you re in the situation room . the first republican presidential contest is two weeks away and a top obama adviser says the democrats are counting on a long primary season slugfest between newt gingrich and mitt romney. every word from the candidates could make a difference. jim acosta is covering the final sprint of the caucuses. jim, we re seeing a possible shift in the romney campaign strategy. what are you seeing? what are you hearing? reporter: well, there may be a big momentum shift for mitt romney out here in iowa, wolf. he had a pretty good debate on thursday night against the gop field. he merged pretty much unscathed. he was not the subject of the attacks from the other candidates. that was really newt gingrich s role. he was beat up pretty good during that contest. and so mitt romney came into a city and he said he plans to take over the voters in the coming weeks. what concerns me is that we have in washington a class of people who spent their whole time i
plus, the shocking end to an equally shocking case in saudi arabia. a woman beheaded for witchcraft. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. just 24 hours ago, the mud was flying between newt gingrich and mitt romney as they campaigned in the first primary state of new hampshire. now gingrich is vowing to run a clean campaign and refrain from initiating the kind of attacks that have come to characterize the modern race for the white house. some question, though, whether newt gingrich means it, whether he can live up to that commitment. joe johns is working the story for us. what are you finding out? well, wolf, the last few days have certainly been ugly, but now both candidates are saying they re going to do what a lot of voters have said they want and that is have a campaign that is free of negativism. of course, newt gingrich, the former speaker of the house running for president has gone as far to put his words actually in writing. though a lot of people out th