very own joy ann reed. one of the biggest questions primary voters have been asking is who is a conservative in this race. let s listen to rick santorum why he gave that title to mitt romney in 2008. so romney will stand up for the conservative principles that we hold dear. you didn t say compared to. of course i m not going to say compared to. i m trying to advocate for his candidacy. so you didn t mean that then? i was saying it relative to john mccain. and that s what i meant then. joining us now from iowa, john heilemann, national fairs editor at new york magazine and an msnbc political analyst, the oracle of des moines, john, thank you as always for being on the show. good day, alexandre. how are you out there? we are doing okay. we have many questions for you. the first is, we have heard a lot about this proverbial heat in the kitchen and whether or not it s too hot. and i wonder, rick santorum is coming up in the polls as we re seeing from numbers that are out
us. it doesn t have to be iowa. you were there in 2008 and documented in a little book called game change. yeah, i think ari is right. i mean, look, i mean barack obama is a bad example though because he raised a ton of money in 2007 as much as hillary clinton. he actually unusually could have been someone who could have competed in a national primary or competed in a system that started with actually diverse states like california or new york or texas or florida. but i think the argument for iowa starting or for new hampshire starting the system is set up so you have geographic diversity by having iowa new hampshire, south carolina and nevada go first and all those states being small enough that candidates who can t raise a lot of money can get a hearing. it would be better if we had moraysal and ethnic diversity but it s a better system than a system where you would have to raise $150 million to be
would have no shot. so by having iowa, it s sort of a fight and i believe in creative destruction and i like when people fight it out. creative destruction. the cream rises to the top. ari, it sounded like you would agree too based on the grassroots element. when i first went to iowa, i was working as a field org flieser for john kerry. you go down there, and what you see is in our case, we were out of money and the national media, folks like us sitting at had table were talking about when is kerry going to drop out and who is he going to endorse. the national narrative was over here. we had no cash. we had a ground game and a candidate able to make the case. if you go to last cycle, all the indications are if you had a one-day or national primary, barack obama would have never gotten a start. so i do think that the grassroots elements open it up. i think you have to remember, what are the alternatives, a front loaded or national primary gives more power to people like
great pride in their vote and take it very seriously. and they oftentimes wait till the very last minute. many of them go to the caucuses still undecided because they don t let the polls, they don t let the pundits or the press make up their minds for them. they look at the candidates, had he vet them. they are blessed with the opportunity that the candidates come into their hometowns and many times, their own homes and visit with them. and they get to learn how they stand on the issues. and also the debates have been a great opportunity for the candidates to show the contrast between themselves and the other candidates. and what michele has done is shown that sheets stands consistent and steadfast on the true conservative values that the people of iowa want in their leader and certainly the republican nominee and to go against barack obama, and that s something that we have stressed over the past several months and many people are beginning to recognize that, and certainly tomorrow ni
strong as you would like, if michele bachmann is in the same position tomorrow as she is today which is at the very bottom if not last, what is your game plan for going forward in new hampshire and south carolina and florida? we are optimistic how we will finish tomorrow. keep in mind john mccain came out of iowa in fourth place. i was with governor huckabee. we shot out of here like a rocket ship. the governor is fantastic. what we had in south carolina wasn t enough to keep the momentum going. michele bachmann has a strong ground game in south carolina. we have great volunteers, a fantastic staff in south carolina. wednesday morning we head straight to the south carolina and begin campaigning for a few days there. that s key because the people of south carolina share many of the similar views the people of iowa do. they re concerned with the issues like life and faith and