News wall street journal poll taken just eight weeks before iowa, donald trump led the republican pack with 27 closely at 22. Democratic side, Hillary Clinton, well ahead of bernie sanders. But beware. Just look at where we were eight years ago at this same stage of the race. Eight weeks out, Rudy Giuliani was way out in front. Turned out . He was doubling the showing of mccain. And Hillary Clinton, she had an even bigger lead over that illinois senator named barack obama. Bigger one than she has over sanders today. In a moment were going to look at the developing fight between the two leading candidates, donald trump and Hillary Clinton over bill clintons sexual past. And were going to talk to two of the republican candidates who will be making their do or die stand in New Hampshire. But first, lets go to the centers of the political universe for the next 37 days, New Hampshire and iowa. And Kristen Welker and hallie e jackson are standing by. Let me start with hallee in iowa. We know that its cruz or bust but who else is in the game there . Trump . Rubio . What else is going on . Well, look at whos here this week, chuck. Youve got ted cruz doing his 28 county sixday bus tour. Hes coming out hard, trying to show his campaign is framing it that hes not taking any votes here in iowa for grantete Mike Huckabee is doing 150 stops here over the next month. Already. So he is a presence. Both of these candidates doing traditional, on the ground retail politics in iowa. Donald trump taking that more nontraditional stance. He will be here on saturday. For cruz, you talked about him, the big question is are expectations potentially for him too high here . Yes, hes got the money. Hes got the organization to go longterm the way that other iowa winners in the past have not had. But if he doesnt come in a strong first here, it will be a blow to his campaign. Theres no doubt but third place, assuming that if cruz and trump, third place becomes an interesting battle. Is it marco bios to lose . Potentially, especially if you look at where the polling is now, chuck. And for rubios campaign, they need at least, at the very minimum, a strong third place finish here in iowa. They can afford to do that if the first two finishers are donald trump and ted cruz. But at no point in this race, especially in iowa, New Hampshire, can marco rubio come in behind jeb bush, Chris Christie, or john kasich. He has got to pull out ahead of those establishment candidates. So, if you buy into that where is marco rubio going to spend more of his time . Hes got to maintain where he is right now in iowa and hes got to build where he is in New Hampshire to try to break away from that establishment pack. Hallie jackson in iowa. Now lets shift over, Kristen Welker is standing by in gorgeous manchester, New Hampshire. And kristen, lets start a little bit with the democrats before we get into the do or die sense. Look, New Hampshire. Very good to the clintons over the years and yet she might be an underdog there. But her big bat s l to make sure she wins iowa, and doesnt give sanders any ground. Absolutely. And its a real jumpball here the stakes really couldnt be higher because if secretary clinton wins here in New Hampshire it would allow her to lock up the nomination early. But this is a mustwin state for bernie sanders. And right now, as you point out, a number of polls show that he has the lead here. Hes from neighboring vermont. His message about economic equality taking on the big banks and wall street have e ally resonated with the progressive voters here. He has 18 field offices, and overall, in the last quarter, he raised 33 million just 4 million shy of secretary clinton. So hes in a strong spot. But secretary clinton trying to match that, shes added some events here in New Hampshire today. Shes deploying her not so secret weapon, former president bill clinton, tomorrow, of course, chuck as you point out, they have a relationship with New Hampshire, as well. This is the spot where bill clinton proclaimed that he was the comeback kid. It is the state that revived secretary clintons chances for winning the nomination in 2008. The question is, will they be able to revive that excitement this election cycle . Well, its going to be bill clinton, making his campaign 16 debut. Kristen welker in New Hampshire. Hallie jackson in iowa. Let the games begin. Well its no secret that the republican establishment takes a dim view of both donald trump and texas senator ted cruz. And theyve been looking hard for an alternative. But who . Jeb bush . Marco rubio, Chris Christie . Through. The crowded gop field makes it that much tougher for any one of these socalled establishment guys to dominate. New hampshire is do or die for two candidates hoping to emerge as an alternative to trump and cruz. Governor john kasich of ohio and senator rand paul of kentucky and both are joining me this morning. Let me start in ohio with governor kasich. Governor, good morning to you. Welcome back to meet the press. Thank you. So, New Hampshire, do or die for you, are we saying this correctly . And what does do or die mean . Win or just be the first guy after trump and cruz . Well, we want to be the story, chuck. And let me just tell you that were on the ballot now in over 30 states. We also have our resources well enough where were actually going to be placing a Television Ad up this week. It shows that, you know, people just counting me out. They have all of my career. We juskeep plugging along. So i want to be a story. And if im a story i believe ill win the nomination if i come out of New Hampshire if a strong position. The assumption is that youre fighting with three other candidates in New Hampshire sort of for the same type of New Hampshire voters. And thats marco rubio, Chris Christie, jeb bush and yourself. Lets start with the fellow the govovnor who is surging right now, which arguably is Chris Christie. Why is he surging right now, and why are you struggling to keep up with him . Well, look, the latest poll we had right before christmas put me one point out of second place. So, chuck, i mean you have all kinds of polls that the last one that came out, the independent poll, put me one point behind rubio, and just seven or eight points behind trump. So we believe we are surging. And we do have a great team. And youre going to see it because of what we have on the ground with great enthusiasm. It doesnt say why sit the fact that youve voters in ohio give you high marks. Voters, for instance, in new jersey, give governor christie low marks. In New Hampshire that hasnt mattered. Why . I dont know. You know, here in ohio we have a balanced budget. They dont in over in new jersey. Our credit has been strengthened. Their credit has been downgraded. Weve got more jobs, and then beyond all of that, always the hit is he has a republican legislature. But i was chairman of the Budget Committee when we balanced the budget, and bill clinton was president. So, i cant explain it to you other than in ohio theres great optimism about the future here both economically and also the sense that everybody has a voice here in the state. Why its happening in new jersey, i dont know. But when you look at the records, you know, frankly ohios doing one of the Fastest Growing and strongest states in the country with even rock solid pensions, which most states dont have. And so i guess thats it. Let me ask you this, a republican strategist said this about your candidacy. I thought it was interesting. Hes been trying to be aggressively bipartisan and thats kind of not where the republican electorate is. Hes trying to be aggressively responsibility and that doesnt seem to be resonating that much in the polls. Is that what youre finding out . Well, again, chuck, i have to tell you, we are like one point out of second place. So it is resonating. And secondly, the you know, the thing thats happening is the voters think the whole system is gamed. Okay . And they think that the rich people, the special interests, get all the voice and they have none. And i am the voice of people who have never been listened to really very much throughout my entire career. Both in the congress, and as governor of ohio. And thats the message that i have in New Hampshire, and people who are worried about their jobs, or their children getting the job, im the one that stands up and speaks for them, including those folks who live in the shadows. So, we feel very good about where we are in New Hampshire. And you know, i wont be the comeback kid ill just be the story coming out of that state. Thats what we all believe and were hoping for. Youve been one of these candidates that says youre going to support whoever the republican nominee is. But you had an ad that essentially created an illusion to donald trump and fascism and the nazis. Given that you ran an ad like that, how can you feel comfortable supporting donald trump as a republican nominee . Well, first of all, thats not what that was about. It was a p. O. W. Who served in vietnam and hanoi hilton, was tortured for five years and said the country needs to be brought together. The country shouldnt be divided. And ive been arguing all along that we have to have Real Solutions to real problems. And people who divide, or for that matter, peoeoe who have no experience, chuck let me tell you this, republicans have run around for seven years saying this, i cant believe we picked a oneterm United States senator who has no experience to be president. I just sometimes wonder whether the partys got amnesia. But you didnt answer the question on trump. Why are you comfortable with him because we got a long way to go to the mination. I dont believe hell be the nominee. And secondly, id like to see his positions become more positive. Because ill tell you this, if he comes in to ohio as a divider, cant win. Hillary clinton. We need somebody thats going to lift people and unite people. Before i let you go, im going to ask you about the tamir rice decision. Grand jury decided not to indict the Police Officers involved in that shooting. You said protesters need to be heard. So let me ask you, what did you hear . Well, theyre very frustrated. Thats why we created a police and community collaborative. You notice that we had no violence in cleveland with the second controversial decision. The credit goes to the community leaders. Also to the mayor. And the fact is the people in cleveland are saying, well, this is frustrating, you know, we dont want to tear our town down. In addition our chief justice, Maureen Oconnor is beginning to look at the whole grand jury process. Weve been ahead of the curve on this. Lets just hope that the situation can continue and it can be peaceful, even though people still are disgruntled and want to protest. I was just going to say. You called it a controversial dedesion. With the grand jurys decision. I dont comment on grand jury decisions. Thats for the people of cleveland to decide. People are on both sides of the issue. They feel very strongly the loss of i 12yearold life and of course its going to be controversial, chuck. All right, governor john kasich. Happy new year. Happy new year to you, sir. Thanks for being on. Let me turn to now a little bit south of ohio into kentucky, republican senator rand paul. Senator paul, welcome back to meet the press, sir. Thanks for having me. I looked at your campaign schedule. The last public event you had was on december 16th. That was in nevada after the last debate. You havent been to iowa since i believe the 12th, New Hampshire before that. I have to ask, senator, whats going on . Two weeks off the campaign trail. Are you still fully running . You know, i also believe in being with my family. I also had to hone up my surgical skills. Ive been doing some pro bono surgery. Also had a few fundraising trips around the country in between then. But i think weve been to iowa and New Hampshire as much or more than any other candidate. Ill be in New Hampshire actually New Hampshire this evening and then ill be in n n york and then ill be in iowa for the rest of the week. So, we also do a job. I mean, i have a job as senator. Im one of the few of the candidates that actually shows up to vote, both cruz and rubio are missing the vast majority of their votes. I feel i have an obligation to the taxpayer that pays my salary. I was just going to say youve taken to twitter quite a bit in that time. First it was to celebrate festivus. We have a big seinfeld themed show today. Also you did some new years resolutions and you went right after senator rubio and cruz. You said i resolve to spend less time voting in the senate so marco rubio and ted cruz dont look so bad. Krauz. I resolve to give ted cruz more lead time before i announce my policy positions so you can replicate them faster. So you believe that basically he steals all your ideas . Well, you know, they say of flattery. And i think on Foreign Policy he started talking about regime change being a bad idea. Toppling secular dictators being a bad idea. And i think ive been the leader on that issue and i continue to. And its an important voice. In fact i think that was the most important thing weve had the entire president ial season is weve finally had a real debate over Foreign Policy, over whether regime change is a good idea. They need to have that on the democrat side, too. Because it turns out that probably the most likely candidate to take us back to war is Hillary Clinton, because she supports regime change as a good concept. You know, its interesting, senator, when i read what you say about isis, and your strategy to take on isis, and i hear president obama say what he says about isis, i dont see a lot of daylight between the two of you. Where am i wrong . Actually, the difference is is that president obama and Hillary Clinton both supported arming the syrian rebels, the islamic rebels, against assad. I wouldnt have done that. They also supported toppling gadhafi and libya. So really the interesting thing is, is while obama gets blamed for not intervening enough, hes actually intervened quite a bit in the middle east. And i think not to our benefit. And so i wouldnt arm the rebels in syria. I wouldnt have toppled gadhafi. And we continue to sell arms to saudi arabia, which continues to be sort of an arsonist in that region, fanning the flames. You know, just yesterday executing a shiite cleric which i think is going to erupt into more problems in saudi arabia. So, i think my Foreign Policy is quite a bit different. I also dont believe in giving foreign aid to people who are enemies, and supplying weapons to the allies of al qaeda, as obama has. Right. So really im kind of the opposite. The interesting thing is the grahams and the mccains have been on the same side as obama, they just want more of what obamas been doing. Let me ask you one more question about ted cruz. Do you think he deserves this reputation in the senate that hes difficult to work with . You know, i think people have different strategies, and approaches to how they deal with people. Ive had many disagreements with those in leadership but i try to keep it on a professional basis. I dont go to the floor and call people liars, because i dont think that, one, that meets the rules of the senate. The rules of the senate say youre not supposed to attack someones character. And i think you can call them out, and ive given tenhour speeches, 13hour speeches without calling anybody names but talking about the history of our country, the history of the bill of rights, the importance of the Fourth Amendment and privacy but i tend not to have the same strategy of attacking people personally. Washington. It may be rousing people, but ultimately i dont think hell that kind of personality would allow him to be the nominee. You know you started this race as one of the frontrunners. A lot of people thought you were going to be one of the frontrunners at this point in time. Youre not there. That doesnt mean you wont be at some point. But are you frustrated with how this campaign has turned out . The focus on trump . What is it that is i feel the frustration in reading your tweets. You clearly are. Can you put it into words . Yeah, the interesting thing is, is that i think the polls are not scientific. A lot of people who follow polls never had any math classes. They dont understand anything about standard error, standard deviation. You are right about that. And the problem is, is that theyve been way wrong. I mean, look, we just had polling in the kentucky race and a week before when theyre supposed to be most accurate theyre off 13 points. If i do have a frustration were being led by the nose and the news media is led by the nose to think somehow trump is going to win this because of thesepolls. The polls dont, i believe, capture whos going to actually vovo. We have great popularity with students. I had 1,000 students at George Washington a few weeks ago. 1,000 students at iowa state. And the thing is, have you ever met a College Student that has answered a president ial poll . If we turn them out were going to shock people like youve never seen. But the problem is, is that its a selffullfilling cycle. Really in the end nobody knows and we ought to have a