huckabee in the field, rick santorum is a hard go. i do not know if he will run or not. we have seen the bloomberg politics poll, how badly he has done. mike huckabee is so much better a natural politician. rick santorum, the way he can for you to tears, that is not huckabee's problem. ted cruz has made a lot of enemies. one other thing about huckabee he has not made a lot of enemies. >> he is a likable guy. if you have never been to a book signing with the guy, you do not realize how much is fox career in radio career have helped him. >> people are amazed us just going around, you walk through an airport, just being intoxicated -- >> jeb bush here is another guy, plus huckabee rather than intimidating people out of the field, he amps up the contest in that lane. the more there is a battle among the conservatives, the better it is for jeb bush. >> sure, if you are in the establishment bracket against mike huckabee, you've been pretty strong. he is a skilled politician. he is skilled with media. but he has so much problem with the cons

ted cruz has a good organization here and rand paul does as well. >> you left out rick perry and rick santorume two ricks. do you not put them in the top tier with ted cruz and paul and huckabee? >> what is interesting, huckabee has been here 33 times and what people like is a comeback kid. he has a great story to tell. he is going to have to prove himself a little bit. i am not sure if he is up with mike huckabee. rick santorum is point to be one of those guys who hangs around and looks for his opportunity. when he does, i would not underestimate him. >> it's very early in the republican polls and i know it is early and probably meaningless, but tell us about jeb bush and chris christie? >> you bet. jeb bush has a lot of access obviously. it is his name. governor bush. a lot of people in iowa over their story in politics to a guy with the bush name. but he also has issues. one will be the bush name. is there bush fatigue? two, amnesty and common core will plague governor bush for a long time to come. when it comes to -- go ahead. >> you were moving on to governor christie. i apologize. >> gov

and 2012 romney was in that center and rick santorum. so two finalists. i would say romney was competing with bush and christie in that governing wing and maybe walker is a hybrid that could go either way. but i think then you have the true conservatives already, you know, rand paul and ted cruz and mike huckabee and rick santorum and a whole host of others. >> woodruff: the two of you touched on money and whether that matters. we know this week the billionaire koch brothers announce their network is going to raise almost a billion dollars to put into this race. david are they now their own political party? what effect is this going to have or is it? you said a minute ago we shouldn't pay attention to the money. >> first thing we learned is a lot of people who are really smart at raising money are really stupid about giving it away. they spent hundreds of millions of dollars a few years ago and lost most their races. this year they're doubling up. the one thing we know in the big

senator rick santorum, thank you for being here.e do know what the global implications are -- do we know what the global invocations are of what we do know what happened in paris? , this is an example that the reason horsemen to -- -- >> this is an example of the reinforcement -- whether it is al qaeda or isis or a lone wolf whatever it is this is a continuing struggle. it is a battle that has certainly not subsided. if you look at what is going on in the middle east -- now it is not subsiding in its projection to the west. >> there is a bounds between free speech and islamic extremism -- >> part of the western values of free speech presented -- of free speech. >> news organizations have not been showing cartoons. which you urge bloomberg and others to show the cartoons or not? >> you can either be intimidated by this violence or stand up to it. do you make yourself open to that same kind of thing? yes. but it is pay me later. >> would you post them on your website? >> we don't generally post things on her website. >> if you want to

joining me is rick santorum. are you ready to get back into that rat race again?now, i'm seriously looking at it, sean. obviously, i've got a lot of things that i think are very very important to this country and that you know, we need a candidate in 2016 that's going to unite america. we've had the greatest divider as president since i can't remember. we need someone to start getting things done that's going to help average, ordinary working americans have a better opportunity at their life. >> there seems to be a divide. what i, for example speaker boehner were ever to come on the program, and i don't think he's too fond of me right now, or if i had an opportunity, i would say to him, he should unite tea party conservatives like myself and more moderate republicans. there's a lot of low hanging fruit that can help the country energy independence, secure borders, a solution for obama care, balanced budgets, these are simple things that would thing every republican would agree on. do you agree with that? >> i do. i think we have to be positive. we have to have a m

we come back. ♪ >> our death tonight is the best of -- guests tonight is rick santorum.e is a big of a fan to the karate kid as i am. thank you for coming back. so talk about the event tomorrow here in iowa. you four years ago were kind of the start of the event. it was kind of the big moments forgetting it forward fear campaign. what will it take for you or anyone else to be a winner of the day, to come out of tomorrow stronger in the minds of iowa activists? >> i think they look for someone who is a conviction politician. who has a record to back it up. >> how do you display that on stage at an event? >> you lay out the issues before the country and you make a persuasive case that you are someone that has the experience and the record as well as the vision. that is really important. people are really tired about all the junk in washington. they are looking for a vision going forward. tomorrow is an opportunity for everybody to lay out a vision for the party. i have been very vocal on a new robust vision for the republican party. i will show that tomorrow. >> what is re

tell rick santorum i said hi. more to come tonight, including justice being served a half century late plus some science that involves the third floor men's room outside this studio. the lightest or nothing. the smartest or nothing. the quietest or nothing. the sleekest... ...sexiest ...baddest ...safest, ...tightest, ...quickest... ...harshest... ...or nothing. at mercedes-benz, we do things one way or we don't do them at all. introducing the all-new c-class. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. hey matt, what's up? i'm just looking over the company bills. is that what we pay for internet? yup. dsl is about 90 bucks a month. that's funny, for that price with comcast business, i think you get like 50 megabits. wow, that's fast. personally, i prefer a slow internet. there is something about the sweet meditative glow of a loading website. don't listen to the naysayer. switch to comcast business today and get 50 megabits per second for $89.95. comca

rick santorum never raised any money. he stayed in the race because he had wealthy wealthy backers running a dark-money campaign to support him. newt gingrich had the same thing going for him for a while. mitt romney had to raise his money. he did. he raised a ton, almost a billion dollars. >> that's what the president raised is almost a billion dollars. >> that's what it takes today. >> that's going to be the challenge in the democratic primary for any of these people we talked about besides hillary clinton. jim web is interesting but if he can't raise more than a few hundred thousand dollars or a few million dollars, he won't last very long. the same is true of anybody else that we just talked about. host: this elder in "the new york times", the growing shadow of political money, as much as $8,000,000,000 expected to be spent. charles koch saying we are just getting started. this is a piece from politico.com, a big gathering taking place in southern california this weekend guest: everyone is moving from the big tent of

one of them former pennsylvania senator rick santorum joins me now from sioux city.at to have you here senator. >> thank you, michael. good to be with you. >> in 2012 you won 11 states including iowa. if mitt is not in this thing, two seem that by rights you are the front-runner. and yet, you don't appear to be treated that way. why is that the case? >> why don't you ask the reporters? i don't really care whether i'm treated like the front-runner or not. we're out working to deliver a message like we did yesterday in des moines that for us to be successful as a country, the republican party needs to step forward and be a unifying party in america, has to be a party that not just is pro-growth but also pro-worker to help those who are struggling and hurting and systematically doing so in america. so front-runner whatever doesn't really matter. if you have a good message, you deliver that message well and you have a background in experience to back it up i think things will work itself out if we decide to get into this race. >> the message that you're best known for is

the same experts who dismissed rick santorum until he won iowa last go around or jimmy carter who did the same for democrats back in 1976. neither with much money. neither given much of a chance. i'm not saying huckabee will win if he enters the race. i'm saying he has just as good a chance as anybody else, not because he has money but because his followers clearly have passion. again, i'm not saying enough to put him over the top, but enough for the mainstream crowd to rethink the people like him and santorum and ted cruz and yeah, ben carson who all seem to appeal to this unique vibrant -- and loyal base. they would walk over broken glass to get to the polls to vote for their candidates. to make this serious point, beware of consensus that says god has no chance. at least those candidates who freely quote god have no chance. last time i recall mentioning the creator didn't hurt ronald reagan. just as earlier constantly talking be being born again didn't hurt carter. each appealed to only a small religious base. apparently that was bigger than the secular guys were telling us. messag

. >> and mike huckabee, rick santorum, ted cruz will go to get some leverage against the guys in thety who wants to stay as far from that stage as possible. i don't think -- this issue has moved so far so fast, i know where we'll be 10 years from now 20 years from now. in this window right here, i think it's a live issue. not a permanent issue but a live issue. >> moving so far, so fast, don't forget there are tens of millions of americans who feel passionately about it. they can make a lot of noise. >> i'm not forgetting that at all. i'm saying that i not forgetting am but i think the demographics are taking nuss a certain direction because young people feel the way they do. i think in this election for sure it's going to have some mileage for a lot of people. this just in, today, editor, publisher, proofreader, governor mike pence released a brilliant memo this guy is incredible. everything he does. he's decided graciously and frankly wisely, not to go forward with a new media operation run by the state. the reason, and it's a great one, just like mike pence, great, is that it woul

if rick santorum were still in the senate would you have supported that?ng sfwh ingwarming? clearly over the past 15 or 20 years the question is yes. the question is is man having a significant impact on that number one? number two, this is even more important than the first, is there anything we can do about it? the answer is, is there anything the united states can do? clearly no. even the folks who accept all of the science by the alarmists on the other side, recognize that everything that's being considered by the united states will have -- not almost will have zero impact on it given what's going on in the rest of the world. >> is your answer do nothing? >> well the answer is do something. if it has no impact of course do nothing. why would you do something and -- with the -- with people admitting that even if you do something, it won't make a difference? >> senator, thank you for being here. >> my pleasure. >> chris christie was among the other potential 2016 candidates who addressed the iowa freedom summit. how the new jersey governor fared with thi

i feel i should ask as a foundational question, if you are going to work with rick santorum if he runs again, or you are plighting your trough with any of these guys for 2016. >> i will say this, i'm loyal if nothing else, i've been on all of rick's campaigns since 1990 when he ran and won for the house of representatives, if rick so chooses to move forward, it's highly likely that's where i'll end up, but the good news for me right now is, there are no announced candidateses. i'm not under contract with anybody. if you want to offer me a quarter of a million dollars, i'm happy to be out there to say good things about you. >> you have the option of jumping in to support a candidate. because you're going to staff a campaign or because you want to support somebody. how do the koch brothers affect the -- your decision making process about who's viable and who's not? >> i mean, personally that would not affect me at all. i would -- if you're going to do a presidential race, you have to understand, for a consultant it's great expense to do that. you're giving up a lot of other races, you be

senator rick santorum. as far as i can tell, asking rick santorum to help to interview eene in this whole mess. instead, he forwarded that e-mail straight to joan enson thereby letting joan enson know that this was all about to become public. rick e rick santorum forwarding that story. he went public gave the press conference to absolutely the worst thing i've ever done in my life. a sex scandal is not a crime. family values is note a crime. illegal lobbying and conspireing to set someone up to illegally lobby, that is a crime. there was a big investigation and a rigorous one. the report was damning when it finally came out. the committee found substantial and credible evidence that senator joan enson conspired to violate lobbying laws and he lied about that mysterious 96 $96,000 payment they recommended that joan enson be prosecuted for those alleged crimes. and the justice department decided not to. they decided, instead, to prosecute doug hampton. joan enson arranged for him to be lobbying. they were vio

rick santorum forwarding that story.s conference to absolutely the worst thing i've ever done in my life. a sex scandal is not a crime. family values is not a crime. illegal lobbying and conspireing to set someone up to illegally lobby, that is a crime. there was a big investigation and a rigorous one. the report was damning when it finally came out. the ethics committee found substantial and credible evidence that senator john ensign conspired to violate lobbying laws and he lied about that mysterious $96,000 payment. they recommended that john ensign be prosecuted for those alleged crimes. and the justice department decided not to. they decided, instead, to prosecute doug hampton. john ensign arranged for him to be lobbying. they were violating it. john ensign arranged the jobs. and you know what, the person who doug hampton lobbied once he had those lobbying jobs was john ensign. he set him up in these lobbying jobs so he could be lobbied by them, and john ensign took action that doug hampton lobbied for him to take.

someone like rick santorum was able to hang on in part because mitt romney wasn't that popular with the base. can a huckabee or santorum make it through to the end. >> if you're a huckabee and now that you've made a lot of money you risk losing part of that money. >> that's the question, how much does he want this, particularly since he has seemed to get pretty comfortable having a life outside politics for the last six years, but look, there's a lot of people in iowa carrying a torch for mike huckabee and reluctantly settle fd for santom last time around and a lot will tell you they wished he'd run. that's why he's considering this. i disagree with nia. i think there's not a lot of competition in the conservative alternative lane. all the competition this time is for that establishment lane. it's jeb, it's chris christie, it's all those governors. it's scott walker, mike pence, john kasich, bobby jindal, even rick perry all gunning to be acceptable to the establishment so there is an opening for someone who could consolidate conservative support and i think that's where huckabee see th

speakers included ted cruz, chris christie, scott walker, rick santorum, and mike huckabee. iowa is getting a lot of attention early, since it is traditionally the first state to hold presidential caucuses during the primary process. this morning, we talked to a reporter about the event.

>> well first of all i like rick santorum a lot and i have a lot of respect for him. this is nothing against rick santorum, but ronald reagan didn't serve on the armed services committee. he was governor before he became president of the united states. and the job of the commander in chief is to be a decider. you want somebody who's a decider with that experience. on top of that i think we need to realize something the obama era, this may come as a surprof your viewers, the obama era has been a golden age of conservative governance in america. not in washington but in the states. we now have in the last -- since barack obama took office there are more republican governors and more republican state legislators than any time since the 1920s. we went from eight states where we had a republican governor or republican legislator when barack obama ran in 2008 to 24 today. >> wow. >> so what that means is you've got all these republican governors out there while barack obama's discrediting big government liberalism in washington, republican governors are implementing conserv

>> rick santorum. the sweater vest days are over.is back with a new look and probably some new ideas we're really not sure. all i know is don't google him. his former pennsylvania senator rick santorum. >> that will work, baby. >> that will have some legs. >> will he appear in any debates or not? >> i'm clearly in the lead based on great skill at this game, i feel confident about number 11. >> here we go, you'll be adding to your roster with -- oh! ben carson. >> that is tough. >> ben carson. he is a retired world class neuro surgeon. he says that obama care is the worst thing since slavery. he is dr. ben carson. >> you know, don't applaud that. there is no need to applaud that. the last time that republicans had this many people in their primary field, everyone got to run up and take a turn in the spotlight and i'm hoping that ben gets to do that too. >> he will run for president -- >> he will win a news cycle. >> are there any democrats on this board or --? >> yes, they just have not turned up. >> i'm going to go with my strategy t

this all the time with pat buchanan. >> it did not end very well with former speaker gingrich and rick santorum former senator santorum through fox. they felt their coverage and i heard it from them they thought the come they received was not as good as people whose fox was briefing against. let me say this: the amount of time and effort put into misunderstanding the way the political unit and the political coverage at the fox news channel goes enormous and everyone thinks they can read the tea leaves and thinks they know but i tell you right now absolutely true there is not a secret agenda. whether you contribute or not our political team is doing it the right way. >> to follow up you are saying obviously when gingrich and santorum were featured as contributors, they came on and said what they want and they felt they everyone not treated fairly. >> they made no secret. there was a garage fire in the times square claim they were mishandled by fox and they were wrong. >> gingrich went to cnn. >> the bottom line, being on fox is an incredible boost for any conservative politician who is thinning

some of those conserve steves can galvanize momentum like rick santorum in the last campaign, able to do around a few issues, position himself to go firth and last longer than anyone expected him to do. the other thing that i'm fascinated by is a lot of folks are fascinating by the top names. i'm looking at the next tier of republican governors that have yet to step in, the mike pence, the scott walkers. when they get into this thing, it's a whole different race. these other guys did, and they have come out on the other side and have a track record they can talk to the nation about. >> and in some ways, particularly compared to jeb bush, they're less rusty. scott walker won three elections in four years. and if i was scott walker, i would be touting that to every donor i could find. >> on that point, you can't forget that a scott walker has a national base now. the national party galvanized behind those efforts. he is not going to start in the woods. >> the reason it starts so early is because of how expensive it is, the ways in which we call the invisible primary plays out. the big q

rick santorum never raised any money. he stayed in the race because he had wealthy wealthy backers running a dark-money campaign to support him. newt gingrich had the same thing going for him for a while. mitt romney had to raise his money. he did. he raised a ton, almost a billion dollars. >> that's what the president raised is almost a billion dollars. >> that's what it takes today. >> that's going to be the challenge in the democratic primary for any of these people we talked about besides hillary clinton. jim web is interesting but if he can't raise more than a few hundred thousand dollars or a few million dollars, he won't last very long. the same is true of anybody else that we just talked about. host: this elder in "the new york times", the growing shadow of political money, as much as $8,000,000,000 expected to be spent. charles koch saying we are just getting started. this is a piece from politico.com, a big gathering taking place in southern california this weekend guest: everyone is moving from the big tent of

what happened to rick santorum, he was able to win on grassroots support. it was not enough to go up against the romney machine. when i talk to activists last night, they look at the santorum experience and because they did not have the money, they got crippled late in the game. they do not want that to happen again. host: we have about 15 minutes left. christopher in buffalo, new york. emma kratz line. -- democrats line. caller: i would like to say that i wish the republicans would not be so hypocritical by complaining about the debt that we are leaving on the next generation. when they refused to start paying off that debt. they refused to raise taxes and any tax. show me how you pay off the debt when every tax policy you propose has to be tax neutral? what ever you take all one and give back to the other, how do you pay off the debt if none of the money goes for the debt? host: pick up that point, what do you spec to hear on taxation and debt -- taxation and debt? guest: republican orthodoxy on taxes does not seem to be changing. that message about low ta

rick santorum will also be at the summit this weekend. >> i don't want to make people's lives better by giving them somebody else's monies. i want to give them the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families. >> i looked at the quote and the video. i'm pretty confident i didn't say black. i started to say a word and sort of mumbled it and changed my thought. no one in that audience no reporter there, heard me say that. i think it was from everything i have seen -- i was starting to say one word and i sort of came up with a different word and moved on and it sounded like black. >> don't you feel like going to iowa this weekend? ted cruz of texas, he's going to be there too. >> say, i like green eggs and ham. i do. i like them sam i am and i would eat them in a boat and i would eat them with a goat and i will eat them in the rain and in the dark and on a train and in a car and in a tree. they are so good so good you see. >> let's not forget the reverend mike huckabee on board. >> if the democrats want to insult the women of america by making them believe they are helpless

i think the greatest example was in 2012 when i was covering rick santorum. no one gave him a shot. they thought he was doing it for tv. he ended up winning iowa caucuses. you have to pay attention early to get traction. >> isn't it a problem you have so many candidates you have to decide which to cover. have you to decide which candidate to mention in a story. you can't mention all ten of them. you do have to make some sort of judgment about who is a serious candidate and who is not, right? >> that's true. one thing i was watching yesterday with my colleague, not who was there but who improved their standing. ben carson maybe not on the radar with mp what did he do. carly fiorina. fewer people there knew her but she gave a well received speech about hillary clinton. that's what you're trying to look for, who is pushing the ball forward for their own political future. >> chuck todd had a sick burn on meet the press. he said nobody is going to mistake donnell trump for president except donald trump. he's the the best example promoting it for his commercial business. >> he runs this s

rick santorum, sarah palin donald trump, and rick perry were some of the speakers at the freedom summit. nobody has made an official announcement about running for the white house in 2016, but some have signaled their intentions. some republican contenders did not attend, including mitt romney, jeb bush, marco rubio and rand paul. let's check in with eileen. you have spent a lot of time tracking this storm heading our way. >> yes and it will impact us monday morning. don't focus necessarily on the total but the impact. monday morning i think will be messy. right now, just a few clouds overhead. satellite radar gray and damp, but the skies cleared before sunset. the clouds that are sitting overhead associated with the upper level low that continues to move further off to see. but stay away from that in focus on the one that is impacting us. this is in alberta clipper swinging down into the midsection of the country. this system will continue wanted southeastward track, passing to the south before really evolving into a strong nor'easter. it will have high impact to the new england coastl

a deep bench in the republican party gunning for the conservative votes, not only huckabee but rick santorumin the last cycle, still a presence there. request test test test test test test test test including a 10-year-old girl. we'll take you live to indonesia in just a few minutes. >> you're waking up to sunday morning and we're glad you're spending some of it with us. i'm christi paul. >> aim evictor blackwell. 8:00 on the east coast. >> we begin in new york, friends, family, colleagues, all preparing right now to say good-bye to officer wenjin liu in a couple of hours. >> this morning officer liu is being remembered as a man who loved his heritage and loved his job. >> we want to show you the scene yesterday as mourners gathered for a ceremony burning of paper and money. this is a tradition considered a way to pay it forward for the deceased. >> let's bring in cnn's miguel marquez in new york. miguel, set the scene for us. i know we're still three hours out from the start of the ceremony but are we starting to see the gathering of these officers we expect today, and what can we expect at

we're talking about mike huckabee rick santorum, scott walker the list seems endless. >> for starters they're going to have to work a whole lot harder to get money. the big dogs are going to have access at least initially to many of the fat cats. if you are those guys paul and cruz walker, that has a sort of divide and conquer strategy and hope there is some sort of rope adope amongst those sort of centrist candidates. i'm fascinated by this turn of events, seeming turn of events with romney and what he's going to do, i suspect that he will but i'm still not quite clear what the case he really would make would be. and for sure he comes into this without you know the real sort of animating notion that he had earlier being something new. he's not going to be anything new in this case and i'm not sure whether he's first and foremost the consultant world who wants to make a whole lot of money off of him saying oh this would be a good idea or whether he's speaking to a wider swath of republicans who probably would be raising eye browse. >> michael and james always good to have you with us.

rick santorum is here, the 2012 iowa primary winner and possible 2016 candidate. his lack of experience, also said the same thing about ted cruz and rand paul, and mike huckabee coming out saying you possibly pulled the pin on the gop response. >> well, i was just referring to the very serious national security issues, that it is important to have somebody with experience in those issues. i pointed out the fact there were not too many people out there contemplating running for president, that had that experience. and i think that we've seen from this president, the lack of experience and having a track record that people can look to and have a track record in those areas is very important. that is probably the number one priority of the president and certainly the area that he has the most purview when it comes to running our government. >> what do you say to somebody who says yes, somebody needs to have experience, but it needs to be governor. >> well, i don't know many as governor that have that experience, i was on the major arms committee both dealing with syr

. >> former senator rick santorum is just one republican thinking about running for the white house. nobody has made an official announcement yet, but just showing up in des moines send signals. >> it is so great to be back in iowa. >> we value our independence from the government, not our dependence on it. >> illegal immigration is a hot topic. >> i think they should make it their goal to fill that border within the year. >> donald trump blasted republican heavyweight mitt romney and jeb bush. >> it cannot be mitt because he ran and failed. he failed. the last thing we need is another bush. >> romney and joe bush were among the no-shows, along with marco rubio and rand paul, creating an opening for other presidential hopefuls. >> still ahead -- eileen whelan is tracking the winter weather. >> the kids want to know, can they plan a sunday sleep over? >> ooh, i like that. you know what, i say don't do it. i think by monday morning, there will be some closings and delays. we had the first punch of the weather this morning and yesterday. i want to recap today, because we started off wit

. >> rick santorum that will oppose it if the court overturns it, but people like my cut be, rick perry, i don't think they are going to want to take up this fight. they can read the demographic data just like everybody else. >> as the baron make it ladies -- barenaked ladies liked to say, it's been one week. and now want to president obama. >> on your last question, i have no comment. [laughter] >> romney has had a rough week, with republicans dishing him on background and almost no one in the outside -- almost no one in his inner circle expressing support. i wonder if he can turn this around with his speech. the way things are going right now, it would have to be one hell of a speech. i am not saying he is not going to run, but i don't think he is going to commit all of the republicans who are less than enthusiastic about this. what do you think -- this. what do you think? >> there has not been a lot of excitement at this meeting, a lot of nuts and bolts, he explains what he is actually doing and he can't just come in and make this a meet and greet, and he also needs more people to co

they pick people like rick santorum who appeal to the far right of the base but don't actually get nominated. so iowa as a result of king's influence is becoming less influential in the process overall. so that's not a good thing and not a good thing for the current crop of candidates. >> governor one of our reporters from msnbc.com interviewed steve king today. he says his staff kept a running list of some 12 to 16 prominent republicans who have leveled personal criticisms against him. going back to your point about people criticizing him. he kept a list. and king says quote, their agenda has been marginalized. mine has been strengthened. is this the steve king agenda? is it going to dictate the gop's 2016 primary race? >> well that's the big question. because if it does the republicans are destined to lose the 2016 general election. we saw what happened to governor romney tried to become more conservative to appeal to the base during the primaries and locked himself into positions that come the general election he couldn't get out of. if it happens again, if someone, one candidate doesn't

rick santorum, mike huckabee, they didn't win the nomination.andidate furthest on the right is the candidate that wins. mitt romney technically won on elections night and came to be that rick santorum had more votes but the bottom line is you're right, the more right you go, the more likely you are to win the fight in iowa and, of course, that's not the kind of message you want to bring out to -- even to the rest of the republican party going to new hampshire and florida and et cetera. so i think iowa is still important in that it's an easy place for everybody to try and get together test out their message, see how they play in a crowded field. remember there's not just going to be one conservative. there are plenty of conservatives in the mix. >> woodruff: anything like this for moderates in the republican party? >> in a state like iowa, i think more like new hampshire which is after iowa, how they play in florida, can they get the big money to play in the big field because the ad rates are so high and such a big state. but i think how you play

. >> now we have a message pertaining to a handful of our viewers, including rick perry, rick santorum, and others. it is time for us to find someone to say this is our son with whom we are well pleased. the grassroots conservative wing of the republican party needs to unify around a single candidate. is that possible? i would say it is unlikely. if you think about the different parts of the republican base the christian right, the populist part of the party, each of those pieces will have a different potential candidate. if we had this big giant scrum mark, it will be hard. it will be hard to get a unity movement in any party. in this race, it will be harder than ever. >> conservatives always want to do it. they say we can't let the establishment win. there is one person who can do it. you have to raise a lot of money. rising national poll numbers poll numbers in iowa, and you have to convince conservatives you could beat the establishment candidate. i think mike huckabee can do that. i do think rick perry can do it. that does not mean they don't end up being the conservative establis

that's him right there, and former pennsylvania senator rick santorum. former florida governor jeb bush in 2012 nominee mitt romney both skipped this forum. >>> coffee donuts and even a second chance. sugar shack opened today in alexandria, and as news 4 darcy spencer discovered customers, they're not the only ones reaping the benefits. >> i'm darcy spencer in alexandria. they are standing outside waiting in line just to get inside. it's a grand opening of a donut shop. we haven't seen anything like this since krispy kreme. >> inside it's standing room only at the small shop called the sugar shack. trays and trays of hand crafted donuts for every taste. yolanda atkins is one of the decorators. >> you want to make sure you get a nice coating on it. dip and sprinkle. >> this size donuts. >> the kitchen staff roll the dough and cut it into what will become those circles of decadent sweetness. >> how many calories or is that a secret? >> that's a secret. >> they're made with love. we'll just say that. >> this is the maple bacon donut. it's the hot item right