about the recent executions in saudi arabia as well as who we how would like to go up against in the general election if he gets that far. that and finally we're going to attend rand paul, senator rand paul is in town, and tonight he's having his birthday party. he's turning 53 years old. part of his campaign here in des moines at a place called buzzard billie's on roske on politics. we will become a rich and great nation again. thank you, great honor. >> we have the top 1/10. >> what did they conclude? keep negotiating, and that's what they did. >> the things i've been concerned about in this nation for the last few years have not changed. >> we're chatting with the national correspondent from the

>> for having me to your beautiful home. >> hop on the back. >> i love it. >> aloha. >> senator tom what harkin. >> sometimes you don't have to win the saw cis if you -- caucus if you come in second or third.

welcome back to roske on politics with senator rand paul. the last time we were here we were in costume. this is one of the funner campaigns. are you enjoying yourself? >> the last time we were here you know what my costume was, something truly scary. i was the national debt and i was dressed in red and i was a costume i proprized from several years when the debt went from 5 trillion to 10 trillion and now under a democrat president it's going from 10 trillion to 20 trillion. it's one of the main reasons i ran for office. i think it's a real problem for us. >> there's a couple weeks left

>> find our vote. our goal is to have 10,000 students vote. we're shooting to get 10,000 independents to vote for us, and we're also shooting to find 10, 20,000 liberty lovers within the party to vote. i think it's very mobile. we're talking about it today with our campaign chairman. he said, you know. in so many cycles the person leading in, going in a month beforehand doesn't win. you remember president giuliani. we've seen a great deal of up and down. dr. carson was much higher three or four weeks ago than he is now. we think it's wide open. why one of the things we emphasize is people are mistaken if they think the polls represent actual truth. we had a governor's race in kentucky. everybody said the democrat was going to win by five points. the republican won by eight.

[ indistinguishable ] where not many people turn out. we hope people will keep an open mind. it's wide open and anybody can win. >> you've been participating in the iowa caucus process. is it what you expected? >> well, we just came from boone. before that we were in caroll and before that we were in council bluffs. you do meet people up and personal, one at a time, and you got to answer all their questions. i grew up in a small town in texas. i live in a small town in kentucky, and so it's my kind of people. >> happy birthday to senator rand paul and thanks for chatting. >> thanks. >> happy birthday dear -- [ indistinguishable ] happy birthday to you.

the average age of the last five presidents elected, maybe it's four, is 53. [ cheers and applause ] >> senator paul just happens to be 53. coincidence? i think not. [ cheers and applause ] >> we want to present to you the official by the rand paul scroll of 1,007 precinct captains in

>> 1003 precinct captains. happy birthday, rand paul. [ cheers and applause ] [ indistinguishable ] [ cheers and applause ] >> anybody think the government ought to be so small we can barely see it? [ cheers and applause ] >> anybody here think it's about damn time you turn out all the washington politicians and send them home? [ cheers and applause ]

[ cheers and applause ] i am a first-time caller and i think samantha clemons is guilty. >> do you have any idea how much damage this has caused? >> the men and women of iowa take their responsibility very seriously. >> i think it's important because it's the first contest. >> it is old-fashioned grass

and we're talking about two, three, maybe even four potential retirements in the next four to eight years. see, this isn't about four years anymore. this isn't about four years of politics. this is about generations of court decisions that will completely change the trajectory of the nation. welcome back to "roske on politics." i'm standing here with stephanie schriock of emily's list. why don't you tell people who emily's list is. >> well, emily's list is a 30--year-old organization selecting pro-choice women up and down the ballot all across the country. >> when you endorsed hillary

>> the day she got in. [ laughter ] >> with was it, was that the game plan? >> oh, absolutely. we backed here the first go around and came pretty close and we felt pretty strongly particularly after her stint of secretary of state that she was more ready than ever, and we were ready to standby her. >> you support candidates also, congressional candidates as well. is that correct? >> we sure do. and we're proudly supporting monica vernon. women are still only 19% of congress, and that is nowhere, where this country should be. and we work every single day to ensure there's more and more women stepping up to run, and as we look at this 2016 election cycle. not only do we have a great fighter in hillary clinton running for president of the united states, but we have endorsed eight women to the senate. we have a huge opportunity in

ticket, but in the u.s. senate and house to really change some of those numbers. >> you mentioned you actually have some mid western roots. is that correct? >> i was born in mankato, minnesota. >> i was born in minnesota myself. >> they're accepting this because iowans are so nice. my grandmother, thank goodness is still living with us in mason city. >> you are going town to town here in iowa. what is your mission on a trip like this? >> well, the hillary clinton organization in iowa is just fantastic. they've done a wonderful job of organizing, they are ready to go. i'm just really here to give them a little boost if i can, but the truth is they inspire me so much i think i'm getting all the benefits. i just want to thank everybody

and i know how much hours they're going to put in before the february 1st caucus and i want to give them all i can to keep them going. >> stephanie schriock is the president of emily's list.

thank you! i'm going to spend most of my day letting you ask questions, anything you want. in politics we call this q&a and most of you think that stands for questions and answers. it means questions and avoidance. you ask anything you want. i just try to avoid having a career-ending answer because we have lots of tv cameras out here and a lot of iphones recording everything i say. >> who would you rather face in a general election? hillary clinton or bernie sanders? >> i would like to face neither one of them. let's face it. it's likely to be hillary clinton. i don't see anybody else doing it, and i think one thing i bring to the race is that nobody

has ever actually battled against the clinton political machine and i have. i repeatedly defeated it and i live to tell about it and live to fight another day. >> governor, saudi arabia recently executed 74 members. of justice? >> well, it's probably not the kind of justice we have in america because we have a presumption of innocence. people have a right of trial and see evidence against them. it's one of the reasons i've had some misgivings about saudi arabia for many years is that they have many abuses. they teach terrorism and yet the united states government has largely overlooked -- all the more reason we need to be energy

here at the hillary clinton office volunteer we just chatted with stephanie schriock. she's the president of emily's list, but this is iowa state representative, scott. you endorsed in this race? >> i have. i endorsed hillary clinton at the jefferson jackson dinner earlier that day. >> we have three candidates running on the democrat side. why did you support secretary clinton? >> i actually know martin o'malley. he and i worked together back in 1986. he and i have been friend for a long time. >> 20 years. >> and he was through -- threw a fundraising event for me earlier in the year. for a friend and person who's supported me to not endorse him. it was a struggle, but as i really -- we're picking the next president. pretty important exercise, so as

began to partial the candidates and take a look at their records and history. hillary clinton had a bird's eye view of the white house under a person i believe to be one of the better presidents, bill clinton, and she saw how that worked. and she was a united states senator from a complexed state with a diverse population and a very complex economy, and she did a very, very good job of that. and as secretary of state she was on the very front row with regard to world events, and as stephanie said earlier we live in a very dangerous and complex world. i think her experience in that particular cabinet position is invaluable with regard to bringing foreign policy and decisions to the floor from the oval office. that's why i made that decision. >> what part of iowa do you represent? >> right where we're standing. >> this is you?

the greater portion of warren county, martinsdale, liberty center and points east. i have the whole eastern and northern part of the county. >> and to give people who are watching this out of state an idea we're in i indianaola. what do your constituents think about this race? have they made up their minds? we have about 25 days to the iowa caucuses. >> i think it's a split ticket. there are definitely those who went on with hillary early on, with bernie sanders early on, and with martin o'malley. i don't think that's a majority of the people in this district. i think it's a mienorty. i think there's another 60% out will still waiting and they have 25 days or however many days to do that and iowans tend to take

>> how many caucuses have you participated in? >> oh my. four maybe. >> so if someone's watching who's never caucused and feels intimidated about the process what would you say to them in. >> unless you're intimidated to go to hy-vee or go to the ymca where there are a few people gathered for the same purpose. don't be afraid of anything. it's a huge social event and it's a lot of fun and it's easy as pie how the whole thing works. now you're participating in something that makes history every four years. we're the first ones out of the block in the presidential cycle. we set the tone for the campaign as it moves east to new hampshire and then south so south carolina and onto super tuesday, and you get to be -- you really get to kind of feel like you really are a part of something historical in nature, and something that's going to

this is tom woody, you're at the bull moose club. >> i am the vice president of the moose club. >> hey what, governor huckabee's coming. let's do an event. how did it come about? >> hey, we've got the governor in the state and we want to have -- we've talked with you before. we want to have him do an event with you guys and we were happy to have him. it was a little short notice but we had a great crowd today. >> governor huk -- huckabee thought 70% of the population hasn't decided yet. >> 75 seems a lot 30 days out, but i think there's still a lot of work to be done. we're still talking to presidential candidates inviting them to come join us because we know that getting that last-second voice out there is really important. >> so this is martin johnson. you came all the way up from

what do you do down there in louisiana? >> well, i'm a professor of political communication and the political science department at lsu, and we've got a program where we brought about 20 students here to the caucus season. we call it iowa of the tiger. [ laughter ] >> we've got a blog. look for iowa of the tiger. and, yeah, we're here following candidates, and we're here for about 11 days in the winter session. it's a class, actually three classes, and we're following candidates and attending events. >> this is margaret. you go to lsu. what the heck are you doing up here? >> well, i'm following all the candidates around. i'm taking a class, getting credit and just really getting my feet on the ground and getting that experience in for the rest of my life. >> what year are you at lsu? >> i'm a junior.

strategists behind the scenes? >> something like that. maybe speechwriter. this is kind of a learning experience to see there are a lot more positions than just the candidate and the team. it's been informational. >> is this the closest you've gotten to presidential politics? yes, well actually our governor bobby jindal was in the race for a while. having met him you could say i was the closest, but i just shook hands with governor mike huckabee. >> your governor, bobby jindal, has been on my program lots of times. we taped in my living room. >> i think this is the way the race should be. now we have the big media stunts that the presidential race becomes and this how it should be. people should be out there shaking hands and kissing babies and really kind of getting to know the crowd because we are the american people. we're the one we're electing these people, but they don't seem to know us anymore. >> what candidates will you folks be going to events for

>> we've seen bernie sanders, martin o'malley. today mike huckabee and hopefully ted cruz and get in some hillary time later in the week. >> you folks are from louisiana, obviously you won't be participating in the iowa caucus, but your other classmates, who are you folks leaning toward? is there a group candidate you like? >> not particularly. we're from all kind of walks from life. we have all own personal candidates and that's who we're supporting. >> margaret is from lsu. came a long way to visit with

good morning and welcome to the home show. here we are in the dead of winter with a real estate m mket that is anything but dead. and we'll be talking new construction today with some of the best home builders in the area along with iowa reality professionals. if you go to iowareality.com/open houses. there are hundreds of them. all over the metro. the special feature is a great