the debates dominated this election. once the debates ended, iowa went back to its traditional dna. having been out to iowa several times to watch him campaign it will be interesting to see if he can sustain this. he has a political history. rick perhe is already attacking him for ear marks saying you are just another politician. look at the candidates who have risen. ron paul, herman cain before him. now rick santorum. authenticity. gingrich and romney you can call flip-floppers. the candidates who seem to believe what they say vote in hat their belief. santorum has gained ground with people who think he s a credible, authentic candidate. listen to what santorum said. listen to this clip. with respect to the issue about i get a kick thoifts with governor romney. newt said this at the bede bait. governor romney is not like he s tried to be a career politician. he s just not been successful. still pretty polite the exchanges between romney and santorum.
candidates surging in the polls in iowa who weren t putting in the time that santorum had. the debates dominated this election. once the debates ended, iowa went back to its traditional dna. having been out to iowa several times to watch him campaign it will be interesting to see if he can sustain this. he has a political history. rick perhe is already attacking him for ear marks saying you are just another politician. look at the candidates who have risen. ron paul, herman cain before him. now rick santorum. authenticity. gingrich and romney you can call flip-floppers. the candidates who seem to believe what they say vote in hat their belief. santorum has gained ground with people who think he s a credible, authentic candidate. listen to what santorum said. listen to this clip. with respect to the issue about i get a kick thoifts with governor romney. newt said this at the bede bait. governor romney is not like he s
senator rick santorum. let s go to cnn s joe johns right now. he s joining us from des moines. i think rick santorum believed in himself. not a whole lot of others, joe, did. but it s been quite amazing over these past few days how well he s done. reporter: that s true, wolf. you know, more than half of the republicans who participated in this process the last time around viewed themselves as evangelical christians. born again christians. so it might be a little risque to compare this process to a seduction, but rick santorum has gone a long way. he says the other candidates in the race are speed dating, and he says what he s been doing is a courtship. i have done literally 358 or 359 town hall meetings in the state of iowa. we ve been to all 99 counties, and we weren t speed dating. reporter: rick santorum s polling numbers, his surge in the race for iowa, is starting to look like love. though the question is, what took so long for a staunch conservative who s been cou
comment? i will make a observation. rick perhe a problem with immigration. he got tough on gragz and this is the way to do it. while the idea of even raising the idea of sending troops into mexico may not be popular or well received in many parts of the tea party republican primary voter constituencies in south carolina and florida, i think they will accept it as a strong statement about immigration. always a pleasure having you on. you are the best when covering governor perry and we enjoy having you on. thanks, wayne. tonight on hardball, chris matthews takes a closer look and a special edition of his msnbc show. the debate is what it s called at 7:00 p.m. eastern. now to developing news in the trial of michael jackson s doctor. a live look at the l.a. courtroom where a representative
forces in libya are free tonight. late word of a new kidnapping and last ditch battles that may be linked to moammar gadhafi s escape plan. and cnn goes inside the virginia nuclear power plant near the epicenter of that historic quake. we have a lot of questions about nuclear safety and whether the east coast is prepared if another big one hits. wolf blitzer s off today. i m joe johns. you re in the situation room. hurricane irene is bearing town on the bahamas with winds of up to 120 miles an hour right now, and the national weather service warns this category 3 monster could be upgraded, upgraded to a category 4 tomorrow. that means irene could be capable of catastrophic damage when it slams the east coast in the days ahead. the storm has been pounding the turks and caicos and other islands and gaining strength along the way. there are reports of damage but so far no serious injuries. we do have a view from space that gives you an idea of just how big the storm is. it