spent a lot of time saying isn t mitt romney going to compete? of course, competed in 2008. didn t work out well for him. big evangelical contingent here. don t really love mitt romney. then he decided to jump in. has not spent a lot of time in the state. which is why he is at 10%. but look at bachmann, by the way, who s not doing very well, but she said she s going the distance. but, she spent a lot of time in the state. ron paul has a great organization in the state. rick santorum has had over 350 town halls in the state. that s why these people do well on whether you relate to iowans. whether that is a calling card for winning the presidency is something else. but iowa is a toss-up state. it doesn t hurt. when you look at the split in terms of registration, ds and rs evenly split. what is your view, gloria, all this conversation about rick santorum, suppose he comes in
acrobatic wall and it is very, very cool. let s turn to james carville, democratic strategist and cnn contributor. from the wall to me. i can t compete with that wall. that wall, i mean it s something. all right. what do you think about kevin madden s point? he tries to make the point, he doesn t go below, doesn t drop, so he s stable, resilient. don t worry he doesn t ever go above. you know, it s a good point for them to make, i guess. it s kind of steady. i know they are banging their heads against walls. last thing is for romney to say we re going to win tomorrow and talk about how he s going to build momentum across the united states and talk campaign strategy. i m sure they d much rather him talk about message and we ll do fine. i thought that was he doesn t make many mistakes. that wasn t a major mistake but one of those sound bites that comes back. letmy ask you something interesting about this caucus or iowa caucuses.
in a cnn iowa insider vur say, two-thirds think mitt romney will be the winner. apparently romney-m does, too, because listen to what he just said a few minutes ago on the campaign trail. we re going to win this thing with all of our passion and strength and do everything we can to get this campaign on the right track to go across the nation and to pick up other states and to get the balance i need, the votes i need to become our nominee. all right, let s go straugt to somebody who knows mitt romney darn well. kevin madden, romney s 2008 campaign adviser. kevin, great to see you. do you think that sort of talk is the right way to go? i mean, you and i have been talking a lot over the past couple months. you have managed expectations you doenlt don t expect to win iowa, not a big deal if you don t, but now it seems things have changed. do you think he s going to win? well, i think there s a lot of momentum on the ground in iowa. i think governor romney goes out to these events, wh
good evening, from cnn s election center because, yes, it has begun and it s an episode of survivor. at least that s how republican presidential candidate rick santorum described the iowa caucuses. here is the thing about iowa. no offense, iowa, you re really important but you re also small. only 2 million registered voters. 640,000 of them republicans. and if the 2008 caucuses were an indication of what s ahead for tomorrow, only about 100,000 of those republicans will actually go out on a cold january night to cast their votes. those who do, it only is a 50% success rate when it actually comes to picking the eventual nominee. so, what s all the hype about iowa? the bottom line is, it has a huge influence in who stays and doesn t stay in a presidential race. it may be small but it packs one big punch. listen to the candidates today. they know what s really at stake tomorrow. we are not looking for a chief executive officer. for this country. we re looking for a commander i