killed yesterday after a georgia state patrol cruiser struck the family's suv. our affiliate wsb reports the trooper was responding to a police chase at the time. civilian unions for same-sex couples are now legal in hawaii. this is just one of thousands of new laws that take effect today. the bill grants same-sex couples, many of the same rights that married couples receive. hawaii's governor signed the bill back in february. and tens of thousands of folks rang in the new year in new york city's times square early this morning. more than a million others watched the festivities on television as the famous crystal blocked to signal the start of 2012. along with the mayor there of new york city. we'll follow the republican contenders, live in iowa today, as they crisscross the state. the contenders, 2012, starts

the contenders, 2012, starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good afternoon this is "the contenders 2012" a chance to open the curtain for you on what it is like to be an iowan at this particular point and to be able to avail yourself of all republicans running to be the republican nominee for president. they, of course, are in the closing days of this, the caucuses are tuesday. so not much time to change minds. but plenty of time still to do these town hall meetings, to stop by grocery stores and cafes, coffee shops, anywhere they can find potential caucus voters. also huge get out the vote movement at this point because it's really all about whose voters show up at those caucuses. i am candy crowley, joined by my colleague, jim acosta. he's in marshall town with candidate newt gingrich and also

with joe johns, who is in atlantic iowa with mitt romney. but i first want to bring in my colleague, paul steinhauserl ho. paul you're in des moines with me. probably no more prestigious poll at this point in the election than that from -- we are mirrorer what we saw in earlier polls, mitt romney on top here in iowa followed by ron paul and followed by rick santorum but there's more to this poll than that. >> reporter: sure is, candy. when you break it down, this poll was conducted tuesday through friday. you showed the overall numbers from all four days. the last two days, thursday and friday, take a look. there's a change there. mitt romney hasn't changed. former massachusetts governor still right at the top at 24%. look at that, there's rick santorum, 21%. now in second place. if you look at the last two days. and ron paul at 18%.

so this poll indicating that santorum really appears to be surging, especially in the final days. two days from the caucuses. let's go to the next number as well. also fascinating. it explains the overall numbers you shared with us, which candidate's most electable? romney, no surprise, listen, he's been the most electable and he can remain that way. that's one of the reasons why his numbers are so high. but you can see everybody else pretty low down on the totem poll when it comes to elect ability and that's one reason why romney still remains in the top spot. finally, with two days to go, look at this, would you maybe change your mind? you can see right there, 41% say they could be persuaded. still could be persuaded at the late date to vote for somebody else to support another candidate. at the very bottom, 7%, still haven't made up their minds. this is the gold standard in polling. four years ago it got its spot

on, indicating mike huckabee was going to come out on top over mitt romney, candy. >> stand by. i want to bring in jim and joe because there are fascinating numbers in here, thigh, for all of these candidates. probably, jim, as you look at newt gingrich, what he's eyeballing is that 41% of folks who could be persuaded because caucuses are different than a primary because these folks go in for an evening, really, of politics. and there is a chance to persuade. >> reporter: right. that's right. but you know, if there's one fact that comes out of this des moines register poll it confirms that the damage has been done to newt gingrich. if he's going to be persuading some peel, he's running out of time to do so. he's going to be at the hotel that we're standing in marshall town, iowa, within the hour and signaled that he's taking a sharper tone towards the man at the top of that poll, mitt romney. you know, one of the things that

this poll shows is that barrage, that onslaught of negative attack ads aims the newt gingrich from the pro-romney super park, restore our future, has hurt newt gingrich. coming out of church, he attended mass in iowa, newt gingrich told reporters, mitt romney could, quote, buy the white house if he could. so that was sort of a new tougher tone from newt gingrich who has said in the last few weeks and we've talked about this, that you know, the former speaker said he's going to wage a positive campaign, he's not go get into the mud or go after rivals with nextive attacks. th that.com meant is a signal he's he going after mitt romney. >> you have to note whether he waited too long. there's been some back and forth with gingrich supporters about whether he should have much earlier, when they came at him,

remember, this is a guy riding fairly high in the polls in early december, and dropped 19 points by the end of december, and there are a lot of folks that think this may be too little, too late. >> reporter: that's right. i mean if you look, there's a great graphic inside, i'm trying not to move too much, because quite frankly the wind is violent outside of this hotel that we're coming to you through a different method. we're not using our satellite truck. we could not get the dish up this afternoon, candy. i have to be careful not to move too dramatically here in the live shot. but there's a graph in the des moines register that shows newt gingrich's poll numbersi going up like a rocket and coming down like a shooting star and that's the course of the campaign. i think you're absolutely right. even the speaker himself will finally admit, once all of this is said and done that perhaps he waited too long to go after mitt romney. i mean, for weeks, he was letting the pro-romney super pac restore our future just unleash

an onslaught of attack ads on him and he would be asked by reporters -- i asked him earlier this week -- why don't you go after mitt romney? why don't you fight for this nomination, fight for these caucuses? and he just said, look, i can fight in a positive way is what he told user-year-old this week. he realizes now that's not go f ing to work if he has any chance of slowing down mitt romney. >> let me bring in joe johns, niece atlantic with mitt romney, where mitt romney is about to go or has been. i'm not sure exactly which because they are moving across the state quickly. joe, it strike me, when i listen to this, you know, gingrich went up and went straight down we can say much the same about michele bachmann, rick perry, as well as herman cain. and what has struck me through this entire election season is that, for more than a year, mitt

romney has stayed pretty much where he is right now and that may be a winning place for him this tuesday. >> reporter: that's right. well, interesting about mitt romney, i think, candy, he has been very steady. but the big criticism of him, which i'm sure our viewers are tired of hearing by now, he's been unable to seal the deal, hovering right there in the 20s, pretty much always in the 20s. why is that? well, it's not just one and it's not just two, there are several reasons. a lot of people say that, you know, here in iowa there are a lot of evangelical voters, social conservatives, who may not express it as much as they do, but the fact of the matter is, they may be a little bit uneasy with the fact that mitt romney is a morman. the second thing, of course, is this issue of changing positions as we call it in our business, flip-flopping. so tomorrow degree, you can make the case that he's been all over

the place, on two, three different issues that are very important, particularly to conservatives. so there are -- there's more than one reason for people to look at him and have doubts because they're not sure what he's going to do. as we've gone through all of these debates, and i think iowa's governor talking on some of the morning shows today got it right when he said, part of the volatility in the race has to do with the fact that there have been so many debates and people are looking for the perfect candidate, they have not been able to find that perfect candidate. and you've seen one pop up and then people started hearing about his problems in the ads and another popped up and you started hearing about his problems in television ads or in interviews or mistake in the case of perry in a debate and that person starts go back down. romney's been pretty steady in the debates. if you look at a guy like rick santorum, who is now surging, everybody says it's such a

surprise. but when you really think about it, the question here in iowa, at leaf, is, what took him so long because he really does speak to what evangelical voters and social conservatives have been saying for so long, and they make up something like 60% of the people who are expected to caucus. so it's not surprising, really, where we're seeing rick santorum today. the bottom line, though, is if all of the conservative support starts coalescing, if you will, around rick santorum, then what happens to those mitt romney numbers? and you know, we're going to have to look at that, regardless, really, of who's first or second on tuesday, candy. >> going to talk lots more about this race you're going to hear from all of these candidates live or on tape. they will be unedited in their own words, giving you a chance to kind of peek into life in iowa two days before the

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call or click today. welcome back. happy new year to all of you from all of us at cnn. is it 2012, you know that means, it's an election year. in two days you will have a chance to see really the very first phase of that, the eye caucuses, the first contest, of course, president obama at this point faces no challenges inside his party. he's the incumbent. republicans, a group of seven or them, vying to win the iowa caucuses to give them what george bush the father used to

call the big mo, momentum, coming out of iowa, quickly a week later to new hampshire on to south carolina and then florida. very busy january for these republican candidates. not all of whom who will last through the end of this month. what we're trying to do here today is to give you a chance to really listen to these candidates, along the campaign trail, as well as in interviews. they're unedited words to give you a sense of what people in iowa have been hearing. one of the fascinating folks on this campaign trail has been ron paul. he has run, this is his third run at the presidency, one time he has run as a libertarian, he has been pounded by colleagues in recent weeks as unelectable. why they are paying attention? he's been doing very well in the polls. i interviewed ron paul earlier today. he has quite high hopes for tuesday.

>> the idea that your views why r. outside the mainstream, you're reaction? >> that's a gross redistortion. you can spend a long time disputes what he's saying but it's gross distortion. the bigger questions, why are the rallies going so well for me? why are the crowds getting bigger and bigger? why is it 70% of the american people want us to get out of afghanistan? why do 85% of the people want us to rein in federal reserve? why do conservative republicans want us cut back and nobody's offering any cuts? i say i'm mainstream. i think the people who are attacking me now are the ones who can't defend their records and they've been all over the place. they've been flip-flopping and they can't defend themselves and they're having a little trouble finding any flip-flops on me so they have to go and dig up and distort and demagogue issues. but if you look at the real issues, i don't know which you'll concentrate, that is the foreign policy, spending,

personal liberties that i talk about all of the time, with those conditions this is where i get the support. and not only is it with rubs republicans but these views are really, really, attractive to the independents and the democrats. the rallies, it is true, people say he's going to have independents come in. well that's the name of the game. you get people, bring coalitions together, get the frustrated progressives, independents, the republicans who truly want spending cuts and all of a sudden i'm mainstream. they're looking for things, they're struggling and they're demagoguing the issue. >> a lot of your colleagues on the campaign trail have said this idea that it's okay for iran to acquire nuclear power, which you have -- they say you have suggested is no big deal, is one of the huge things that they hit you on. we're now learning that scientists in iran have produced the country's first nuclear fuel

rod, this according to iran itself. nothing give you pause about a country like iran which is an enemy of the united states, basically, acquiring nuclear weaponry? >> sure, it does. those words you were trying to put in my mouth aren't true. i'm very concerned about them. i'd like to see a lot less nuclear weapons. at least iran is in the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. i would say that's a step and they do have inspects. the aeie did not find any evidence they are on the verge of a weapon. even the head of themasad in israel are saying even if they had a weapon they're not an exengs tension threat. we have to be careful. we have to contain them if they do get one. even if israel's top leaders are saying they would not aba threat, we should go easy, as a

matter of fact, mark dayton said, in bombing those sites now would be stupid. i would say that we just need to be more cautious. i think if we overreact and participate in bombing iran, we're looking for a lot more trouble. we went into iraq carelessly. we don't need a war in iran carelessly. this is my argument. to say i don't care, that's just not fair. >> let me move you on to politics since that's we're kind of in the political world right now here in iowa. you have not precisely ruled out a third party bid. i'm wondering if some of these attacks on you that have been out there for the past ten days have given you any pause about staying inside the republican party. >> i haven't seen thought about it except when people like you keep asking me about it because i have a race going i'm tied for first place. would i even consider doing anything like that?

i don't like absolutes. i don't want to say i will never do so-and-so. but i have no plans on doing it. >> ron paul, once again, saying he has no plans to run as a third party candidate. he also said in that interview that he expects he will come in first and second. he -- first or second. he does not believe he will come in any lower than that. right knenow in this des moines register poll, he's second mitt romney, not far behind the margin of error, as a matter of fact. when we come back, we'll talk about negative advertising. not against ron paul, and he has suffered his fair share, but against newt gingrich. with our joe johns.

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welcome back. this is "the contenders 2012," my colleagues jim acosta, joe johns and i, over the next couple of hours, want to give you a sense of what these candidates are saying, as they basically give their closing arguments here in iowa, pointing towards though two eye caucuses, which will be followed in a week by the new hampshire primary. one of the folks you haven't heard us talk a lot about, jon huntsman, the former governor of utah, president obama's pick to be ambassador to china. a lot of people speculated at time that president obama picks

hundr huntsman he would have been an attractive candidate he wanted to get him out of the way. huntsman came back to a big flurry, all of the rage at that time, everyone thought he'd be a great presidential candidate. he has not been able to get a lot of traction. what he did is pick up his campaign headquarters from florida, move to new hampshire. he's staked all of it in new hampshire. that's where he is now. he recently appeared in derry, new hampshire, telling the crowd these are critical times for the country. >> if we don't get our act together here at home, if we don't rebuild and strengthen our core, where we're able to project the values of liberty, freedom, human rights, democracy, and open markets, we will see the end of the american century by 2050. those not the legty i want to leave behind to the next generation, absolutely no not. i want to restore trust back into our position in the world.

ladies and gentlemen, i want your vote. i need your vote. i need your help. and assistance. i am who i am. i'm not going to contort myself into a pretzel to please whatever crowd i'm standing in front of. i'm not going to pander. i'm not going to sign silly pledges like everyone has signed on that darn debate stage. i'm not going to attend one of those donald trump debates, either. but here's a wrap on huntsman, you know, the pundits say, he can win the general election. he can go all the way. he can win the general election but can he get through the primary phase? i say, well, we're going to prove that point right here in new hampshire that we can get through the primary phase. i have no question about that. >> right now, huntsman is doing okay in new hampshire. that is, he has gone up from barely registering to about 9%,

10% in the polls. mitt romney right now, by far and away, is the favorite in new hampshire. he of course was governor of neighboring massachusetts and he also ran in the new hampshire primary last time around. huntsman making a huge push to try to grab new hampshire away from mitt romney. you heard him there trying to stake out his own territory which he's been doing for the past several months. i'm a proud moderate on the issues, not pandering to the right wing, this is my campaign, this who is i am. you will be hearing a lot more from huntsman. all of the candidates except jon huntsman, have the prize on tuesday, winner of the iowa caucus. joe johns, i know you're waiting for romney there now, today i believe. you've been with gingrich, who we have talked a lot about how he has just been pounded by

those negative ads, jim and i were talking earlier he has not responded. he may respond. but the question is whether he is too late and gingrich missed an opportunity to push back against his critics. >> reporter: yeah, a lot of people are saying he did miss an opportunity. he himself admit his was sort of taken aback by this. took him about two weeks to sort of get reoriented, after seeing all of the negative ads, particularly from the pro-romney super pac. you know, just millions of dollars actually spent on ads, 45% of which we have been told, were attack ads directs at newt gingrich. so, what are you going to do? i talked to him yesterday, right here in atlantic, iowa, not far from here in fact. i'm at the family table restaurant waiting for romney. but i asked him a series questions about the ads, whether he was going to respond to them

because he always said he was not going to run a negative campaign. and when do you get to the point where you've got to do something or risk your campaign. let's listen to a little bit of the exchange i had with him yesterday in atlantic, iowa. isn't it a big risk, though, throwing your whole campaign on a 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 open league minutes of the super bowl. we're learning a lot about what our opponents will do. they're nastier than expected. we'll have to make adjustments. like the super bowl. you see the opening series, think about it, figure out what to do next. it's going to be a very long game. >> reporter: adjustments before the caucuses? >> no, no. look i think this is -- >> the questions require a donation to the campaign. >> look, i think this is a

wonderf wonderful experiment and if you talk to people here you get the feeling i'm getting. we have resolutely said we're going to stay positive. somebody said 45% of the ads in this state have been negative about me. i mean, so the average iowan is watching this tsunami of negative attack ads and they've watched one guy be consistently relentlessly positive. we'll find out tuesday. whatever the outcome is tuesday night, we'll learn a lot. [ inaudible question ]. >> i think the challenge in virginia isn't about the candidates as it is about the voters. for the voters of virginia to be told that they are -- their options are limited to two people who between them are clearly a minority of the republican votes, it's probably unacceptable. but i am glad that it's all the candidates who get away from this, you know, gingrich and

virginia routine, you know. 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 to make it it virtually impossible to run for president. this ought to be a system that enables the voters to decide who they would like to have run for president. i hope that the legislature will find a solution that puts all of us on the ballot. >> reporter: so that last question about virginia, of course, and newt gingrich has been hit because he's been accused of having an organization that was not able to get him on the ballot in his own home state which certainly would seem to be a problem for him, but that larger question about the ads, look, bottom line with newt gingrich is, the reason why these ads are seem to have been so effective is because newt gingrich had a lot of baggage and there were a lot of questions that could be raised in attack ads, questions about the fact that he's been

married three time, questions about the money he got from freddie mac when he was working as a consultant for them, questions about his long history on capitol hill and his alliances with democrats that make some conservatives uncomfortable. the underlying issue of these ads is about newt gingrich's background and this is a question that has yet to be asked and answered really with the voters in any official way, though the polls certainly indicate that there are some concerns about his history, candy. >> you know, joe, i -- every time i hear him talk about being relentlessly positive it makes me smile because in some ways, gingrich painted himself into this corner and said, i'm going to be the positive campaign, i'm not going to tear down other candidates and in fact he went so far as to not respond to these, at least in the form of tv ads, which, let's face it, he couldn't afford to have put that

many up anyway. because the fact of the matter is, newt gingrich is running a little against time. this is not someone whose first words to describe him you would say relentlessly positive. he's a tough politician and that's why it's hard to understand why he didn't push back. >> reporter: well, you're absolutely right. candy, you and i both have been around washington, d.c. for a long time. we remember when newt gingrich made his assent to the speakership on capitol hill. he used very tough language, very tough words, and he was very willing to get into a fight, and always has been since, to my knowledge. so, right, there are people -- and i can't say how many times people have said to me that newt gingrich was one of the factors in creating this kind of polarized atmosphere of politics in the united states, the very same polarized atmosphere that he now denounces. so you know we don't like to use

the word irony too much because it's perhaps overused in television news, but there's a sense of irony in that newt gingrich is now the guy trying to stay positive and trying to convince voters here in the caucuses to stay with him because of the politics of negativity which he helped create. it's a fascinating dynamic, candy. >> it is. and it's interesting, too, there was a half hour paid for special on newt gingrich, hosted by michael reagan, as gingrich continues to try to kind of wrap the reagan mantel about him, airing here. one of the things he said when responding to some of this criticism was, i want people to judge me, i've changed, i want people to judge me by who i am now, not then. it doesn't quite work that way in politics, as you know. but it's an interesting dynamic, to me, to see a new newt out there and the question always is from people go, how much has he really changed?

but it has been, i think fascinating to watch him hole his fire. he is not a man known to hold his fire that much. joe, i want you to stick with me because on the other side of this break, there was some fascinating figures inside the des moines register poll that i want to share with our audiences, with you, and and debt your take on them. ♪ sing polly wolly doodle all the day ♪ ♪ hah

welcome back to "the contenders 2012" our chance to give you a full-on look at what's going out here in iowa, which has so much say-so as we move into the election year. it may not pick who will be the republican nominee, but it may

pick who will not be the republican nominee. one of those that has had trouble and has been struggling is rick perry, the governor of texas, came in, had immediately made a big splash. everybody thought that they was the conservative that was going to challenge mitt romney. but perry had some bad debates, people began to really wonder whether he was prepared enough for the presidency. and his poll numbers fell in that des moines register poll this morning he is running fifth, just one point behind newt gingrich, nonetheless, not a very good place to be at this point. but when perry was on fox news this morning he was still upbeat. >> ple momentum's headed in the right direct as we travelled across iowa in last 30 days and 44 cities we're hitting in a 10-day bus tour. seeing great crowds. again, people who are excited about an outsider coming into

washington, d.c., as we look at all of the candidates, you're either washington insiders or wall street insiders, that's their choices, and we tell them, you've got a choice. you've got a choice of a governoring executive who for 11 years operated the 13th largest economy in the world and created more jobs than any other state in the nation while america lost 2 million, we were creating 1 million. so they're very interested in having an experienced executive in the white house that's not only got the foreign policy background but also has the social and fiscal conservative message. >> texas governor rick perry struggling here somewhat in iowa but like others, he has signaled he's moving on come what may. toous in the iowa caucus results he'll move on and go to south carolina which has a heavy contingent of christian

conservative voters. that's where rick perry's appeal has been where he believe he can make a stand in south carolina. hofr a however all of the candidates will be in new hampshire for the weekend for a couple of debates. i want to bring joe johns back in. listening to rick perry say, listen, i have a chance, we're on the mover that's what all of the candidates are saying now. the truth is one of the figures in the poll that paul mentions earlier this hour, 41% that's correct how many caucusgoers say they can change their minds or they haven't made up their minds and there's a big uncertainty that people like newt gingrich and rick perry sort of look at and say, how do i convince those folks, either once they get into the caucuses or before they go, and that's what these final days are about. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. i mean the one thing i don't think we've seen a lot of yet is the second hard look at the same candidate. and that's a problem. i mean you look at rick perry, i

think rick perry is going to be one of those guys whose early days in the campaign will be the subject of things in campaign management textbooks, political science textbooks because there is a real issue there about preparedness before you decide to get into a campaign, especially in an age where you have twitter, facebook, social media. you know, your performances and in debates can be replayed. before you jump into a game where you have to appear in a debate, two three weeks after announcing, you need to have those issues down. you need to know what your stamina, what your endurance is, you need to know where your weak points and are and things to brush up on so when you walk into the campaign, at the early stage you can try to make a splash has opposed to fall on your face, which is sort of what happened with rick perry. people looked at him in the early debates and said, you

know, this guy really he doesn't look like a prime time player, if you will. and i think that's his problem. that said, candy, very good point, that 41% undecided, we know from four years ago, there was something like 17% of the people who went to the caucuses said, hey, i made my decision on the day of the caucuses. so, with that dynamic, it's still very fluid and we also know people are bunched up and we also know how the caucuses work. the right person at the right time with the right audience can connect with them and perhaps where you thought you were going to get a loss, maybe you get a win, maybe pick up a bunch more votes because the person speaking for the candidate is very compelling. so, you know, there are people who say, this thing isn't over yet because that des moines register poll is very authoritative, it doesn't necessarily mean that you know, anything is written in stone at this stage, candy.

>> right. it's not the final word. everybody thinks iowa was the site for a field of dreams for baseball, but i assure you, politicians have a much larger field of dreams here in iowa and part of it is that so much can happen in caucuses that you don't expect to happen. i want to bring back into this conversation our jim acosta. jim is in marshalltown, awaiting newt gingrich or perhaps you've already seen him. i'm not exactly sure. i know you're battling winds, as we are here, too. it's suddenly gotten cold in iowa. jim one of the things we were talking about earlier about gingrich was this heavy negative advertising against him and how it drove down his poll numbers and we certainly have seen that. but i think inside the des moines register fol something fascinated me, 41% describe gingrich as the most ego-driven candidate. i think this more proof that these ads didn't just -- weren't

the only -- aren't the only proof that the polls went down, somehow they were able to back up the idea that newt gingrich's pers personality, that his is not matched for the white house, there's something about his personality that isn't a good match. >> reporter: and that's right, candy. i think on wednesday morning, the headline can very well be on the front page "restore our future pac wins iowa caucuses"s because what the ads did is reinforce negatives on newt gingrich. obviously a lot of folks out there, caucusgoers who may not remember what was going on in the mid 1990s when he was the speaker of the house and was in political combat with the white house for several years and in combat with his own party right before he was removed from his post as speaker of the house. and so all of that has really done its damage on newt

gingrich. and he, according to polls, has not been able to recover. if you look at the poll numbers and how they were broken down in the des moines register poll shows day by day from tuesday, wednesday, thursday, into friday, you know, where newt gingrich stood and his numbers basically stayed consistent in those low, you know, 10 to 15 point ranges and that really shows that you know, even going into when this poll is being conducted, his negatives had been driven down by these pac ads, by the mailers that have been flooding into people's mailboxes. we went to a post office, candy, just an aside, in mason city several day ago and the trash cans, even the floor of the post office, you go outside, you know, it was almost like the town was littered with anti-gingrich mailers, and all of this has really added up and hurt him seriously in this state. and you know, you said he's the most ego driven candidate,

according to that des moines register poll. part of it is newt gingrich's fall. we heard him say on occasions comparing himself to reagen and margaret thatcher i done foe that goes over with well people in iowa the definition of iowa, nice, down to earth, midst western folks. if you look at the poll numbers as to who is identified as being kind of like regular iowans here it's rick santorum and i think he's been able to benefit from that. you know, by going to all of these towns, going to all 99 counties, doing 360 town halls. he's been able to connect with people on the ground here in iowa, throughout the course of this campaign. and i think that's paying off for him. newt gingrich, who also spent a lot of time here, packed a lot of people into town halls in recent weeks, we were in iowa a few weeks ago following from town hall to town hall, and he was packing, at the height, poll numbers were strong, he was leading in the state he was

packing people into town halls. something happened to newt gingrich between three weeks ago and when this poll was starting to be conducted here by the des moines register that just showed this dramatic downfall of when it comes to his poll numbers and his negatives shot through the roof it seems. it's just devastated this campaign. and the fact that he's not responded forcefully, you know, i mean nobody's taken a swipe at mitt romney. that's the other thing that i think is extraordinary about the days and weeks leading up to caulks, nobody's taken a serious swipe at mitt romney. newt gingrich had that opportunity being the subject of attacks he just didn't take it, candy. >> so, jim acosta, joe johns standing by in atlantic, iowa. i'm candy crowley will des moines. much more this afternoon. all of the candidates unedited, raw, the way people see them, along the campaign trail. up next, three of us are going to talk about michele bachmann and her plans after iowa.

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welcome back. this is "the contenders 2012" i'm candy crowley in des moines. michele bachmann came out, made a huge showing in polls. she won the august iowa straw poll, her future looked bright. and along came rick perry and stole all of the spotlight. she is now, according to the "des moines register" poll, very last among the candidates here but she has remained very optimistic, saying that she just senses momentum. she was up and out early this morning in oskaloosa, went to a church there, giving testimony. our shannon travis has been following michele bachmann for the past couple of days, as she makes those final pitches across these iowa small towns and churches, and any place that these candidates can find to

talk to folks. shannon, when you were with her for the past couple of days, and again, to me, this is the toughest thing a politician has to do, sort of fly in the face of the reality of the polls, you know? not a vote has been taken, everyone's going you're last, you're last, what are you going to do, what stood out to you yesterday when you were with her? >> reporter: well, what stood out to me, candy, was that exact thing, that michele bachmann is assisting that she will win, she will win this come from behind, even used the word "miracle" with her yesterday and the last few day in the face of the polls maybe that won't happen. she's counting on the large percentage of undecided voters here in iowa and the fact that she won the ames straw poll over the summer and feels like her supporters will come back home, her words, not mine, to the bachmann campaign. that flies in the face of not only polls but the latest campaign stops i have seen dwindle number of supports as

well as the distraction that she's had from this kent sorenson that defected to the ron paul campaign. the question about beyond iowa, her strategy beyond iowa. something i put to the candidate yesterday. take a listen to what she told me. what is the strategy after tuesday going into new hampshire? >> well we worked hard. we laid a lot of foundation in new hampshire and 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 we yesterday sent in politics to ohio ballot and kansas ballot,ing look at all 50 states. at the end of the day we will be the nominee to defeat barack obama. we need a strong woman in the pattern of a ronald reagan and margaret thatcher to take him on and defeat him. that's what happened in 1980, everyone said a conservative could never win against carter and it was the opposite. we needed the strongest conservative we could have.

it's the same thing now. i've proven that i'm the strong, consistent core conservative in this race. that's what we need. i'm fearless. i have already taken barack obama on. on obama care, dodd/frank and all of these issues. i will stand on the stage, fearlessly look him in the eye, take him on the issues hole him accountable for $15 trillion in debt and take him on to defeat him and turn the country around. >> reporter: your rivals have been campaigning hearly in new hampshire in for the past few months. is it your acknowledgement or do you think you have a lot of ground to make up in new hampshire since they've been doing more campaigning there. >> our goal is to do well near iowa because that's 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, new hampshire's a primary state. it's very different. we absolutely will be there, but we'll also go tonight 0 south carolina as well. again, this is a 50-state race

and so this is where we're want to show very well. remember, there's only been one statewide race so far in the presidential election and i'm the one person of all of the candidates that won the only statewide race. that was the august straw poll. i intend to win the second statewide race, the iowa caucuses, and going on there from new hampshire, south carolina, florida, and ultimately to defeat barack obama. >> reporter: you know, notice that the congresswoman didn't reveal her plans specifically for new hampshire but we found out today that she's going to go to south carolina right after the caucuses and then head to new hampshire, afterwards. candy? >> shannon travis, thanks so much inch much more after the break. first a question for you, gary johnson, does the name ring a bell? well, up until last week he was running for the republican nomination, now he's running for the libertarian nomination. i'll tell you why. [ woman ] ♪ what i want this season

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welcome back to "the contenders 2012." we should call this segment the former contenders. gary johnson is the former governor from new mexico, a two-term, elected twice, they loved him there, and he recently decided to run for the republican nomination. he felt the republican party let him down, that networks and others who sponsored debates unfairly left him out of those debates. so last week he announced that he was now going to try for the nomination of the libertarian party, because first of all, it guarantees him a spot on the bat lol ballot in all 50 states. i talked to him last week why he jumped ship. you took a big step from a life long republican to the libertarian party. if you are looking at this and you're seeing here's a republican, you've been in the republican party, ran for governor twice, a republican, et

cetera, couldn't get any traction in the presidential race so you switched to the libertarian party, this looks like a move that is more about opportunity than about principle. can you give me some look into your thought process? >> well, candy, i would argue just the opposite, that it is about the message, that it's about the agenda, that it isn't just ron paul that's delivering this agenda, this message, that it's me, too. i was excluded from 16 out of the 18 debates, i felt that that was really unfair and the exciting notion for me here is, is that if i'm the libertarian nominee, which is no done deal, but if i am, i'm on the ballot in all 50 states and it's an opportunity to continue to be able to talk about the agenda to talk about the message, as opposed to being sent home. i happen to think the biggest growing segment of the republican party are those that

are libertarian-leaning. >> but you almost said it yourself, which is you're looking at a growing segment of the republican party. don't you, by the very notion of running as a libertarian, deny republicans votes and, therefore, conceivably handing the victory to president obama? >> no, i actually see it the other way around. new mexico's a state that's 2-1 democrat, i think -- i think more votes are going to come from democrats who will be disenfranchised over gay marriage equality, over the fact that we have so much warfare go on in this country, that we have waged a war against ourselves when it comes to drugs, legalized marijuana. no, i see this as drawing perhaps more votes from democrats than republicans. but worse case, best case, you know what? it's going to draw from both

parties, the biggest growing segment of american politics declined a state and independence. i think this is going to draw a big segment of that. by draw a big segment of it, it is about the message. it's about the agenda. and i don't see it being represented beyond the primary and ron paul's eventual event l eventually being knocked out of this. >> gary johnson, former governor of new mexico, former republican, now libertarian, running for president. we are approaching the 3:00 hour on the east coast. i want to tell you within that hour, we will have multiple, live events, newt gingrich will be in ames, iowa, mitt romney in atlantic and rick santorum in sioux city after the break. in] 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.

hello, thanks for joining us, i'm fredricka whitfield. first an update on top stories. iran one step closer to being a nuclear nation. scientists successfully built and tested iran's first nuclear fuel rod. the rod contains natural uranium, which is normally used to fuel nuclear reactors. and the number of suspected arson fires in the los angeles area is up to 39. investigators say seven of them were set last night. they are offering a $60,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. most of the fires have started in cars, then spread to nearby homes and businesses. and the new year is off to a sad start for the atlanta braves

baseball team. the wife of a team trainer was killed after a georgia state patrol cruiser struck the family's suv. our affiliate wsb television reports the trooper was responding to a police chase at the time. and civil unions for same-sex couples are legal in hawaii. this is just one of thousands of new laws that take effect today. the bill grants same-sex couples the same rights that married couples receive. hawaii's governor signed the bill back in february. >> four, three, two, one! >> tens of thousands of revelers rang in the new year in new york city's times square. more than a million others watched the festivities on television as the fapous crystal ball was dropped to signal the start of 2012. and we're following the republican contenders live in iowa today as they crisscross the state. the contenders 2012 continues

now with cnn's candy crowley. welcome to "the contenders 2012." this is our attempt to show you these candidates as they crisscross the state, as fredricka just said, we do expect a number of live events from three of these candidates during this hour. help me along through the 3:00 eastern time hour are joe johns, in atlantic, iowa, jim acosta in marshalltown. we also have, what would an election be without a poll, a new "des moines register" poll of likely caucusgoers, republican caucusgoers, about, romney, 12%, ron paul, 22%, santorum, 15%, gingrich, 12%, perry 11%, michele bachmann 7%. john huntmans is in new

hampshire, hoping to stake a claim there. jim, i guess if you're a candidate and you wake up today if you're in that bottom tier, it's sort of part of the fo folklore or conventional wisdom in iowa, three tickets out, first, second, third, and after that you may be going but you're going on fumes, and i think if you're one of the candidates in the lower tier, you're looking at another number today and that's the 41% that are not completely sure of having -- have not completely made up their minds and could change their minds. >> reporter: you know, that's right. though we've been talking a lot about rick santorum's momentum, he's fires newspaper third place in the "des moines register" poll, second place, the last two days the poll was taken, newt gingrich is still, in you look at the full results of this poll, a statistical tie with

rick santorum and rick perry. newt gingrich still has a chance to eke out a third place showing in this state. if he does that, obviously that's going to breathe life into his campaign because he's, to some extent, being written off in the last days of iowa caucuses. i think that's unfair. we're inside the sports bar ready to listen to the former speaker talk to a decent sized crowd. the back story, they started off in a larger meeting room setting up for this event and worried that the turnout wasn't going to be that great and moved into a smaller, private room which is overflowing into the sports bar. they should have stuck with the larger room to gone with. this is what happens in the final days of the contests. campaigns are trying to, still trying to find the best way to skin the cat, as they try to get people out here, fired up, ready to go into the caucus night and you know support their candidate.

and you know, it's going to be interesting to hear what newt gingrich has to say at this meeting. he has been, you know, relentlessly staying on a positive message throughout the last few weeks of the campaign heading into the caucuses. he has resisted going negative on mitt romney. earlier this morning, coming out of catholic mass, here in iowa, newt gingrich followed out of mass by a couple of reporters who asked him about what about these negative ads? they're still coming at you, every day, day in, day out. and newt gingrich said, something about mitt romney that was very interesting. he said, mitt romney is trying to buy this election. and it was probably the sharpest attack that we've heard from newt gingrich aimed at mitt romney in some time and it's perhaps an indication that he's going to finally engage with the former massachusetts governor. the question obviously is, and you asked this earlier, is it too late? >> absolutely. it might be worth if we can, putting up that "des moines register" poll of likely iowa caucusgoers. again, jim, you make a really

good point if you consider there are three tickets out of iowa, look at romney and look at paul, and you think okay, those two seem like they're go fog get a ticket but go down and consider that this poll has plus or minus of 4% error rate, plus or minum, santorum, 15, gingrich, 12, perry, 11, bachmann, 7. there's lots of room for the third ticket and the other thing we know about this poll, is that in fact, if you took just the last two days you would see santorum going in second place. so you know the ground is still shifting here. >> that's right. >> santorum, by no means, you know, guaranteed one of those spots at the top. but i know that you talked to him yesterday, jim, and he was pretty upbeat. >> reporter: he was very upbeat, candy. he has been sort of the ironman, the marathon man of the iowa caucuses. ves visited all 99 caucuses, town

halls. some of the candidate talk about the issues. rick santorum likes to talk about how much time and energy and effort he's put into winning this state. if he comes out on top on caucus night, obviously it's a huge earthquake in this republican contest for the nomination. and rightly so because he has shot out of nowhere. earlier this year he was in dead last in most of the polls on where people in iowa stood in terms of which candidate they liked best. i think one of the really interesting trajectories in that "des moines register" poll when we look at it, over the course of the four days, is what has happened to ron paul? over the course of those four days, ron paul has slid, you know, a good six to ten points, and if you listen to what some of the folks in the polling unit with the "des moines register" are saying he's on a done downward trajectory, rick santorum on an upward

trajectory, coupled with fact that you mentioned a few moments ago 40% of -- roughly 40% of iowans may change their mind between now and caucus night, it shows you this is a fluid contest now. it goes to the reason why newt gingrich is taking a sharper tone, showing that fight. a lot of things people have wondered about newt gingrich is whether there is positive message of his goes against his branding. he's always been the guy who has enjoyed the fight. and to see him, you know, go positive and just take this abuse from mitt romney and the romney forces at the super pac has been counterintuitive the way newt gingrich has operated his entire career. maybe this is, you know, this is a strategy shift and we'll have to see how to turns out. >> you know, jim, you've watched him over the years and had an opportunity to be out on the campaign trail with him. and again, i think i told joe that i was really interested in

a half hour, that gingrich saying vote on where i am now, i want them to caucus on where i am now, rather than where i was 10, 15 years ago. when you are around gingrich or when you see him on the campaign trail, is that -- does he seem significantly different from the newt gingrich you knew and covered in washington? >> reporter: well that's -- we are seeing the softer side of newt gingrich. that has been part of the way he has rebranded himself, i think, in this campaign. to some success, obviously working well for him. the question, though, i think, is whether or not that is consistent with the newt gingrich people have always known. so he's sort of in this box of his own making, you know? his brand has always been the fighter, the conservative fighter out there fighting for the conservative cause. and to take on this positive message and say i've learned

from mice mstakes and i'm a sof gentler kind of guy i don't know whether or not that mix is an effective, you know, clear message to voters out here in iowa. but you know, i think newt gingrich had to do that in man many ways if you look at negative attack ads mitt romney's super pac is reminding voters here in the state on a daily basis of all of the things they may not like about newt gingrich. perhaps he was in a box and he was trying to figure out what's the best way to do this and thought, let's take the positive approach. he did have history on his side. he likes to think of himself as a history professor. mike huckabee waged a positive campaign in 2008 and that paid dividends for mike huckabee. the thinking was inside the gingrich campaign, inside the mind of newt gingrich, staying positive is the best way to go. i just keep cominging back to the thought perhaps on wednesday morning the winner of the iowa

caucuses might be restore our future because it's one of the most devastating campaigns of attack ads that i've seen focused on one candidate in this kind of process, you know, not coming from a candidate, you know, coming from somebody from the outside and outside group. and it's -- and it's done -- it's done its job. it's taken down perhaps the greatest threat to mitt romney in the race for the gop nomination, candy. >> jim acosta. just sort of or yen our viewers here, pictures of newt gingrich are not live, those are on tape. but we do expect newt gingrich live within the hour. that's where jim acosta is. i also have with us or joe johns, we're expecting mitt romney live event from him as well as rick santorum. lots of live coming up where you will be able to hear these candidates live and unedited, basically with the people of iowa have been hearing for about a year now.

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welcome back to the 3:00 eastern edition of "the contenders 2012." we are trying to bring you these candidates as they move from place to place. sometimes on tape, sometimes live. but always unedited in the form, large chunks of the form that these iowa voters have been listening to for the past year or so. come tuesday they're going to have to make up their mines because that's when the iowa caucuses are. i want to bring in jim acosta and joe johns. we're going to talk any number of things there's iowa polls, santorum surge. but really the man of the hour and the surprising thing about this has been that romney, who has not exactly played hard in iowa, now looks as though he's the guy to beat.

i want to play a little bit from romney in lamars, iowa, yesterday. >> i must admit that family's the best part of life, the people you love, the people you care for, that's really the richness of life, and i was lucky enough to grow up with an extraordinary mom and dad. my dad was born in mexico of american parents living there. when he was 5 or 6 they moves back to from the states and went to los angeles, utah, his dad was in the construction business and anyone here in construction knows that goes up and down and his dad went broke more than once. my dad was never able to finish college, couldn't get the time or money together to do that. believed in america. and knew that in this country you could accomplish whatever you set your heart to. and so he proposed to his girlfriend from high school, they got married, didn't have

money for a honeymoon he took aluminum paint, borrowed these cans -- bought cans of aluminum paint, put them in the trunk of their car drove across the country selling the aluminum paint to pay for gasoline and hotel rooms and ultimately, despite the fact he didn't have a college degree and didn't have a lot of money, he ultimately became head of a car company and made cars. they were ramblers but they were still cars. and he became governor of a state where he'd sold aluminum paint once. an amazing country we live in. >> that is mitt romney, of course, in lamars, iowa. yesterday one of the things that is so important to folks who get to meet you and know you, for them to to find some place to relate to you and hear mitt romney telling the story of his dad who became a wealthy man and executive at an auto company in

michigan as well as governor of michigan, mitt romney's dad ran for president at one point, this is a man who has lived a very privileged life but says he certainly can understand the ordinary things that americans are going through but that connection is so important i want to bring in jim acosta and joe john whos who have been out cover all of these candidates for many, many months. let's talk about making that connection because the fact of the matter is, when you look at some of the polling, the person who seems to have made the biggest connection is ron paul, at least in terms of people who believe in his issues. i think he was at 22%, was the highest of any of the contenders on who do you most agree with. mitt romney has had difficulty making that connection, jim. >> that's right. i mean, ron paul, you know, can say this, he has true believers supporting his campaign and i

think it can be arguably said that mitt romney done and that he's still making that case, and the reason why you hear mitt romney talking about you know the struggles that his far went through, building his business, is because he want s s to -- honestly he's starting to work on his general election campaign message, too. because day in, day out the obama re-election folks are hitting mitt romney on the fact that you know he has downsized companies as part of his career and that sort of thing about the romney campaign has sort of two things they need to accomplish on that front and just to talk about the tones of the humble upbringings and so forth at one romney event a couple of weeks ago ann romney talking about how her grandfather was a welsh coal miner. the romneys are going all out in terms of trying to create a second narrative, this other biography people don't know.

yes, while they're doing quite well, their family might be worth a quarter of a billion dollars their family did have to come from somewhere to get to that point and that's part of the reason why they're trying to deliver the message. one reason we're seeing mitt romney at 25% or so in this "des moines register" poll and just about every poll thats that come out in recent weeks on mitt romney, is that you know that is basically his ceiling and that's been talked. but in a fractured field, where the evangelical conservative vote is splintered and spread out among a variety of candidates, that can possibly enough for mitt romney to win. >> you know, joe johns, i want to bring you in because you've covered michele bachmann over time and i remember, in august, that any reporter that came out here talked about the connection she was making. she actually grew up, spent some of her childhood at least in iowa so she has that connectioning she's in the midwest, as it is now but she

actually was from iowa, to begin with, and she had made such a powerful connection. she has quite a story to tell, yet somewhere along the line she seems to have lost that. >> yeah, i think you're right. i mean, there became some issues of michele bachmann's credibility from time to time. whether she could back up things that she said. i know there was that issue that had to do with michele bachmann saying that the hpv virus had somehow severely injured a child or whatever, and the medical community came out and raised a lot of questions about that. so that's the kind of thing that became her achille's heel, if you will, being able to back up some of the assertions that michele bachmann made. another one, i know, that i covered, was when she said she would be able to, if she were

president of the united states, bring gasoline prices back down to the $2 a gallon level. and if you talked to you know people in the field, of petroleum sales, the industry, they say those days are just long gone and number one, number two, the president of the united states just simply does not dictate petroleum policy to that degree to be able to make some type of a blanket promise to the american public that she's going to take them back to the good old days of $2 a gallon oil prices. so, michele bachmann is still seen as i very attractive candidate to a lot of conservatives out here and a lot of people actually are very saddened by the fact that she hasn't done any better in the polls than she has, sort of languishing now in the single digits, and people are asking whether she's going to be the next one to have to drop out

because things just aren't looking for good for her, candy. >> joe johns, jim acosta, i want you both stick with me and i want to remind our viewers we are expecting live events during this hour where you will be able to hear newt gingrich, rick santorum, and at some point we also expect to hear from mitt romney. up next, just a little quiz for you, as we go into this. who won the iowa caucuses in 1988 and in 1996? quick, go google. when we come back, i'll play you an interview i had with that candidate after this. 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 planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. for our free usaa retirement guide, call 877-242-usaa.

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welcome back to cnn's "the contenders 2012." that is sioux city, iowa, and inside that room somewhere is one of the contenders, rick santorum. he is getting ready to speak. we are going to take that live when he gets up to the podium.

it's what we're trying to do for you today is to give you a chance to hear these men and women as they go about their final arguments, those caucuses, of course, coming on tuesday. i want to bring back in our jim acosta and joe johns, as we wait for rick santorum to take that podium in sioux city, iowa. what's interesting to me is, polls are cold, hard facts and the cold, hard facts for so long have been that rick santorum was getting to where, joe johns, in iowa, and he kept saying to us, you guys aren't picking up something, there's something going on here, i know my support is better than that, and guess what's happened over the past week or so? he has shot up into that upper tier. and that's what makes these caucuses so great. we can tell you the cold, hard fact of the "des moines register" poll but we can't tell you what's going to happen on tuesday night, joe. >> that's for sure.

you know what? this was just hard work for santorum. you know, he's been to 99 counties, he's done something like 350 town halls. he's been here, you know, for 100 days. ease -- it's just shoe lett leathering, sheer determination to get people to come around. iowa, it's srts ort of right fo rick santorum, 60% of evangelical, social conservatives that's the republican base that goes to the caucuses here. a lot of people who think what he thinks and believe what he believes, and so it's not that surprising when you think about it, that he's where he is right now, surging and can do very well. you think back four years ago with governor huckabee, he had the same experience because he was very much right for that constituency. that saiding rick santorum has

hurdles as you know we haven't talked about them because he hasn't been in the limelight where you get the added scrutiny. we haven't talked about his 2006 senate race. that was where he lost by something like 18%, his opponents call it a landslide. this is a republican senator in a battle ground state, pennsylvania incumbent, running for re-election just gets trounced by his democratic opponent there which raises the question, if a republican senator can't win his own state, pennsylvania, which is a very important state, why would republicans trust him with the nomination because he can't even bring pennsylvania along? i asks him about that and he makes a case that, number one, it was a very bad year for republicans in 2006, which it was, and the other thing, i think, is perhaps the more

important thing to a lot of the conservative voters here, he says, look, people wanted me to move toward the middle in order to get more votes in the middle and do better in the election on principle, i stood and decide, no, i'm not going to go there and that's why he lost the race. so that's one thing. the other thing he's getting attacks on a lot is this issue of earmarks, something like $1 billion in earmarks, he asked for, while in the united states congress. but people forget, earmarks were not always the dirty word they are on capitol hill now. there was a period where people in congress actually asked for earmarks because they wanted to do something for the folks back home and they were pretty much noncontroversial, if not a pretty good idea. his point is it's the congressional prerogative to seek earmarks and decide where the spending should go and that's where he's hanging his hat on that issue.

and so, he's gotten hit lately with some few other issues. number one, among them, i think is his endorsement of none other than mitt romney in the last presidential election. he says he did that because he didn't want john mccain to get the nomination. so, here and there, there are some issues that rick santorum gets hit on and not the least of which is the fact that he sort of gotten pigeonholed into being the big supporter of a handful of wedge issues, social conservative issues, issues that that constituency very much cares about at a time when for a lot of voters there really just two things that that worried about if they're republicans, beating barack obama in the fall and, number two, the economy. you know, that's been really the number one issue for all americans for quite a while now. so, the question, of course, is

whether he's been pigeonholed and it's interesting to see how well he's done. and now, if this trend continues, there's a question of whether you know michele bachmanns and the rick perries of the other people competing for the same pot of votes, the social conservative votes, if they fall by the way side and he becomes guy who is the big winner of conservative votes, just how will that help him fare against, say a mitt romney, as you go down to new hampshire and south carolina and on that way. but he's also got an organization problem, too, as you know. he's really not built for a 50-state battle and for this thing to go for any protracted amount of time, candy. >> once again, for our viewers,

we are looking at sioux city, iowa, the guy to the left of the screen in the black sweater vest, the younger man, is rick santorum. he's waiting his turn to talk. that's the thing about iowa, is they want to tell you as much as they want to listen to you. so these town hall meetings sometimes can turn into long speeches by folks who came to ask questions. these are all many of them on stage, are supporters of rick santorum. he is enjoying a time in the limelight that he has not seen for the past year and a half. we want to give you just a little sense of what this is like. that is a small, but packed room. we want to open up the mike and give you a sense of what it's like to be in one of these without the heat of having to stand there. >> our elected representatives in washington, d.c. we are the stewarts of our republic and that's where we have made a mistake. we begin correcting that mistake by sending the best, capable, the best people, we can, period,

to washington, d.c. the most important job that we elect for in this country is president of the united states, it is about the person we send, it's about who they are, it's about their record. i've known rick santorum for years. when i base the president if my books people say is rick santorum in there? yeah, there is a lot of him. i envision sending best to washington to do the nation's most dangerous and most important business. as i turn it over to to the fantastic sam club, it's fantastic for me, i never thought i would introduce sam club as i would senator santorum, what's the most important reason you've endorses santorum and thrown in behind rick? i tell people, the two most important reasons i have are my kids, it's important to me -- i'm going john boehner -- it's how much i love my country. it's important to me that i

leave a country stronger with more freedom to them than was left to me. okay. how many cry when they introduce him? >> that's after. after. after. >> i'm glad this isn't on national television. >> brad, wait, right there. >> it's great for the tough guy conservative to come and weep at a caucus event. anyway, with that being said i think you know where i am on this. i want -- i want to introduce an incredible patriot, a man who served his country with incredible distinction and honor. you all know him in sioux city, so well, a fantastic american, sam clobis. >> thank you. >> way to go buddy. you'll lose some cred here. >> one thing i can do is get cameras to move back, that's for sure.

well, i would -- i don't think introductions are really necessary here. i know most 0 you personally and this is a wonderful thing about being here today. i was with the senator all day yesterday. and it was just one of the greatest things i've ever done if my life. >> the plan who was crying matt schultz, the iowa secretary of state, introducing this gentleman, who will introduce rick santorum. we will come back for rick santorum. we want to take a quick break. [ female announcer ] the healing power of touch can be even more powerful, with precise pain relieving heat patch. it blocks pain signals for deep relief precisely where you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol.

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welcome back to "the contenders 2012." sometimes our cup run ets over and that's the case to the left of your screen, that is rick santorum, he is talking right now in sioux city, iowa, and the right screen, familiar face, that is newt gingrich, he's talking to marshalltown. we want to start, first, with rick santorum.

>> the press was saying, you know, you're working hard, doing everything they say you're supposed to be doing but you're not moving anywhere in the polls. we kept hearing from people, we'd make phone calls and follow up, rick, we like you, but you know we're not sure that you can win because you know the pundits say you can't win. and these national polls have you behind. and and i reminds everybody that at the national polls about two months ago, pew was taking one of the national polls and they decided to ask a relevant question, how many people -- how many can name any republican nominees before we tell you who they are? 46% couldn't name one. and yet, we're following the national polls when half 0 the people in the poll don't know who's running. this is what i sort of held out for. the people of iowa are not doing what the national folks are doing, people around the country. you're doing the job of iowans. you fight to be first. you fight to be first because you take this responsibility

seriously. you take the responsibility of being the one that recommends to the nation in the first vote of this primary process, you recommend to the nation who you've met these candidates, who you've met, who you've researched, who you've questioned. you recommend to the nation who you believe, not what the pollsters believe, not what the pundits believe, but who you believe having researched and questioned these candidates more than any other group of americans ever will, you suggest who you think the best person is to lead this country. and you know what? i believed in that from the very beginning. i remember telling several of the inbeds following us, what's going get your bump? the people of iowa are going to give us our bump, not anybody else. the people that we went out and m met. we had a lot of folks saying we

likes you before but we're not sure. people started stepping forward like matt schultz, matt, carrey, like bob, people stepped forward and said take a look at this guy, we have. we decided we're going to provide leadership and we're going to step forward and say who we believe is the best person. now it's iowa's turn to provide leadership. it's all of your turn to provide leadership. do not defer your judgment to national polls or to pundits who don't come to these things, who haven't been to my town hall meetings. all they do is talk to eacher, they dent talk to the candidates. you have. how many people in this place have met at least one or candidate for president, raise your hand. okay. there you are folks, and they're here. they're here, two days before the caucus. they're here because they've measured up all of the other candidates. they are here because they've

done the analysis. the analysis that frankly nobody else in this state, in this country, excuse me, is doing now except mp new hampshire, on the process of doing the same thing. lead this country, that's what i ask the people of iowa. don't defer, lead. lead this country, number one. number two, when you lead this country, don't put forward somebody who isn't good enough to do what's necessary to change this country. put forward someone that you know has the vision, the trust, the authenticity, the background and the record to make that happen. >> that's you. >> i would agree with that. from the very beginning, i said i would trust the people of iowa if they had a chance to get to

know me, and if i make myself available they'd be kind enough to come out. we've had like i said 372 town hall meetings, the biggest one we've had so far -- >> again that is rick santorum, speaking in sioux city, iowa. we want to break away right now. we don't do that lightly but that's jim acosta and that's newt gingrich. and we thought for a moment that jim was going to grab newt gingrich and talk to him. wanted to bring that to you live. obviously you saw newt gingrich walk by him? why, voters are more important and we understand that. we're going back to rick santorum in sioux city. >> that's the experience i've had here in iowa. it's just been a wonderful, you know, experience of the heartland of america. and this is your chance, heartland. this your chance, heartland of america to speak out. people say, rick, you know you're going to do well if you

do well because of social conservatives or evangelicals. i said, no, we're going to do well because folks in iowa understand that just as pastor gordon said, just as sam has said, just as brad and matt have said, the key to america, the foundation of america, are strong families and strong faith. that's what makes america the greatest country in the history of the world. that foundation. that's what makes america the most successful economy in the world. if you think about it, having that strong foundation of the faith and family allows america to be in a position where we can be more free. we can be free because we are good, decent, moral people. we're a people that learn the work ethic, learn to take care of our neighbor so government doesn't have to do as much, right? the more we do for each other,

the less government has to do for us. the more the family can provide for us, the smaller the government can be. that's been the watch word of america for 200 years, but we all know that's changing. and it's what really has royals us, the american that we were given is an american that may be changing from underneath ourselves and in fact, i would make the argument i agree with all of these presenters this is the most important election in our lifetime. this is the decision as to what kind of america you are going to hand to your children and grandchildren. are you going to leave america that is more and more dependent on bigger and bigger government to do the things that families and churches and local communities used to do? >> no. >> are you the american -- are you going to leave an america that says that, no, america

isn't a source for good in the world, we shouldn't have a responsibility to make sure that americans are safe by making sure the world is a better place and a safer place, or do you want to withdraw from that? like the president said when campaigning, i predict, that if president obama has four years, he's not looking to re-election, his foreign policy will not be any different than ron paul's foreign policy. they will be the same. you're seeing it -- evidence of it, of pulling back, of focusing on a growing the welfare state subpoena you look at every european country that has had world domination if you were, a world presence, from the french to the british, 100 years ago the sundidn't sthe sun didn't s peop empire? they lost heart and faith in themselves and their mission who

they were, what values that they were going to spread around the world, not just for the betterment of the world, but for the safety and security and the betterment of their country. we have taken up that -- we have taken up that cause. we have a president who doesn't believe in that who believes that we can give this to the united nations, we can give this to other bodies that we can pull back and that we can be timid in the face of threats. ladies and gentlemen, we've been through this before at one of these transformational moments back in 1980. when we had the malaise, the economic malaise of jimmy cart somewhere a poor economy, high rates of inflation, and a horrible situation with our president didn't believe in his own people. we are back in that situation where we have a president who believes in government more than he believes in you. he believes in top-down not

bottom-up in solving america's problems and a president who done believe america's a source for good and promoting those values around the world will make america a safer place, just like jimmy carter, iran is now causing problems. t. was the hostage crisis. now it's a nuclear weapons crisis, was worse? which is more dangerous to the security of the country? the president, as i talked about on "meet the press" sits idly by and throws platitudes out and does nothing to stop iran from doing what will fundamentally change the security posture of america and the world, we cannot afford that. that's why iowa has to step forward. >> we want you. >> that's a very good thing. i appreciate that. eye ask you all for your help and support. this is an election that is going to be very close. i'm very british tv of what we see that our support is rallying

and rising here. there's two more days a lot of work to be done i ask all of you, take those yard signs, take the stickers off your shirt and put them on the coat so when you go to the grocery store or wherever you're going, so you can talk about it, sign up to be a caucus captain. we have about 1100, 1200 caucus captain now but we need more here in woodbury county. we need you to sign up, go to the caucuses, be an advocate for us, get up and speak on our behalf. we're hearing -- i was listening to one of the -- kathy from the des moines register saying she thinks maybe a third or more of the people who are coming to the caucuses will be undecided. help them make their decision. say i've met with him. i've talked to him, i've had a chance to ask him the tough questions. let me tell you, i know what's up here, i know what's in his heart, i know the fire burning

in his belly. this is the most important election of your lifetime. i'm asking you to do what our founders did, when they wrote at the bottom of the declaration of independence, they pledged their lives, their fortune and sacred honor. they knew the easy job would be establishing freedom. what they wrote about and they understood that the hard job would be for generation after generation of americans to maintain that freedom because every country over time eventually as they get farther and farther away from the passion that created their greatness loses heart, gets soft, forgets the hard work of freedom. don't be that generation. don't be the generation that says, okay, president obama, okay those of you who believe in statism, those of you who believe in western european socialism, okay, you take it

from here. we're tired. >> no. >> we don't want the responsibility anymore. don't be that generation. stand up and fight for your freedom. stand up and go to those caucuses and in between times recruit those voters. i'm making the sacrifice. we're making the sacrifice. my daughter elizabeth is here. my son john is here. we have got five other kids at home. seven children, age 53 and our little girl has a disability. this is not -- not the best time of my life to run for president of the united states. but this is the most important election of my lifetime. this is where america's freedom is at stake. and so i couldn't, karen couldn't, and our kids couldn't stand by and not do everything we could. ladies and gentlemen, the next two days i'm not asking you for great things, i'm asking you for your lives, i'm not asking you for your fortune, though you can write a check to rick santorum

for president or you can go on the website at ricksantorum.com and help us out, but i'm asking you to stand up for your honor. honor is not something talked about a lot in america, but it is really important. it is really important that we have that integrity, that honor, of doing what's right. i'm asking you, you pick whatever candidate you want, do what you think is right, don't defer, do what you believe is right for this country, and in the next two days, fight for it. fight for it. fight for what's right. do your duty. go to those caucuses. and you will send a loud and clear message to the world of what the heartland of america wants, what america is looking for, for our future. thank you very much. god bless you. thank you. [ applause ] do i have time for questions? do i have time for questions? i can take -- i can take a few questions.

so why don't we do that. yes, sir. i can't see you, but go ahead. >> i wanted to say hi to your daughter. she's the one i had to escort at the debate. >> oh, okay. thank you. sioux city, there you go. >> i wrote this down. so i wouldn't say it wrong. this tuesday i will be speaking on behalf -- on your behalf at the precinct. i would like to totally assure the folks there that you will be different. most of you agree on the major issues, promises have been made, with a career politicians and the house and the senate making these promises of change is like saying my favorite nfl team, the colts, will win the super bowl next year, just by changing the coach. without better players in the case of these politicians, how can these promises and changes happen? my question is, is there anything you can or will do to fix this problem of political corruption in d.c.? >> well, hopefully -- did everybody hear the question generally? well, yeah, kerry, you want to

summarize the question. >> what are you going to do about the corruption in washington? >> that was the final question. there was a little bit more to it than that, okay, thank you, pastor. again, track record is a pretty good indication of what you're going to do in the future. and if you look at our track -- the pundits have always criticized me up until the last few days, said, you know, you're not working because all you do is talk about your track record. i said, well, people want to know what you've done in order for them to be convinced that you're going to do what you say you're going to do. they say the other candidates talk about that they say they're going to do i said, if i had their track record, that's what i would do, but i don't, right? i have a good track record. it is not perfect. and you'll hear, i'm sure, from my friends, about my words. but just because i display voma voted for a thing or two that i didn't like -- you got to take

some good with bad but you didn't see me abdicating for the bad. when it comes to corruption there is nobody in the field that has gone through the in washington and taken on the tough challenges of beating back the good old boy network in washington, d.c. i did it as a freshman, along with another iowan, jim nestle. we were the two youngest members of the house. he was 30, i was 32. and we heard about this check bouncing scandal. where there were members of congress who were loaning themselves money at taxpayers' expense for free. and then subsequently found out about members of congress who would go and get stamps from the post office and then sell them for cash. well, this business had been going on this bank scandal, had been going on for years. there were reports on it every two years by the general accounting office and usually a member of congress would highlight it and do a speech on it. this has got to stop and everyone said, okay, fine, just be quiet. and they were.

well, there was a group of us called the gang of seven and said no, we're not going to be quiet. we were all freshman. we didn't know better. that's what they told us. and we decided we were going to go out and fight this. so day after day after day we went out there on the floor of the house and said, we're not going to rest until this bank is closed and we expose who was doing this and members of congress. we had both parties, both leaderships, republican and democrat, crushing down on us, telling us to shut up, why? because they were doing it. just like everybody else. and we stood and we fought and those names were released. people talk about 1994 being a year of the contract with america. go back and read your history. 1994 was about corruption in washington because we stood up, a group of us, freshmen, minority, folks -- republicans were such a minority, nobody even paid attention -- we had been in the minority for 38 years. we were so much in the mood of just, well, you know, whatever

scraps you can throw from the table, that's what most republicans just live for. we didn't care about the scraps from the table. we cared about standing up for honesty and integrity. and we did that. >> that, again, rick santorum in sioux city, iowa. you have a good take of what his speech is. he has spent more than 100 days here in iowa. while santorum was talking, in sioux city, in marshall opportunity to, newt gingrich was talking. we'll take a quick break and when we come back, we'll hear from newt gingrich. nyquil (stuffy): yeah, we both relieve coughs, sneezing, aches, fevers. tylenol: and i relieve nasal congestion. nyquil (stuffy): overachiever. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't.

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scientists successfully built and tested iran's first nuclear fuel rod. the rod contains natural uranium, used to fuel nuclear reactors. the number of suspected arson fires in the los angeles area has risen to 39. investigators say seven of them were set last night. a $60,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest. most of the fires targeted cars that spread to nearby homes and buildings. the new year is off to a sad start for the atlanta braves baseball team. the wife of a team trainer was killed yesterday after a georgia state patrol cruiser struck the family's suv. our affiliate ws television says the trooper was responding to a police chase at the time. and civil unions for same sex couples are now legal in hawaii. this is just one of thousands of new laws that take effect today. the bill grants same sex couples many of the same rights that married couples receive.

hawaii's governor signed the bill back in february. five, four, three, two, one! >> and tens of thousands of revelers rang in the new year in new york city's times square early this morning. more than a million others watched the festivities on television as the famous crystal ball dropped to signal the start of 2012. and, of course, we're following the republican contenders live in iowa today as they crisscross the state. the contenders 2012 continues right now with candy crowley. thanks, fredricka. welcome back to "the contenders 2012," our final hour here for today. we are bringing you these candidates as they campaign across the state of iowa, those caucuses on this tuesday. so there is not much time left. we're trying to give you a sense of what iowans hear and have

heard for about the last year. we have jim acosta in marshall town, iowa, with newt gingrich. we have joe johns available as well in atlantic, iowa, with romney. what we expect in this coming hour is two live events. one a press availability with newt gingrich, those are always interesting. and a press availability with mitt romney. another interesting event. so we're going to bring you both of those live, provided they don't all begin at the same time. but right now what we want to do is while you're watching rick santorum, newt gingrich was talking and we want to bring you some of what he had to say to his audience. >> and try to get them to turn out. i thought it was very revealing in the des moines poll this morning that 41% of the voters are still undecided and i think the final argument is going to make a big difference. the only two points i would make when you get to that discussion

point is that iowa has an opportunity to really change american politics by proving that negative ads don't work. and i think to the degree -- [ applause ] to the degree you can convince your friends and neighbors not to vote for the people who have been running the negative ads, you really help america move to a better political process. we cannot change the negativity and the divisiveness of washington by having people who run negative and divisive campaigns. and i've done everything i could to run a positive campaign. you've seen me do it in the debates. you've seen me do it in my tv commercials and i'm going to continue to do it. we need help from the american people to say to the folks who are prepared to be negative and dishonest that it will not work and that frankly if you are will be to be dishonest to get to try

to be president, why would we think you would be honest once you were president? [ applause ] the only other case i would make is that we have very large problems and i am the only candidate in the race who has had actual experience in washington, once with ronald reagan, and once as speaker of the house, and actually solving very large problems. and from the tax cuts of 1981, which led to a seven-year boom, to defeating the soviet empire, to welfare reform, to four consecutive balanced budgets, again and again i think i've proven that i can actually make washington work to the advantage the american people, we got unemployment down to 4.2%. if we could do that again, that would truly be remarkable, which is why i made jobs and economic growth the centerpiece of our

closing, commercials and my closing talks. so calista and i are thrilled to be here. i have to confess, everywhere we go right now we're getting crowds like this. it is very encouraging and very exciting. i think this is a very winnable caucus. and i hope all of you will take the time to talk to your friends and neighbors, either e-mail them, tweet them, facebook them, call them, actually see them, whichever technique works better, and let them know that they should go out tuesday night and they should participate. and we thought we would set up right here, many of you who would like to get a picture, can come on by and we'll work out getting a picture of meeting every single person that is here. i must say th, think is a very, very impressive turnout for what on our schedule said casual drop by for about 30 people. we're thrilled you would take part of sunday to come out and do this. thank you, all, very, very much.

>> newt gingrich and his wife calista in marshall town, iowa, where i am assuming jim acosta, who is also in marshall town, with gingrich, they are still signing those autographs. i know you are expecting at some point press availability with him. so let us know when we have to stop talking. but in the totality of the pitch that newt gingrich gave to those folks, is it still the upbeat positive newt gingrich or is it the one who said, you know, we're taking a second look at our strategy? >> you know, i think there was a slightly sharper tone than we heard from the former speaker a few moments ago during his remarks. i don't know if you picked up on it, candy, but he said during his comments here in this little room outside the sports bar, it was basically a jab at mitt romney. he said if you cannot trust -- i'm paraphrasing, if you cannot trust what is in some candidates' ads, didn't mention romney by name, how can you

trust what they're going to do when they're president of the united states. that was a clear shot at mitt romney. he didn't mention the former massachusetts governor by name. i suppose on some level that is still keeping it positive somewhat, but this just kind of goes to the box that newt gingrich is in right now, the box that he created for himself, by declaring weeks ago he would have a positive campaign, that he would not get in the mud with the other candidates. he sort of set a bar for himself, but, you know, he had to clear the final weeks before the caucuses. and so we're finally starting to hear newt gingrich try to, you know, not necessarily draw contra contrast, but take shots at mitt romney. there were some reporters chasing the former speaker this morning, here in iowa, where he made the comment to the effect that mitt romney is trying to buy an election. now, i tried a few moments ago to ask the former speaker about that, what did you mean when you said that, and he sort of walked right past me. to go to your comment yesterday, candy, when sometimes the candidates will walk up to you and give you an interview, that

wasn't the case. he kept on walking and went into the other room and started signing autographs. so sometimes the trail giveth and sometimes the trail taketh away, candy. >> it does, but you always keep trying. jim, one thing that i think did strike me, first part that we heard here, was newt gingrich mentioning that 41% that haven't made up their minds yet. >> that's right. that's the poll number he likes, candy, the 41% who haven't made up their minds. that means he still has a shot at this. let's remind our viewers, who may be tuning in now, that this des moines register poll that everybody is making a big deal out of it, let's mack a big deal out of it, that's fine, but folks are talking about the santorum surge. the surge is real, but if you look at theof error in that poll, there is a three-way tie. he has a shot at this.

i have to tell you i was at a rick santorum event yesterday, and it was a very sparse crowd. you hear that from the other reporters through the covering his campaign. sometimes it is a big room, sometimes it is a sparse crowd. they tried to squish everyone into this room at this sports bar, but it was a zoo, it was a chaotic mess. there are so many people here. he clearly has some support, why that is being measured as a significant dropoff from where he was, you know, we can attribute that to the negative advertising campaign he's been essentially the victim of over the last several weeks, that he hasn't really responded to. as we were talking earlier, throughout the show, candy, a lot of this is contrary in the minds of republicans to his own branding. this is a politician who has excelled at the art of political

combat and heading into the iowa caucuses, he's decided to stay positive. in the end, when the caucus happens on tuesday night, when everything is tallied up and we get results, we'll be able to look back and decide whether or not newt gingrich did the right thing. >> it is interesting, jim. i know sports bars are probably a good place to go if you're looking for a crowd on new year's day. nonetheless, when you look at that room and see the number of people who were there to listen to newt gingrich, i think it is impressive. even if ten people showed up, it is new year's day. this is the group that takes it the most seriously. these are the groups that these candidates are looking at saying, you know, these people probably will turn out, if they'll come listen to me on new year's day. >> that's right. and this was a big crowd in here. i mean, he had to dish don't know how he got -- it was parting the red seas trying to get through, you know, trying to get through the sports bar. earlier there were people

watching sunday nfl football, and i can tell you that that is a risky thing to do out here on the campaign trail, on friday night, rick santorum got himself into hot water at an event where there was a bowl game being watched where iowa state was being played, he went into a sports bar and blocked it with the media entourage behind him, blocked the view of 50 people trying to watch the iowa state football game and it got a lot of people upset. i was watching the coverage on the local newscast and someone even said, you know, to a local reporter that, hey, that might have cost my vote on caucus night as absurd as that sounds. so they are -- i think at this stage, they are just trying to do the best that they can with what they have. and, candy, i have to tell you, it is extraordinary the weather that these campaigns are dealing with today. we haven't really talked about that very much. but i'm coming to you from a satellite phone connection now because our satellite truck, which is parked outside of this hotel, cannot get its dish up because it is so windy outside

now, like tropical storm force winds now. that's the climate that newt gingrich often finds himself in when he's out on the campaign trail. there is always stuff swirling around newt gingrich. maybe this is the kind of climate that is going to jump start his campaign. >> all right. well, iowans will brave wind and snow but do not get between iowans and their football games. having lived here and as the mother of a hawkeye, i can tell you they're very serious about their sports teams. thanks so much. we'll take a quick break here and when we get back, we're awaiting news conferences from both newt gingrich and mitt romney. we'll be right back. you tell us what you want to pay, and we give you a range of coverages to choose from. who is she? that's flobot. she's this new robot

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aspercreme breaks the grip, with maximum-strength medicine and no embarrassing odor. break the grip of pain with aspercreme. as promised, the front runner in iowa and in new hampshire, mitt romney in atlantic, iowa. >> it is being driven by message, connection with the voters, debates, experience, and i think those are the features that are driving the campaign so far. i think they probably will be through the entire process. we'll do better this quarter than any other quarter so far. but i don't have a final figure for you. and when we do, we'll let you

know. >> what is your argument? >> i don't think i've spent a lot of time trying to describe differences on policy. but instead i focused on the things i believe and the choices that americans have to make. senator santorum was kind enough to endorse me last time around. i appreciate that. and we have been friends. i can tell you that our backgrounds are quite different. like speaker gingrich, senator santorum has spent his career in government, in washington, nothing wrong with that, but it is a very different background than i have and i think the people of this country recognize that with our economy as the major issue we face right now that it would be helpful to have someone who understands the economy firsthand. who spent the bulk of his career working in the private sector. so, you know, senator santorum is a good guy, he worked hard, i wouldn't be surprised if we see him do well on tuesday night.

and i think a good deal of him. >> how would you characterize how you're feeling now about today's performance? how do you feel? do you feel confident? >> i don't know you can look at a poll and project from that what is going to happen on caucus night. i think it is so hard for the pollsters and the caucus state where people can show up in different numbers than what the pollsters might have imagined. but i'm encouraged that i'm thought of positively by the people they called on the phone to take the polls. i'm even more encouraged by the people i see at the rallies and the events and the kind of enthusiasm they have and their willingness to show up on new year's day and their commitment to go to the caucuses. so i'm -- i'm pleased we're doing well. i can't tell you who is going to win this thing. but i do believe that i'm going to have a great deal of support and that will give me the kind of boost i need as i go into a season of a number of other states. >> -- conservatives here say you

didn't spend enough time reaching out to them. do you have any regrets, especially given the santorum surge? >> i've had the privilege of going across state and meeting people across iowa and built a lot of friendships and soccers then and a lot of those people continue to support me. i've also gone to some of the other states and raise the the organization i need to do make sure the vote of iowa ends up being a vote for a person that could become a nominee. this is a process that begins here. it is a big boost here. but it goes on across the nation. and it has been a important to me to make sure that i have a team and a capability to go the full distance to get the nomination and have the people in iowa who caucus for me proud that they were on that team from the very beginning. >> governor, senator santorum described himself as a more true conservative who speaks more

authentic than you. do you concede that? >> i'm pleased to point people to my record as the governor of massachusetts and the record that i have there. balanced the budget with the help of the legislature, all four years i was in office, put in place a -- restored in place a $2 billion ready day fund by the time i left, empowered our state police to help enforce federal immigration laws, fought for and was successful in having english immersion in our schools and a whole host of other principals that i think people would determine are good, solid conservative principles. i'm proud of this record. i'll let people make their own assessment of our respective records, but i'm a conservative, i'm proud to be a conservative businessman. and what distinguishes me from the others in the field is that i understand the economy firsthand, having lived in it. and look forward to a spirited campaign, a lot of debates to go. and hopefully have a good night on tuesday night.

i'm confident we'll have a good night. i don't know who will win. but i think we'll have good support and then on to new hampshire, south carolina, florida, nevada, it is going to be a terrific race and i'm looking forward it a great sendoff to the candidates, not just me, but to the others as well, that go on from here after tuesday night. thanks, you guys. >> thanks, everyone. >> thank you. >> that was mitt romney, he's in atlant atlanti atlantic, iowa. he had a more cautious campaign than i've ever seen. it seems to be paying off for him. he's back doing some interviews, doing these kind of press availabilities that most candidates do after they have events. he is sitting pretty in iowa, although he's not sitting certain in iowa because there are a lot of folks close to him, in particular ron paul and perhaps rick santorum in new hampshire, looking a little bit more like a blow away.

but whatever happens in iowa tends to affect what happens in new hampshire. we can never sew this up until the caucuses have happened, until the votes have arrived from the straw polls in those caucuses. we're going to take a quit break from here in "the contenders 2012." we'll be right back. nyquil: you know i relieve coughs, sneezing, fevers?

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welcome back to "the cont d contenders 2012." there is one of them right now, newt gingrich in marshall town, giving a press availability. >> as we go on to new hampshire and florida and beyond, those

numbers will ultimately prove decisive in the race. >> what did you mean when you said this morning it appear governor romney is trying to buy an election? >> i was struck by the politico analysis that the sheer volume of anti-gingrich ads run by romney's pac, i'll let you decide how you would describe it. it is pretty -- if they decide to spend that number of dollars in negative ads for one candidate, it is pretty amazing. >> there are two days until the iowa caucuses. you worked hard all week -- >> two and a half. >> over the course of the last month -- [ inaudible ] >> who knows. yeah, if i could have done anything different, i would have pulled the plug on romney's pac. i probably should have responded faster and more aggressive than that.

>> mr. speaker, michele bachmann and rick perry are going to south carolina. are you committed to campaigning in new hampshire? >> yes, absolutely. but probably -- we haven't decided, but probably. >> you're not bypassing new hampshire? >> no, no. i think -- i think new hampshire is the first perfect state to have a debate over romney care. and to have a debate about tax paid abortions, which he signed and to have a debate about putting planned parenthood and the government board which he signed and to have a debate about appointing liberal judges, which he did. i think new hampshire is a great place to start the debate for south carolina. >> did you see a doctor for your flu? does you receive any medications? >> i've been very big on gatorade. [ inaudible ] >> same thing we have been doing. i'll talk positively. we'll do two more telephone conference calls and as i've

said before, we had 22,000 on the saturday telephone conversation and that's reasonably good reach to spend 45 minutes to an hour with people. we'll do two more tomorrow and tuesday. we'll keep campaigning both days so we have ads up. but, look, i think this is a volatile environment where people are going to walk in, undecided or semi-decided and maybe as many as 50% could switch during the course of the caucus. so i think it is going to be wide open. i've -- it is frankly more wide open than i would have guessed than it would be at this stage. >> i talked to a lot of people saying exactly that, they're not going to decide -- >> right. think i i think it becomes a gut call at the very end. who do they want to have be president of the united states? and if they say, who can debate barack obama, it will probably pick me. if they can say, you know, who

most perfectly fits my views on a certain issue, maybe somebody else. >> but if they're consumed by negative ads in the last couple of days, couldn't that have affected their final -- >> it could. i sort of think we might have done an ad that more explicitly repudiated the freddie mac distortions. but other than that, i don't think the rest -- i'm not going to -- you can't run around and chase everything that creative consultants can invent. you burn yourself out. i frankly like the gamble we have taken. if you look at our ads, they're very positive. if you look at what news max is doing, it is very positive. if you look at the new video we have released about music education, it is totally positive. i got a picture at the last stop of the new project. part of this is a deliberate contrast. people say they're sick of

negative politic, they're sick of washington being bitterly divided, fine. here is a chance to repudiate it. if that become a theme tuesday night and people take it seriously, you might get a very surprising result. >> how is your fund-raising situation? >> good. we're about the same as mccain was in the fourth quarter. i have no idea. i'm not running the campaign. >> -- points of contrast that you'll start to draw or continue to draw in new hampshire with governor romney, are we going to see those contrasts drawn in advertisements as well. >> probably. but they'll be contrast and based on facts. they'll be quoted. yes. yes. yes. >> why the change? >> if somebody spends $3.5 million lying about you, you have some obligation to come back and set the record straight. >> are you -- do you think you're better -- are you not -- do you not feel threatened by him? >> i don't feel threatened by

anyone. rick santorum is a good friend of mine. i can't imagine being threatened by rick santorum. [ inaudible ] >> i think one of the great ironies of this year is that they have much longer period of proportional representation. and so you get conservative delegates picked in overwhelming numbers where as if it was a first past the post romney might be able to eek out a victory because the conservatives are split. when the conservatives aren't split, we will have already gotten beyond that point. >> will you be running a more aggressive ad? >> i would not want them to run an ad that is factually false and not want them to run an ad that was a gut ad. you can draw legitimate contrast. romney called himself a moderate as governor. this is not like going back 25 years. romney did register as a democrat to vote for paul

tsongas. these things are not, you know, you don't have to go out and select things out to distort them and you don't have to get into his career and do any of the things that would get into negative advertising. say, look, here is his public record, here is my public record, you choose. >> his ads aren't really -- it is not about distorting the facts. [ inaudible ] fact driven websites, it is really about the tone, the aggressiveness that the -- >> yeah, yeah, i think frankly i think you can do very calm, very pleasant ads that the nation of the republican party is such that a calm and pleasant ad that says he was for tax paid abortions, i'm against it, you can say it happily, pleasantly, it works just by the nature of the data. >> he quotes america the beautiful while his ads show -- >> right. >> is that the future? >> no more than it has been in the past.

this is always -- [ inaudible ] >> he says how great he is and -- >> sure. >> his ads are trashing you constantly. >> right. so part of the question you have to ask yourself is, he's assuming the american people are stupid. i don't think the american people are stupid. i am sure -- i am sure -- i am sure within a few weeks every american will know this is his pac with his staff. sure. of course they did. [ inaudible ] by the way, all i did was guarantee some other conservative merged and didn't help romney at all. [ inaudible ] well, then -- and he didn't get rid of me, he just slowed me down. we will make it increasingly clear that these are his ads that this -- [ inaudible ] no, all you have to do is list

his former staff and his donors and then he can go around the country and say he's not responsible for this. it makes him look like -- here is my simple tag line. somebody who will lie to you to get to be president will lie to you when they are president. >> you didn't have any problem with -- you have no problem with the big donors. >> look, i have every problem -- no. i have every problem. first of all, no ads are being run by any of my friends that are attacking anybody. second, my solution will be to eliminate all the election laws and allow people to give unlimited personal money after tax and file every night and let the candidates run the campaigns and have the candidate be responsible. i think the current mess is a disgrace. i think it debilitates politics. i think it strengthens millionaires. and it weakens middle class candidates. >> are you talking about putting it on the air, something that -- [ inaudible ] >> probably. eventually. you have to be on the air to --

i shouldn't say this to a print reporter. you have to be on the air to penetrate everywhere. >> any local reporters that feel intimidated by the large national presence that would like to -- >> wait, you had a press gaggle with no local reporters? this is -- i have to talk to him later. when robert was here, as your assistant, it worked better. that's all i got to say. >> by ceding now you're willing to get more aggressive, aren't you also acknowledging you should have done it sooner? >> no. i think we're running a very interesting experiment. this is the first of many contests. i don't know what the result will be tuesday night. you have people here. i think people genuinely are disgusted with the negative ads. i think it will be interesting to see what happens tuesday nig night. >> you've been getting hit a lot here in iowa is mailboxes.

>> we might. i'm not -- i think that's less effective than television and radio. >> even though people were getting five mailers a day. >> i think they throw them out. i think if you think about your own life, how many unsolicited mailer can you slow out without noticing them? [ inaudible ] if you tell the truth, it sounds negative. >> people say it is all part of the process, this is a historical part of the process, negative ads. >> for romney to take responsibility -- [ inaudible ] >> so are you prepared to go negative against barack obama? >> no, i'm just prepared to tell the truth. telling the truth will sound negative. >> what are you going to do to fight -- >> that's why this is a good experiment. learning through the cycle will help us to figure out how to defeat obama's ads.

>> are you saying that -- >> no. yeah, i'm saying this was a very legitimate effort to see could you run a positive campaign and stay positive despite the negative ads and could you -- first of all, could you sustain your vote and i agree with chris' analysis. he drove us down from the 30 -- he didn't drive us down to two. if i had spent $3.5 million defining romney, he would have been at three. there is a big difference. no, no. [ inaudible ] . no, he's in a position to come in very, very weak first in a field where he ought to be -- go ahe ahead. >> was it driven in part by a fear that if you were aggressive, that would imbibe images that people have of you from your speakership days? >> no, it was actually driven by our supporters.

the number of supporters who said to us, you know, from the middle of the tsunami of negativity, i'm so proud, and you hear this if you walk near me, when people walk up to me, i'm so proud you're positive. i'm so proud that you're sticking to us. i mean, we -- what happened was we were temporarily driven down to our base and our base really liked being positive. now, maybe that's because it is a good government base, maybe because it is a base of people who read books. i don't know what the reasons were, but the people who didn't leave even after $3 million or $4 million of negative ads were people who said i'm really proud that you're staying positive. and so we decided, you know, that we would in fact try to figure out could you do well enough remaining positive to survive? i think the answer is we're going to do well enough to survive and we'll decide what to do from that point on. >> can you explain or can you answer and explain to people who are considering or abdicating

that mr. santorum is the person that deserves support, can you tell us what you would say to those people? >> sure. i would say rick is a terrific person but i'm in fact the only conservative with a nationwide campaign, i'm the only conservative who has actually led a national achievement on the scale of the 1994 campaign. and i'm the only person that worked with reagan in '80-'81 to pull off the scale of change. so i'm not going to say anything negative about rick santorum. he's a great guy. i think i'm a more experienced national leader with a greater ability to actually change washington. and that's what i would make the final argument. thank you, all. >> thanks, guys. thanks, guys. hey, guys, it is snowing. for those of you not on the bus, please drive safely. >> there you have it, newt gingrich and so much to digest and what he said, clearly he has

set his sights on mitt romney, the front-runner, the problem is if you look at the polling, he's going to have to get by ron paul and rick santorum and at least try to get ahead of rick perry at this point. so- so much in that. we'll chew it over when we get back from the break.

welcome back to "the contenders 2012" where for last couple of hours we have been able to bring you some unedited raw versions of what people are hearing on the campaign trail here in iowa, making a very important decision on tuesday in the iowa caucuses. we're going to get to jim acosta and joe johns later to talk over

some of what we heard. but i want to now bring in our dana bash. dana, through this whole newt gingrich news conference, which i'm sure you heard, i kept thinking, actually the man who did a lot of damage to newt gingrich was ron paul, who has deep pockets, who has an ardent following and who immediately put up ads when gingrich started to go up in the polls calling him a serial hypocrite. it reminded me how much ron paul has been a huge power in this iowa caucus. i spoke with him this morning. he said, well, i expect i'll come in first or second. i'm not going to come in third. it will be first or second. so he has -- if he doesn't win the nomination, he certainly is in a place to become a power broker. >> oh, there is no question about it that he absolutely, i mean, we'll see how he does on tuesday. but just the fact that he has been consistently doing so well in very reliable polls here, like the des moines register

poll that came out last night, the fact he's in a statistical dead heat with mitt romney says it all. the whole idea of whether or not he would be a power broker, candy, you know, because you covered him in congress as well as i have, question is whether he wants to be a power broker. you talked a little bit about this with him this morning, the fact that he's a republican, but so many of his views and so many of his positions really draw support from democrats because they tend to be maybe on the foreign policy side, less interventionist, of course, and on the domestic side, he draws libertarians. so that gets him independent votes. so he could be a power broker but he doesn't seem to be the kind of guy that wants to be. >> exactly. and i think -- i just mean if he can collect some delegates along the way, because he talks like a man who is in this for the long haul. you collect those delegates, you can start to bargain a little. i think what is funny is whenever i talk to ron paul, i think a little bit about that

musical sound, the sound of music, where the nuns all get together and sing this song about a novice saying how do you solve a problem like maria and i feel like that's where the republicans are, because here is a man, who, you know, how do you solve a problem like ron paul? here is a man that does draw from a party that wants a smaller government, when we did our poll, 22%, the highest number of those responding, 22% agreed with ron paul on the issues. when asked how do you most agree with, he was at the top. so they have a bit of a problem here. >> oh, definitely. and even the des moines register poll that came out last night, i think the top five issues people said, like, reducing spending, reducing the size of government, the debt, things like that, he, by far, was the most likable candidate. the problem for him is his negatives are getting higher and higher because that's what happens. you know this better than anybody, that when somebody who is previously not, you know,

let's face it kind of ignored by the mainstream media gets scrutiny, especially somebody like ron paul who has some very interesting writings in former books and other places, the negatives start to soar and that has been happening and that's why he definitely is doing well, he has an unbelievable base of support here in iowa. and if you believe them going on to new hampshire and they're even running ads in south carolina, he definitely is -- says he's in it for the long haul but the question is how he really welfare here given the fact that the negatives seem to be hurting him and the attacks and the scrutiny seem to be hurting him here in iowa in the final days. >> yes, they have. there is some personality things inside the poll, he was very high on the list of least likable. he was pretty high on the list of not likely to be able to beat president obama or not electable question. but nonetheless, he is drawing

votes, some votes at least, the democrats and the independents have -- but he's drawing some republican votes away from these guys and newt gingrich in some way has to get around this, as does rick perry, as does michele bachmann, as does rick santorum. >> absolutely. and, look, he was talking about tea party-like ideals before they were cool,paid attention t idea you want to shrink government, the government is too big, and that the debt is too big. he's very black and white about that, obviously. that's the kind of people he attracts. when people listen to what he says about the fact that government doesn't work, the fact that he thinks that federal income tax should be abolished, the fact that for some people he says that drugs should be legalized, those kinds of things really do play for some true libertarians and, again, for the economic conservatives, people who really, again, followed the

tea party credo, he is their guy. he's one of the originals. and so if that is the reason why you're voting and especially if you're a voter here in iowa and there are a lot of them who want to vote to send a message to iowa, to washington rather, rather than vote for somebody who could potentially beat barack obama, there is no reason you wouldn't want to vote for ron paul. >> and it is a good place for ron paul in iowa where they list the debt, the federal debt as the biggest problem in the economy. so it will be an interesting night for him on tuesday night. and interesting night for all of us. dana, so good to be talking to you again. welcome to iowa. we'll talk to you later. we'll take a quick break and we'll be right back. ♪ [ female announcer ] you use the healing power of touch every day. the healing power of touch can be even more powerful.

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welcome back to "the contenders 2012". we're in our final lap here for our new year's day edition of "the contenders." i want to bring in my colleagues, joe johns, who has been with romney, jim acosta who has been with newt gingrich and john king joining us live from atlanta this afternoon. joe, i want to sort of wrap things up with you, talking about mitt romney. i'm not sure that six months ago any of us would have thought that romney would be in as good a position as he appears to be in iowa and yet i think we saw in that news conference of his

that he's tempering or trying to temper the expectations here. >> absolutely. and playing it very safe once again. you know, you can look at romney early on two ways. the conventional way has always been that he really didn't plan to do a lot in iowa, and so he got forced into it and now he's here, all in. there is another way to look at it too. if you talk to people connected to the campaign, they'll suggest to you now that mitt romney was running a stealth campaign, if you will, a sort of quietly under the radar making contact with people to try to come in at the last moment and make a good showing. so there is that. he was here just a few moments ago and we watched that right here on cnn. one of the interesting things he did today was point out that four years ago in his run for president, rick santorum who is

surging and doing so well in the polls here in iowa right now, actually endorsed him. can we listen to that sound bite? >> senator santorum was kind enough to endorse me last time around. i appreciate that. and we have been friends. i can tell you our backgrounds are quite different. >> so santorum's got some questions about that today, given the fact that he is posing himself as the true conservative choice in the race right now. so why did you endorse this candidate four years ago? santorum's point is, look, he didn't want john mccain to win and it was very late in the game, just about a week before mitt romney actually got out of the race. so that will be something to talk about going forward. but, candy, you're absolutely right, he's playing it very safe now, trying very hard not to make any news. he's riding slightly at the top of the polls. everybody else wants to try to

walk into tuesday like that. back to you. >> i think the name of the game, joe, for the romney campaign has always been try not to make news no matter what, for about the past year and a half and they kind of have done that by not doing a lot of interviews. they stepped it up recently when there were -- began to build this sort of why isn't romney out there, is he passionate about this debate? but you're perfectly right that that 2008 structure that he put in place with his $10 million that he sunk into the iowa caucuses and then placed a disappointing second was still there. and so he kind of superimposed on to that and now it looks like a strategy, a careful strategy that is working well for him. do you get any sense from the romney people what they would consider victory? i know romney said, well, fist place. but it seems to me that if a ron paul or rick santorum is in the -- round out the top three as they do in the polling and we don't know what will happen in the caucuses that that would be

okay with mitt romney. >> yeah. he's been very careful. he's been very careful now. he's not predicting victory. he said as much here, but he would like to see a strong showing. so if that means number one, i'm sure they'll take it. but it is pretty clear that they're looking at this like they're going to get one of the three tickets out of iowa and expect to do very well in new hampshire and from there it is game on. >> absolutely. jim acosta. speaking of game on, i thought that newt gingrich press conference was pretty revealing. first of all, he overlooks everybody else in the race and is going straight at mitt romney, even though as dana and i just talked about, ron paul is the one that day lot of negative advertising against gingrich. >> that's right. that's absolutely right. you know, though newt gingrich, you talk to him on the campaign trail about ron paul, up until this point, before he started going after mitt romney today,

newt gingrich was all too eager to talk about ron paul. so he has -- he has talked about the texas congressman here or there. i think the dramatic thing that happened at this media availability that just wrapped up a few moments ago is that newt gingrich signaled he's not going after mitt romney. he made no mistake about it dure his media availability. he was complaining about all of the negative ads that have come his way. i asked him at one point, were you swift boated and he said i've been romney boated. so clearly newt gingrich feels like he's ready to go on the attack here and he listed a number of things that are in mitt romney's record, that he plans to highlight and he said he's going to do that in new hampshire. he said, yes, we didn't do it here in iowa, but we're going to do it in new hampshire. i asked him, does that signal that perhaps you had a tactical error here and the fact that you allowed the romney forces to defind you here in the days before the iowa caucuses but you didn't fire back? he said, well, this was an

experiment. i said, well, should you be experimenting your okay throuwa the iowa caucuss? he wouldn't budge. he said, look, the romney tactics worked, they knocked our poll numbers down from the mid 30s to the teens but didn't take us down to two. if i had done the same to mitt romney, i would have been knocked down to 2% or 3%. the questions people are asking are why didn't you do that then. >> jim acosta, to atlanta where our coverage is headquartered and talk to john king, host of "john king usa." i want to remind our viewers in our final moments here about the des moines register poll at the bottom. santorum, 15. gingrich, 12. perry, 11. bachmann, 7. they're all bunched up. anybody could get that third ticket out including rick perry. >> anybody could, candy. you may have candidates who are fourth saying because if it is bunched up at the top that there should be four tickets out.

the calculation will be if you come in fourth in iowa, you go to new hampshire. if you're governor rick perry, you go to south carolina and say i'm in the -- not going to win. if you're mitt romney, he would like the more candidates to stay in the race. he believes he can win new hampshire. this is a fascinating period, candy. you've been through this in many cycles. the candidates have 24 hours left in iowa. the vote is 48 hours from now. they have one more news cycle to change their case. i thought that was fascinating listening to newt gingrich there. he knows the risks if he goes negative. the risks are higher than the other candidates. this is an interesting moment. iowa votes first. the candidates will recalculate overnight, have their closing pitch tomorrow and then we'll see who survives. it is a fascinating. this is why we do this. people get to vote now. >> absolutely. and, john king, a big interview on tuesday with rick perry.

a lot at stake for the texas governor here. we will all there be listening to that, john. thanks so much. and that is it for "the contenders 2012." we want you to join us next weekend for another installation. meanwhile, please stay tuned for "cnn newsroom" with fredricka whitfield. [ woman ] my husband, hank, was always fun.

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