us today. great to be with you, alex. thank you. so, alice, i wonder, the latest des moines register poll shows bachmann on par at 20% with santorum and perry in terms of relating to ordinary iowans but dead last in terms of electability. at what point do you think this race started getting away from you guys? keep in mind the only true poll is the iowa straw poll and michele bachmann won that after getting in the race late and having will less time and resources than any of the other candidates. that s important to note. since that time, we built on the organization that we had prior to the straw poll. we ve added county chairmen all across the state and precinct captains that will help prepare us for tomorrow night. so the i wat straw poll was a great gauge for us to determine the ground game that we had and support we had. we built on that and not only built on what we have here in iowa, in the past week, we brought in hundreds of volunteers from across the country that helped
pacs and effectively that romney s super pac dismantled gingrich s candidacy in the iowa through flooding the airwaves. that s a taste of what to come. worth noting president obama has his own superpac. jimmy, i know money and politics is one of your i wonder what you make of this, whether there s any chance we one day get rid of superpacs as some candidates have said. it would be nice if we could except the supreme court won t allow it. i hate to break the news to folks in america, the democratic super pacs are not raising any money. there s no coke brothers, george soros is not playing as much as the coke brothers are if you want to compare the two sides. so barack obama is going to raise a billion bucks and going to spend a billion bucks reminding the countries we re better off than we were when he took office. okay? that s debatable, fine, whatever. and you know, he s done a lot for the country, blah, blah, blah. that s all great. if he s got eight offices in
a significant step forward in terms of being a hard care conservative. it s also a contrast against gingrich and rick perry who have much more sensible immigration policies than mitt romney now has. what is the mood in romneyville right now? it sounds like from what they re saying to politico, they think they re going to be in the top in the caucus and they seem rather optimistic. yes, well, look, i ve been reporting for the past several weeks that the romney campaign is extraordinarily confident about mitt s chances to get the nomination. they think there are only two candidates who can beat him here in iowa. either ron paul or rick santorum who they don t believe can be the run nominee. the two people they thought would be real challengers, gingrich and perry look like they re going to get their hands handed to them in iowa. there is a consensus emerging not just in the romney campaign
competitive. that would prohibit a ton of candidates from forever getting a hearing. this system is has a lot of flaws but it s hard to design one that is better. just to throw a footnote in real quick, barack obama was actually trailing among african-american voters going foo iowa. there was no indication he was going to have that support till he proved himself in a state with the grassroots vote. and the legacy of america s first, quote unquote, first black president. when we come back, hoping for a miracle. does michele bachmann have a shot in iowa. we will talk to alice stewart from the campaign next on now. we know a place where tossing and turning have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there, like it has for so many people before. when taking lunesta, don t drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities
john heilemann wearing many hats for us in iowa. we look forward to hearing more from you tomorrow. after the break, what now? did celo green disrespect john lennon on new year s eve? that will be next on now. i m andrea mitchell, coming up next, live from ja vague joe s here in des moines, iowa. one day to go before the caucuses. the biggest wildcard, that undecided voter. we ve got our interview with the man of the hour, rick santorum about his sudden surge in the plos. plus pollster ann seltzer and chrysalis sa take us behind the numbers. and ron paul appearing today with his son rand paul. we ll talk to his campaign manager.