attend, if they might want to, we'll encourage them to submit their names. we can usually all fill the slots. again, i'd rather encourage people and have them submit their names rather than hesitate. it's fairly -- we can do a good job, you can see in the crowd tonight, of finding the open slots. who did i take here? . . 4 4. .

resolution submitted. as indicated in no. 25, voting for perot is simple majority, 50% + one of your total caucuses. >> you are saying it is up to us to decide when they get five minutes. >> it depends on how long you want to stay there. people should have the opportunity to speak on behalf of the resolution, four or against it. i would suggest that you come in your mind before you get there, have a certain procedure in mind. as i indicated, a minute or two minutes pro or con for each side

for each resolution. >> you need a simple majority -- >> yes. >> i am doing this. what is an appropriate resolution? [laughter] >> john. oh, i thought you were going to answer that question. >> you do not want to have somebody -- just past the chairman a piece of paper pierre >> would someone like to give an example of a resolution? . pass the balanced

budget amendment. >> whose form is it? ok, just a couple of other housekeeping business. you'll see it in your sheet or in your packet. you also have a red and yellow sheet. we have a fundraiser coming up on february 18. while we have a captive audience of almost seven dozen people, we are asking you to send out these fliers. we only give you 20% of your attendance. we didn't give you enough for each. we do not have enough for everybody. most people should be able to get these. then we have another chic in their. you can either put these out where people are registering and they can take it or you can pass it on at the end. i would recommend putting these

out at the beginning. it has are facebook and our blogged name and our twitter feed. before you would turn, make sure you have everything, please. make sure you have your lincoln bag, please. [laughter] please. make sure you have your ballots, everything that you can collect, collect. >> according to your results, winner-take-all portion -- >> majority. the top vote-getter gets 395 and the next one gets 390, then it is 395. get all of your forms. if you are building, like where todd is and there are four

precincts and todd is the site manager, you take all of your stuff to your site manager. your site manager then will bring in on wednesday -- they do not know this yet -- they will bring in on wednesday -- we have a 12-hour opportunity from adm in the morning until 8:00 p.m. in the evening. bring everything to our headquarters. you will have to sign out. if the leader brings in -- like todd, if a precinct leader brings stuff to him, todd, make sure to have them signed the outside of the envelope. ok. yes. i would take a vote between those two thai people. -- those two tie people.

>> [inaudible] >> take all of your forms to your site manager. if you're the only precincts person at the building, keep all your stuff. the site managers will have all the information on where to come to our headquarters. who is are these? thank you. take all of your forms to the site manager. the site manager then collects everything. we will ask the site managers to collect the signs so we can use them again in 2014. and bring everything to our headquarters the next day. and then we get to start working in all that process and submitting it to the state party. any questions? roger. oh, i have some other things to

say. yes, roger. >> the chair the platform committee, they have questions about the process. there is a process that goes through. i am hoping that i in circulated a brief explanation. it may be a distinct explanation of a process for the people who want to understand how it works. it would be a brief statement that you can read. >> thank you, roger. a couple of additional things that were in your packet that may not have gone through, everybody should have a handy

dandy notebook paper. we tried to give everyone in supply depends. there probably will be more. it might be a good idea to bring a stack of pence from home. -- of pens from home. purple is all the caucus sites by precinct. terry was talking about parliamentary procedures. we should all have a handy dandy short form of parliamentary procedures in your packet. polling places, if somebody does not know where they will vote -- and we will go over this with the site manager shirley -- they have several options. they can look at the map and figure out where they live. you can look on b-31 here or

look on this one and they will see where they are caucusing based on the map. if they cannot find their place on the map and they say, i remember that in 2010, i voted at this place, you can look at the polling for 2010 and look at the place where they voted. if they are there, they are in b-12. you should also have in your packet -- we made signs -- they are either in your pets for the site manager packet -- they are signs that say "precinct cost missing here -- "precinct caucusing here are" so that people know which precincts are at their building.

there are republican party signs. everyone has congressional signs to put in their building with arrows that go that way and arrows that go that way. so when you get in your building, you will have to figure out where those go. we also have signs that say b- 31. you can put that sign on the room so that they know that is the precinct. it will be easy and clear for everybody. >> scotch tape? >> each site manager has scotch tape in their packet. >> you say that the chairs are responsible for getting their own signs up? >> in the site manager packet.

that is why they have to get there a little bit earlier. >> you put up signs that the actual polling place that the caucus will be held. so fliers will send that to the caucus will be in north sky or where ever. >> you may not the actual polling place? no, we did not do that. if someone would like to volunteer and good to all 63 polling places and do that, be my guest. if you know where your polling place will be and you think that would be a good idea, if you have the time, that would be a good thing if you're a volunteer to do that. voting, a general election. question. >> we phone in the presidential

polls, one name and one number of votes. >> cannot tell you how that process will look it because i have not told me. >> what do you have to report? >> they will -- it is not just that county vote. one candidate might get 5000 votes here. but in linn county, that candidate may only get 300 votes. so it is a big total. hot ever you report it, they will have to report the totals for eight candidates. >> that is a good idea for polling places. [inaudible] all of the speakers, they can have a colored sheet -- one-

minute warning -- so you can hold that up and they know the time limit. ok. another thing i did not mention, the same day voter registration, you need to have this sheet. it talks about the kind of identification needed for same- day voter registration. i would post these may be at the entrance to your room or your building rather than keeping it down. so if someone comes up and they say they want to register today, you may alert them to read this and say please make sure you can account yourself by one of these ways. there is a whole process for that. we have given each of you one of these to post up so that people can read those and make sure they have that information. >> so if somebody is not in the book --

>> they must complete. >> and another question i have, for elders one and elders to come in the election, if you live in this -- >> yes, right there. everyone will have one of those maps. you will be able to look at the map or if they remember where they voted the last time, that will tell them what precinct they are in. >> with regard to the county delegates process, do you have to be a precinct delegate to be a county delldelegate to? >> you mean a precinct leader? >> yes. >> no. >> is there a distribution of county delegates by precinct? >> there is a sheep in the

packet. it is based on the 2010 election and how many republicans voted. correct. >> does it matter by precinct? >> yes. that is how the formula is based on. >> so we have that she going in -- >> that is district and state. correct. to become a county delegate, you are voted on at the caucus. >> the county delegate? >> the county delegate must be voted on at the caucus. district and state, we are only taking interest. other questions? >> on the off and we do not have enough ballots? >> i thought about that. [laughter] i asked our executive committee about any suggestions and i

didn't get a response. so my suggestion would be, without giving everybody a thousand ballots, take off your last caller -- it is likely you will not use your last caller -- initial it and give it to the people to use as a presidential person and then they can write their candidate's name on it. if someone has a better suggestion, i am open to it. well, you will need that. you could if you have to, but the key point is initialing it. i know it is another thing for you to do. if you run out of ballots and you give it to somebody, you do not give it to somebody else. you want to keep control of that. >> we did run at of ballots last time. i did initial and pass those out.

that is another process, and hang up. >> a process in mind. some deals? >> the voter list that everyone has, anyone registered afterward, they still have to register at the door? >> yes. if they are not on that list -- and you will get complaints. people will say, i did it, i do not want to have to do it again. if they want to vote, they need to please fill out. we are really working hard to preserve the integrity of the process. you can mention that to them. we just want to maintain the integrity of the caucus voting process. >> that issue comes up all the time. i also work for the county in the regular elections.

that comes up all the time. there will have a beat-up old voter registration card and they have had for 30 years and they are up said. but they did not vote for an extended amount of time and they're off the rolls. state law process, it is good that they get introduced to it now because it will save us time in the general election. >> for the registration part, here's where we go into the hours of packet stuffing. she has 500 people in her caucus. we did not give her 500 registration forms. we estimated half. i would think that that is a pretty good -- we have given you enough blank registration forms to fulfill half of our projected attendance. so you should be good on that. and if you want to bring more,

you can bring some more. >> i wanted to emphasize, if you have not done it before, you really need to have volunteers helping you, helping with registration, maybe a separate little table, to elevate form or they can do it so they are not standing in line. -- to fill out a form where they can do it so they are not standing in line. it will make the evening so much better. that is not is because i am from a big caucus. >> i am understand. >> how long are we allowed to get to the -- >> the doors will open at 5:00. we're asking the site manager to be there at 5:00.

if you're in the caucus to want to get there at 5:00, you can. but at the minimum, they will get there at 530 -- at 5:30. >> [inaudible] >> yes, they can help you. sure. sure. [laughter] that is another point. people can come and observe. we have gotten calls from people across the country you want to come and observe. that is fine. two other things and then we will meet with the site managers and then we will be done. we have gotten calls from a lot of media, in a lot of national media. this is very exciting. but it can also be confusing at some point. carol will be our media person for that night. and we have these handy dandy media credentials. we will try to give these two

people before that night. so that you know who they are. if someone walks and with a camera or a microphone -- however, it is not required. there will be media that show up that day and they might want to go from one caucus to another caucus and they might bring an extra cameraman or an extra person. it is not required. it is just an extra added benefit that we are trying to do for all of you. any immediate questions -- in your packet, there is an important phone call list. any immediate questions that night to go to carol. and the caucus or facility questions should go to tom. his number is listed. we also have listed melissa's and john's phone number and grace phone number, -- and

greg's phone number, who has a city council meeting that morning. first, contact your site manager. they will have a cell phone number for somebody to call. >> would you like to know who was recording? >> that would be nice. but i do not want to have staff do something else. if that is something you can do and you do not feel like you're neglecting registration, or whatever, you can take a note and wright was there. you may have noticed that we have some cameras here today. we are lucky tonight, and fortunate, to have c-span filming us tonight. i understand it will be aired at

some time. but the really neat thing i would like to do with it is when they send me the link. i will send the link to all of you regarding this training. so if you feel like you might have a question next week or you look at something and think what did she say about this, i can remember? you can click on the link for the filming of tonight and hopefully get the question answered at that point. >> [inaudible] whatever they want to do? >> yes. what if somebody comes in with a laptop? it is likely, especially if it is a school, they will not be able to get into wireless anyway. it is pass code protected. >> media loves actuality. they will be putting microphones in people sought faces and wanting comments.

>> carol. >> if someone comes up to you and says, oh, you are a koppers chairman, we would like to talk to you. of course, talk with them. but as far as what they can do or they cannot do or were they should go or there is a question about the caucus party or why this site was selected or how we came up with numbers of things to give to people, things that people cannot answer, there's your man. any other questions? i asked that same question. some staff members of the state of viola came. i asked that same question.

i did not really get an answer. what happens if there is a blizzard? they really did not give me a clear-cut answer on that. he basically said we would just go with it. >> oh, my god. >> so what to the news. once everybody leaves, if you are a site manager, if you're the only person in your building, you are the site manager. if you can stay for just 10 more minutes, we have maps to give you and other information. please come up here. have some coffee, a bottle of water. thank you, everybody. [applause] >> ok, site managers, let's get started so we can be done. ok, first of all, we will hand out packets for buildings.

let's pass these out. we will name a building and raise your hand. we will give you a packet. john, can you help out? would. -- wood. >> west high school. >> middle school. >> bill matthews, where you? and everybody gets maps also. some get to maps. -- some get two maps.

blackrock hotel. who is at the blackrock? [laughter] , tom?s at the black hawk >> st. andrews. >> he is not here. riverdale heights. >> black hawk hotel? >> i think that is melissa. is the radisson melissa? ok. wait, wait, wait. no, no, no. jane, could you help pass out those maps. no. scott jr. high is john sebastian, i think. he is not here. mark twain elementary, who is

that one, tom? knights of columbus. he is not here. >> thank you. >> heidi center. well, that is the whole building. but he is helping you. that is a big building. you will be busy. >> central high school, hank, where are you? >> burqa with the school -- brentwood school. >> cody. could you pass that back, please? are you talking?

hey, nice to meet you. we are passing out the maps. no. sky-high, that is sebastian. your map is all a wall. you can take it down when you leave. radisson is julie. >> i am sure she is junior high. >> who is riverdale? is that you, frank? >> is that the voting? that is where they vote? >> armstrong. who is armstrong elementary? could you pass that back? you.ught i'd give it to you are supposed to have one. heidi center.

steve robinson, heidi center? >> black hawk hotel. >> hank, you're at central, right? we do not have to do that. thank you, tom. who is the fountain? and bill matthews, where are you? tayside? could you pass that back?

>> those of you to ask you something. >> if you remember, raise your hand. again, i would suggest, if you can, to bring more. he should all have taping your packets. now you have the map. but the maps out. if you're a single precinct, put it where she will register people. if you are a multiple recent white taught, then you might want to put your maps up -- if you are a multiple precinct like todd, they knew what to put your

maps up. >> you have a table registration. i am hoping multiple tables. >> it depends on location. >> and he has also requested sound systems for a lot of the locations. ok. before you leave tonight -- where is married? y? where is marrie if you could each take two of these signs -- is there somebody here from west high school? you get three. that is a bigger location. then i will give somebody my keys to my car. i am part in the back of the parking lot. if you could each go get a break for each of your signs appeared

if you already have one, that is fine. put these up when you get to your site. put these up where you think would be an appropriate site for people to see. check your entry area to make sure you have enough registration forms. if not, call your emergency contact. put your precinct map and your location site sheet so people know where they're supposed to go and they can look. everybody has extra forms. all the site managers have extra registration forms, extra of everything. as people and terror, if they have questions, tell them they need to be a pre-registered voter. we went through all of that. if they are confused about where they should be going, they can

either look at their map, determine their address, and then look at our site locations or they can look and see where they did last time. when the caucus is ready to start, we really need to have somebody fill out -- still at the that registration area. you need to have one of your volunteers stay there and direct people and answer questions. ok? i will come medina. what is your question. ?k, what is it appeare >> you have to be in the precinct to volunteer. >> anybody can volunteer. you have to be registered to volunteer. >> [inaudible] >> sure. they just cannot vote.

that is fine. you can take younger people. females? yes. we're trying to get young people involved. at the end of the caucus, everybody needs to bring their stuff to you. and then the next day, as i said, we have a 12-hour window from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. you have to bring all your stuff to headquarters. if you cannot, please call us and we will make other arrangements. and then my last line is rest and recover. thank you. another thing about these signs, because they did cost us some money and we would like to be able to use them the next time. >> everybody year should have

gotten my e-mail last weekend. >> you are off the hook for thursday. >> if you do not get it, i do not have your e-mail address. i have your cell phone and contact numbers. i also want to end knowledge [inaudible] also worked on the caucus committee. they are the emergency contact people. >> they will all visit their sites and their locations before hand. they will make sure that the people at the facility know what we are expecting. we are doing whatever we can to make sure that everything is covered. although, you know, there will be things that are not within

our control, but we will do the best that we can. any other questions? tom. >> in the packet, we have four -- >> i do not know. in your precinct packet, everybody got three things -- the chairman, the recorder, their names, and the contact numbers. call your secretary or your reporter and ask them to bring three people to help. that would be a good thing to do. other questions? ok. you need to get signs from mary. and can i give somebody my keys? john, can i give you my keys and

can you meet them at my car and take your brick? ok. thank you all very much. i appreciate it. good night. does anybody have vendor high school by accident by chance? -- bender high-school? [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011]

>> our coverage of events leading up to tuesday's caucuses continues this afternoon with mitt romney. he is making a campaign stop at the family table restaurant at 3:30 p.m. in atlantic, iowa. a little later, we will visit with newt gingrich at 5:30 p.m. eastern in waterloo. follow the candidates through the iowa caucuses here on c- span. >> tuesday, the road to the white house goes to america's heartland for the iowa caucuses. c-span coverage continues at des0 a.m. eastern live from > moines with "washington journal." at 8:00, c-span live coverage from central iowa followed by the entire caucasus results and candidate speeches. we will have live coverage from

another province from western iowa on c-span 2. c-span coverage is available online. >> coming up tomorrow on washington journal, a look ahead at tuesday's caucuses. the iowa state chair for the rick perry campaign will discuss their strategy and expectations. then we will hear from the house republican leader. and then the newt gingrich chair. then we will hear about the iowa caucus and its role in the election. "washington journal" every morning at 7:00 a.m. right here on c-span. republican presidential candidate ron paul said that all u.s. wars since world war ii have been unconstitutional since they have not been authorized by congress. he has also ruled out running as a third-party candidate if he does not receive the party

nomination. he is at an editorial board meeting. this is about an hour. >> and good morning. my name is rick green. with us today at our editorial board is ron paul, representative from the 14th district of texas. congressman paul is a candidate for the republican nomination for the president of the united states. we wanted to give you a couple of moments, a couple of minutes to talk about where you are with the campaign, some key points you are making out there to your supporters. we will ask you some questions after that. >> my campaign has been going on for a long time. i have been campaigning from the early 1970's for liberty. i want limited government, the rule of law, and the constitution. i got involved in politics inadvertently because it was a

place where i could express myself. those issues have been very important to me. i have been working on for a long time. there has been a tremendous change in the country and the interest in what i have been doing since the 1970's. i was worried even in the early- 1970's of the financial crisis such like the one we are suffering from right now. i continue this effort, especially in this campaign, because the whole country is looking for a new direction. not only is it different from the 1970's, but from 1994 when there was a change in congress, the year 2000 where there's a difference. but the big change in attitude which reflects upon our campaign has been the financial crisis which has been recognized now by just about everybody from 2008, the collapse of the financial system, which we are in the middle of. that is ongoing and it is very

serious. i think people in washington i know, whether it is the administration or congress, are just floundering because they have not addressed properly from my viewpoint. the views i expressed are not the most popular in washington. but in the last four years, the interest has exploded, which pleases me to no end. you take, for instance, the subject of monetary policy. we followed the austrian school of economics. we thought that was important as far as back as 1912. why we have booms and busts have to live been ignored. -- have totally been ignored. that has been around. but now a lot of people are looking because the usual answers of -- you have a little

recession, you spend more money, you print more money, you are a little bit more money, and congress spends a little bit more money. then you can snap back to a degree, not realizing that all you have done is patch the leak in the bubble. and then the inevitable is now here and there is no patching up the bubble. actually, the so-called success of those who believe differently than we do allowed the bubble to get bigger than ever. so we have a worldwide bubble, bigger than the history of the world. this has allowed the popularity of the views i have been working on to be much more acceptable because of the failure. so when i leave washington, when i come to ottawa, when i go to university campuses and talk to -- when i come to iowa, when i go to university campuses and

talk to people at town hall meetings, it has been different because we are in the middle of the day. we have gotten a lot of people in retirement age. they are very open to what i am talking about. it is sort of the conditions of the country, where we are on the business cycle, the need for change and the openness that people have no four different viewpoints -- with foreign policy, with our civil liberties, as well as our economic problems, and the unemployment. in that sense, i am very encouraged. of course, it reflects in our campaign. it is easier to raise money. it is easier to get supporters. we have better organization than we have had before. we are getting a lot of attention. and the volunteers are there. in our organization, what we have done is something that i do not watch day-to-day. my job is to keep doing what i

have been doing, i get people a little incentive and explanation of what our goals are. for that reason, i am very optimistic from a political sense of what we're doing. i also believe that some of which continue to do what we do in washington or change your ways, i believe we can turn this whole thing around and the country will be better off. >> one thing briefly about the economy and creating jobs and economic outlook -- i have one question about foreign policy. you introduced a bill in 1973 -- to dissolve war powers. you and drew up a policy to withdraw from the united

nations. are you an isolationist? >> no. the people would tend to be more isolationist then me are the people that criticize me for being isolationist because they are more internationalist thinking. there is nato and you are involved in the un and we need a presence in 150 countries and 900 basis. but they are the ones who are most anxious to put on tariffs and restrict trade and do what isolationists' do. they become mercantilists. they want trade barriers with cuba. how long do we need trade barriers with cuba? same way around the world. i want to make use of air 12,000 diplomats, talk to people and work out problems and be more engaged in the world.

and use military force and violence as a last resort and a properly under the constitution and not allow a president to do it on his own or do it under authority from the united nations or nato and congress reneging on their responsibilities. i see myself as the freest trader in congress and i am an internationalist in this sense that it should be all pawlenty and you have more diplomacy with people. -- it should be all correct and you have more diplomacy with people. this is what we have is all due to george bush. what we have is all due to george bush.

rick and said that we are for less war and all this, yet they end up doing more. as far as being isolationist, i think an isolationist is somebody who wants to wall themselves off. you hear it in their own campaigns, on our side. we have to isolate china, blaine china for everything, put on tariffs, and punish china. i do not want to do that. i am not the isolationist. they are the isolationists and they are making a lot of mistakes. >> you say you support wars with clear missions. cite some examples of missions we have been involved in where we had a clear mission. >> world war ii. it is a good example of how it works. the president did not go to war without going to congress. we knew the enemy was. we made the declaration of war.

everybody got behind it. in 40 years, thereabout, we conquered and won those wars. today, it is nebulous. we do not know who the enemy is. we go to war not against the government's, but we go to war against a group of people that are causing trouble and it ends for ever. then we go into nation-building and we go to war with false information. some people call them lies. when we went to war in iraq, no calcutta there, no weapons of mass destruction. -- no al qaeda they are, new weapons of mass destruction. when we lost a 500 people during these wars, -- we have lost 8500 people during these wars. we have not had real victories. we have the wounded filling up our veterans hospitals.

we have hundreds of thousands begging for help. there is an epidemic in many ways of suicide from people who have returned. i had a young veteran tell me the other day that he was so upset -- i do support military people, twice as much as everybody else. he saw his buddies killed over there and he realized what am i doing here? and then he comes home and he sees his friends committing suicide because their minds are twisted up. this to me makes no sense whatsoever. that is completely different from declaring war once the attacks us. >> have there been any other examples since world war ii? >> no, absolutely not. we are still suffering the consequences these last 10 years. $4 trillion was added to our national debt for this.

they were all unconstitutional. that is why address the subject of the war cars resolution. that was a reaction to vietnam. it was meant -- the intention was to restrain the president from doing this. too often what happens in washington, when you see an opportunity, you see a problem and they make things worse. that was why there was the war prisoners resolution. it will leave you in war for 90 days. once you're in war for 90 days, it is hard to come back. the president's all dislike it because they think they are restrained too much. but a constitutionalist let myself, we reject it because we think they get too much license constitution ise co quite adequate ongoing for. >> roosevelt would into world

war ii before going to congress. do you oppose what he did? >> absolutely. because he was maneuvering. if they are not well informed and they cause trouble, once you get in on, it is much more difficult. i have mentioned that our foreign policy stimulates hatred towards us. you cannot say that, well, you know, people messed up in the past and we do not care about that. if you do not learn a lesson from that and change the politics -- two great examples, ronald reagan and robert mcnamara -- when mcnamara wrote his memoirs, it was a confession of his mistakes. this was when he was getting pretty old.

he was asked by a reporter, does that mean you want to apologize for vietnam? he was a motivator. he said, what good is an apology. if you do not learn from this and change your policy, it means nothing. ronald reagan did something similar when he sent the marines into lebanon. i remember that clearly because i was in the congress and i spoke out against it. why are we do this? it is just trouble. and reagan said, i will never turn tail and leave. so he took us in there and we occupied. it stimulates the incentive for suicide terrorists. the israelis or their parents the french were there -- the israelis were there. the french were there. sectarianism was going on. we lost two hundred 41 marines and the marines came home. so reagan did exactly what he said he would do. i know i said that, he said in

his memoirs, but i changed my mind because i realized how irrational the politics was in that region. we should have been more neutral. if we had followed the policy of neutrality, our marines would be alive today. and that is a powerful message that we should listen to. i think we need to learn our lessons from that. so yes, some of the things that we did prior to world war ii, history is showing that it was not the best thing for us. it motivated and give incentives for people to attack us. that is probably more true with japan and it is with germany. but once you are at war, you have to win. and you get permission properly. then it is a lot harder. you do not have war descent during world war ii like you did during vietnam.

today, it is not so bad, but there is a lot of anti-war sentiment. 65% of the american people want to come home from afghanistan because we are broke. we are not winning the war and there is no end in sight. and it expands. it is an especially powerful issue when i talk with the younger people. and when i talk with the elderly people, i say, look, i have a plan where i can take care of the elderly who have become dependent by cutting spending. if we get nothing, you will get nothing. you will get printed money and it is worth nothing. so cut the money overseas. there with me on that. the military is with me on that. the young people are with me on that. the majority of americans are with me on that. yet the policies do not change. the policies are one party. it is the same thing over and

over again. no matter what they talk about, the presence around the world continues and expands. it is done in a moralistic way. we have the moral integrity to spread our business around the world. we are an exceptional nation and we have this obligation to do it. i consider that a very serious mistake. if we want to be an exceptional nation, which i think we are and have been in the past, i think what we should do is set a good standard, have peace and prosperity and offer that to everybody around the world. just think what we have achieved with peace in vietnam, but failed for 10 years between us and the french killing 1 million vietnamese. they are westernized. we did not have to fight the soviets. we did not have to fight the chinese. at the height of the cold war when they had missiles in cuba -- the month and was drafted -- i remember it well. this idea that we cannot talk to

people -- think of the ridicule heaped on an individual like myself for saying maybe we ought to talk to people before we start bombing them. that is what we should do. yet people say, no, you cannot talk to them. if we as a country can top to the murdering communists of china and the soviets who killed hundreds of millions of people and work out a deal, can we not talk to somebody who does not even have a nuclear weapon and try to work it out? why should we be so anxious to resort to war and secret prisons and torture and assassinations? it makes me rather sad to see this accepted as being a good american and patriotic. i have a strong disagreement with the sentiments.

>> you're talking about the peace dividend with bringing the troops home. that will not fix all of the financial problems. what do we need to do? >> go back do to balance the budget? >> go back to 1991. the cold war had ended and we have expanded everything. i cut hundreds of billions of dollars from overseas expenditures. i bring all of the troops home. through attrition, i make the military more streamlined. it takes a lot of cutting. i want to cut five departments. i want to cut $1 trillion. >> those five departments don't get you $1 trillion. where's the rest of its? ? >> it goes back to the 2006

budget. foreign 8 itself is just a part of that. our expenditures? a couple of hundred billion. >> that includes military spending. >> a lot of it is military, but not defense. i would have a lot of -- a stronger defense. that is where the dilemma is in washington. republicans are known. they would be hysterical if you cut a nickel. but the democrats are not willing to cut it either. obama wants more money. his secretary wants more money for this stuff. i want to bring all of these troops home. what is our president doing

double he is putting troops in australia because he is afraid china is going to attack us. it does not make any sense. we does not -- we do not have any money. we want to preserve enough funding to take care of the children and the elderly dependent on medicare and social security, which is a narrow group of people i want to protect. we have condition them to be so dependent. everything else is up for grabs for cutting. a budget can be thousands of pages long. ours is an. it is more generalized. it comes up with $1 trillion. >> if you protect the elderly, you have not cut $1 trillion out of the budget. >> we really do cut enough. it was not easy. as a matter of fact, i wanted to balance the budget in one year.

it was tough for me to really do its bank. we have some transition accounts for educational programs and medical programs. if you get rid of the department of energy, what are you going to do with the control of nuclear power? we set aside funds for that. we came up with $1 trillion. a lot of it is with a reduction back to the 2006 budget. >> what about the projected deficit? >> we go out three years. by our projection, we would be to a balanced budget. that would take care of the other $600 trillion. if we gave reassurance and did everything right, business would boom. we would get the reassurance, we would have low taxes and less

regulation and we would bring capital back into this country and we would not be putting money into bombs and you did not have an increase in the standard of living here. that money would be sent back here. it would be encouraging because there would be a lot of the regulation -- deregulation. there is no incentive right now. people are not anxious to start businesses here. they can do it easier in china than they can hear. i had one businessman tell me it took him three weeks in china. it would have taken him three weeks to get the permit to open up a plant. >> do we want to turn the united states into a china where you read about the quality of the air in some of the urban areas there and the pollution?

parts of the lack of regulatory involvement in china is almost like, we do not care what -- >> it is getting worse. they are doing something. it is a big problem. nobody has a right to pollute. we are much further advanced on property rights. they would have the right to pollute. they would have to not pollute the air. we can do it bank. we can be competitive. if we do not do it and we allow all of our jobs to go overseas, it will be devastating. that is what has happened. if somebody has made some money overseas, we charge them 35% in

corporate taxes. why come back? their job is to be productive. that is what they are in business for. that is what markets are for. if we change the conditions, you do not have to give up on environmental control. it would be done differently. i think it was a lack of understanding of property rights that allowed the pollution to occur during the industrial revolution. it was the park -- the partnership between big government and big business. they got together. i lived in pittsburgh. the air was polluted by permission of the courts. pittsburgh got cleaned up without the epa carry it is not like he needs 10,000 bureaucrats from washington to come to pittsburgh and tell them what to do. they decided this is guilty and they cleaned up their act. >> if you support diplomacy, why

did you oppose membership in the united nations? >> is a lack of sovereignty. -- it is a lack of sovereignty. the first day the united nations did was to put us into a war that was on declared. congress did not voted for its bank. we went in and how many americans were killed. >> the u.n. did not declare that war. >> the u.n. gave us the authority to go there and german accepted. it came from the congress. it is a loss of sovereignty. how did we go into libya? the president just flaunted it. he just set, i am going and there was a u.n. resolution. we are in afghanistan under

night fell. -- under nato. it is not a good investment. it should be spent here at home. those are the kinds of things i would not spend money on. >> is there any model of an international peace organization that you would support the united states being in? >> the united nations is there for someone to get control over it. who is controlling the organization? we have a lot of control because we have a lot of money. orchestrating it does not give us more peace. it just means they become tools of our foreign policy. the idea that if you do not have another government later does not mean you did not want to use diplomacy and talk to people. it was not the u.n. that saved us from a nuclear clash in october of 1962. it had to do with common sense

between the two leaders who did not want to blow up the world. and it worked out. >> you criticize using the moral imperative as a rationale for going to war. is there any reason whatsoever, any condition under which you would use the moral imperative for going to war? or would you go to war only if the united states were attacked? >> the constitution is clear. the moral responsibility is to defend the people of this country is to obey the law. the moral imperative is not to say that somebody needs us and to take your money and draft other people also kids and say we are going to go there and make that a better place. that was the motivation of the jacobins. they had a moral imperative, but it ended badly. world war i was a moral

imperative to make the world safer for democracy. it is not a greater democracy. the moral imperative they claim for this middle east stuff is to give them a democratic government. at the same time, we are best friends with the dictators of saudi arabia and the other dictators we support it like we used to support sedan hussain. by moral imperative, they mean democracy and we are going to force them -- was set upon them. what about the democracy in this country? if you ever came to the conclusion that the guilty parties are seminar, which they are, they both endorsed it foreign policy. they both endorsed the federal reserve and the entitlement system. where does somebody go? where do they go? you cannot go into a certain party. it is not available because the laws are written by the

republicans and the democrats. in the major debates, who controls the debates when you have next november? it will be between the republicans and democrats. it is not like it used to be when the league of women voters it? what right do we have that we have a moral imperative to impose our goodness on them. ? >> what about the holocaust? >> we were involved in world war ii. the people who committed the holocaust declared war against us. i do not see the issue. >> if germany were not at war -- >> our government does not happen -- have it. if it were a threat to our

national security, i would not be the decision maker. that is the u.s. congress. i do not think that is necessary. if people care, they should have the right to go over there and pick up a rifle and spend their money and do whatever they want. i do not have the moral authority to compel you and go over and settle a dispute. think of all the episodes. how many times has that happened in africa? they are killing millions of people in these wars in poor countries of africa. nobody pays any attention. there has to be a moral imperative there. which ones are you going to pick and choose? is in less. -- it is endless. it is so hypocritical. at the same time, we prop up the dictators. we propped up the shot of iran. we propped up all the kings who

practice a real law in saudi arabia. 15 out of 19 come here and try to kill us all. then we pretend like we are going to get rid of a dictator that hated the iranians and hated al qaeda. we throw him out. he gets rid of everyone. when we take care of iraq, we get rid of all the christians and al qaeda comes in. it makes no sense whatsoever. i do not believe i will persuade the majority of the american people from the moral argument. the majority of the american people are with me right now. half of them understand what i am is saying. the other half know we are broke and we cannot afford it. the other group that knows exactly what i am doing are the military people. they want to come home. they see no future in this. that is why they give me their support overwhelmingly. >> what about a third-party run?

>> i am not planning on doing that. i do not want to. a why shouldn't there be third-party alternative? >> because of what i just described. it is a losing venture. you would not have me in here. he would not be talking to me. >> a lot of republicans say you do not a whole lot of republican viewpoint. >> it is the funniest thing in the world. take a look at the republican platform. they talk about personal liberty, free markets, national defense. i am the best on all of those. i am the one who wants to balance the budget. i care about personal liberty and all of the things they talk about. and then they say i am not a republican? anybody who buys into that is not listening. i am closer to the republican platform than any of the others.

>> so they are republicans in name only. is that what you are saying? >> they do not of the platforms that republicans profess to believe in, like i do. they should be called on it. >> there is a test of christian conservative principles. where would you say you fall in the spectrum of candidates on social conservatism? >> i am conservative on social issues. i strongly believe that life is precious and a gift from our creator. if you do not believe and protect life, you cannot protect liberty. if you do not understand the essence of life, you cannot protect liberty. >> women should not have the right to protect -- to choose abortion? >> someone should speak for the

fetus. i have seen babies in the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy as a human being. who speaks for a one-minute old baby? does a one-minute old baby have a right? what the baby is left their? do you throw it in the garbage and kill its? no. someone's picks for a one-minute old baby. why does the thetis been excluded? who speaks for it. >> so we have no moral imperative for the holocaust, but we have a moral imperative for a fetus? is that what you are saying? >> i do not see the connection at all. we are not going over to china to see we should not -- to say we should not abort female fetuses. you say the state of iowa has the right to protect a fetus one

minute before birth because the fetus deserves protection and as a freedom of choice to live or not. under our constitution, does it permit i want to have a law that permits that? the other side says it is not a life. is not human and it is not a act of violence to destroy the unborn. the federal government has no authority whatsoever to tell i was to decide what they should do with what they construe as by land acts. that is like saying, you are allowed to prosecute people for first-degree murder, but not for manslaughter. these are difficult subject. the founders were geniuses at this, not having one monolithic solution for the home -- the whole country. different states would do it different ways. there is a strong argument.

i am aware of it. is be on board and the mother comes to my office and i give the wrong drug and what if -- is the mother comes to my office and i give the wrong drug and the it is guys, i am in big trouble. -- and it dies, i am in big trouble. what if there is a conception and it bothered dies? inheritance rights are determined by the date of conception. the father would be involved. there is every president in the world where there is a legal being there that has qualified for protection. you cannot say, it is illegal here now, but under other conditions, if the mother makes

her argument and says you cannot tell me what to do, it becomes difficult. i have been in the ob business for a long time. i know all the pros and cons and the difficult situations. i do not want amendments to the constitution. i do not think it is the prerogative of the federal government to get involved. >> as president, would you select supreme court justices who were opposed to abortion? >> i would select supreme court justices who understand the constitution. i want to know what they think about the first amendment. i want to know how they reflect on the bill of rights, on property rights, on the general welfare clause come on the interstate commerce clause. i want to know what they think about it necessary and proper clause.

their whole issue on abortion would be less important because their proper position would have been on roe versus wade. >> and describe yourself as a constitutionalist, you said no law should be passed unless the constitution authorizes it. am i right that you would say most laws on the books do not have a constitutional basis? >> and all of the legislation done by executive orders. that is why we are in this mess. we do not have the rule of law. we have a government now that has known that we have endorsed torture. we have rejected expense of habeus corpus. we have endorsed assassination by our president. one person deciding which

americans can be assassinated and nobody is saying anything. >> with drones? >> however. and even when they kill a 16- year-old boy who happens to be the son of a man who was not nice. we should be outraged over this. if we accept this without saying anything, we are in big trouble. that is why the rule of law is so important. that is discouraging. i can go out and i talk like this to the college kids and two older groups and i talk to them about bringing our troops home. the recession is good. >> if you were in the white house during the past three years or so, would you have had a different strategy as related to sit down to san as the president had? >> no, i voted for that.

i would have been different 10 years ago. we voted for the authority to go after individuals responsible for 9/11. we had him trapped in torralba laura -- tora bora. we forgot about him. we have to go after iraq. iraq had nothing to do with it. i lament the fact that it took 10 years. i also introduce something that could have prevented them from going into this and less -- endless war. when jefferson had people going after the pirates, it was not the government. we would hire people and this

was legally recognized internationally. even though you would have this authority, the authority was limited to go after certain people. it was not the authority to go and the law less. remember how ross perot dealt with this hostages in iran. he hired some ex military special forces and he went over there and he pulled it off. he got his people out. when we attempted to do it, it ended up in a disaster. think of what 500 million or a billion dollars would have meant in saving the lives of americans who are casualties now and how many innocent iraqis. it is close to 1 million iraqis who have died. there are alternatives.

that is when you live within the confines of the constitution and always tried to hold back on the military instead of saying we are powerful and we will do it. what this did not bring peace if you do not know how to use them. weapons can be used to defend our country and keeping people from threatening us. that cannot solve this problem. that is why the reprisal was a great idea. i endorse that idea. if we are rested and captured and gave trials to people, it would have been interesting to find out what bin laden would have told people. israel gave a trial to all of

the nazi war criminals. can you think of the height of anger and the war criminals that participated in the holocaust? we gave them trials. >> if we had the opportunity to take them out during the war, we would have done iit. you are talking about after 9/11. that does not give a 34 the drone strikes. >> they are not being charged with participating in the 9/11. >> we have declared war on terrorists. >> who did? i would like to see the document. terrorism is nothing like criminality. terrorism is attacking. they want you to think you are in a war atmosphere so they can

violate u.s. civil liberties. when a war is going on, they can undermine your liberty here at home. i think it is dangerous. it is a toxic term to generate enough fear to get the people in the congress to capitulate. if you do not agree with it, you are on american. you do not care if you are weak on -- unamerican. >> how do you reconcile the interests in the gay marriage with the liberty, pursuit of happiness? what is the role of government in ththere? >> that is my ideal. just to butt out.

i have been married for 54 years. i think a lot of mayors. i know what the dictionary says about how america should be and is. i did not voted for the marriage amendment. to me, it is defining a word. if you want to define it one way for me or the other way, at it sounds like a first amendment issue. why should they make me except their definition? i want the government out. these states have a lot more authority than the federal government has. i would rather see it the outside of government and then we would not be arguing about this. >> the state of marriage under tax laws conveys certain

privileges that do not go to those who are unmarried. >> i would probably change the tax code and get rid of all the taxes. that would be the solution to that. traditionally, if you go back in history and you want to find tradition, you went to the bible. people would get married in their churches. it seems like a wonderful solution. you can have your definition. i will have your -- i will have my definition. i will not tell you what to believe and you do not tell me what to believe. i think it is wonderful. the iowathat what supreme court did in iowa? >> bill/not familiar enough to know what they did.

-- i am not familiar enough to know what they did. the states would not necessarily agree. i am giving my personal opinion about what should be done. under the constitution, the federal government should not have say. the states would still have the authority to do what they wanted. >> is there any federal role in bringing a sense of the quality across the country so that the person who lives in texas is not left with fewer rights and liberties and the person who lives in iowa? there are some states in the south probably where there would be a sense of, we really do not

think blacks are the same as whites. >> that probably has been taken care of. >> it was the government that did it. >> the government was at fault. the government was at fault with the slave issue. national laws, the 14th the national laws, the 14th amendment did apply. you could not deny them their rights. the discrimination now is indeed -- in the judicial system. if you look at the people who end up getting the death penalty, it does not seem to be fair and balanced. look at the number of people who have been in prison for drug usage. 12% or so are black. 30% are arrested 0.50% are in prison. those who do not get the death penalty and dunite get arrested

tend to be wealthy and they tend to be white. government has an influence on the because you're not allowed to demonstrate -- to discriminate. you cannot treat black people in a certain way than you should. >> you find yourself a free- market person believer. >> i think there is a pretty good argument for that. that is the ideal. free-market people would argue that. >> would you? >> in a way, that is what the founders argued. that is why they gave as interstate commerce clause. but they have now been worse lead distorted. they now regulate rather than deregulate. conditions today are really tough for economic reasons.

we have people who come over our borders, go to the hospital and deliver a baby and the baby gets automatic citizenship. and then these hospitals signed up for welfare programs and they get charged a lot of money. the welfare state interferes with it. if you had a true free market, a healthy economy, i believe that we should have a much more generous approach to immigration in our work force. i would not say that just walking in and out under today's circumstances would be a good idea. >> but if the market calls for an x number of workers from mexico -- >> that is really what we should work for because, even with the problems we have today, i still have people coming to my office looking for workers. there are jobs out there. but you have to be trained.

our system of education, since it has been taken over by the federal government, the only thing they come out of college with is debt. they cannot take the technological jobs. so they say get me somebody from japan or india. so we messed up our economy so badly that just bringing more people in that will bring their families over and go into welfare rolls, that will compound our problems. it is a problem in california as it is in texas because there is no control at all. our hospitals have to close and our schools are bankrupt. it is a serious problem. even if we were very generous in our history, we never had a free emigration where everybody came in and came through. back then, it was on health

reasons. >> what about regulating beyond the constitutional restrictions might be the result of national consensus, that something that happened in the democratic process where we have a national standard for something? would you make allowances for that? >> yes, if you did it properly. on education, let's say that the consensus is that we love the federal government running education, you should change the constitution. if you won national laws, you have to change the constitution. if you do it without changing the constitution, you diminish the role of law. that is why we go to war without a declaration. guess who wants net national regulations the morris -- the most? it is corporations.

most of the time, the left in the congress mock the republicans because they are opposed to some of the states' rights issues because they tend to support nationalizing regulations. they want more regulations because business is what this and they do not want restrictive regulations by the states. if you want the federal government to do it, you should modify the constitution. otherwise, you can throw the constitution out. there's not much left to it. this thing will be so out of control -- the privacy is gone, of the patriot act controls, the tsa, we do not care -- it just goes on and on. you have to be cautious. if you want federal regulation, you have to change the constitution. >> how would you balance free

trade against american business? >> free trade is good for american businesses. this cliche or myth is that, if we do not have free trade, if you have free trade it hurts us, then we have to manipulate interest rates -- no, i could do not have interest rates, you do not -- if you do not have free trade, you have to manipulate interest rates. everybody is competing. we lower hours, china lowers theirs, we scream at them, and that leads to trade wars. then you go to the wto, right now that is the argument. canada wants to go to the wto to get sanctions put on for the benefit of the businesses. that is a myth point that is good for a couple of weeks or months, but then the price is a just and the prices go up.

-- the prices and just and the prices go up. -- the prices adjust and the prices go up. we have to improve our productivity and our efficiency and we can completcompete. we did that early in our history. but we cannot do that now because we have undermined this whole concept of the market economy. >> what is the government's responsibility in providing support for people in poverty? >> government responsibility? >> such as welfare programs. >> their responsibility for the poor is to provide the maximum prosperity and the maximum jobs for people so that there is very few poor. if you're indicating that maybe this would invite the force of

government to come and extract funds from one group to give to another group, that would be very bad. it would be like the housing program did. that was the program -- print money, force banks to give bad loans and risky loans, and everybody gets a house. big industries, the mortgage industries, fannie mae and freddie mac ripped off the banks, get into derivatives, and then the housing bubble bursts. of that the bailout? they got the bailout. what about the people that you wanted to help? they lost their jobs and they lost their houses pierre >> regardless of how we got there, there are 15 million americans living in party right now. >> under my program, i have a transition program. all of my cats are from the big industries, the corporate welfare, the overseas spending, and the only way you can protect these people who become

dependent is doing what i am talking about. that does not mean that i would endorse is forever. but if we continue to do this, everybody will suffer because there will be less wealth, more poverty. so i preserve in my program taking care of those who are indigent -- >> just a couple of minutes left in this conversation with ron paul. his son will be having an event moines tomorrow.ornindes we're leaving this to go to atlantic, iowa. mitt romney is meeting with constituents. live coverage now on c-span. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> very youngest son as well. he is everyone's favorite brother.

we are delighted to have them here with us as well today. we are excited about being in iowa. if is an important day coming up and we are looking for to it. let's hear how mitt romney will fix all of the problems in the country. thank you, you guys. i do not want to keep you a long time. you are standing up and you're getting crushed by camera people and you can hardly see as. so i will not go on for a long time. this election is not about president obama. it is about the soul of america. i believe in principles upon which this country was founded. i believe that when the founders drafted -- crafted this country that the constitution had real meaning not adjust for them, but for our time. as you know, those rights did not from the state, from the government, but from our creator.

life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. the pursuit of happiness refers to the fact that, in this country, people are free to choose their course in life as they wish. we are not limited by the circumstances of our birth or by the direction of the government. we became an opportunity nation, the place where people from all over the world wanted to come because this is the land of hope and opportunity. i believe in those principles. i believe in that wonderful hym, "america the beautiful." this is not just about their time when they were right in that declaration and the constitution. it is about our time as well. this opportunity nation, this free nation continues to be a beacon to the world and a shining city on the hill. i look at our president and i do not think he understands that america. i do not think he understands

the power of the principles upon which this nation was founded. i do not think that he understands that an opportunity society, the american society is one that has economic vitality and the greatness of our people. i think the president faces inspiration from the social democrats of europe. i think he pushes against the freedoms of the opportunity of americas society and tries to accentuate an entitlement society where the government takes from some and give to others. i believe in american society. i believe and an opportunity society. i believe in the principles of the founders. i don't want to radically transform america. i want to restore america to the things that made america great. [applause] i get asked now and then how you will do all of these things. i will start by telling you that we will have to stop spending more money than we take in.

it is definitely wrong. [applause] it is wrong for our economy and it is wrong for our kids. it is simply immoral. and there are other things so do. one, i would look every spending program we have and see if it passes the following test. is this program so critical to america that we should be borrowing money from china to pay for it? and if it feels that test, i will kill the program. i have a list of programs like that. on top of that list is obama carcare, [applause] there are some things we will keep, that we need to keep good government needs to provide a safety net for the poor and those who cannot provide for themselves. but that safety net is better managed at the state level than the federal level. so i will return programs like medicaid back to the states,

giving them the opportunity to care for their own people in the way they know best. then turning some programs back to states -- the first thing i will do is make the remaining government itself more efficient. i will reduce employment by 10% through attrition and i will link the pay of federal workers to the pay of people in the private sector. i do not think that people who are government services should make more than the people who are paying for them. [applause] these have been a tough three years. i think people recognize increasingly that our president has failed us. he has failed us in our economy. he is trying to find someone to blame. i know there is a do-nothing congress and that this is all of congress's fault. i think he is forgetting that he had a democrat, is for the first two years. he borrowed $787 billion and

told us of that, if we let him borrow that kind of money, he would keep unemployment below 8%. it has not been below 8% since then. he has failed. it is an example of failure to see also what is happening to the median income in america. the median and come of dropped by 24% in the last four years. i care back in those people back to work. it is a tragedy when people lose a job. i want to make sure that we do our very best to get people back to work. i and instead have the private sector works. i have seen jobs come and go. -- i understand how the private sector works. i have seen jobs come and go. we have learned that iran has developed a nuclear bomb for the purposes of their power system,

but of course, it is also a device which can be transformed into nuclear weaponry. they also announced that they have successfully tested a surface-to-air missile. iran represents a great threat to the world, probably the greatest threat that the world will face in the next decade. this president came into office with his own plan to deal with iran appeared he said he would engage iran. he would meet with ahmadinejad in his first year. we now know how well that engagement policy has worked. those crippling sanctions never got put in place. the voices of dissent kept silent parent and when the people of iran wondered if there was a military option considered, it was very clear that it was not something that was on the table. i want to make sure that the people of this nation understand that he failed us here at home and dealing with the greatest threat we face which comes from iran overseas. this is a failed presidency.

when he was on "the today show," a few weeks after being inaugurated, he was asked what we do with your presidency? he said, i can i get this economy to turn around its three years, i am looking at a one- term proposition. we will get him out of office. [applause] we will restore this nation to the economic powerhouse with been. we will do our best to get our people employed again, to get rising incomes again, and to deal with our challenges abroad by showing american resolve and strength. i love this country. i love the principles upon which it was founded point i am delighted to be with my family. my family got me into this. my wife convinced me to run again, believing that i had spent my life in the private sector and knowing how jobs come and go, that i was in a good position to get the private sector and this economy going again. i want to help small business succeed and thrive. i want to get americans back to

work. i want us to be prosperous. i want us to be strong. and i want to restore the great principles that made us the grandest city on a hill. i remember a time and you remember a time when you were thinking about what movie would go to a the end of the week as opposed to whether you could provide meals at the end of the week. i remember a time when you are not afraid to look at your retirement account or the price at the pump. a time when you were thinking about your retirement and where you might go for your retirement arather than wondering whether you will get to retire. hi want to get this back to our destiny, to get back our extraordinary vitality and energy and passion and inventiveness and pioneering spirit that makes america the powerhouse that we are.

i love this country. i will bring back america with your help. thank you so much, you guys. get out to the caucus on tuesday night. thank you. [applause]

>> i will do my very best. thank you. thank you for being here today. how are you? good to see you.

look at this. how're you, sir? it is good to meet you. thank you. how are you? i can believe your year. >> i am everywhere. -- i cannot believe you are here. >> i am everywhere. [laughter] >> thank you very much. i appreciate that. >> we have some volunteers from out of state. >> did you hear me back here? >> yes, definitely. >> that is great. thank you. thank you for your help. british accent? [laughter] thank you so much. thank you for your help.

>> a question about china, sir. >> jodi. >> can i ask you a question, sir? >> sure. >> about 10 appeared >> yes. >> -- about china. >> yes. >> how can we have fair trade and still continue to trade with them? >> we need to make sure that they continue to trade and follow the rules. we need to make sure they begin to buy more what they have to sell. i understand they are buying more pork products than they have in the past. i want to make sure that they do not cheat and kill businesses in this country. if they do, we will have what we have. i will keep on battling. thank you. >> we need to spend some time.

thank you. [laughter] >> nice seeing you. >> a little snow on the ground. where is your camera? ok, right there. thank you. look at that camera. holy cow. ok, give them the camera. >> we were with you in birmingham. >> holding down. will the down payment keep building -- hold it down. hold it down. keep holding. there you go.

thank you very much. thank you. i appreciate that. thank you. how are you? young lady, good to see you. what is this? no predictions?

i sure hope you do really well. that is good to hear. hi there. how're you doing? thank you for being here today. that is wonderful. solos the farmer, she or you? >> -- so who is the farmer, she or you? >> both of us. >> that is great. that is wonderful. what a blessing. thank you. good luck. hi, how are you? nice to see you. thank you. it is great to be here today. ok, 3, 2, 1. it is hard for pollsters to know who is going to come out. >> you are. >> i am glad to see the kind of crowd we are seeing. it is exciting coming through

here. >> i have not heard addressed more about controlling medicare costs in medical facilities. >> i wrote a book called "no apologies." i have a chapter in there about health care in keeping the cost of health care down. one is the noneconomic damages that come from malpractices penned some estimate as low as $12 billion per year and others have it as much as $700 billion per year. >> du fill -- do you feel that is a state issue? >> i will push it at the national level. how are you? a good to see you. is your dad around here and your grandmother? that is great. look at that. you have my name on there. that is interesting. i will sign that. which newspaper is this?

oh that is the "des moines register." >> oh, my god. >> i hope i can help you. i would do very best to find work for the american people. love you. all the best to you. how are you? >> find your bank is a much for including atlantic. >> you're very kind. -- how are you? >> thank you for including atlantic. >> you are very kind.

>> that is a packed crowd at the family table restaurant in atlanta, iowa appeared later today, we will continue with our road to the white house coverage. newt gingrich will be at a meet

and greet at waterloo, iowa appeared also, more road to the white house coverage tomorrow. ron paul and his that will be that tomorrow. we will have that starting at around 12:00 p.m. eastern. and mitt romney will have a a another rally in i it was that you can see beginning at 9:40 eastern here with c-span live coverage of that event. some of the campaign advertisements running in iowa this weekend. >> i married my high-school sweetheart, but first, i had to wait as he volunteered for the air force and from planes all over the world. he had his duty as a captain, and then he returned home to work with his dad and asked me to marry him. these are values we still

believe and, and we know washington, d.c., it can use some of that. >> i am rick perry, and i approve of this message. ♪

>> i am rick santorum, and i approved of this mission. >> michelle obama when she first appeared on the scene. >> a fiscal conservative. >> i like her stand on immigration. she will be tough on that. >> as dahlias will be carried into the white house. >> the american people. >> the personal experience in congress. a real positive campaign from here on out. >> tuesday, the road to the white house goes through the iowa caucuses. the c-span coverage begins talking with political experts and taking your calls. later at 7:00 a.m., the caucus process and the state of the presidential race. then, at 8:00, coverage from

central iowa followed by the results and the speeches of candidates. we will have live coverage of another caucus on c-span2. the c-span coverage of the iowa caucuses are available on-line 2012.span's.org/campaign >> tomorrow, the chair of the rick perry campaign will discuss their expectations in iowa. we will then hear from a house republican leader and the chair for and the newt gingrich campaign. and then we have the governor from iowa. "washington journal" takes your calls every morning starting at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c- span. a discussion now on the final "des moines register" poll taken before the caucuses.

the results showed mitt romney winning that poll. this is about 40 minutes. >> our viewers are looking at a picture of the ira was state capital in des moines, and that is where we will be talking to our next guest. rick santorum americans -- making some gains. welcome to the program. >> it is great to be here. >> why is rick santorum moving up like he is? >> one of the things that was a striking was that the first two days was sort of one race, and

this fact and looked like a completely different race. you just have a completely different surge. he doubled his support. use sane numbers falling for ron paul. mitt romney holding steady. this is sort of a dream scenario, because almost anything could happen. >> you mentioned rick santorum has practically moved in to become a resident of ottawa, and governor romney on the other hand has not been there that much, and yet his numbers are double, governor romney has numbers that are almost double what santorum has. why why do you think it has taken so long for the santoro campaign to catch fire? >> well, rick santorum spent a lot of time in the state. he went to a lot of events. he was not drawn a very big

crowds. he did not have that much money to put a big organization and and really been locking people into support for him, but he has seen a lot of people just in very small groups, so one level of is how many people did he actually touch, versus the mitt romney crab, which are in the hundreds. the other is that it is sort of in our dna to shop around and take a look at the candidates. mitt romney was a known entity. getting a feel for the lay of the land and a sense of taking the measure of the candidates and who they think will be the strongest person going forward. mitt romney paid very little attention to the state, and a lot of the support he has is residual from four years ago. he has an organization in place. we do not see it yet in his numbers. >> you talk about them shopping

around. the three candidates at the bottom of the poll, newt gingrich, governor perry, and representative bachman, at one time, all of them were at the top, and they were the top tier candidates. what has this shown you as a pollster of what the folks in iowa are thinking about and how they have changed their minds and sort of reverse the order? >> this is a reality that i am just now making out. it is maybe like the on-line shopping, where you do know not -- do not know what it is until it arrives. focusing on debates, focusing on advertising rather than meeting people in their backyards over the summer, going to the ranches around the state, which is apparently the political

preference for these candidates, and i think that what happens is you hear something in a debate and you hear a 30-second answer or a 60-second answer, maybe an exchange, and you hear something you like. that is what this candidates are trying to make happen. that is the one i think is going to do best, and then you learn more about the candidate. in the old days, learning more would happen more in somebody's living room, more in a coffee shop, and you could get an up close and personal feel of the person. we have had less of that this time around, and i think that is partly why there is more volatility in terms of who people are aligning with. >> we are talking with someone from "des moines register." if you want to get involved in the conversation, you can give

us a call. we have a number for republicans and democrats and independents. our special line for the iowa residents. our first call comes from paul of pennsylvania. regina on the line. you are on "washington journal." don happy new year, everyone. >> -- happy new year, everyone. forced abortions in china. ron paul fights all of this stuff.

you can listen to what -- this is the only man who is going to protect your rights. rick santorum had no problem putting this on us. >> before we let you go, how do you explain his surge in the numbers in iowa? >> they do not know is record. he supported no child left behind, money for the cyber schools and pennsylvania. >> we will leave and there. are they desensitized?

>> i think one of the things that the caller begins to make a point about is that for every candidate who has had time at the top of the leader board, there has been a response from the other candidates in terms of really taking them on, really trying to be sure that the full message is out there, and rick santorum, because he was in single digits for so long and could not move, he was not perceived as any kind of threat that anyone needed to campaign against. to organize and get hot at the end, part of the brilliance of getting hot at the end is not only do you create a sense of momentum, a sense of possibility, a sense that here is a winner, but you also have very little time for those who want to put things across. people thought that peak of newt gingrich was, as defined and a

very little time as happened before christmas as there was not a lot of tolerance. those ads have been very effective in taking him down from what looked like a very strong potential win in iowa. he is now back into the low teens. for that negative campaigning, for every single one of these candidates, a big impact. perhaps we will see in the next day is that it is too late for any of that to come and be a part of the picture. >> our next call comes from houston, texas on our line for democrats. you are on "washington journal." >> thank you. first, let me congratulate you on a successful show, because it took me about 30 minutes just to get in. secondly, i would like to speak

for a moment on the electoral college. people are tired of the republican party, assuming that they do not have to make the decision for president on the un. >> i need to stick to our topic which is the "des moines register" poll, with rick santorum. >> yes, i am getting to that. i believe it would be for ron paul. i believe he does represent the common man as much as anyone. i do not believe anyone is going to vote in a general election for mitt romney because of changing his viewpoint,

depending on the groupie is speaking to. >> ann? >> he has generally been a respected and over -- and liked. he is doing things to deal with the spending on the war and foreign aid. i think there is a part of his appeal that is the common man that the caller just mentioned. >> next up is stephen. steven is in des moines, iowa. caller: we had no chance. there is now a chance. a lot of them cannot get

through. been he can bring the troops home, and that is a big thing. we need to put all of this warmongering and the garbage. they do not even know about 9/11. guest: i've been one of the things he has been able to do is to reflect some outrage, in terms of how in terms of debt, in terms of spending, in terms of a sense that there are issues about whether or not these awards were worth it. i think there are people -- a

little bit outside of the mainstream. that is what it may take to bring the country back to where it needs to be. you need someone who is that strong, that committed, in order to make that happen. i think there are many reasons for the success of ron paul. the popularity appears to be fading a little bit as we come close to the caucus night. host: we want to let our viewers know that rick perry is going to be a guest on the "fox news sunday" program, and after you are done watching our program, you can go over and watched governor perry on "fox news sunday." three days tracking gave

senator santorum 15%, and in the final days, he was up as high as 21%. talk to us about those numbers and what does that mean going into tuesday's caucuses. >> -- guest: his average was about 10%. the second two days, they were looking at about whether or not he could in the end catch mitt romney. momentum that is happening there.

about we structure our polls, if things continue, if there is a pushback from the other candidates seem that santorum is a threat or they did not see that before, certainly it shows been a different terrain. host: if the number is higher for the turnout and if you get a heat wave and temperatures are in the 60's in iowa and you get a higher turnout, the benefits

if the numbers are low, and who benefits if the numbers are high? guest: four years ago, it was a bitterly cold. people came out in record numbers. they sort of put their noses outside and decided was too cold, this is iowa. this is the way things work here. some days, it is cold. we had a couple of nice days. i think what we worry about more is late organization, either by a campaign or because things are happening with the evangelicals. there may be things that are happening. we took a look because the compensation we were seeing, it looks of a bit different than it did four years ago. we took a mccann said if evangelicals show up in

proportion to what they did last time, that would be awfully good for rick santorum. we were seeing seniors as an melroy percentage of our caucus turnout. statistically to say what if they look like they did last time? in terms of a big turnout, middle turnout, what we do know is that the supporters of rick santorum are more likely to consider themselves definite rather than a probable. those are the two answers you need to give to get into our survey. would you definitely, probably, mike, or might not attend the caucuses? about three-quarters of his supporters are definite contenders. it is more like 57%, 56% for ron paul or mitt romney. you kind of have a sense that those people are likely to show

up with a smaller turnout that might be good for rick santorum. host: we have got a tweet for ann selzer for "the des moines register" poll. this wanted to know who would have the best chance of picking up undecideds on caucus night. a and -- guest: been some do not have a first choice candidate. is your mind made up to support that person, or could you be persuaded to vote for another person on caucus night? there are 41% to have a first

choice and you say they could still be open for change. a at a at today, tomorrow, tuesday. they are spending as much time as they can, try to change these, to make a different decision, so i think there is a little bit of i made not, i might have a conversation with somebody over the weekend. people talk about politics all of the time. i will talk about the people that said that their minds were still open to change, offering three reasons potentially as to why that might be, and they could answer to all of them with a yes. some said they were fearful there would be a revelation about their candidate that would cause them to want to back off.

16% said that they already knew something about their candidate, and that would be a concern in the campaign. 92% say they just always keep their mind open until the end. what seems like chaos or maybe disarray, this is normal. these numbers are very consistent with that. host: back to the telephones, fla., on the telephone for the independents, you are on the line with "washington journal." caller: the stimulus package. i remember my dad working for the wpa during the depression, and the way we got ourselves, and that was working our way out of it. we have to get people back to work. it would stimulate the economy,

-- host: ann selzer. guest: when we get to the general election, i am confident we will be polling on that. that is really where the tension is. can you cut your way to prosperity? if you cut spending, if you cut taxes, will that be stimulative, or do you need government spending in order to stimulate the economy, and i think there are certainly two different divided ideologies about it. i am confident as we move towards a general election, we will be hearing about that. host: and we want to let viewers know that ann is the president of and i will based polling firm. back to the telephones. des moines, iowa.

john, you are on the phone. go ahead. john? caller: hello? host: go ahead, john. let's move on to vicky. vicki, you are on "washington journal." caller: thank you for taking my call. policy, too, against us, and ron paul has already spoken of nuclear weapons. not worrying about one missile when we already have many. in the of the thing is that ron paul is the only one to be

against -- where we can really be picked up. and not be seen again. host: ann selzer, the number of phone calls for ron paul, is this that they are better organized, getting people not only to the caucuses but to the phones? guest: it is true that the ron paul organization after the caucuses kept an organization in place, and they have a very savvy organization in terms of identifying who their supporters are, communicating with them being sure they turn out to

events. it is one of the more sophisticated organizations in the state. i think one of the reasons that he has appealed especially to younger people is that there is a sense that there has been so much spending and that the younger people are on the cook for social security, for medicare, for all the spending that is happening for programs that they may never see the benefit of. lasorda look at where that money is going, and they are anti-war, and there are so many things that come back around that make ron paul a candidate for them. we always see at ron paul events, there happen to be much more of that intensity among his supporters. what i am hearing is that intensity we see every time there is an event here. host: steve, you are on the line with "washington journal." caller: i just want to make my

point that i really see this opportunity. i guess if ron paul was not against the war, do you feel that he would be i guess the number one republican right off of the back proved because listening to republicans, you would think that ron paul would be the person that they would want, with the exception of the war. basically, he is telling the truth, so what that tells me is that if you are a die-hard trueblood republican, you have got to be for war, and that makes sense, just like the other caller said. host: ann selzer, go ahead. guest: ron paul is picked by a large percentage of iowa caucus goers who believe he is the one who would do the most to reduce spending on war and foreign aid.

that is clearly a piece of his knee is and of his appeal. i just want to make sure that your callers are understanding the changes that we saw during this time, and i do not know if you have the story beyond the top line numbers, but the ron paul numbers, the four days we were in the field, he started with the lead and he ended at 16%, so we are sort of seeing that this is a bit of a do-or- die we can comment monday and tuesday, for ron paul, to keep the organization that he has built, keep the people he has attracted, and there are some force-time caucus goers in the fall. he has to keep them in order to stay in the top three. >> -- host: what we are looking at is the polling that was done on four different occasions.

except for perhaps jon huntsman, who is at the bottom. but it started with ron paul around 5% and shooting up to 25%, and back down to about 12%. and then if i can, we have the other chart that i can show you, talking about tuesday-wednesday, wednesday-thursday and thursday- friday. that has ron paul starting off at 25%, then down to 21%, then down to 18%. guest: those are the

rowling, two-day averages. there is another chart that basically takes each candidate day by day. you have four data points for each of those candidates and you have a more precipitous decline for ron paul. he started out head-to-head tying it romney for the lead. he ends up in third place. >> we have that on the screen right now. as we continue to take a look at that, let's take another call. this is on the independent line. go ahead. caller: i have a real issue with ron paul and michele bachmann. i think we are in a hole in the united states. we have quit creating jobs. we quit letting people into the united states. we should be digging in our

waters instead of playing games with saudi arabia and letting people come over here from iraq. host: ann selzer, the unemployment rate in iowa is currently about 6%. is that as much of an issue in iowa as it was in other parts of the country? guest: we are and economically diverse state, more than people think. i do think we are all cognizant that the economy is not moving very fast. that effects i would just as it

affects the nation. -- affects i was just as it affects the nation. -- iowa just as it affects the nation. host: let's take another call. caller: i have been for rick perry ever since he came out. i wrote his name into the straw poll. i think he should be our president because he knows how to run the business of government by running the texas government and they have increased 5 million jobs down there when our whole country has lost two million. he has been doing the border control as good as he can do on his own without federal aid, with the national guard and the texas rangers. he wants to get those borders under control. he wants to get the cutting spending down and get the jobs coming back to the united

states because he knows he can do it because he did it for texas. host: ann selzer. guest: you know, when rick perry announced, he stepped all over michele bachmann's best day. he announced right after she won the straw poll. his entrance into the field really overshadowed that. i think there was a lot of anticipation about rick perry. we did not happen to be doing any polling around the time he was reaching very strong popularity numbers in some national polls and iowa polls. what we have seen since is his numbers not moving much. he has been hovering in the low teens. he hovers right there. he is one of three evangelical candidates with michele

bachmann and rick santorum. they are dividing up a lot of that vote. one of the reasons he may be searching -- rick santorum may be surging is that people are deciding he may be the one people have decided best represents that evangelical vote. host: we have eight weeks. -- a tweet. did john hunt than ever stand a chance of doing well in iowa -- did john huntsman ever stand a chance of doing well in iowa?

he did not plan to campaign in iowa. he does not support ethanol subsidies and he did not think he would do well because of that. we decided to check that and see if likely republican caucus goers are as opposed to ethanol subsidies as he is. we found out that may not have been a problem for him. he may have had other reasons for choosing not to campaign in iowa, but that is his choice. he put all of his eggs in the basket that is new hampshire's. we will see how he does there. i have done polling in the last five of six caucuses. one thing i have learned is that you skip iowa at your peril. there are ways in which you can become a better candidate because of the exposure you get here. you're somewhat out of the limelight. the media is less expensive. you can work the state, get

better as a candidate, have better answers to your questions. we will see how he does in new hampshire. host: next up, portland, oregon. caller: you can divide the iowa voting record in 23 goods -- in to 3 groups, the mitt romney group, the evangelical group, and the social conservative group. -- the ron paul group, and the social conservative group. the votes are being divided by four different candidates, rick perry, michele bachmann, rick santorum and even newt gingrich. mitt romney or ron paul are going to slip through this and

win it. guest: one of the things that was obvious to me was the candidate took a look at mike huckabee. he was the lone evangelical in the field. he did not capture 60% of the votes. social conservatives have never all lined up against one particular candidate every single time. but i think some candidates took a look and said i could win iowa, i could be the next mike huckabee. i see what he did. he did not need a lot of resources. he had a good message and a strong track record as governor. he was not unknown in the state.

i could do that. and if i do not get the nomination, i could have a nice life. mike huckabee has a nice life. i think it through a more crowded field than before. that is partly why is mitt romney can keep the support he had four years ago, he can stay at the top of the board. host: have there been any negative ad campaigns that would explain ron paul's drop in the polls? what affect do negative ads have in the iowa caucus process? guest: there is certainly a lot of spending happening on negative ads right now. a lot of that comes from the super pak as opposed to the candidate's campaign war chest.

there are 1500 ads a day that iowans could be exposed to, most of them negative. they can sort of shake confidence in a candidate and their ability to weather through the storm. i cannot tell you what the proportion is of-against ron paul. certainly, as he kept climbing in the polls -- and he is the only candidate who from the first poll we did in june stepped up to our next poll in october, stepped up to our next poll in november. he is even higher than been -- than he was then, but he is slipping a little. you do not necessarily have to have all of the negative advertising for there to be critical comments, questionable comments about whether ron paul

would be the right choice to lead. host: our last call for ann selzer comes from mary on the independent line. caller: i am an independent from a blue state, and i am a rick santorum supporter. i want to make two points. 15 minutes ago you had a ron paul supporter who claim to be from pennsylvania, who actually lied about rick santorum, attributing him to be responsible for the favored nation trading status with china. that was not actually started in congress. it was a decision made by bill clinton. host: we are running out of time, so i need you to make your point quickly. caller: might take is that occupiers are going to support

ron paul to disrupt the primary. host: ann selzer, are you seeing any of that? guest: we're trying to pay attention and be alert and do whatever we can to see who is supporting any of our candidates. at this point, people show up on caucus night and write their name on a piece of paper. they're willing to change their registration if need be. what happens happens. host: ann selzer, director of the des moines register iowa poll. thank you for being on "washington journal" this morning. guest: my pleasure. >> coming up later today, we will continue our road to the white house coverage with a campaign event with newt gingrich. that begins about 45 minutes from now at 5:30 p.m. eastern. we will have that live.

also, more road to the white house coverage tomorrow. ron paul and his son will be campaigning at the downtown marriott in iowa. we will have that event live. also tomorrow -- >> we go to the heartland for iowa caucuses. we are live with "washington journal," talking with political experts and taking your calls. at 7:00 p.m., our preview program on the caucus process and the state of the republican race. at 8:00, caucus coverage from iowa followed by the entire caucus results and candidate speeches. we will have live coverage of another caucus from western iowa on c-span-2. this coverage is also available on c-span radio and online at c- span.org.

>> tomorrow on "washington journal," we look ahead to the iowa caucus. the iowa state chair for the rick perry campaign will discuss their strategy and campaign expectations in iowa. we will hear from the house republican leader and iowa caucus for newt gingrich share. joining us will be iowa governor. "washington journal" take your phone calls and e mails live every morning starting at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> you're looking at the state capital into more in iowa where we will be talking with our next guest, simon conway, who is with who radio and who is talking to us this morning. talk to us a little bit about your reaction to the numbers from the dimon register. their final poll before the tuesday caucuses.

>> i am not a great believer in polls. to host: how do you explain the surge of rick santorum? caller: rick has been here longer than anybody. he has worked harder than anybody. he is engaged in retail politics in the best way. he has done what we refer to as the full grassley. that is a reference to chuck grassley, who every single year goes to all 99 counties. rick santorum has done the same thing. you get out, you have meetings, you shake hands. you listen to people's problems. he has done that. michele bachmann has done that

as well. she has taken a year to do it and it is going to count. host: you sound very positive toward rick santorum, and yet you have chosen to support rick perry. why? caller: the second most frequent question i get is who are you going to vote for? the simplistic answer to that is probably no one because i am not a registered republican and i am pretty sure i am not going to change that. but i also felt that people tune in to me every day. one of the main reasons is that they want my opinion. i usually hold back on them. i had not made my mind up. rick santorum is a great guy. i was privileged to get to know all of these candidates. rick santorum is a nice, wonderful human being, frankly. he would also be a great

president, in my opinion as well. but at the end of the day, you only get one vote. allen specter ended up voting for obama care, which is a disaster for the nation. host: simon, you have an accent that tells me you are not a native of iowa. our u.s. citizen? caller: i am a citizen. this will be my segundo presidential election that i will be -- my second presidential election that i will be voting for.

host: we are talking to simon conway. we have michele bachmann arriving at the state capital. she is going to be arriving on the morning shows this morning. she is going to be on abc's this week and all so on fox as well. back to our guest, simon conway from who radio. if you want to get involved in our discussion, the number is on your screen. if you're calling from iowa,

202-628-0184. let's go to the funds. patricia, on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. happy new year. i wanted to make a comment on ron paul. i believe he may be the nominee because i believe a lot of republicans are sick and tired of the war. people should try peace now instead of war. guest: i do not think for a second the ron paul is going to be the nominee, no matter how well he does in iowa. there is a real issue with his

foreign policy, which i have been talking about every day on the radio. i think ron paul is a dangerous man. he was on the record a couple of days ago saying that in a ron paul presidency, there would be no pre-emptive strikes. we're literally going to wait for a nation to set up a new copy for we react. we cannot be that nation. i do not want to be looking at a city like los angeles and counting the dead in millions, and that is what ron paul would do. host: we also saw rick perry are arriving at the capitol. got a haven't we beautiful capital? it is one of the most beautiful in the nation? host: absolutely it is beautiful. mark, you are on the republican line with simon conway.

caller: good morning. the republicans like to profess that they are a party for limited government. i am a conservative to be absolutely disagrees with that assertion. i would point out that we currently have the ceo of general electric pushing for a carbon task -- tax. of course, he wants to fund the general electric smart grid and their phony green energy program. it is not big government adverse to big business. it is big government and big business partner up to rob the u.s. taxpayer. we saw this with the british east india company trying to rob the colonies. this is what the republican party needs to focus on if

they're going to convince me that they are a party of limited government. getting back to the banking issues, goldman sachs of course once cap and trade. they have also been bailed out a number of times and continue to get bailed out. in the subcommittee hearings, senator brown was the chairman of the subcommittee, and he said that the cbo estimates the cost taxpayers lost bailing out the banks is close to $8.6 trillion. dodd-frank was supposed to fix the too big to fail problem. host: we are going to leave it there. you have given us a lot to work with. guest: i agree. it is insanity. we have to draw a line in the

sand. we have to stop paying to put shrimp on treadmills with our money. that is money that is forcibly removed from us. they have no what -- no idea what they are doing. we need a conservative in the white house who is going to say it is enough. we are in a position of baring trillions of dollars from china, and every year we write them and aides check. it is crazy. people say it is only $80 million. there should not be a sense. we should be giving china a cent -- we should not be giving china a cent of aid while we are borrowing money from them. we have to wake up. we are destroying our republic.

host: tyler is our next caller. tyler is calling for des moines, iowa. go ahead. caller: all i wanta say is that i agree with the last caller 100%. i am a college student currently. i believe in freedom. i believe that the federal government will only grow if we allowed it to grow. the fact is -- ron paul is not a racist, ok? he believes in freedom, in small government. it is something new. host: tyler? caller: yes? host: good morning. caller: small government is not bad. host: will you be out caucusing on tuesday? caller: yes, sir. i hope to spend a couple of hours. host: who will you be supporting? caller: ron paul 100%. i do not believe he is a racist. i believe that he will not sell out, sir.

guest: well, hang on, tyler. i do not believe that ron paul is a racist either, by the way. i do not think that is the issue. the issue is national defense. he said he has not sold out. maybe he can explain to us why ron paul took $400 million to his district last year. he has sold out, like the rest of them. host: branford, connecticut is next. caller: i called on the independent line partly because i am a registered republican and my husband is a registered democrat. so we have a lot of independent attitudes in our house. what about possible running

mates if there is a romney win or a paul win? obama supporters who have been disillusioned decided that maybe this was not the change that they were anticipating or expecting or hoping for or whatever would possibly be more likely to go to ron paul or try to support him because of, again, the change he is promoting is so drastic that people who are desperate for are interested in that. i will take my answer off the air. guest: ok. thank you, heather. i think a lot of obama supporters are interested in ron paul. the tv ads that ron paul is right now are reminiscent of the obama ads that say that ron

paul is the one. ron paul is a little bit scary for me. but in terms of running mates, if you are a republican and you do not manage to convince marco rubio to run with you, there are other candidates out there. but that would be everybody's number one choice. host: 7 conway is coming to us from des moines -- simon conway is coming to us from des moines, iowa. he is from who radio. next up, tucson, arizona. caller: hello, happy new year. i think that what people are realizing is that the republican party has an honesty problem. i was watching the q&a between

president obama in 2008 and it was made clear that the money that obama's was spending -- that obama was spending when he came into office was money that was allocated by the bush presidency. i would like to say to all of those viewers who do not think that the republicans are dealing in a racist way, i am 43 years old and one of the things that i challenge everybody else like to recognize is racism. i have. i know what it is. i have been put through the same questions. i have been put through the same treatment as president obama all of my life. it has always been on a racial level. i just want people to know that, when you see people doing what they are to obama, that is racism. i do not care what anybody says. guest: you really think that criticism of the president can

only be because people are racist, because of the color of his skin? that is absolute insanity. if you buy into that argument, you say that nobody can criticize the president of the united states because, if you do, it will be racist. that is crazy. we can go there. that is not who we are. that is not who we should be. that is certainly not to my audience is every afternoon here in des moines, iowa. you do not believe this president has made any mistakes whatsoever and that every criticism that is made is because of the color of skin? i do not believe for a second that you believe that. host: penny, you are on "the washington journal" with simon conway. guest: i would like to make a comment about ron paul. i have been paying very close

attention. everybody criticizes ron paul because of his military around the world ideas. i am still not sure who i will vote for. but on ron paul, the one thing that makes me think is that we got in this iraq war -- i had to go back -- why are we going over there? if there is a bad situation in the world that needs attention, why not let congress declared war on it, go over there, fight the war, get it done, and come home instead of the president having them constantly here and there and everywhere. guest: good morning, first of all, and happy new year to you there in sioux city. i think that we should come home when we deal of the issues.

but the problem that we have with ron paul is unquestionably iran in particular. remember that iran declared war on us in 1979. so we are in a state of war with iran anyway. but you're talking about a different nation. we are dealing with people who want to create war because their leaders, both the president and a supreme leaders, their religious leaders, are interested in bringing back somebody that they refer to as the 12th imam. in order to do that, they have to create war. if iran gets a nuclear weapon, iran will use a nuclear weapon. ron paul says no pre-emptive strikes from the united states. that is a crazy policy. we cannot get invested in that. i am just thankful that, no matter what happens here, ron paul will not be the nominee because it will be a very dangerous world if he became president. host: in "the the boston globe" this morning, they write that iowa voters may be on the verge of delivering a caucus plot

twist on tuesday that seemed unlikely just a few weeks ago, propelling mitt romney toward the republican presidential nomination. they talk about a performance in iowa and then later on in new hampshire. they're right that, "if romney secures a surprise victory on tuesday and captures the primary in new hampshire, he will be launched on a strong treasury -- trajectory toward the nominating convention in tampa." so my question to you, simon, in des moines, iowa, is there anything that can stop white "the boston globe" calls the mitt romney juggernaut > can the candidate that you

support, rick perry, who is double digits behind mitt romney, the any kind of obstacle or stumbling block? guest: it would not surprise me at all if mitt romney won the caucuses here on tuesday. there were a lot of people running around the state looking for the stop-romney candidate. but now in the last couple of days, mitt romney has become the stop paul candidate. he is giving people more undecided coming over to his camp because they would prefer to have mitt romney than they would ron paul. in terms of rick perry and rick santorum and michele bock men, i do not think we are done. i think we will see in the course of the next couple of days more changes. we really not -- we will really not know until wednesday morning. i was usually delivers a

surprise. that is the only thing that i would tell people. i was usually delivers a -- iowa usually delivers a surprise. host: we have a tweaked from -- a tweet from mike murphy. talk with us a little bit about the whole caucus season and what that means in terms of business for local merchants in iowa and money going into the pockets of iowa business people and the residence there. guest: absolutely. i was driving in this morning and there was a big truck after big truck with satellite dishes everywhere. you guys are filling up our hotel rooms. you're spending money in our restaurants. there is no question that there is an economic boom for the first of the nation's caucuses. that is probably one of the reasons that the governor wants

to keep it, but that is not why the two main parties want to keep it. the light coming to iowa for a couple of reasons. first of all, we are small enough that candidates with little money can get throughout the whole state and burst onto the scene. we are seeing that right now with rick santorum. we saw that four years ago with mike huckabee. they can get through and make a big impact and kind of get a sling shot out of iowa into a campaign. it is small enough to get around, but big enough that you can get a decent sample of the population. we also have a massive diversity of opinion here in iowa. the final thing is, if you want to know the results of the general election, look at iowa. look at what happened over the last 30 years, presidential result after presidential result. i know what is an absolute mayor -- i what is an absolute

mirror -- iowa is an absolute mirror of the country. it is not like california where you may be 54-46 in favor of one or the other or texas in the opposite direction. i know what is an absolute mirror of the finished result in a general election. that is why these candid is like to come to iowa. so do we do well out of it? absolutely. host: an article, and op-ed in "the wall street journal" on december 27 said this --

host: your thoughts, sir? guest: he is absolutely right. we all know that i know what's role seems to be thinning the field. -- that iowa's role seems to be thinning the field. the role is to get to know these candidates and to help fish in the field. you are probably looking at the national results. host: the republican line. thank you for waiting. dori? we will move on to ray of ohio.

go ahead, mike. caller: this idea of strikes and matt -- this idea of preemptive strikes and weapons of mass destruction, that was based on a lie, too. i want to talk about the jewish lobby. host: what does that have to do with the countdown to the iowa caucuses? caller: these clowns all clear to be christians and so forth. i understand that the jewish lobby is the main influence on most of our country. explain that. host: 7 conway. guest: -- simon conway. guest: there is the racism that previous callers have been talking about. everybody knows that iran is trying to get a nuclear weapon. they said so.

we have seen the technology. i am very grateful that we or maybe the israelis seem to be conducting some kind of covert operations in iran because we are seeing buildings from satellite imagery that appeared to have been destroyed. the iranians are saying accident. i do not buy that it was an accident. i do believe we have covert things happening on the ground and we should have. if we are in a position where we know they are about to get a nuclear weapon and we have the ability to all those things out of existence, we absolutely must do that. that is a preemptive strike. how any president of the united states can be as serious when they say there will be no pre- emptive strikes from the united states against any of the country, that is simply beyond my comprehension. host: simon conway, we have an e-mail from can crow. he is writing -- from ken crow.

bop he would like to know your thoughts on newt gingrich last night that he might very well select sarah palin as a possible running mate. guest: i am not sure if he was serious about that or not. sarah palin is an incredible conservative. she is a smart woman, despite what they would like to sell you from the left wing side, that she is a dummy. they tried the same thing with michele bachman. i contend that michele bock man is a very intelligent lady. i am privileged to have spent so much time with her and to have gotten to know her on a personal level as well as a political level. newt gingrich is a smart man. he would pick up an awful lot of votes if he went down that road. whether sarah palin would do it is another question. host: next caller, at him.

caller: i am caucusing for ron paul. i just want to say that the jewish zionists are pushing for a war -- host: wow. guest: it is out there. the racism is out there. host: let's take another call. caller: i am calling from ohio. i was born and raised in iowa. host: what is your question or comment? caller: i wanted to make a comment first. if you go down with all the republicans and all the democrats in the presidency, it is a fact -- and i will ask you a question at the end of my conversation -- from the very

beginning, you go down in history and all of the republicans that came down, there was so much corruption with the republican party. we got one here in ohio that took over taft and almost went to prison. this is a racist too. he is with the family that believes in making every betty white. i think they all, every one of them in the republican party is -- they all sound like a bell clapper. host: i am not exactly sure what that last reference was to i. caller: can i just make one last point. we have seen a couple of examples of racism coming from ron paul supporters. now, ron paul is not a racist. i want to make that absolutely clear. all of the information i have

about ron paul is that he is not a racist. but there is a problem. he attracts these followers. and he seems unable to disavow or stop taking money from any of them. he needs to address that. host: we want to make sure that all of our listeners and viewers know that simon conway is a radio host at who in iowa. what hours are you on? caller: i am line from four o'clock to 7:00 monday through friday. -- i am on from 4:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. every afternoon, monday through friday. on a good night, we can be heard in 48 of our 50 states if the weather is right. host: you can also listen to the show on the website,

whoradio.com. caller: you can. we are available all over the place. technology is a wonderful thing. it is a very powerful signal. of course, this is a famous radio station. this is where president reagan started long before he was an actor. he used to call ball games on this station. host: you have also worked in florida, kentucky and alabama, as well as virginia and texas. how did a person who was born in london and up in iowa? caller: well, i ended up in iowa because the radio station asked me to work for them. it took about half a second to say yes. the longer story is that working for those other stations just means that i have been on the

air on those other stations. i do not flit around from job to job. i am what is referred to as a national host. i would fill in for other hosts. whenever i got a call, i was very grateful for it. that is how my radius started. as for how i ended up in the united hist dates -- united states, i was actually an employer. i created a business. i had a company in the u.k. and the thing you said at the beginning about the jerusalem radio station -- i was about 16 years old when i worked for the jerusalem post. host: republican line, keith, go ahead. guest: happy new year. i would like to make a quick comment before i make my maiden

point. in the bible, it says that we are our brothers' keepers. i have a responsibility to help. the bible does not say that caesar is our brother's keeper, translation, government. when the bible talks about the government, it usually says caesar. my dad for a long time said do not start a fight you cannot finish. it is ironic that ron paul has been in politics for 20 years and he is the only one talking about the right solutions, but he does not know how to bring it across to americans to make themselves feel good about themselves. i am not a ron paul graywacke

do -- wackadoodle, but i think he has solutions. host: i am pretty sure that ron paul supporters do not think of themselves as wackadoodles. guest: listen, everybody needs to vote their conscience. i'm not telling anyone who to vote for or not vote for. but when it comes to financial and economic solutions for this country, ron paul has a lot of that right, but i think it is outweighed by his foreign policy. host: an influential conservative radio host in iowa, one of your competitors, has backed newt gingrich.

this gives newt gingrich an opportunity to quell suspicions the social conservatives and evangelicals, who make up a substantial portion of caucus goers, are reluctant to support newt gingrich because of his multiple infidelities and multiple marriages. talk about the competition of the candidates to get the endorsement. how important is it for mr. gingrich to have his support or for governor. to have your support? guest: i do not think either of those things are important at all. i do not endorse governor perry.

i have simply answered the question i have been asked numerous times, if i only had one vote, that is where it would go. i think michele bachmann has a spine made of titanium. she would be an amazing president. i think newt gingrich is clearly the smartest guy in the room with vast levels of experience. nobody came knocking on my door and said, hey, we really want you to endorse us and this is why. the other host is not actually competition for me. he was in fact my predecessor in my chair. he is not competition to me in any way at all. he appears on our radio station late in the evening monday through friday. i do not believe anyone came calling on him either, asking him to please -- but i do not know that. i'm just saying no one did it to me, and i very much doubt anyone

did it to steve. he has made it very clear he is endorsing newt gingrich. there are many great candidates out there and i frankly believe just about any one of them will be successful as president next november. host: you say that if you had one vote you would cast it for rick perry. how is that not an endorsement? caller: i think an endorsement is followed up with by the way, you should follow my lead and vote for this guy because of a, b and c. i have not done any of that. i have answered the question my callers have asked. i am not campaigning for rick perry or anyone else. i answered a very simplistic question and i took a long time to answer it. i thought long and hard. the first answer is, i am probably voting for no one.

i am not a registered republican. i keep making that point. host: let's get back to our phones. greg, independent line. caller: i have been watching c- span since its debut in 1979. i have seen a number of changes, but one of the things, for the purposes of c-span, i am just tired of hearing about this whole caucus daily until there is some decision by the citizens of iowa. i am actually fed up because there is not any other information coming out that is central to the country in terms of anything that president obama is planning for the country. i have just heard criticism after criticism regarding the debate. and i watch c-span daily. but i do have a question for mr. conway because i heard one of the comments he was making in terms of what one of the

callers who called earlier said. he seems to be a denier of some realism when he said that some callers are crazy when they're calling about a particular issue that affects them. one of those things is when we talk about the lack of cooperation that the republican party and certainly the senate and the house has not given president obama regarding some of the ideas and legislation that he has tried to put across for the country. the republicans, it appears to me, have really taken a huge extreme partisans then -- huge, extreme, partisan bent against this president. it does not mean it is all racism. i agree with that. but there is not anything the president has proposed that the republican party has agreed to cooperate with him with. even if they did agree

philosophically with some of the things he has proposed, the republicans' proposed initially, they turn their backs on it. one can only draw the conclusion -- host: we are going to leave it there. caller: i do not believe that is the full story. you could look at the thing we just went through before christmas. one of the things republicans want to do -- and i do not speak with republicans -- again, i am not a republican. one of the things they wanted to do was include a pipeline from canada to the united states. i'm still waiting for the president to explain to me why we are not doing that and creating 20,000 jobs. why would he not do that? the non-cooperation is coming from both sides. you also have to look at the democratically controlled congress that would not even move an inch on some of the

issues. they were absolutely polarized. there is no doubt about it at all. that is coming from both sides. i think we're in a philosophical argument that hopefully will be resolved next november. host: we want to let you know about a couple of the events we're covering today on c-span. at 11:00 a.m., michele bachmann is attending an event. we will be covering her remarks live. this afternoon, mitt romney will make a campaign stop at the family table restaurant. at 5:30 p.m., newt gingrich visits the neighborhood bar and grill in waterloo, iowa. if you want more details on what we're covering regarding the iowa caucuses, you can go to our website, c-span.org.

caller: isn't that fantastic that they go around to these little restaurants, making speeches in churches? that is real grass roots, retail politics. i think the only one who has made any mistakes with that is senator santorum who turned up in the middle of a bowl game last week in a restaurant with numerous camera crews while the game was on. i am not sure so many folks wanted him to walk into that. apart from that, we welcome the candidates into our restaurants here in iowa. host: ron is on the line for democrats. go ahead. caller: what is in what even matter? when we talk of -- why does iowa even matter?

all of these republican candidates are not equal in any way to obama. mitt romney has flipped on everything. we all know this. newt gingrich is a crook. he should have gone to jail for things he has done. ron paul wants to legalize heroin. all of these guys are insane. i do not see how they are even being touted as president. i do not see how anybody could even think about voting for these guys. host: simon conway, go ahead. caller: we will find out next november if any one of them stands up collect royalty -- stands up alecto really speaking to president obama. i think there are -- ele ctorially speaking to president obama. i think the most likely result

next november is that president obama will be reelected. that is not because of the opposing field. that is because the president is an outstanding candidate. i think he is a bad president, but he is an outstanding candidate. he knows how to run, and he is going to have a billion dollars. that is difficult to overcome for anybody. host: we have been talking to simon conway of who radio. if you want to know more about the radio program, you can go to the website, whoradio.com. thank you very much for being on "washington journal" this morning. >> tomorrow, we will take another look at the republican presidential campaign in iowa. we will speak with the campaign share for rick barry's campaign. after that, a discussion about

newt gingrich's strategy in iowa with the iowa house republican leader. the iowa governor will give us a preview of the caucuses and whether he intends on endorsing a candidate in 2012. watch "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c- span. our road to the white house coverage continues tomorrow with republican presidential candidate ron paul. we will have him at 12:15 p.m. eastern. we have a chance to see mitt romney at 9:40 p.m. eastern. you can watch c-span as we continue our 2012 campaign coverage leading up to the january 3rd caucuses. a live picture now coming to you from waterloo, iowa. that is a neighborhood bar and grill. you can see our cameras are there. we are awaiting candidate newt gingrich. he is scheduled to appear at some point in the next 30 minutes. when he arrives, we will have live coverage of his remarks at

this event. as we wait, we will have a look at some of the latest ads produced by republican presidential candidates. >> i married my high school sweetheart. i had to wait because he volunteered for the air force and flew planes all over the world. he returned home to farm with his dad and asked me to marry him. we grew up in small towns raised with christian values. we still believe in most values. we know washington, d.c., can use some of that. >> i am rick perry and i approve this message. ♪

>> i am rick santorum and i approve this message. >> she is social and fiscal

conservative. >> i like her stance on immigration. >> i feel like that is very important. this values will be carried into the white house. >> she listens to what the american people say. >> i like her financial background and experience. i hope she has a positive campaign from here on out. >> another look at the new year's crowd at lj's neighborhood bar & grill in waterloo, iowa. we are waiting for newt gingrich to appear in the next 30 minutes or so. when he arrives, we will have live coverage of his remarks and whatever event takes place. the datelined story says as he struggles to eke out a top finish, newt gingrich launched

one of his harshest attack yet on front runner mitt romney saying the former massachusetts uy annor would "boy a election if he could." gingrich said he did not say he was trying to buy votes but that he would if he could. mr. gingrich went on to say he was referring to the negative ads mr. romney is running against him in iowa. those comments from mr. gingrich came as he and his wife left in routes -- en route to his next campaign event. we had a look at some of the latest poll results in iowa. we will look at that as we wait

for this event to get underway. analysts note there is little time for santorum to regroup before new hampshire. romney is in position to replicate what he has done in iowa in all the early states. romney leaves at 24%. 2%.l has 2

if the final two days of polling stand alone, the order reshuffles. let's go to the phones. the first call comes from sioux falls, idaho -- south dakota, rather. welcome to "washington journal." what are your thoughts about the final poll before the tuesday caucuses? it looks like rick santorum is rising up the charts. caller: i am a democrat. i would never vote for a republican. i am impressed with santorum and what he stands for. that seems to be what the republicans are looking for. the rest of the crew, i do not know. romney is a flip copper --

flopper. everybody knows ron paul would not be elected president. i kind of like ron paul, but he will never be elected president. i think the republicans know that. go a little bit more into detail about why you think ron paul cannot be elected president. caller: he is to eratic. even hard-core republicans know he is just too far out there. >> let's move on to the line for republicans. todd is our next caller. welcome to the program. caller: what was the question? host: we are talking about the final poll that just came out.

it shows mitt romney is leading -- representative ron paul is in second. rick santorum is moving up and in third place. caller: i think rick santorum is rising at the right time. i think he explains his positions really well. i think he is my candidate at this point in time after watching all of the debates. i like his conservative values. i think he is the best choice amongst all the republicans right now. host: why do you think he is starting to catch fire and move up the polls at this point in time? caller: i think it is because of the way some of the other candidates have done in the debates. rick perry had a quick rise, but he has lost some momentum.

newt gingrich, with his past. i think people have a problem with that. rick santorum has got his message out. i think people are more on board with what he wants to do and what he has to say. host: anthony is on the line for independents calling from minnesota. go ahead. caller: i think ron paul will win the tuesday caucus. it is the way the polling has been going. ron paul -- not ron paul, but mitt romney. the poll is indicating mitt romney has 24.

that means mitt romney has dropped one. . ron paul remains consistent. i am not going to vote for any of them. i believe ron paul is going to win. host: we have this tweet that says ron paul is an evangelical choice as much as rick santorum. we go back to the telephones. mary is on the line for democrats. go ahead. what are your thoughts about the latest poll that just came out showing mitt romney in first place, ron paul in second place, and rick santorum moving up into third? caller: it does not matter. that whole lineup makes me think -- thank god for our

president obama. none of them can hold a torch to him. republicans need to start over in 2016. you have the right man in the white house. just work with him. these guys are in it to sell books or just want to be president because they have nothing else to do. as far as running the country, thank god for president obama. people, work with this man. give him a second chance. the republicans are not happy with their own team. they are still asking for other people to jump in. that should tell you something. host: we want to remind our viewers and listeners that women special line for iowa residents. we have more from the article in the "des moines register"

this morning. rick santorum averaged 10 points after the first two knights of pulling. he doubled that during the second two nights. he was just one point down from romney's 23% on friday. ron paul has marched higher in every poll. but his momentum may have stalled. as for the rest of the field, newt gingrich is at 12%. rick perry has 11%. michele bachmann has 7%. in the month since the last poll in late the mover in the

late november, and newt gingrich has experienced a screeching double-digit drop. you can read more of that in this morning's "des moines register." rachel, go ahead. caller: good morning. happy new year. host: what do you think about the numbers being reported this morning? caller: it is exciting. anybody who has to beg to get one of our drones back is ludicrous. not know where she is getting news from, but that is absurd. host: in terms of issues like

international diplomacy, who impresses you the most? caller: mitt romney. rick santorum. he is very strong in that area. i see the problem with ron paul adds that a lot of people are not going to follow him on his foreign-policy. it is too weak and makes people nervous. he has a lot of supporters and i respect that. romney is a good solid businessmen. he has a plan. santorum and clearly and decisively communicate to the people what he will do. he is a very approachable. that is a very good thing. people want to be able to approach politicians. host: we are going to take a look at an ad running for the

santorum campaign in iowa and new hampshire. >> who has the best chance to beat obama? rick santorum. he is rock-solid on values and issues. he is a favorite of the tea party for fighting corruption and taxpayer abuse. he has more foreign policy credentials than any candidate. his jobs plan will make america an economic superpower again. rick santorum, a trusted conservative who gives us the best chance to take back america. >> i mix santorum and i approve this message. -- i am rick santorum and i approve this message. host: we're talking about the final poll before the tuesday caucuses. you will be able to see the coverage on c-span. go to our website for all the details. the next call comes from iowa. twila, go ahead.

caller: i have listened to extend form on the radio for years. i like everything he has to say. i have wished he would run for president. i was thrilled when i found out he was. i am going to caucus for him. my husband has been getting calls about his stand on gun control. i wondered if you knew what his stand is. host: were you able to see our coverage? we are showing some video of former senator santorum. were you able to see that coverage? caller: i saw some of it. i did not see anything on gun control. i did not see anything on his website. host: he did mention he is a card-carrying member of the nra. i believe he said he had an a- plus rating. does that help you make your decision? caller: i am already decided.

i will tell my husband. host: have you had a chance to meet the candidates? caller: i have not with my job schedule. i know he was in clear lake last summer. i wanted to go so bad but i could not get there. i do like him. he seems common sense. he is right on all of the issues i am concerned about. host: our next call comes from springfield, missouri, on the line for independents. billy, go ahead. caller: i just want to make a comment. i am calling from sacramento, california. the only way i can explain the surge of ron paul is that he is the only one who gets it. his message is resonating with

the american people. host: the polling shows rick santorum is surging. caller: he is surging, but ron paul is in second place. he was lagging behind before. ron paul is rising because of his message about the war. the country is broke. we're out there rebuilding other countries. the taliban blows up everything we build. we're in bad need of rehabilitating our infrastructure here. people need jobs. we're running around the world spending trillions of dollars in the name of security. quite honestly, i do not feel any more secure than i did before 9/11.

it is time to stop spending the money overseas and spend it here at home. i think that is why his message is resonating with the people. host: duncan is on the line for democrats calling from georgia. caller: i had a couple of comments. i think santorum might be the guy that comes through this thing for the republicans down the road. he is surging now. i noticed something about him. he seems to be very charismatic and articulate. he has a demeanor about himself resonates with you. i just have this feeling that he may come through and surprise a

lot of people down the road. host: we have you listed as a democrat. you are calling in on the republican line. if he is the nominee, would you be tempted to vote for him? caller: not likely. president obama is my man. he has done good things for this country. i think given the opportunity, he will continue. host: the politico has this. romney leaves. santorum surges in iowa -- romney leads and santorum surges in iowa.

we go back to the phones. springdale, ark., is on the line for independents. caller: i hope everybody had a safe and happy new year. host: what do you think about the numbers this morning? caller: it is not surprising at all to me. i have been following the race pretty close. the thing that is amazing to me

is ron paul's popularity. everything he is doing is because of the grass-roots supporters. he is getting virtually no help at all from the republican party. the republican party seems like they -- this goes back to john mccain in the 2008 election. romney worked out some kind of the deal with mccain where he would drop out of the race. ron paul was still in there in 2008. it was kind of like it was anointed that mitt romney would be the front runner for the 2012 election. the republican party desperately wants from me to be there. -- once romney to be there. i think they sense the public is rejecting romney and perry. i think santorum is somebody the

republican party has had as the dark horse. fox news is really pushing santorum. ron paul is doing all this with virtually no help from the republican party at all. host: how far do you think ron paul's organization can take him in the bribery -- primary and caucus season? can it take him all the way to the nomination? caller: it comes down to a couple of things. we have a country where the populace has become so dependent on the government for their everyday needs.

people that have become reliant on the government, you hear them calling in about obama all the time, obama supporters. ron paul once the american people to stand up on their feet. he once these people -- wants to rebuild the nation like it was a hundred years ago. host: bill is calling from indiana this morning. caller: i do not understand, all the republicans have the same philosophy. all they think about is dropping the taxes for the rich and letting everybody else go by the wayside. how are they going to drop the debt?

host: we have this tweet. we go back to the phones. let's move on to harold from pennsylvania on the line from -- for republicans. caller: a thing the best it could be santorum and romney. i think they would make the perfect president and vice- president. as far as ron paul goes, i spent 22 years serving in the military for my country. i fought in vietnam. ron paul reminds me of a vietnam protester. i have no use for this guy at all.

he is the most erratic guy i have ever seen. if he ever would become the leader of this united states, this is one guy that would not vote for him. as far as the obama callers calling in and saying the republicans are bouncing back and forth and want more people to go in, i think the republicans have found in the they want. it is either going to be mitt romney or send form that will be president of the united states. -- or santorum that will be president of the united states. host: iowa poll shows a late rally for santorum. he says in iowa, santorum's emphasis on faith and pro-life causes have won him strong

support, though many have doubted his ability to win. we go back to the bones -- phones. diana is calling from iowa. caller: i am not convinced about the "des moines register." you never know about the caucuses in iowa until the day of the caucuses. a lot of people do not get the chance to get out and see people. i think santorum is rising. i do not think ron paul will get the eye when nomination -- get the iowa nomination. do not worry about it. i do not think he will. host: have you met with any of the candidates? and you got a feel for what they

are talking about? caller: i have not. i own a business and have not been able to get to any of them, unfortunately. i watch them on tv and listen on the radio. i get on line and read. the other thing i wanted to tell you is that my husband and i -- we are taking surveys. him and i, we have a little different ideals. they're calling the same town and getting teed of different answers depending on who they are calling, if you understand what i am saying. host: this is a tweet from earlier.

she asked how many supporters are not voting for michele bachmann because she is a female. do you get a feel for that? >> we are going to take you back live again to waterloo, iowa. we're standing outside of lj's neighborhood bar & grill in waterloo. we understand former house speaker gingrich is arriving. we expect the event to run between one hour and an hour and a half. there is a good crowd inside. let's watch and listen to this campaign event ahead of the iowa caucuses on tuesday. this is live coverage on c-span.

>> how are you? >> good. >> i think it is a big crowd. >> microphone check. 1, 2, 3, 4. thank you.

>> i am doing all right. [laughter] >> good luck. >> microphone. >> right over here. >> we are still waiting to see candidate newt gingrich arrived at this bar and grill, lj's neighborhood bar & grill, in waterloo, iowa. here is an associated press story saying that ron paul, rick santorum, and other contenders argued on sunday that they could beat president barack obama as they work to persuade de