you re in the situation room . the first republican presidential contest is two weeks away and a top obama adviser says the democrats are counting on a long primary season slugfest between newt gingrich and mitt romney. every word from the candidates could make a difference. jim acosta is covering the final sprint of the caucuses. jim, we re seeing a possible shift in the romney campaign strategy. what are you seeing? what are you hearing? reporter: well, there may be a big momentum shift for mitt romney out here in iowa, wolf. he had a pretty good debate on thursday night against the gop field. he merged pretty much unscathed. he was not the subject of the attacks from the other candidates. that was really newt gingrich s role. he was beat up pretty good during that contest. and so mitt romney came into a city and he said he plans to take over the voters in the coming weeks. what concerns me is that we have in washington a class of people who spent their whole time i
over and out. the u.s. military lowers the flag in baghdad. the final u.s. troops leaving iraq with pride. and putting a fragile nation in the rear view mirror. breaking news for your paycheck. big compromise on capitol hill that could put $1,000 or more back into your paycheck next year. occupy gingrich. newt gets heckled by wall street protesters. they get it back on this american morning. good morning, everyone. it is thursday, december 15. welcome to american morning. good morning, carol. good morning, christine. good morning to all of you. it s over. minutes ago u.s. forces lowered the flag at baghdad and retired the colors to mark the end of the nearly nine-year iraq war. final few thousand u.s. troops are leaving iraq ahead of the new year s eve deadline to get out. it is a war that started with shocking and awe. today the departing soldiers are remembering more than 4,000 who did not come home alive. the long journey home. let s get to barbara starr. s
took a lead after round one are still ahead. election process has months to go. it s scheduled to wrap up in march. beljan belgian police have ruled out terrorism. authorities are puzzled about the reasons for carrying out this gun and grenade attack in downtown. those are the top stories from cnn, the world news leader. i m zain vergee. world business today starts now. hello and welcome to world business today, it s thursday, december 15th and i m nina dos santos at cnn london. and in hong kong, these are the top stories. export angst, disappointing stock day and manufacturing malaise sound alarm bells here in asia. cracks are appearing in the eu s agreement that was men to the save the single currency. and chinese internet senses are way in as anger over a land grab continues. debt and economic distress have dragged western economies down over the past few years, it seems as though asia had been appearing to defy gravity. now it seems the signs are that th
political university for the republican white house hopefuls. most of the candidates have iowa on their schedule today with their eyes on the all important caucuses less than three weeks away. that includes newt gingrich, who s iowa campaign director resigned amid reports he called romney s mormon faith a cult. but do voters share that view? and could that be part of the reason why mitt romney isn t xweting even more support? joe johns is joining us with more. he s been taking a closer look at romney s faith. i guess the question is mormon faith holding him back? it s a very good question, wolf. what about mitt romney s faith? one of those questions a lot of people dismiss as soon as it s asked. partly because people of both parties say they want to believe that a presidential election ought to be about issues, that the religion is beside the point, but polls show it was an issue four years ago and believe it or not, it s still an issue today. when you ask a lot of evange