Mitt Romney Now Leading in Iowa Polls; Rick Santorum Surging in Iowa; America's New Poor; Romney Hunkering Down In Iowa
ALINA CHO, CNN ANCHOR: Mitt Romney hunkering down for the home stretch in Iowa four days to go before caucus day. With Ron Paul close and Rick Santorum surging, the Hawkeye State is still up for grabs, and brand new poll numbers are coming out right now.</s>DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: Al Qaeda looking for a foothold in Libya. They just sent one of their top jihadists there in an attempt to build a fighting force. A CNN special report coming up just ahead.</s>CHO: Muslim leaders snubbing the NYPD and the New Year's tradition for allegedly spying on them after the 9/11 attack. We'll hear from both sides, including New York's top cop, Ray Kelly.</s>FEYERICK: And they're checking the lights, they're testing the confetti. Times Square bracing for one million visitors tomorrow night. We're taking you behind the scenes of the biggest New Year's Eve bash in the world, we like to think, on this AMERICAN MORNING.</s>CHO: Good morning. It's Friday, December 30, the eve of New Year's Eve. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Alina Cho along with Deb Feyerick. So glad you're with us.</s>FEYERICK: Up first this morning, Mitt Romney hunkering down in Iowa trying to close the deal. The former Massachusetts governor is the front-runner right now, a few points ahead of Ron Paul. With four days to go before the caucuses, Romney is tweaking his schedule, planning to spend a lot more time in Iowa over the next 96 hours after a quick visit to New Hampshire, telling voters this election is about saving the soul of America and that he's the man for the job. CNN politics editor Paul Steinhauser live from Des Moines, Iowa this morning. Paul, I understand you have some brand new poll numbers just out?</s>PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Yes. This is just a couple minutes ago. Deb, let's look at them immediately. This is of likely caucus-goers right here in Iowa, from NBC Marist, and look at the top. There's Massachusetts Governor Romney at 23 percent, Ron Paul at 21 percent, the congressman from Texas. That's basically a dead heat when you take into account the sample here. Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, 15 percent, followed one point back by Texas governor Rick Perry at 14 percent. There's Newt Gingrich at 13 percent, the former House speaker, and Michele Bachmann down in single digits. She is of course the congresswoman from neighbors Minnesota. Does that poll look familiar? Looks almost exactly like that CNN/TIME/ORC poll we put out. So I guess this is further proof Newt Gingrich's numbers are collapsing in Iowa and Rick Santorum is rising and right now Romney and Paul tied for the top spot four days to go until caucuses here, Deb.</s>FEYERICK: It's interesting. We're seeing a more confident Mitt Romney. He's kind of lukewarm for voters. Now he seems to be turning up the flame. He's even going to campaign today with Chris Christie.</s>STEINHAUSER: Yes, Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, who a lot of people wanted himself to run for the White House, is going to be joining Romney. Of course, Christie a big surrogate for Romney. Romney goes to New Hampshire, you mentioned, for about that 24 hour, not even and comes right back here. Romney will even be here caucus night. Another sign he's getting more confident. Publicly, he still remains modest. Take a listen to what he said yesterday.</s>MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Sure, I want to win Iowa. Everybody wants to win Iowa. I'm not going to predict who's going to win. I think it's too difficult to know who's going to show up at the caucuses, but I want to get the support of the people of Iowa.</s>STEINHAUSER: Publicly why does he remain so modest? Four years ago, spent a lot of money, didn't win here or in Iowa, didn't win in New Hampshire, and that was the end of it. He does not want a repeat performance this time around.</s>FEYERICK: Better to err on the side of caution. And obviously now his strategy is that he's positioning himself as the man who can beat Obama. Paul Steinhauser thanks so much. We'll see you a little later on.</s>CHO: And 96 hour, it's not a lot of time to swing an election, unless, of course, you're talking about Iowa, where more than half the voters haven't even made up their minds yet. So what's it going to take to seal the deal in the Hawkeye state? We want to ask CNN contributor Will Cain, a columnist with "The Blaze," and live from Washington, CNN contributor and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona. Good morning to you both. So Will, one of the big headlines, as you heard Paul Steinhauser just say, is Romney is really pounding the pavement in Iowa in the final days. He's going to be there on caucus night, the morning after. And today he's campaigning with a darling of the Republican Party, Chris Christie.</s>WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Right.</s>CHO: What do you make of that?</s>CAIN: I think Romney senses he actually has a chance to win Iowa. I don't think Iowa's been all that important to Romney leading up to this moment. He knew he could go in and win New Hampshire.</s>CHO: But it's great for momentum.</s>CAIN: That's a good point. Let's explain what's at stake in Iowa. This year, political insider talk, sounds like. We have proportional delegates. You win Iowa, don't win the whole state. There are 25 delegates at stake in Iowa. If you win 30 percent, you win 15, 20 delegates. He's in to pick up a few delegates, more important, momentum. A sense of inevitability you're going to be the guy.</s>CHO: Jim Acosta is there on the trail saying the crowds are getting bigger and Romney really is sensing -- nothing like being at the top of the polls to energize a candidate, right?</s>CAIN: That's right. I talked how many delegates you actually win, votes in Iowa. How many you need to win in a GOP nomination, 1,100. So winning Iowa actually isn't a massive step towards winning the nomination except for gaining that momentum we talked about to send a message and make people like you and me talk about him.</s>CHO: Maria, I want to get to you, because there was another high-level defection in the Bachmann campaign. First the Iowa state chair the day before, just yesterday the political director. What's going on with Bachmann?</s>MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think what's going on with Bachmann is more of a reflection of how volatile this whole process has been. Let's not forget that this is the woman who actually won the Iowa straw poll a few short months ago back in August. But what it really demonstrates is the tension among Republicans, especially among the most conservative social and evangelical GOP voters, who really are struggling between a candidate who can really be their standard bearer, and at the beginning of the process that was Michele Bachmann, and then somebody who they believe might have the capacity to beat president Obama. Clearly, what they're saying is Bachmann is not that candidate.</s>CHO: What's interesting, though, at least in the Iowa state chair's case that person went over to Ron Paul, not somebody like rick Santorum. You know? It's an interesting -- anyway, I mean, try to --</s>CARDONA: No, you're absolutely right. What that demonstrates, Alina, is yet another tension among the Republican Party, which is who is that anybody-but-Romney candidate? Let's not forget, Romney is still somebody who the GOP voters don't absolutely love, and don't trust. So who is that anybody-but-Romney candidate?</s>CHO: Let's talk about that anybody-but-Romney candidate, Will Cain. Rick Santorum third in the polls. When that came out in the CNN poll a couple of days ago that was a surprise to a lot of people, despite the fact he has a very strong ground game in Iowa. You know, the big question that I have, of course, going forward is, could he pull off a Huckabee in 2012? Do you think he could win Iowa? And is it a one-time surge or is this a real surge?</s>CAIN: It might be the perfect example. Could you pull off a Huckabee? Which means do you win Iowa and not much else beyond Iowa? That's absolutely possible. Could he be a dark horse to win Iowa? On paper, yes, he perfectly fits the Iowa electorate. He puts family values, social issues, social conservatism at the top of his list. That's very important to Republican Iowans. The question is, what happens after that, the question. "The Wall Street Journal" had a great headline the other day, "As Iowa goes, so goes Iowa."</s>CAIN: How important would it be, should Santorum win Iowa? He's already put money in New Hampshire but is polling near the bottom. So what happens after Iowa?</s>CHO: That's Romney's backyard, of course. Maria, it would not be a political segment without asking about Newt Gingrich. A stunning drop in the polls, just since the begins of the month, a drop in 19 points from 33 percent to 14 percent. Let's listen to him lowering expectations. Watch.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you come in fourth will you stay in the race?</s>NEWT GINGRICH, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, sure.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So there are more than three tickets out of Iowa?</s>GINGRICH: Sure. Depends on what happens. Depend what the margins are. Considering I'm 20 ahead in other states, it would be fairly foolish not to stay in the race. It's a long way from here to picking a nominee.</s>CHO: All right, Maria, what do you think about that?</s>CARDONA: I think, again, it's a huge change from a few short few weeks ago talking about looking at the number, it would be difficult not to consider him the nominee. So that, again, is a reflection of how volatile this race has been. But I think also for Gingrich, he has been clearly the focus of tremendous, tremendous pile-on of negative advertising. But he also in true Gingrich fashion has been his own worst enemy as we have seen the old Newt really rise and say things and talk about things that are just adding to his implosion. And I think that has been the fear of the Republican establishment, if he ends up being the anybody-but- Romney candidate, that he will actually be his own worst enemy and completely implode if he ends up being the nominee.</s>CHO: As we reminded viewers, he likes to keep his campaign positive. But the reality is he doesn't have the money to launch those negative ads, and he is going to head into debt in 2012. We'll see how that plays out. Maria Cardona, Will Cain thank you so much.</s>CARDONA: Thank you very much.</s>CHO: Keep it here on CNN for the best political coverage on TV. This Sunday night, January 1, Join Anderson Cooper for "Countdown to Iowa, The Final 48 Hours." Anderson will take a close look what each candidate is doing to win the last-minute support Sunday at 8:00 eastern on CNN. And this Tuesday night the country's first real votes, the candidates first true tests, special live "America's Choice 2012." Coverage of the Iowa caucuses begins 7:00 p.m. eastern only on</s>CNN. FEYERICK: New this morning -- North Korea threatening revenge against South Korea. North says it is insulted that more South Koreans did not attend the funeral of leader Kim Jong-il. South Korean did allow some citizens to attend, but it did not send an official delegation. North Korea responding with a very harsh message threatening to, quote, "smash puppet forces" in the south. A fight over money holding things up again at ground zero. New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg now saying there is no chance that the September 11th museum will open as planned on the 11th anniversary of the attacks. It's all over a dispute over money between the port authority and Museum Foundation, whose chairman, by the way, a Michael Bloomberg. Question, who should pay $300 million in cost overruns?</s>CHO: They're testing lights, setting up barricades and shining up the New Year's Eve ball. New York City is bustling with preparations for tomorrow's big bash in Times Square. And one million people will cram into the crossroads of the world and more than one billion others will tune in to watch the traditional ball drop. I want to go to Susan Candiotti live in Times Square with look at security and prep. What's going on, Susan?</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'll give you an early flavor. There you go. Oh -- well, it blew well. Didn't it? There's confetti for you. There's action even at this early hour. The streets are clear at this time, but 24 hours from now, forget it. They're going to start to pile in here. The barricades will go up. People will be penned in. You won't be able to go out. You won't be allowed to bring in alcohol or backpacks, and there will be tight security. But they're getting ready to drop that beautiful crystal ball made of Waterford crystals at the stroke of midnight. You see the stages over there where Anderson Cooper will be broadcasting with Kathy Griffin. So they're getting ready for that as well. It's an experience the organizers say is not to be missed even in person, or on television. Take a look.</s>TIM TOMPKINS, PRESIDENT OF TIMES SQUARE ALLIANCE: Part of it, you know, you see it for years and people just want to be there in this internet age where everything you're kind of seeing on a screen, there is something intense about just being there with the spirit of the crowd, and, you know, a little bit of narcissism. You know one billion people are watching, so if you get in a hand wave to mom, that goes a long way.</s>CANDIOTTI: Of course, security is critical here and the New York police department has been hard at work making preparations. There are no current active terrorist threats right now that they are reporting. However, authorities say they are always on guard. After all, they said they have been able to prevent and break up 14 terrorist plots in the last ten years, and they're ready with 16 checkpoints, metal detectors, they've got at least 500 cameras around this immediate area, and, of course, security officers and police, the federal authorities as well will be covering the New York metropolitan area. I talked with Commissioner Ray Kelly about being on guard against people who might be even out to take retribution after the death of Osama bin Laden this year. They always have to guard against even lone wolf.</s>RAY KELLY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: The lone wolf threat is something that certainly all of law enforcement, all of the federal agencies involved in this sort of work are very much concerned about. It's very difficult to identify these people. It's a big haystack and trying to pick out a couple of needles, is exceedingly difficult.</s>CANDIOTTI: Even the commissioner himself will be out here celebrating as well. And we're ready. I've got my glasses. Ready to go, ready to bring in 2012. Alina and Deborah, back to you.</s>FEYERICK: It's always amazing to see Times Square now that they changed the traffic pattern with no cars there even at this time of the morning. But, yes, testing that confetti, as they should. If the wind go up, it's going to go over.</s>CHO: Later on, we should mention that New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly will stop by AMERICAN MORNING to talk a little bit more about safety at tomorrow's celebration in Times Square. That's at 7:50 eastern time just about a half hour from now. And it is now almost quarter past the hour.