steve hayes and national correspondant for the post and we welcome kay henderson news director of radio kay, you are the local here. what do you think about today's turn out and the feeling on the ground. >> i did. i think it is going to eclipse last time around which was easy to do. i don't think we will be rivaling the turn out in 1999 when george bush and steve forbes put on a show here. but there was a lot of enthusiasm . i talked to voters going in to cast their ballots. they had made up their mind in the past week. many of them had watched the debates and it changed their minds. >> interesting, what did they say first of all? >> i talked to several ron paul supporters before thursday night who changed their minds because they were not familiar with his views on foreign policy as they had been after that . they voted for sanatorium. >> and that is interesting. ron paul speppeds time answered questions about foreign policy. >> it was a particular change with sanatorium pressed him on iran and he was talking down the potential threat and pakistan had nuclear weapons and it is not tha

kay henderson, news director for radio iowa. thank you for being here. you know, as you see the candidates out and about, let's start with you. do you think -- give us a sense of what the feeling is ahead of the debate, how important is it for the candidates, and who stands to gain the most. >> it's really important for candidates and not just because the straw poll follows it. there are two dynamics. one, you have a national debate with a national field of candidates and then a mini debate going on with the candidates who need to do well in the straw poll. so, you know, i think that people are going to be using this debate to try to advance different campaign purposes. it will be interesting to see how the dynamic plays out. >> bret: dave, with all the turmoil in the markets, the focus on the economy, you know, how does that play here? how important is all of that? obviously, important across the country, but here in iowa. >> that is what they are talking about now. it doesn't matter who you go see, bachmann, santorum, paul, pawlenty, anybody, they talk