joining us from iowa to explain why it's so important. nationally syndicated talk show host and author of the book, we won't be wrong again. my friend steve is from iowa, steve, welcome, good to have you here. [applause] >> everybody talks about the caucuses of iowa and they talk about them as if people really know what that means. walk us through a caucus night and tell us what happens when people go to a caucus as opposed to a primary election. >> totally different environment, mike. first of all, a caucus may take place at your kid's school, might take place at your own church and a lot of times you explain why you're voting for somebody or the candidates will have proxies that will speak on their behalf. let me give you analogy. let's say you're going in there looking at two or three candidates and you're not sure which you like the most, pat tore of your church and somebody you respect stands up and gives a passionate speech for one of the candidates. they might tell you on the candidate right there at the caucus site and there's poli

we have others in in race and when those candidates emerge.... >> greta: he joins us from iowa. good evening. a big endorsement because he endorsed huckabee in 2008. that, of course, he won iowa so i assume you like that endorsement. i guess senator son santorum. i'll tell the viewers in 2008, governor huckabee was the surprise winner when he got this endorsement from him. he is the president of the family leader, that is a group that led the charge against gay marriage in iowa which has been a very controversial issue. you are looking at a picture right now of bob. senator, can you hear me now? >> i can hear you, but i guess you couldn't hear me. >> greta: there was no audio. one of those great moments. you got a big endorsement from bob and he endorsed huckabee in 2008. he led the charge against gay marriage. to gay citizens of iowa, how are you going to get the gay vote? how can you convince them despite your views and his views that you -- is there any way you could convince them to vote for you? >> i have nothing against gay people. they have rights of every other citizen. w

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 am

we're going to have on george and die an and the rest of our abc news team who are going to join us from iowad the debate late into the night. and we're going to have our great roundtables dissect what happened on stage, what is going on in the race, whether this newt boomlet is a boomlet or a major surge that will play out. what it will do to the race, what it will do the chances of the republicans actually being able to mount a strong competition against president obama. and we're going to talk about all of that. we'll bring in some of the economy because very, very important things happening in europe with the euro zone trying to rescue the whole euro and trying with at this time geithner who has been over there not having a swags which rebounds negatively on the u.s. economy. >> good luck to you and all your colleagues with this weekend's debate. thanks. we'll watch on sunday. >> thank you. and watch saturday night. >> and you can watch right here on abc 7 tomorrow at 10:00. >> turning now to local politics. this past week both jack and leslie johnson were sentenced in a federal corruptio

especially given what's happened to the other republicans in the field so far. >> joe johns joining us from iowaeek for the country's first vote in the presidential race. america's choice 2012, live keith of the iowa caucuses begins tuesday night, january 3rd at 7:00 eastern. >>> well, courage doesn't even begin to describe this next story. a pregnant 17-year-old fighting brain cancer decides to stop chemo in order to save the life of her unborn child. the teenaged girl died. we're going to hear from her mother next. ok! who gets occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. >>> now the story of a teen pregnant mother's bravery during her bout with cancer. she died after battling brain cancer and stopping treatment in order to save the life of her unborn baby. we talked with her mother about how the family's been cope iing since her daughter's death. >> i think it rocks that it went nationwi

jeff zeleny and karen tumulty join us from iowa tonight. guys, what's the single most compelling thing you have seen out there on the campaign trail, starting with you, karen? >> well, in a republican primary season that has sometimes felt like speed dating, i think one of the most surreal moments came at a ron paul rally the other night when all of a sudden to everyone's surprise on stage walks michele bachmann state co-chairman, one of her high profile supporters, announces he's switching teams and going to ron paul. the ron paul/michele bachmann overlap vote is something i would not believe could have existed. gwen: how about you, jeff? >> i think that kind of puts the icing on what's been a very volatile campaign season. but i think at the end of the day here, probably what's most surprising is the fact that mitt romney is spending new year's eve in iowa. he's waking up new year's day in iowa and he's staying the morning after the iowa caucuses in iowa. this is the look, the feel, the confidence of someone who thinks that the nomination

. >> joining us from iowa michelle bachmann. thank you for joining us. >> thank you, governor. it is it a pleasure to be with you. >> most of the analyst they have seen thought you had a exceptionally strong night and you took your game straight to the fellow candidates. was that an intentional strategy or rise up within you that there were things that you had to challenge. >> i had no strategy to do that but based on the things i heard . first clip you played that of ron paul. he would be a dangerous president of the united states. i am not trying to be personal. but it is clear, people recognize that ron is hell bent on - iran is hell bent on obtaining a nuclear weapon and they'll use it against israel and the united states. we know that because president of iran said that in august and in september when he was here. it is a serious situation and i comthis as someone who sitots intelligence committee. we have to take this threat on because it is real. >> i have to agree that iran is a real threat and in the only country who not only wants to develop a nuclear and are with the

from ron paul's past may come back to haunt him. we're going to explain what's going on and joins us live from iowa. that's coming up next. they want a big hat...g if ...'scuse me... ...or a big steak... ...or big hair... i think we have our answer. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people wanted to visit us... in louisiana. they came to see us in florida... nice try, they came to hang out with us in alabama... once folks heard mississippi had the welcome sign out, they couldn't wait to get here. this year was great but next year's gonna be even better. and anyone who knows the gulf knows that winter is primetime fun time. the sun's out and the water's beautiful. you can go deep sea fishing for amberjack, grouper and mackerel. our golf courses are open. our bed and breakfast have special rates. and migrating waterfowl from all over make this a bird watcher's paradise. so if you missed it earlier this year, come on down. if you've already been here come on back... to mississippi... flor

iowa straw poll victory. since this big win, she has seen her poll numbers fall. joining us now from winterset, iowa, congresswoman michelle bachmann. welcome, congresswoman. >> it's great to be with you on tonight, eric. good to see you. >> eric: great to see you again. congresswoman, one of the surprise sos far for me, at least, i may -- maybe you can weigh in. are you surprised, ron paul doing very well. now there is a new cnn poll that has mitt romney at 25. ron paul, 22. up until today, ron paul was leading. does that surprise you? >> you know, everything is so in flux right now. about half of iowans are completely undecided. that's why we decided to embark on our 99 county tour all across iowa. i'm in winterset, iowa right now, we're deep in the heart of madison county. this is our 94th county. what we've seen is something really remarkable. it's almost like an electric light switch was flipped and we're seeing people making their decision right now in these last few days. we've been overwhelmed with the support that we've seen across the state. i think what people are looking

he joins us from iowa. rick santorum looks good. hard work paying off. mber three in the latest poll. >> that's right. on top of the poll, seeing increased crowd numbers and speaking in iowa on the mississippi across from illinois. it's probably about 100 voters and caucus goers here and on top of that, a large media contingency. for the first time in his campaign he is playing an important role. he was mentioning the words momentum behind his name. he did not happen up to this point. not everyone coming up to that is necessarily going to caucus for them. a lot of the workers are undecided and we are seeing the big crowds with the candidates and the voters are trying to decide who exactly they are going to caucus for on january 3rd. >> they made a decision right now. thank you so much. i want to move over to the gingrich campaign in iowa. alex moe is there and joins us by phone. how is he handling the slide in the latest poll? >> the campaign is being pretty positive. the campaign is about to pull up in northwest iowa where they will continue to talk abou

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michele bachmann is joining us right now from iowa out on the campaign trial.ard shannon's report, congresswoman, what do you say? >> well, we need to tell the whole story on this because the part that you left out is the fact that kent sorensen's former campaign manager went on record with the ap saying that kent sorensen also told her that he had received a request to give a lot of money to him from the ron paul campaign andal, he told it to a number of other people who are starting to come out. it wasn't just me. i got the phone log on my phone that i had the conversation with kent, but the bigger story in this is why did it happen? because at the last debate in sioux city, iowa, i took on ron paul over his very dangerous position stating that he would do nothing to prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. that makes him a very dangerous person to be our next president. the very next day, we started our 99 county tour. i'm standing here in aved ara, iowa. this is the last stop of the tour. for 99 counties, wolf, this has been the huge story. we've seen

iowa. michele bachmann joins us live. heading into the final stretch, 20 days now from the state you were born in, casting the first officialf 2012, if you look at polling here in iowa, the new american research group poll out, gingrich, 22, ron paul 17, romney, 17, perry at 13 you're in fifth, tied with rick santorum at 7%. what went wrong near iowa? >> actually, there's an a.p. poll that came out today that's just fresh and hot off the presses, i'm tied for third right now. so we've moves up a lot just in the last couple of days. that's what you're going to see, 60 to 70% of the people are undecided and this reads a lot like a book. chapter one, we won the only race held in the country that was statewide, the iowa straw poll. i won that. then we had new candidates come in with a lot of drama, but ooh think when we get to the last chapter, john, we are going to see people come home because they're looking for the true proven tested conservative and that's me. i'm the one who can stand on the stage with barack obama. there's no issues of compromise between barack obama and ploois. i think what you're going to see is a lot o

. >> and jon karl joins us now from iowa. jon, stick with us here, because there was something else that happened on the campaign trail today. look at this video from new hampshire. one of mitt romney's sons was asked if his father would release his tax returns. he said he didn't know, but he heard somebody suggest if president obama released his birth certificate and grades, maybe then his father would reveal his tax return. we all know that birth certificate has been made public. so, matt romney tweeted an apology, saying, "i repeated a dumb joke, my bad." jon, no surprise tonight, the obama team quickly jumped on this. >> reporter: no doubt about it. this was a rare misstep for a romney campaign that has been carefully choreographed. the obama team fired out with a fund-raising letter, accusing romney of, quote, pandering to the dead-ender fringe of extremists. but make this clear, david. romney doesn't, has never questioned the president's birth certificate and certainly not going to start now. >> all right, jon karl, see

senator rick santorum joins us from iowa. good evening, senator. >> hi, greta. >> greta: senator, last night, obama gave a crim message on "60 minutes." you may have heard what he has to say. takes more than one president and quite a while because of the structural change information the economy. do you have a different plan? can you speed it up? make a difference? >> i agree it will take more than one president. we can get someone who believes in the american people and liberating the private sector. stop this heavy government control. in this month, president will impose new regulatory burdens on the coal fire-powered plans that shut down 60 coal fired power plants and drive up electricity cost and make us less competitive. it doesn't stop. the control freak he is. >> greta: he said he saved the autondustry, gaining more jobs and the unemployment rate is going down. .10 of a number. we lost 400,000 jobs last month. he said he had to pick up quite a mess and he has turned it around. >> the economy was bleak and the unemploym

>> shannon: steve brown live for us from iowa tonight. thanks, steve.k perry is challenging the rules for getting on to the virginia primary ballot. the republic presidential candidate failed to meet the qualification standards which are among the toughest in the nation. now we have word perry has filed suit in federal court. lawyers for five suspects in the september 11th attacks say the commander at guantanamo bay prison is trying to violate the attorney/client privilege. new rules require legal mail to be submitted to a security review. there has been no response yet from the commander. the united nations general assembly has approved its next budget which approves a 5% spending cut. the ambassador says the budget will save the american taxpayers millions of dollars. one week to go until the iowa caucuses. we will talk about that with the fox all stars when we come back. ♪ the lexus december to remember sales event is here, but only for a limited time. see your lexus dealer. >> from there is a huge difference between the supply side conservative and

he joins us from iowa. howard, you first. this problem with newt gingrich and his credibility. he's very versatile, he's a fantastic opportunist, he thinks on his feet, but he seems to think he's so much smarter and has a better memory than everyone else, or else a worse memory. how does he forget that he sold mitt romney's health care plan in massachusetts as a national wonder drug, basically, to the rest of the country? >> well, this is newt's problem, is he tries to be the outsider, newt gingrich, revolutionary though he may have been in his early days in congress, was here for a long time, was a leader as a speaker, and spent a lot of time on "k" street working the inside game for the medical history. and there was a time at which, and maybe it's still true with many parts of that industry, that they like some of what mitt romney was proposing. lots of industry very much was able to live with what barack obama proposed. and newt gingrich was part of that. it's not that his memory is so good, it's that his memory is selective. he's very good at forgetting. very good at tryin

joining us now from iowa, john heilemann and msnbc contributor, thank you once again for sharing your

turn our attention to presidential politics and rick green, for the des moines register joining us from iowathanks for being with us. caller: good morning, steve. it's a pleasure to be with you. host: let's begin with your endorsement. and i'll read from what you have written today. sobe bright, wisdom, and judgment. those are the qualities that mitt romney said he looks for in a leader. those are the qualities romney himself has demonstrated. those qualities helped the former massachusetts governor stand out as the most qualified republican candidate competing in the iowa caucus. while other candidates have pandrd to extremes with a tax on the courts and sermons on christian values, romney has pointedly refrained from reckless rhetoric and accused of being too cautious but choosing words carefully is a skill for anyone who could be sitting in the white house and reacting to world events. can you elaborate on those points? guest: this has been a fascinating exercise of democracy over the past 13, 14 months in iowa. we're honored in the chance that the register were able to see these candidat

for more on the state of the race in iowa, matt straw joins us from iowa. good to talk with you. >> good to see you. >> let me put it to you this way, if we look at our latest polls and you see the two top guys romney and gingrich they are the two who have spent the least time in iowa. does that disturb you? >> well, i think there's two things. first, when you look at governor romney he invested a tremendous amount of resources on the ground and air in iowa four years ago. he's had a staff on the ground aggressively making sure the supporters are still in line four years later. it isn't like he was an unknown entity to us. and similarly with people gingrich. what people outside the state need to remember is he has spent a lot of time here over the years speaking to lincoln day dinners. he is not unknown at all to iowa republicans. there's a great deal of affection for him. we've seen that coalesce in support over the next few weeks. >> what do you make of gingrich's rise. is this something similar to huckabee in 2007 he really peaked at the right time and w

take care of yourself and thanks again for joining us from iowa. >> thank you, alex. >> we will looke best excuses of 2011, that's next on "now." [ child ] it's so cool! you can put a force field on him and be invisible! [ child 2 ] i call first player. no. i already called it. [ dad ] nobody's playing anything until after we get our homework done. thank you. hello? test drive's not over yet. [ male announcer ] it's practically yours. [ louder ] hello? but we still need your signature. right now during sign then drive, it's never been easier to get the all-new passat, the 2012 motor trend car of the year, for practically just your signature. that's the power of german engineering. visit vwdealer.com. >>> process for scoping out the various candidates for president, learning about their financial assets. and with regards to my tax returns, why, time will tell. that's not something i'm planning today, but never say never. >> but if you were president, it's not that hard to make a commitment that if you're elected president of the united states, that you would release the tax returns. e