election, you would have to say that virginia may be a little bit more republican than the national average. they were even in 2008 when obama carried virginia. so that is good for governor romney. bret: larry, in virginia, you a tight senate race with mccain and allen and a republican governor. yes, governor mcdonald has been a big plus for governor romney. he has been everywhere. he s been on your shows, everywhere that i have looked. but he has also transferred the state party operation apt his operation to the romney campaign. it s made a big difference for romney. bret: in iowa, david, democrats traditionally had a good operation getting out the vote. is it still that way? and what do you see in the organizational efforts on the ground? if you think about it, both of the candidates have been working iowa for five years now. they both ran caucus campaigns
bret: the presidential election just 19 days away. more and more of the focus is on a handful of states as the candidates try to win the most important battle. one for the electoral college. each one of the final three weeks of this campaign, we are going to bring in three experts if three different battleground states. to talk about what they are seeing on the ground. what things could look like in the final days. tonight, we start with iowa. florida. virginia. david yepsen spent 20 years as the chief political reporter for the des moines register in why and he now works for southern illinois university. steven craig is political science professor at the university of florida. larry sabato runs the university of politics a it the university of virginia. thank you for being here. first, start with you, david, in iowa. the real clear politics average of the latest polls
understanding what makes them tick, what s important to them and engaging them and getting them involved in recruiting other people. 1,200 meetings like house parties and organizational meet do you need iowa come november. iowa is part of any combination of math, and it s a battleground state. we re organized in all the battleground states, and the difference between our campaign and the republican campaigns is we have an appeal to working families and the middle class, and the republicans want to return to the same failed policies that brought us to the precipice of economic disaster. david, for some reason i m on the e-mail list. i get all these organizing things and social networking, very exciting for the people involved in it. i just like to monitor it. how is the president going to take control that have political operation? i haven t seen him act as leader of the democratic party, for example. i don t sense that role. he doesn t seem comfortable with being head of a poli
coming up at 12:10. today s real caucus in iowa is the first step to the nomination. three nominating states help narrow down the ranks. why iowa? big questions joining us this morning is david yepsen, a political writer for the des moines register for over 30 years, director of paul simon institute. i want to get to it because iowans get ready to make their pick, even apparent front-runner isn t sure what s going to happen. seeing mitt romney on morning joe earlier today. mitt, things going well right now. yesterday you were confident enough to tell your audience that you were going to win iowa. what do you see out there that you like? i don t think i quite said that, but you said, i m going to win this thing going away. that s what i said. if all goes well, i hope i become the nominee. what do you think iowans are
register. he s now the director of the paul simon institute at southern illinois university. mr. yepsen, thank you for coming back. good to be back, rachel. 41% of iowa caucus attendees still undecided in the des moines register poll. is that a surprisingly high number to you? no, it isn t. i mean, if it were a general election, it would be. it s not surprising to me at all. republicans, these are activists for their party. these are not rank and file voters. these are people who care about their party. they re looking for someone who they think is a good conservative. someone who can win the election. and they re taking their time doing it. as doug mentioned in the earlier segment, these are people who want a chance to talk to their neighbors. your friends and neighbors are some of the biggest determinants of how you vote in an election. they re going to get together and talk politics before they vote and talk about who might be a good candidate, who might be a bad candidate,