situation room. we're counting down the hours to the first voting of the 2012 presidential campaign. 28 hours to be precise, until iowa republicans gather at more than 1700 locations for their party caucuses and start picking their favorites. candidates have spent millions of dollars, logged many thousands of miles in this long iowa marathon. now it's a sprint. as they dash across the state looking for the last few votes. mitt romney is at the head of the pack trying to hold back ron paul and a hard charging rick santorum. let's go live to cnn joe johns joining us from marion iowa right now with the latest. joe? >> wolf, mitt romney is pushing across the state traveling