the real clear politics average doesn t change that much. it s still a big spread. you see few changes there in the rcp average. best described as a true conservative? rick santorum at 29%. romney second at 15%. in south carolina, the real clear average of polls, romney is 27%. gingrich in second with 22. bring in our panel. the questioning panel tonight. jerry sy, and kelly evans, wall street journal. and my colleague, juan williams. columnist with the hill. okay, the countdown is on. we have been working for a while. talk about huntsman. how does it change the dynamics of this race? he wasn t a factor in south carolina. it narrows the field and it makes the choice clearer.
romney. newt really should talk about lying. i m just saying. if romney wins, or is a strong second to ron paul in iowa, the republican party, the other candidates will face a huge choice. in an election you have a chance to beat a democratic incumbent and going into mitt romney s strongest state, how nasty will the campaign get? how determined will you to be take him out or say we needed to get him in iowa, we didn t get him. that s huntsman s job. he ll try and take romney down. guys, thanks. talk about huntsman in new hampshire. iowa is just the beginning. a look ahead at a very, very busy few weeks for the republican presidential candidates and for all of us as well. but my nose is still runny. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn t treat that. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ deep breath] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. that s the cold truth!
romney. newt really should talk about lying. i m just saying. if romney wins, or is a strong second to ron paul in iowa, the republican party, the other candidates will face a huge choice. in an election you have a chance to beat a democratic incumbent and going into mitt romney s strongest state, how nasty will the campaign get? how determined will you to be take him out or say we needed to get him in iowa, we didn t get him. that s huntsman s job. he ll try and take romney down. guys, thanks. talk about huntsman in new hampshire. iowa is just the beginning. a look ahead at a very, very busy few weeks for the republican presidential candidates and for all of us as well. what is it about taking a first step that we find so compelling? is it because taking a step represents hope? or triumph? at genworth, we believe in taking small steps every day
this desperate pushback to get romney off his game. newt really should talk about lying. i m just saying. if romney wins, or is a strong second to ron paul in iowa, the republican party, the other candidates will face a huge choice. in an election you have a chance to beat a democratic incumbent and going into mitt romney s strongest state, how nasty will the campaign get? how determined will you to be take him out or say we needed to get him in iowa, we didn t get him. we need to pull back. that s huntsman s job. he ll try and take romney down. guys, thanks. talk about huntsman in new hampshire. iowa is just the beginning. a look ahead at a very, very busy few weeks for the republican presidential candidates and for all of us as well. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. lord of the carry-on. sovereign of the security line. you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go.
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