that is not true. i took an ear mark pledgemy first year in office and i have been ear mark free. chris: you haven t gotten almost $4 million in ear marks. the first year i came in i put the request in and then i found out what the ear mark system is about and took a pledge in the first term i never requested another ear mark since and i want. the bigger issue is are we going to continue to increase the credit card limit in washington and i m the only voice in washington that has said no to increasing the credit card limit. chris: several, iowa pastors appealed to you and to governor perry and to rick santorum one or two of you to drop out so that all of the social conservative vote could coalesce around one candidate. now, you all have your rights and you all decided no, you wanted to pursue your campaigns. will it be a big defeat for social conservatives and their issues on tuesday if as a result of the splintering of this vote a mitt romney or ron
they could change their mind. the fact that you have a surge in the back end of the polling for rick santorum where he is basically second and the fact that you have so many people out there that are now first-time caucus goers. according to this poll, 27%. how does that play? perhapses it is a benefit for ron paul. perhaps, though, it is a benefit because there is a bigger caucus turnout and it is a benefit for mitt romney. chris: let me ask you about that, jeff. are you surprised. romney had a tentative relationship with iowa. first was going to be involved and then not going to be involved. are you surprised that the romney people finally decided to commit to heavily to iowa. in. not surprised at all. i think the history of this will show that the romney campaign was engaged from the beginning in iowa. they had the biggest
candidate will have a big night tuesday and cap tour intensity of the fight for iowa when we go on the trail, all right now on fox news sunday. chris: hello again and happy new year from the iowa state capitol in des moines. we are broadcasting today from the or nate house chamber inside the capitol building and joining us live are three candidates who have a lot at stake in the caucuses here tuesday night. congressman ron paul, congresswoman michele bachmann and governor rick perry. with just two days until we hear from the voters the race here in iowa is still up for grabs. take a look at the final poll out today from the des moines register. over four days of polling, mitt romney leads with 24% with ron paul close behind and rick santorum in third with 15%. newt gingrich, rick perry and michele bachmann round out the field.
i think they saw in me someone who can take it to barack obama in the debate, hold him accountable and whistling particular when i was questioning ron paul on his dangerous policies on allowing a nuclear iran, that turned a light switch on for a lot of voters across iowa and people who weren t decided decided. and we have a lot of people who are going to come on tuesday night who are undecided and what they have seen in me is a champion who is stand up for them. in particular, they see that of all of the candidates in the race i m the only one with current national security experience. our next president will be tested almost immediately. look at what it happening in the strait of hormuz right now with iran. i m prepared to be able to meet that challenge. that is what our next president will have to do. chris: but don t you have a business disadvantage. your rivals are spending millions in campaign. you have not run a single tv commercial since iowa in ames back in august until today
more so now than even 20 years ago, because right now the evidence is loud and clear that government is failing in what they pretend they are going to do for us and that is why the people are looking for different answers. chris: on the other hand, congressman, in the latest des moines register poll it shows some evidence of a slide and in fact santorum passes you and you you fall into third. what can you do about that slide, sir? well, i think the dye has been cast and the ups and downs of the other candidates has been characteristic. they come and they go and they all belong to the status quo. the one thing is the people who make a commitment to the campaign for liberty and constitution and limited government and going after the fed, once they put this all together how liberty and free markets and a sound foreign policy come together they don t dessert. so our numbers aren t going to go down. a number of people aren t going to leave us as they have on the