today, ron paul on the perils and promise of the efforts here and rick santorum on the sudden spotlight over his booming campaign, then the lay of the land from two influential iowan republicans, governor terry branstad and congressman steve king. fresh off the campaign trail the washington post dan balz the wall street journal s neil king give us their perspective. i m candy crowley in des moines. and this is state of the union . it s been a rough couple of weeks for ron paul. his top-tier seeding hs brought new scrutiny to some of his old writings. now big enough threat to draw unanimous dismissals from opponents. he s unelectable. you need to think long and hard about in casting your vote for congressman paul. one of the people running for president thinks it s okay for iran to have a nuclear weapon. i don t. ron paul is not getting the nomination. someone that is so out of sync with the american people that they don t need to be the president of the united
and this is state of the union . it s been a rough couple of weeks for ron paul. his top tier seating hs brought new scrutiny to some of his old writings. now big enough threat to draw unanimous dismissals from opponents. unelectable. you need to think long and hard about in casting your vote for congressman paul. one of the people run for president thinks it s okay for iran to have a nuclear weapon. i don t. ron paul is not getting the nominati nomination. someone that is so out of sync with the american people that they don t need to be the president of the united states. could you vote for him? no. reporter: through it all paul s proven support in iowa has not waivered. he is marching on dropping major cash for ads in new hampshire and south carolina and he s confident enough about iowa to spend this weekend at home in texas. i spoke to the congressman earlier this morning. congressman paul, thank you so much for joining us this morning. new des moines reg
it s already 2012 in some parts of the world. this is sidney, australia where a million people watched a massive fireworks display. in new zealand revelers turned out in auckland but heavy rain forced other cities to cancel outdoor celebrations. in syria, huge crowds are turning out across the country again today, an activist network based in syria says at least nine protesters died today killed in clashing with security forces. two opposition groups there reached a deal a few hours ago making a plan that charts a course for democracy in case syria s president steps down. back in this country, customer complaints pushed verizon to drop its plan to start charging that $2 fee to pay bills. the nation s largest wireless company wanted to charge the extra couple bucks for one time payments online or by phone, but customers raised a stink and it didn t take long for verizon to listen up and drop the idea. we re going to be following the republican contenders, live in iowa to
historic supreme court chamber here in the capitol building. tonight rick santorum s once little noticed campaign is riding into attention. thanks to the poll here in iowa, santorum is basking in the political spotlight at just the right time, five days before iowa s public caucuses. joe is trying to keep up with a man who is suddenly very money in demand. joe. hey, candy. i think you call it steady. that s the word he uses. he s had steady events, a steady flow of people coming out to see him. and rick santorum has been here for a long time, 99 counties, pretty much the only one to make 99 counties until michele bachmann said she s done it. very busy here in this state. good news on polls. also good news on fund-raising. the candidate told me today off camera that they ve had their best fund raising day ever online. this has been a campaign that has never been sort of a factor when you compare it to a lot of the other larger campaigns in terms of fund-raising, but one sour
most talked about moments when all eight republicans stood on the stage with me in tampa, florida, this week. governor perry, speaking of social security, you said in the past it s a ponzy scheme. an absolute failure. unconstitutional. but today you wrote an article in usa today saying it must be saved and reformed. very different tone. why? it s time for us to get back to the constitution. and a program that s been there 70 or 80 years, obviously we re not going to take that program away. but for people to stand up and support what they did in the 30s or in the 2010s is not appropriate for america. the question is, do you still believe that social security should be ended as a federal program as you did six months ago when your book came out and return to the states or do you want a treat for them? i think we ought to have a conversation we re having that right now, governor. we re running for president. we ll finish this conversation. but the issue is, are ther