good evening. it is an exciting night. and get ready. iowa the first contest of the 2016 elections just a few hours away. we focused on republicans in the last hour. now the democrats in the race there could not be closer. bernie sanders, hillary clinton, a statistical dead heat according to late polling. throughout their campaigning. as we speak, dueling events in des moines.

secretary clinton leading ever so narrowly, bringing out her husband, the former president, an acknowledged big dog, facing big questions about her state department e-mails at least from the media and others. senator sanders hoping to maintain his surprising momentum for another 24 hours. joining us, brianna keillor at the clinton rally in des moines. has she spoken yet or is she yet to come out? >> reporter: she has not spoken yet, anderson. she's actually scheduled to speak right now, and of course at this point in the evening candidates normally are running a little bit late, but we should be seeing her here very soon along with her husband and her daughter chelsea a very enthusiastic crowd. and talking folks who were part of the clinton campaign back in 2008, they said that this was a very different feeling in 2007 going into 2008, that they're much more optimistic about how things are shaping up. hillary clinton has been emphasizing today that she'll be a more effective president than bernie sanders, that she'll be able to get things done. but bernie sanders has a lot of

enthusiasm, and he's been talking about making history and really telling people that it's time for a political revolution and it's something that certainly anderson many of his supporters connect with. >> we just talked to someone from the clinton campaign who said they're not hearing any questions about e-mails on the campaign trail. has hillary clinton talked about the e-mail issue on the campaign today at all? >> reporter: she did. she was asked about this on abc by george stephanopoulos. and it was interesting. one of the things she said was dianne feinstein, who's the top democrat on the intelligence committee, has had a chance to look at these 22 e-mails that the state department is not releasing because they're top secret and she said dianne feinstein confirmed that they do not have classified markings on them and that they didn't originate with hillary clinton. this is pretty important because we saw hillary clinton say these were things that did not have markings. if you're sending something that's classified, it should have a marking on it. so it seems that she was sort of indicating that if there was

some messup where someone sent classified information she didn't know about it and that it wasn't she who sent it, it was someone else. >> all right. brianna keilar, thanks very much. as we await the clinton event. on the sanders side a change in tone from the candidate when it comes to the clinton e-mail issue or non-issue, depending on whom you talk to. remember senator sanders once said he was sick and tired of hearing about her damn e-mails. now he's saying something else. jeff zeleny's got more on that in his closing drive tonight. he joins us. bernie sanders on the morning shows today addressed the clinton e-mail saga. exactly what was he saying? >> reporter: he did say this is not an issue that voters care about right now. he said iowa voters should not be burdened with this. but he did change his tone and said it is a very serious issue. those were carefully chosen words, anderson. he said it's a very serious issue. he said there's a legal process under way that will have to play itself out. so the translation of that is that look, she's under investigation by the justice department and this is not over. we've asked him and his advisers if there's any change in his

tone from when he told you at that debate enough with the damn e-mails. he said he's not going to bring it up on the campaign trail because democratic voters, quite frankly, don't care about it. democratic voters are not concerned about it. but that's not saying it's not an electability issue overall. so as this campaign moves forward, as it moves forward through some independent voters and it moves across the country, if this becomes an electability concern we may hear senator sanders talk more about it. is so him saying this is a very serious issue is an interesting development in his language, anderson. >> his campaign also announced today they'd raised $20 million in january online and i think saw him, correct me if i'm wrong, that a huge majority of those donations were very small amounts of money. $20 and the like. not huge big donors. what does that say about his national reach? >> reporter: it's extraordinary. i'm at a rally. he just announced that to a rally not too long ago.

he said the average contribution was $27. the crowd cheered. he made a direct contrast to the fact there are soup your pacs supporting clinton, everyone's maxing out to her. this shows he has incredible reach. he's had more than $3.2 million vinl contributions. if he wins the iowa caucuses tomorrow night some of his advisers believe he can raise $25 million in one or tw days. that changes the game here in terms of how he'll finance his campaign. this is way more than barack obama ever did. it's a new moment of campaign financing. and this is for a candidate who a few months ago no one thought would be this competitive at all here. this is going to ensure that this campaign is going to go on for a very long time. the clinton campaign is worried about how they can compete with this fund-raising. anderson? >> jeff zeleny, thanks very much. we've been hearing from campaign strategists throughout the evening, hearing from all sides. and by the way, we played some bernie sanders at that rally a little bit earlier in the last hour. joining us is sanders campaign manager jeff weaver.

jeff, first of all, how significant -- this fund-raising, this more than $20 million average donation $27 each, pretty extraordinary. given the kind of donations we've seen to other candidates. >> no, anderson. he's really revolutionizing how one funds a presidential campaign this time. he's demonstrating that in fact when you speak to the needs of working people, middle-income people, you do not have to beg money from millionaires and billionaires and wall street in order to fund your campaign. if people support you, you can fund a presidential campaign that's competitive with small dollar contributions from people all across the country. >> jeff, at the first democratic dablt senator sanders famously said the american people were sick and tired of hearing about the damn e-mails. is that still senator sanders' opinion? because today on cnn he said it's a very serious issue. >> let's be clear. that's what he said then. in his interview with chris cuomo after the debate he said look, there's a process going on, we're going to let the

process work itself out. the media, whether it's cnn or abc or whatever, they keep asking about this over and over again. it's not an issue he raises. when they do he says look, there's a serious issue, there's a process going on, we're going to let itself work itself out. it's interesting that the media asked the question, he gives them an answer that's basically i don't want to talk about it and then he says let's talk about it. >> good to put it in context, jeff. >> it's john king. obviously you're planning your campaign, you know about these headlines. senator sanders has been very blunt in saying he questions hillary clinton's judgment when it comes to her vote for the iraq war comparing her to dick cheney at one point np in your meet with the senator with the senior staff have you raised that question, should we make the e-mail issue, having a private e-mail server against the advice of her boss the president, should we make that a judgment issue? >> no, we never have had that conversation. it has always been the position

of the campaign that the e-mail issue -- there's an investigation being carried out by the obama administration. it's going to go where it goes and we're going to let that go. let's not politicize, it let's let them have the investigation, let's talk about the issues, let's talk about wealth and income inequality, rigged economy held up by a corrupt system of campaign finance. that's what he's been talking about. and that's why he's tied here in iowa. that's why we've gone from single digits to almost winning at this point. we think that the message we have is right. we're talking to the anxieties and needs and desires of the american people talking about the need to make college affordable. about making health care for all. these are the issues he's concerned about. that's what he's talking about and it's resonating. >> it's david axelrod. >> hey, david. >> first of all, congratulations on a great campaign. but let me ask you a question. is it possible you overshot the runway here? that is to say, if you don't win tomorrow night is there potential for a letdown among your troops who have been charging toward this date?

>> look, david, i would say to you tonight without having had a single caucus person come in we have already had a success here in iowa. nobody, nobody, nobody who's sitting with you or is on this television station, if i had told you back in june that we were going to be tied with secretary clinton the night before the iowa caucuses you would have said i was insane. right? so look how far we've come. we've come from single digits to almost tied. are we going to get over the top? i think if people come out and caucus tomorrow we will get over the top. is it possible we'll be a couple of points short? that's also possible. but i've got to tell you, we've come a long way. this is a tremendous victory already. we're going to go into new hampshire where recent polls show us way ahead. and we're going to continue on this campaign. as you've seen, we have the resources to go all the way to the convention. >> jeff, always good to talk to you. thank you very much. >> thanks, anderson. >> jeff weaver. next as we look at the clinton event, which appears to be rolling along there, we'll look at what actually happens when voters get together to caucus. coming up networks also, donald

trump and expectations. jeffrey lord said if he wins tomorrow he could run the table. hear how he's changing his own tune on winning. and we'll talk about the possible strategy behind that.

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and visit farxiga.com to learn how you can get it for free. welcome back tonight. as we watch the candidates make their last pitch to voters before the iowa caucuses we're looking closer at another kind of sales job, the act of setting expectations. mostly that means not raising them too high in order to survive falling short.

>> i don't have to win it. and right now you and i are sitting in ham happnew hampshir you know i have a very substantial lead in new hampshire. it would be good to win in iowa. i'm doing really well with the evangelicals in iowa but i'm also doing very well around the country with evangelicals. i'm leading by a lot. doing well with the tea party. i'm doing well with all groups. i now have a fairly substantial lead in iowa. i think we have a good chance of winning iowa. i'd like to. >> that was donald trump yesterday. we chose that sound bite for a simple reason. downplaying expectations is something that most candidates do all the time but something that trump hardly does at all. in fact, just the opposite. watch. >> i will win. i'll bring in states that nobody ever thought of. >> honestly, we're going to win so much. we're going to win on trade. we're going to win with our military. >> i want to win. okay? we like to win. we know how to close deals. i close. i'm a closer. >> we will beat isis very quickly, folks. >> i beat china all the time. >> we're going to win and then

we're going to beat hillary or whoever the hell they put in front of us. >> we're going to win so much. >> we are going to win so much we're going to have win after win after win. you people are going to get sick and tired of winning. you're going to say please, please, president trump, we can't take this much victory. please stop. we don't want any more wins. and i'm going to say to you, we're going to win, i don't care what you say. we're going to make our country great again. we're going to win. we're going to win. and we're going to win! >> wow. that's a lot of winning. donald trump, as we've come to know him, leading some opponents and election watchers to speculate that he's got a glass jaw, that all it will take to defeat him is one or two defeats in the face of all that boasting. but of course people have been wrong about donald trump then tire time, so really who knows? joining us is timothy o'brien, author of "trump nation: the art of being the donald." trump sued. i think trump lost. full disclosure on all that.

that's the back story. the fact that trump who maybe set the world record for the use of the woshd win and wing over the course of the last eight months now kind of tempering his language on iowa what do you make of that? >> maybe he's just hedging his bets. anderson, he'll stay in the game even if he doesn't win iowa. i think he's probably going to be the republican nominee based on what all the polls look like. he's got a good chance to run the table throughout the month of february. so i don't think he's going away anytime soon. but i think he's got a closer race right now in iowa with ted cruz than probably either of them expected. >> just for accuracy's sake was the lawsuit dismissed or did you win? >> it was tossed out of court. >> when it comes to the trump approa approach, this binary universe consisted of winners and losers in your experience has he always operated like that, laid life out in those terms or is it specific to this campaign? >> i think donald begins exaggerating the second he steps out of bed in the morning.

he's a profound narcissist. and he gets a lot of traction out of repeating themes time and time again like he's a winner. the clip you just showed, that he's beaten china all the time. i actually can't think of a single major deal he's ever been involved with that involved beating china. but i think, you know, we're in an era right now on social media and in political campaigns where candidates clearly are getting away with saying a lot of things about their own track record and their own effectiveness as a candidate or in his case as a businessman that aren't actually true when you look at the record. >> but he does -- there is a certain sort of hypnotic power to repeating a phrase over and over and over again even if it is not factually correct. i mean, if you commit to it, as he does time and time again, it does bring -- it certainly has a power of its own. >> it sure does. >> whether that's fair or not, true or not. >> there's no question. what he's very good at is he's

an effective self-promoter. and he stays on message and he's been able to simply pound the same kinds of themes across to voters and it's clearly gotten traction. and he can't be dismissed because of that. he's touched a nerve. but the reality is he's had a very poor track record as a businessman and he hasn't been an effective administrator or an executive. and that's essentially the office that he's running for. >> is that really true? to all outsiders it seems he's hugely successful. he's obviously -- he appears to be a billionaire multiple times over. >> let's just simply look at the facts of the matter. he ran a publicly traded casino company and during the decade or so that he ran it it was never possible. he ran it into the ground. he put it through four bankruptcies he lost all sorts of real estate holdings because he wasn't financially disciplined. he didn't manage the debt he had taken out from a large number of

very gullible banks sxpt person who emerged after those failures is someone who's essentially a reality tv star, a golf course developer, and a human shingle who licenses his name out for everything from mattresses to underwear. >> as president you don't always get what you want. you have to compromise. is compromise, according to trump, the same thing as losing or is he a guy who -- you know, he has said time and time again, look, i make deals, i can make deals with everybody, i get along with a lot of different people. >> well, you know, we're certainly in a political era now with gridlock in washington where the art of political compromise i think unfortunately has been lost. i do think that the president has to be someone, he or she has to be someone who is an effective negotiator with a good temperament. he or she will have their finger on the nuclear button. and whether or not trump is that person is something not only iowa caucusgoers have to pay attention to but voters in the

general election. >> tim o'brien, appreciate you being with us. >> thanks, anderson. >> i want to get the panel's take on this. donald trump has repeatedly said as president, you know, i'll modify myself, i'll change a little bit, i won't be quite so aggressive in my personality. do you think voters believe that? and do you think voters want that? >> sure, i think they believe it. you know, he has built, with all due respect to this gentleman, he has built this enormous business organization, which beyond doubt is successful. can you go through and cher write-pick a failure here or there? sure. of course. you can do that with anybody who's been a governor or senator or anything else has had failures in their career and they learn from them, they go on. hillary clinton is rung a second time for president. she failed the first time. >> that was axelrod's fault. >> so yeah, i do think. he's got a good record with this. and i think people do believe him and they trust him. >> but there are those who are concerned. we heard from some of the evangelical voters who are

concerned that he says one thing right now but are his core beliefs really that or will he kind of pivot in order -- >> the big question is is this a strength or a weakness? and ordinarily this would be a weakness. this guy is so much of a flip-flopper he needs a trampoline in his back yard to practice in the morning. but it doesn't hurt him because for some reason we we just say it's just trump being trump. i've never seen anything like this. ordinarily this lel of flexibility. what it does, it lets people who like trump's attitude but don't like his mistreatment of this group or whatever, kind of excuse him and say he's just playing to the crowd. but inside he's really this way. he's really that way. it's this projection onto trump that makes him very dangerous and to me very scary. i don't like cruz but i know where cruz is coming from. cruz is bad. trump is scary. i have no idea where he's coming from. >> what evangelical voters are worried about with trump is he's not a true evangelical. and that is precisely trump's appeal to the establishment is that they think maybe he's a little more malleable because he

has taken these asorted positions and he does want to cut deals. and so from their point of view that kind of flexibility if you want to call it that is appealing. >> on the evangelical front he's tried to play it both ways. he's tried to suggest i'm not scary like ben carson with that 7th day adventist religion that i don't even know about. well, it's christian and iowans know what 7th day adventism is. i'm more down the road. i'm presbyterian. i'm very simple. but at the same time he's obviously trying to impress evangelicals on their home turf at liberty university with the -- i mean, with staunch evangelicals trying to recite from two corinthians, talking about taking the little cracker when he goes to church. he's missing. but you can see he's going for both camps. >> he has probably the broadest support. he's leading among moderates. he's tied among tea party voters in iowa. and he's second among evangelicals. and i think one mistake we make

is to assume that evangelicals vote, all of them, on a narrow set of issues. and many of them are among those, that cadre of voters who he's appealed to on economic grounds. >> a big part of his appeal to evangelicals is strength. a lot of evangelicals feel they're under assault. i don't agree. i don't think anybody's anti-christian in this country. but a lot of fundamentalists believe that. i hear that from a lot of my friends who say obviously two corinthians, he doesn't go to church with me, i get that, but he will stand up and fight for me and for my oppressed christian religion. and that has real -- george w. bush would say that resignates. >> i'm looking at the "des moines register" poll and they ask several qualities of the republican candidates and the ones that donald trump led on was he'd be the strong left leader, by overwhelmingly he'd

be most feared by u.s. enemies. yes, he is selling strength. i wrote a piece last week, i think that he is selling himself to republicans as sort of the antithesis of barack obama. i think he is in every way the opposite of obama in this sort of muscular i'm going to kick their butt kind of thing is appealing to republican voters. >> this is what the fox situation was all about. forget about the nernlz of the fight. it was about message i'm strong. >> let's not overstereotype these evangelicals. they care deeply about the life issue, the marriage issue, they care deeply about religious liberty but a lot of them have decided that their number one issue in this campaign are not those issues, they're willing to push them down a little bit and like a lot of americans they're voting on whether it's strength or even more so when you talk to them dysfunction. dhoent trust president obama, they don't like president obama. but guess what? they don't like their own leadership. they think their own leadership has given them the shaft and this is the china shop, washington, d.c., they want to sell the bull in and break

everything. they think donald trump's going to be that guy -- >> nobody's tougher on china than donald trump. >> i talked to a voter in iowa who said she felt donald trump was crazy and might get us into another world war but she liked him anyway, she felt like she was going to vote for him because as john said he was a disruptor, he was something completely new. it's just amazing. a lot of these trump voters -- i know you talked to some too. can make some separation with all these other -- >> i think donald trump is to religion what ben carson is to foreign policy to a certain degree. he kind of tried to study up to say i love evangelicals, i'm like you. i get you just the way ben carson -- >> let me with you them? >> yeah. let me do a little google search. but somehow it doesn't, on that particular front, it doesn't come across as authentic. and we saw that in randi kaye's piece before. this evangelical voter gsh.

>> yet leading the polls among evangelicals. a lot more to talk about ahead. we're going to look at the democratic battle in iowa. a by the numbers guide. coming up next. ♪ but i can't come home right now... ♪ ♪ me and the boys are playing.♪. ♪ ... all nig♪t text beth, what can i do... [siri:] message. pick up milk. oh, right. milk. introducing the newly redesigned passat. from volkswagen. buying smartphones for the whole family is expensive. not at t-mobile® for a limited time, check out our half off smartphone event. get one of our most popular smartphones, and get the second one at half price. hurry to t-mobile® and get new smartphones for your whole family today. iand quit a lot,t but ended up nowhere. now i use this. the nicoderm cq patch, with unique extended

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we showed you a little bit about bernie sanders on the campaign trail earlier. we're waiting right now for hillary clinton to take the stage in des moines. right now former iowa senator

tom harkin and his wife, ruth, warming up the crowd. we're going to be bringing you live coverage of the caucuses as they unfold. we'll be bringing you results as they come in late into the night. tonight a guide of sorts as to what to look for as the first numbers of the democratic race. john king, chief national correspondent, anchor of cnn's "inside politics." he's shown his share of politics. >> we'll see if the new software works, we'll look at the three-way race. sanders, clinton, and martin o'malley. no results. that's@map is blank. let's go back to david axelrod's favorite map in the history of american politics, iowa 2008. the results that put barack obama on the map and launched him. look at this out here in eastern iowa. almost exclusively. one hillary clinton count. almost exclusively barack obama. in the central part of the state, the college town of ames and the major population centers of polk county all for barack obama. this is what hillary clinton has to change. this is important to remember. we forget this sometimes. john edwards. you had a three-candidate race really this time. unless martin o'malley shocks us

it's a two-candidate race. that could make all the difference when you look at the margins in some of these counties. john edwards won a fair amount of counties especially down here in the southern rural areas. why threes important? let's take these off for a second. look at the margins. senator obama relatively modest margin but still a win in dubuque. down here in davenport major -- oop. one county over. let's come in here. we just went to illinois. how do you like that? come down here, this part of the state here in the population centers. we'll come up if you want. scott county 5% of the population. look at the margin in the eastern part of the state. i visited some hillary clinton organization offices in this part of the state. working much harder this time with the help some of people who worked for senator obama eight years ago. she has to perform in the east. here in polk county which is the largest piece of the state, hillary clinton ran third last time behind senator obama and senator edwards. with two candidates in the race the college towns, ames, and

over here in iowa city, this is where bernie sanders is expecting the young people to turn out for him on the campuses but look for the major population centers. remember in the republican race we saw the romney map. it's the same for the democrats. des moines, cedar rapids, dubuque, davenport, if hillary clinton can hold her own she expects to have a better night. when you visit the offices on the ground they get it, they understand how they were outhustled and outperformed, outorganized in 2008. they say they have the better organization this time. we'll see what happens with the passion of the bernie sanders campaign. but the big difference this time, remember, in a two-candidate race they think they have the organization to do better. we'll know this time tomorrow night how it's starting to look. >> stick around. i want to go to our pan panel. van, you still think people are underestimating bernie sanders. >> i do. i pi that early on -- if this were just an anybody but hillary moment, martin o'malley would be up in the numbers. and it would be bernie. he has tapped into some discontent that is huge. if you look at his social media numbers, he has been dominating everybody except for donald trump the whole time.

nobody notices. if you look at his individual donors, small donors, more individual donors than anybody in american history. nobody notices. if you look at his ability to get the sizable crowds, it was almost like there's a blackout on him for a long time. i think there was a blessing in that blackout. because what happened was he was able -- he didn't get the help of the media but the media also didn't turn on him and the establishment tried to ignore him. now you have somebody who's a real contender and i think there's still this view out there that the rebellion on the republican side, that's a crazy thing but on our side it's kind of this containable thing. he has tapped into some real frustration. you have some disappointment in our party. people love obama. in our party. they don't always love the obama years. there's some pain and disappointment the last couple years, the sense the establishment has still not gotten the lesson. whether he wins or loses tomorrow the establishment in this party needs to listen to bernie sanders and his supporters. >> i think you have an indication of just how seriously he is being taken finally now

because coincidentally in the week leading up to iowa you have a "washington post" editorial, really scathing, attacking bernie sanders. you had a box -- they called it his fiction-filled campaign. you had a vox.com piece on the exorbitant cost of his single payer health plan. these are outlets i think that would not have run very rigorously against sanders -- >> they're starting to wake up now. >> and now i think people are wondering, wow, could hillary really lose it to bernie sanders? let's get all in and make sure this doesn't happen. >> earlier the hillary clinton campaign seemed very confident saying we're going to win. >> sure. and i like that they didn't try to spin and diminish expectations. it's their job to win. there's one little synapse that fired that said win or lose -- no. you're in this to win. trump said this. and he was right. if i don't win then all of this has been wasted effort. hillary learned from losing the

last time. but it was a very expensive education. i disagree with van about the depth -- it is not equal and opposite with republicans. look at the data. iowa democrats have a 91% approval rating of our president. democrats love their president. they love him. maybe you can find nuances where they don't like the years he's governed. bill clinton has 86% favorable. bernie has 812% favorable. hillary has 80% favorable. she's bringing up the rear. nobody on the republican side anywhere has a number that high. it is different. >> i want to bring in john. the poll was taken primarily before the e-mail controversy on friday. at this point we -- do we know much about how that might factor into iowa voters' minds? >> no. as jeff weaver in the sanders campaign said if you look at the polling data most democrats don't care about this. hillary benefits -- i'm not saying it's a serious issue but hillary clinton benefits when republicans say she should be indicted already and thrown in jail already because it allows her to say look at the republicans coming after me. but i will sigh this whur out in

iowa, anderson ux don't find a lot of democrats, even bernie sanders' most ardent supporters who i say dislike hillary clinton. that's not the point. democrats just like republicans a fair amount of them want change and hillary clinton is in many ways campaigning for the third term. she says i'll be the continuity of barack obama. and a lot of democrats than they dislike president obama either but they live in these times where everything is churning in our politics and you run into a lot of people that want change and that's why you've seen bill clinton in the last few days saying hillary clinton is a change agent. a lot of younger voters who love bernie sanders and you find them on the college campuses, they don't remember the clintons but they know they're yesterday to them and bernie sanders is talking about change. that's the dynamics. it's not dislike of hillary clinton among democrats as much as democrats saying let's try something new. >> so if bernie sanders were, say, to lose but just by a tiny amount, would that still be a win for bernie sanders because he overperformed or does he have to win -- >> i think as suggested to jeff weaver i think he's overshot the runway now. i think anything short of a win will be -- the win will be given to hillary clinton.

>> it's a shock when you guys did in this 2008. i remember, my son was like a little burrito baby and we were in our little condo watching, and we thought -- we were for obama, we loved obama, but we thought if he came in second that would be great. we assumed hillary clinton was going to somehow pull off that clinton magic and when he came in first and she came in third everybody in our world, our lives changed. bernie has squandered that opportunity by saying he could get there. >> obama's win there was so impressive because it wasn't a home game for him. yeah, weighs from a neighboring state but he's from chicago, he's a community organizer, he's african-american. des moines is the only big city in iowa and the rest of the state is rural and he rocked and rolled there. this is a home game for bernie. >> the interesting point about that election was he was not the populist candidate in that election. john edwards was the populist candidate in that election. van, you know on your point about bernie and the things he stirred up. the register asked a really

interesting question which was do you think the system's rigged against people, everyday people, or do you think it works reasonably well? democrats by a large margin said rigged against people. but bernie was only leading by like 11 points among those voters. she was crushing him among those who said the system worked reasonably well. >> we've got to take a quick break. just ahead, what exactly is a caucus? what happens in we'll take you to a mock caucus to find out what goes on inside. ♪ (cell phone rings) where are you? well the squirrels are back in the attic. mom? your dad won't call an exterminator... can i call you back, mom? he says it's personal this time... if you're a mom, you call at the worst time. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. where are you? it's very loud there. are you taking a zumba class?

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on the eve of the iowa caucuses with all the polls and the final campaigning and all the analysis we don't want to neglect one important question. what the heck is a caucus anyway? randi kaye went to a mock caucus to explain it all. >> you all wouldn't mind filing, in we'd like to get started. >> i'd like to call this republican caucus to order. >> if you're caucusing as a republican if you wouldn't mind filing in and taking your seat. >> it's caucus night at drake university in des moines, iowa. >> will tlet me call this democ caucus to order. >> reporter: not the real thing yet. just a mock caucus to teach first-time caucusgoers how it works. this training session's called "wtf's a caucus?" >> how many times have you asked yourself that? wtf is a caucus? >> a lot. i googled it. it made every more confusing.

>> can somebody here help the situation? >> it's easy to get confused. republicans and democrats caucus on the same night but they do it differently. on the republican side voters hear a pitch from the candidate's surrogates. jeb bush jr. surprised everyone at this mock caucus. >> with that we'll start with jeb bush. >> reporter: practicing his own selling skills before the big night. >> good evening. my name is jeb bush jr. it is an honor to be here tonight at drake. go bulldogs. hope you guys come out and caucus on monday night. >> reporter: then republicans simply fill out a piece of paper with a candidate they want. >> once you have voted, please fold the paper in half and return it to the secretary. >> reporter: next the votes are counted and a winner named for that caucus site. >> we have a winner. looks like jeb bush. [ cheers ] >> the democratic caucus, as you can see because you have no chairs, is a little different from the republican caucus. >> reporter: now it's the democrats' turn. >> our process on the democratic side is a very active process. it's very dynamic.

there's a lot of engagement and enthusiasm. >> hrc! >> reporter: the democrats divide themselves into groups, each one supporting a different candidate. >> o'malley! >> reporter: so if you like martin o'malley you caucus with his supporters. drake student lara cox told us she's voting democratic but was still undecided. >> we're first in the nation, so everyone's kind of watching. it goes away and no one cares about iowa anymore. there's a lot of pressure. >> she's not a candidate who came out of nowhere. >> reporter: lara first caucused with hillary clinton supporters. >> i think that hillary is so deep in the establishment that i don't know if she really wants to change things or she just wants to be president. >> so the whole goal of this thing is to get 15%. >> reporter: then she caucused with bernie sanders' group. >> if the race ends up with donald trump and bernie sanders, do you think bernie sanders could get any moderate republican votes? >> reporter: she feels pressure from both sides, and time is running out.

>> how much time do we have? >> reporter: this is exactly what makes the democratic caucus so interesting. so much pressure from friends, neighbors, even roommates to get others to vote their way. >> one of my roommates is over here. she was trying to convince me. and one of my roommates is over here. and either way i have to go home to one of them and they're going to be mad. >> reporter: in the end lara decides to caucus for hillary clinton. mainly because she likes her experience. >> here i am. >> reporter: randi kaye. >> thank you all for coming out again. >> reporter: cnn, des moines, iowa. >> just ahead, the candidates flooded the airwaves with ads in iowa. more than $7 million worth. we'll take a look at what iowans have been seeing as the candidates try to win their votes next.

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welcome back. the candidates are doing their final campaigning the night before the iowa caucuses. meantime, off the stump the attempt to win voters has been

going on for quite a while with quite a big price tag. candidates have spent more than $77 million on advertising just in iowa up through this week according to a leading ad-tracking firm. take a look at some of what iowans have been seeing and hearing nonstop. ♪ they've all come to look for america ♪ >> i want you to know how much it has meant to me as i've traveled across the state to hear about people's hopes and struggles. and i know that because of that i will be a better president if i'm elected. >> this election is about defeating hillary clinton and about saving what makes america unique. >> i am pro choice in every respect. >> and what does trump think about iowa? >> how stupid are the people of iowa? >> donald trump. new york values. not ours. >> i'm donald trump, and i approve this message. >> it sounded like you wanted the bill to pass. >> of course i wanted the bill

to pass. >> my qualifications for president of the united states are rather narrow. is he or she god sfli does he or she love us? can he or she do the job? and finally, would they kill a duck and put them in a pot and make them a good duck gumbo? i've looked at the candidates. ted cruz is my man. he fits the bill. >> we can make real progress right now. >> i'm caucusing. >> i'm kausing for hillary clinton. >> i know we can. >> someone like marco rubio. >> go marco. ♪ all come to look for america >> i'm bernie sanders, and i approve this message. >> and back now with our panel. i mean, these things have been inundating the airwaves. different ads for different shows. and tonight marco rubio has, what, bought a 30-minute -- >> 30 minutes. he's running footage of his town halls. essentially a tv town hall ad.

no, you can't escape them. when i was out there last week you watch the news of course you want to watch the news programs to see what they're running during the news programs. i go to the gym and put on college basketball thinking i can escape. no, they get through too. >> i think rubio's running this big town hall conclusion thing because he spent less time there than anyone else and he's creating a virtual reality iowa campaign. >> do you think that's effective to buy a 30-minute spot? >> yes. >> we did it. i think it can be effective because it stands out from these 30-second ads that just fly by. sow might catch people's attention. i wonder given the intensity of the coverage, however, which trump has keyed, i wonder how much ads generally have had an impact here as opposed to the earned media. i do think the negative ads that trump and cruz have run against each other have had some effect, though, because you look at the numbers in the iowa poll and they've seen a real sharp decline in their favorable rating just in the last two weeks. >> although the birther stuff, according to the "des moines

register" poll, really hasn't had that much of an impact -- >> but he's been advertising on something else. >> that's right. i think the 30-minute ad allows you to cut through all the clutter to a great degree, put your biography out there in your words the way you want it out there, and it's probably worth the expense. i don't know. do you think it was worth the expense? >> i'll let you know tomorrow night. oh. by the time we did it we did it in the general election and we were in such a strong position that i think it just augmented what we had -- >> but the negative ads have the impact, particularly with jeb bush and marco rubio, of republicans saying why are we eating our own? and they're upset at jeb bush because they believe that marco rubio has a future with the party and could well become the party and they are -- why are you attacking them? >> you know why? because if you're jeb bush, your only chance is to do well in new hampshire and if marco rubio

does real well tomorrow night he's going to do well in new hampshire and that's the end of the bush campaign. so from the standpoint of jeb bush i understand why they're running those ads. >> he said he's running -- i asked him about it. he said, well, marco's running negative ads about me sort of. >> i think bernie sanders, probably the best ad of the season, i was in iowa. i was ironing my shirt. and the song came on. and you're drawn to the television to see that ad in a way that i think for the other ads you kind of tune them out. >> did you burn your shirt? >> i -- >> she felt the bern. >> check the expense accounts. >> felt the bern, huh? >> one of the things we're missing in terms of ads, donald trump like ronald reagan, arnold schwarzenegger and in iowa fred grandy, who was a tv star, was a major -- when a major cultural figure does this, they're coming into a race with decades of free advertising for them. whatever it is. their brand. whatever. and i somehow think this is helping fuel -- >> also donald trump to his

credit, and he has said this, has given more interviews than anybody else. he's been more accessible. you can't say that donald trump has not put himself out there. >> he is everywhere. >> right. >> he goes on the networks hostile to him. he goes on the ones friendly to him. >> fox apparently. >> what does it say about our culture that arnold schwarzenegger, fred grandy, and donald trump are major cultural figures? >> well -- >> we're going to ponder that as we -- >> only in america. >> we'll be right back. in her joint comfort...g ae karen: "she's single." ...and high levels of humiliation in her daughter. in just 7 days, your joint comfort can be your kid's discomfort. osteo bi-flex. made to move. ♪ ♪ those who define sophistication stand out. those who dare to redefine it stand apart.

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that does it for this edition of "360." thanks for watching. our countdown to iowa continues. our countdown to iowa continues. "cnn newsroom" starts now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm isha sesay. the clock has just struck midnight in iowa literally and politically. it is now caucus day there, where the first votes of the 2016 u.s. presidential nominating process are cast. and there is no clear front-runner for either party. here's what it looks like in the republican field. the latest "des moines register"/bloomberg politics poll shows donald trump with a narrow five-point lead over ted cruz. marco rubio, you see him there, is third at 15%. with ben carsoneh