is rick santorum. he needs a break-out moment. he has put more time than anyone in iowa. his ground game has gained considerably with cultural conservatives but largely unnoticed in the press and the polls. bret: carl. iowa governor terry branstead had interesting words about newt gingrich. he said he is not sure that gingrich has discipline to be president. he goes to every county. he prides himself using it for publicly uttered policy and statement. this is a shot across gingrich s bow. strong medicine. bret: you think it s a big deal? reporter: the governor of iowa, republican well known here raises questions about a guy who is competing as the front runner of the caucus three weeks away, big deal. bret: all right. thanks. the candidates will take the stage in a little less than three hourssy. the final debate. featuring all the candidates before republicans vote in the
has made a point of saying he needs to be there, to show up, to compete. he s holding his own in the polls in iowa, romney is, in contrast in fact to michele bachmann and others who spent a whole lot of time there and earned single digits. but does he have to at some point show them some love? i think that he does. and i think that the governor s comments are pretty good example of the con againsts of not doing that. governor branstead is a very mainstream figure who i think would like to see mitt romney compete in iowa and frankly recognizes that it would be good for iowa if a mainstream republican candidate ultimately won the caucuses there. mitt romney is holding his own in the polls, as you said. but we re starting to see other people get closer and closer. the bloomberg poll earlier this week showed a four-way tie for first place with gingrich and herman cain and ron paul up there giving him a run for his money. and speaking of gingrich, the richard land from the southern bapt
d hay te gfrgudiar n d d t lee coming up on news nation at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. we are following breaking news. in just 15 minutes the los angeles sheriff s department will hold a news conference to explain why it chose to reopen the investigation into the death of natalie woods. she died 30 years ago. woods death was ruled a drowning at the time. after she fell overboard on a yacht. the captain of that yacht now alleges that woods famous husband, robert wagner the actor, he claims he s responsible for her death. we ll bring you the latest from this incredible news conference. plus the boston globe reports some of mitt romney s staffers when he was governor purchased their company hard
your sweat is showing. chris matthews with alan cummings and someone playing a good imitation. a whole new career. don t leave us yet. that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports. i don t know if it s a recurring role, but tamron hall has a look at news nation. good to see you. have a great weekend. big breaking news at the top of the hour. any minute now the los angeles sheriff s department will hold a major news conference to explain why they reopened the investigation into the death of hollywood legend natalie wood who died third years ago. we will bring you that live. the boston globe reports some of mitt romney s staffer when he was governor performed hard drives and wiped out the e-mails. why? that report resulted in a legal back and forth that involves the dnc. i will talk with one of the reporter who is broke the story. you may have heard about the movement called small business
is holding in the hawkeye state today. mitt romney will be a no-show in wa this weekend when social conservatives hold a candidates cattle call. who s he afraid of? alex burns is politico s national political reporter and joins me now. thanks so much for being with us. thank you. why isn t he going to iowa? is this part of his decision? has he made his decision not to make a big play for iowa or is he still deciding? and is it just that he doesn t want to be in the group he wants to go on his own? mitt romney has been trying to have it both ways in iowa for some time. and this event this weekend, this social conservative forum saturday night, is sort of a perfect example of the iowa the kind of iowa event he wants to avoid. it s hosted by bob vanderplatz, prominent social conservative activist there mike huck bi s campaign chairman in the state in 2008. so sort of automatically if mitt romney showed up he would be on unfriendly territory. he s been trying to play in that stat