it's great on talk radio, great in the print. it makes for fun reading. but in terms of a president, we need a leader. and a leader needs to be someone who can bring americans together. >> moments ago the iowa front-runner, now the national front-runner, newt gingrich, deflected governor romney's criticism directed at gingrich campaign. telling reporters at a press conference that just concluded in iowa city, iowa he will continue to focus on staying positive. positive was not the tone gingrich took during several exchanges during the news conference. jim acosta was at the news conference and joins us from iowa city. take us inside the press conference. the speaker questioned not only about the romney attack but was other things as well. you could see he was a tad testy. >> reporter: he was. you know, i think what newt gingrich was trying to say in this room, just a few moments ago, is that he is, as you said, a few moments ago, trying to stick to a positive campaign. there was that attack from mitt romney earlier today. i pressed him on that question. i said, look he called you zany in this interview with "the new york times" and he sort of cut off the question and said, i'm not going to go there, i'm going it leave it up to reporters to ask the candidates what they're doing and what they're saying on the campaign trail. i'm going to focus on a positive campaign. he admitted, later on in that news conference, john that he felt like he had been baited by mitt romney earlier this week. recall earlier this week, when governor romney said that newt gingrich had perhaps returned some of the money he earned advising the housing giant freddie mac, and then newt gingrich responded, perhaps mitt romney should compensate all of those people he downsized the head of bayne capital. gingrich conceded that he felt baited into that back and forth, and he feels that took him off message. he message, he says, is a positive one. >> they should run their campaign the way they want to. i'm going to run my campaign the way i want to. my campaigness going to focus on positive ideas and positive solutions. >> reporter: so that's how newt gingrich put it right there. he says he's going to focus on positive solutions. he was at an event today talking about a brain science project he wants to bring to the national institutes of health if elected president. but, john, during that speech that he gave here at university of iowa, occupy wall street protesters, they call themselves occupy iowa city protesters, lashed out at the former speaker. security had to take the demonstrators out. at the very end of that question and answer session, in that room there was an unidentified man who asked a nasty question of newt gingrich and said to the former speaker that he had a ph.d. on cheating on his wife. think was a difficult day for the former speaker, john. >> difficult day heading into the final stretch here in iowa. the challenge now is, can he keep the lead in the polls? jim acosta, thank you. more perspective from our chief political an lift, gloria borger. this is testing time. he leads in the national polls, more importantly, leads here in iowa, the first state and then south carolina and florida, three and four. the question, can he withstand the attacks? there's two parts of that. how does he response to them? two, how do the vooet votters, with newt gingrich, will it sell or does he have to fire back? >> it's working so far. he makes a point when he says he feels baited because he is being baited, to a degree with negative ads coming at him, with mitt romney calling him zany and intemperate, and you know, i think if he keeps the smile on his face it's going to -- it's going to work for him, john. the question is, you have other campaigns out there who are waiting for the old newt gingrich to return, and you know the old newt gingrich, john, and he will respond. you know, he says he reserves the right to respond to charges that are specifically made at him, but i think today he was -- he was really exhibiting a lot of self-restraint, don't you? >> self-restraint for now. the question is, the last debate before the iowa caucuses is tomorrow night. he's going to encounter more protesters, more tough questions. some of them personal. let's listen to the exchange jim acosta was talking about near the end of the gingrich news conference. >> yes, sir. you talk about money not being everything. but you have taken plenty of shortcuts, publishing your books and marketing them. it seems like -- >> how would you know? >> and cheating on your wife -- >> how would you know? other than personal hostility, which is understandable, but not part of the academic experience, how would you know anything about how i published and sold books? i went to commercial publishers, they were in bookstores, people who liked them could buy them, people who didn't didn't have to buy them. it was called freedom. the fact i write books people like may bother you. it doesn't mean people aren't allowed to buy them. >> a classic gingrich and calm answer to the part of his success selling books. he ignored the question about his personal life. if he's going to spend a lot of time in iowa, from reporters and activists, there's going to more of that over the next 20 days. >> he handled himself pretty well there, john. he could have taken on the marital infidelity question, he chose to ignore it, which is a good thing for him to do, and talked about the academic experience. newt gingrichs a teacher. he's a professor. he's a lecturer. and so he -- he understood how to handle it. if the hostility's thrown at him and he deflects in a low-key way, i think that probably works to his advantage. i think the question is, on policy, as it comes at him at the debate tomorrow night, the question is whether his poll numbers start to go down. if people believe he's less than a conservative that than he says he is and that's important in iowa, right? >> it's very important in iowa. that's where people say the attacks are beginning to take a toll. gloria made mention of that debate tomorrow night. very important to watch. we'll see if he's doing in the debates what he's doing in these interviews. gloria borger, thanks. more to tell you about on the campaign trail today. another poll showing that newt gingrich is clearly the republican front-runner when you look at national numbers. 40% of those surveyed by nbc news with the "wall street journal" prefer gingrich as the republican nominee. mitt romney is coming in second at 23%. take a look when the same poll asked how the top republican candidates stack up against president obama. romney statistically tied with the president. but compare that to obama versus gingrich. the president leads 51% to 40%. ramping up his attacks on gingrich today, governor romney released a web video tying the former speaker to another former speaker that, well, republicans love to hate, the democrat, nancy pelosi. >> if enough of us demand action from our leaders -- >> together we can do this. >> another dond watcandidate to ron paul, numbers are rising in iowa and new hampshire. >> a whole lot for the campaign that means momentum is building up. a lot of the candidates so far in this past year would come and go. they'd shoot to the top and drop back rapidly. ours has never been that way. ho ours has been steady growth. >> here in iowa, there's a buzz about perhaps an uptick for the texas governor, rick perry. he launched a 42-city bus tour across iowa. governor perry's message he's the washington outsider who will change the way business is done, especially on capitol hill. >> i think it's time to send them home, cut their pay in half, cut their staffs in half. you want to overhaul washington, d.c., that's one of the ways to do it. >> back in washington, late today, news of a major concession from senate democrats who say they will now drop their push for a tax on those making over $1 million. that was part of the democratic proposal to pay for extending the payroll tax cut. in a -- this news, a testy exchange on the floor of the senate earlier today -- >> republican leaders already spent weeks drumming up tea party support for legislation they knew was dead on arrival in the senate. now it's time to get this vote over with, so real negotiations can begin to run a tax increase on 160 million middle class americans. >> it made no attempt to produce a bill that can pass the senate. it is their responsibility and the majority to do that. instead we've wasted week after week after week, one senseless show vote after another. >> this afternoon, democratic leaders went to the white house for a last-minute meeting. let's check in with kate bolduan. she has the latest from capitol hill. kate, the democrats have been adamant this is twit pay for the payroll tax extension, why did they essentially blink? >> reporter: this is a major concession on the part of democrats. this came following a midday meeting of senate democratic leaders with president obama at the white house. i'm told by a senate democrat source democrats are working on a new offer to extend the payroll tax cut. details of what will be included in that not yet unveiled, not yet clear, but significantly, as noted they will be dropping this millionaire's surtax as a way to cover the cost. what does this mean going forward? it's anyone's guess, it's all very fluid up here on capitol hill right now. i think a big question is, if democrats are giving here, and they will tell you this is their -- i'm sure they will tell us this is their attempt towards compromise to break the logjam and the standstill we've been watching play out today if they're going to give here, what will they be looking for republicans to give on from their perspective. what will republicans give if democrats give on this major concession? that is not clear right now. also very interesting, i'll be looking forward to see how republican leader in the senate and the house will be reacting on to this news. some colleagues did ask speaker boehner as well asthma jorts leader eric cantor on the house side what their thoughts were on this developing news. they deflects questions but i don't fknow if we can read into that as it's developing at moment. as you know, we can't read too much into every step of the way, as this has been quite a winding road to this point. but we do know that both sides are very much feeling the pressure to break this logjam and break this standstill as we're facing potential government shutdown come friday and of course the american people being very tired that both sides cannot come together to reach a compromise on this and pretty much every other issue, john. >> it's okay, it's complicated chess for both parties. republicans don't want to be part of raising taxes and the senate democrats thought they had a good issue with the millionaire's tax. is that a sense among the senate democrats the urgency of the white house to keep the tax cut in place is taking away from them a potential issue in the campaign next year? >> reporter: i think one thing that really changed the feeling up here, if i could say today, was that after the house voted last night on their version, on the republican version, to extend the payroll tax cut which democrats are opposed to, senate democrats thought they would be moving towards a vote on this house bill in the senate, which democrats say would not pass, would fail, and thus that would be kind of the next chess move if you will, to get to the negotiating table. senate republican leader mitch mcconnell, he hesitated and he resisted that from moving forward. so there seems to have been kind of a change in the status and a change in the stance today, and we're seeing a lot of different movements that no one predicted and we'll have to see kind of how that plays out and what that means for the democratic and republican message going forward because as you know, this has to do with political strategy, john. >> a lot of moving parts on capitol hill. kate bolduan, keeping track of it. we'll check in as the story unfolds in the days ahead. three minutes away from a live interview with michele bachmann, once a big republican favorite especially near iowa. she's now struggling. 6:40, evangelicals will make up a majority of the caucusgoers. are they thready to support a thrice married newt gingrich? 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♪ i think we should see other people. in fact, i'm already seeing your best friend, justin. hey, tim, she's in good hands, buddy. love you. we're going to hawaii together. ♪ wow. um, i would have appreciated a proactive update on the status of our relationship. who do you think i am, tim, quicken loans? ♪ at quicken loans, we provide you with proactive updates on the status of your home loan. and our innovative online tools ensure that you're always in the loop. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. has he been here this whole time? live on the campus of iowa state university. jack trice stadium. michele bachmann winning the ames republican straw poll that vaulted her into the top tier. strong early debate performances kept her there. since then the congresswoman has been struggling including right here in n. her birth state of iowa. michele bachmann joins us live. heading into the final stretch, 20 days now from the state you were born in, casting the first official votes of 2012, if you look at polling here in iowa, the new american research group poll out, gingrich, 22, ron paul 17, romney, 17, perry at 13 you're in fifth, tied with rick santorum at 7%. what went wrong near iowa? >> actually, there's an a.p. poll that came out today that's just fresh and hot off the presses, i'm tied for third right now. so we've moves up a lot just in the last couple of days. that's what you're going to see, 60 to 70% of the people are undecided and this reads a lot like a book. chapter one, we won the only race held in the country that was statewide, the iowa straw poll. i won that. then we had new candidates come in with a lot of drama, but ooh think when we get to the last chapter, john, we are going to see people come home because they're looking for the true proven tested conservative and that's me. i'm the one who can stand on the stage with barack obama. there's no issues of compromise between barack obama and ploois. i think what you're going to see is a lot of great pretenders in this race pretending to be conservatives but they're really just big government liberals and that's what the problem is. that's not what our base wants. they went a true social conservative, a true fiscal conservative, a true tea partier, and a true national security conservative. of all candidates in the race, i'm the only one that meets that criteria. that's why i'm confident that we're going to show very strong on january 3rd. >> so let's talk a bit about that. i'll get to some of the conditions you call phony conservatives in a minute. someone you would concede as a fellow conservative on most issues is rick santorum, former pennsylvania senator. he knows that a big part of his base if he's to do well here, has to be evangelical christian conservatives. at least half of the caucusgoers for republicans are evangelical voters. listen to rick santorum who likes you and likes your record, but he doesn't think you're presidential. >> it's not like she's ever had or has had any record of success of attracting the kind of voters that we need if we're going to win this election. i think she has a lot going for her but we -- we've gone through a president with limited experience. it's not working out real well for america. >> how would you respond to senator santorum who is trying to take away your support among born-again christians and other evangelical voters? >> i very strong support and the reason why i do is because people know that i have a strong track record. i'm 100% pro-life from conception until natural death. i also raised 23 foster children in my home, together with five biological kids and carried the constitutional amendment to define marriage as one man, one woman. i've stood up for religious liberty strongly during my time in congress. the other thing is i'm the first republican woman to get elected in a liberal state like minnesota. that's never happened before. i've won four races since the time that rick santorum lost his race. and i have great respect for rick santorum but i have a very strong level of accomplishment. i think part of that includes the fact that i came from a family that went to below poverty and i earned my way out of that poverty and eventually i worked my way through college, law school, post doctorate program in federal tax law. i worked for years in the federal tax court. i started a successful company. i employ scores of people in my business. i'm a very successful person. i also won in a district where nancy pelosi spent $9.6 million to defeat me. i raises more money for congress than any member in the history of congress and brought 40,000 americans to fight against obama care to the washington, d.c., capital. i have a very strong track record of success, including minnesota was the only state in the country that had overturned our federal politically correct dumbed down education standards. i have a strong record of success that i'll put up against anyone's. and the most important thing about being president is being a lead who stands and i will. >> let's me jump in here. i don't know if you're aware, but you have a supporting role in a new web video, the romney campaign is sending around to its supporters. you can see it on the internet. governor romney saying newt gingrichs a hypocrite when it comes to freddie mac, he was with you in an event in 2008 when he was railing against it. let's listen to the speaker's criticism. we'll see a small glimpse of michele bachmann in this video, and then i'll ask you a question. >> the consequence of the survival they should be broken up, they should go through the equivalent of a receivership and then everybody who is profiting from them should pay the cost of having failed. >> is speaker gingrich a hypocrite? everybody who prof fitted should pay the cost ? what do you say? >> speaker gingrich has a real problem. over 30 years he's been the quintessential insider. he is the establishment. he's the king of k street. his address is the rodeo drive of washington, d.c., which is k street where all of the lobbyists will r. that's because he's taken in over $100 million for influence pedalling. taking over $1.6 million from freddie mac the epicenter of the financial meltdown and now he's saying the opposite they should go into bankruptcy. none of it adds up. if you look at newt gingrich's record, not only is he a big government liberal, he's also on the progressive territory where, for 20 years, he was hanging out with toff