -- >> they all go to south carolina. >> yes, and vukd a replay of what you saw here with those most conservative votes breaking up. it's not just the evangelical christians. it's those who identify with the tea party. if you look at your last cnn poll, romney was getting a third of the voters who don't identify with the tea party. no one was getting more than a fifth of those who do. in each case, whether you think about it as the tea party or the evangelical side, the economic

conservatives or the social conservatives, romney is consolidating the moderate portion of the party more than anybody is, the more conservative portion of the party. and that is allowing him to have an advantage. it's not a commanding advantage. it's not an overwhelming advantage. but it is kind of an increment of advantage putting him back in the poll position in this race. >> he looks like -- mitt romney looks as though he played some pretty smart ball here, doesn't he? it was said, romney's not going to compete in iowa. it seems to me that he kept himself scarce to the media. >> yes. >> to the national media. he was here but he was also in new hampshire and he was also a little bit in south carolina. and he played it very cautious. this is one of the most cautious campaigns i think i've seen. >> the amount of time he spent here is about an eighth of what he did in 2008. >> 15 days, according to the -- 15 days -- >> about a fifth of what he

did -- >> rick santorum has been here 101 days. >> and part of the problem santorum would have -- if he wins iowa, he will get a tremendous booth. but he can't replicate in south carolina what he's done here. he's practically run for governor of iowa and you only get to do that in one state. jon huntsman is doing it in new hampshire. romney has reminded me a little bit of harry reid in the democratic race, senate race in 2010. he's put a lot of effort into picking his opponent. the romney forces, obviously it's a super pac not directly under his control, but it's a thin tissue there because it's his former advisers. they put a lot of money into suppressing newt gingrich here. they don't want gingrich to emerge from here. they're not putting a lot of money into stopping ron paul or rick santorum. they are comfortable with a race if santorum and paul emerge in the top tier and gingrich and perry are lower down. that's not a troubling scenario for the romney folks because

they are dubious that those two can't develop into a national challenger. he really has no national presence, no national visibility. hard for him to parlay this as much as a perry. if perry gets a second wind out of here going to south carolina as a southerner, as an evangelical protestant, might be easier for him to make that last stand. the ideal scenario for them, regardless of if romney finishes in the top three, paul, santorum, romney, any order is probably okay for them. >> we talk a lot about the power of the evangelicals here in iowa as well as in south carolina and the social conservatives. but there's also some polling that shows, this time around, these are not one-issue voters. this time around, they're interested in the economics of

it. and they're interested in not having president obama have a second term. >> absolutely. >> how much -- i was just so taken with the electability question in our poll where romney was 44% and everybody else, i think, was down in the high teens. >> yeah. >> how much do you think -- usually they say, it doesn't matter in iowa. iowa's going to vote their heart. how much of that voting your head -- who's the guy that can win, do you think, comes into play? it's certainly been what romney's pushing. >> iowa has been willing to vote. they have been willing to give significant amounts of votes to candidates who we say don't have a realistic chance of winning the primary. in 2000, the combined evangelical vote for gary bower and alan keys exceeded the evangelical vote for george w. bush. there are voters here willing to make a statement. but the electability comes in as you move down the road. just because romney is stuck at around 25% or 30% in the national polls, that doesn't

necessarily mean that all the other 70% are dead set against him. one of the things that may be happening, especially if he does well here and in new hampshire, voters say, he wasn't my first choice, i want somebody more consistently conservative than he is. but he looks like he can beat barack obama and i'm not going to go lay down in front of the train tracks. if romney does well in iowa and new hampshire, the idea of a big stop romney movement may be much more difficult to assemble in large part because of those findings on electability. >> one name we haven't mentioned, michele bachmann. >> she's obviously really faded. she's faded here. her high point was the straw poll last summer. if she continues to fade, that would be an important potential for someone like santorum or perry because she obviously is strongest among the most conservative elements of the party. it would be like what happened in new hampshire in 2008 when rudy guiliani's collapse really

freed the way for mccain to do well. if bachmann continues to go down, you increase the odds that someone like santorum or perry can probably go up. >> ron brownstein, thank you so much for stopping by. we also didn't mention jon huntsman but that's because he's not playing here in iowa. you'll hear a lot more about him in new hampshire. cial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪ you noticed! these clothes are too big, so i'm donating them. how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios...

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welcome back to "contenders 2012," the republican candidates for president have three days to convince iowa caucusgoers that they should be president. we're listening to them this afternoon as they make their

cases, sometimes live, sometimes taped. but always we try to give it to you in an unedited way, in a way that you can see what we see when we are traveling the countryside with these folks, as well as what iowans more importantly see because they're the ones going to the caucuses tuesday night. newt gingrich has been campaigning across the state. this morning he was in atlantic, iowa, earlier. gingrich is having a tough time. he came out like gangbusters at the beginning of december. he was pummeled by ads. and now shows up fourth in the latest cnn poll, dropping 19 points from that early december poll. our cnn's joe johns has been with gingrich and is still in atlantic, iowa, following him. joe? >> reporter: hey, candy. one of the things that i take away from his appearance here in atlantic, they're gone now, is that the gingrich campaign and the candidate specifically are kind of looking forward already

to new hampshire and telling themselves and even talking publicly about how things are going to be different next time. you mentioned the attack ads. gingrich has been under pressure to respond in kind to some of these attack ads that really brought him down in the polls. he insisted that he was going to run a positive campaign. but at a media availability just a little while ago here before we left, i asked him what he was going to do next time, how is he going to handle this and whether he would be able to continue to stay positive when super pac ads and ads from other candidates were just blasting him and bringing him down in the polls? listen to that. and i'll talk a bit about it when we get on the other side. isn't it a big risk, though, throwing your whole campaign on this notion that you're going to be the guy who doesn't run nasty ads and everybody else is firing at you? >> this is the opening three minutes of the super bowl.

we're learning a lot about what our opponents will do. they are nastier and more dishonest than i expected. so we'll have to make some adjustments. but it's just like the super bowl. you see the opening series. you think about it. you figure out what you need to do next. it's going to be a very long game. >> reporter: adjustments, you mean before the caucuses? >> no. i think this is a wonderful experiment. and if you talk to people here, you get exactly the feeling i'm getting, which is, we have resolutely said, we're going to stay positive. somebody said 45% of the ads have been negative about me. so the average iowan is watching this tsunami of negative attack ads. and they've watched one guy be consistently relentlessly positive. and we'll find out tuesday night -- whatever the outcome is tuesday night, we'll learn a lot.

>> reporter: [ inaudible question ]. >> well, i think the challenge in virginia isn't about the candidates. it's about the voters. for the voters of virginia to be told that their options are limited to two people who between them are clearly a minority of the republican votes is probably unacceptable. but i'm glad that it's all the candidates who get away from this gingrich in virginia routine. perry, bachmann, santorum, huntsman, all five of us are saying, there ought to be some -- this should not be a gauntlet to figure out how you can make it virtually impossible to run for president. this ought to be a system that enables the voters to decide who they want to run for president. i hope the legislature will find a solution that puts all of us

on the ballot. >> reporter: newt gingrich is also getting a little help from his friends here in iowa, even though he clearly is looking forward to some other states. i woke up this morning, turned on the tv and saw this half-hour program featuring michael reagan, the son of the former president newsmax program, 30 minutes, airing all over the state, featuring newt gingrich. so he does have some friends out there who are trying to make a difference to see if they can pull him up in the polls in time for the caucuses. candy? >> our joe johns. joe, ron brownstein was just here. and he did note the number of folks out there who say they still haven't made up their minds about who they'll caucus for, so there certainly is room for gingrich to bring up those poll numbers. what's he -- realistically, what do the folks around him think he can pull in the caucus night on tuesday? >> reporter: well, you get the

sense that people think this is still a bit wide open because you know and i know, there's a large percentage of people who make up their minds in the last couple of days, some who say they actually make up their minds on the day of the caucuses. so newt gingrich is pushing some buttons, too, because he knows people say they do not like negative advertising even though many people say it works. they say they don't like it. he's saying to them, okay, put your money where your mouth is. if you don't like these negative ads, then go ahead and vote for a guy who's not putting out negative ads and send a message to those who are. he's hoping that makes a difference. he's hoping his conservative credentials make a difference. and i think he's really -- he's pushing people in this state to see him as the reaganesque character, if you will, who they can count on to do well in november. interesting to see how that

message plays. >> joe johns who has been in atlantic, iowa, for us today, joe, thank you so much. we appreciate your time. michele bachmann's slide in the poll is not souring her spirits. we'll head to one of her campaign stops when we return. yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios.

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joining us from urbandale, iowa. i know, shannon, that in fact -- that was bachmann's last scheduled stop of the day. how did you find her? >> reporter: she was upbeat. that was one of the key questions that i talked to her about -- how are you feeling right now? she was positive, upbeat saying, we're going on to win. of course that defies what a lot of the polls are saying. her poll standing has dropped dramatically, as we all know, since her ames straw poll win in the summer. her iowa state director leaving, defecting over to the ron paul campaign. there have been some distractions in these final few days. but she was pretty upbeat. right behind me, you have some of her key, loyal supporters,

phone banking for her. a coordinator said, we need everybody to go on their facebook and make phone calls for michele bachmann. they're hoping they can squeeze out 500,000 of them before caucus. but earlier, i spoke with michele bachmann herself when she was here at the headquarters. and we talked about the mood and the days ahead. take a listen, candy. >> wonderful, fantastic. we just completed our 99-county tour in iowa. no other candidate has attempted that. we just saw incredible enthusiasm. we had thousands of people flip and go my way. we're really looking forward to tuesday night. >> reporter: why the choice to race through the 99 counties at the very end as opposed to doing it since the summer -- >> we did. probably no other candidate spent more time going through all of iowa last summer. that's why i won the iowa straw poll. but we wanted to make sure that we went back a second time. and so we went to all 99 counties to make sure that every iowan, when they're making their

final decision, had a chance to be able to come out. i could listen to them, they could ask me questions and that's why we literally saw thousands of people flipping. and they're very excited and now they're going to tell their friends at church, their co-workers, they're sending out e-mail lists, they're facebooking. they're our best recruiters. they're going to bring all their friends out. >> reporter: since your ames straw poll win, you've talked about some of your poll numbers plummeting a little bit. in our latest cnn poll, you were sixth in iowa. not doing so well in new hampshire. what is the strategy going forward, beyond tuesday? >> well, tuesday, we intend to win here in iowa. that's our plan. and we think we're going to do extremely well here in iowa. and that's going to be the cannon shot. niece the cannon shot that's going to launch us across the country. we'll be heading out take an state after state after state. the ultimate goal is to defeat

barack obama so the country has a chance to grow again. i want to repeal obamacare, repeal dodd/frank. give these kids a chance for their future. that's the whole goal. >> reporter: let's talk about new hampshire. what is 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 we'll make our case to the voters. we have a lot of tea party support up in new hampshire. but we see this as a full race of all 50 states. so yesterday we just sent in our applications to the iowa ballot and the kansas ballot. we're looking at all 50 states. and we think we will be the nominee to beat barack obama. we need a strong woman to take him on and defeat him. that's what happened in 1980. everyone said a conservative could never win against jimmy carter. and it was just the opposite. we needed the strongest conservative we could have. it's the same thing now. i've proven that i am the strong, consistent core conservative in this race.

that's what we need. and i'm fearless. >> reporter: so, candy, there you have it. it's an uphill climb for the congresswoman to win here in iowa and to go on to those 50 states that she just mentioned. but we'll see what kind of standings she has come tuesday night and whether that will propel her to more momentum and whether it will stall it. candy? >> shannon travis, once again, yeoman's work for us today here. thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. we really appreciate your work. rick perry may be down in the polls, but he is campaigning hard in iowa and that is up next after this break.

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welcome back to "the contenders 2012." this is our effort to try to give to you some sense of what the political campaign trail has been like here for these presidential contenders as they have done for the last year and a half, some of them two years. and the speeches they are giving, we give those to you as unedited as we can, large chunks of them, sometimes live, sometimes tapd. but nonetheless in their own words. you can be a pretend iowan for today and listen to what these candidates have had to say. cnn's political reporter peter hamby joins us now from boone, iowa. he's been there with rick perry in ft. dodge and now in boone. >> reporter: hey, candy. yeah, rick perry's been doing a marathon bus tour of the state. he only did two events today.

he usually does three or four. he packed the house here in boone. he's been getting very big crowds. the poll numbers don't exactly show that. but his campaign is trying to sign people up. and they have the organization hopefully to get them out on tuesday night. he told the crowd earlier today what he would bring to the table as president having served as ten years as governor of texas. take the listen to what he had to say. >> executive governing experience is really important. as we go to washington and use that experience, i highly respect everyone else that's running. as i said earlier in my remarks. but the fact is, i'm the only person who has a record of creating jobs from that executive governing position. no one else has done that before. >> reporter: so that's sort of a muddled message a little bit from perry. he's trying to cast himself as the outsider in this case

compared to mitt romney and newt gingrich. at the same time, he has been in government in some form or another since 1985. but his closing argument here, i can create job, i know what to do and i'm going to go into washington and mix things up there, candy. >> peter, what are they telling you about what next after iowa, win, lose or draw? >> reporter: yeah, got an interesting e-mail from the perry campaign today, actually from a south carolina team saying all of a sudden that perry's going straight to south carolina after the caucuses on january 4th to campaign in a couple of spots down there instead of new hampshire. so he's probably going to appear in a couple of debates in new hampshire. but it looks like he's going to focus, if he does well here in iowa, all in south carolina after this, candy. >> peter hamby in boone, iowa, for us tonight. thanks. our final thoughts from iowa when we come back. the healing power of touch can be even more powerful.

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at the up-close candidates. as we wrap up today, some final thoughts. political editor paul steinhauser joins me now. let's talk about new hampshire going forward and difficult to do, since we're not exactly sure how it will shake out. but what are we hearing about the plans of some of these campaigns? >> i know you were just talking to peter ham bee and governor of texas rick perry. you will be in new hampshire. he will be there and any other candidates that survive, like michele bachmann. they have been outsized compared to what you and i have seen. >> the candidates sometimes get fueled by what happened on tuesday night. others will begin to take on some water.

and then there's candidates like ron paul who i think we look at and say, it doesn't matter what he does. he may do quite well, according to our poll, but he's going to go on. >> he's going to go on. he may go all the way to the convention. you know, i was watching you with all of these tossed events but we didn't see ron paul. he's back home in texas spending the weekend with his wife. >> applaudable. we applaud that. you know, the thing i think about with ron paul, i've covered him over the years. you have a lot. his followers are so enthusiastic that they will come out here, whether he's in a cave or anywhere. i think you can count on that. whereas some of the other supporters may not be as ferver. >> i'm going to ask you what i've asked other people the last couple of days, which is, is there a big surprise waiting

anywhere? like if you look at someone and say, this person surprised us? >> that's rick santorum because he came out of nowhere and now he is one of the -- not a front-runner but he's in third place. that's a surprise and i'm looking forward to your interview tomorrow with ron paul. i really want to hear exactly why he's not here. >> what's interesting is, lots of times when we've been in washington and interviewed him, he's been in texas. so he does tend to go home on the weekend. just this last weekend you you would think that perhaps he would be here. but, you know, he's got the candidates -- the voters, as you say, who are going to run on the there and vote for him, no matter where he is. thank you so much, paul steinhauser. right now we go to natalie allen in the newsroom. natalie? >> thank you so much, candy. we'll have a look at the day's top stories ahead. including good news for verizon customers. first, a look at the new year's

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now look at our top stories in syria. huge crowds turning out in protests across the country again today and the death toll has grown. an activists network reports 13 people died in clashes with security forces. the united nations says more than 5,000 syrians have died since mid-march. two opposition groups have reached a plan for democracy in case syria's president steps

down. it was announced today that kim jong-un has assumed the role as commander. a change in leadership will not mean a change in policy: a magnitude 4.0 earthquake has rattled youngstown. this area has been a center of controversy, cracking, getting natural rock out of shale rock. critics worry it could cause earthquakes and other damage. the largest phone provider, verizon, is scrapping the $2 fee for customers to make one-time bill payments. this sparked outrage from the customers having to pay a fee to pay their bill. as we close in on the iowa caucus, mitt romney is clearing

as the leader they have just two more days to convince iowans to vote for them for president. a 21-fire arson spree in california. the fires have prompted a $60,000 reward. 17 were set in hollywood. four others in west hollywood. all of them within a two-square mile area. property damage estimated at $350,000. extra police have been deployed and cops are pouring through surveillance tapes. i'm natalie allen. "the situation room" is next.