how about this today from ron paul? "talking points memo" today interviewing a pastor, the ron paul iowa campaign recently touted as a paul supporter. the supporter's name, robert fazier of the dominion church. turns out reverend cazer, praising his enlightening statements and support for ron paul. this guy also believes homosexuality in the united states should not just be outlawed but the punishment for being gay should be execution in the united states of america. how is that for small government? the ron paul campaign so far refusing to comment on tpm's reporting on this. so far, at least as far as we can tell, the ron paul campaign making no efforts to distance themselves from their kill the gays supporter who they've been touting. if there's a big picture story to tell about iowa a week out, it's a story of constant motion, desperation and chaos. yay. the bottom line today is probably ultimately the same bottom line you would have had a year ago today. for all of the ups and downs and headlines and gaffes and scan

how about this today from ron paul? "talking points memo" today interviewing a pastor, the ron paul iowa campaign recently touted as a paul supporter. the supporter's name, robert fazier of the dominion church. turns out reverend cazer, praising his enlightening statements and support for ron paul. this guy also believes homosexuality in the united states should not just be outlawed but the punishment for being gay should be execution in the united states of america. how is that for small government? the ron paul campaign so far refusing to comment on tpm's reporting on this. so far, at least as far as we can tell, the ron paul campaign making no efforts to distance themselves from their kill the gays supporte erer who they've touting. if there's a big picture story to tell about iowa a week out, it's a story of constant motion, desperation and chaos. yay. the bottom line today is probably ultimately the same bottom line you would have had a year ago today. for all of the ups and downs and headlines and gaffes and scand

-- 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

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

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. 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,

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 they 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 old-line conservatives who would have listened to him bef

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

e.j., the heat is on ron paul. i think the republican candidates never thought they would actually have to take serious questions about if ron paul is the nominee. >> no, you know, and it's true. i am up here in new hampshire and i used to be last week, i was in iowa. and in both states, republicans are talking about ron paul along with romney as having the biggest organizations and certainly a real shot at winning iowa, and if not a shot at winning new hampshire, a real shot at coming in second. they are petrified of ron paul. newt gingrich has especially good reason to be worried because you know, strong showings liking that from ron paul could knock him right out of the race. >> e.j., if you're in new hampshire i'm sure there is interest there about ron paul's views of raw milk. i think we have some tape of him talking about that. let's listen to that. >> isn't it sort of strange that we live in a country today where if you choose to buy raw milk, you're inhibited by the federal government to buy and drink raw m

ron 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

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

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 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 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

how about this today from ron paul?ç "talking points memo" today interviewing a pastor, the ron paul iowa campaign recently touted as a paul supporter. the supporter's name, robert fazier of the dominion church. turns out reverend cazer, praising his enlightening statements and support for ron paul. this guy also believes homosexuality in the united states should not just be outlawed but the punishment for being gay should be execution in the united states of america. how is that for small government? the ron paul campaign so far refusing to comment on tpm's reporting on this. so far, at least as far as we can tell, the ron paul campaign making no efforts to distance themselves from their kill the gays supporter who they've been touting. if there's a big picture story to tell about iowa a week out, it's a story of constant motion, desperation and chaos. yay. the bottom line today is probably ultimately the same bottom line you would have had a year ago today. for all of the ups and downs and headlines and gaffes and s

this is from the ron paul report in 1992. "if you live in a major city you've probably already heard about the newest threat to your life and limb and your family, carjacking. it is the hip-hop thing to do among the urban youth, who play unsuspecting whites like pianos. what can you do? more and more americans are carrying a gun in the car. an ex-cop i know advises that if you have to use a gun on a youth you should leave the scene immediately, disposing of the wiped off gun as soon as possible. such a gun cannot, of course, be registered to you, but one bought privately through the classifieds, for example. i frankly don't know what to make of such advice, but even in my little town of lake jackson, texas, i've urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self-defense. for the animals are coming." the "new republic" a few years ago also unearthed this gem from the ron paul newsletters on the subject of foreign affairs. the end of apartheid's white rule in south africa described in a ron paul newsletter as "a destr

paul could win and i would because of his organization there so does a ron paul win in iowa then leave the door open for romney to win new hampshire and make this and easy run through the primaries by contrast mitt romney has a massive and sprawling organization and then there's ron paul who is right there in the top tier in many polls that are statistically tied for a three way conversation with randy and gingrich. all right so that's right ron paul is now in the number one spot on i with twenty three percent of likely republican caucus voters behind him in the latest poll i know that we talk about this all the time how the media barely gives this man any coverage but here it just becomes so much more blatantly obvious he's number one in the poll and they either really just quickly kind of glaze over that and then move on to the other candidates and what this means for their campaigns or they just don't even mention paul and instead only talk about newt gingrich and mitt romney i mean it's just absurd especially if you think about the way the mainstream media had a collective heart at

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

well the attacks against presidential candidate ron paul just keep on coming since ron paul's surge in the polls and i was seems the mainstream media has been focusing on kicking him down his stereo over newsletters 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 and the mainstream media well to discuss this i spoke to journalist michael tracey here's what he had to say. 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 visit him as they would any other candidate. ron paul actually has been leading the polls has been in the top tier of the of national polling for a good portion of two thousand and eleven and until now when it's actually

. >>> 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

about that ron paul is in a position -- i've talked to folks who like ron paul and see someone as bold and trying to take on washington and clean things up and shrink the size of the federal government. here's the problem. you've got to get congress to work with you to do those things and ron doesn't have a long record of passing anything this washington, d.c. but when it comes to national security, a lot of folks in iowa that like him are concerned about we're not crazy about his national security. we like him on this other stuff. the problem is as you know in the constitution and the president's hours are really national security. >> are you worried he could be dangerous? >> my concern is that ron paul would walk in there, day one, pull our troops back and leave an enormous void around the world. he can do that day one without congressional approval. he can as commander in chief, move our troops anywhere in the world, disengage from every place from europe to the middle east, china, abandon the straits of hormuz, pull the fifth fleet back. that's one of the reasons i think you see fo

>> for ron paul, no, it does not, john. but a first-place showing in iowa from ron paul, which is a real possibility, would bring newt gingrich's surge outs of the water. gingrich would then get his first opportunity to win in south carolina, and even if he won that he hey not get the nomination this. would be dynamite because ron paul would get a normal national attention, he would rise in new hampshire, not to the point where he could beat romney but wipe out newt gingrich there. i think asset of mitt romney now is ron paul and i'm sure they're go, ron, go! >> i don't think it's ron paul's intention, but he is serving the republican establishment that wants to slow or stop newt gingrich. if ron paul wins in iowa, everybody will say isn't that nice? but he won't be nominee. there are two things you can say about ron paul, though. he is consistent, and he is principled. and once you understand those principles, you understand how he can be for legalizing marijuana and for not doing everything possible to stop iran from gett

that's how ron paul rolls. want to drain the swamp, ron paul, do it. >> i'm ron paul. i approve this message. >> that was republican presidential candidate ron paul's latest tv ad in the early voting states of iowa and new hampshire. ron paul is one of the few republican candidates who has not had his turn as front-runner, but he's now polling in second in iowa and third in new hampshire. ron paul, the only anti-war and anti-torture republican candidate, is now the most eloquent anti-trump candidate. he issued this statement in response to the announcement that donald trump would moderate a republican presidential candidates' debate. "the selection of a reality television personality to host a presidential debate that voters nationwide will be watching is beneath the office of the presidency and flies in the face of that office's history and dignity. to be sure, mr. trump's participation will contribute to an unwanted circus-like atmosphere." yesterday congressman paul added this observation about the constant stream of desperate republican candidates going to new york

could ron paul play spoiler? the paul campaign is up with a new ad taking shots at his rivals. >> serial hypocrites and flip-floppers can't clean up the mess. one man stands alone. >> this hour, the ron paul factor. >>> plus, desperate measures? rick perry sues to get on the virginia primary ballot. >>> and death of a dictator. an elaborate farewell to north korea's kim jong-il. >>> i'm chris sill lis cillizza andrea mitchell today. with six days left to go mitt romney is rising while newt gingrich may be running out of steam. all those negative ads seem to have having an effect on gingrich's poll numbers and his effort to stay above the fray. >> if you want to attack people, at least be man enough to own it. you look at ron paul's total record of systemic avoidance of reality and you look at his newsletters and then you look at his ads, his ads areç about as accurate as his newsletters. >> jonathan capehart is an editorial writer for "the washington post" and an msnbc contributor and my friend and the best dre

you know ron paul. he isn't as far out there this cycle as he was last cycle. >> that's absolutely true. >> with the new proportional rules we could get to tampa and ron paul could be to this republican party what jesse jackson was to the democratic party in '80s. >> a genuinely nice guy. when you see him on tv you think he's going to be so out there and some of his views, his social views are an anathema to most republicans. but he is consistent, sincere, and that does resonate this year, and clearly when it comes to not his isolationist policies but his economic policies, the timing wasn't right for years ago. it is right this year. as a romney supporter and a lot of the areas the republican party, governor romney and others are right there with him. >> why? >> look, republicans and young people, young people you references we're in the middle of this terrible, terrible depression. people want an explanation. and ron paul has something that sounds like an explanation. it's not an explanation. it's exa

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

to vote for ron paul. how's that going to play here in this state? >> it's going to be very interesting to see how it plays because you know, there is a certain element here that buys into the libertarian views of ron paul, but there are also a lot of republicans as you know, who are very concerned about picking an electable candidate to stand up against barack obama in november. so, that's something that the voters in the caucuses are going to have to weigh and there are a lot of people who don't like the idea of republicans getting into vicious battles with very rough words, wolf. >> joe johns is in des moines. he's going to be here in iowa for the remainder, this week, one week from today, the iowa caucuses. joe, thanks very much cht. let's continue our coverage of ron paul. he's one of the front-runners in iowa. he is breaking from the pack, taking a day off from the campaign trial to a certain degree. the texas congressman is known for being unconventional both politically and personally. dana bash ha

ron paul when he was out of congress has the ron paul newsletter. it's essentially advice, political advice and financial advice and people paid to subscribe for it. there are some pretty racy and racist things if you read this letter. this is an excerpt from the one i just held up for you. "i've been told not to talk, but these stooges don't scare me, threats or no threats, i've laid bare the coming race war in our big cities." ron paul spokesman sent this to cnn today -- dr. paul did not write that solicitation and the signature is an auto pen. it does not reflect his thoughts and is out of step with the message he has espoused for 40 years. he has never used such rhetoric. he disavows the newsletter and abhors that content. erick, i take jesse benton at his word and he speaks for dr. paul in that statement. however, you're a candidate for high office. he was a politician back in the day. this letterhead has his name on it. it may be in auto pen, but that is his signature. anything that happens in your public life is fair game when you're running

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

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 could win in iowa because of his organization there so does a ron paul win in iowa then leave the door open for romney to win new hampshire and make this easy run through the primaries by contrast with mitt romney has a massive and sprawling organization and then there's ron paul who is right there in the top tier in many polls in a statistical tie for a three way conversation with romney and gingrich. all right so that's right ron paul is now in the number one spot and i with twenty three percent of likely republican caucus voters behind him in the latest poll i know we talked about this all the time how the media barely gives this man any coverage but here it just becomes so much more blatantly obvious he's number one in the poll and they either really just quickly kind of glaze over that and they move on to the other candidates and what this means for their campaigns or they just don't even mention paul and instead only talk about newt gingrich and mitt romney i mean it's just absurd especially if you think about the way the mainstream media had a collective heart attack and ob

then you have ron paul, get out of my life. it was a little bit unpredictable and maybe we shouldn't take is as seriously as we are. >> john, you're over there, whags what is the mood like at ron paul headquarters versus mitt romney headquarters? >> i think both campaigns are on high. there's no question as you pointed out that the romney decision to stay here is do the morning interviews after the caucuses reflects a very high degree of confidence. not just on the basis of the public polling we saw yesterday, the times cnn poll that put him ahead. i think they believe they have a good chance of winning caucuses. it is a very risky thing to do to stay here. if somehow he comes in second, it wouldn't be quite so bad to ron paul. if he somehow slipped to third it would be quite embarrassing to have him here then off in new hampshire where he must win but reflects a high degree of confidence. the paul people believe that they are a campaign of destiny. and i was in a ron paul -- >> a campaign of destiny should be the new slogan. s

ron paul, 22. up until today, ron paul was leading. does that surprise you? >> you know, everything is so in flux right now. about half of iowans are completely undecided. that's why we decided to embark on our 99 county tour all across iowa. i'm in winterset, iowa right now, we're deep in the heart of madison county. this is our 94th county. what we've seen is something really remarkable. it's almost like an electric light switch was flipped and we're seeing people making their decision right now in these last few days. we've been overwhelmed with the support that we've seen across the state. i think what people are looking for is who is the genuine conservative? who has the core conviction? most importantly, who can take on barak obama and win? i think when people saw the last sioux city debate, they saw how i took on ron paul over the issue of a nuclear iran, and how i took on some of the other candidates on crony capitalism, they saw that that's exactly what i will do if barak obama in the debates, i'll defeat him and win in 2012 and get the country back

paul ron ron paul is not going to the nomination not to win the nomination and is not the president ron paul is going to go the way of many other primary candidates which is he looks good from a far but when you take a look at him up close here and so attractive anymore. so as you can see it appears the mainstream media is no fan of paul but as he's surges in the polls could he be the change many americans long for and if so why is our campaign to silence him well to help me answer just that i spoke to director of grassroots political consulting. and as a ron paul continues to resonate with voters across the country i asked daniel why the mainstream media is choosing to focus on old letters rather than his message here says take. well i think there's a lot of it that is being fed to them by other campaigns and other candidates and so and it's sensational to discuss that point and try to bring another scandal to bear burden on another conservative in this race and it's being fed to them i mean as the media shouldn't they be able to determine what is important what is relevant what th

. >>> 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. >>> 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 this is the photo of elizabeth eckford trying to intracentral 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 newt gingrich and the explaining he needs to do. howard fineman is an msnbc political analyst and "

gwen: ron paul, we have to ask you about ron paul. there's some possibility he could even best mitt romney on tuesday night. how strong is he now in iowa? then how much can he use that as leverage to get another leg up in new hampshire? >> you know, i've been surprised at some of the people i have run into at ron paul's events. four years ago they were sort of this kind of hard core libertarian crowd. but this year i have run into evangelicals and homeschoolers. i think his appeal this year is somewhat broader than it has been and also as ken sorenson, michele bachmann's recently departed campaign chairman as he was joining ron paul forces, he said these people who support ron paul, it doesn't matter if there's five feet of snow on the ground caucus night, which thankfully it does not look like there will be, these people are going to show up. gwen: intensity, jeff? >> i think there is intensity, no question. the only question for ron paul is what is his ceiling of support? you hear every other candidate, really every single candidate

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