us tonight. we ll turn our critical edge on reporters in iowa and washington and especially the surge in negative reporting about ron paul. this the skeleton in ron paul s closet. this is from the ron paul newsletter. so you read them but you didn t do anything about it at the time. i never read this stuff. why did the press take so long to start examining the congressman s sometimes inflammatory record? i m howard kurtz and we re kicking off the 2012 season onsome reliable sources. happy new year to all of you. it s obviously not a holiday for much of the political press gearing up for actual voting of 2012 after a year of prediction and prognostication. after treating ron paul as an entertaining side show they reacted to his rise in the polls the same way michele bachmann, rick perry, herman cain and newt gingrich shot up in surveys by belatedly examining his record including incendiary and racist news letters that were published under his name for years. there
22%. rick santorum is now third with 16%. newt gingrich is at 14%. michele bachmann is on the campaign trail in des moines right now, a day after one of her high profile advisers defected. bachmann is likely to face questions about the decision by state senator ken sorenson to jump ship and throw his support behind ron paul. we re keying an eye on bachmann s media event and we ll take you there live for some of the q and a session. he may be the front-runner but mitt romney isn t predicting how he will do in the iowa caucuses. he started the day in cedar falls talking about the job and the economy. speaking with wolf blitzer he responded to kplats from newt gingrich about attack ads. i don t know why he s so angry. look, this is a campaign about the things we believe in. i believe the country s being led in a very unfortunate and destructive way by a president that doesn t really understand our economy or america. i can get america working again. that s why i m running.
tonight rick santorum s once little noticed campaign is riding into attention. thanks to the poll here in iowa, santorum is basking in the political spotlight at just the right time, five days before iowa s public caucuses. joe is trying to keep up with a man who is suddenly very money in demand. joe. hey, candy. i think you call it steady. that s the word he uses. he s had steady events, a steady flow of people coming out to see him. and rick santorum has been here for a long time, 99 counties, pretty much the only one to make 99 counties until michele bachmann said she s done it. very busy here in this state. good news on polls. also good news on fund-raising. the candidate told me today off camera that they ve had their best fund raising day ever online. this has been a campaign that has never been sort of a factor when you compare it to a lot of the other larger campaigns in terms of fund-raising, but one source telling us today that their fund-raising had been exponent
to see. it is amazing to me how this guy has been shot this many times. i mean, he s superman. i have been shot three times. my fingers have bullet holes. did you hear had a? part man, part terminator. shot three times in a robbery. a marine pulls out the bullets with his own hands. and now he s talking about it from his hospital bed on this american morning. good morning, everyone. it is thursday, december 29. this is american morning. a lot going on today. let s get right to it. that s right. good morning, everybody. glad you are with us. i m alina cho. up first, dramatic shift in the political landscape with five days to go before the iowa caucuses. just look at this brand-new c cnn/ time poll. mitt romney on top in iowa now. followed closely by ron paul. newt gingrich plunging and rick santorum suddenly rolling right to the top three. gingrich now 11 points behind romney. he s dropped 19 points in less than a month. after gingrich called on romney, again, to
historic supreme court chamber here in the capitol building. tonight rick santorum s once little noticed campaign is riding into attention. thanks to the poll here in iowa, santorum is basking in the political spotlight at just the right time, five days before iowa s public caucuses. joe is trying to keep up with a man who is suddenly very money in demand. joe. hey, candy. i think you call it steady. that s the word he uses. he s had steady events, a steady flow of people coming out to see him. and rick santorum has been here for a long time, 99 counties, pretty much the only one to make 99 counties until michele bachmann said she s done it. very busy here in this state. good news on polls. also good news on fund-raising. the candidate told me today off camera that they ve had their best fund raising day ever online. this has been a campaign that has never been sort of a factor when you compare it to a lot of the other larger campaigns in terms of fund-raising, but one sour