finally, let me finish with the role of politics and human tears. we start with mitt romney going for the kill. howard fineman is an msnbc political analyst and the huffington post media group editorial director. and susan page is the washington bureau chief for usa today. well, here we are at java joe s, ground central, on a quiet little street in des moines, that just happens to come alive like brigadoon every four years, and we re all here. i think we re part of the brigadoon characters. let s take a look at the latest nbc news/marist poll. mitt romney leads the pack, but still at that ceiling of 23. that weird number keeps popping up like on a roulette wheel, like in casablanca, it keeps coming up to 23. four points up from earlier this month, however. ron paul s a close second, he s up a couple points. rick santorum is on the rise more dramatically, jumping nine points into third place. and he s apparently still
get behind santorum instead of splitting their vote between perry, bachmann, gingrich and the rest of them, they re not going to have any clout out here. we re teaching evangelicals tonight how to have more political clout. we ll be back from java joe s in des moines. first my quote from voters at that romney rally today, let s watch. tell me about your vote and how you see your vote next day in the caucuses. i feel like i don t need my president to be my moral compass or my religious compass, i need him to take care of my paycheck and that s why i m out here supporting romney. when you have tough pain, do you want fast relief? try bayer advanced aspirin. it s not the bayer aspirin you know. it s different. first.it s been re-engineered with micro-particles. second, it enters the bloodstream fast, and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain. the best part? it s proven to relieve pain twice as fast as before.
santorum said president obama s leadership style is dividing the country and insisted he would do better. this president has done more divide than any other president i ve witnessed. i gives speech after speech to divide america between class and income group and racial groups much this is the great divider in chief. this is about trust. you don t build trust going up and running around the country beating up on your opponent. he s the president of everybody in this country. i would be somebody who would meet regularly and talk and try to build relationships of trustment. you can see the full interview of santorum on meet the press when it reairs on msnbc at 2:00 eastern. rick santorum held more than 300 events in iowa in the past six months. why is he gaining momentum now? washington pure owe chief for yahoo news joining me from java
really need congress to do very much, at least in the temps of the economy. we do have that payroll tax cut that my guess is that it will be extended through the end of the year. other than that, i don t think we re going to see much out of congress. we ll have a lot of talk, very little action. toward the end of the year, we do need congress to do something because of the bush tax cuts are going to expire at the end of 2012 and that s probably almost certainly not going to get resolved until after the elections in november. we ll have a lame duck congress and either a re-elected president or incoming president dealing with that. great to see you. happy new year. you too. we ll take you back to iowa for more on the latest poll to come out two days before the iowa caucuses. there we take you to java joe s where the hot coffee is pouring this morning. this is weekends with alabawith witt. back after this. [ male announcer ] cranberry juice? wake up!
mitt romney leading the field here in iowa. it s the second poll this week to show romney on top. and one of many polls showing newt gingrich is in dead free-fall. the pressure may be getting to newt, who became teary-eyed this afternoon here at java joe s. one reason romney s doing so well here is evangelical voters are split. they re torn among rick santorum, rick perry, romney, gingrich and michele bachmann. together, the religious-oriented candidates, that s santorum, perry, and bachmann, get 35% in a new poll, but apart they re giving romney a real path to victory through their division. and how many tickets are there out of iowa? how many people would come from here to other parts of the debate and the campaign? who s out of the race if they don t have a strong finish on tuesday night? we re going to answer that tonight. we re going to look at which of the candidates are most likely to quit after the iowa caucuses this coming tuesday. and tell me what you really think. we ve got