Santorum Surging to Finish Line; Romney's Big Guns in Iowa; Dems Use Laid-Off Worker Against Romney; Mitt Romney Speaks to Iowa Voters
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S THE SITUATION ROOM: And you're in THE SITUATION ROOM, happening now, late attacks on the eve of the Iowa caucuses. Ron Paul takes aim at rising star Rick Santorum with a very tough word, at least in the minds of so many Republicans. Stand by for Ron Paul's interview with CNN. Plus, Democrats go after Mitt Romney with the help of a worker who got laid off when Romney was his boss. This hour, Romney's credentials as CEO under fire. I will talk about that and more with the Democratic National Chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. And Iran tests missiles and fires back at the threat of new sanctions against its oil industry. Tensions exploding in the Strait of Hormuz. We want to welcome our viewers in the States and around the world. Breaking news, political headlines and Jeanne Moos all straight ahead. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Right now, every second counts for the Republican presidential candidates in the final countdown to the Iowa caucuses tomorrow night. Here in the CNN Election Center, we're following the last full day of frenzied campaigning across the state, especially for the Iowa frontrunners, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. All three have rallies in Iowa this hour. We expect to hear from the top Republican contenders live. Also unfolding, Rick Santorum -- he has five scheduled campaign rallies across Iowa today, including an event in Newton this hour. Santorum's campaign says his surge to third place in the polls in recent days is unleashing a sudden spurt in his fundraising. The new "it" candidate, as they're calling him, also drawing a lot of new criticism from his opponents. Listen to Santorum fire back at Mitt Romney's attempt to portray him as a Washington insider. He never mentions Romney by name, only by his experience as CEO.</s>RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: CEO is a sign of people who work for them. I can tell you, as a senator, I did not work for the president. And Congress doesn't work for the president. The American people don't work for the president. It's the other way around.</s>BLITZER: let's go to CNN's Jim Acosta. He's on the ground in Boone, Iowa, where Santorum was campaigning just a short while ago. What's the latest on that front -- Jim?</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, he's good poll numbers. His fundraising is taking off. And the world media is following his every step. Now the trick for Rick Santorum is to translate that momentum into something meaningful.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make room. Make room.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Welcome to Rick Santorum's moment.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you?</s>RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hi. Good to see you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're happy to see you.</s>ACOSTA: Just one day to go before the Iowa caucuses, the surging GOP contender noted the crush of cameras following his every move wasn't even there a week ago. That might explain why Iowans have their doubts whether any of this is real.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm one of those people here in Iowa that's sitting right on the edge trying to make up my mind.</s>SANTORUM: Come on over. Come on.</s>ACOSTA: Santorum's message -- it's real, all right.</s>SANTORUM: We've raised more money in the last few days than we have the last few months. And, you know, going from -- from zero to 60 in the polls, if you will, will help -- help those resources a lot.</s>ACOSTA: Now when GOP frontrunner, Mitt Romney, punches...</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I, like Speaker Gingrich, Senator Schumer has -- has spent his career in the government in -- in Washington.</s>ACOSTA: -- Santorum punches back.</s>SANTORUM: We are not looking for a chief executive officer for this country. We're looking for a commander-in-chief.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is a fine man and he'll do a fine job for Pennsylvania.</s>ACOSTA: But Santorum has some convincing to do. Republicans remember how he lost his Senate seat five years ago by an astounding 18 points.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you say to those voters who are concerned about that loss you had 2006 and whether you're viable in a general election?</s>SANTORUM: I lost an election in the worst election year for Republicans in the history of our state.</s>ACOSTA: A key factor in Santorum's loss was his controversial vote to have the courts intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, a woman in a vegetative state whose family was at war over whether to remove her feeding tube. Santorum has no regrets.</s>SANTORUM: What I -- what I cared about with Terri Schiavo was to make sure that -- that a -- that a judge looked fairly at the case. They did. And they made their decision.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who has the best chance to beat Obama? Rick Santorum.</s>ACOSTA: And Santorum is only now running a real ad campaign. His best chance to get on the air in Iowa is to tow the international press behind him. (on camera): Just to show you how chaotic this is, we're having to go between this very tight space between two buildings just to catch up with Senator Santorum. He is bobbing and weaving his way to the finish line. (voice-over): While Santorum's rivals have busses, he doesn't. This Santorum bus belongs to Jim Bob Duggar, a prominent backer of Mike Huckabee, who won the caucuses in '08. Duggar is now urging Evangelical voters to back Santorum.</s>JIM BOB DUGGAR, SANTORUM SUPPORTER: He has a pretty good track record. He's a Christian conservative that has just always stood for what's right.</s>SANTORUM: The Chuck truck.</s>ACOSTA: Santorum doesn't ride in the Duggar bus. He does his campaigning in a pickup truck, a better fit for Santorum's down to earth pitch.</s>ACOSTA: Another sign of Santorum's strength, he is now the subject of negative robo-calls. Santorum said this afternoon that those calls falsely accuse him of being against the Second Amendment. And he accused the Ron Paul campaign of being behind those calls -- and, Wolf, I checked in with the Paul campaign. They're not denying that they're behind those calls -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: I assume he appreciates the fact that, just as Newt Gingrich was slammed by a lot of these negative attack ads, as he moves up, he's about to face similar treatment.</s>ACOSTA: That's right, Wolf. But the advantage that Rick Santorum has versus Newt Gingrich is that Santorum's surge happened right at the last minute. So if that onslaught of negative stuff comes in, it may not have enough time to stick, as opposed to what happened to Newt Gingrich. He knows it -- it stuck and it stuck for a long time.</s>BLITZER: Yes, but wait until...</s>ACOSTA: It did a lot of damage.</s>BLITZER: -- wait until New Hampshire and South Carolina and Florida. There's still plenty of time on those contests.</s>ACOSTA: That's right.</s>BLITZER: Jim Acosta, thanks very much. Mitt Romney has four scheduled campaign stops today, including a rally in Marion, Iowa this hour. He heads into the caucuses tomorrow night with a narrow lead in the final Iowa polls. It's still a very tough fight for the GOP nomination, but Romney is saving his attacks on the trail today for the man he hopes to challenge in November.</s>ROMNEY: This president's failed. He went on the -- the "Today Show" shortly after being inaugurated. And he said, "If I can't get this economy turned around in three years, I'll be looking at a one term proposition." I'm here to collect. We're going to take it back. We're taking it back.</s>BLITZER: Romney also played it for laughs. He reminded supporters in Dubuque about a mishap his wife, Ann, had in that city when he was campaigning for president fours year ago.</s>ROMNEY: But the one person I did introduce is a person who has a special -- a special relationship with Dubuque. As you may recall, this has been a source of lots of good humor for our family, because we were on a stage just like this one four years ago, I standing here, she standing there and suddenly, her half of the stage collapsed, in Dubuque, at the Best Western Hotel. And she went down to the ground, landed on her back side. And I said, "How are you honey?" A little later she said, "Well, I fell on da butt in Dubuque." So...</s>BLITZER: Let's go to our chief political correspondent, Candy Crowley. She's watching what's going on on the ground in Des Moines. You'll be at Romney's headquarters for our election coverage tomorrow night, Candy. How is Romney trying to seal the deal in these, the final hours before the caucuses?</s>CANDY CROWLEY, HOST, STATE OF THE UNION: You know, Wolf, even though Mitt Romney has probably spent less time here than anybody else, I think as of a couple of days ago, he couldn't even make up to three weeks in this entire election cycle here in Iowa. So he has been here less than three weeks, while you have candidates like Santorum, who have been here for more than a hundred days, on down the line, Ron Paul, somewhere in the 70s. So this was not where he put a lot of human time, at least by comparison of himself. But he had, you know, he ran four years ago. He used that skeleton, that kind of template that he already had in place. And so there's been this quiet sort of campaign. I mean he has people that have been talking him up. And he hasn't so much come in to seal the deal as sort of to try to come in for the kill. Would they love to take the first place out of here? They really would. But at this point in the Romney campaign, they -- they don't see Rick Santorum as being able to go for the long haul. So if they lost to Rick Santorum, to them, that would be OK, because they think that still fuels Mitt Romney going to New Hampshire, where, as you know, Wolf, he has a very huge lead. So they -- they would -- they would love to put this away and begin to end it here in the Iowa caucuses. But they're aware, as everyone else is, that Rick Santorum has lots of momentum going into this final day.</s>BLITZER: Yes. He is surging. There's no doubt about that -- Candy, Wednesday morning is a brand new ball game. Where will the Iowa winners go from Iowa?</s>CROWLEY: Well, if it -- Mitt -- Mitt Romney is going back to New Hampshire no matter what. That's where he is looking very good. I mean he enjoys a double digit lead there. If Rick Santorum does very well, as he is expected to do, he also has to go play in New Hampshire, even though the best place for a -- a Christian conservative, someone that can get a lot of support from Christian conservatives, the best place for them to go is South Carolina, which is right after New Hampshire. That's where we're going to see Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry go, is straight to South Carolina, because there's such a commanding lead for Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, that while they will go back for the debates, they're going to spend a lot of their time trying to build that firewall against sort of the Mitt Romney train, if they -- it goes as expected or as the polls now show, Mitt Romney could handily win New Hampshire. If he won here or did something that was interpreted as a win, he's going to be pretty hard to stop. And South Carolina is going to be the place to do it. And the type of candidate that appeals down there is much the same as here, and that is, the conservative Evangelical wing of the party. So that's why Perry and Bachmann are headed there, although they, too, will come back for debates.</s>BLITZER: Good point. Thanks very much, Candy. Let's give our viewers a little flavor of what's going on on the campaign trail right now, about 24 hours before voting in Iowa begins. Ron Paul is in Cedar Falls. Let's listen in briefly to get a little flavor of what he's saying.</s>REP. RON PAUL (R), TEXAS: -- bank is that thing that we have in Washington called a Federal Reserve. I believe that we really need to reign in the Federal Reserve. We need to audit the Federal Reserve and we need to get control of the Federal Reserve.</s>BLITZER: All right. Well, we just lost our connection. But you get the point. But -- but, obviously, Ron Paul speaking about a major issue for him. He hates -- hates the Federal Reserve in Washington. We're also waiting to hear from Mitt Romney. He's going to be speaking this hour, as well. We'll dip in, hear what he has to say in Marion, Iowa. You can see that a large crowd has gathered there. Romney is focusing, though, right now, on the president. And the Obama campaign is targeting him and his credentials as a business executive. The Democrats are trotting out a new ally against Romney, a worker who actually got laid off on his watch. Lisa Sylvester is looking into that for us -- Lisa.</s>LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. Well, Romney is the wealthiest candidate among the GOP field. And Democrats are focusing now on how he made his money as CEO of Bain Capital. The firm has made hundreds of millions of dollars. But critics are lashing out at Romney, saying those profits came with a price.</s>SYLVESTER (voice-over): Mitt Romney, co-founder and former CEO of Bain Capital. The investment firm specializes in taking floundering businesses, reorganizing and turning them around. The company has done very well and has made Romney a very wealthy man. The GOP frontrunner is now marketing his business experience and acumen on the campaign trail as the guy to turn around the U.S. economy.</s>ROMNEY: You see, when it comes to jobs in the private sector, I think it helps to have had one if you plan on creating some.</s>SYLVESTER: But Democratic critics say under Romney's watch at Bain Capital, thousands of Americans were laid off, including Randi Johnson. He worked at a company called American Pad & Paper, but lost his job after Bain Capital bought the company in 1992.</s>RANDY JOHNSON, FORMER FACTORY WORKER: I really feel he didn't care about the workers then. I mean, go back and look at some of the philosophies. Look at the pattern. Everything was probably done very legal, done the right way, but it was all about profit over people.</s>SYLVESTER: Johnson's news conference in Des Moines, Iowa was sponsored by the Democratic National Committee. The DNC is also hammering away at Romney in political ads.</s>ROMNEY: But corporations are people, my friend.</s>SYLVESTER: An indicator Democrats see Romney as the man to beat. Romney responds this way -- "That's capitalism." Romney insists Bain Capital has ultimately been a job creator.</s>ROMNEY: What I offer to America is the fact that when I was head of that enterprise that invested in over a hundred companies, that if you take those places where we were able to add jobs and subtract those that lost jobs, we added over 100,000 -- 100,000 jobs.</s>SYLVESTER: But because Bain Capital is a private company that doesn't have to disclose details of its acquisitions, it's difficult to verify his claims or claims of the Democrats. Politically, though, it's the DNC's message which may resonate with middle class voters.</s>JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Elections are won or lost in this country by the candidate who connects with the moderates and the middle class. And the middle class is really the ultimate swing vote in this situation. So the -- part of the strategy of the DNC will be to paint Mitt Romney as the candidate of the 1 percent personified.</s>SYLVESTER: The Romney camp is hitting back. A spokeswoman for Romney's campaign saying, quote, "President Obama and his cronies know that if they have to face Mitt Romney in the general election, they are going to lose, which is why they continue their kill Romney strategy." Well, the fight is certainly on between the two sides. The DNC, in turn, has opened up a war room in Des Moines, calling it their home base for rapid responses -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Thanks very much, Lisa Sylvester. You heard how the Democrats are going after Mitt Romney. I'll talk to the party's chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, about the DNC's Romney obsession. And Rick Santorum's conservative record under fire -- will a surprising new dig by Ron Paul stop Santorum from surging past him tomorrow night? We have a new interview with Ron and Rand Paul, both of them, father and son. That's coming up this hour.