. >> jackie kucinich is a political reporter and jennifer jacobs is the chief politics writer for thedes moines register." jennifer, i want to start with you. these attacks, four years ago mitt romney's attacks on -- newt gingrich was hoping to boomerang them and it hasn't boomeranged. >> no, it really hasn't. iowans always feel uncomfortable with these attacks. one of the reasons why they liked newt gingrich is because he really did stay clean. they respected him for that and they weren't kidding when they said we like that he hasn't been attacking other republicans. >> so what you're saying is this grumpier newt not good? >> not good. >> what's been interesting is mitt romney responded to these sort of newt complaints over the last few days. let me play to you what he said to savannah on the "today" show this morning. >> i know the speaker is angry. i don't know why. but my anger is going to be focused on president obama's failures to put the american people back to work. >> i think he knows why. >> i think he knows why the speaker is angry. i think romney is smart to kind of try to

and jennifer jacobs senior reporter for the des moines register and honor to have iowa governor bransns and jeff zeleny national corspendant with the new york times. happy new year first of all. >> welcome to iowa. >> chris: governor, you watched the campaign and seeing the final des moines register polls what is going to happen on tuesday? >> it is a wide open race and fluid. any candidate can win here. everybody has had the lead. i predicted rick santorum would go to all 99 built a good organization coming on strong. mitt romney got a late start and come back. you know, i think governor perry is going to do better than people think. and obviously, congressman paul has a strong organization and a lot of people are committed to him here. i think it is a wide open race and depend oz who turns out. i think we will have a good turn out and people are unhappy with the direction of the country and under obama the national debt is going up and the president is attacking the people we need to create jobs and revitalize the american economy. americans are going to want a leader to bring ameri

jennifer jacobs, chief political director joining us by phone, jennifer, when you think about these kinds of problems, the debacle between george bush and al gore, the recount with the ballots there, how does this stack up to the republican race? i mean, this reversal seems like it's a big mistake. >> yeah. big difference than on caucus night we had results from every single precinct and in this particular case we're just missing results from eight precincts. so that's the big difference. i mean, i can verify that gop officials were out there trying to track down every last number that they could and we've never, in the history of the caucuses have gotten to certify all but eight precincts before. so this is unprecedented. so it's ironic to some people that there's been criticism about what a mess this is when actually probably gop officials have done a better job this cycle than they've ever done before. >> jennifer, why was it such a mess, though? why did they just get this wrong? >> here's the deal. we don't have any sort of a recount. the gop caucuses don't have a recount procedure. s

jennifer jacob, senior political reporter for are the des moines register. we are honored to have iowa governor terry branstad and jeff, national political correspondent of the new york times. not so honored to have jeff. happy new year, first of all. >> welcome to iowa. >> chris: thank you, sir. governor, you watched the campaign and now the final des moines register polls. what is going to happen tuesday? >> it is very fluid. any of the candidates potentially could win here 86 think everybody has had the lead at some point or another. i predicted all along, rick santorum who has done it the old fashioned way, gone to all 99 counties, worked hard, built a great organization. he is coming on strong. romney got a late start but he has come back. i think governor perry is going to do better than some people think and obviously congressman paul has a strong organization, a lot of people committed to him here. it is a wide open race. it all depends upon who turns out. i think we will have a good turnout. i think people are unhappy with the direction of this coun

jennifer jacob, senior political reporter for are the des moines register. we are honored to have iowa governor terry branstad and jeff, national political correspondent of the new york times. not so honored to have jeff. happy new year, first of all. >> welcome to iowa. >> chris: thank you, sir. governor, you watched the campaign and now the final des moines register polls. what is going to happen tuesday? >> it is very fluid. any of the candidates potentially could win here 86 think everybody has had the lead at some point or another. i predicted all along, rick santorum who has done it the old fashioned way, gone to all 99 counties, worked hard, built a great organization. he is coming on strong. romney got a late start but he has come back. i think governor perry is going to do better than some people think and obviously congressman paul has a strong organization, a lot of people committed to him here. it is a wide open race. it all depends upon who turns out. i think we will have a good turnout. i think people are unhappy with the direction of this coun

joining us on the phone is jennifer jacobs, the chief politics writer for "the des moines register." guest: good morning. the party is not able to declare an outright winner. host: in your article, you said rick santorum is ahead by 34 votes. guest: that is true. he did take the lead. party officials were not able to get verified results from so many precincts. some of the precincts they were able to verify, there were typos and mistakes that shifted the votes by more than the margin of the final certified tally. they just cannot say if the results in those missing figures, if they would have shifted their race to romney. host: in the eight precincts, what are they going to do with them? it's the end of the road? guest: it is the end of the road to peary did iowa gop officials were unbelievably dogged in trying to track down the precinct figures from all precincts. they were able to get all but eight. they believe that there never were official documentations from those eight precincts. without the official documentation, called for e's, they just cannot certify those precincts. it's

jennifer jacobs the chief politics writer at "the des moines register." 're lucky enough to have her join us on this busy day. jennifer, give us an idea. if we were in a small town in iowa and we're going to participate tonight what would that look like? >> well, it's a series of neighborhood meetings. you get together in your neighborhood and your pre-sent. and it is a bunch of friends. friends calling up friends, saying will you come? can i give you a ride? will you be there for my candidate. when they get there they will sit and listen to very short speeches from a surrogate who talks about why a particular candidate is the best. in some cases the presidential candidates will be there in person to explain, you know, their pitch. and then they do a secret ballot. it is really simple. jenna: tell us a little bit about those short speeches. even though they're short i bet they can be a pretty important. how do you get to be a surrogate and how much time do you get more or less? >> it is usually just a couple of minutes. how you get to do that speech, the c

host: let's look at "the des moines register" and how jennifer jacobs weighs in on what is going on. says there are five questions to be answered in tonight's caucuses. host: those are some questions there. we are going to be talking with one of the candidates later on in "washington journal" today. representative michele bachmann will be joining us in just a couple of hours this morning. let's take a look at michele bachmann's latest ad. >> born and raised in iowa, only one candidate has been a consistent, a conservative fighter, even as others were cutting deals with obama. an expert in tax law that will reduce america's debt, restore our economy, and create real jobs. she will never back down. one of our own, michele bachmann for president. >> i am michele bachmann and i approve this message. host: michele bachmann, we will be talking to her later on this morning on "washington journal." in's hear from howie philadelphia on the line for republicans. caller: have a new year. i want to wish all the candidates could love tonight, especially ron paul. i wonder where gary johnson is at

jennifer jacobs reports -- a down to the wire battle. larry is a democratic caller from mississippi. good morning. what do you think? caller: i think mitt romney -- i am glad. i hope he wins for the republicans because he -- i did some research. he destroyed jobs for big business. he does not care about the middle-class. he is for big business and the rich. so, i know if he is the nominee for the republicans, the democrats will have a field day defeating him. no doubt about it. host: you think he would be an easier competitor for president obama? caller: yes. everybody is talking about rick santorum. i think rick santorum would be harder for the president to defeat but mitt romney, he has got a lot of baggage. he did obomneycare massachusetts and he is trying to run from it now? he's got a lot of people for the right now but when it is 1-on- one and things start coming out about romney, no doubt in my mind the president will defeated. host: and massachusetts resident from cape cod. bill is a republican bid what do you think about your fo