Joe Klein of Time magazine's In The Arena blog:
I saw a very effective anti-Ron Paul ad on the air last night, but I don’t know who was responsible for it. It was about gay marriage, which Paul tolerates because he doesn’t believe the state should involve itself in marriage. This is somewhat akin to supporting human sacrifice among the Christian Conservatives out here, and I suspect it will move some votes away from Paul over the next 24 hours.
The ad, of course, is by us.
A sign that evangelicals are coalescing behind Rick Santorum:
In perhaps the most significant sign that Santorum had arrived as a contender, Texas Governor Rick Perry - the third candidate in the GOP field who has made a special point of attracting evangelicals - launched a negative radio ad against Santorum.
In campaign parlance, Perry's ad - which accused Santorum of backing costly spending projects while in the Senate - was a sign of respect, an acknowledgement that Santorum had broken from the back of the pack of Republican contenders. -- Reuters
On the campaign trail in Iowa Rick Santorum answers questions about marriage posed by MSNBC's Chuck Todd. At one point Santorum says: "men and women joining together in marriage, having children and raising those children for the future of society - that's something we need to celebrate and promote and we need to encourage and you do that by giving special privileges under marriage laws."
Rick Santorum's poll numbers aren't the only thing on the rise. The former senator from Pennsylvania's fundraising figures are also skyrocketing.
A senior Santorum adviser tells CNN the campaign raised more money in the last week than they raised on-line the past six months, adding that fundraising is between 300% and 400% higher on a daily basis than it was just ten days ago.
CBS News (includes video):
As presidential candidates storm Iowa making a final push this weekend, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is getting increasing attention as polls are showing for the first time that he could finish strongly here and have a big impact on the GOP race, CBS News political correspondent Jan Crawford reports.
In the Hawkeye State, Santorum is the man of the moment.
"Folks know what I believe in," said Santorum. "That's what they're looking for: Someone they can trust, someone who's authentic."
In the new poll, 76 percent of Santorum supporters say they will definitely caucus rather than probably attend, a higher proportion than for any other candidate. For Romney, 58 percent of his supporters are definite attenders; it’s 56 percent for Paul.
The libertarian-leaning Paul’s vulnerability: 21 percent say he’s the candidate they like least, just 2 points behind Gingrich at 23 percent. Bachmann, who led on this measure in the past, claims 14 percent.
In four days of polling, Romney leads at 24 percent, Paul has 22 percent and Rick Santorum, 15 percent.But if the final two days of polling stand alone, the order reshuffles: Santorum elbows out Paul for second.
“Few saw this bombshell coming,” GOP strategist David Polyansky said. “In an already unpredictable race this is another stunning turn of political fortune.”
