as we seek to continue improving higher education i want to commend chuck huckabee and the board of regents along with commissioner ron jackson and the technical college board for performing a strategic consolidation of institutions. in this age of doing more with less, you are delivering a better return on investment without compromising service to students. before leaving the topic of higher education, i want to announce two ambitious goals. georgians deserve a world class medical university. and it will be a priority of this administration to have a medical college among the top 50 nationally. this is something we can do. and with your help, we will. [ applause ] also within this push the georgia health sciences university will seek to become the state's second national cancer institute designated cancer center alongside the winship cancer center at emory. as of today, georgians' annual death rate from cancer exceeds the national average. but i believe we have all of the ingredients necessary for a determination for it to be a destination for cancer research and a resource for every fami

then you had mike huckabee sitting alone on a bus with chuck norris talking about arkansas football, winning it all. >> that was a little different. definitely. >> playing guitar with joe scarborough. which by the way, if you look at the trend lines, huckabee was at 14% yes. >> before i got on stage and played guitar with him. boom. right up to 38. >> okay. exactly. of course. >> you and ron paul should get tlup tonight. >> oh, yeah. >> that would be something to see. >> one thing that is, unless it's selective memory, but so different than four years ago, is the two events we went to yesterday, it was like old home week with my friends at cbs because it was all media, a few people. >> crowds were so small. >> all media. it was like a crush of media. >> it was like a high school reunion. >> yes. >> by the way, there were a couple of voters there. can you guys quiet down? we're reminiscing about four years ago. >> i have to do two interviews with dutch tv. please get out of here. >> exactly. the crowds were so small. >> it was sparse. >> this is one of the things i just don't understan

huckabee carried them by a mile. what romney's hoping for tonight is that more casual republicans show up, and if they do, they're thinking about electability first and that's how he could win. brian? >> chuck todd in des moines, iowa for us. thanks. >>> let's check in with the moderator of "meet the press." david, you know the story as well as anybody, can mitt romney hang on? how strong a showing in this wild race so far? >> you said it. he sets the tone tonight as he's done throughout the campaign. if mitt romney wins here tonight, he sets the tone for what could be a march toward inevitability. he's favored in new hampshire. he could somehow become a stronger front-runner. up until now he's been a weaker front-runner. if he doesn't do as well, shows up in the top three lower percentage. there would be some blood in the water. maybe it's the moment that there is a viable alternative to romney. maybe it's santorum. regardless of whether he wins or doesn't, the super bowl for social conservatives is still going to be south carolina. we have a ways to go. this is the start of something, brian. >> south carolina, florida, seven media markets there, a lot ahead of us. david gregory part of ou

chuck lautner says that's what a lot of the huckabee backers did four years ago and helped him into first place. he sees a similar wave. doesn't know if it will bring santorum up into that surprise first place position, the campaign says all they are looking for is a top three finish. they feel pretty good they have gotten it bret? >> bret: all right, steve. thank you. >> megyn: those of you just joining us we want to update you what fox news has learned thus far from the entrance polls before the iowa caucus goers actually go into their caucuses. we have learned at this hour at this preliminary early hour that it appears so far to an a three-man race as expected from the polls that have been done in the days preceding tonight. that three man race between senator san forum, governor mitt romney and congressman ron paul. those are the three leaders at this moment but, again, the votes haven't taken place yet. that's just based on what folks told our pollsters before they walked into the caucuses tonight. >> bret: now as it shapes up going in the bottom tier would be congresswoman michele b

huckabee in '08. he's urging evangelical voters to back santorum now. >> a proven track record, a christian conservative that has always stood for what's right. >> the chucktorum doesn't ride in the bus. does he his campaigning in a pickup truck. a better fit for santorum's down to earth pitch. jim acosta, cnn, boone, iowa. >>> let's dig deeper into santorum's surge. joining me is dana lash, st. louis tea party organizer and editor and chief, ari fleischer and ball begala who joins me in des moines. the santorum surge, how surprising is it to? what do you make of? >> it's stunning. seven front-runners in iowa. three aren't in the race anymore. santorum seems like the guy who never did lead. i see him as franc finkle? he's the only guy that survived the battle of little big horn. he survived because his horse couldn't get him there in time. santorum wasn't in the fire. he was too far back so nobody was shooting at him. god bless him, he's surging. i actually think he's going to win. >> do you?. >> i do. >> mary thought his surge had stopped. >> which means i'm probably wrong. in polling i would say trust the trend. in ann seltzer's poll, he went from tenth

morning, right here in south carolina, where he uses mike huckabee and john mccain's words from 2008 to attack mitt romney. >> all right. chuck todd this morning, chuck, thanks. >>> newt gingrich, the head, south carolina, joining us this morning exclusively. mr. speaker, good morning. >> ann, good to talk to you. >> let's begin with this breaking news that with most precincts counted, it was actually rick santorum and not mitt romney who won in iowa. given this news, why shouldn't rick santorum and not you, be the alternative to mitt romney? >> well the fact is if you look at your own poll, i'm clearly within five points now of beating romney. there's a poll that will come out later this morning that says as of last night i'm two points ahead of romney. the only effective conservative vote is to vote for newt gingrich. rick santorum is a fine person, but i think he's running in fourth place in south carolina. so south carolina conservatives, if they want to stop a massachusetts moderate only have one effective vote, for newt gingrich. that's a mathematical reality, given the polling. >> you talk about the numbers and this su

huckabee. this is an exciting neat. thanks for taking time out to talk with us. >> it was a pleasure. thank you. >> nbc news's political director chuck todd is with us with more about why this race is so close and what votes have yet to come in. chuck? >> well that,'s the one thing i want to point out. only 27% of the polk county, des moines, is in. polk county accounts for 20% of the entire vote so that is a huge chunk that is still missing there in those early counting returns. paul is leading in polk county. four years ago huckabee won in polk county. it was his biggest margin in raw vote over mitt romney was in polk county there. and it's paul that's leading but i want to emphasize we're missing a ton of vote in polk county. we have places like dubuque county all the way on the mississippi river where we have yet to get any returns in but i can also tell you this. i told you about our modeling that the boiler room is doing first and third based on different models. there is a precinct model we do. there is a county model we do. based on those models, throwing out the entrance polls at this point, actually using the data that we h

huckabee in '08. he's urging evangelical voterers to get behind santorum now. >> he has a proven track record, a conservative that's always stood for what's right. >> reporter: t-- >> the chuckeporter: santorum doesn't ride in the bus. he rides in pickup truck. better for his pitch. jim acosta, boon, iowa. >>> joining me is dana lash, st. louis tea party organizer, political contributor ari fleischer and democratic strategist paul begala who joins me here in des moines. the santorum surge, how surprising is it to you? >> it's stunning. seven front-runners in iowa. three are not even in the race any more. santorum seemed like the only guy who never did lead. i see him as the frank finkel of the race. >> who is frank finkel? >> the only guy who survived the battle of little big horn. he survived -- on the white guys side. he survived because his horse couldn't get him there in time. santorum wasn't in the fire. hee was too far back. nobody was shooting at him. now he's surging. i think he's going to win. >> mary matalin suggests that his surge has stopped. >> which would say i'm wrong. she knows her party better than i do. in ann seltzer's -- >> a poll taken over four days. >>

this morning, it features john mccain and mike huckabee from 2008 criticizing mitt romney for his campaign tactics. >> chuck todd, thank you so much. earlier this morning before we learned perry was dropping out of the race, we spoke exclusively to newt gingrich. i began by asking him, given the news in iowa, why shouldn't rick santorum be considered the alternative to mitt romney? >> the fact is if you look at your own poll, i'm clearly within 5 points of beating rom e knee. there's a poll coming out this morning as of last night, i'm 2 ahead of romney. the only conservative vote is to vote for newt gingrich. rick santorum is a fine person. but i think he's running in fourth place in south carolina. so south carolina conservatives if they want to stop a massachusetts moderate only have one effective vote, and that's for newt gingrich. that's a mathematical reality. >> were you talking about the numbers and the surge, is it because of the negative ads running? and is this what voters deserve? >> well, first of all, the voters deserve a totally positive campaign. a as you'll reremember, i was leading romney

chuck. rick santorum, a big night for him obviously last night. when we look back on last night, though, say six months from now the way we look back on mike huckabee'sto the eventually nominee. is santorum different from huckabee that way? >> well, he's got an ability, i think, to be a little more mainstream than huckabee was. huckabee was rooted in more of the religious conservative part of the republican party. i think santorum would like to think he's going to be able to be broader than that. obviously he speaks pretty adeptly on foreign policy. he's got this plan that he wants to push on manufacturing that you haven't heard other republicans talk about so i think he thinks he can be different, plus he's won in a blue state. that's something mike huckabee can never say that he did. this is not about rick santorum, it's still about mitt romney. he's still got a conservative problem. and oh, by the way, on the day after the iowa caucuses that once again prove you have a conservative problem, is it really the best day to roll out your john mccain endorsement? is that going -- it's going to play well here in new hampshire, but is that going to actual