>>> i'm paul gigot. with five weeks to go for iowa caucuses, newt gingrich pulls ahead by a wide margin in a new national poll that has the former house speaker with 38% support of likely voters and he is leading is iowa, south carolina and florida. he has been capitalizing on the momentum pitching himself as the conservative alternative to mitt romney. >> i'm clearly the more conservative candidate. i helped ronald reagan and jack kemp develop the supply side of economics. i helped defeat communism. i helped balance the federal budget for four straight years. reform entitlement and take conservatism is, there is places where i have done that stuff. >> joining the panel, mary oh grady and dan henninger and jane freeman. dan, what is behind the gingrich surge? >> one of the things that is behind it, paul, there was always structural weaknesses in the come any campaign. he was running a campaign that was going to put one foot in the center. he needed to win independent voters. part of his appeal has been f

they said about ron paul. ron paul is a dangerous man. while his domestic libertarian views are quite attractive to some voters fed up with politicç as usual, it's paul's position on issues of national security that are truly dangerous. it's about time new hampshire voters showed him the door. it seems to me that the new hampshire ron paul supporter may be at the fringe. appealable to some other camps. but who is the most likely beneficiary of defections from ron paul's camp? i think you have to say huntsman or really anybody. let's not forget the new hampshire model is live free or die. libertarian stance has an appeal in that way there. but han has proven itself to be famously impervious to whatever happens in iowa. so i think it will be interesting to watch. and christina's point is well taken that new hampshire is really his only hope at this point. of all the candidates remaining in the field he must be wondering why he hasn't been able to get more traction avenue all the on paper qualifications. it hasn't worked for him. >> thank y

-- reason -- ron paul campaign and he was thinking about going with the reason paul -- ron paul campaign. and i said it would be political suicide. >>eric: so now we have him leaving to go to ron paul and michele bachmann claims that ron paul offered him a substantial sum of money and ken comes on fox news saying michele bachmann is lying, and megyn wisely asks what about you who claims you said the same, and he calls you a liar. listen to this entrepreneur. >> i didn't have that conversation with her. it is unfortunate that we is come to this, in this particular race, we have come to this and i did not accept any money from the reason -- ron paul campaign. >>eric: do you have anything to gain by saying that he told you he was offered money by ron paul campaign? >>guest: no, and when i work with candidates they understand i am working with them because of their integrity, because of the changes they want to make and he clearly lacks integrity and i am sorry for the people who followed him for the constituents. i have been on the phone since 10:00 last night with call after call and e-mai

he got into it on mitt romney, he got into it on ron paul. he was a lot tougher on ron paul. i was going to ask him, you know, would you be able to vote for mitt romney but i didn't, the clock was ticking, and i knew he would say, yes, i would vote for mitt romney but no way he's going to vote for ron paul. >> he made that pretty clear. >> yeah, he says, look, ron paul's not going to get the nomination. i said hypothetically if he were to get the nomination would you support him. his answer a flat-out no. >> you're interviewing mitt romney tomorrow. is there one question you're looking forward to asking romney? >> well, i'm going to play for him -- they'll have overnight, i'm sure his aides will tell him -- i'm going to play what newt gingrich said and give him a chance to respond and ask him, does he have the guts, does he have the courage to sit down one-on-one with newt gingrich and debate these issues 90 minutes without a moderator? i pointed out to newt gingrich, you know, they've had more than a dozen debates. they've been on the stage together. they've been very close

ron paul. the one we've been looking for. >> what do you like about him? >> about ron paul? >> yeah. >> what is there not to like about him? military, i came from indiana. i was raised on principles and morals. and go back 5, 10, 20, 30 years, ron paul has had the same, consistent message, something none of the other candidates can fake. message on principles, morals, our personal rights, our personal liberties, restricted government that keeps out of our pockets, out of our lives. something the government was never meant to do. our founding fathers were very specific about that. >> how old are you? >> 23. >> what do your friends say? >> most of them, i don't have friends many my age because most of them i'm kind of distant because i'm in politics, i'm a little above the age level. most the kids my age are worried about college, worried about what club to go to tomorrow night, not about their future. >> ron paul speaks to you. >> yes. >> you got up and said he's the only one. >> yes, sir, absolutely. >> what's the attraction? >> because he follows the constitution. that, for

and the conservatives are moving over to ron paul. >> where was paul policed in the iowa straw poll [everyone talking at once] >> about 150 votes behind -- michele bachmann. >> she is number one. >> it shows ron paul has an outstanding organization, energy, youth, lot of people. 4500 votes in iowa straw poll is extraordinary. >> to say -- >> who plays second in the straw poll? >> and second, mitt romney plays second in 2008 because -- >> i thought -- >> how could they play second? >> he was number one. >> the thing is -- in the straw poll. >> oh, in the straw poll! romney won the straw poll. >> romney won. caucus in iowa. what. >> it's essentially a three-way tie. i would not scout michele bachmann and she has an organization, she's on a bus tour visiting all 99 counties. she another place you can go if you don't want romney and you're wary or think -- about newt gingrich, so he -- really interesting campaign about a lot of ideas like increasing the health budgets so we can solve alzheimer's. and something so bizarr the box. and romney is a total -- come on! >> for romney the idea is

paul with 17%. if it's one of this year's huckabees who wins, a ron paul, a rick perry, a michele bachmann, a rick santorum. if one of this year's huckabees wins iowa and mitt romney wins new hampshire, everything will have gone according to plan. we'll be no closer to knowing who the republican nominee for president will be. the first race will be an open question politically, will be on the saturday january 1st contest in south carolina. >> you have to win south carolina. everyone who's won south carolina has been the nominee. every single one. >> iowa and new hampshire are fascinating to watch, but south carolina might really be the race to watch in terms of how things are going to go in this nominating process. mr. gingrich there describing south carolina as a must win. he's previously described it as his firewall. south carolina is the kind of place where mitt romney is not expected to be able to win. just as he's not necessarily expected to be able to win in iowa. it should be noted mitt romne

help ron paul. it probably helps santorum because it makes bachmann look weak. but there aren't a lot of bachmann poom who are necessarily going to go to ron paul. so on so many levels i think santorum's doing well. >> well, john, also the polls make it look like romney will finish at least in the top two. is this big trouble if he doesn't meet expectations here? >> it's absolutely -- it is high-stakes stuff. i heard all through the day today that romney's people were going back and forth on whether they should position him in iowa on tuesday night or have him be in new hampshire. struggling with the question of whether he should be here to claim a big victory or get out fast to avoid any embarrassment. that's how high stakes this is. and remember, the dynamic of the caucuses are such that if you see the gingrich support and the santorum support come together and then throw in some bachmann and perry numbers there, santorum could well finish very high up in that number. >> and rick green, i've got t

paul. one of them is labeled a paul win hurts the iowa caucuses. i've heard similar worries from gop leaders in iowa, who fear paul's crazy train will haul the caucuses out of the political fringes and derail forever, stranding iowa's coveted stat tus. why are they so worried about you? >> it's sort of entertaining. so much for democracy. as long as democracy goes they're way, it's okay. few if you get enough support from the people, you win election, it doesn't mean anything, so i think they see me as a challenge for the status quo, you know. there's a lot of people i challenge, everybody from the military industrial complex to the banking system to the bailouts, to our foreign policy. it's a big deal because i want changes. but that's what the american people want. the american people are with me and that's why i believe i'm going up in the polls. >> we've had this conversation a few times during the campaign, and it is fair to say you are less out there if you will, this campaign than yo

i'm paul gigot. they squared off in a debate. and showing newt gingrich, mitt romney and ron paul, and the others tried to make a final impression on iowa voters. >> i kind of like these debates, and i hope obama and i debate a lot and i'll get there early and we'll get it on and talk about our differences which are great. i tell you, i hope i am the tim tebow of the iowa caucuses. >> i think that people, neil, are coming around to finding that i mean the consistent conservative in in race. >> they're coming around to find that i'm not going to pander. i'm not going to contort myself into a pretzel to please any audience i'm in front of and i'm not going to sign those silly pledges and now what else i'm not going to show up at a donald trump doe bait. >> paul: so did they succeed? joining the panel, wall street journal columnest dan hittinger-- did it change the contours of the race? >> i don't think so paul, i mean, i believe that the race is now between newt gingrich and mitt romney with ron paul probably playing the role of a

, paul for the presidency. is that your position as well? could you back paul for president if it came down to that? >> well, i intend to be the nominee of the republican party. >> if you were the nominee, where would you be? >> it's never going to happen. it's never going to happen. i'm going to be the nominee. >> welcome back to "hardball." that's myself trying to get some information from congresswoman bachmann. i was asking her about whether if ron paul were the nominee, could she back him in the general election, and she gave me an answer, which is she's going to be the nominee, which is a good answer. we're at java joe's. the story out of iowa could be the strong showing of ron paul. his supporters are passionate and well organized, a winning combination on caucus night. but with us -- but with his front-runner status has come new scrutiny of his background. he's been criticized for newsletters he published under his name in the late '80s and early '90s. paul said he didn't write them, but they were publi

i talked to ron paul voters in 2007 who liked barack obama and liked ron paul. i was one of those voters. once they were disappointed by what barack obama did in office, they've remained in his camp. if you talk to young people at rallies, you'll hear a lot -- the first things they'll list off, the reasons they go for him, are the social issues. then they'll list the economic crisis issues. they come over to his side the way they could have easily been convinced. you're at that age where you're receptive to ideas like that. he's added those people to the party. i think also because the economy collapsed in 2008, because he'd been predicting it for so long, doesn't really matter if he was wrong in previous instances, you know. the preachers who predict the rapture are ever right, are we going to forget he got it wrong 20 times? that happened to him. people in the republican party disagree with him on a lot of issues became more sympathetic to him. the coalition in iowa is partly the new voters and partly oldline conservatives who would have listened to him before

he had this to say about ron paul. >> you look at ron paul's total record of systemic avoidance reality and look at his newsletters and then you look at his ads, his ads are about as accurate as his newsletters. >> ron paul on fox news friday defending the statements on his newsletter. >> i think the charge, could be a correct charge, is i was pretty negligent as the publisher of a newsletter not paying more attention. it's trying to portray me as the opposite of what i am, but i don't think it will stick. >> he's saying the only thing he was was a negligent publisher despite the fact that there's tapes and i played them when he said things were taken out of context, part of what he does, deliver babies for a living and has a political newsletter. i mean, come on, bob. >> i mean, first of all, we should note this is possibly the first time in your life that you've held up newt gingrich as a shining example, number one. >> as an example. it wasn't shiny, but go ahead. in any case, that you're expr s expressing an agreement with him. there's such an implausibility, translate probably lyin

. >>> plus, ron paul with a fringe on top. you're hearing more and more about ron paul's fringe supporters and more about what he really thinks of gays and israel. meanwhile, on the under card, while no one was watching, rick santorum has been making a move. could it be that he's the tortoise raising in a pack of hares? >>> plus, it turns out it's not just the rich that get richer. so do those getting elected to congress. why has the personal net worth of the body gone up so much while everybody else has gone down? >>> and almost every american has seen this photo. it's the photo of elizabeth eckford trying to enter high school in little rock, arkansas, in 1957, after it was ordered to resegregate. but what most of us don't know is the fascinating story behind that picture and how she and the white girl screaming at her eventually became friends. we'll have that story for you later. and let me finish with why conservative republican voters in iowa can rally -- cannot rally around a champion to face obama. >>> we start with new

paul's friend michael told the police the same thing when he learned of paul's death. he even thought he might try to nail him next. >> we all walked around wondering if we were next on the hit list. >> you thought there was an enemies list of friends of paul? >> yes, exactly. >> homicide detectives always pose the question, who benefitted from the murder. and here the victim's brother and best friend are telling the police that stacey unquestionably stood to gain from her ex-'s death. she would be free to move to florida with her children and raise them with money from the million-dollar trust fund paul had set up for them. and who was the shooter in this theory? her father. giving his daughter a monstrous and bloody gift of liberation from a man they both loathed. so detectives tried to call ed ates at his home in florida. they say his wife dottie said he was away and she had no idea how to reach him. >> the detective out of bergen county, new jersey. >> he is essentially out of touch for 24 hours from the time of the murder, and he's the person that we're looking to

well the attacks against presidential candidate ron paul just keep on coming since ron paul's surge in the polls in iowa it seems the mainstream media has been focusing on kicking him down hysteria over a newsletter as his staff wrote decades ago but what about everything else the candidate stands for like his foreign policy which clearly separates him from the others and is clearly resonating with more and more americans today stopping the wars abroad shrinking government spending advocating civil liberties where's the discussion on all of this well to discuss all of this life in new york is journalist michael tracey welcome michael so why isn't the mainstream media taking the time to analyze his policies and what he has to offer. well the mainstream media frankly has never felt it necessary to afford ron paul substantive coverage it was only in the last two weeks when he ticked up so dramatically in the polls in iowa that they felt it necessary to vet him as they would any other candidate. ron paul actually has been leading the polls has been in the top tier of the national polling f

ron paul in the future. they believe this uneligibility argument about ron paul, they believe that's nonsense. look at recent polls that show head to head matchups with barack obama and ron paul. ron paul is consistentingly polling neck and neck with the president. so they don't think that the eligibility argument -- they don't believe that argument. they think their candidate can go on. >> he's facing heat from fellow candidates on foreign policy. some people even call him dangerous. what are they saying about that? >> right. ron paul has this golden rule foreign policy. he's telling his audience what will we think if a powerful nation did that to us? they think this is a strong message. it's getting huge krounds. last night over 700 people came out. every time ron paul talked about an anti-war message, they got a standing ovation. so he believes that message will carry him further. >> thank you for joining us this morning. good luck to you today. >> the new nbc poll shows texas republican rick perry fourth

paul said." he also said "the comment about black men in the nation's capital was made while writing about a 1992 study produced by the national center on incarceration and alternatives, a criminal justice think tank based in virginia." "these aren't my figures, dr. paul said tuesday. that is the assumption you can gather from the report." when the "houston chronicle" started asking about those also, "given the inefficiencies of what d.c. laughingly calls the criminal justice system, i think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal." these were quotes from ron paul's newsletters. and when the "dallas morning news" asked him about them, running for congress that year, he did not disavow these statements. "in the interview, he did not deny he made the statement about the swiftness of black men. if you try to catch someone that has stolen a purse from you, there is no chance to catch them," dr. paul said." he also said "the comment about bl

paul revere. [applause] >> i was compelled to seek employment in san francisco schools primarily because of superintendent garcia's identification of the achievement gap being the civil rights issue of our times. his mission to challenge and to confront that, this was deeply compelling to me. i actually began my career as a teacher 28 years ago as horaceman, a special ed teacher. i was keenly aware of the predictive power of demographics. i had a special education classroom disproportionately full of young men of color and i spent the next 20 years in the classroom trying to advance my teaching practice and become the kind of teacher that can make a true difference. i won't say anything more other than to tell you that i don't believe that the specific allegations that you have been hearing have merit despite numerous investigations, they have been unfounded. however, however, i absolutely believe that the feelings, the parents' feelings behind these allegations have real merit. i have taken their

paul --" they refer to him as dr. paul -- "i am honored to be in your presence." he is almost like a cult figure with some young people out there, and with some veterans as well. veterans will support him. >> he has the biggest veterans' support of anybody in the state as of this moment. to follow up on what colby king had to say, are we making too much of iowa? it is one of the few places where you still see retail politics, where candidates have to answer questions from real- life people like here dressers and truckdrivers. but not everyone is sold on the continuing significance in the nominating process. gail collins in "the new york times" poke fun at this week at the state for being unrep. does iowa deserve all this criticism, evan thomas? >> yes and no. [laughter] >> there is a bold statement. >> it is not representative in that it is isolationist, extremely far right, and it does not pick president's. but one great thing, and this is a great thing, the retail business, that you actually have to go out there and meet the folks. because it is a long process a

what if you have ron paul win? that point, i think -- the people just sort of shake their head. >> i like to come in second in new hampshire. i think it's hard to beat romney in new hampshire.ç it will be fun. >> either win iowa or new hampshire? >> south carolina. >> every one who has won south carolina has been the nominee. >> he had this response last late night about those eroding numbers from that cnn poll sf. >> what about the new poll out today? >> well, one word of warning, by the way, on this cnn poll, they didn't poll independents and democrats, they used a listless base sampling there. could it overshow candidates doing better than republicans and not noting the support of nontraditional republican voters, overstating a rick santorum who performs better among rank and file republicans. we'll find out. some big polls coming out, including our poll out tomorrow. >>> ron paul's spokesman responded this way, saying it's a too small a sample to be very accurate. romney was caught on a rope line after one of

he likes -- the caller likes ron paul because he is a pragmatist. ron paul has not changed. he is articulating the same vision of politics. it is a different world. now he's the pragmatist in the race. there's a lot of truth to that. they would take us from spending about $3.7 trillion to $4.7 trillion, democrats versus republicans. the establishment or the ones who are living in class coo-coo land. the one saying we need to cut money from the budget is the pragmatist. host: would be a mistake for ron paul to do what he is done in the past, swear off a third- party bid? guest: my sources are probably -- he is retiring, 76 years old and said he will not run for reelection of congress. he is interested in influencing the republican plot form. he has said that he is a republican and wants to influence that party. bidn't think a third-party is in the cards for him, but you never know. host: we have a tweet from mary. guest: i did not necessarily agree with that. the real question involves -- it is an interesting issue. what is the role of government and what are the necessary fu

i'm the letter si coach at paul revere. i'm here to show support for paul revere staff and our principal. i'm also here to express my concern over the way that our principal and school has been portrayed by some people in recent times. i'm very concerned because we need at paul revere consistent leadership. that is leadership that sheila provides us. losing our principal in the middle of a three-year reform means starting all over again from scratch and potentially losing two years' worth of hard work, effort, and progress on the parts of our parents, teachers, staff members and students. i refuse to dignify the outlandish claims that have been made by the few parents that spoke at this meeting a while ago because they're simply not true and without merit. i have listened to the minority speaker and they want to replace her. but i don't believe they're in an opposition to sheila. i believe this comes from misinformation to the changes that have taken place since she has become principal. these changes were needed and reform

paul. he is unwilling to stand up for the united states when it comes to dealing with a nuclear iran. >> you guys were arguing over questions of fact, whether or not there was -- >> there was an iaea report issued in november that said iran was perilously close to having the technology for a nuclear weapon. i sit on the intelligence committee, we deal with the nation's classified secrets. i cannot talk about a lot of that. >> we have ways to make you talk. >> no, you don't. there is a clear report that iran is perilously close to having a nuclear weapon. ron paul was essentially denying that the report exists. then he said the report was not worth anything later. the whole point is, ron paul would be a dangerous precedent for the united states. he has frightening views on foreign policy. after that debate, it was like an electric lights which went on across iowa. we began our tour in that area. the next day, that was all people wanted to talk about. we had more people come out to our meetin

paul with 17%. if it's one of this year's huckabees who wins, a ron paul, a rickç perry, a michele bachmann, a rick santorum. if one of this year's huckabees wins iowa and mitt romney wins new hampshire, everything will have gone according to plan. we'll be no closer to knowing who the republican nominee for president will be. the first race will be an open question politically, will be on the saturday january 21st contest in south carolina. >> you have to win south carolina. everyone who's won south carolina has been the nominee. every single one. >> iowa and new hampshire are fascinating to watch, but south carolina might really be the race to watch in terms of how things are going to go in this nominating process. mr. gingrich there describing south carolina as a must win. he's previously described it as his firewall. south carolina is the kind of place where mitt romney is not expected to be able to win. just as he's not necessarily expected to be able to win in iowa. it should be noted mitt r

ron paul. the one we've been looking for. >> what do you like about him? >> about ron paul? >> yeah. >> what is there not to like about him? military, i came from indiana. i was raised on principles and morals. and go back 5, 10, 20, 30 years, ron paul has had the same, consistent message, something none of the other candidates can fake.ç message on principles, morals, our personal rights, our personal liberties, restricted government that keeps out of our pockets, out of our lives. something the government was never meant to do. our founding fathers were very specific about that. >> how old are you? >> 23. >> what do your friends say? >> most of them, i don't have friends many my age because most of them i'm kind of distant because i'm in politics, i'm a little above the age level. most the kids my age are worried about college, worried about what club to go to tomorrow night, not about their future. >> ron paul speaks to you. >> yes. >> you got up and said he's the only one. >> yes, sir, absolutely. >> what's the attraction? >> because he follows the constitution. that,

are people standing behind this texan doctor or the ideology he stands for will take a look at ron paul the man the man the presidential contender. and it's a bird it's a plane no it's a predator drone but this isn't afghanistan it's north dakota and police forces aren't looking for terrorists they're spying on your neighbors welcome to a police state usa. it's tuesday december thirteenth five pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching artsy well we begin with the crisis in the euro zone and the black sheep of the e.u. is shaking things up even more this after u.k. prime minister david cameron vetoed a treaty dreamed up by germany's marco and france's sarkozy the treaty was designed to save the euro the currency that is now on the brink of collapse but the u.k. is the only country of the twenty seven members to vote against the proposal cameron argues that the treaty takes an unprecedented amount of power away from the individual countries and transfers it to brussels and he doesn't want brinson be a part of it while one leader of the u.k. never wanted to have any part of th

, paul for the presidency. is that your position as well? could you back paul for president if it came down to that? >> well, i intend to be the nominee of the republican party. >> if you were the nominee, where would you be? ominee. >> welcome back to "hardball." that's myself trying to get some information from congresswoman bachmann. i was asking her about whether if ron paul were the nominee, could she back him in theç general election, and she gave me an answer, which is she's going to be the nominee, which is a good answer. we're at java joe's. the story out of iowa could be the strong showing of ron paul. his supporters are passionate and well organized, a winning combination on caucus night. but with us -- but with his front-runner status has come new scrutiny of his background. he's been criticized for newsletters he published under his name in the late '80s and early '90s. paul said he didn't write them, but they were published under the name of ron paul and he did make some money from them. another

is ron paul. michele bachmann commented on that. and joanne, i want to play this for you and get your response. >> he'd have a lot of difficulty voting for him, ron paul won't be the nominee, i will be the nominee of our party. he won't win the nomination, i will. >> she's not the only one to say that they would not vote for ron paul if he were the nom flee. >> ron paul has always had a problem within the republican ç establishment. michele bachmann is part of the establishment. ron paul's foreign policy is very much against what the republican party has stood for, he's considered looney to them. if he wins, let's say the iowa caucuses and michelle doesn't get completely pushed out, you have so many people in it can only help romney. >> we're starting to see this get ugly, though, certainly. newt going negative, more words of zany, crazy, circus. will this hurt the gop as we see all this infight something. >> i think it depends on how long it gets stretched out. if it's wrapped up in january, th

adding "i love ron paul." clarkson some backlash among fans who were enraged because of the recent controversy over ron paul's racist and homophobic newsletters. clarkson later tweeted an apology of sorts saying she does not support racism or homophobia but she is sticking by her support for ron paul. meanwhile, rick santorum spent his day on the xhan trail in iowa amid lots of chatter about whether his recently improved polling numbers in the state actually mean anything significant. for reasons that have everything to do with google i hesitate to use the word "surge." a concern this headline writer for the "philadelphia daily news" did not share. his headline prompted the absolutely best twitter exchange of the day, if not ever. dan u-a tweeting rick santorum to say "great to see this headline on philly.com. santorum surges from behind in iowa. can i get a retweet?" and rick santorum did it. he retweeted. but he is still not going to win in iowa or anywhere else for that matter. not so for mr. willard mitt r

adding "i love ron paul." that won clarkson some backlash among fans who were enraged because of the recent controversy over ron paul's racist and homophobic newsletters. clarkson later tweeted an apology of sorts saying she does not support racism or homophobia but she is sticking by her support for ron paul. meanwhile, rick santorum spent his day on the xhan trail in iowa amid lots of chatter about whether his recently improved polling numbers in the state actually mean anything significant. for reasons that have everything to do with google i hesitate to use the word "surge." a concern this headline writer for the "philadelphia daily news" did not share. his headline prompted the absolutely best twitter exchange of the day, if not ever. dan u-a tweeting rick santorum to say "great to see this headline on philly.com. santorum surges from behind in iowa. can i get a retweet?" and rick santorum did it. he retweeted. but he is still not going to win in iowa or anywhere else for that matter. not so for mr. willa

they said about ron paul. ron paul is a dangerous man. while his domestic libertarian views are quite attractive to some voters fed up with politics as usual, it's paul's position on issues of national security that are truly dangerous. it's about time new hampshire voters showed him the door. it seems to me that the new hampshire ron paul supporter may be at the fringe. appealable to some other camps. but who is the most likely beneficiary of defections from ronç paul's camp? i think you have to say huntsman or really anybody. let's not forget the new hampshire model is live free or die. liz libertarian stance has an appeal in that way there. but han has proven itself to be famously impervious to whatever happens in iowa. so i think it will be interesting to watch. and christina's point is well taken that new hampshire is really his only hope at this point. of all the candidates remaining in the field he must be wondering why he hasn't been able to get more traction avenue all the on paper qualifications. it hasn't worked for him. >> t

ron paul? >> yes. ron paul can win in iowa. look, ron paul is the campaign here in the iowa that has the most energy. you saw it, you know, in my opening piece, i went to all of the headquarters. the only one buzzing with activity is ron paul's. you're not seeing at romney's events or at gingrich's events. but you're seeing huge crowds for ron paul's. >> there was a key piece of spin from the romney campaign at the debate last night they went out of their way to say that ron paul had a great night. they're saying as if, it's not going well for us it better not be newt gingrich, better be ron paul. >> ron paul has a very energized, roughly 20% of the republican base. after that, not just the 80% don't like him that much, they disagree with him. he's a pure consistent libertarian. >> but that 20% is going to show up in the caucus. >> and mitt romney will be driving them to the polls. >> again, according to the "new york times" two-thirds who say they're going to go to the iowa caucuses have said they haven't made up their minds.

ç what if you have ron paul win? at that point i think you have -- people just sort of shake their head and go to the next topic. >> almost the likeable newt gingrich, i have to tell you, mark and j-mart because there's the guy, the corner man, the guy talking like one of us in the back room, being smart and not talking about his own ego which is refreshing for all of us to do, but i thought that was a pretty honest assessment, don't you, mark and j-mart. doesn't he look like a smart tout right there? >> honest and that side is more appealing than a lot of what he's been showing lately. look, the reality is if romney finishes first or second, assuming paul is first if romney isn't, the conservatives in the race, the other candidates are going to say, you know, "x" percent of voters in iowa didn't vote for mitt romney and that shows this race goes on. if he's first or second and wins resoundingly in new hampshire it's going to be very hard, i think, to head him off in south carolina and florida, even though right now,

help ron paul. it probably helps santorum because it makes bachmann look weak. but there aren't a lot of bachmann poom who are necessarily going to go to ron paul. so on so many levels i think santorum's doing well. >> well, john, also the polls make it look like romney will finish at least in the top two. is this big trouble if he doesn't meet expectations here? >> it's absolutely -- it is high-stakes stuff. i heard all through the day today that romney's people were going back and forth on whether they should position him in iowa on tuesday night or have him be in new hampshire. struggling with the question of whether he should be here to claim a big victory or get out fast to avoid any embarrassment. that's how high stakes this is. and remember, the dynamic of the caucuses are such that if you see the gingrich supportç and e santorum support come together and then throw in some bachmann and perry numbers there, santorum could well finish very high up in that number. >> and rick green, i've got

ron paul story. she was talking about foreign policy. >> foreign policy. >> he wants to abolish the fed, abolish income taxes, cut $1 trillion from spending, wants to abolish half the government departments. >> when you start talking domestic, i'm all about ron paul. >> you are not all about ron paul. you put up a great fight, but you are not. >> it goes on with a testy exchange on the air that shows that maybe he is beginning to feel the heat we speak of. >> and also, people wanted ron paul to be examined in the media. >> and they're looking. >> they are looking. there were some comments made, racist comments in news letters which he profited from. >> well. >> and that were written in his voice and that he previously claimed authorship of some, although we don't know which. so there's a little ambiguity, he's denying he had anything to do with the ones that said that gays were trying to poison the blood supply with aids. he's saying he didn't write that, we don't know, because a few years ago he was

ron paul freedom report and the ron paul investment letter. and contain lines like this one referring to the 19992 riots in los angeles. "order was only restored in l.a. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks." though paul has touted his newsletters in the past. >> i also put out a political type of business investment newsletter. >> he since denied writing and in some cases even reading some of the newsletters that bore his name. after being pressed repeatedly about it this week, he had enough. >> i didn't rewrite them. i didn't read them at the time. i disavow them. >> these things are pretty incendiary. >> to people like you. >> now ron paul wants to us believe he didn't know anything about the newsletters though he was profiting from them. >> then there is this. paul talking about the man he terms the whistle blower behind wikileaks. >> should he be locked up and imprisoned? or should we, you know, see him as a political hero? maybe he is a true patriot that reveals that what is going on. >> this kind of thing sai

as anybody who has read my tweets know, i'm not a supporter of ron paul, not a fan of ron paul. as much as i'm neutral in the primary ron paul is a fringe candidate and i don't think ron paul represents the republicans' best foot forward. and so i'm bothered by all this tremendously on the merits of it and on the impact his image could have coming out of iowa as a republican winner. also, four years ago, and i just looked this up, you have ten percentage points in iowa, 8% in new hampshire, 4% in south carolina and 3% in florida. iowa has historically been the strongest state. he ran before. remember not just mitt romney who ran, ron paul ran. and iowa was his high water mark. he plunged from there on. >> gloria -- go ahead, erick. go ahead. >> you know, i think there's another relevant point that needs to be asks of ron paul. if you go back to one of the writings, the ron paul freedom report that had no bi-line was written in first person as if it was from ron paul that was gay men were trying to intentionally infect the american blood supply by giving blood donations while hav