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.

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

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

rick santorum is 4%. mitt romney is over 40 -- >> he'll be well into the high double digits by the morning. but the question is: how much he gets there? and as i said, he will be challenged -- he doesn't have the resources. but he is a new face. three weeks ago, two -- three weeks ago, newt gingrich was at 38%. as i have said to you before, we have this huge group of very -- people looking for something and they keep landing somewhere. they just landed -- rick santorum's lucky, they landed on him last. but he will have a tough problem. this is a man who lost a senate race by more than almost any incumbent in history in a re-election. it's going to have a hard argument on the winning. he's very sincere. but the social issue problem, we'll see how it works. i don't think in a general election, he has a prayer. the question is whether voters will see that -- >> but he has pointed out several times. i asked him about this earlier this week on my afternoon show. he has pointed out that even though he is defini

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

santorum. ezra klein. that's "the ed show." i'm ed schultz. 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 to 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 dork 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 you'v

rick santorum. >> reporter: santorum isn't running from those comments. in fact he boasts he's a full spectrum conservative in his new ad. he has tv star jim bob duggar who is driving this santorum bus across iowa. he backed huckabee in '08. he's urging evangelical voterers to get behind santorum now. >> he has a proven track record, a conservative that's always stood for what's right. >> reporter: t-- >> the chuck truck. >> reporter: santorum doesn't ride in the bus. he rides in pickup truck. better for his pitch. jim acosta, boon, iowa. >>> joining me is dana lash, st. louis tea party organizer, political contributor ari fleischer and democratic strategist paul begala who joins me here in des moines. the santorum surge, how surprising is it to you? >> it's stunning. seven front-runners in iowa. three are not even in the race any more. santorum seemed like the only guy who never did lead. i see him as the frank finkel of the race. >> who is frank finkel? >> the only guy who survived the battle of little big horn. he survived -- on the white guys side. he

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

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

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

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

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

who is rick santorum? is he the guy conservatives can rally around to defeat mitt romney who again was rejected by three-quarters of iowa republicans or a one-hit wonder, this year's mike huckabee? romney hats money, the organization and the patience to outrun santorum, but does his side have the passion? also, the right wing empire is about to strike back. michele bachmann dropped out today. her voters are a lot more likely to stick a santorum sign on their yards than a romney one. jon huntsman is all about knocking off romney personally, and for newt gingrich, it's not business, it's strictly personal. get ready, mitt. the right's coming at you. plus, will the republicans sign an abm treaty, anybody but mitt? can a coalition of santorum, gingrich and perry voters be formed to stop romney? and is team obama happy right now, not as happy as would you think. they love that romney didn't win big out there in iowa, but worry that santorum will be just the latest anti-romney whose bubble is going to burst. and

among republicans santorum is winning. santorum 27, romney 25. here's the other big demographic difference. four years ago, those 17 to 29 were 11% of the electorate. this year they're 15%. guess who they're working for? ron paul, santorum. this is interesting about ron paul's base, among those moderate or liberal they're voting for ron paul. he's the winner there. among conservatives they're voting for rick santorum buncht among evangelicals according to the entrance poll ron paul was winning among evangelicals. >> but they're also split. a lot of the independents are the moderate and liberal coming into the republican party. >> dana loesch from big journalism.com. what do you see? >> i've been looking at the top three and looking at some of the numbers coming in for ron paul. i'm genuinely shocked just as the sheer number of independents. also that 43% number that's defining themselves as moderate or liberal. you can look at this as this is a candidate who can reach out to independents and reach out to those moderates who will be helping the go

rick santorum doesn't. can he perform well in new hampshire, come up a little bit, then go to south carolina, go to florida? he's going to have to make a lot of decisions very quickly if he comes out on top of this tonight but he's going to have to scale up very quickly and have the challenge. he is going to have to be drinking water out of a fire hydra hydrant. >> are there enough people that can help him scale up? everybody is sort of committed aren't they? >> i think he's done it with a skeleton staff, a lot of his kids are working on the campaign. they don't have a lot of people who have done this professionally. so i think that he is going to have a lot of challenges over the days ahead. but he may well emerge after tonight as the chief alternative to governor romney. if you look back four years ago, in south carolina, the single most important thing that happened to john mccain in terms of winning the nomination was the fact that fred thompson didn't get out of the race after a disappointing finnish i

rick santorum. a full spectrum conservative, rick santorum is rock solid on values issues. >> so you've been making that contrast consistently questioning governor romney. calling him a liberal massachusetts governor. arguing, in fact, that he is a moderate. yet back in 2008, when he was running for the presidency you were singing a different tune. this was your press release back then, you said governor romney is the candidate who will stand up for the conservative principles that we hold dear. he has a deep understanding of the important issues confronting our country today, and he is the clear conservative candidate that can go into the general election with united republican party. will stand up for the conservative principles that we hold dear. you even praised his work on fighting same-sex marriage. what changed? >> well, what changed was who he's running against. at the time, that was five days or four days before super tuesday, it was after florida. it became clear to me that there were two

rick santorum. romney campaign says they're not waiting to talk to the santorum campaign they're just waiting for results like the rest of america. >>> welcome to america's election headquarters. it's too cross to -- close to you call. rick santorum over mitt romney. we're still waiting on votes, actual from story county. that is the university of iowa. sorry, iowa state. ing forrive me. and ames, don't e mail. associate td press just report that had quote, some guy is driving the vote tallies in his truck to the reporting centers and we're waiting on that guy from that guy n that truck. probably to determine this race as you look at the differential there, it's so close. you're talking about hundreds of votes from a place like story county. right now it's 113 separating rick santorum and rit mom knee. >> just comes down to that guy. and what about that guy? do they know that guy? are they waiting for that guy? is there any idea how fast that guy is driving? >> it's iowa. there are some highways wit

>> mitt romney. >> i voted for mitt romney. >> tonight my choice is rick santorum. >> rick santorum. >> the biggest thing he is lektability. that is between santorum and mitt romney. i chose romney at the very end. >> what do you like about romney? >> i like the lektability. >> governor romney can raise $3 billion. i think he can match obama dollar for dollar. i believe he can definitely defeat mr. obama. >> what is it about mitt romney that attracted you? >> i think like his family values. i just feel like maybe he could be the one to beat obama. he might be the best at get along in washington. >> and he's the guy who can win? that seems to be the overarching argument tonight, right? >> right. >> if santorum come out and be the nominee, do you think he can beat president obama? >> i think. so. >> and santorum won in precinct two. >> i could live with rick santorum. >> do you believe he can defeat president obama? >> i hope he can. yes. yeah, i do. he is one of america's choices and his ideals and his beliefs. >> and is rick santorum a candidate you're happy with, somebody you can li

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

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

now, rick santorum said that, and you wrote a piece set with the headline, rick santorum is coming for your birth control. that headline was read to him by another denial, and that reporter said that denial is good enough for her. defend yourself against people that are saying that you overstated the case about whether rick santorum is or is not coming for your birth control. >> anyone of the praurngs of s his -- >> he will be showing up at your door and knocking on it presumably. >> it sets the bar, come on. i think he would like to see that world. but it's not an academic question. griswold? that's something that was said it was wrongly decided and that was enough to get him out in terms of the supreme court nominee. it's lawrence versus texas and -- >> of course, the sodomy case, yes. >> we know how rick santorum feels about saw feels about sodomy. >> that was awkward, yes. >> but they have to do for example, defunding planned parent hood, where rick santorum and mitt romney want to do that, and it's opposing the fact that the affordable care act has coverage for contraceptive, and

santorum. and he says that he and santorum are actually both winners. and both candidates are looking forward now to new hampshire, they say. >> but what's great about this is the story that comes out of such an incredibly close finish because you know what? it's about momentum. and it's about money. and it's about headlines. and those headlines tonight are bizarro. christine romans, you've been breaking down these headlines. we've been on the edge of our seats because we wasn't sure what the big story was going to be, and the big story is the story itself. the squeaker. >> the santorum surge that continued and also what voters were thinking. we have a better idea because of entrance polling. a lot of different questions they were asked on their way in to cast their vote. and one of the questions was asked was what's the most important quality for a candidate? you can see they said experience, a strong moral character. they were looking for a true conservative, these iowa republicans. and they