happy new year. thank you for joining me. i'm thomas robert. with just one day left in the iowa caucus, six republican candidates are blijts blitsibli state. rick santorum's surge is a big story this morning. he's making five stops in the hawkeye state today and earlier defended his support for mitt romney the last time around in '08. take a look. >> you said governor romney is it the candidate who will stand up for the conservative principles that we hold dear. >> well, i was saying it relative to john mccain, and that's what i meant then. >> does he have conservative values? principles? >> of course. everybody on that stage that is in these debates has conservative values. the question is, are those values ones that you can trust when they become president of the united states? >> nearly two dozen cities will see a presidential candidate drop by today. iowa's current front-runner is also already on the road trying to lock up votes with a clear message, electability.

>> i understand how the economy works. and i want to use that expertise to get this country going again. i know that those good times are still out there and we can reclaim them, as long as we have a president who believes in the foundational principles of this nation. >> rick green is the vice president and editor of the "des moines register" and joins me this morning. rick, it's nice to have you here. i want to remind everybody watching right now where the numbers currently stand. in your latest poll, romney leading ron paul, santorum surging, and the numbers for santorum, rick, looking even better when look at the last few days of that poll. so who is the candidate that everybody is buzzing, talking about right now? iowa, as we watch the clock count out? >> good to see you again, thomas. you know, there are two candidates that everybody is focused on right now, one of them obviously the front-runner mitt romney and then rick santorum. santorum is the guy that's been at the airport for a long, long

time, waiting for a ticket, trying to get on a plane. suddenly he's not only on the plane but in first class and everybody is paying attention to how high he's going go. it's going fob a very focused race in the final 36 hours or so. can both of them get out their vote? and what's the ron paul factor in all thf? >> this is very interesting. according to the poll, 51% of them say their minds are made up, 4 in 10 could still change their minds. have you ever seen a caucus with so many volatility as we rush into what really is a horse race almost neck in neand neck for s many? >> american polling is really focused on the republican caucus since 1954. never have we seen such volatility. i think right now it's anybody's game, but here's the thing that i think everyone in iowa is

focused in on. you mentioned it just at the beginning of the hour t. aels the electability. our last poll showed governor romney with 48% electability. the only one dloes to him was gingrich with 13 and santorum at 7. i think a lot of iowans are balancing their perform preferences but it you'll comes back to that "e" word, electability. who has the best opportunity to knock off what is perceived by republicans in iowa a very vulnerable incumbent, barack obama. >> as we talk about this, stamina has a lot to play out, electability counts for a lot. doesn't organization as well? to see how everyone in iowa is doing, who had the superior ground game, a lot say rick santorum or ron paul, but when we talk about electability, so many people don't believe mitt romney has that. >> you know, i think a lot of folks are keeping their eyes not only on the polls in iowa but other parts of the country. there are plenty iowans who can tell you about new hampshire,

that can tell you about what's going on in south carolina. the ground game is essential. the weather tomorrow, going to be cold. by iowa standards, very pleasant, no precipitation. it should help event candidates, which i think probably ge ne gaits the opportunity for ron paul to possibly move into the first position. all we know is it, it's going to be an incredibly intense next 30 hours or so. the focus will be on trying to get out their caucus captains, being able to spread their message, and, as governor romney was mentioning, just at the beginning of the hour, the electability, something we continue to hear throughout the entire campaign the past weekend here whoxt has the best opportunity to take back the white house frorred republican snz. >> rick green, thanks for your time. >> you bet. we want to show you what's taking place as we speak. right now, there's rick santorum continuing to campaign through iowa. really had a big boost over this weekend when he was greeted at two separate events yesterday in the most conservative part of

the state, more than 150 people packing into a coffee house in sioux city as well as a basement of a grocery store i believe in orange city to talk to him and find out exactly what he stands for and to buoy their beliefs or support the beliefs they have in supporting him. rick soon torm's latest surge really making him the latest target for a host of candidates trying to emerge from iowa as the answer for republican voters searching for the anyone but romney alternative. >> rick santorum, a cereal pork barrel ear marker. the argument is, i'm a fiscal conservative, vote for me. the other argument is, i'm the guy who can win, he got beat by 18 points in his last race. this guy has proven he can't win races when it matters against a liberal democrat. so, i mean, rick is a fine man, but the fact is his rhetoric doesn't match up with his record

at all. >> mat schultz is iowa ace secretary of state and he is supporting senator santorum in iowa. matt, nice to have you back. i want to get straight to it. i'm sure you've been asked why you threw your endorsement behind rick santorum. now your candidate is seeing these recent attacks and surging, tell us why rick perry, newt gingrich, michele bachmann supporters should switch to your camp come tomorrow night. >> well, because rick santorum is it a strong conservative in the case, in this race. he's been to all 99 counties. and he's been working hard. he's been talking to voters and he's connecting. right now i don't think, if i were a betting man, i wouldn't be betting on anybody but rick santorum right now. >> santorum spoke with msnbc's andrea mitchell. this is what he had to say. take a listen to this. we'll talk on the other side. >> we've done 360-some town hall

type meetings and done all 99 counties, did that a while ago. and a lot of that is paying off. i think people are now taking a real close look at who they're going to support, looking at all the kand dads, mixing and matching, and i think tweer starting to come out better in that equation. >> so why do you think it took so long for conservatives to come around right now? we're seeing as we talk about the santorum surge, as we come to the finish line for the iowa caucuses, but if he doesn't have the overall support from the republican establishment, dow think he can make it out of iowa and maintain this? >> absolutely. absolutely i think he can. you know, he's the kind of candidate, kind of like mike huckabee who got a big boost when he won iowa. i think rick santorum will find the same kind of results. he's been i believe to actually 375 town hall meetings in iowa now, and he's working hard. i think people in iowa are seeing that and i think people across the country are seeing that. rick santorum's got an

organization in new hampshire and south carolina, and i think the momentum is going to build just like it did here in iowa. aloft people -- in a lot of the polls he was people's second choice for a long time. >> right. >> now that people have to make the decision, they're coming on board. >> but if we're using huckabee as a reference or example, we know what he's dog today as opposed to being president. i do want to talk to you about the fact that in '08 rick santorum endorsed romney. is this a left-handed endorsement from you, that if santorum doesn't make it, this is basically an endorsement of romney? >> no, not at all. mitt romney is it a good man, but this a positive endorsement for rick santorum. i think what could happen is this becomes a two-man race n. 2008 it really didn't become that two hiv man race -- we had john mccain, we had mitt romney and mike huckabee and ron paul was there for a while, too. i think this really has the potential to becoming a two-man

race after super tuesday and i think rick santorum will have the momentum and conservatives will get behind him. >> we'll see how it all plays out. we'll know more by this time wednesday. iowa secretary of state matt schultz. thanks so much for your time. >> thank you. programming note, you can hear more of andrea mitchell's interview with rick santorum this afternoon. 1:00 eastern only on msnbc. want to take a closer look at all of the players in this race now with our panel. alicia menendez is senior adviser to the new democrat network and robert crane um is washington bureau chief for the comcast network. nice to see both of you. alicia, want to start with you. romney has not been exactly playing the nice card with the other candidates in iowa. here is newt gingrich responding to the wave of attacks playing on tv sets against him. >> he would buy the election if he could. >> 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 decide how you describe it.

for a state this size, to spend that number of dollars in feg tiff ads aimed at one candidate? it's pretty amazing. >> do you feel swift-boated? >> no. i feel romney-boated. >> so he feels romney-boated, swift-boated obviously the reference to senator kerry. even if romney doesn't win in iowa, alicia, doesn't this ad machine crush any candidate, any candidate, that actually challenges him through the primary season? >> what i think is funny about what newt gingrich is saying he's not complaining that the ads were factually incorrect or wrong, he's simply saying he doesn't like the fact that they were effective. i think romney honed in very quickly on the fact that if newt was going have this boomlet, that they needed to crush it and i think they managed that very effectively. and i think what you're saying is absolutely right. the amount of money that the romney campaign has to spend is part of what's going to make this decisive in the next few weeks. >> no one is saying thank you for the reminders of my past after seeing those ads. vote nights are usually about timing, a lot about momentum,

robert, both right now helping rick santorum, 75% of caucusgoers supporting san storm say they will definitely be there for their candidate. that's head and shoulders above the competition. so how crucial, robert, is that enthusiasm going to be tomorrow? >> incredibly important. and the reason why is because many people say, you know what? i like this person, but i'm not sure i'm going to volt for this person. but when you have the enthusi m enthusiasm, that means you're going to go out, you're going to noek on doors, drive people to the polls so the enthusiasm is extremely important. >> alicia, democrats already ramping up their anti-romney machine in iowa if romney does win tomorrow or comes in second and then goes on to sweep in new hampshire, is it all over, in your estimation? >> if he wins? >> yeah. aren't democrats hoping that this fight could go on for months, putting romney in that role? >> it certainly behooves democrats for this to go on as long as possible. i see very few possible anyone

except romney wins, even if he comes in second in iowa. i think if santorum comes in first, he just as you said earlier doesn't have the electability quality. there's not the belief that he can win, romney then goes on to win new hampshire and i think it's very hard for santorum or another candidate to win south carolina. romney wins. this thing is over. but even once it's over, romney still has to convince a lot of conservative that's he's their guy. so that race continues to go on, even if the official race is over. >> you know, thomas, i disagree a little bit. the reason why i say that is because south carolina has always been a very interesting state. this is what we know. we know that south carolina has pribl predicted the republican nominee since 1980. we also know the new south carolina is different fwr the old south carolina. what i mean by that is, the new south carolina elected the first indian governor in history and the old south carolina is the south carolina of straum thurman, evangelicals and so forth. so the question becomes, what

type of south carolina is going to come out? are they go being to come out for milt romney, a mormon, someone who obviously is a little questionable in terms of his conservative past or the new south carolina who will say, you know what? let buy gones be bye gones, we're moving into the 21st century. we don't know that yet. >> thank you both. i've got a santorum bumper sticker on the side of my refrigerator, a ron paul yard sign in the back of my truck. >> house speaker gingrich and i thought i had made up my mind with he and romney, and now i've made some changes. >> i like pieces of all of them. i think bachmann would be great for ripping out obama care. i think gingrich would be great on a lot of foreign pol city issues. i think governor perry would be great on energy policy. i like pieces of all of them. iowa the final pushl and the hunt is it is on for those critical undecided voters which means tomorrow's results could totally defy what we're seeing

in the polls. so how do the candidates get those voters to make up their minds? we'll explore that and a bit of iowa history. only one republican candidate since 1972 has gone on to win iowa and then the presidency. that was george w. bush in 2000. but do you know who was the first u.s. president born in iowa? that's our trivia question of the day. you can tweet me your answers. come from any faucet anywhere. the brita bottle with the filter inside.

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enthusiastic crowds continue to meet and greet rick santorum. you're seeing the former pennsylvania senator there talking to a group of people in polk city, iowa, as he continues to canvas the state ahead of tomorrow's caucus, telling the crowd there he does have the infrastructure, does have the moment um to go all the way. some have doubted, though, whether whether or not he's fonlly able to do so, only

spending tens of thousands on campaign advertising in the state as opposed to the millions of other candidates like that of mitt romney. all signs point to a close contest come tuesday night, with so many iowans still waiting for a sign that tells them which conservative candidate is going to be the right one for them. msnbc's richard lui is here to talk about the voters still on the fence in the hawkeye state. richard, we've been talking about this, 41% still undecided. iowans don't like to be told what to do and they're keeping us guessing. >> they are. and that's a significant number. for the candidates right now, thomas, it is the battle for the undecid undecideds, none have broken the mid-20s in recent polls. with this number here, 41%, there is hope in them hills in iowa. this group saying they could change their mind at any point. >> house speaker gingrich and i thought i had made up my mind with he and romney, and now i've made some changes. >> i like pieces of all of them.

i think bachmann would be great for ripping out obama care. i thi gingrich would be great on foreign policy issues. i think governor perry would be great on energy policy. so i like pieces of all of them. >> well, the pieces that candidates worry about, thomas, are these 99 areas that surprise sfaenl 74 precincts that they're looking at. three things to consider when we look at how they're canvassing all of these different areas here. first, retail politicking, as you know, santorum talked to people in each and every one of the 99 precincts here. the 1774 areas are in that we're talking about. his competitors were slow to follow. second consideration? name recognition. in our nbc/maris poll, all but santorum had good name recognition across these entire areas here. this helps offset weak ground operations in the final days. then the third piece to the 1774, all of these precinct captains that we're talking about, they're the ones to get out the message. and come caucus day, they can make the final persuasive push

before voters make their pick. rick perry's campaign believes they'll have over 1500 precinct captains. santorum's campaign says they have 1200. i want to show you what we're looking at. first off, these are the candidates we're watching. we'll be calculating realtime their trek to get to the magical number of some 1150 delegates and the nomination. as you can see right now, zero, no states won by romney, no states won by paul. we'll be following that realtime with our decision application right here. there's also the calendar. tomorrow we're looking at iowa. that's very important for us as we're looking at what will happen there in that state. as you can see here, we are looking at not only iowa, we also have new hampshire. we're looking at south carolina as well as florida. these are just some of the date that's are so important here as we just scan them out really quickly here and then florida, of course, the big decision maker. some 50 delegates there. for now, it's the difficult task, though, of convincing the coveted undecideds, thomas.

like the candidates, they're not all the same. >> they're looking for the last bit of information that will help them decide. richard, thank you. joining us now from iowa this morning, republican strategist trey hardin. let's get straight to it to find out what you think about this. here is another nugget from the "des moines register" poll. who is best to relating to ordinary iowa rns? it cracks out interestingly. 20% say santorum, 20% bachmann, 20% say ron paul. then where you see mitt romney, way down there with 10%. trey, what does this say to you about the one thaing undecideds are likely to support as we look at this caucus about to come to a head? >> well, thomas, great to talk to you, first of all. great to be in iowa. i tell you, 40% undecideds, with all of these candidates still in play, with 24 hours to go, it doesn't get any better for us political junkies. it's an extremely exciting time.

you know, i think voters, caucusgoers, relate to the people who spend the most time with them. i think that's why santorum has surged over the last few weeks. but some other things that i think, if you do a deeper dive into this most recent "des moines register" poll, shows that, while in the past this process, this caucus, has been typically driven by values voters, values caucusgoers, there's some interesting bylines in it that show that this time there's a greater emphasis on the economy and electability. i think that's why mitt romney has stiy stayed in town for the weekend. i think with new hampshire being a lock for him, nevada being a lock for him, and now south carolina very much in play for him because of the endorsement of governor nicki hailey, that he smells blood in the water right now. >> trey, when we talk about the fact, as you were talking about the fact that iowans really like to meet and greet the people, find out -- look them in the

eye -- what they believe in. michele bachmann on "morning joe" this morning saying he's gone to all 99 counties, rick santorum said he has also had a good ground going, shown moments ago speaking in polk city. is it really going to be the turnout key here, which candidate is really in the best position to get the people that they've met to turn out in their support tomorrow? >> absolutely. i mean, there is -- they say in politics a week is a lifetime, well, in iowa right now i think 24 hours is a lifetime. a lot can happen. these caucusgoers, these undecideds, they're neighbors, community members, friends. they're talking to each other. it's fascinating. i had a conversation in the lobby of the hotel with a bellman who's been a longtime iowan and longstime caucusgoer. he still is undecided. he he's going to a mitt romney event tonight, and, you know, he

said, listen, we are iowans. we're proud of this process. we take it seriously. we want to get it right. and each of these candidates has a little something we like about each of them, but at the end of the day we have our eye on the prize this november and we want to make sure we're vaulting the right candidate forward. >> it seems like they can't franken candidate, the perfect person they can can look together, looking for the x-factor that remains to be seen. we'll see how it all plays out. trey hardin, thank you so much. >> thank you, thomas. on the hunt, a national park is closed right now while authorities try to track down the man who allegedly can killed a park ranger. full details ahead. and next hour on "now," alex talks about the iowa ground game. she'll have michele bachmann's campaign press secretary coming up. you'll want to stay right here with msnbc, the place for politics. this is an rc robotic claw.

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battle lines being drawn. republicans have a plan to use president obama's own words against him. and team obama is on the ground in iowa. finding a way at the romney campaign. has the general election already begun? plus, listen to this. it's like a scene out of a twilight zone. hundreds of dead birds fall from the sky on new year's eve in arkansas. this is the second year in a row. you can't make this stuff up. we're back with much more after this. what makes the sleep number store different?

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>> break's over, it's game on for obama reelection camp. the president will hold a web rally in ohio for fellow democrats. meantime, his campaign team heavily deployed there is ramping up to fight a mostly undecided gop field. the strategy, despited stone walling of an unpopular do-nothing congress.

kristen welker is at the white house for us. >> reporter: good morning, thomas. the president heading home from hawaii, he's going to hold a live web chat with some of his supporters in iowa on tuesday night, sort of a counteroffensive to the iowa caucuses. and then on wednesday he heads to the all-important battleground state of ohio where he will be talking about the economy. we'll likely hear him sort of reiterate a message that he initially rolled out during his speech in aus watt me kansas in december, that this is a make or braek moment for the middle class and he'll paint himself as a warrior for the middle class to try to draw a distinction with some of those republican candidates. as you touched upon, thomas, the president feeling a bit emboldened after ending the year on a positive note, in part because of the victory in the payroll tax cut fight. we saw his approval ratings increase in december and the unemployment rate dropping a

bit. having said that, a lot of analysts still insist that the economy is far from healthy, so that unemployment rate, 8.6%, below the 9% that it had been during the summer, they still say that 8.6% is not enough to create a healthy economy, and that will be the president's biggest challenge to reelection. but the president trying to stay in the conversation right now while we head into officially the republican primary season. thomas? >> nbc's kristen welker at the white house, great to see you. thank you. here is a look at some other stories topping the news for you. the manhunt under way for the gunman who killed a park ranger in mt. rainier. we're awaiting a noon news conference on the latest for the search. the victim a mom of two was shot in what police call a routine traffic stop. more than 100 visitors have been escorted out of the park because the gunman is still believed to be there. now, police have a strong person of interest in the murder. he's an iraq veteran who was also a suspect in the shootings

of four people at a house party outside of seattle on sunday. we'll bring you the details of that noon press conference when we get them. los angeles police have detained a person of interest in connection pwith a string of arson fires. more than 50 fires all of which happened within the last few days. police have not said whether the man they've detabled is the same man seen in this surveillance video, fleeing the scene of a fire in hollywood saturday night. they also have not said whether the man in the video is a suspect, only that they wanted tuk to that guy. a strange phenomenon has happened again for the second year in a row. hundreds of black birds fell frt sky and died in arkansas over the weekend on new year's eve. dozens of the black birds were found in the town of bee. the year before an the same date thousands died and biologists blame new year's eve fireworks saying the birds may have become disoriented by the loud noise prompting them to crash into the ground. get ready because here it comes, the east coast bracing

for a deep freeze with some spots expecting to see snow. the weather channel's mike seidel has more for us from dunkirk, new york. hey, mike. >> reporter: hey, thomas. so far, so good out here in western new york on the new york state thruway. where it is finally looking and feeling like winter. the thruway in good shape this hour, but tonight and through turs morning we'll have squalls through here and cleveland and erie. we've already had snowfall up in northern lower michigan, traverse city it started snowing yesterday on new year's day. look at the wind. we're getting 30 to 40-mile-an-hour wind gusts with the dry snow. we're getting the whiteout, blizzard warnings in that area through later on today. meanwhile, back here we're looking at one to two feet in those areas that typically get dumped on 100, 150 inches a year, for instance, the cha talk wa ridge toward jamestown, new york, and certainly here south of buffalo. we're looking at more snow

through tuesday morning. but the real impact of the first true arctic air mass of the season, a little late coming, is going to be the shivering and teeth-chattering weather for million ofs us from boston to miami and back toward chicago. we'll see the coldest temperatures of the season and windchills here in the northeast will drop below zero, away from the big cities, tomorrow morning and by wednesday morning, thomas, we'll see frost as far south as the northwest suburbs of miami. the deep freeze heads into the sunshine state. but the good news, unlike last winter, the cold stuck around for a solid two months, this is going to be transient. it will move on out and all of us will warm back up to average or above average by thursday and friday. thomas, back to you. >> we like quick. we'll take it. mike seidel, thanks so much. >> now we want to take you back to iowa and mitt romney going on some of his last final blitzes across the state. it's definitely a family affair. despite a narrow lead in the polls and uncertain status with social conservatives, the gop favorite is decidedly upbeat as

he makes a series of whistle stops with not just his wife ann and three sons but his brother and sister-in-law as well. joining us by phone is nbc's romney campaign inbed garrett haik news is we're playing more from ann romney. >> that's right. she's taken an increased role. you're getting sort of two separate things happening. first you're getting the kind of humanizing aspect from ann, where she tells stories about being an exasperating mom and shouting at all five boys, getting them in order and about being a grandma. you're getting her today making the direct pitch, more political speech, saying, look, my husband is the guy, he's ready to take on barack obama, and actually being the one to get out and caucus for her husband. also today, the campaign released a web video more or less starring ann romney making

that case, get out and sue fort my husband. he's a man of character. we're seeing more and more of this as we cross the snowy plains here. >> as we know, every minute is going count as we take this down to the wire. nbc campaign inbed, garrett haake. thanks so much. as rick santorum gains momentum and goes strong into the finish in iowa, talking about how the surge is also helping his campaign chest, when asked if he had the cash, the money, to carry his momentum past iowa, this is what he had to say. tyke a listen. >> we've raised more mnl in the last few days than we have in the last few months, and going from zero to 60 in the polls if you will will help those resources a lot. >> he's also drawing a hard line between himself and ron paul in terms of how he'd run the country. nbc's campaign embed andrew rafferty is on the road with the santorum campaign. he joins us by phone. andrew, is it true he and his team are treating this final leg

like a farewell tour, so to speak? >> well, good morning, thomas. yes, throughout western iowa yesterday, it certainly was the normal rick santorum you see on the stump, but also a little bit of a farewell tour, telling voters that, you know, however this works out, thank you. he infamously drops the names of small towns in iowa on the national stage during debates, he's doing that on the tour. he's saying that he's going to miss iowa and, you know, just going back to your point about fund raising, i have breaking news for you. i'm seeing a rick santorum for president bus. he's been known to go through the state before this just driving around in a pickup truck. but now we can report it's called the santorum express. so you can see those fund raising numbers are jumping up a little bit and he's got a new ride to show for it. >> nbc's campaign embed andrew rafferty. thanks so much. we appreciate it. also we want to talk about what's taking place, the

fluctuating polls for others on the final day of the campaign trail. the latest "des moines register" poll showing the political pendulum in iowa swinging away from ron paul and toward rick santorum as we're talking about. however, ron paul is hitting the state hard today after a weekend braeng, hoping to reverse that tornado. he and he's recruited his son, tea party faifrlt, rand paul to the front lines. paul also making the case this weekend that he is electable. >> i always say that i'm pretty mainstream. i think that people who are attacking me now are the ones who can't defend their records and have been all over the place. >> nbc campaign embed anthony terrell, live at the polk county convention center in des moines. anthony, explain the mood on the ground and the push from the paul camp, now that both ron and his son rand are in town together. >> hey, good morning. they're pretty excited about senator rand paul being back here. he's trying to motivate conservatives to get behind his father's candidacy, pointing to his consistency and rand is also

saying that his father is electable. he points to his own election of 2010, defeating the so-called establishment republican there. they're hoping his dad can do the same thing here and the later states. they're saying, look at 2010 and what happened to the establishment republicans there. they're labeling newt gingrich and mitt romney as the establishment and saying it can happen again this year. senator rand paul has five campaign stops today with his father. he's just wrapping up a radio interview here in des moines. i'll be speaking to him later on in cedar rapids. their final stop is going to be in mason city tonight and the campaign is hoping to get out the vote tomorrow, the senator speaking with his dad all day today and ron paul speaking to 800 high school students at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. iowa is a same-day registration state. if they're not republicans, they can show up and vote for ron paul. >> didn't you say, as i was watching on "the daily rundown," you saw how they were registering same-day republican voters, correct? >> correct. that's correct. they were registering people to

be republicans. i spoke to the organizers who were doing that. they told me they got about 10% at each event and ron paul is turning out crowds in the hundreds. >> nbc campaign embed anthony terrell. thanks so much. appreciate it, coming to us from iowa. we'll talk to you again. >> thank you. mitt romney keeping up with the kardashians apparently. why he's talking about kim's 72-day marriage. that's next. plus, christian conservatives in wau watch divided over the republican candidates. who is going to win their vote? capri sun has 25% less sugar than leading regular juice drinks. because less sugar is a better way to fly. ♪ just not literally. capri sun. respect what's in the pouch. ♪ [ female announcer ] if whole grain isn't the first ingredient in your breakfast cereal, what is? now, in every box of general mills big g cereal, there's more whole grain than any other ingredient.

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wrel welcome back. we'll take you out to see newt gingrich, still crisscrossing the state of iowa, in independence, iowa, allowing himself to speak to media, answering questions while he continues to canvass the state. let's listen in for a sec. >> to fundamentally get this country back on the right track. i regard it as a duty, not a pleasure. i regard it as an obligation,

not an ambition. and i am prepared to do it, and i will do it with everything i've got. but it's not -- if you said to me, compared to things we've done over the last 12 years that are fun, i mean, this is exciting, it's interesting, it's fascinating, but it's not at the center of my being. it's the center of my duty. [ inaudible ] i have no idea. i mean, with 41% potentially shifting, who knows? my view is -- and you've heard me say this -- this is the first three minutes of the super bowl. i think it's been a good three minutes for us. we've begun to lay out the themes that will work. i think we've seen romney do his most intense negative and we now have time to think through how to respond. i think we've seen that, in fact, positive messages work despite the barrage. and i think that i feel very

confident about our ability over the next two or three months to allow the country to organize itself and say, okay, you have a conservative who knows what he was doing who was with reagan at a time when romney was an independent. you have a conservative who in fwakt was with george h.w. bush at the time romney was a democrat voting for paul saugus. you have a conservative whose record of controlling government spending is dramatically better than romney's and a conservative who voted against tax increases while romney as governor raised taxes. you have a right to life candidate while romney put planned parent of parenthood in romney care. i think that is a very simple contrast. as that message sinks in, i think the natural weight of the republican party for every election since 1964 will sink in. [ inaudible question ] i'd like to do the best i can tomorrow night. whatever i do tomorrow night

will be a victory because i'm still standing. this is the second tithe me in year that -- last time it was media by you guys, not you personally, and this time it is paid media by romney. and twice people tried to drive me out of the race, and i'm still here. [ inaudible question ] >> newt gingrich talking to people in independence, iowa, today, referring to what's taking place, the caucuses there in iowa, saying this is really just the first three minutes of the super bowl. and also talking about the intense negative campaigning that's been seen in iowa, the campaign ads coming from the romney campaign. but, with 41% undecided, as newt gingrich was asked about what he expects out of tomorrow night, he said it's a victory no matter what, he's still standing. religious conservatives have yet to coalesce over one single candidate n. 2008, more than 60% of iowa caucusgoers described themselves as born again or

evangelical christians. today the "des moines register" estimates that number has fallen to 40 prsz. the family leader, a conservative group in iowa, didn't collectively choose to back a single candidate. however, that group's president and ceo, bob vander plat did personally endorse rick santorum. he kroin joins us from iowa. bob, nice to have you this morning. >> pleasure to be with you. >> since your personal endorsement of santorum, it does seem that he's gained ground support. so will social conservatives and the religious right push him over the top on caucus day tomorrow? >> i believe they will. i think it's a great opportunity, that rick santorum will emerge as the victor tomorrow night. he has the moments um. he has the energy. iowa conservatives, myself included, are looking for a co-aalessing time, movement that we surround one candidate, the candidates didn't join themselves so i think the people are taking it upon themselves to make this coalescing happen. and right now rick santorum deliver has the energy and momentum and the one that we

think can be the alternative to romney and then beat barack obama. >> is there really no clear choice for the religious voter? it's really diluted diluted rig santorum, bachmann and perry. >> the problem is we have a lot of good candidates championing the pro-family cause right now. when that happens, whether it's gingrich. ery, santorum or back man or ron paul, you fragment your vote. when you fragment your vote, the advantage goes to romney. four years ago it was easy to coalesce around huckabee because the field was mccain, giuliani and romney. right now you'll see history be made tomorrow night. i wans are savvy and know what they want and i think they'll elect senator santorum. >> four years ago, santorum was the one to endorse mitt rom.

>> i was the chair of mike huckabee's campaign four years ago. i think rick santorum, he and i talked about that. it was late in the game. he believed the choice was down to mccain or romney. he saw romney as being better than mccain. this time i see santorum being much better than romney so we're going to go all out for santorum. >> sir, nice to have you on with me this morning. thank you. >> i appreciate it. >> we're back with much more after this. in america, we believe in a future that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future.

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it's time for the polysci sidebar. here's mitt romney's latest swipe at president obama's campaign promises in iowa. >> i think the gap between his promises and his performance is

the largest i've seen, well, since the kardashian wedding and the promise of till death do we part. >> this is romney's second pop culture reference in a week. last week it was i love lucy wh when. higher help, michele bachmann is counting on a miracle to help in iowa and maybe gender power with this new ad. >> born and raised in iowa. only one candidate has been a consistent conservative fighter who fought obama care, fought increasing our debt ceiling even as other republicans were cutting deals with obama. >> new year's and the twilight zone go hand in hand. it's no surprise one of the candidates worked it into a campaign ad. john hunts pan paints ron paul as a twilight zone candidate. ♪ >> and the assumption is that this guy is like your crazy uncle but you never expected your crazy uncle to get this

far. >> all right. so we want to go back to this morning's iowa trivia. the question who was able to answer our caucus challenge with the question we think who was the first u.s. president born in iowa. the answer herbert hoover was born in west branch, iowa, now the site of the presidential library and museum. came from nicolas who had the best answer first for us. i'll see you back here tomorrow. now with alex wagner, next, she talks about the iowa ground game with alice stewart. [ male announcer ] to the 5:00 a.m. scholar.

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but are we any closer to having an actual republican nominee? it's monday, january 2nd, and this is "now." joining me today from the nation, msnbc contributor arie mel about your, matt lewis of the daily caller, jimmy lewis co-founder of united republican and from the grio.com,