that it's krun f time? and we're digging deeper into ron paul's writings and finding -- sexual harassment victims. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." we're here in the new cnn election center counting down to the final few days and hours before the first contest of 2012. the new iowa poll out today reenforcing mitt romney's place at the top of the pack, running neck and neck with ron paul. it drives home the bombshell findings of our poll this week, sh showing rick santorum has surged to third place in iowa, while newt gingrich has faded. it's put iting more and more pressure on romney to go for broke in iowa, to try to pull off a win tuesday night. jim acosta is joining us from des moines with more. t >> mitt romney has the big mo and the question heading into this weekend is whether he will win the iowa caucuses without breaking a sweat. ♪ no wonder mitt romney appears to be going all in in iowa. he just might be holding a winning hand. a sign just days before the caucuses, a political ace and chris christie. >> you don't do what you're supposed to do on tuesday for mitt romney, i will be back. jersey style, people. i will be back. >> romney barely mentions his gop rivals these days, aiming all his sinkers at the president. >> he's in hawaii right now. we're out in the cold and the rain and the wind because we care about america. he just finished his 90th round of golf. >> romney is statistically tied for the lead with ron paul and well ahead of the rest of the pack. >> and i'm actually hoping you could help me by doing a one quick question survey. >> the trick is to translate those poll numbers into boots on the ground and beat the more organized ron paul army in iowa. but paul and the rest of the gop field may have given romney the opening he needs. libertarian republican is headinging home to texas to spend new year's eve with his family. while the well financed rick perry is battling for third place with rick santorum. >> why don't you ask taxpayers of iowa to support a teapot museum in north carolina, an indoor rain forest in iowa. >> ed rollins tells cnn the minnesota congresswoman has held her fire against romney in the hopes of being his running mate. saying it was a theory that if romney became the nominee, he would need her to get support. his only gaffe this week came from his son who joked why he has yet to release his tax returns. >> as soon as president obama releases his grades and birth certificate -- and maybe -- >> another sign romney prefers a fight with president obama who he now compares to french royalty. >> why did you call president obama marie antoinette? >> i said it reminded me of antoinette when she said let them eat cake. tgd be worse. what we look for is it can be better. >> a response is obama campaign tweeted this article that reported romney once lived in a mansion when he was a missionary in frons. the only other contender that's hit l romney is huntsman. he has an ad out that calls romney a chameleon. the problem, it is running in new hampshire. >> mitt romney's son didn't back away from the assertion about the president not releasing his birth certificate, since he did. he's now backinging away from that. >> that's right. he put out a tweet this afternoon saying it was a bad joke and he apologizes, wolf. >> jim acosta, thanks. now to the most attention grabbing moment of the campaign trail. on the day, newt gingrich getting very emotional talking about his mother at an event in iowa. >> this is a group of moms here, you think of your mom. what special moment comes to mind -- i know that she's not still with us. what moment do you think of when you think of your mom? >> well, first of all, you'll get me all teary eyed. first of all, i get teary eyed every time we sing christmas carols. excuse me -- my mother sang in the choir and loved singing in the choir. late in her life, she ended up in a long-term care facility. she had bipolar disease and depression and gradually acquired me some physical ailments. that introduced me to the quality of long-term care, then -- and my whole emphasis on brain science comes in directly from dealing with -- see, you got me emotional -- from dealing with the real problems of real people in my family. and so, it's not a theory. it's in fact, you know, my mother. i do policy much easier than i do personal. >> very human side of the former speaker. we caught up with the former speaker later. asked him about his show of tears. >> catch you off guard? >> about my mother? yeah. something about christmas carols that just triggers my mother and i find myself back there again. which in a way is very nice. >> let's bring in our chief political correspondent, candy crowley. she's in des moines, iowa. very different side of the speaker, i must say. covered him for 20 years. never seen him cry like that. have you, candy? >> i have not. setting a side -- he was talking to a group of mothers, mothers matter 2012. you can hear the kids in the background. it recalled for me actually in a more poignant way the hillary clinton, when she got choked up talking in new hampshire right after her loss here in iowa. there is something about the rigors of the campaign trial. at this point, you're talking about some pretty tired campaigners. the the season, which is christmas and new year's and that kind of triggers this. i think this was a good moment for newt gingrich. what is the -- some of the wrap on him is that he's this cold, arrogant intellectual and here he is. what mom can't relate to a son choking up about his mom. you want to look at it truly politically, it was a good moment for him. >> it was a good moment because it did show a very personal side of newt gingrich and we remember when hillary clinton broke down in tears in new hampshire when she got emotional speaking about her daughter or whatever. in fact, i think we have that clip. let me play it, candy, then we'll discuss. >> this is very personal for me. it's not just political. it's not just public. i see what's happening and we have to reverse it. and some people think elections are a game. they think it's who's up or who's down. it's about our country, our kid's futures and it's really about all of us together. >> certainly showed a very personal side of hillary clinton. that actually helped her on the campaign trial, didn't it, candy? >> well, it did. it seemed to certainly, she came from behind and won the new hampshire primary when there was a lot of worry in her campaign since they thought they'd win the iowa caucuses and she came in third, so it was a moment when the human side comes up and you can say well, you know, why is that so important? part of it is that we know that voters have this kind of exfactor factor to go on. those are relatable moments. everybody can understand why, you know, somebody might choke up at a time. she was talking about the country as a whole in the state she founded in, that particular employ, we knew that the economy was beginning to tank. she was talking about all the families she had met. it matters people look a at that and go, wow, that's really interesting. i feel i know that person a little bit better now. that's really key when they go into a caucus in new hampshire and do their primary voting. it's key to feel as though you have some take on who this person is personally. >> you and i are old enough to remember, ed muskee, pat schroeder, she cried and that didn't help either one of them in their chances of getting the party's nomination. >> bill clinton changed all of that. feeling your pain is very envogue. people want to see that kind of -- i mean, they don't want to see fake crying, but those human moments tend to humanize those people. >> bill clinton, i feel your pain. thanks very much. candy will be anchoring "state of the union" sunday from iowa. we'll be watching. thanks very much. ron paul is planning to turn his final campaign push in iowa into a family affair. his son will be at his side for a tour to five iowa cities on monday. ron paul is in iowa today, but he's taking a break from his campaigning this new year's weekend, a risky move, i must say. he's been struggling to deal with some tougher scrutiny, including questions about racist newsletters written under his name decades ago. peter hamby is joining us now from iowa. you've been looking specifically at a 1987 book by ron paul. >> yeah, that's right, wolf. this was written under ron paul's name in 1987, right before he ran for president under libertarian party banner. unlike this new letters, which he has been able to distance himself from, this book is written by ron paul and there are several passages in there, sort of inflammatory, that might hurt him. let me read a couple of passages in this book, freedom under siege. the first is about sexual harassment. he writes quote, employee writes are said to be valid when employers pressure employees into sexual activity. why don't they quit once the so-called harassment starts? another passage that i found was every year, new groups organize excuse me, organize to demand their rights. white people who organize and expect is same attention as other groups are condemned as dangerous bigots. caucuses can exist, but not a white caucus -- so again, ron paul's hard core libertarian views coming back to haunt him a little bit. these are not mainstream outside. a lot of p the book hits on his familiar themes of protecting gold standard, gun rights and protecting personal liberty. amid this whole newsletter flap, this book has escaped scrutiny, but now, he might have to answer for this in the next few days before the caucuses. >> you spent a lot of time in iowa, south carolina. how is this likely to impact him? >> well, i don't think it will hurt him here in iowa where he's doing well and his supporters are so devoted and agree. the problem for him is most republican voters don't view him as palatable. nationally, only about 6% according to our recent poll think he can beat barack obama next november. it might hurt him in new hampshire, where someone like jon huntsman is competing for independent voters, so if you throw these quotes back at him saying if you're a victim of sexual harassment, you might as well quit your job. that might turn off some independent voters. it feeds the view that ron paul is out of step with independents. as much ron paul has tried to grab this idea that his views on debt and spending are in line with today's republican party, this reenforces the narrative that his views are not. so it's a problem for him on a national level. >> thanks, peter. we have several days of complete coverage ahead on the iowa caucuses. first, please be sure to join me saturday night, 6:0 p.m. eastern, for a special edition of "the situation room," my interviews with all seven candidates. then 8:00 p.m. eastern on sunday, tune in for a cnn politician special, countdown to iowa, the final 48 hours. sunday night, 8:00 p.m. eastern. it leads to the iowa caucuses on tuesday. our special coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. democrats are stepping up their attacks on mitt romney and asking, what is he hiding? will he be forced the reveal more about his finances sooner than later? and the violence in syria that the al assad government doesn't want you to see. stand by for some secret reporting behind the front lines. through diet and exercise, alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat. let's fight fat with alli. ♪ britta olsen is my patient. i spend long hours with her checking her heart rate, administering her medication, and just making her comfortable. one night britta told me about a tradition in denmark, "when a person dies," she said, "someone must open the window so the soul can depart." i smiled and squeezed her hand. 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[ female announcer ] to nurses everywhere, thank you, from johnson & johnson. taking. much more coming up on the iowa caucuses, but there's other important news we're watching right now, including overseas, another bloody friday as syria antigovernment protesters take to the streets by the thousands to crackdown by the al assad regime appears to be hardening, even as arab league monitors assess whether syria is upholding a peace agreement. a freelance journalist was able to get inside syria and filed this report for cnn, anonymously for security reasons. >> the neighborhood of homs, fighters took me into a house where the men were engaged in a shootout with snipers from the syrian military. this man say they are all defectors from assad forces. they call themselves the free -- one of the man managed to take a rifle with a precision scope with him when he defected. but most of the fighters from the free syrian army are ill equipped. short on guns and ammunition and no weapons. still, they have managed to kick assad forces out of -- and hold the area. it's possibly the first place in syria without government control. check points like this mark the front line. >> translator: assad's troops are about 25 to 30 meters away from us with soldiers in tanks. we are here to prevent them from killing young and old. >> the man introduced me to one of their leaders. he is one of the few willing to be identified. he was a lieutenant in an army before defecting. his uncle is a former syrian defense minister. >> translator: we got ordered in army that went against my oath as a soldier. i had sworn to protect civilians, but when i saw what the government forces were doing to the people, i defected on june 2nd. >> people like -- are heroes for the people. he was cheered at an antigovernment demonstration. but he is surrounded by the syrian military and constantly shelled by tanks and artillery. in a meeting in a safe house, he insists that even though assad has not used his air force against the uprising, only a no fly zone imposed by the international community could help the rebels win. >> translator: we are in contact with soldiers who are in the army. they tell us that a no fly zone is essential to prevent them from getting bombed if they defect. >> for now, the men of the free syrian army are fighting a war against an overpowering fold. they smuggle fighters in and out of the neighborhood they control. evading government checkpoints. at night, they search everyone entering and leaving the area to stop government death squads. the so-called -- from getting in. >> translator: the street you see over there is controlled by the shabia. they are known to kidnap our women and children. we try to prevent this. when strangers come here, r we stop and search them. >> the people of this part of homs are not afraid to take to the streets. there are regular nighttime rallies, but after months of casualties, they have long lost their faith in non violent protests. many believe that real change in syria will only come from the barrel of a gun. ♪ >> from inside syria, the reporter wants to remain anonymous for security reasons. let's dig a little bit deeper as what about going on in syria. mohammed jamjoom is follow iing all of the unrest from egypt. syria has restricted access by international journalists. the arab league of observers in syria right now, do they have any real opportunity to see anything or are they completely controlled by the syrian regime? >> well, wolf, we've been trying to reach those arab league monitors on the ground directly and having a lot of difficulty doing so. there's been a lot of questions as to whether these observers have unfettered access, whether they're being heavily monitored by the syrian security forces. even though we haven't been able to speak to them directly, there's a lot of videos popping up purporting to show them in various cities, interacting with citizens. getting into arguments at times. one video today purports to show a scene in the city of -- where one arab league monitor or somebody who appears to be an arab league monitor, wearing the orange vest and hat, is talking to a man, a syrian man, who said he was tortured by syrian security forces. he's showing the monitor his back and describing what happened to him. we're just seeing more and more scenes like this coming out of syria. even though we're not getting to talk to these monitors, we're not hearing the reports they're supposedly giving back to the arab league or what their interactions are with the syrian government, the fact is, a lot of syrians want people to see what is going on so they're posting these videos and a lot of these videos are being corroborated. >> a lot of people have raised questions about the credibility of these monitors. where you are, the head of this arab league delegation was the intelligence chief for the leader of sudan, who's wanted for crimes against humanity and this is the guy they send over to syria to see what's going on? what kind of credibility does he have? >> there has been so much criticism, wolf, of the choice of general mohamed to lead this mission, a man with high position in the sudanese government, a lot of syrians saying it would have been better if the u.n. had sent in a mission. the arab league has shot back saying these claims are without merit, but even while these monitors are there trying end the violence, we're hearing reports of more and more violence. just today in douma, we see videos reporting huge clashes between security forces and protesters and it's really begging the question, how effective are these monitors? there's so much outrage as to the fact that these monitors are there. they've been there now for a few days. they're going to increase their numbers in the country and yet, by all accounts, we're hearing in that country, violence only increasing. deaths only increasing, injuries only increasing. seems this crackdown isn't going to end anytime soon. >> his regime in sudan was accused of slaughter against so many fellow sudanese in darfur. we'll check back with mohammed jamjoom. he's watching this unfold in egypt. syrian regime will not allow international journalists to come in and see what's going on. the primary season kicking into high gear and the gloves are coming off. with the iowa caucuses around the corner, attack ads are coming fast and furious. who's taking the big hits and is anyone taking the high road? >> i of course could get up and say, oh, i do cry. all of the negative ads and so forth, but i don't. this is part of the process. tylenol: and i relieve nasal congestion. nyquil (stuffy): overachiever. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk. you can certainly bet there's a lot of talk inside newt beginnigingrich's campaign why his support in iowa has nose dived with the caucuses just four days away. two words are probably coming up. attack ads. lisa sylvester is taking a look at the power of these ads and the super packs that are often behind them. >> newt gingrich made a promise to not run negative ads and he's probably rethinking that decision, considering his opponents have been lobbing a lot of negative ads his way. >> leaving us with debt, earmarks -- >> iowa vote r rs are seeing a blitz of political ads and three quarters of them are negative. >> ever notice how some people make a lot of mistakes? >> probably a mistake. i made a mistake. >> serial hypocrites and flip-floppers can't clean up the mess. >> some strategists think attack ads have claimed their first victim. newt gingrich. whose poll numbers have taken a tumble. he was way outgunned according to ad trackers. 45% of all political ads in iowa this month have been hits on him. only 6% were supporting him. >> despairty between what the pro romney super pack was able