undecided do? independents are the largest voting bloc in new hampshire. we ll find out in a couple of days. heather: that boots on the ground campaigning seemed to work in iowa for santorum. so tell us about the battle for second place in the new hampshire primary. well, there is some polling suggestion that perhaps jon huntsman has jumped up in the polls and might be competing for second place. but the huntsman campaign had a rough go of it. they ve spent a tremendous amount of time here and not gotten a lot of attention because the race up until last week, was focused largely in iowa. in addition to that, you ve got the question of rick santorum and ron paul. ron paul, the libertarian leaning republican from texas, has a strong following here in new hampshire. a lot of it s young people and college students. but because of the independent vote, because of his libertarian streak, ron paul could be a real factor here. many expect him to come in second. rick santorum has really bee
gregg: this isn t horse shoes. you have to win. coming in second or third or fourth doesn t work and it s not just new hampshire, doug. but south carolina. congressman paul has now dropped there. south carolina. to fourth place in the latest rasmussen poll with a scant 11%. 11%, doug. a separate time poll finds him town by 25 points, which is consistent with the real clear politics poll average, which has him down by 22%. look, doug, why is that happening? just 11% of the vote. is it because all of the if i can call them alternatives to romney, the anti-romneys and whether it be, you know, rick santorum or newt gingrich or rick perry, they re drawing away votes from ron paul or at least splitting the votes, which elevates mitt romney. interesting. we see it the other way around. for example, when we came out of
why not flatly rule it in or out? why hedge like that? doesn t that uncertainty undermine his republican candidacy? i will tell you, i think i have gotten to the bottom of in a whole discussion. i interviewed him yesterday a little bit. he s a lutheran and he was raised as a strict lutheran and two of his brothers are ministers and there is a very strict teaching, christian teaching, let your yes be yes, your no be no, and while he s an absolutist about moral issues, he s not an absolutist about yes or no til he s absolutely sure. it s philosophical thing. gregg: you said you interviewed him about this yesterday. it is fair to say that ron paul will not rule out a third party presidential bid. true? he doesn t want to do it. but has he ruled it out? absolutely no. but is that like an ordinary
trying to consolidate his near victory in iowa and build the momentum to something big. he could really win if he got second. that would be gigantic but it would be a win if he got third and ron paul was second. he would be consolidating his roll as the anti-romney candidate. gregg: santorum is rising in the polls but the question is does he have enough days left to rise high enough? how are the crowds reacting to santorum out there? reporter: i think he they like their message. he has a reputation of social conservative candidate. but he has deep knowledge of entitlement reforms giving ten minutes to questions about social security. he is getting in the weed there has. some people in new hampshire like to hear details and not just rhetoric and he is delivering on that.
party has made them unwelcome. i think it s very important right now to bring all these new young people into the fold and make them part of a new republican majority. gregg: i understand that ron paul wants to and expects to be perhaps the republican nominee. but if he s not, would he prefer barak obama or any of the other remaining gop candidates? i don t think he d prefer barak obama. but there is concern because barak obama s number one donor is goldman sachs. mitt romney s number one donor is goldman sachs. they both supported the bailout. they both won t audit the federal reserve. let it operate as some secret organization. there is concern. the people who support us have lost their homes, they ve lost the value of their ira s, they ve lost the value of their homes and their jobs and the people who support mitt romney are elitist bankers.