definitely a race to the finish in iowa this morning. the republican candidates are blitzing the state, racing the clock and we re just ten hours away from iowa s presidential caucuses now, heartland voters will crush some dreams and they ll fuel some others. and the six candidates campaigning in the state are hoping for the most elusive iowa export. political momentum pushing them toward the big white house. now the race too close to call according to the des moines register, but mitt romney in a dead heat with ron paul, and rick santorum still surging and in third place today the candidates are scrambling for last-minute support, too, the gingrich and perry campaign holding events minutes from now. meanwhile, ron paul, rick santorum and michele bachmann appear at a rock the caucus event, that will happen later this hour. newt gingrich has seen his
that could help santorum as it did with mike huckabee in 2008. and then there is issue number three, who stands to lose? newt gingrich, rick perry, and michele bachmann have all dropped in the polls but are battling to stay in this race behind the top three. placing fourth may be their best hope. if they place any lower, some say dropping out of the race may be their only viable option. and number two, rick santorum and ron paul could benefit who loses. santorum has been surging lately. a poll on saturday showed him rounding out the top three. santorum says he didn t come to lose. the people of iowa have kicked his tires and lit his fires. that is a direct quote. and the same poll has ron paul in second. paul s campaign told cnn it has signed up more than 1400 volunteers, which is another reason is he expected to end up in the top three. and finally, number one, all
visit them all, it s a great state to visit and the new way to do it. if we do this by candidate visits, this is just from september, let s break it down. michele bachmann says she will get to all 99 by the end of this. she s done it the old fashioned way. rick santorum, this is in september, he touched all 99 counties and been back to many several times. he is the true do it the old fashioned way. we ll see if this works out. in the converse, governor romney hardly noticed here in the state. he has been there the least of all of the candidates yet he could win the state tonight. candidate visits aren t as important as before unless rick santorum proves us wrong. one more thing to bring up quickly, the tv ad spending. this is just by the candidates, this light or afrpg, that s rick perry, he has bought more campaign ads in iowa than any other candidate. at the moment he s struggling in the polls. we ll see if that changes. governor romney, a decent slice. one more thing to add, not jus
i attended a rick santorum rally yesterday. he answered me truthfully. i got to verify that on his record. pretty much it s up in the air between him and michele bachmann. newt gingrich might sneak in there as well. i don t know. so while you remain undecided, let me ask you a couple more questions, where exactly are you going to go tonight and how did you decide which meeting you were going to go to? well, we have the republican party [ no audio ] it looks like we ve lost if you can still hear me, adam, we lost your audio, so let s double-check that and come back to you. meanwhile, while we try to get reconnected with adam, as i was just mentioning mitt romney is at another grassroots rally there in des moines, iowa, and his wife, ann, by his side. and yesterday when we dipped in, he had handed the mike over to
overlapping circle of tea party activists, evangelical christians, have been resistant to romney all the way through but they have never coalesced behind a single candidate, as you know. they have cycled through michele bachmann, rick perry, herman cain, newt gingrich. now the wheel is turning to santorum but it s not clear that he has the scale even if he does well here to really consolidate and unify the vote and you have the risk that the conservatives who are dubious of romney face that he may never get to the point where he has an absolute majority of the party saying, yes, he s my guy, but he could win anyway because no one con l consolidates that potential majority. and you re waking up with all the undecided voters, have they made up their behinds yet? well, i think they re waking up more in their own homes. thank you for clarifying. i feel much better. yeah. you know, when people say they are undecided, what they mean, i think, is they are not locked into a candidate.