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
gingrich is getting weaker. there are polls. we have to wait and see how they come out. i think long term the romney s explanation of the flip-flops isn t very good. the truth is he s changed on issue after issue after issue that go to questions of conscience. i don t think that will wear well, at least in the general election. but right now i d say he s recovered from what could have been a near death experience in the republican nominating process. if he wins iowa and there s now some chance it appears that he will, i think this will be a very, very short process. if he wins iowa, it could be partly because ron paul, actually, i think hurt himself with the iran, the foreign policy stuff bob and susan. it just seems as though he really lost the audience in talking about that. let s talk about women. first of all, i want to play for you something that may have been a little bit overlooked because of the debate. this was newt gingrich on iowa public television explaining when asked ab
votes under ron paul and take them off the board. he s not going to be a factor at the end. lawrence, it occurs to me that ron paul is the last hippy in america. he s the anti-war, let s legalize pot candidate. it s really amazing to see him pop up in the midst of the republican nominating process. you know, lawrence, if i can howard, mitt romney delivered his standard debate performance tonight, but is that still good enough? he s now in second place, and it is not just a close second place. he s now in what is a distant second place to newt gingrich and newt gingrich is polling as the candidate who would be the best commander in chief. he s polling as one who understands the complex issues the best. doesn t mitt romney have to find some new moves now against gingrich? yes, he absolutely does. see, now, everybody s waiting for newt to blow up. you know, newt s capable of losing his temper.
he s not going to be a factor at the end. lawrence, it occurs to me that ron paul is the last hippy in america.ç he s the anti-war, let s legalize pot candidate. it s really amazing to see him pop up in the midst of the republican nominating process. you know, lawrence, if i can howard, mitt romney delivered his standard debate performance tonight, but is that still good enough? he s now in second place, and it is not just a close second place. he s now in what is a distant second place to newt gingrich and newt gingrich is polling as the candidate who would be the best commander in chief. he s polling as one who understands the complex issues the best. doesn t mitt romney have to find some new moves now against gingrich? yes, he absolutely does. see, now, everybody s waiting for newt to blow up. you know, newt s capable of losing his temper. he s capable of overplaying his hand.
imploding. would it surprise you to know the same newt gingrich was paid more than $1.5 million to help freddie mac make friends. i was glad to offer strategic advice. we did it for a number of companies. the group was very successful. grinning rich sees no conflict. his critics see hypocrisy. we begin with breaking news. a new judge will preside over the case of new penn state football coach jerry sandusky, this change prompted by complaints the first tie had ties to the charity second mile. new changes about whether the changing story of a key witness jeopardizes the criminal case against sandusky who is accused of raping at least eight young boys. the mother of one of sandusky s alleged victims says she s sickened he s free on bail and sickened to broadcast an interview in which he proclaims he does nothing wrong. it makes me really sad my son can t go out and have a normal life, he can t go hang out at the hall because he might run integerry. he gets to go to th