tonight in eye warks the vote counting is over and the ames republican straw poland michele bachmann has won the campaign season's first chance for voters to weigh in on the gop field. the results are a big jolt in the arm for bachmann's campaign and may soon be bringing other campaigns to an early end. but even the day's frontrunners will be looking over their shoulders at the newest entrant into the race who far from iowa stole much of the day's spotlight. our coverage begins in iowa with nbc's kelly o'donnell. kelly, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, lester. the headline is michele bachmann pulled off a win in the state in which she was born narrowly defeating ron paul. the real story may be what happens to tim pawlenty. he came in third after investing so much here. interest was high. there were nearly 17,000 votes cast. >> republicans, welcome to ames. welcome to the 2011 iowa straw polls. >> reporter: unofficial, but very influential. >> i hope it's more than great food and a lot of sound bites. >> there were crowd pleaser lines. >> be grateful that you're from iowa. >>

the debate moderators rang the bell to stop a runaway answer, andy came bounding out of the kitchen warkingttle sh noodle head off. how do you know it was the bell setting him off? it could have been a republican talking. candidate mitt romney turned heads when he pointed out that corporations are people, too. rand paul seemed to reverse the comparison entirely. listen. >> i think we're all corporations. so to say we're going to punish corporations like they're someone else, all of us are corporations. you think about, you do you have a retirement fund, do you have a 401(k), everybody has a 401(k) who owns parts of corporations. i think a lot of times people want to vilify corporations as other rich people. they're us. >> that's a bit of a stretch when was the last time that we heard someone refer to themselves, we're a corporation. i don't know what they're talking about these days. [ female announcer ] to get a professional cleaning system you could spend as much as $200. olay says challenge that with an instrument that cleanses as effectively as what's sold by skin professionals for a wh

. >> i warks this. >> that is what we need. a president who understands how you grow the economy. that be a refreshing change? >> there is plenty of politic buzz back in the financial world, down grade has not hurt u.s. treasuries, instead of rates rising on car loans or mortgages, interest rates on the 10-year treasury note fell to their lowest rate this year. >> this safest investment is still u.s. treasury bond. >> tom campbell says compared to the world, the u.s. ratio of total debt to total output looks pretty good. 67.9% in the u.s. compared to 79.7% in the united kingdom, 86.7% in france, and over 76% in germany. and they may well put them into double a plus rating as well. >> and he says it doesn't mean it's a risky investment. there was a huge selloff completed by a buy of u.s. treasuries and gold, invest looks -- looked for a safe place to put their money. >> if there is good news, it's about oil prices, crude oil fol $81.31 per barrel. gas prices could fall 35 cents per gallon. the parent company of standard and poor fell 8.6% comparing to 5.5% that the dow saw plunge.

you once so are the only scape route that the chinese know off and they already wark in on their special mechanism inside the bank of china organizing this transition is today versus five their portfolios or the they're buying more their rules using more swaps with countries currencies and the u. one and they are logging heart inside the i.m.f. inside the g twenty then inside the brics arrangement of five brics countries of which they are the natural leaders we can say for a basket of currencies but until this happens and i will say this won't happen within the next five six to ten years realistically it's going to be an enormous debate in orders of the the american financial system and war street in the washington establishment the resistance to the core but that's the only way to go for the international monetary system through really work if you lose needs and of course if they don't get up there is a very big appreciated nothing that we've heard just that a lot moving away from the dollar as a reserve currency and bric countries of course talking about that and get eyes like joseph s

9-year-old ryan white of philadelphia was run down in a cross walk as he and his family left at&t warkk thursday night. andrew vargas of hayward is charged with driving drunk when he hit ryan. >>> traveling by pedi-cab is popular in many parts of the bay area but competition is taking an us pleasant turn in san francisco, some local drivers say a san diego pedi-cab company started operating in town and they claim the company drivers are overcharging passengers and not following some of the san francisco rules and regulations. >> we have places where we're supposed to be, and places we're not allowed and they're just going everywhere. >> they're calling on the san francisco officials to make the newly arrived pedi-cab drivers to play by the rules and to get the proper permits. >>> for you parents out there apparently it is okay for kids to play sports in hot weather. and as long as precautions are taken. according to the nation's largest pediatrician group, the american academy of pediatrics, out with new guidelines aimed at preventing heat illness among young athletes an the recommenda

later speaking at a democratic fundraiser in with a warks president obama said he inherited many of theot. he inherited many of the country's debt and deficit problems, and he did, bush tax cuts, thank you very much. presidential candidates pointed to the downgrade as just the latest sign that it's time for -- you know what? this is where the republicans give us all their ideas and put a really cool good candidate who are going to solve all the problems front and center to talk about this. >> should i just leave? >> i'm excited. now i'm going to feel hope. now there's time for change in the white house. roll it. >> the fact that we have not been able to deal with our challenges does result, i think, from lack of leadership. leadership starts at the top. harry truman used to have the sign on the desk that says "the buck stops here." this administration's sign should be "the buck stops somewhere else." >> for the first time in the history of america, the united states lost our top aaa rating. it didn't happen in the great depression. it didn't happen in world war ii. it didn't happen when