to you today as a candidate for president of the united states. cnn political correspondent jim acosta is at the red state conference in charleston. he joins us live now. jim, the impact that perry may have on this presidential playing field. any guesses? [ inaudible ] we ll have to work out the audio because you re not the only one who is not hearing jim acosta. we ll try to re-establish that in a moment. there is another major political story going on right now in iowa. the nation s first caucus state is holding its famous ames straw poll. it is a critical test of a candidate s strength. it can boost a candidate to the front of the pack or eliminate them from contention altogether. the best political team on television is on the ground in iowa, among them cnn deputy political director paul steinhauser. why is this one poll so important when a lot of people say other straw polls are insignificant, don t matter? well, hey, good point there. this is nonbinding. candidate