campaign back to life? we'll get a look at his strategy. and fundraising phenomenon. president obama's massive war chest in the long road ahead for the gop nominee. hello, everyone. newt gingrich is in des moines now where he's expected to speak at a coffee break meeting. we'll keep our eye on that event and let you know what happens. the iowa caucuses are in a dead heat as we race towards decision day in the hawkeye state. mitt romney and ron paul are at the top of the polls. right now, the support for newt gingrich has drop ped. romney built on momentum in west des moines this morning. let's listen. >> i need your help you guys. this is a real battle. it's a battle for america. it's a battle for the future course of america. i don't want politicians running the country anymore.

and i will do that with your help on tuesday night. >> barbara carvollo joins us today. thank you and happy new year. >> happy new year to you too. . >> let's talk about the big numbers first. these are big shifts standing for every candidate across the board. have you ever seen such truly seismic shifts where iowans are leaning this close to voting day? >> i know exactly. we have seen nothing but change each time we have done any kind of polling here. and this is a race that's surprisingly unsettled. i think mitt romney actually may be getting exactly what he wished for. he's neck and neck, as you mentioned, with paul. but there's quite a pack right behind him. and santorum has surged, but also perry is in the mix. but for romney, i think what is really significant also is that

gingrich has fallen. and we see that his support was cut in half since earlier in december. and also, gingrich's negatives have doubled. that's probably not as surprising giving the barrage of negative ads that have been lobbed against him. >> i think my most surprising factor are people who are still so undecided. when asked which the true conservative is, rick santorum is at the top. he was also at the top of the tea party as well. were you surprised that mitt romney was off the radar as a true conservative, yet he's strong with the tea party in iowa? >> well, that's really been the dilemma. almost half of caucus goers on tuesday will be tea party supporters. and almost half will be evangelical christians. what they are searching for is that true conservative, a candidate who shares their

values. and a candidate who they can trust. so they have been searching this whole time, this whole campaign for the anti-romney candidate. each time someone has come to the fore, they have melted. either because of negative ads or because they have had that oops moment. >> speaking of that, newt gingrich is the perfect example. a few weeks ago, he was on top. he's taken a huge plunge in iowa. if he truly fails in this contest, would it be the end? >> what we also saw is he was hit from all sides. it was to every candidates' advantage to take him down a notch. they have certainly been successful at doing that. and he didn't respond. he really didn't have the resources or at least didn't choose to use the resources he had to answer a lot of the criticisms. we have really seen that change in his numbers dramatically this time around.

>> all right. thank you so much, barbara. >> my pleasure. >> let's get more on the last four days in iowa with our panel. susan delpersio. but let's start with julian. we see the numbers here, say they hold through tuesday. the vote is split split. can any of the candidates survive losses and stay on the ballot to be the lone alternative and secure all the support? >> it's an excellent question. what we have seen in the last four months is that every republican front runner has a longevity that's probably shorter than an average kardashian wedding. i think all of the candidates suffer from the far-away syndrome. they look great far away, but when you get close to them, they don't look so hot anymore.

we have seen that with every single one of the potential front runners. this is a dream for mitt romney because he split the vote. he's spent more money than any candidate in history on a per-vote basis in terms of what he will produce at the end of the day in iowa. if gingrich fades and nobody is the clear front runner other than romney in iowa, romney goes to new hampshire where he does well. it comes down to south carolina. is anyone left standing in south carolina? it's look iing better and bette for romney all the time. >> let's turn to rick santorum, who has had this big surge after taking the traditional approach of campaigning all across iowa. but the attack ads were ready. let's listen to one. >> who personally demanded more than $1 billion of earmarks in his 16 years in congress? jay from ames. >> rick santorum. >> right.

santorum grab bed for a billion in earmarks until voters kicked him out of office in a landslide. >> there's rick perry going for the jeopardy theme. how does he keep momentum up there with only four days to go? >> i think in this case, it may be an eternity. the fact is while he's done the 99-county tour, he has not had a lot of contact. only 40% of the people have had any contact with his campaign. whereas i think you're going to see rick perry, who is the one doing the negative advertising, who also knows how to run a campaign. he has good people. >> it explains why he's targeting rick santorum. >> and has the money to do so. i think in the end of the day, you're going to see perry leapfrog santorum for number three. >> really? interesting. julian, chris christie, who is a

darling for the gop party. he was with mitt romney this morning. let's just listen to a little bit of what he had to say. >> let's be clear. president obama came out to iowa three years ago. he talked to you about hope and change. let me tell you. after three years of obama, we are hopeless and changeless and we need mitt romney to bring us back. to bring america back. [ applause ] >> here is mitt romney in a very tight race in iowa. do you think somebody like chris christie could make a difference for him? >> well, the reason that chris christie is there, and this is very clear in your poll, is he's try i trying to make up for what romney really lacks right now, which is the intensity factor. and in fact, if you look at the fact that if romney does well in iowa, as it looks like he will, he will do well as kind of the default candidate. the intensity for the republicans back in august and september was very high. the intensity for the democrats was very low. that script seems to be flipping

mow. the intensity for the republicans is not very high. no one seems to be very enthusiastic about any candidate. if romney does well, it's because the field splits. but in your same poll this morning, it shows that the job approval for obama has gone from being under water to being in the positive. the intensity for the democrats is very strong. so this is a very good position for democrats. democrats are unified and intense behind the president. republicans are split and lacking intensity. >> we have to wrap it up. very interesting takes from both of you today. thank you both very much for joining us here today. with just four days to go until the iowa caucuses, mitt romney will leave the hawkeye state today. romney had a campaign event in iowa this morning in west des moines with his charismatic supporter, chris christie. but by this evening, mitt romney will be out of iowa and in new

hampshire for a spaghetti dinner at a vfw. garrett haake joins us from iowa. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> leaving iowa this morning to go to new hampshire. that seems like an unlikely move. is this a sign he's feeling ultraconfident or trying to hedge his bets a little bit? >> i think it's the latter. they don't feel like they have to win in iowa. they do feel like new hampshire is their fire state. it's a chance to accomplish both things. they can leave iowa for a little bit. we'll be back. but we have to dance with the ones who brought us here. we have to go back to new hampshire and reassure voters there. that's sort of the home base. you take care of both of those things in terms of managing expectations. >> well, we noticed that during one of his stops this morning,

he sounded like the gop nominee, rather than an iowa hopeful. he was taking aim at president obama, which shows he's looking past the primaries into the future. let's listen to what he had to say. >> he's in iowa right now. we're out in the cold and the wind because we care about america. he just finished his round of golf. >> this kind of comment sort of points to him feeling like it's a lock. >> this goes to what your last guest just said. folks may not feel intensely about romney, but they feel intensely about beating barack obama. if you can play to that and get folks fired up on the concept he's the one to beat barack obama, he might be more likely he'll get the nomination. it goes with the strategy of don't punch down. a candidate now who is in the front seat in the polls, if he can focus on the president and not get tangled up with the other candidates.

>> thank you for joining us this morning. tune in at 1:00 p.m. andrea mitchell sits down with mitt romney. coming up, more from iowa and how the numbers in our new nbc news poll spell bad news for ron paul. [ male announcer ] cranberry juice? wake up! ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. yeah, our low prices are even lower. we need to teach her how to walk. she is taking up valuable cart space. aren't you, honey? [ male announcer ] it's our biggest clearance event of the year where our prices are even lower. save money. live better. walmart.

welcome back. joining us from java joe's in des moines, iowa, is chris matthews. this is a surprise. we weren't expecting to see you in our hour. happy new year. tell us about the busy morning you have had. >> it's rainy and cold out here in iowa. we were just at a big event in

west des moines with governor romney and chris christie. and i would say it's a moderate republican crowd. i don't think there were right wingers in the group. they are looking for a winner right now. i think we're seeing the final days of this caucus campaign out here, which are are people are coalescing. i would say romney is going to crank his 25%, but not by much. it's really practicality speaking right now. >> from what we've been hearing from a lot of people is there's sort of two questions that voters are requesting of the candidates. some want to know who are the ultraconservatives. others want to know who can beat barack obama? so you just mentioned that the crowd is basically your average conservative crowd. where are most of them leaning? >> i think -- here's my punch based upon very little information so far and looking at the number ls. i think there's some interesting

stings going in romney's direction. iowa wants to pick a presidential nominee and not waste its time on a ron paul. they don't want to be weird that way. also i heard a voice this morning. a woman said i'm really for obama. i want to end some hatred. if people vote for republican because there's too much o visiveness, that's trouble for the white house. that's a strange way to do things. to end this between obama and enemies by thinking a guy who is a closet moderate. i talked to a woman, we'll have a lot of this on my show tonight. i think that's an interesting message. i asked romney if he could say something in french. he said, yes.

i knew he was a mormon missionary. there's a lot of romney that he has inside him that he won't show. a lot of that they think is moderation. although he's running to the right out here, he may offering a closeted offer of moderation to a lot of the middle of the road or not that right wing republicans. if that's the case, if voters think they are getting romney a more moderate guy he's been talking and he's the massachusetts governor and gets that middle of the road vote, plus the red hot anti-obama vote, he wins. if he puts together the middle with the right, he wins. if everybody thinks he's a secret middle of the roader and they vote for him for that reason and the right wing wants to get rid of president obama, that adds up to more than 50%. if you get one party in the country, this is a bizarre way to do things, you get rid of the

hatred by getting rid of the object of the hatred. that was an odd development here. >> what do you think about the appearance of chris christie here today. he's been a party darling. he decided not to run. do you think it's the power house appearance that mitt romney is hoping for? >> i think it's to suggest the union of the republican right with the republican center. no matter what you say about him, he's from the northeast. he's not a right winger. chris christie will be seen as acceptable because he's pro life, but he's a northeasterner. i was asking him today. would he make sense to pick chris christie for his running mate. it would be a tremendously smart move to get ohio and

pennsylvania where you'd get the reagan democrats. chris christie is the perfect candidate on the republican ticket to get reagan democrats. in other words, ethnic people who grew up as democrats but will vote republican when they are upset with the candidate. or they are just being stubborn. certainly, in ohio and those areas around cleveland and the suburbs, chris christie would be dynamite. that's one of the ways they can go on obama. you can also go with senator rubio and go after the hispanic vote. but the key vote is not the hispanic vote. it's the reagan democrats. the people that can go either way. catholics, generally. and chris christie is irish sicilian. very interesting.

>> thank you so much. i do want to point out there are newt gingrich signs behind you because there's an event coming up. we'll hear more about this tonight. chris matthews, thank you so much. >> watch tonight at 5:00. >> we will. coming up, verizon customers are up in arms about a new fee they are being charged extra to pay fair bill. details ahead. ♪ [ male announcer ] it's easy to see what subaru owners care about. ♪ that's why we created the share the love event. get a great deal on a new subaru and 250 dollars goes to your choice of five charities. ♪ with your help, we can reach 20 million dollars by the end of this, our fourth year. [ female announcer ] get 0 percent apr financing

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ways to avoid the fee like signing up for automatic payments. the announcement comes a day after the third data outage in a month. rehearsals are underway in new york city for new year's eve in times square. they are testing out the confetti making sure it flutters around like it should. this year people will be able to write new year's wishes. they will be mixed in with 3,000 pounds of paper that will be released. at noon today, the alliance will give the ball drop a test run. and after the ball drops tomorrow night, consider this. according to a new poll, nearly three quarters of people make up the words. more than a third don't know any of the words except for the beginning. so to impress your friends, the lyrics are based on a scottish poem written in 1788.

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our new poll shows ron paul running neck and neck with mitt romney. but there are plenty of iowans who have big problems with the texas congressman. 40% of voters believe paul is an unacceptable nominee, putting a concrete ceiling on how high he can climb in the hawkeye state. domenico montenaro joins us. there's a newt gingrich event underway. about to start. let's talk about ron paul. he's at the top of the polls. some people love him. how can he have so many powerful

negatives. and what are they that make him unacceptable. >> it's interesting. last nights i was out at a romney event. 400 people or so. but a lot of them were undecided. i talked to them about the reason they are actually looking at romney now, even though thought might like other candidates, they said, we don't want iowa to go down in history as having voted for ron paul preponderance they see that as a big problem. these are folks in the central and eastern part of the state who aren't your evangelicals from the western part of the state. that's a big reason for what you're seeing mitt romney's strength here. and whether or not ron paul can withstand this in the next few days will be telling to see if he can pull out the caucus. >> breakdown the shift in the

polls when it comes to values and the candidate's ability to beat president obama. some people clearly want an ultraconservative. others simply want president obama out. >>. as you can see on the screen there, just less than a month ago, shares your values. about the same. but can beat president obama. eligibility. when the caucuses start to get close, people pay attention three weeks out. the biggest factor, when you talk to people here, is they want to beat barack obama. if somebody has the chance to win and beat president obama, that's what they want. the big problem you're starting to see with some of the other folks here, santorum, michele bachmann, rick perry, they are all splitting up what would be that anti-romney vote. if they could coaless about one person, they could take romney to the long haul. maybe go to south carolina. if they had enough money to

challenge him. they are starting to think if ron paul is the person, then we don't think he's electable. we don't think michele bachmann would be electable. >> thank you so much. good luck in the new year. hope to see you soon. >> newt gingrich's chances of pulling out a a win in iowa seem all but skbobl at this point. a poll shows the front runner and now in the bottom two when it comes to likely caucus goers. gingrich is pushing ahead in the final somedays. he's at java joe's in des moines today. he has stops planned in creston and shenandoah. alex joins us live where gingrich is. tell us what's going on there. >> he is just starting this event. he has two more public events today. he held one earlier. he was positive. no matter what the poll numbers

are saying, he's trying to run a positive campaign. and is hopeful he's still going to be able to win the nomination. >> he stopped by a meeting earlier this morning. let's take a listen to that. >> this isn't just a game. this isn't just a cynical contest between people who hire consultants to see who can be nastier. this is a conversation among the american people. >> is some of this frustration that so many of the negative ads are pointing at him? and is it a sign as to why his campaign there is struggling? >> well he's continuing to get hammered every day in iowan's mailboxes. two more ads came out yesterday. that did have an impact. we see his numbers are slipping. their campaign hasn't put out any mail. they are hopeful iowans will see through the negative ads and

still vote for gingrich on january 3rd. >> thank you for taking time to talk with us this morning. >> thanks. >> rick santorum is hitting a stride in iowa. today's new poll shows him surging with only four days to go. santorum had three events planned for later today. ames, marshalltown, and johnston. very popular place is java joe's. thank you for joining us here this morning. over the last 24 hours, the santorum camp has been battling against rick perry's ad campaign labeling santorum a prolific earmarker during his time as senator in pennsylvania. how is rick santorum responding to that? >> well, that's right. that's one of the narratives we'll be watching as we wind down closer to the caucuses. perry fired the first shots yesterday. going after santorum's record on earmarks last night after an

event in davenport. santorum said if that's the best he's got, it's fine. i welcome the scrutiny. it's the first time he's gotten scrutiny from other campaigns. the one problem is that santorum doesn't have the money that perry has. santorum can't respond with ads. so he's going on to tv responding to reporters and respond i responding to the media. i think we have some sound of him doing that yesterday. >> i said, and i have after i left the congress, i defended my earmarks in the sense that i'm proud of the money that i did set aside for things that were priorities in my state instead of having bureaucrats do that. >> he also seems to be drawing some of the biggest crowds. he's taken a traditional approach to campaigning. visiting all 99 counties. he's can that continue all those negative attacks to continue drawing those kinds of crowds where he can of give his own

response? >> right. all the candidates are getting good crowds because the voters are so interested. feeling out the candidates before they get there. santorum's appeal is he's had a long-standing courtship. he compared the other candidates saying they are speed dating. his bump in the polls has given voters here a renewed interest in him. so certainly going forward. you're going to see those crowds. and he's still not going negative necessarily against perry. he's sticking to his conservative values. that's the base he's trying to get to. >> thank you so much for speaking with us this morning. >> thank you. >> a programming note for you this sunday. meet the press will be live from iowa with an interview with rick santorum. meanwhile, jon huntsman's campaign is continuing a new hampshire or bust strategy. it's out with a new ad slamming a surging ron paul. the ad strings together news clips that highlight

inflammatory language. i'm joined by tim miller, spokesman for the jon huntsman campaign. it looks so much quieter behind you than it does in iowa. >> it's going to be busy here in a week. >> your candidate is sticking it out there. the poll shows your candidate solidly in fourth behind mitt romney, ron paul, and newt gingrich. in going after ron paul now, is huntsman gunning for second place and not really first? >> absolutely not. we're playing to win in new hampshire. we're saying this is gut check time for republican primary voters. if they look at ron paul, he has a history of statements that are outside of the mainstream, whether it's saying 95% of blacks in washington, d.c. are crimina criminals. and you can't beat president obama if you're making statements that are outside of the mainstream. and governor huntsman has a conservative record. he's going to be able to beat

president obama in november. that's why he's working hard in new hampshire to spread that message now until january 10th. >> i see similarities between how rick santorum is running his campaign in iowa by spending so much time there. by meeting and greeting groups all over the entire state and investing his time there. it reminds me of what your candidate is doing in new hampshire. now rick santorum is experiencing a big jump in the polls as a result of his efforts. is that what you're hoping for is a surge for jon huntsman like that in new hampshire? >> absolutely. we're working new hampshire harder than any other candidate. last night we had our 130th event in mitt romney's backyard. there was an enormous crowd. you could feel the buzz. just a couple months ago, we had an event there with ten people. last night we had hundreds of people come out to see jon huntsman. we're doing this the right way. grass roots, one handshake at a time. you can see the movement in the polls.

right now, we're neck and neck with newt gingrich. he's moving the wrong direction. we're moving up. we're going to continue to see that as we get towards january 10th. >> with that said, if all this effort doesn't really pay off, what if he doesn't place well in the polls? will that be the end of the line? >> it's not my place to hypothesize about worst-case scenarios. we're going to spread jon huntsman's message about restoring trust in washington and ending the two deficits, the economic deficit and the trust deficit, which is a result of a breeken washington full of bailouts. and so what we're going to do is work hard to spread that message. we'll see how we do on the 10th. >> thank you. still to come, while they battle it out in iowa, when it comes to winning the money race, one man stands loan.

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don't wait. call now for free information about the additional coverage you may need. ♪ today's iowa poll brought good news for ron paul's campaign. he's virtually neck and neck with mitt romney. paul doesn't hit the campaign in iowa until this afternoon with events planned in le mars, sioux city and siuox center. tell us what's going on with the paul campaign today. >> the paul campaign's reaction to the poll is they believe that their base support is solid.

and they are counting on independents and democrats caucusing for ron paul on january 3rd. they believe these people will show up and not only caucus for ron paul but will pick delegates to represent ron paul in the future. they believe this uneligibility argument about ron paul, they believe that's nonsense. look at recent polls that show head to head matchups with barack obama and ron paul. ron paul is consistentingly polling neck and neck with the president. so they don't think that the eligibility argument -- they don't believe that argument. they think their candidate can go on. >> he's facing heat from fellow candidates on foreign policy. some people even call him dangerous. what are they saying about that? >> right. ron paul has this golden rule foreign policy. he's telling his audience what

will we think if a powerful nation did that to us? they think this is a strong message. it's getting huge krounds. last night over 700 people came out. every time ron paul talked about an anti-war message, they got a standing ovation. so he believes that message will carry him further. >> thank you for joining us this morning. good luck to you today. >> the new nbc poll shows texas republican rick perry fourth in the eyes of caucus goers in iowa. but he's pounding the pavement in iowa hoping to reach social conservatives. he has campaign stops in waterloo, mason city. good morning to carry dann. >> thank you for having me. >> the most recent ad campaign targets a particular opponent, but not the front runner. he's taking aim at rick santorum, who is a fellow

candidate who is trying to go for the ultraconservative vote. the ad labeling him as an earmarker. the strategy behind this is he's trying to compete for that very conservative vote. right? >> well, that's right. and polls have shown santorum surging, which is tough news for perry. they are competing for the same block of social conservatives. there's not a lot of difference on social issues between the two candidates, but where's there a difference is on their record. his record of spending. let's take a listen to what he said yesterday. >> rick santorum is a friend. i've got great respect for him. but what he talks about fiscal conservatism, it leaves me scratching my head. because he was a prolific earmarker. i love iowa pork. but i hate washington pork.

and senator santorum, he loaded up his bills with pennsylvania pork. and he even voted for the alaska bridge to nowhere. >> as you can see in that clip, perry is trying to differentiate himself. he's hoper the voters who choose between the two will see perry as an outsider who hasn't been a part of it. you can tell how hard they are going after that message that got the same idea yesterday. >> all right. thank you so much, carry. >> michele bachmann just finished up a 99-county sweep in iowa. will it make a difference? the latest poll shows her last among likely caucus goers. she has three campaign stops in iowa today. jamie novogrod joins us on the

phone. she was once a front runner there. there's a huge competition for the conservative vote, which she once represented. it must be frustrating for her to be overshadowed in recent days. >> that's right. this is part of the ongoing drama here that there are a number of people competing for this social conservative vote. rick santorum, rick perry, she just completed this very ambitious thunder run through all of iowa's counties. on the final day of her run through the counties is marked by questions about her iowa state campaign chairman, who she says was paid by the ron paul to go over to them. here she is last night answering questions about this defection. >> that's the incoming. i think it's got to be upsetting for the ron paul campaign

because clearly this is something that they generated. and it shows, again, that we have powerful momentum across the state. and so this is just something that they did because we're seeing thousands of iowans come to our campaign. it's a move of desperation. >> there she is holding her iphone up showing a call record from him on tuesday. a conversation during which she claims he was paid money by the ron paul campaign. >> all right. jamie, thank you very much for joining us today. >> sure. >> the race for iowa is all about turnout at the caucuses on tuesday night. money matters, of course. for the race for the general election is more closely tied to cold, hard cash. the president is blowing away the competition in the money race. he's reported more than $86 million in fundraising so far. mitt romney is far behind in second with just more than $32 million. when you look at the whole

republican field, this is crazy. the president is just $2 million shy of out of raising all of the major gop candidates combined. that's a lot of money. i'm joined by melissa perry. she's a columnist for the nation. the president must be proud of those numbers. however, is it safe to assume that once we have our gop nominee there's going to be a lot of money dumped into that campaign? do you think that might even out a bit? >> not quite. i was listening to the embedded reporters. this is like the political season. i'm thinking how much would i like to be on o the phone. >> i think they are having a lot of fun. >> we get really focused as a country on these early caucuses. but as we're doing that and looking at the fun competitive race between the gop members over on the president side, he's running unopposed for the

nomination for the democratic party, which means he simply is going to have months and months and months of fundraising advantage. already this huge advantage and months more even after a gop nominee is decided. >> we have interesting race going on in iowa right now. rick santorum has had a huge surge. newt gingrich has fallen behind. these are two of the guys who have raised the least amount of money. what does this mean for their long-term prospects? no matter how this turns out. >> so part of what's happened in the american primary system is that we're front loading. you go so quickly straight from iowa, straight to new hampshire, right down south. and the problem with not having enough money, it's not advertising dollars. it's about getting these systems working on the ground. and so if you -- even if you get a big win, if you didn't have the money to get that done in south carolina, you don't have a team on the ground. >> i want to cut that a little bit short because we have a little bit of time. let's talk about the changes for funding this year, because it's going to be a big change in rules, and how candidates can

raise money. we could hit that billion dollars, you know, well past it this year. >> it's obscene, isn't it? we took all the money that was going to be spent on the campaign and put it on the deficit, they wouldn't even have anything to fight about in washington anymore. >> where is it all going, anyway? plane rides, and appearances, i suppose. and msnbc contributor melissa harris-perry, thank you so much. it's always good to see you. happy new year. >> thanks, milissa. >> thank you. coming up the flip side from hollywo hollywood. what happens when celebrities enter the political circus. this is msnbc.

well, politicians in washington may not always hold back when criticizing hollywood, but our flip side today takes a look at the moments in 2011 when stars decided to fight back. matt damon has long been an outspoken supporter of president obama, but this year, he took aim at the president, saying he has misinterpreted his mandate and doubled down on a lot of things. next some fire sparked

between bruce springsteen and governor chris christie. the boss slammed christie in his hometown newspaper for his budget cuts that reduced services to those in the most dire conditions. miley cyrus certainly may not be known for her political acumen but the teen starlet ripped into republican presidential hopeful rick santorum on twitter to express her outrage over his opposition to gay marriage. and eva longoria also took to twitter this year, calling out newt gingrich with this tweet, you clearly know little about the latina community. latina entrepreneurs start businesses at six times the national average. that does it for me today. have a wonderful start to the new year, and now with alex wagner is next.

four days to the iowa caucus, and the battle to save the soul of america is on. it's friday, december 30th, and

this is ngs now." joining me today, msnbc political analyst richard wolf, kurt anderson is a writer and radio hose of studio 360 with kurt anderson. wendy shiller is an associate professor of political science at brown university and from politico the always charming ben white. the republican candidates are all in iowa today, and mitt romney is making a full-court press. this comes as a new nbc news/maris poll released this morning shows him at the top of the pack. joining us now from iowa, john heilemann of the national affairs editor at new york magazine and msnbc contributor and the man who -- who makes the magic 8 ball doesn't know what it's talking about the oracle of des moines, john heilemann, thank you for joining us. >> thank you very much. we're all curious. what are you not doing here? >> iowa was not big enough for this whole show. next year, or 2016. 2016. >> all right. >> looking for to it. john, what is going on out