ruth, the lady in the red hat! >> a lot of people that actually said they woke up this morning at about 2:00 and drove 200 miles to be here. thank you very much so much, and the lady in the red shirt is the one who said she came two hours to see mika. >> she's so sweet. thank you! >> tomorrow morning, mitt romney, tom brokaw, chris matthews, the cast of millions at java joe's. mitt romney. what time is it? >> it is morning joe live in des moines. we'll see you right back here tomorrow and stick around for our friend chuck. >> thank you, guys! closing arguments with just one day until the iowa caucuses, candidates are sprinting to the finish line. the polls say it's a three-way race, but who shows up will make all of the difference. will they go for the conviction of the santorum or paul? the underdog, rick perry trying to make up lost ground after

watching his support collapse. what does he think his chances are or is he setting his sights on south carolina. he's our guest this morning. bachmann, gingrich, could they surge one more time in time? we're live from the center of the political universe this morning, des moines, iowa. it's monday, january 2, 2012. this is a special edition, of course, of "the daily rundown." happy new year. happy 2012, electionier. my favorite -- my favorite part every other year. anyway, let's get right to the first reads of the morning with just one day left until the caucuses, republican can ats blitzing the states and mitt romney, rick santorum and ron paul faces a test heading into tomorrow. will enough casual republican voters show up to benefit romney? does santorum have the campaign infrastructure to -- will enough dechl democrats and republicans turn out? romney narrowly leads among likely caucusgoers though he had

24%. that's what he had four years ago. santorum is the one who surged in the third place, but if you only took the final two days of their polling, it's santorum who is in second, paul in third. the momentum of santorum is this morning's story and in this late surge he's making is all about striking a cord with social conservatives. >> the foundation of america are strong families and strong faith. that's what makes america the greatest country in the history of the world. that foundation. for the first time on sunday, romney took a mild shot at santorum. senator santorum has spent his career in government and washington. nothing wrong with that, but it's a very different back growth fund that i have. santorum fired back last night. governor romney isn't like he's been a career politician. he hasn't been successful and i

ran a tough state as a conservative and beat democratic incumbe incumbents. one is in a swing state which he's never done. >> and romney had fun at santorum's, pence. he reminded voters that the pennsylvania senator endorsed him in 2008. >> senator santorum was kind enough to endorse me last time around. i appreciate that. >> i made the political judgment, right or wrong that the best way to stop john mccain which was my concern was. >> mean while, newt gingrich whose rise and fall has been as dram attic as anybody in the history of presidential primary politics is letting his frustrations show on the trail. he's been doing it all week, frankly, and he lashed out again at the candidate who has clearly gotten under his skin, mitt romney. >> do you believe he's trying to buy this one? >> i don't know. $3.5 million in negative ads, you tell me. >> i'll let you describe it how

you would describe it. to spend that number of dollars in negative ads on one candidate is pretty amazing. >> i feel romney voted. >> gingrich suggested he'll abandon his positive campaign. he teed up to the attack on romney that he plans to take to new hampshire. >> i think new hampshire is the perfect state to have a debate over romney care and to have a debate about abortions which he signed and to have a debate to put planned parenthood which he signed and to have a debate about appointing liberal judges, which he did. >> gingrich, michele bachmann and rick perry who have all seen their iowa support at different types and they're trying to make up lost ground and paul, whose momentum in the poll is still trying to stall and they're trying to explain the newslet r newsletters that contained rationally charged statements that were in the '80s and '90s. i was the publisher and there

were very bad sentences put in. i did not write those. i did not review them and that was an error on my part. >> it will come down to a few wild cards and he's seen as the most electable candidate by a wide margin. on the other hand, santorum beats romney when asked who relates best to iowans. the other thing we all are curious about, does the conservative vote coalesce? if it does, that's how santorum would win. for an in-depth look at the state of the race, i am joined now by my favorite people that the point,a understandria mitchell, host of nbc's andrea mitchell reports and foreign affairs correspondent and washington post, dan -- i have to go like this, it's different than our set. andrea, i will start with you. rick santorum, could you ever have imagined it.

you got your start covering pennsylvania politics. >> i could not have imagined rick santorum in this place with the momentum. what's interesting is that his blue collar message is beginning to have some traction. it's the economic message. not just that he is a legitimately credentialed social conservative here which is very important to people in iowa, as you know better than anyone, but the economic message, for those who are concerned about ron paul, who may feel that ron paul's foreign policy is just too risky, santorum becomes a safer place. the question of electability is an issue that he's trying to sell in his advertisements whether we can sell that having lost the pennsylvania re-election in 2006 by 18 points is another question. >> you know, dan, she brings up a great point. let's look at pat buchanon in '96 and mike huckabee in 2008. social conservatives who also went after this blue collar vote on an economic, populist message and santorum is edging in that direction, maybe that's the --

is that what we're finding out is the recipe for iowa? >> i think it is. the tv advertising he's doing as andrea says suggests electability is something he's trying to sell, when you listen to him on the stump, his closing argument is quite different. it is don't think about any state beside i what. play your role, you know us best. i'm the familiar candidate. >> don't pick a president. >> i don't empower on saturday. he's been there so many times and he knows about that area of the state and he can relate and people have begun to respond in part to that. it's amazing. >> you caught up with him over the weekend and i want to play a clip of him talking about everything that he has learned on the road. here it is. >> we've done 360-some, town hall-type meetings and done all that a while ago and a lot of that's paying off. i think people have now taken a real close look at who they're going support and looking at the

candidates and mixing and matching, and i think they're doing better and we're starting to come out better in that equation. >> to pick up on what he told you and to pick up on what dan said. >> he knows even the weirdest trivia. >> he really learned this, and the fact is that it's this hey, look me over aspect of iowa. people really wanted to be seen. it's kind of a schizophrenic quality, bipolar about this caucus because you have millions of dollars being spent on advertising and the negative ads to the extent that we have not seen before. so that makes it almost feel as mike murphy was saying yesterday, like a primary. like one of the regular primaries. >> right. >> at the same time there is this hometown feeling about it and people like to be respected. >> dan, if this were a primary, i don't think anyone would deny that mitt romney would win, and this is not a primary. oh, by the way, he had 24% four

years ago. geez, i think we see a pattern here, do we not? >> we definitely do. it's a pattern that we've observed all through the year that we commented time. for whatever reason, at this stage in the caucus process, he has not been able to grow his support in any significant way and so many people say, it is a curious situation that somebody who so many people believe ultimately may be the survivor of this can't seem to generate that enthusiasm and at some point he's going to have to do something more than he's done so far. >> are you shocked that all of the conservative candidates will basically have new hampshire to himself with romney? he being end up getting 30% new hampshire. >> he's got to go. joe won't be happy. >> i think that is probably a sensible thing for everybody else. >> we'll get you here in four hours? >> be here later today and we'll have an interview with rick san

tour up and we'll talk to the ron paul people because ron paul will be back with rand paul after taking the weekend off. >> that's going to be interesting. >> all right. the other wild card, rick perry. we got his pitch and he's got the money and the organization and can he make a comeback? i caught up with him early this morning. we have that for you next, but first, a look ahead. the president's schedule, he comes home today and by the way, a video message that he'll send to iowa democrats tomorrow. be looking out for that. you're watching "the daily rundown" msnbc. we're live in des moines, iowa, the polk county convention center. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ let's go ♪ ♪ cruise like a norwegian ♪

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rick perry says he has the money and the ground game to keep going beyond iowa, but that starts with a strong showing tomorrow. the governor told me about the state of his campaign and wait until you hear what he told me about rick santorum. >> do you think you've stalled or losing momentum or do you think we're all wrong? >> i think we're gaining momentum, actually, as weave been out on the bus tour for the last two weeks. big crowds and excited crowds and people coming that were undecided and leaving decided and deciding that they'll be supporting us. so i think the 41% of the people out there are either not decided or inclined to change who they're going to support. so the idea that these polls are indicative of what tonight will be i think is a little bit of a stretch. people are loare looking for a committed, fiscal and social

conservative and i fit the bill. outsider. they're stick of washington, d.c.. >> i've had the old timers here and they said it's too bad what governor perry didn't do what santorum did, and spend more time in iowa. do you regret that? >> it is what it is. i didn't even make a decision to consider running until june and then late june, and you know, we weren't here until the 13th of august. i can't -- would have, could have, should have, and the fact is we'll issue fine tomorrow. we'll be in the top tier and i had no time about it and yeah. it was the top four. >> we don't have to be anywhere because this race is a long way from being won. i'm the only one of the social conservatives and the fiscal

conservatives who had a run-in that actually has the ability to raise the money, to have the organization and to run through and finish the primary process, you know? santorum and bachmann don't and so -- we're going to be able to go compete in south carolina, in florida and nevada and obviously in texas and at the end of the day, we have the national organization and the fund-raising capability to run through this thing. plus, we're the outsider and they're all, washington insiders that have either, for whatever purpose, rick santorum and a serial pork barrel earmarker. >> we responded on this on "meet the press?" he was hiring lobbyists to represent the state of texas to get more money back, and i suspect if you ask kay hutchison or any of the texas delegation, whether they want him out of there they'd say yes, he did.

that was the way the process was, but he gets up and talks about -- >> that's his argument. the priority is i'm a fiscal conservative, you need to vote for me and i'm the guy that can win and he got beat by 18 points in his last race. this guy has proven that he can't win races when it matters against a liberal democrat. so when, rick is a fine man, but the fact is his rhetoric doesn't match up with his record at all. >> why do you think he is rising? this just seems to be a little bit of this -- somebody described it as wahack a candidate. >> the next 48 hours, he's going to be vetted very well. i mean, they're going to look and see his support for arlen specter in 200 hear and arlen specker brought us the 60th vote on t.a.r.p. and he supported him.

is that a movement conservative? i don't think so. >> one of the hits that they've also pushed back on you. you say, okay, he played the system when it came to earmarks. you're getting too double dipping on salary and the government pension. do you wish you had the delayed government pension? >> i've been in public service now between my air force time and my military time. there are thousands of people across this country that serve in the military for 20 years, have their retirement and they were pressing on. so this is good estate planning from my perpective and the bible says you're worse than an infidel if you don't take your family. i'm glad i have it. >> let me ask you about the abortion issue. >> you've said, i think it was ten days ago that you've had a change of heart on this. before, i think, you supported -- it would be fair to say you were pro-life, but you believe in exceptions. do you no longer believe in

exceptions? >> for the life of the mother, yes. >> the only exception. rebecca keslength, the most powerful representatives, she was conceived in rape and we had a lengthy conversation and she looked me right in the eye and she said is my life not worth saving and i didn't have an answer for her. she said be a hero. be a person that stands up for life whether it came by, you know, a terrible incident, but it's still a wonderful conception. >> you want to go back to texas? whatever happens here, you could be running for president and be the nominee and still the governor of texas. you could push for legislation now. will you do that? it's hard to push for legislation until -- >> but the next time you have the opportunity? >> the next time i have the opportunity i'm going to be president of the united states. so you can bet i'm going to be

making a difference there. i'm going to be people on the supreme court that are strict constructionists and they won't find abortion in those things and that will flow back to the states until we can pass a constitutional amendment that protects life in this country. >> finally, there is a sense that presidential candidates have sometimes, to be successful, need to have a burning desire to have done this for years. i think it's pretty clear, you didn't. you've said this and you've been open about it and you said your wife pushed you to do it. >> i have a burning desire to serve my country. >> okay. >> it's never been my purpose to be the president of the united states and the idea -- >> do you think that's oddly hurt you a little bit? >> no, not at all. i love my country and outside of my faith and my family there's nothing i've spent half of my adult -- half of my life. not my adult life, half of my life, serving my country or my state. i love this place. it is in trouble. america is on the verge of not

being the country that i grew up in because of the economic mess that this has has put us in, and i want to do something about it, and you absolutely -- my wife is a patriot and she's ready to sacrifice whatever it takes, as am i. i wouldn't be here if i wasn't all in. this isn't for practice. >> from here, it's straight to south carolina and new hampshire? >> yes. >> i'll be back in new hampshire over the weekend. >> for the debates. >> and you're conceding to romney? >> south carolina from the standpoint of our perspective is a target-rich environment and we'll debate in new hampshire and see how that works out, but south carolina is where the focus will be. >> the campaign team and this infighting, have you told them to stop it? >> that's a beltway story. i asked somebody from politico, name me a name and they couldn't do it. >> you haven't gotten your team together to say, hey, guys, stop talking even blindly.

no. here's my deal. i don't know if that's a true story or not? >> you're not convinced it's a true story? >> i'm not convinced it's a true story at all. we have a volunteer, fort here and it's working fine. politico's running a story that they won't name a name, and when you won't name a name that tells me you're either making stuff up or you're working in rumors. >> i will leave it there. be safe on the campaign. >> see you out there. thank you, sir. up next, we're debuting our brand new 2012 technology to show you just what's at stake in iowa, but first, today's trippia question, since 1972 who was the only person to lose both the iowa caucuses and the new hampshire primary and go on to win the press doneesy? tweet me the answer @chucktodd and @dailyrundown. this isn't as hard as you might think it is. the answer coming up on "the daily rundown" live, in iowa,

the center of the political universe.

>> and we're back from iowa inside the polk county convention center and we brought the beg guns with us. the brand new 2012 technology to show you what's at stake in this early primary contest. look at this. this is the decision app updated from 2010. of course, here's our app and what we have highlighted here are the january primaries, the big four up front, but i'll take you through a tour of this later. of course, let's tart of what we'll have stake at iowa. 25 delegates are at stake. none of them will technically be bound, but they are the results at some point. if you look at the delegate totals, i'm missing up here, still learning our technology, let me get you back to iowa.

good united states. >> how quickly we can move this around, but if woe go to iowa we'll be able to estimate these state delegates. here's our board and for instance, this is the first big four and if we base the delegates on what you think, if we take the register poll and our poll, believe it or not it will be a more muddled mess on the delegate front. for instance, romney, if he does end up with the two-point victory is only going to get, let me move this back here, six delegates, and we're learning, we're learning, trust me. paul, if he does get second. he also gets six of those 25. we've got to lurn to get this in more position. newt would get four. santorum would get four. we have him up here. you get my point and michele bachmann would get here, none of these delegates at this point would be bound to them because

what they're tech pickly doing electing delegates to district and state conventions and once that's said and done who the likely nominee is probably going to get all of them and this is the muddled mess we'll get tomorrow night because we know there will not be any blowout. if it's santorum, one-two, it will be 6-6, maybe 7-7. something like that. so you need 1144, so after this, you're going to need 1137. so, it's a lot to do, but what are we going to be watching tomorrow night, and i want to take you through this a little bit. go back to iowa here and get out of here and show you on this county map that we have and tell you about what happened in 2008 and things we'll be following here. for instance, romney carried counties, but on the iowa coast, this is the county and he won

almost all of his counties here. ron paul won one little county right over here and huckabee won everything else. one thing you should know about the omaha mead why other ma. what's interesting here, des moines is right about here. that's why romney won the omaha media market and dubuque media markets at that point, but he lost des moines, and remember, he went heavily negative. so this is what we're going to be watching for tomorrow night. can romney duplicate this. what's interesting between santorum and huckabee? the eastern part of the state, very heavily catholic, santorum, a devout catholic, did she make more instance and combine that a little bit with doing well with evangelicals who are more part of the center of the state? this is just a little bit of what we'll show you tomorrow night and we'll have the results going in. we'll go county by county when we need to. lots of fun stuff in here that we can use with the app, just a

little taste. we have a lot more coming up. all right, after months of buildup, it's finally caucus eve. >> nbc, i'll give you a little shout out here, has done a great job in following our campaign, frankly longer and consistently than anybody else with the inbeds. >> i love it. rick santorum gave a shoutout to our campaign embed. they're on the road with the candidates and no other network has done it as consistently as us and now they're here in des moines and we'll get the trulien side scoop next. you're watching "the daily rundown" life from the polk convention center, only on msnbc. he-heeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! pure adrenaline. whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee!

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i was strong before weight watchers, but i'm stronger with it. i believe because it works. ♪ if you want it, you got it join for free. weight watchers points plus 2012. because it works. ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. >> final one here caucus eve in iowa. you're looking at mitt romney, that's john thune, senator from south dakota. somebody that a lot of folks might be doing last-minute

stumping himself for his own campaign. >> time to get a status report. we've been traveling with the candidates for months now who covers the ron paul campaign for us and jamie who covers the bachmann campaign for his boy at some point in time, each one of your candidates -- the fun part is each one of your candidates has been ahead of the polls and then not so much it feels that he is no longer gaining ground. here's what he said. >> i've been pretty electable. i've been elected 12 times in my congressional district and that might be more propaganda than anything else. >> let's be realist being, he's

never won before. >> his campaign points when you go head to head with president obama, ron paul seems to be there with president obama. he's saying he's the most consistent conservative and the more he meets with voters, the more they realize they may want him to be the representative as the gop nominee and that's why they're bringing rand paul today. >> what's interesting to me is with the rand paul thing is we can have pauls running for president. >> boy, out here, he seems to be on one message and one message alone, not on the economy, anti-war. >> the anti-war message is resonating. when he gives his anti-war message to noninterventionist foreign policy, he gets standing ovations. >> everybody else hits him. >> people are hitting on, he has veterans coming out to his rallies wearing veterans for ron paul shirt and wearing their military youchls and they come up to me and they said personally, they're tired of war and they're tired of brothers

and sisters going war and they're ready to turn it around. >> let's go to michele bachmann, she may finish only ahead of jon huntsman. she was lktable and least knowledgeable, 28% and least able to bring change. those are not great numbers. i guess -- what did you see? >> i remember early on there was also the sense that she wasn't the greatest retail campaigner. is that the issue? stunning reversal of fortune, right? the campaigner said she's the best retail politician in the race and yet there's this disconnect. early on, i remember talking with you about this in the days leading up to the straw poll where she had this big win, this kind of magical win. she had or her campaign, at least had rubbed smeshgs vent organizers the wrong way. >> she made people come to her. that's what it was. we were in waterloo together.

she stayed on her and made people come to her to shake hands and rick santorum crashed that event, if you recall. >> he was there before perry spoke and he ate dinner with everyone as perry did, and not only did michele bachmann -- not only had michele bachmann made everyone come to her on stage where she gave away some goodies, she had stayed on her bus while everyone else was eating dinner. she didn't eat donor with the crowd. this was a dinner event. >> has she changed at all? is she suddenly changing tact tactics? >> this is what's so interesting. some time in october the campaign decided not to play rock music and it would be silent and she would shake every hand in the room. they made a decision to take more questions and yet, for some reason it's not necessarily translating. everyone i talked to, the voters they like her and they like her for the same reason. we like her values and we like

her faith. she doesn't seem to be making a pitch. you do get the sense that they wish she would have done that. >> yes. yes. and that exists within the campaign, too. >> interestingly and quickly, ron and rand paul. everyone says they have the best organization, do you buy it? >> they have laptops collecting people's information and one important part, they have so many at the end of the table registering people who are new republicans. >> you've actually had to see a lot of campaigns registering people outside and to be new republicans and same-day registration. >> you guys have to get back out there. luckily bachmann starts in des moines today. up next, the political panel is here and joins me in des moines, the nexus, of course, of the political universe for the next 24 hours, but first, the white house soup of the day there isn't one. folks, i need chicken noodle

soup, matza ball soup. i'll take it, please. you're watching "the daily rundown" live from des moines, iowa. we'll be right back. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, visit us today. responsibility. what's your policy? that was as active and on the go as i was. weight watchers online is absolutely that tool. it was never further away than my pocket. my sidekick! the weight tracker really let me see that my real problem area was when i was traveling. it allowed me to kind of tailor my plan to my lifestyle. i lost 29 pounds with weight watchers online.

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>> and we're back here live from the polk county convention center in des moines. doing stand-ups outside. anyway, michele bachmann sits in single digits with the latest iowa polls. she appeared to appeal to divine intervention. >> anyone who is watching here today we prayas well that your holy spirit will be there with them this morning. even though it's a new year, they may not feel any hope, but i pray, father, that as a result of this service today that people will feel hope and will know that there's hope.

>> i am joined by des moines register columnist kathy o bradovic and former chairman of the republican party, michael steele and welcome to all of you. all right. everybody is digesting every little bit and piece of the des moines register poll. >> kathy, let me start with the committed supporter. this is what we saw a little bit in our poll and you saw it exponential in your 76% and santorum supporters said they'll attend and romney, 58% and paul, 58%. santorum's voters are very, very committed and on caucus night when there are so many variables, when people are going to be making up their mind a lot of times on caucus night, getting that extra boost for turnout is amazing and the other thing about rick santorum is he does not have the same kind of beefed-up organization -- >> he's doing this on his own. >> and he's going to need every

bit of that commitment in order to compete tomorrow night. >> michael steele, one question a lot of questions some have. if they're picking a nominee, that's good for romney, in a general election, who is the most electable? >> 48% say romney and nobody else is sitting there. next would be gingrich at 13%. what's iowa doing, do you think? are they picking a nominee. >> >> with 40% is still undecided and that's hard to tell. in the first poll that you showed, the understatedness of the romney commitment -- the ron paul commitment, that's down played and you'll see a much more energetic ron paul team out there tomorrow night. so the question is, i think for a lot of the committeds, yeah, we're picking a nominee and for the undecided, it's still a question mark. >> you know, kay, another part that jumped out at me is how well santorum did on the idea of connecting to ordinary iowans

and michele bachmann was next and all three spent more time campaigning in iowa. >> i think the sweater vest is working. >> but people have met him. they've shaken his hand. he's had town hall meetings why he had people spend an hour and a half with the candidate and they've been able to go home, talk to their friends and neighbors about the hour and a half they spent with rick santorum. it's percolated through the community about the time he spent campaigning. >> caucus night, these folks stand up and make their pitches. >> right. >> how likely, have you ever seen where people go in for somebody, but they're sharing some of the same sort of alliances with another candidate and they say i just have to go over there. how often does that happen? i think it happens more often than people would like to admit. they're going with their friends and neighbors and they may have voted with their next-door neighbor in every election since

1972 and if their next-door neighbor is standing up and telling you to vote for rick santorum and you're thinking you're voting for rick perry, that might be an intense moment. >> this seems to be -- in my experience coming here and you live this every day, kathy, this is overall, the least impressive organizations among presidential candidates in 30 years. >> you don't have that same sort of retail campaign emphasis in iowa that we've had. a lot more emphasis on the debates and you haven't had the same kind of candidate going state to state and going town to town, talking to people and you have to be organizational with that and you have picked uppa i volunteer. >> perry's got an organization, but santorum has it. that would be a powerful voice. >> this has not been a traditional year. >> that's for sure.

michael steele and rick santorum is starting to -- one of the hits is from 2004. >> yeah. >> here's how santorum pushed back and sort of explained it yesterday in sioux city. here's what he said. >> some people, including my wife, question my judgment on that, and we disagreed on that. we still disagree to this day on that, but when people ask me about arlen specter, i have two words to say, roberts and alito, and i can tell you without a doubt, if it wasn't for arlen specter, sam alito would not be on the court today. >> how about that, michael steele? >> yeah. >> i pushed back because what rick perry said to me, he said without specter being the 60th vote, a lot of stuff could have been stopped in the obama administration. >> that's an interesting pushback that he recognizes with

this quasi leadership role that they'll come after him and he's ready to take them on. he made a principled decision along with a lot of other republicans at the time. guess what, if i hadn't done that vote. that would have lost it in a presidential year. stick around. i want to talk about newt genning rich and his inability to stay on his message. >> tribute time, we asked since 1972 who was the only person to lose the iowa caucuses and go on to win the presidency? the answer, of course, bill clinton in 1992. clinton didn't really play in iowa. he lost that to tom harkin and then he actually lost new hampshire to massachusetts. he still won the new hampshire primary in different ways. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. if you took the top down on a crossover? if there were buttons for this?

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lt as bring back the panel. newt gingrich seems to have -- it's the most amazing rise and fall. i don't think we've seen anything like this, this fast. although we'll see how long santorum can hold what he's got here. yesterday he spent a lot of time again complaining about mitt romney. here's what he said. >> he would buy it if he could. >> dow think he's trying to buy this one? >> $3.5 million in negative ads, you tell me. for a state this size, to spend that number of dollars in negative ads aimed at one candidate is pretty amazing. >> dow feel swift voted? >> no. i feel romney voted. >> you've seen the ads. and you guys live here. was it as bad as you described it? >> it was as focused as he

described it. no one else was attacking anyone like newt gingrich. also phenomenally effective. in our poll meeting, before our poll came out, we tried to figure out what would be the best verbs, imploded, is that too strong? when you're trying to test out verbs for sinking fast, it's not a good place. >> it's interesting. michael steele, four years ago mitt romney was very aggressive going after mike huckabee, but he had to say, i'm mitt romney, i approved this message. he didn't have to do that. and look what happened. >> the third-party ad machine out there is going to be a big player in the primary, snernl the fall i. think for someone like gingrich who decided, i'm going to push back a bit, it will be interesting if he'll be able to get some of the third party support in terms of ads going forward. >> why hasn't it boomeranged?

we've seen none of it. >> back to gingrich. i think the most effective part of of the ads, his history after he left congress, his marital history, a, b, c, it's d all of the above, that made him leery. he cried last night in an intervi interview. second time he's cried. >> i think it's getting to him. >> has callista's presence helped? >> i don't think it's been effective. >> they're reminding people of callista in a third party ad. citizens united is running an ad and she narrates the ad. >> kathie, the role of evangelic evangelicals. will it rise and bite mitt rom me again? >> not like last time. our polls suggest around 40% mark, not 60, and that would

help romney because he is not the strongest with that group. a low turnout will be heavily evangelical and that helps santorum. >> high turnout, good for romney, low, good for santorum. shameless plug time, michael steele? >> real simple, i've got a great new year's resolution piece up on root.com where i talk about what our members of congress and lelgtors should be resoluting. >> kay, let's stee if you've figured this out. >> for the tea lovers, pick anything that has tea from apsalm in it. >> and i need caffeine, though. >> i have to plug the "des moines register's" iphone app, get all the updates. >> where do we get it? >> search in the store for gwinnett or "des moines register." >> shameless as it gets. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown," tomorrow is

caucus day. coming up next, chris "jansing and company." don't miss at 1:00 andrea mitchell reports, live from java joe's, also live in iowa, the nexus of the political universe. bye xloom i'm jennifer hudson, and i believe. i was strong before weight watchers, but i'm stronger with it. i believe because it works. ♪ if you want it, you got it join for free.

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good morning, i'm chris jansing. well, this is the most volatile gop primary ever, and, yes, finally we're 24 hours from the caucus. gallup says no primary since 1964 has had so many front runners and here's the key thing, things are still changing. first of all, newt's going negative apparently. santorum, he's surging, and mitt won't quit. >> this isn't my first rodeo. i've been in tough races. >> i've been looking at some video clips on