rick santorum. >> reporter: santorum isn't running from those comments. he boasts he's a full spectrum conservative in his new ad. he also has the support of christian conservative reality tv star jim bob duggar who's driving the bus across iowa. he backed 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 chuck truck! >> reporter: santorum 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.

we begin with rick santorum. momentum is with the pennsylvania senator and he is sticking to his conservative guns. candidate santorum this afternoon. >> i would suggest if you look at the history of republican nominees, that moderate voters, moderate candidates who were there to appeal to more moderates ended up losing. >> but is that tough enough? listen to what congressman ron paul had to say about santorum earlier to cnn's dana bash. >> why would not he be a good republican nominee? >> he is very liberal. >> santorum is liberal? >> have you looked at his record? >> uh-huh. >> go look at his record. >> cnn political correspondent jim acosta is in boone, iowa. he spent the day with jim santorum. i understand he got some interesting last-minute help. >> reporter: that's right. don't tell jim bob dug per rick santorum is too liberal. the reality show tv show star, he is the star of the reality tv show 19 kids and counting. he backed mike huckabee. he's been in support of the former pennsylvania senator. you won't

santorum. the letter said, "i am reaching out to you because i would like your help. i do know about you and your relationship with john ensign. i'm also aware of the man you profess to be and the positions you have taken publicly with regards to family, integrity and ethics. i am sending this note along to you because of your affiliation with fox news. what i have put in motion with the letter i have sent megyn kelly and fox news. i've tried for one year with john and others to resolve an unbelievable set of actions john initiated and perpetuated bringing great destruction to me and my family." doug hampton attached to the e-mail to rick santorum a letter he had sent to fox news to a host named megyn kelly at fox news. the letter explained senator ensign's affair. his pursuit of doug's wife, his affair with doug's wife, and it explained how senator ensign subsequently fired both doug and his wife. so all that is explained in this letter. and that letter is sent to rick santorum. rick santorum

we saw with rick santorum. what killed rick santorum the fact he got nailed from the right by michele bachmann right away. i think that was the first thing that really hurt the perry then, of course, the debate debacles but on the hpv vaccine and attacked right away. if you're working for romney right now you're pulling research that will go to santorum from the right. how vulnerable do you think he is and do you think that's the first thing we'll see the attack on him be in the next week? >> if you compare santorum to the earlier not romney candidates, on paper he has less positive, not been a successful governor like huntsman or perry. he can speak knowledgeably and fluently about the issues in a way that bachmann and cain and perry repeatedly failed to do. the chief obstacle people didn't think others would vote for him. once he started taking off in the polls they had permission to start voting for him. that dynamic is not over so i think it's going to be actually quite difficult for romney to attack santor

lead to a 4 santorum lead. iowa is very -- they do politic there is in a very polite fashion. if they came to a disagreement like this tonight, where they can't find the guy with the official piece of paper, they apparently have rounded up the representatives of the camps who have agreed, yes, we were there, we know exactly what the total was and we both agree to what it was. >> so there you have it, bret and we should point out hathis source inside the republican national committee is the one who told karl early they're the two presimpghts were keokuk and clinton. that's exactly right -- >> confirmed that. we identified that -- >> excuse me. but they also told but the fact that story had been undercounted and that was also correct. and they are now saying that all sides of agreed that when the final precinct is counted that mitt romney is going to win the iowa caucus by 14 votes. back to you. >> wow. that is big news because officially, rick santorum is up by 4. so we will wait to hear that officially at the c

rick santorum, 24,134. ron paul coming in third with 79% of the precincts reporting, 21%, he's got 21,000 votes. newt gingrich is a distant fourth, only 13%, only 13,000 votes. rick perry, about 10%, 10,000 votes. michele bachmann, 5%, about 5,000 votes. jon huntsman at 1% of the votes. let's go to erick and gloria. what's going on over here? you're looking closely at these numbers. santorum was ahead, now slightly, slightly, mitt romney ahead. >> we've been looking as it's flip-flopped around, and each of the leaders and why. now let's look at mitt romney and where his strength is coming from. two things we want to hone in on. we asked people, what's the most important candidate quality, can defeat obama. 31% of the caucusgoers told us that was the most important thing. true conservative, 25%. i'm going to tell you right now, those voters went overwhelmingly for ron paul. strong moral character, a quarter of voters said that was most important. and i'll tell you right now, that went overwhelmingly for rick

for santorum? gwen: no signs of that yet but i wonder if there are any signs of santorum taking a bead on romney? he really hasn't been that critical of him so far. >> no, indirectly critical. in fact in one of the events in wyndham earlier this week, santorum, he made reference to romney's support for the wall street bailout saying a certain massachusetts governor, you can go look up who that was. but they may also be waiting for romney to inflict the damage unto himself. remember, this was the debate four years ago that was the you're likable enough moment. if they can get under romney's skin enough for him to get angry or to come off more on the attack, then that could also be beneficial to a santorum or a paul. >> the problem for santorum, of course, is the romney campaign and super pac supporting him have shown if they take somebody seriously, they will go after him. they did it with rick perry when he first got in the race. they did it obviously with newt gingrich. i think if you get to a mom

santorum? we're live in the nation's first primary state with new poll results and we're live from south carolina, which is also holding another early contest. >>> one of the most interesting moments in iowa. delayed results finally reported after a gop wake-up call. listen to this. >> i came to edith's home and pounded on the door and woke her up and got her up. >> cnn's exclusive interview with two gop officials who solved the mystery of the missing votes. thrilled. wait. we can have shakes? and boston cream pie. did you say pie? pie. she said pie. pie. [ male announcer ] get back on track with low prices on everything you need. backed by our ad match guarantee. walmart. >>> as you know the political battleground shifts from iowa to new hampshire. our dan lothian is already in manchester. dan, you've been there a few days now, what's the buzz? >> well, the buzz really is that mitt romney has really had a lock on this campaign season here with a large double-digit lead. overall his republican

santorum for the moment. that is a force to be tapped, and nobody has really found a way to do it. >> if you listen to santorum's speech, he talks about this appeal, how hard work paid off for him, how his grandfather and father taught him the value of eight. -- of it. >> but you have to think about santorum also in sioux city, iowa last sunday, when he talked about entitlements, that "i don't want black people's -- i don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them someone else's money," the suggestion that black people just shiftless and lazy and the hard-working people or white people. you look at the statistics, of course, blowing his thesis out of the water as to who is getting entitlements and he was 9. the pending he did in sioux city is something that is going to haunt him. >> well, except that the pandering works, and there are a lot of angry, white middle-class males out there. >> we go back to our friend mark shields in new hampshire. >> we know that new hampshire can turn on a dime an

i picked santorum, didn't i? liberals, why are you chewing me out when it comes to stumping for santorum? you know who the big winner was last night? president obama. today he was in ohio making moves that congressional republicans have been blocking for months. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> you think we can get more than an eight-vote margin here in new hampshire, i'm going to try. >>squeaked by santorum. the big winner in iowa last night was the president. today the president is kicking off his campaign with a big speech and some bold moves. >> today i'm appointing richard as america's consumer watchdog. >> msnbc's richard wolffe and katrina vandal heuvel of "the nation" magazine on the fallout from iowa and how it helps the president. >>> if you take, you know, santorum and perry and bachmann and gingrich, you get some sense of what a small minority romney really represents. >> the republican plan to stop mitt romney is beginning to unfold. and it's gaining momentum. bill burton of priorities us

santorum. ezra klein. i'm ed schultz. that's "the ed show." listen to my radio show on sirius xm 127. follow me on twitter @edshow and @wegoted. you did a great job last night quarterbacking this whole thing. >> sitting next to you and thinking ahead this was going to the first night of the caucus fights the rest of the year, i had a great time. this is fun. >> we have a lot more entertainment on the way. >>> thanks for you at home for sticking with us the next hour. remember the john ensign sex scandal? every once in a while in the news business it pays to be a total darork and unabashedly obsessed with the story nobody else is talking about at the time. for example, the john ensign sex scandal. i confess, i found the john ensign sex scandal obsessively fascinating for a really long time even though it basically never made front page national news, at least until he resigned. sometimes, though, this i think is true in life as much as it is in the news. sometimes months and years later after yo

rick santorum did it. of course he lost in '06, but a lot of republicans in '06. >> they lost by 18 points in '06. one of the worst senate losses in the history -- >> and in 2006, after six years of iraq. listen, i am not -- i am not making a case for rick santorum's electability. all i'm saying is a lot of great republican candidates have tried to get reelected in pennsylvania and they have failed. i don't think you're going to find a lot of dirt in santorum's record because he represented a swing state like pennsylvania. >> and there are no signs of social issues are going to be decisive this time. >> he's extremely vocal about them and i think it is troubling. >> it wasn't last night, though, was it? >> his biggest problem with conservatives when people start to look at the spending record. that's what perry was hitting him on here. the earmarks, the pork, erick erickson's point. is that santorum has on spending and domestic policy, not social policy, but spending and economics has a very big government

rick santorum, 25%. mitt romney, 25%. ron paul, 21%, newt gingrich, 13%, rick perry at 10% who again we just heard is reassessing his campaign and heading home to texas and michele bachmann placing sixth at 5%, michele bachmann not announcing tonight that she would be suspending or reassessing or doing anything else with her campaign except heading on to the next contest. listening to rick perry there tonight, i'm not sure 50s a foregone conclusion that he would be reassessing his campaign and heading back to texas if he -- if he placed at this -- placed this far down in the standings, but it was not a surprise. the question is what the implications are of this with rick perry out does anything else move. >> well, something has to move. he has votes that have to move but i think more interestingly, the money, there is a lot of rick perry money out there and he has the capacity to raise a lot. a lot of fund-raiser interest. where do those people go, those that wanted to pump money into rick perry go. >> it's an open questi

and santorum had a sharp response. he said, look, if you go back to the house banking scandal before newt gingrich was the speaker of the house, i rick santorum, was part of the gang of seven that brought that to light. and santorum was saying i was part of that republican revolution before you were, newt. and it went back and forth all day long. gingrich then went back to santorum and said, hey, you don't have the capacity to mount a national campaign, and santorum said to me, i asked him about that, he said, wait a minute, i just raised $1 million in one day, what do you mean i can't run a national campaign. i asked him, though, is that enough money to continue the way you're going right now and trying to catch up with mitt romney? and he said there's a long way to go in this campaign, john, he's only getting started. >> only getting started. any evidence at all that there's a big enough bounce for rick santorum in the polling here in new hampshire? >> reporter: there is a poll that came out in the last couple of day

is that person rick santorum? >> this idea of a conspiracy, meetings and all that, it is amusing and people feel self important. in the end, it will have no effect. >> are you going? >> no. [laughter] i stick to one conspiracy at a time. i'm with the washington masonic establishment, and that is it. that is my membership. [laughter] the point is this -- perry had his chance in iowa, had his chance in the debates. the most memorable thing he uttered was "oops." with the south carolina, i am not sure what is going other than that he has a lot of money and some hope. it looks as if there is going to be a consensus candidate who will oppose romney, then it would be santorum. it is hard to imagine anybody else imaging right now. >> we had take this week when santorum was talking by john f. kennedy, the meeting with baptist ministers, and he said that when he read, it made him want to throw up. that is the kind of tape that will not play well for santorum. >> colby? >> in addition to the "oops" line, there was his line

rick santorum hopes to be the guy to stop him, but santorum is learning that old ef hutton motto holds for presidential candidates too. when front-runners talk, people listen. and santorum is having a sticky time scoring points after his first-place tie in iowa. newt takes on mitt. in just a few weeks, newt gingrich has gone from undisputed front-runner to also ran. and he has mitt romney and his stealth ad campaign to thank for that. i sat down with newt last night after the program and he did not hold back. >> he ought to take those ads home and show them to his grandsons and said, grandpa did this, what do you think about this kind of trash on television? >> newt vows to be the last man in the fight with mitt. >>> plus, politico called it mitt's weekend from hell. the big debate weekend coming up with everyone looking down -- looking to take down romney. "meet the press" anchor and debate host david gregory looks ahead to what could be a make-or-break battle this sunday. >>> and speaking of republican debates, there was one today, a phony funny or die debate on yahoo!. in fact, some

senator rick santorum. piers anderson and all the guys, when you think about this, when you think where he was, it is really amazing, anderson, how quickly within a matter of two, three weeks, this has turned around in iowa. >> so how does the race change if in fact per i have dropping out. which it seems like, he is talking about going back it texas, praying on it, thinking about it, talking to advisors about it. how does this change for rick santorum? >> a little bit. but if you look the at polls in new hampshire, south carolina and florida, rick perry was only getting five, six percent. so it is an big change. and he got 10% here in iowa. >> and in terms of money, rick perry was a money draw -- >> it may be easier for him -- >> i was talking to someone from the santorum campaign today who said that they raised more money on-line in this past week than they had raised throughout the entire campaign. so clearly, you know, success will certainly help them and maybe they can get some of those perry voters. i

. >> rick santorum's political career will be ending soon. he will go to the republican convention next year not as a candidate but as a fox news contributor again. >> santorum has traveled all of iowa, and he's still gaining no traction. there's a reason for that. >> then of course, santorum finished in a virtual tie in the iowa caucuses. how could news outlets make this mistake again and fail to scrutinize santorum's record in the process? mitt romney faces skeptical questioning despite winning iowa because his margin was a measly eight votes. >> what does did say about your candidacy that you actually won fewer votes than but in 2008, and you fought rick santorum to a draw? >> perhaps the press is just trying to keep this race alive? >>> plus, we'll talk to the political director of the dominant tv station, wmur, about covering the nation's first primary as a local story. >>> i'm howard kurtz and this is the new hampshire edition of "reliable sources." >>> the media narrative here in new hampshire is set. mitt romney wins easily, everyone

question, santorum is roman catholic. given two-thirds of iowa voters are christian, why didn't santorum easily defeat romney? i ask you, james. >> hi wasn't the only christian in the race. most are evangelicals. you had rick perry who had transformed himself into being the texas job creator, into being a social conservative. michele bachmann went for the social conservative vote. even newt gingrich talked about his conversion to catholicism so it's split among the candidates. >> here's santorum on the issues. >> climate change. "a beautifully concocted scheme. just an excuse for more government control of your life." gay marriage. wants a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, saying "it destroys the basic unit of our society because it condones waiver that is antithetical to strong, healthy families." stem cell research. opposees such research, thus breaking with then-president gw bush. partial-birth abortion, led the charge in congress against partial-birth abortion. question, will santorum win new hampshi

low, good for santorum. shameless plug time, michael steele? >> real simple, i've got a great new year's resolution piece up on root.com where i talk about what our members of congress and lelgtors should be resoluting. >> kay, let's stee if you've figured this out. >> for the tea lovers, pick anything that has tea from apsalm in it. >> and i need caffeine, though. >> i have to plug the "des moines register's" iphone app, get all the updates. >> where do we get it? >> search in the store for gwinnett or "des moines register." >> shameless as it gets. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown," tomorrow is caucus day. coming up next, chris "jansing and company." don't miss at 1:00 andrea mitchell reports, live from java joe's, also live in iowa, the nexus of the political universe. bye xloom i'm jennifer hudson, and i believe. i was strong before weight watchers, but i'm stronger with it. i believe because it works. ♪ if you want it, you got it join for free. weight watchers points plus 2012. because

you interrupted rick santorum big time. mr. santorum spoke for 60% -- 60% of the nearly eight minute interview. it's my job to ask as many questions as possible and keep the conversation pithy. no campaign speeches are allowed on "the factor." doris, one in idaho. why do you bully all the conservatives and lavish praise on all your liberal friends? doris, that's just lunacy, as dick morris said last night, kool-aid drinking goes both ways. the point here is that we have been remarkably consistent for more than 15 years about asking tough questions. but we have also sharpened our focus recently. all americans seeking power will be scrutinized on the program, which is why some of them are too frightened to come on. we don't care much about party politics here. we care a lot about looking out for you. one more letter about santorum and we'll have more mail later on. this one from deborah in virginia. you were a little soft on mr. santorum. you let him off on questions about birth control and gay marriage. it was obvious he did not

they look to santorum. not saying he didn't deserve the victory, he worked for it but he was lucky with his timing. >> he had a loser label because he was an ex-senator that had disastrous last campaign. all of the others got a shot around they all were not of presidential stature. when they at last had a look at santorum, he was a guy with experience, and articulate, he knows the issues. unlike a couple of the other pretenders. he's a serious guy with a track record. i think that in the end, the system worked. yes, haphazardly but that is how america works. churchill once said america always ends up doing the right thing after it's tried everything else. well, that's how iowa worked. >> so then does south carolina become this real conservative battle with perry in the game and santorum? it looks like newt gingrich, that is his firewall. >> yeah, yet another southern politician. i think new hampshire is going to be discounted to a certain extent because it's romney's second home state. i think there is a hi

santorum at 11%. now the average of the most recent polls, this includes a few from before the debate and the ones that popped in the past couple of days, as romney and gingrich neck this neck. put in perspective, the gingrich day. the good side, bad side, and the impact. just this close to the primary. charles? >> well, i think number one, iowa will have no effect on romney or santorum. it's result of a tie. everybody assumed. and he has eight precincts missing and you absolutely announce you have no idea how it ended up. it has no effect. the endorsement by perry was important. you think from numbers it wouldn't be. perry is down to about 4%. people, they have actually been polled, perry supporters in the past. the second choice is evenly split among santorum and gingrich and romney. so it would have no effect mathematically on gingrich, romney race. second, the gingrich numbers as we saw in the polls, are rising rapidly. at the same time in the days, the perry numbers were collapsing, which would i

i think is had biggest problem is rick santorum and the momentum that santorum has with him. he sort of sucks up not only votes that could have gone to rick perry among evangelical christians, but also, potentially, if rick perry were getting a bang for every one of his dollars you would see him higher in the polls now. the problem he's facing you don't see that yet and it's hard to imagine undecides, given with rick santorum and given the way that they've talked about an issues, suddenly flocking to rick perry. >> bret: if rick santorum had rick perry's money or perry had santorum's momentum. >>-- >> on the bus tour and spending time with people, rick santorum has been camped out in iowa and accounts for support he has and perry has been running an ad dawr where you need to be on the ground more and running a relationship. >> perry has, baggage is probably not the right word, but he's made mistakes and people have concerns about his debating style, can he debate barack obama in a one-on-one. and they don't have those with rick santorum. nothing is stopping rick santorum for

santorum said. listen to this clip. >> with respect to the issue about -- i get a kick thoifts with governor romney. newt said this at the bede bait. governor romney is not like he's tried to be a career politician. he's just not been successful. >> still pretty polite the exchanges between romney and santorum. >> if he comes out of iowa and, you know, given the sampling of evangelicals, he can do even better. if he bounces into new hampshire, it's going to be on romney has to do well in new hampshire. they haven't managed expectations well. the polling has shown he doesn't need to manage expectations. if that changes, there's going to be a thrott come after -- there hasn't been a lot of time to do the opposition research on santorum. >> we haven't seen rick santor num the hot seat at a debate yet. there hasn't been one. we haven't really seen ron paul as front-runner in the hot seat at a debate. we'll be able to do that in new hampshire. and we'll see how they perform and we'll see how the dynamic

lead to a 4 santorum lead. iowa is very -- they do politic there is in a very polite fashion. if they came to a disagreement like this tonight, where they can't find the guy with the official piece of paper, they apparently have rounded up the representatives of the camps who have agreed, yes, we were there, we know exactly what the total was and we both agree to what it was. >> so there you have it, bret and we should point out hathis source inside the republican national committee is the one who told karl early they're the two presimpghts were keokuk and clinton. that's exactly right -- >> confirmed that. we identified that -- >> excuse me. but they also told but the fact that story had been undercounted and that was also correct. and they are now saying that all sides of agreed that when the final precinct is counted that mitt romney is going to win the iowa caucus by 14 votes. back to you. >> wow. that is big news because officially, rick santorum is up by 4. so we will wait to hear that officially at the c

in your latest poll, romney leading ron paul, santorum surging, and the numbers for santorum, rick, looking even better when look at the last few days of that poll. so who is the candidate that everybody is buzzing, talking about right now? iowa, as we watch the clock count out? >> good to see you again, thomas. you know, there are two candidates that everybody is focused on right now, one of them obviously the front-runner mitt romney and then rick santorum. santorum is the guy that's been at the airport for a long, long time, waiting for a ticket, trying to get on a plane. suddenly he's not only on the plane but in first class and everybody is paying attention to how high he's going go. it's going fob a very focused race in the final 36 hours or so. can both of them get out their vote? and what's the ron paul factor in all thf? >> this is very interesting. according to the poll, 51% of them say their minds are made up, 4 in 10 could still change their minds. have you ever seen a caucus with so many volatility as we rush into what really is a horse race almost neck in neand neck for s many

could it be a rick santorum? >> well, i mean, it's going to be whoever wins the republican nomination and you know, to sell rick santorum short now would be committing the same error twice. here are a couple of things. first is, it looks like two candidates are about to get out. rick perry and michele bachmann. if you take their 15 points and put them on either rick santorum or newt gingrich, they become the front-runner in this thing again. i don't know if those 15 points go to one place, but that's the play here for both newt gingrich and rick santorum. they both want to become the single, lone alternative to mitt romney. that's how mitt romney gets defeated. and it's probably the only way he gets defeated. the field needs to get winnowed, the fracturing needs to stop, conservatives need to unite behind one candidate or mitt romney will be the nominee. 3 out of 4 voters in iowa last night went in to vote for somebody other than mitt romney in every single alternative was flawed in some way. so the conservatives

whatever you think of rick santorum, he gives you rick santorum. he is not mitt romney! >> but the problem is that bad luck isn't ideologically convenient for republicans. >> no. this time he needs to make up ground and he's not making it up this day. thank you, howard fineman. thank you, joe klein. >>> coming up, my interview with newt gingrich. he's taken on mitt romney and it's getting personal. you're watching "hardball" from manchester, just four days before the new hampshire primary. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery? ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8. >>> welcome back to "hardball." newt gingrich is campaigning hard in new hampshire, following a dramatic fall in the polls, due in large part to a barrage of negative ads run by a pro-romney super pac called restore our future. i caught up with the former speaker in meredith, new hampshire, late last night and i got his criticism of his two chief rivals now, mitt romney and rick santorum

santorum third. not a lot of votes, if the margin stays the same as that adds up, that alone is enough for romney to make it up when you're talking about 37 votes. let's boom it back out. dubuque, 92% of the vote, precincts, not vote, precincts. let me make that clear. 8% of the precincts. mitt romney ahead, rick santorum third. if the margins keep up, that's a place mitt romney can, doesn't mean he will, can make up the votes. more of the votes still out over here. 97% of the vote in linn county. romney winning convincingly in this county right now, by tonight's standards in iowa. if you're the santorum cam pawn where an we make up votes? 100% counted. 100% counted. the western part of the state, 100% counted. you keep coming out there. if you're looking for areas where the vote is still out, they are areas where right now mitt romney is leading. they're not all big areas. there are enough votes still out there, wolf, for mitt romney to catch up and eke this out. this is the second time around for m

santorum 28% of the vote. in 2008, romney received 34% of vote in plymouth county and huckabee got 25%. santorum out per forming huckabee back then and romney under performing romney in 2008. as you look county by county, what are you seeing about the romney performance tonight compared to where he was in 2008. >> brit: let's bear in mind about the romney performance. except for the past week he did have good organizational efforts he didn't campaign that hard. none of us would have been surprised up to am in about week or temp days if romney was lower 18, 20%. so i think romney coming through this everything to have the breakout performance that creates the momentum where everybody says okay, it's going to be romney and everybody flocks towards him. he didn't get that tonight. i think he coming through where he was. in reasonably good shape. santorum i think is your story. >> brett: brit, as always, thank you very much. seven counties remain and nobody is over 33%. the one county that is really big is sioux c