remember, the spin stops right here. we are definitely looking out for you. ♪ ♪ >> sean: welcome to the special edition of "hannity." live from des moines, iowa, and we're one day away from the highly anticipated iowa caucuses. tonight, you will hear directly from many candidate themselves, including mitt romney, rick santorum, newt gingrich and michele bachmann. which g.o.p. presidential hope willful come away from a win in the hawkeye state? according to a brand new "des moines register" poll, mitt romney is leading with 24% of the vote. ron paul is close second with 22%. rick santorum is surging, rounding out the top three with 15%. joining me now with a preview of tomorrow's big day, the author of "win pollster,"

frank luntz. how are you? >> pleasure. good to see you. >> sean: this is amazing. gallup has come out with a poll and said this is the first time since 1964 where the g.o.p. front runner spot has seen so many changes and they said this race is the most volatile for g.o.p. since the advent of polling. what do you make of that? >> for them the advent of polling is the 17th century. republicans are looking for three things. looking number one for someone to defeat barack obama. electability is essential. number two is consistency and preductability. they want someone who dez what they mean and mean what is they say. they are looking for conservative. ideology matters. as they look at all the candidates, they don't see one candidate who has it all the. >> all right. what do you make of the constant shifting in the polls? i mean, look, we can go through the list. perry was on top. bachmann was on top. cain was on top. newt has taken a hit due to negative ads. a lot of money spent in iowa. now rick santorum surging.

what do you make of the topsyturvy side of this? >> they are desperate for someone who says what they mean, mean what is they say, looks you straight in the eye, has the ability to debate, has the background that makes them qualified to be president and someone who won't change their mind on election day. gingrich is the best debater of them all. >> has he been hurt by the fact that the debate ended with the last fox debate a couple of weeks ago? >> he is looking forward to new hampshire because he has two debates there. a fox news debate in south carolina. he needs that. that is where he is strongest. mitt romney has done well in advertising, because he focuses on barack obama in the presentation, and then his super pac attacks mitt romney on television -- >> sean: romney attacks newt gingrich. >> yeah. >> sean: is that next for rick santorum? what is fascinating, over the years, you and i discussed this. if you ask people in a focus group, are they upset with negative ads? everybody hates them. but they obviously work. in the case right now, there

has been a lot of money spent by ron paul, mitt romney against gingrich in the tate of iowa. what does it mean when people say they don't like it but then they respond to it obviously? >> it's what you chew me out for. i give my focus group respondents a hard time. >> no, you yell at them and abuse them. >> sean, there are a lot of people watching here. let's not do that. >> i'm kidding. >> by the way, people at home can signed up for the focus group at luntzglobal.com if they want to. what is unique about this is that they don't want to make a mistake. voters want to get this one right. each one of these candidates -- rick santorum is surging right now because he is a social conservative. he has washington experience. he is a good communicator and he has become a great communicator >> sean: what isfall fascinatinfascinating in the gap poll, 40% of people are persuadable in the state. >> but only 7% are undecided. 40% said they could change their mind even at this late hour. >> which is why you have four of the candidates on your show

coming up. what i thought was interesting for gingrich he showed emotion, he showed passion last week. >> sean: i that tape. want me to -- we can rack that up. and show it to people. and here it is. here is newt gingrich. >> late in her life, she ended up in long-term care facility. she had bipolar disease. and depression. she gradually acquired physical ailments. that introduced me to the issue of quality long-term care i did with bob kerry for three years that introduced me to alzheimer's i did with bob kerry for three more years. my whole the emphasis on brain science comes in directly from dealing with -- from dealing with, you know, the real problems of real people in my family. so it's not a theory. it's, in fact, my mother. >> sean: i have known him since 1991.

i have never seen him get choked up like that. >> it's right under the surface. what viewers don't realize is how much pressure the candidates are under. how much criticism they take every day. how little sleep they get. how little food they eat. how they are trying so hard. how they care so much about this country. all you have to do is ask them something about their personal life and newt showed that he is a human being. he is never treated that way. rick santorum is coming up here. he had -- ask him about his daughter. and the tragedy he faced. >> sean: i talked to him about it. look, my parents lost a sister of mine to crib death. they never talked about it. and i talked to them about how difficult it was for him. i'll mention it to him tonight because it's now become public. >> i have been issuing -- >> sean: you want them to show that side of themselves. >> i want to ask them those questions because i think the viewers have the right to know what their personal life is like.

the challenges that they face. i think viewers want to know. americans want to know their mistakes, their weaknesses, and what they have learned. >> sean: let me ask you. advice now regardless of what the outcome is in iowa. history has proven you can lose iowa, come in fourth. right? john mccain. and still win the nomination. this is not the be all and end all. we also have proportional distribution for the initial states this year. what advice would you give to the candidates coming out of iowa, regardless of where they may come in, in terms of the order? mitt romney is also favored in new hampshire. >> let's start with mitt romney. i think that he needs to show that passion. that intensity, that is what the voters are looking for him. if they see he is someone who wants to fight for what he believes in, it makes him likely to support them. for perry, we haven't talked about him needs to do more one-on-one. he needs to do the interview with you, back and forth.

not as good with the debate. he is better with voter and face to face. with rick santorum, i tell him, go to new hampshire. let them see you and go to south carolina. >> race to south carolina. >> as fast as you can get there. gingrich, i would tell him, don't go to new hampshire. go to south carolina. he is still got to lead there. remind you of something. with the negative ads in iowa and new hampshire, they haven't seen him in south carolina. >> how does he respond to negative ads? there will be more coming. >> gingrich is leading in south carolina. he needs to challenge the other candidates. we're not the enemy here. we're not the opponents here. it's barack obama. don't do anything that weakens anybody. focus on, put your eyes on the prize. that prize is the white house in november. he has to pit pressure on the other candidate to stop going negative. that includes ron paul. >> sean: i warn people if they become part of your focus group, you do yell at them at the early part of the focus group. >> okay. just for that, go to

luntzglobal.com. >> sean: all right. >> sign up at luntzglobal.com. >> sean: good to see you. coming up, we'll be joined by mitt romney, newt gingrich, michele bachmann, rick santorum. but first, could the former pennsylvania senator rick santorum, could he rock the g.o.p. field with a huge upset tomorrow? he'll be on set in iowa next.

♪ >> sean: welcome back to special edition of "hannity." live in des moines, iowa. in the past few weeks, former pennsylvania senator rick santorum has been surgin surginn the polls in the hawkeye state. could he be the one g.o.p. candidate to pull off a major upset tomorrow? join me now with reaction, the candidate himself, rick santorum. how are you? >> great. >> sean: good to see you. >> thank you. >> sean: when i interviewed you before on christmas i said to you, i had a discussion.

prominent conservative. you know who it is. i think you performed well in the debate. you have been all over iowa. we said we were puzzled you hadn't had your surge yet. are you happy with the timing of it? >> i couldn't really be better timing. i want to thank the people of iowa. they have done what they said they would do, which is they would take the process seriously. they would go out and meet the candidate. kick the tires and choose person they believe is the best person to take on barack obama and win this election. and then govern the country in a way that is strong enough for what america needs right now. i think that is why i think you are seeing we're moving o on. >> sean: the "des moines register" poll broke out the last two days. they have you at 15%. last two days you surged up to 21 or 22%. >> yeah. there is a reason for that. >> sean: what do you think is it? >> we heard all along that people said we like you, but everyone says you can't win. you have don't get any coverage. you get no time at the debate. so we just don't think you can win. we like you, be you can't win.

well, organically we got to the point on wednesday there was a cnn poll that was out and all of a sudden santorum is third place in 16%. next two days we shot up. because people said hey, he can win. i can be for him. >> it's interesting, the ebb and throw of the momentum shifting in this campaign in particular. and i was telling frank lupt gallup said they had never seen a campaign this volatile. one thing that came up over the weekend, you said you if elected president would consult with israel. you vowed to take out iranian nukes. >> absolutely. >> sean: some people attacked you for that. >> surprised me. bottom line is every politician in america, almost every major political figure in both parties both say iran cannot get a nuclear weapon. there is a reason for that. not like any other country. it's theocracy. that pledged to wipe out state of israel. they believe it's they're mission to dominate the muslim world.

for theocratic purposes, bring back their savior if you will. and there is very clear evidence that they are building a nuclear weapon. if we do not stop them, they will not only build it or potentially use it or use it as a field to project terror around the world. we must stop them. it will fundamentally change the entire geopolitical structure of the world and put america on our heels. you have can't just say well, we are not forthem getting them. president obama is not picking duke for the ncaa championship. when you say they can't get it, you have to do something to make sure they won't get it. i will. he hasn't. >> sean: let me ask you. it was interesting. you gave i think it was a town hall this weekend. it notice npr, and cbs, they reported something that when i listen to it, i didn't hear it same way. i want to give you a chance to clarify here. black people's lives will be better without somebody else's

money. regarding a question about medicare. sorry, medicaid. >> i didn't hear the context of the question. >> sean: that is not what you said? >> i haven't heard it. all i can say, i don't single out any group of people. i don't single them out by race or class. i believe no people in this country, i condemn all form of racism. there is no one out here working as you know in the inner city and with people of all different -- >> sean: yeah, i listen closely. it didn't hear it that way. >> i haven't heard it. >> sean: even the website media, i said they didn't hear it necessarily right. >> all i can tell you is i condemn all forms of racism. there is nobody that has done more as a republican in the united states senate to bring in african-americans to party. ask stacy watts or michael steele. i work with historically black colleges and i have done a ton of stuff. this is someone trying to cause trouble. >> sean: my former partner, friend, alan combs got in a

heated debate with rich lowery. you lost a child some years ago. it got very heated. you spoke to allen earlier. >> there is a lot of nasty stuff out there on the internet. i'm sure alan reads a lot of it from the left about rick santorum. my wife wrote a book about our son who lived two hours and passed away. when he died he died in the middle of the night about 3:00 in the morning. we decided to keep him in our room and be with him. in the morning, we packed up and we took our son home to have a funeral at home and bury him late they're day. we have brought him home, showed him to our children. we wanted to let them know they had a brother. and who he was. people criticized us for that. karen is with a neo natal intensive care nurse for nine years. one thing that karen taught me and that she learned from that

experience was you have to affirm the life of your child. you have to affirm that memory for your children and for you. to recognize the dignity of that life and make sure that child is forever part of your family. that is what we did. that is what we, i tell you, it was a tremendously healing experience for all of us. to be criticized for it, look, i understand why people want to do something differently. but to take a shot. someone loses a child. >> sean: alan called you, though. >> he did call and apologized. i told him, i know alan. he is a very good person at heart. he made a mistake. he admitted the mistake. both karen and i said look, we all say and do stupid things. no problem. but part of the culture, you just told me before we came on, you got to be crazy to want to do this, people are going to be saying the worst things about you. all i would say is they do say those things. but please don't repeat them.

>> sean: shock, wave, vote in iowa. ron paul is calling you a liberal. you have been called a lot of things, have you been called a liberal before? >> someone in the dennis kucinich wing on national security shouldn't call me a liberal. >> sean: do you have a problem because you endorse specter? >> i endorse someone who i believed would ensure us we'd have two to three conservative u.s. supreme court justices. for me, having two supreme court justices that were robert and alito. if you go back and look, and senator specter said as chairman of the judiciary committee he made sure as chairman he'd push nomination through. and support the president if consulted. he did. alito on the court today because of that. i feel proud of the fact i was willing to stand up and fight for what i believed in. making sure that the court, which is unfortunately an important body in this country now would have those conservative justices and the 5-4 majority for at least several years to come. >> sean: senator, good to see you. congratulations. good luck in polls and caucus

tomorrow. see you next week in new hampshire. >> my pleasure. >> sean: senator rick santorum. newt gingrich and michele bachmann join me later in the hour. but first, mitt romney. he has been campaigning hard in the hawkeye state. the g.o.p. front runner is here to explain what a win tomorrow could mean for his white house bid. that's coming up straight ahead from des moines, iowa.

♪ ♪ >> sean: welcome back to "hannity." we are coming to you live from iowa. ahead of tomorrow's caucuses. former massachusetts governor romney is now leading in the poll in several polls here in the hawk yea state. may m are predicting he will pull away with a win. but yesterday, newt gingrich

who will be my guest later in the program made headlines when he told reporters that governor romney would buy the election if he could. our cameras caught up with him later and asked him to clarify what he said. here is his answer. >> do you think that mitt romney -- [ inaudible ] >> did you pick that up? i didn't say he was. i said he would if he could. >> he would want to try? >> if he could. >> i don't know, $3.5 million in negative ads, you tell me. >> sean: all right, joining me now with reaction is the g.o.p. presidential hopeful, leading in the polls here in iowa. mitt romney. i bet you are glad you're in the lead at this point. >> it feels good at this stage. fun to get started now. we have all been working very hard. now the people in iowa will get us started. i think there will be a few people coming out of iowa with a boost. we go to new hampshire, and south carolina, florida. we have fun ahead of us. >> sean: let me ask about newt gingrich. i interviewed newt on radio

today. he is calling on you to tell these outside groups, one i guess run by a former staffer of yours to stop running the ads against him. not run negative campaign. what is your reaction to him about some of the adds being run by the groups? >> there are a lot of ads run against me, as you know, from different campaigns. the first that started off was run by the democratic national committee. they ran an ad attacking me. >> sean: by the way, attacking you and following you. >> they are going after me. following me. i wish we could all play by some kind of rules like playing game of monopoly. this is a campaign. i expect the obama people to come after me very aggressively if i am the nominee. i hope to be. and i'm ready to fight back. i won't sit back and say we'll have a campaign that describes differences between obama and myself. i wish we didn't have pacs and i wish the campaign could raise all the money they needed without independent

entities but that is the way the law is set up. we are going to play by the rule. >> sean: if you told this pac to stop with the ad you'd have authority and power despite saying don't run them, they wouldn't run them. >> they are all sorts of pacs. pacs -- >> sean: ones running ads against newt. >> he only wants one against him to be stopped. i mean, obviously, the speaker doesn't want to have that. i understand. but this is a campaign. we have to have broad shoulders. you have can't spend time whining about the fact that people are drawing attention to your record in the past. i have been attacked. it's fine. get used to it. it is going to get worse. >> you said he has been romney voted. wait until president obama gets in with a $1 billion to spend. you to someone to take message to obama and fight back. i'll fight back hard. >> sean: one thing, newt will be on after. we will give him a chance to respond. he wants the challenge to a debate. would you do a one-on-one

debate with him? he likes the lincoln-douglas style debates. >> well, that is nice for him. we had what? ten or 12 debates so far. we have had a chance to debate. i have done well in some. he has done well in some. if we end up as the two finalists we'll probably debate one-on-one. right now, we are not the two finalists. >> sean: if you debate, you want all the other candidates? >> sure. when reagan said the other people who are credible candidates have every right to be here. right now according to the poll in iowa the other leaders would be santorum and paul. not gingrich. why would i do a one-on-one with gingrich. >> sean: you compared obama promises to kardashian wedding vows. >> she said till death do us part. >> 74 days. >> yeah. so, i mean, the promises he made and the performance a that the administration could not be further apart. people recognize this.

he was going to prepare the nation he said. he was going to repair the world. >> sean: heal the planet. >> extraordinary. he made things worse for people out of work. made it harder for economy to turn around. we now iran, which is on the verge of having nuclear weaponry. it's just announced nuclear fuel rods they built. first one built. medium range surface-to-air missile being tested. strait of hormuz. >> do you agree with what rick santorum has been saying the last couple of days that he would take out their nuclear site if he is president? >> i want to talk about what i would do if i were president today. and if i'm elected what i do immediately. put in place the crippling sanctions against iran. stand with the people in iran who are dissident voices. and prepare military options. i don't want to threaten specific action right now. but we, of course, have to have military options. we have to be prepared to take the options to make sure that

iran does not become nuclear. >> sean: is it unacceptable for iran to become nuclear? >> it's not acceptable to america and should be unaccept to believe the world for iran to become nuclear nation. >> the closest challenger in the des moines poll right now is ron paul. there are the newsletters that goes back in time. but he says he didn't know about the newsletters. do you think he got the same criticism as you and santorum and bachmann and perry and newt, or do you think he got a pass on those? >> i think he repudiated the letters and said i don't agree with them and distance himselfs from them in every way he could. i take him at his word. i don't worry about what things the press focused on and which they don't. you take the process as it comes.

i know people talk about it. take him as the issues that separate us. with each of the candidates is the best place to focus. >> sean: how do you design the caucus? you are leading in the polls but very close. first, second, third going to a strong state new hampshire where you are leading by a significant amount? how do you define success in iowa? >> if the polls were close to being true. three people at the top. it'd love to be number one. anyone would be. coming in second or third is fine. if we are close together it would give all three a boost going to new hampshire and south carolina. and florida. my guess is if the polls are right, three people will be supercharged coming from iowa. >> sean: good to see you. happy to be here at this point. the moment arrived. voting begins. >> great fun. i got a lot of friends here. can't wait to see them. >> how many counties have you been to? >> you know, i can't give you the number. my son has been to all 99

counties. give him credit for that. >> sean: good thing you have sons out doing the work, too. >> right. >> sean: thank you for being with us. when we come back, former speaker of the house newt gingrich is here ahead of tomorrow's caucuses. plus, she won the straw poll last summer. minnesota congresswoman michele bachmann is hoping to come away with another win tomorrow. she will join us as we continue live. we're in demoan, iow de -- we'rs moines, iowa, as

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>> sean: welcome back to special edition of "hannity." speaking of tomorrow, iowa caucuses, former speaker to the house newt gingrich quoted earlier today he didn't think he would win in iowa but he back tracked and argued he answered inaccurately and said he may pull off one of the great upset in the history of the iowa caucuses. weeks ago, he was top candidate in the state. today he is polling around fourth place. he has discussed the sharp decline on the negative attack ads run against him. joining me now to respond. presidential candidate newt gingrich. mr. speaker, good see you. welcome back, sir. >> good to see you. i should say, sean, the second half of the sentence that didn't make the headline as i said the des moines poll says 41% are undecided. if that is the case, any of us could win. that is such a huge swing

vote, all of rus in the hunt. the good news for conservatives tonight, somewhere between 76 and 79% of the vote is going to go to outside conservatives and the only moderate establishment candidate will get something like 21 to 23% of the vote. so this will clearly be a victory for conservatism to set the stage for the rest of the primary campaign, as a choice between massachusetts moderate, and a conservative as we work our way through the issues. >> sean: let me ask you about this. you use a term you had been romney voted. only, a reference to the term swift voting that had been used against john kerry. i asked the governor moments ago, he was on the program, if he would ask the pac that is running the negative ads against you to stop them. he made no indication that they would. what is your reaction back to him? do you think the ads have been unfair? do you think maybe you should

come up with your own ads responding? >> i'm not going to engage in that petty negativity. i think it demeans the politics and demeans the country. exactly what we don't need in washington. there is enough hostility and negativity already. i will be prepared wednesday in new hampshire to draw a clear contrast between conservatism and the romney record, which was to not be for reagan in the 1980s. to be a democrat for paul songas in 1992 when songas was the most liberal candidate. run to the left of teddy kennedy in 1994, not an easy thing to do. describe himself as a moderate running for governor in 2002. to have tax paid abortion in romneycare. to have planned parenthood written by law in alum roc romne with no right to life group. we'll go through how wide the gap is.

between conservatism and the massachusetts moderate policies that romney and n the real world, not in this campaign speeches or paid ads but the real world the moderate massachusetts position he espouseed for his career. >> sean: if i am hearing you right i am hearing a strategic or tactical shift. that up until this point you tried to run a positive campaign. now, kind of in iowa the gloves are off and you are going to make some comparisons between you and governor romney. fair analysis? >> look, i would rather stay with a comparison between my tax plan, which the "wall street journal" said saturday was the best, most aggressive job creation plan available. the romney plan they described so timid it could be obama's plan. but if the governor wants to engage in negativity, i'll tell the truth. we'll have the video and facts

to let the people see for themselves. none of the stuff i describe is the stuff he described. let's have a discussion of who has been engaged of a movement conservative since i went to a goldwater organize media 1964? who has been aloof from the conservative movement, refuse to sign contract with america. rejected reagan and bush policies. and has been clearly not part of the conservatism? i think in the next few weeks you will see a clearer understanding of who mitt romney is. >> sean: i spoke to you earlier today on my radio program. you said you probably made a mistake in your handling of the issue with freddie mac. i want to give you a chance to explain that. >> after the first debate, i should have recognized how confusing and how clumsy i was and i should have come back. congressman j.c. watts for seven years head of the freddie mac watch committee and he said publicly i never once approached him at all.

congressman rick lazio was the chair of the housing sub committee while i was speaker and said i never asked him to do anything for them. i backed all of his reform ideas. the "new york times" said one time i went to the house, i told them to vote no, to vote against giving them any money. the only time, only published article from freddie mac i said they needed more regulation. so i think if we explained that and explained that i didn't get $1,600,000 any more than romney got gross revenue of bain. i got $35,000 a year and the rest went to staff, offices and overhead for all the things a company does. when people look at $35,000 a year and they look at the strategic advice and realize my only act as a citizen was to say don't give them the moneys for them to reform themselves they have a new understanding of the issue. that is the ad we should have run a week ago. >> sean: mr. speaker, two

interesting things that you have said recently. one is you think that barack obama should forfeit his salary this year; meaning, as president. another thing is you would consider governor palin possibly to be your running mate. i want quick answers on those if i could. >> president announced in effect he will campaign all year, not going to work with the congress. try to govern in an unconstitutional way. if he didn't want to be president, why is he drawing the salary and doing all the things? this is a bizarre administration. in their recent statement. and governor palin has a lot of talent and lot of things she could do. one area is energy. it could imagine her being considered for a number of places. i don't know if he would want them. but if you want to open up the public land and chance to develop energy that would be area she would be enormously effective. >> sean: mr. speaker, thank you for being with me. >> good to be with you. >> sean: i'm sure you are gratified the caucuses are finally here and the game is on. thank you for being with us. >> it will be very exciting.

thank you. >> sean: all right. thank you. and time now to check in with greta van susteren for sneak peek for what she has "on the record" tonight. >> greta: good evening. congratulations to the oregon ducks to beat my wisconsin badgers. "on the record" tonight we have governor rick perry on. you know who he is. donald trump is joining us. is he going to endorse before the iowa caucus? he better get going. he only has 22 hours. plus, governor mike huckabee, the winner 2008 is here. we have so much more, back to you. >> sean: all right. she is coming up in 19 short minutes from right now. she was born in waterloo, iowa, launched her presidential campaign in the great state of iowa. minnesota congresswoman michele bachmann joins me next to explain why she believes she is the best candidate to take on president obama in 2012, as "hannity" continues tonight from des moines straight ahead.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> sean: welcome back to special edition of "hannity." live in des moines, iowa. despite falling in the poll since winning the straw poll, congresswoman michele bachmann is making a strong final push ahead of the caucuses tomorrow. she is touting her ties to iowa, the state where she was born. does she have what it takes to clinch a surprise finish?

joining me now with reaction, the presidential candidate herself, michele bachmann. how are you? good to see you. >> thank you. good to see you. welcome to iowa. >> sean: i was with you the day you won the ames straw poll. you took a dive in the polls. the last poll i saw you, back up in double digits. you see the fluctuation as gallop said, the most volatile g.o.p. race since thed a vent of polling. how do you explain it? >> wait four days from now, there will be a new front runner. it continues in the cycle. people learn information about a candidate, then they shift to another one. they are back and forth, back and forth. at a certain point people make a decision. but i think what people want to know is something that frank lupt said at the very top. they want to know who is the candidate who says what they mean and means what they say? of all of the candidates that has been me. that is my history. they also want to know who has led. of all the candidates, i am

the one leading and fighting against barack obama. i have taken him on, on every issue. it's your show where i invited americans to come join me at the capital and take on barack obama. i saw the socialized medicine is crown jewel. it killed this country. and where were all the other candidates? i was there, you were there, we were all falling -- calling on america to fight against obamacare. we did. we had 40,000 come. on your show i offered that obamacare had $105 billion. >> sean: i remember that. we hit that issue hard for a long time. >> the reason why that is important we have one chance to get rid of obamacare. it's this election. this is one shot chance to get rid of it. >> sean: you look at iowa. you won the straw poll.

an important surge for you. how important -- this is a state you were born in. a neighboring state. how important if you are to look at -- where do you need to finish tomorrow that you would be satisfied or define it as success? getting grouped tightly together. >> it is. how do you define success? >> we are rising in the polls. we are double digits now. anyone's guess for tomorrow night. but our distinct advantage was the last debate. the fox debate. that debate, i took it to ron paul on issue of nuclear iran. people appreciated that. they said here is a woman that we can trust on the stage with barack obama. i will take it to barack obama as i did with ron paul. he will make a dangerous president. >> sean: why do you think he is doing well? >> he is highly organized in iowa. we are, too. we have 1,000 people to stand up tomorrow and speak on my

behalf across the caucuses. we're highly organized. >> sean: you went through scrutiny. herman cain went through it. newt gingrich went through. >> that is good. candidates need to have the snot beaten out of them. it's a tough process. we are only just beginning this process. >> sean: this is a different year, too. there is proportional distribution of delegates. >> very different. unlike anything that has happened. >> sean: for example, do you think ron paul has got an little bit of a pass on the issue of the newsletters? it only came up recently in the last few weeks in the des moines register poll showing as it becomes an issue for him, he loses support. >> no one really took seriously the fact he would win at caucus. i think as people have seen the numbers rise in polls now it's getting vetted more. it depends on the level of scrutiny people are getting. but i think with ron paul, everyone realizes he will not be the nominee. he is to the left of barack

obama. >> sean: rick santorum said he is the dennis kucinich of the republican party. >> he is to the left of barack obama. he would legalize cocaine and heroin. he wouldn't stand up for marriage between a man and woman at the federal level or do anything else. >> sean: isolationists. >> isolationists? he is perfectly content to wait until iran launches a nuclear weapon against the united states, flattens a city, kills millions of americans. then he would do something about it. >> sean: you have strong comments about this earlier today. >> i do. i'll tell you why. >> you would set up a blockade. >> i will tell you why. i stood on the intelligence space. of all the candidates no one has the current experience in national security. i'm the only one who does. i received classified briefings. president obama receives classified briefings. he other candidate does. this is so serious. we are on the cusp of a world

changing experience. >> sean: you think iran could be nuclear weapons before we have a new president? >> it's entirely possible. >> sean: frightening. at that point, game over. >> look what they have done. they demonstrated two things. number within, iran has shown the capability they have capability of delivering a weapon. number two, today they announce they have a nuclear fuel rod which means they are capable of getting that weapon. this is highly sensitive. that is why we need to have a commander in chief who is ready and of all of the candidates i am best prepared on the issue. i am the one who is current and ready to go. our president needs to be prepared. >> sean: all right. congresswoman, good to see you. good luck in the caucuses and see you in new hampshire next week. >> and south carolina. >> sean: and florida. we'll be in all the states. >> sounds good. >> it will get warmer. >> sean: yeah. we can move one warmer state after another. let not your heart be troubled. much more from the hawkeye state on this the eve of the iowa caucuses. that and more coming up.

straight ahead.

♪ >> sean: joining me now, fox news contributors tucker carlson and fox news political

analyst, kirsten powers. good to see you. look, this is as gallup said, the first time since 1964, the g.o.p. front runner spotted so many changes. the most volatile g.o.p. primary since thed a vent of polling -- advent of polling. can you predict what is going to happen? >> i don't want to make any predictions because of what you just said. beyond that, you could say ron paul, rick santorum and mitt romney are going into be in the top three. that's all we know now. >> sean: you think for sure? >> i do. >> what do you think? >> i'm struck by a couple of things. one how vastly rick santorum improved. he went to an event today and i was surprised and moved and impressed by his ability to communicate. >> sean: how many people were there? >> a lot. pizza place and it was packed. not surprised to see how well he is doing as i was. intensity of the ron paul support is striking. the republican party, whoever the nominee is not going to be ron paul, needs to keep him

from going third party. >> sean: has he gotten the scrutiny of other candidates? >> no matter what -- >> sean: only recently and limited. >> it's been limited. if you look at the racist newsletters it's remarkable how little we talk about it. they are scores and scores of disgusting comments. >> sean: how does he get away with saying i didn't know what was in my news letter? >> it's ridiculous. in fact, if you go back and ad them all up, it's quite clear -- >> sean: i have been -- [ overtalking ] >> i'm not defending that. or ron paul or anything like that. but a purely objective 35,000-foot point which is if this guy goes third party, obama is re-elected. >> sean: no doubt. to see the republican candidates attack ron paul who is not the nominee anyway, is that long-term a good strategy? someone needs to convince ron paul not to go third party. this is a serious threat to whoever is the republican nominee. >> sean: donald trump, who

is on with greta after the program. he flirts with the idea. >> i don't think he is a threat. he doesn't have the constituency of ron paul. >> sean: it could be huge. >> ron paul has a serious constituency of people who, he has these problems, right? iran, the racist newsletters but he also is the only person making certain cases that nobody else is making. obama is not making it. and neither republican candidate is making it. >> i like ron paul plan to cut $1 trillion off the top. i like it. i disagree on foreign policy. it would have been better to say what was in the newsletters i didn't write everything. i don't agree with everything. but to say you didn't know is kind of. >> of course. but it does, as a political matter make sense to look at ron paul's platform and say what in this is sane and something we can appropriate. whoever the nominee should think why people support this guy. >> sean: we had romney and

gingrich on. newt wants romney to tell pac stop running the ad. and newt also signaled the gloves are off and the strategy is changing.g.g.g. we're going to cpare an contrast. did newt make a mistake not fighting back harder, trying to run a positive campaign? we say we don't like negative ads. they work. of course they work. >> break it doesn't simply. newt gingrich didn't go negative because gingrich didn't have money. this is a tactical decision. not that he is a sweet person who doesn't attack people. we have seen he is saying he will attack people. hi pac practiced political malpractice and they should have gone after romney and other people if they had the money. >> sean: i think things will change. republicans don't like the whining. >> sean: i don't think he is whining. i think he was signaling all right, gloves are off. >> what is the point?