now, but a million people are on the way to fill it up for america s biggest celebration. and 2012 arriving hour by hour around the world. live pictures here. happy new year. hon congress. just three days until the iowa caucuses. cnn s political editor paul steinhauser is in the thick of it live in des moines, iowa. whirlwind day ahead, i m sure, for you, right? no doubt about it, nonstop on the campaign trail. this is the end of december in iowa and it should be cold. let s start with newt gingerich. he was reaching out to voters stai restaurant and bus stop. we ve seen newt gingerich s numbers kind of collapse here. he was the front-runner, but that s not the case any more. he s telling voters, don t count me out. i would ask you to go tuesday night, take all your friends and help us win. i do think this is wide open, no matter what the news media does to try to create some stampede. newt beginning rip s numbers have been going down and rick santorum s numbers have
state until the final push. what the heck is a caucus any way? and are you looking for a job? one employer says you better not smoke. we ll show you how they are testing job applicants for nicotine. happy new year to you. if you re celebrating new zealand style. that s because it s midnight there. let s look at auckland. there it is. they are among the first to ring in the new year. they do it in amazing style. we will spend the next couple hours showing you the new year s celebrations from around the world as the clock strikes midnight in various parts of the world. there s a new year and perhaps changes for the better. iran says it has no plans to close the strait of hormuz. the country had said they would block the strait if sanctions on iran were enforced. reports said they fired a long-range missile during the training, but now a senior commander says they didn t, but will in the next few days. after complaints by defense secretary leon panetta, egypt says it will
rhetoric certainly is getting sharper. and there are seven major candidates now but after seven more days, will some of those candidates start falling by the wayside on the campaign trail? that s coming up in our strategy session this hour. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we re here in dubuque. a bit chilly but no snow. it s getting ready, a week from today, the iowa caucuses. you re looking at live pictures from dubuque. this will be the first state to have an impact on the 2012 presidential campaign, and it s all happening here in iowa. the republican caucuses candidate are out on the campaign trail today. they re scrambling to cover as much ground as they possibly can. newt gingrich slipping a bit, but still among the leaders. he s ready to roll across the state by bus. he ll join me live here in dubuque later this hour for an in-depth interview, but let s begin with cnn s jim acosta, he s in des moines, the state capital. iowa certainly very much up fo
you think the white house is getting their point across? that is a countdown clock showing nine days that that is how much time the white house has to extend the payroll tax cut or your taxes are going to go up. americans can go to this site and actually share their stories of what will happen to them if they lose their $40 per paycheck. that s the average an american will lose. let me bring in dan lothian and, dan, this seems like a full-on pr campaign by the white house and they re keeping the pressure up and i don t know if people saw it on the screen. this is what happened if congress doesn t act. it crossed out the word congress and it specifically says, the house doesn t act. they ve been keeping the pressure now on house republicans all week and now it s another effort by this white house to drive that point home today where the president is holding an event here at the white house shortly after noon to show what s at stake. you ve been talking about how the white ho
extension that was passed by the senate. today neither side shows any signs of giving in. i told the president there s one big reason why we need to do a full year, and that s jobs. a one-year bill like the president requested and like the house produced is simply better for jobs and better for our economy. let s enact this bipartisan compromise, however, to eliminate uncertainty for american families and then get right to work on a one-year version. not wait until february. not walk away and hold off until the last minute. got more encouraging news about the job market. the number of people filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level since april of 2008. labor department says initial claims dropped to 364,000. that is down 4,000 from a week before. many economists say a level below 400,000 means enough job growth to lower the unemployment rate. a wave of explosions rocks baghdad. car bombs, six roadside bombs, and a mortar ro