america s ironing lady. coming soon to a primary state near you you haven t got the courage. and she ll never back down. reporter: michele bachmann plays maggie thatcher who is played by meryl streep.
christine romans will show you why iowa voters may not be asking the same questions as you. let s go ahead and begin with jim in west des moines. you ve been with rick santorum almost 24/7. you do let the guy sleep. what s that been like? reporter: it has been amazing to watch, kyra. who would have thought when all of this got start that had we would be chasing rick santorum around in the final 24 hours before the iowa caucuses that the international press, he had the japanese, the german and the french, the british press all tailing him yesterday and testifies drawing some very big crowds partly because he is sort of the last alternative to mitt romney to emerge in this process because a lot of evangelical voters in the state have finally said, you know what, let s go with rick santorum inside this high school gymnasium later on this morning along with michele bachmann and ron paul to make some final arguments as a rock the caucus forum here in west des moines. so we re go
and rick santorum are running neck and neck and neck. while perry and bachmann are struggling to stay in the race. huntsman is passing on iowa and doubling down in new hampshire. for gingrich tonight s caucuses come several weeks after he peaked in the polls. but he said he is still in position to win. there s 41% who are undeci d undecided, it s very possible to win. we ve talked we ve had 18,000 people in a telephone conversation call yesterday afternoon. we reached 89,000 eye juans and telephone conference calls and one more yet today. we have precinct leaders who believe that the caucus those are going to walk in, have a discussion and a substantial number of going to switch. 41% newt gingrich mentioned are voter s who say they could change their minds. whatever happens in iowa, romney says he s going to face president obama in november. by the way the president is running in iowa too. he ll speak to the caucusing democrats live via satellite this evening and mitt
and signing what others have sign. it even ends is the to posing with the hound. newt gingrich suggested he goes to his web page, pets with newt where owners in pets like flint pledge their support. no critics have called it pandering to canine americans. there s one pet you don t see with newt. that would be newt the aquatic amphibian. and newt the candidate isn t just lowering expectations. he is submerging them. whatever i do tomorrow night will be a victory. i m still standing. reporter: lately michele bachmann has been standing in someone else s shoes. s in shoot and legacy of ronald reagan, our might say of a margaret thatcher we are in need of an american iron lady. reporter: she even refers to herself in a last-minute ad. the consistent conservative fighter. reporter: america s iron lady. not to be confused with manager s ironing lady.
than 50 cars set ablaze since friday. los angeles police announce arrests. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. we re counting down the hours to the first voting of the 2012 presidential campaign. 28 hours to be precise, until iowa republicans gather at more than 1700 locations for their party caucuses and start picking their favorites. candidates have spent millions of dollars, logged many thousands of miles in this long iowa marathon. now it s a sprint. as they dash across the state looking for the last few votes. mitt romney is at the head of the pack trying to hold back ron paul and a hard charging rick santorum. let s go live to cnn joe johns joining us from marion iowa right now with the latest. joe? wolf, mitt romney is pushing across the state traveling hundreds of miles. certainly one of the busiest days of his entire campaign. he is trying to get his supporters to go out and caucus for him. on the final day of campaigning, energy is everything in io