we begin with chief political correspondent carl cameron following texas congressman ron paul today. good evening, carl. >> reporter: hi, shannon. front-runners have come and gone in the race. for months we said in the end it would come down to photo finish at the wire. now the polls suggest about 30 to 40% of iowa caucus goers are undecided and now comes the final sprint to find those who may still change their minds. iowa speedway, ron paul marveled as all the attention he got as front runner heading to the finish line in the presidential caucus. >> i am pleased to be here. this does look like there are more cameras than there used to be. >> reporter: the volatility of the iowa battle between paul and mitt romney is net today's poll. democratic leaning public policy poll has paul leading by 4%. cnn survey says romney leads. paul is second. rick santorum moved to third ahead of newt gingrich. santorum trashed ron paul for

chief political correspondent carl cameron spent much of the day with the front runner.t gingrich stormed in new hampshire, the only state he is not leading the polls and warned voters his rivals will smear him. >> contest between here and winning the nomination is the power of positive ideas versus the power of negative advertising. a simple race. it will pile on. and they will try to knock me down. >> reporter: mitt romney conceded that newt gingrich is the front runner. asked if the exspeaker should return the $1.6 million he made consulting for freddie mac, romney took a shot. >> i sure do. he was on a debate saying that politician who took money from freddie and fannie should go to jail. which is outrageous in itself. >> reporter: gingrich countered with rhetoric reminiscent of democratic accounts. >> he would like to give money back from the bankrupt companies and laying off employees at bane i would be glad to listen to him. i'll bet you $10, not $10,000 he won't take the offer. >> reporter: despite the pledge to remate positive that is a zinger at romney's offer

. >> carl cameron is live in des moines, iowa, a lot of undecided in this race. how does it play out tomorrow night and over the next few weeks? >>carl: it is critical. with 20 days best caucus, polls tell you that maybe 20 percent of the folks are undecided but deeper into the numbers, many, many republicans say they are likely to change their mind. some poll, over half all of those who have been polled. so, it is a potentially decision time in tenth days but tomorrow the debate is potentially a turning point for a number of candidate. gingrich is expected to do well, and romney is desperately trying to do something to knock gingrich off of the game and there is a multipronged attack going after gingrich by the romney catch hitting him on the web, in direct mail, in telephone calls, and in one to one rhetoric from romney on the campaign trail. so, very aggressive and with the undecided group far larger than the data tells us the last 20 days of the last debate could town the election here in iowa. >>shepard: some candidates are going to an antiabortion event but

up next, carl cameron sits down with governor romney.e rest of the 2012 field. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. lord of the carry-on. sovereign of the security line. you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay th mid-size price. i deserve this. [ male announcer ] you do, business pro. you do. go national. go like a pro. urney across america, ] you do, business pro. you do. i've learned that when you ask someone in texas if they want "big" savings on car insurance, it's a bit like asking if they want a big hat... ...'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. the newest droid armed with motocast. granting you wireless access to files on your home computer from almost anywhere. 4g lte equipped to pull pictures, music, and movies. all at mind-melting speeds. powered by veriz

chief political correspondent carl cameron shows us as clock kicks down to january 3, some candidates turning up the heat. >> after a strong debate performance where he took no shots at the g.o.p. rivals, he got the endorsement of nikki haley. >> i lot of us stood at her door hoping to win the endorsement. i could not be more proud to have the stage making the endorsement, your governor, my friend nikki haley. >> this is a governor that made hard decisions cut taxes 19 times and balanced it with 85% democratic legislature. after last night's debate, the harsh attack fliers from the third party outside groups left on car windshields in sioux city blasting gingrich as opposed to abortion. unrelated damaging tag line at the end reading "as abusive as two ex-wives." referring to the admitted infidelity in the pant. on hannity, gingrich admitted he gaunted in a gaffe. >> if you score that at boxing, give that round to mitt. >> he could turn if the turn-out is low. he insists he is not planning for it but will not rule out independent run. they are aggressively courting christian conservati

>> bret: carl cameron live in davenport. thank you.le the republican field is still up in the air, president obama's re-election campaign is starting to take shape. chief white house correspondent ed henry spoke with axelrod today in chicago. >> he insists he is not salivating over the latest dust-up. >> don't you want to run against a do-nothing congress? >> i have choice of extenting tax cut for a year and energizing the economy and having an issue to run on, i'd rather energize the economy. >> you have to wonder if some folks think screwing up economy and throwing wrench in the works is a good political strategy. >> dozens work today in the headquarters for obama 2012. across town at his firm's offices lined with political memorabilia. axelrod mused this race is more exciting than 2008. >> the most peculiar race, unusual race i've seen. on both sides because of how unpredictable it's been. he is no longer sure that mitt romney will win war of attrition to capture nomination, he trained the buyer on him. he says i'm not a politician,

chief political correspondent carl cameron has the naughty and the nice from the campaign trail. >> tudidates know -- the candidates know most voters will be distracted in the upcoming three-day christmas and new year weekend. >> thank you for coming out two days before christmas. >> the holidays will slash productive campaign time in half in the last 11 days before iowa lead-off ku cusss. political ads can turn off voters now more than ever. >> i hoch all ads come down over the christmas weekend. it's probably a time people would rather watch football or old movies. >> the ads won't stop but for a few days they will be mostly positive. ♪ ♪ >> told me whatever i could do. >> even the pro-romney super pac bashing newt gingrich will take a break until the day after christmas. gingrich said the attack ad caused a drop in recent polls. >> to be in the top three or four i'd love to win. the top two in new hampshire and south carolina and florida then it's an easy race. >> bret: the southern conservative he says he will have an edge in florida and south carolina. >> the strongest thing i'll

carl cameron with the latest. thank you, carl.h debate in washington about a controversial project to move oil to candidate to the gulf shore. he met with the prime minister in the oval office to talk it over. senior white house foreign affairs correspondent wendell goler tells us is any progress was made. >> president obama and harper announced the new border security deal aimed to stretchline the $1.5 billion a day of flow of goods. the delay of the keystone oil project topped the reporters questions. he rejected moving forward the price for extending the payroll tax cut. >> i effort to tie keystone to the payroll tax cut i will reject. everybody should be on notice. >> the president put off the approval of the pipeline until after the election. while experts are looking for route around nebraska sensitive sand hills region. the republicans see politics in the delay. >> the politics is delaying it past election so the president doesn't have to choose between two friends. labor, the folks that will build this. or environmentalist

jenna: chief political correspondent carl cameron is live in washington with more on this carl, let's talk a little bit where newt gingrich is. now does he stand as we look at numbers in terms of these early states? >> reporter: clearly he has a huge lead in iowa and that is supported by poll after poll and more will come out in next couple days to validate that. organizationally he as issues and has issues shoes in the tv ad war campaign. ron paul is about to launch a campaign specifically against gingrich in iowa. he is polling at a tie second place to mitt romney in caucus state. mr. paul spent ads more than anybody else with a ad specifically targeted at newt gingrich and supported hillary clinton in a private mandate, individual mandate years ago. nancy pelosi and climate change as well as the $37 million that some of newt, inc.'s entities collected from health care industry. not as lobbyist but a consultant. those will be on paid television starting today. having said that, organizationally gingrich has catching up to. he has momentum but translating that into the boots on the g

bill: carl cameron interviewed mitt romney today. us with that interview straight ahead. we'll talk to carl in 30 minutes. december 15th the fox news republican debate gets underway in the state of iowa, 9:00 eastern time, 6 on the west coast. during this debate you will have access to instant analysis and live chats with our fox news contributors at foxnews.com/debate. it's the first time we have done that and it will be a wonderful opportunity for our folks on the web to do that. julie: attorney general eric holder set to receive again this week on fast and furious. that is of course the gun trafficking sting that ended up arming dangerous criminals. now dozens of lawmakers have called for holder's resignation. holders and others by the way in the administration claim they didn't know the extent of the program, but does the paper trail back them up? william la jeunesse is live in los angeles to explain. hi, william. >> reporter: well, julie, reports, analysis, briefings there is a paper trail miles and long in fast and furious all s

carl cameron. tell us about what these endorsements may mean. >> reporter: they could mean a little bit of support. endorsements matter do matter in presidential politics, particularly when there are people that have run in raft in question. that is the case from bob dole the senator from kansas. he was the majority leader back in the '90s and nominee back in 1996. he has won the iowa caucuses twice. one of the few that can claim to have done that. it comes in the face of essentially a legislative partner with newt gingrich back in the '90s. he was the speaker back in 1994 and 1996 when bob dole was in charge of the senate. now, he casted his support behind romney. it comes on the same day as des moines register's endorsement. this is the largest newspaper. generally considered to be more left leaning than right leaning. it's not a conservative newspaper and it's endorsement means more in democratic races than republican ones but here what they said. wisdom and judgment. he stands out especially am

joining us from des moines, iowa, carl cameron. with the new cnn poll putting romney on top, again, 25% number that just -- that seems to be what his number is, but is he now the man to beat? >> well, he's one of them. and realistically and historically, mr. romney got 25% when he came in second in iowa four years ago. so he's pretty much starting the 2012 cycle right where he wrapped up in second place in the 08 cycle. and truthfully, for months, regardless of who the front runner has been, whether bachman, then perry or cain, then newt and perhaps now paul, we have known and history has always shown that at the end in iowa, it comes down to a very close race as the vast number of undecides make up their mind, the polls tighten. we're looking at a statistical tie. in that poll, romney has an edge. but there is another one today that shows ron paul is ahead, but still within the margin of error. what may be far more important and more significant in this final few days is the other aspect of iowa caucus history that seems to be pla

carl cameron breaking it down live for us in des moines, iowa, good to see you.t of the sprint to the starting line. after all, there's a year and a half of campaigning, tens of millions of dollars spent around the country and probably about 13 million worth of attack ads in the last month spent in iowa and hear what caucus going in the first of the nation's state get to say on tuesday night n fairness to mitt romney and ron paul. they're not campaigning in iowa. also after all new year's eve campaign day. and as a consequence, folks know that this iowa and across the country there's a little bit of distraction for an obviously lot of folks and less perhaps to get achieved here on the campaign trail in the final couple of days, we head into the iowa caucuses with one big event yet to happen and that's tomorrow's church services where pastors in iowa often have been known to sort of make advocating type sermons and addresses to their congregation about particular candidates and that would not particularly help ron paul and mitt romney and not popular with evangeli

our chief political correspondent, carl cameron is on the campaign trail. he is live in iowa. nice to see you. so three days until the caucuses. what are we watching for? >> one of the things we have to really pay close attention to, because it's new year's eve, and there isn't going to be a lot of campaigning in the next 12 hours, is what happens tomorrow morning. in fact, we've been saying for the last year and a half, it is a herbal fact that half, even more than that of iowa caucus goers are accept described christian conservatives. church tomorrow morning is a very big deal and pastors across the state are known to engage in a little bit of politics from the pulpit just before the caucuses and that many of them have already picked up sides. rick santorum, for instance s expecting as many as two dozen pastors to mention his name in some of the biggest mega churches across iowa tomorrow. some of the congregations exceed a couple thousand people. that's big opportunity for through his proxy supporting pastor, somebody like rick santorum to get a lot of buzz going before the

carl cameron has more. >> reporter: mitt romney ripd into newt gingrich this morning for suggesting he return the money he paid as a venture capitalist because the businesses went under. >> to suggest there is somethingup american and wrong about investing the enterprise that doesn't succeed and speaks as a lack of understanding and how the economy works. >> reporter: the latest poll shows republican voters are evenly divided on who is is outed for the gop nobody, a washingtoned inner or outsider. the poll suggests the gop is losing enthusiasm for the choices. in october, 66% of republicans were satisfied with the field. 29% weren't. now, 56% are satisfied and 40% are in the. when it comes to who gop voters would like to seen with, it's a tie between gingrich and mitt romney. against presume a the poll suggests that romney would fair better in the general elect. >> we agree that our country must take action to address climate change. >> reporter: romney introduced another attack on gingrich for collaborating with nancy pelossi on claim climate change. some will take part in a antiabort

alisyn: carl cameron, thanks so much for your instant analysis. we appreciate it. time in the hawkeye state. our fox news republican presidential debate in des moines, iowa. we'll be covering the action from every platform including the web and social media. this is thursday night. it begins at 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on fox. don't miss it. there are new questions surrounding one of the biggest corporate meltdowns in u.s. history. ever since mf global brokerage firm declared bankruptcy the feds have tried to find more than a billion dollars in missing customer fund. jon corzine the former senator and form governor, the man once considered for treasury secretary headed up that firm. he testified again at a hearing today. >> i never directed anyone in mf global to misuse customer fund. never intended to, and as far as i'm concerned, i never gave instructions that anybody could misconstrue. alisyn: james rosen is live in our d.c. bureau with more. where did this $1.2 billion go? >> reporter: i wish i could answer that. that's the subject of much investigation. we

chief political correspondent carl cameron is live on the campaign trail. hi, carl. >> reporter: just couple minutes rick santorum will be here at the library. as he campaigns across iowa and gaining more support from christian and religious conservatives. he was been low way back in the polls for way in the months. bitter complaining he didn't get enough attention in the debates. yesterday he was getting nothing but attention watching the cyclones and getting attention on the campaign trail now. it does raise questions. some believe he could pull off an upset come from behind victory. that would be news for mitt ro any and ron paul. in romney's case he as strong organization. he came in second in 2008. he had as an organization left over from that. ron paul has been around the track here in iowa once before. his organization is considered very deep but not as big as mike huckabee who was the winner neither iowa back in 2008. the question of santorum remains open. that leaves a bit of mystery about some of the other candidates. newt gingrich is struggling un

carl cameron is looking at them all. he is live in washington. he is always here to bring us a little context. carl, let's talk about the strategy again. romney seems to be getting a little bit more aggressive. have the attacks started? >> reporter: a little bit, sure. it is fun any when you look at polls gingrich is leading in iowa, what scares romney, if gingrich picks up a big win in iowa and that leads to momentum t could lead to gingrich upsetting romney in new hampshire his must-win strong hold. the former speaker could run the table it. would be a real shocker. he does not have the organization and money that makes that easy. romney says he expects to battle with gingrich right up to the end and wasted no time painting gingrich as arrogant or presumptuous saying he will be the nominee. listen to this. >> to win the election you have to earn it. you have to get out and campaign, see the people, shake their hands, self-aggrandizing statements about polls will not win elections. >> reporter: romney is going after gingrich first as consummate i

campaign carl cameron live in manchester. hey, carl. >> i can get you a bench clearing brawl.ople who will participate. newt gingrich concede that organizationally he is trailing mitt romney. mitt romney conceded that newt gingrich is the front runner by in mitt romney's word at least for now. know gingrich has sworn to be relentlessly positive in this campaign he has begun to do some tweaking to newt gingrich as well as others. and when we talked about his lead in the polls and how i might win new hampshire he said he has some catching up to do when it comes to struck around. >> he has the money, the internal structure. i don't have the kind of money he has. >> reporter: what about organizational? >> he's clearly ahead of us in all the thing that establishment brings it you. >> reporter: that's the key thing. all the things that the establishment brings you. gingrich makes the argument that he can catch up and will win this nomination if it's about substance and if he can match the test with endurance. by that he, talking about whether he can stomach the criticism and piling

chief political correspondent carl cameron has the latest from the campaign trail. >> reporter: 8:00., 36-degrees and raining as a raucous iowa caucus crowd of nearly 1,000 cheered front runner mitt romney. >> do you want more of barack obama? >> no. >> do you want promises of higher taxes? >> no. >> it's time to have a real change in washington. >> yes! >> reporter: rally cry from one of the g.o.p.'s brightest lights. >> you don't do what you are supposed to do on tuesday for mitt romney, i will be back. jersey style, people. i will be back. >> reporter: the day, president obama said it could be worse. we're out in the cold and the rain and the wind because we care about america. he is out there, he just finished his 90th round of golf. if you can get out here in this cold and this wind and a little bit of rain coming down, then you can sure get out on tuesday night. you can sure find a few people to bring with you. >> northeasterners dismiss the idea they can't win with heartland voters. >> we believe in the same thing they believe. in it doesn't matter where you are from. >> don't

martha: who likes to watch that more than carl cameron. numbers that are telling a bit of a different story. >> reporter: sure. it's important to remember 20 days, 20 days before the first in the nation caucus. while gingrich is sailing in a lot of national polls and national polls are not as important, there is one, gallop poll that showed something substantially different. newt gingrich has 31%. romney is at 22%. he has been steady in the 20s the whole year. the 32% that newt gingrich has is down 6 percentage points from the preceding week. mr. gingrich has been criticized on the stump by virtually the entirety of the field. he's been hit by attack web videos taking him to task on a whole host of issues, and ads have been critical as well. it's a leer sign that the gingrich likability is slipping a little bit. the internal numbers in the poll suggest that some of mr. gingrich's tpaeufrb built is starting to slip largely as a consequence of these attacks. there is a huge debate tomorrow night, gingrich is expected to particularly well, it