comparison here. i don t want to take advantage of the time too much, but the thing that fascinates me is the parallel there is santorum going to cut up the conservative vote like thompson. it will not happen in a way to stop gingrich. the difference is when he fizzled out in south carolina and that ended the debate, and even if santorum is 12% tonight, there is an incentive for him to stay in this race and it was what john was alluding to earlier. even if santorum gets 8% in florida, if romney loses again in the republican establishment starts panicking, santorum is probably thinking to himself i want to be the insurance policy. if this romney thing collapses i can be what i was the last week in iowa and they can come back to me once again. there was an important difference between fred thompson and rick santorum. he does not spend 18 hours on his la-z-boy. the difference between
have simply by campaigning. going negative on gingrich could backfire on romney. it could turn off republican voters. with less than a month to before the caucuses, romney needs to do something to stop gingrich s surge. rob, sunny. pretty good at defending off some attackers. coming out with arrows pretty sharp tomorrow night. should be interesting to see how he handles himself. you re wondering what happened to the donald trump debate. only two people have agreed to take part in that, newt, rick santorum and michele bachmann, rick perry said no thanks. that will not be an active debate not for mr. trump. watch abc s news coverage of tomorrow night s debate from iowa with moderators, george stephanopoulos and diane sawyer. tune in at 9:00 eastern, 6:00 pacific. u.s. officials are telling abc news that a drone displayed on iranian tv is the real drone lost by the u.s. those officials also say it was probably pieced together since being recovered. we re told that the drone that was
politico they aware something m be done to stop gingrich s rise. and romney himself has suggested if recent events that he is about to get more aggressive. and now a republican political consultant who spent three decades managing media campaigns and also works for three presidential campaigns, including george w. bush. good to see you. i want your take. is romney just taking it up a none or is this really a scramble? is there panic? guest: no, this, it is time. there are four weeks before we count ballots in iowa, and, frankly, the first phase of the campaign has been a prelude. the campaign particularly with romney and the other candidates, there are two strategic directions they have been going. the group that is less well-known had to get people s attention, the affection and support of the conservatives and
the tea party, to get out of the pack and rise up to be the alternative to romney, and, romney, he has been focused on putting together the massive infrastructure that will take to actually be a national candidate, when it comes time for the all of the contests so begin so he is doing what he has to do at this point. trace: you say it is time but people will say, yes, it is time and now the polls from iowa and south carolina, gingrich is skyrocketing in the polls and this has to be scary information for the romney campaign. look at the south carolina g.o.p. primary, 38 percent for gingrich and 21 percent for romney and in iowa, we are four weeks away, and you have gingrich up 33 percent to romney s 18 percent that s a little chilling for romney and the rest of the field. it is, but gingrich, speaker gingrich has to leverage that popularity into actual votes and up to this point he has run a
unnamed way of going after both gingrich and romney when he talks about if romney s case his business record and with gingrich his government record. everyone has their past and their history and they all have to live with that. so, if you are part of wall street or part of washington, or if you still are, you are part of the problem. carl: there you go. rick perry has been pointing to washington and wall street and saying you can draw a straight line through the problem. referring both to wall street s problems with the financial meltdown and the lack of regulation in dealing with the problems and dealing with washington, dc and he says the problem with insiders like begin rich, has been for years. trace: thank you, carl. and gingrich has been grabbing a lot of headlines as he climbs in the polls. and it look like someone has finally told romney next word from the former frontrunner that he is retooling his campaign.