another bruising battles just 60 days from now. we're going to talk to a tea party republicans who wants to hold house speaker boehner's feet to the fire. it is a big day in politics. we have just one week away from the way caucus. five of the republican presidential candidates are making a final stumping push in the hawkeye state today. we are also two weeks away from the new hampshire primary, a state where mitt romney has had a commander lead. many leading strategists say at this point it's anyone's race, the final road to iowa has been paved with money with the massive ad blitz there. $10 million has been spent in iowa this month alone. rick perry the biggest spender on iowa tv ads released his 11th add just yesterday, accusing his opponents of exploiting the american taxpayer. if washington is the

problem, why trust a congressman to fix it? among them they have spent 63 years in congress, leaving us with debt, earmarks and bailouts. congressmen get and you get the bill. we need a solution. >> peter alexander is on the ground in denotwithstanding, iowa. what are you hearing? >> reporter: craig melvin, good morning to you. first they'll have 22 new opportunities alone to meet and greet. they took a break for the holiday, but that ended quickly. michele bachmann, who has not received the support of the tea party express, not an official endorse muppet, but will be making ten different stops alone. it's a good way to put it, that the road has been paved with money, more than $10 million being spend in radio and television ads by the candidates and by their super pacs.

one of the biggest discrepancies exists between how much the romney campaign and its super pac has spent versus newt gingrich outspent 8:1 by the romney campaign, but i think a lot of people in this state, as you speak to iowans are looking for that purity in a candidate. think like ron paul's -- they like the conservative policies and belief system of rick santorum and michele bachmann. and romney hiship who has only spent ten days on the ground. four years ago he spend 77 dates here. it remains to be seen how he all plays out. >> peet you are alexander from des moines, iowa, for us this morning. thank you, sir. let's bring in reed epstein from politico.

good morning to you. let's start with newt gingrich. his campaign is seriously in trouble. is it game over for gingrich if he does not win in iowa? >> good morning, craig. certainly gingrich needs to perform in iowa to brings back the level of expectations that he had. just three weeks ago when he was the front-runner. if you look at what's going on here in des moines, gingrich is running scared almost, as if almost as if he's unable to respond from the barrage of anything tiff ads, in part because he is. up until this point he's been unwilling to return that kind of fire that the other candidates have trained on him. for folks watching, who might not be family with what these caulk uses look like and how they are different from primaries, speak to that?

what goes on in iowa is very unique in a lot of ways. >> it is very different. most of us who have voted before you familiar with the process of going into a voting booth, you're by yourself, you have a secret ballot. the caucuses aren't like that. you go to a meeting room or someone's house in your neighborhood and you stand up and publicly support one candidate or another. if your candidate doesn't reach a specific threshold, then you go to another candy and your friends and neighbors are lobbying you to go with their candidate. so it's a much different type of phenomenon, much more public than the voting that the rest of us might be familiar with. >> that's presumably why organization so much matters in iowa, perhaps more so in iowa than other places. 10 mill chron having being spend alone this month.

>> just look at what happened to gingrich. the spigot of negative advertising was turned on, and all of a sudden his percentage support in the poll us was cut in half. he lead has disappeared. now running third behind ron paul and mitt romney, and struggling to regain that momentum. >> reed epstein, thank you. >> thank you, craig. the first primary in the nation now just two weeks away, new hampshire could be mitt romney's to lose at this point. a new "boston globe" poll gives romney a size acvang. when you look at independents, the story shift a little.

s joining me is -- romney stopped by a restaurant this morning, and he sounded more like the nominee than he has. take a listen to what he said. >> i'm excited about the coming election. i'm excited about what's going to happen on january 10th. i'm not exactly sure how this is all going to work out, but i think i'll get the nomination if we do our job right. >> but he seems to still have a problem connecting with independent voters. >> independents could help keep the margin a little closer than otherwise would be for mitt romney. but we're stealing ron paul and jon huntsman are doing better among independents, even some democrats who -- did noting-leaning independents who may cross over and vote in the

republican primarily this time. but we're seeing independents aren't jelling behind one candidate, but rather a couple. >> has huntsman started to surge there, or has he peaked? >> i wouldn't describe huntsman as surging. i think he's reached a plateau, with some crossover democrats. he's still looking for a way to get the painstream republican vote in new hampshire to take a good look at him. >> let's talk about ron paul. a poll put him in the lead. "boston globe" polls show him surging with independents there. if paul wins in iowa, will he have the momentum to upset romney in new hampshire? >> i don't think he would have the plomt tum to upset romney, but he could very well finish second in new hampshire. with the help of libertarian republicans here really at the core of his base and perhaps

reaching out against to those independents, and perhaps some moderate to liberal republicans here, attracted by his message on foreign policy, getting out of afghanistan, scaling back on our interventions overseas. >> dante scalden, thank you for joining us this morning. another sad twist in the christmas fire. investigators say the grandfather was found on the roof outside we have his daughters' window. three of his granddaughters and his wife all died in that fire. officials say the grandfather had a long career as a safety chief at a liquor company in kentucky, and he also worked as a department store santa claus. the homeowner survived that fire, and she had to be held back from rushing in to try to save her family. grisly new details have surfaced in the case of a

9-year-old indiana girl who police say was murdered by her baby-sitter. the suspect, who is scheduled to many a in court, confessed to the crime, telling investigators he fatally beat her to death with a brick before cutting her up with a hacksaw. the man is described by family members as a trusted friend. president obama ends the year on a high note. how he plans to keep the momentum going during an election year. plus newt gingrich throwing out the "m" word while describing one of his opponents. is this breaking the let's play nice pledge? i'll speak with a former gingrich campaign spokesman. stay with us. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses.

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as his republican

competitors blanket iowa, president obama's approval ratings seem to be on the regowned. a new column poll show numbers at a six-month high, thanks for a 5% bounce the week before christmas. what does this mean for the commander in chief's reelection prospects? kristin welker is in honolulu, and the first family continues their holiday vacation. good evening, i should say? >> reporter: good morning to you, craig. first of all, let's talk about the new numbers. is the white house saying anything about it at this point? >> reporter: the white house doesn't make too much of any of these approval ratings, but what's interesting, this 47% is an up tick. back in october the president's approval rating was about 38%, so this is certainly a big up tick. what it essentially says is he has recovered from that bruising debt ceiling debate. it also comes on the heels of

other positive news for the president. he is currently being credited with a win in this payroll tax cut debate and also getting some positive economic indicators. the unemployment rate has geologist down. what it means for mr. obama is he's starting this tough reelects year on a positive note. of course, a lot could change between now and when the voters go to the polls. >> is there an update on the diplomatically sensitive issue on whether to allow yemen's president to come to the united states? >> reporter: it is a sensitive issue. the white house released a state which i believe we have a graphic from. josh earnest says the officials are continuing to consider his request. but initial reports that permission has already been granted are not true. so the white house is saying they are still very much in a decision-making process. saleh was injured back in june

during an attack. the united states has a number of issues they would like to see him meet before coming here. >> thank you, kristin. survival mode. after weeks of promising to play nice, newt gingrich appears to be going negative. in a recent e-mail, he team asks, of course, of course he's talking about mitt romney who this weekend trying to apply to iowans. he's also senior adviser to the winning our future super pac. good morning to, you mr. tyler. >> good morning, craig. >> moments ago, romney press secretary andrea saul responded to that e-mail saying, quote, gingrich is a desperate candidate trying to revive his campaign. she also called him an unreliable candidate that's

flailing. >> just google or look up mitt romney, you can see him denounce president reagan, president bush, he identified himself as an independent for the bulk of his career. you can see him embrace roe v. wade, you can see him embrace same-sex marriage, aboorgs -- >> but rick, here's the thing. nude gingrich did say he was going to stay positive. this doesn't appear to be at least a positive e-mail. this appears to be negative. >> well, i would say if we knew the current president apes record before we actually voted on him, that would have been a positive thing. >> no, no, we're talking about gingrich's promise. he promised to play nice. >> what is playing is? playing night is getting out your message and contrasting it with the opponent. we have an ad going up tomorrow statewide in iowa and nationally responding to the mitt romney

accusations and the money that had been spent against newt gingrich. but look, newt gingrich is a conservative. nobody else get credit with the contract with america. welfare reform, $400 billion worth of dead, taxes cut. that's the legislative record. i would ask people to compare legislative records. >> i want to talk about the 2006 memo in which he looks to be praising the plan, saying, we agree entirely with gompor romney, that our goal should be 100 insurance offerage for all americans. will this hurt newt gingrich with conservatives? >> notice what you just said. we don't want a single payer system as romney ultimately set up. we want a 300 million pair

system. that's what we know drives down costs, but in iowa, we're running at least negative ads -- i've got to iowa for tone years. iowans are a discerning people. i would be shocked if they rewarded the person who spend the last amount of time in iowa, as opposed to the person who spent a lot of time in iowa, trying to campaign in as many counties as possible. >> iowa is a state where organization is paramount. newt gingrich couldn't get on the ballot in virginia, because he didn't have 10,000 signatures. that would speak to a lack of organization. how is that same candidate going to prevail in iowa? >> i think newt has been going to iowa for ten years. we have lots of friends in iowa. i think have a have is a

setback, but you can clearly overcome it. so while it is a setback, it's not unsurmountable. >> rick tyler, always a pleasure. appreciate your time. >> thanks, craig. the shoppers are out and about and in full force, spending big. to the opportunity of nearly $500 billion. plus, this, my friend, is how you prevent a robbery. details on that, straight ahead. ] how'd you learn to do that?

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money matters. let's get the lowdown on some of today's business headlines. the paychecks at federal workers grew at the slowest pace in a deck caddy this year, but federal employees did slightly better than workers in the private sector or those in state and local government. shoppers, more of them, took to the web this christmas about

online sales jumping more than 16 percent over last year's rush. and the numb of the shoppers usable mobile devices to make those pitches this year increased by a whopping 173%. meanwhile, some weak holiday sales are prompting sears and k-marts to close between 100 and 120 of their stores. k-ma k-mart's declining sales. christmas has come and gone, but the post-holiday crush is on. thousands are returning unwanted presents or cashing in those gift cards as well. courtney reagan is live in the bronx with more on the business headlines, live at a barnes & noble.

>> reporter: hi there, craig. while a lot of folks think about this week as being a very big week to returns and changes, a lot of sales get done, too, particularly for the content distributors like the amazons, lying the barnes & noble, thinks of those mills onof tablets that appeared that now need to be full of content. so barnes & noble is one of those big beneficiaries saleswise this week of the year is one of the most important for them, but talking about returns also up this year. so they're preparing for all of that as well, but you know what? this year also the retailers got an extra day during the year and an extra day this week because of christmas falling on a sunday. a lot of consumers were off work

and have an extra day to go shopping. >> quickly here, word is we're seeing four different types of shoppers this year. what can you tell us about those groups? >> exactly. so there are sort of four different types of shoppers or perhaps each type in each of us. the bargain hunter has actually changed a bit. and looking at bargains, and that's how you see that dumbbell sales. the midnight buyer 24% of shoppers were out at midnight, and the returners, you buy all this stuff, get some buyer's remorse, and the me shopper, one for you, one for me. >> which type is courtney reagan? >> i see a bit of myself in all of them.

>> cnbc's courtney reagan, thank you for keeping us posted. folks, check this out. mean left hook. right there. there's the surveillance video. halts a robbery in north carolina, coming up. a gunman demands cash, the clerk hands over the money, then he drops him with the powerful punch. looks like he didn't stop there. he even helps to stop the robber from bleeding while he waits for the cops to arrive. house speak john boehner took a stand when he reached out across the aisle on the deal to extend the payroll tax cut. what the speaker now faces when he comes back from recess. i'm going to talk to a tea party republican about it. plus how facebook saved the lives of a mother and her toddler son, an incredible story

you don't want to miss. we knew it would take time, but we were determined to see it through. today, while our work continues, i want to update you on the progress: bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of environmental samples from across the gulf have been analyzed by independent labs under the direction of the us coast guard. i'm glad to report all beaches and waters are open for everyone to enjoy. and the economy is showing progress with many areas on the gulf coast having their best tourism seasons in years. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. we're committed to the gulf for everyone who loves it, and everyone who calls it home.

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welcome back. here's a look at some of the stories topping the news. al qaeda in iraq is claiming responsibility for a rash of bombings in baghdad last week that killed nearly 70 people. it was the first major attack since u.s. troops completed a full withdrawal from iraq this month. business owners in maine have now raised $30,000 in reward to help find a missing toddlers there. police believe she was abducted. the murders of three women this detroit this one thing in common. all advertised as escorts on the web side. the bodies of two other women were found in another car trunk. police say they do not have a

suspect. a mother and her small son are safe after using facebook. they were held host an for nearly five days. plees say she posted a plea for help on the web side, saying she and her son were dead by morning if they were not rescued. britain's prince philip is out of the hospital today. queen elizabeth's 90-year-old husband underwent a procedure for a blocked artery. he was absent from the royal family's christmas festivities for the first time in years. and the final stretch to iowa. mitt romney is appealing to caucus voters as a business conservative. he still ended up losing to mike

huckabee by almost ten percentage points. now splitting time between new hampshire and iowa. his campaign feeling confident, with one strategist being quoted as saying i don't see any scenario where we are not the nominee. >> a couple weeks ago i was a distant third in iowa. you just don't know what's going to happen in this process. i'm joined on the phone by joe kinnen. confide is the compare so confident? >> well, basically they're trying to put their infrastructure of volunteers and staff into motion. it seems to be perhaps his last bit of campaigning before the iowa caucuses. he surprisingly told the voters today he won't be see new hampshire until after the iowa caucuses after january 4th, but he played down his expectations. he did not perform as well in iowa.

he wants to finish trong and get all delegates necessary for the nomination. he did a swipe at newt gingrich, calling the failure to qualify in the primary, and we got a little extra color here. we found on the that their entire family had ham for christmas instead of the usual turkey. they even saw a little "christmas vacation" movie. >> wild and crazy there. thank you, jo ling kent on the ground there. there's some questions that continue to linger about racially charged newsletters bearing his name decades ago. even if he wins iowa, that's no

guarantee he'll signaled the nomination. g.w. did it back in 2000. >> anthony terrible is joining me live from des moines i was koinchts manning paul will be here in central iowa tomorrow. the campaign is emphasizing his service to his country in the 1960s, as well as the fact that his campaign receives more foundations than all the other republican candidates combined. so they're emphasizing that tomorrow night. thursday and friday there's a swing through western iowa, a very republican part of the state. the campaign sis senator rand paul will be making an appearance to campaign on behave of hi father coming up next week. what is the campaign continuing to say about those newsletters?

>> the campaign says he disavows those letter, and anyone that knows his hard knows he's not a racist. >> anthony, thank you for the report. >> thank you. so is the general matchup already a forgone clues. joining mess is jamal simmons. rich galen, republican stratist is also here. rich, let me start with you. we are seeing a very different romney campaign today there it is right there, why don't they like me, one of the his strat cysts say this is all bum wrapped up. what's changed?

>> the last hurdle appears to have sunday exactly the same flight past. >> and would provide them. this appear to have paid them back. we'll see what happens over the next 30 days or so. right now it look like it's going to be difficult for anybody to catch up with romney. and all the things that gingrich does not have. >> jamal, as gingrich's stock goes down. romney remains the overall on again will off again front-runner, was it right to keep focus on romney? >> i think they are right, but i'm not sure that he's doing himself a good service. if he's wrong it had set his

campaign back a bit. it's going to be pretty stuff for him to make it in the hump. who has the support across the country that mitt romney has. >> rich, why in the past, and we just talked since 1972, there's only been one who's won iowa. why has iowa not been a more accurate predictor of the nominee? >> for starters there's 49 other states to go plus the district of columbia. who knows where all the delegates come from. it's like saying we're going to hold so the wrong end of a bhip and try to make it crack by making the long end race through the area. >> what iowa does do, it picks

the losers. gets people out that had a shot. sometimes they get a few -- the role is to win on the field. >> jamal, president obama getting a nice christmas present from americans. 47% of those surveyed approving of the president's performance. if this trend continues, is the president going to be pretty solid come november of next year? >> it is a good trend. . i was watching your interview with kristin welken, and i was thinking of the reporters who got stuck in stuck stick, and i'm sure they're much happier in honolulu. i would argue that's the case, because the president since

september, maybe even a bit better september has been talking relentlessly about the economy, about jobs, how to make the american worker better off. i think people know for the first time since health care what this president cares about the most. >> jamal simmons, gentlemen, thank you. appreciate you joining us this morning. >> when house republicans accepted a two-month extension to keep a tax cut, but that compromise was just the first up for a congress looking hat to a hefzy lift in 2012. the question remains will tea party republicans come back next year humbled, or really to fight the battle all over again? joining mess is jeffrey landry, from louisiana. congressman, thank you for being here today.

>> the tea party slayer, do you think it's fair. >> this is bad policy, good politics, that's what's gotten us in the condition it's in. i can't understand how harry reid and president obama got their wires crossed. the president wanted a one-year extension of the payroll tax. that's all he championed. what we get back is a two-month extension. >> you were quoted as say you don't explain -- saying he has a tough job. do you think that's the consens consensus? or do you think that the speaker has a pretty tough road ahead?

>> it's a tough position to be in. it's a tough job to have. we certainly are disappointed. i'm disappointed we didn't get an opportunity to flesh this out. we were told he would have a window of opportunity before any action was taken. of course those are questions that he'll have to answer when we get back in january, you know, but at the end of the day here we are. >> ah the steal party caucus been overall pleased with the performance of the speaker? >> i think they've been disappointed in congress as a whole. you know, there were times when we were ready to fight, fighting on behalf of 9 american people, not on behalf of the tea party,

the republican party or the democratic party. look, we want solutions to these, not short-term gimmicks that again just made for good politics. >> congressman jeffrey landry, appreciate your time. >> thank you. so-called anonymous hackers are back. and thousands of credit cars, you will not believe what they did with the stolen money. we'll talk about that. plus rick santorum goes hunting. did he find what he was searching for? the sidebar is next. i habe a cohd. yeah, i toog nyguil bud i'm stild stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't un-stuff your nose. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your stuffy nose. [ deep breath ] thank you! that's the cold truth! ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition.

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all aboard. time for the poly-sidebar today. newt gingrich, michele bachmann and governor rick perry all claim to be the conservative alternative to mitt romney. governor perry might not lead the polls in iowa, but he does hold the top spot in one

important race, the ad wars. his campaign has spent nearly $2.8 million in december alone on nine different ads in the hawkeye state, bringing his total to 11. bus tours, campaign ads, all for the birds for rick san tore he went hunting yesterday with congressman steve king. >> i just thought we could do something that's fun, and i know the folks here enjoy doing also, and being with good friends. it was an opportunity for me to get out and participate in a sport that i know is popular here in the state of iowa. >> santorum and king's second hunting trip in the past three months. still no endorsement. candidates have certainly been occupying iowa, but starting today occupy protesters will join the fun. hundreds are expected in des

moines it sounds like a plot right out of movie "sneakers" computer hacking busting firewalls to swipe credit card numbers, then using that information to steal cash and give it to charity. pete williams has more from d.c. hey, pete. >> well, craig, the company says it's taking steps necessary to make sure this doesn't happen again. stratforis a think tank that provides security for clients. what happened as well in the last couple days is the hacker group that calls itself anonymous went into the site and stole thousands of numbers and personal information. it used that, and there's some evidence to indicate this is the case to make what hackers say washington a million, which may be less than that, of contributions to charitable

organization. some of the people that were affected have said, yes, it did happen to them, but they've gotten their money back. the charities can't accept the money because it was stolen. in many cases the credit card companies were able to identify this problem. it's a publicity attempt by anonymous. it certainly appears to have been effective. it said in a statement, craig, that it expects to have more -- in its words, more havoc like this later this week. >> pete williams, thanks. >> you bet. even as the feds move to block south carolina's voter i.d. law, four more states will put theirs into effect in 2012. residences of account account rhode island, and texas will have for provide voter e.d. cards. joining me -- she does a whole lot of everybody. melissa harry-paris joining

muss. what can be done to prevent voters and the four states from becoming disenfranchised. >> remember the federal government only has oversight in the states with clear -- there were a set of states that had been disenfranchised under the jim crow laws, so any time they make changes it has to be precleared by the federal government, but the other states that were not part of rhode island, for example, are not subject, so that makes it much more different for us to address this question of unfairness in voters i.d. laws. >> those who have advocated for such laws point to their goal they say is to prevent voters fraud. most of what we know is it's a minuscule problem, if any at all. there's no reason to think that it has impacted and changed

election outcomes, particularly election outcomes for congressional, senate and presidential elections. we do that these kind of voter i.d. laws which fundamentally impact the most vulnerable citizens, seniors, african-americans, college students, those with disabilities, can have an enormous impact on outcomes. >> the other thing that's important to point out here is that in many of these states where voter i.d. laws are in effect it's often about the validity of the i.d. itself, correct? >> exactly. so if you got a speeding ticket, if you were texting while driving and you get a ticket and your license is suspended, even if you have it it may not be a valid photo i.d. at the moment of election, which means, look, nobody wants you to speed or to text while driving, but you shouldn't be disenfranchised as a voter as a result of those things. so in many states it's not just having one but having a valid one, which means that minor offenses could actually end up taking citizens' rights away. >> what should voters in those states be doing to make sure

that their ability to cast a ballot in 2012 is not compromised? >> well, you know, here's the big challenge. all of these groups that normally are about voter register aix, kind of increasing 9 size of the electorate-v to go back and do voter education to make sure those who want to vote, who normally have been able to vote in the past have the appropriate photo i.d. and so that means that they'll be going back to make sure the rolls stay the same instead of actually increasing them. it's an enormous problem. >> msnbc contributor and writer and mother and just everything, melissa harris-perry, always a pleasure. thank you so much. happy new year. >> happy new year, craig. >> of course you can read her columns on thenation.com. model cindy crawford supported president obama back in 2008. not this time around, though. the top celebrity endorsements so far in our flip side. my name's jeff. i'm a dad, coach.. and i quit smoking with chantix. knowing that i could smoke during the first week was really important to me. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking.

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as the 2012 election draws

nearer, many famous faces are peak speaking out tone doris their favorite candidate. our "flip side" today looks at which celebrities have publicly come out in support of presidential hopefuls. as with the candidates thefls themselves, some are predictable, some are surprising and some are flip flopping. first up, former "frasier" star kelsey grammer. the openly conservative actor has come out in support of michele bachmann. cindy crawford, after supporting president obama in 2008, this year she crossed party lines and she's now backing mitt romney. meanwhile, actor gary busey made a public endorsement of newt gingrich a short while ago but shortly after retracted his statement telling the hill he would wait until the gop nomination was over to make an official endorsement. and we can't forget to mex the stars supporting a second term for president obama. alec baldwin, george clooney, tom hanks, steven spielberg, and michael douglas are among the hollywood power players who have already made some donations to obama's re-election campaign. i'm craig melvin. that's going to do it for me right now.

i'll see you back here at 2:00 eastern for "news nation." right now, though, it's "now with alex wagner."

seven days, seven candidates, and 7 million hypotheses about who will win the iowa caucuses. it's discuss 27th, and this is "now." joining me today, from "the nation," msnbc contributor ari melver, former governor of pennsylvania and nbc news political analyst ed rendell, robert traynham is the d.c. bureau chief of the comcast network. and from politico, the inimitable ben white. we are a week away from iowa, the first republican nominating contest. but after months of campaigning, millions of dollars spent, and nearly half a dozen lead changes, the last man to win iowa says the best indicator may be the local meteorologist. >> if the weather is