The Golden Report

5 DAYS UNTIL IOWA (28 delegates)
12 DAYS UNTIL NEW HAMPSHIRE (12 delegates)
23 DAYS UNTIL SOUTH CAROLINA (25 delegates)

ALL POLITICS EDITION

CAMPAIGN RESET- from The Washington Post’s Dan Balz in Ames- “Romney prepares aggressive Iowa finish”

“Romney is far from a clear favorite in Iowa: Rep. Ron Paul of Texas continues to show strength in the polls and is banking on a well-regarded organization, and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum is on the rise. But no campaign can match Romney’s for the breadth and depth of its infrastructure, and for the first time the weapons he can deploy are all on display.

For months, Romney’s campaign in Iowa appeared to be moving in slow motion, but it has suddenly taken on a new intensity and some Republican ­strategists say the former Massachusetts governor is building his Iowa momentum at just the right moment.

The volatile political landscape in Iowa underwent its latest jolts in the past 36 hours, scrambling the fortunes of several candidates — most notably Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Paul — and left Romney in his most favorable position in Iowa so far.

But increasingly, the focus of the race is Romney and his potential to win Tuesday. He is drawing energy from boisterous crowds, some of whose participants said in interviews that they had only recently come around to Romney because he seems like the party’s best bet to beat President Obama.

Romney asked Iowa voters Thursday to weigh their choices carefully. “I hope as you look at the people running you can measure their capacity to lead effectively and you can also determine whether they can become our nominee and defeat President Obama,” Romney told 400 supporters in Mason City. “I think I can.”

LEADING DESMOINESREGISTER.COM TONIGHT: ”Almost Bowl Time for ISU, UI”

THEIR OTHER TOP STORY- “Des Moines police arrest 12 protesters at Democratic headquarters”- as #OccupyTheCaucuses come to Iowa

“Twelve protesters have been arrested at the Iowa Democratic headquarters this afternoon, as they protested that Guantanamo remained open and corporate donations to campaigns.

As arrests were going on, other protesters with the Occupy the Caucuses movement chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Obama close Guantanamo.”

Among those arrested was Frankie Hughes, 14, who earlier today told a Register reporter that she gets good grades.

More than two dozen protesters were at the Democratic headquarters, the fourth Des Moines-area site in two days that protesters have demonstrated at.”

NEXT WEEK’S BIG STORY TONIGHT- “Michele Bachmann’s hard fall”- by POLITICO’s Maggie Haberman

“But as the race wraps up, the woman who was on a trajectory to become the first-ever female winner of the Iowa caucuses is fighting to avoid finishing dead last in the state where she was raised.

To underscore her troubles, Bachmann has spent the last 24 hours trying to spin the fallout from her Iowa state campaign chairman’s defection to the Ron Paul camp — insisting repeatedly that the man in question took a payoff to make the switch. Another longtime staffer, who went public to defend the departed chairman, was gone from the campaign by late Thursday.

All that seems certain, amid a fractured evangelical base and the latest polling data, is that the low-on-cash Bachmann rates as an extreme long shot to win the Iowa caucuses. There’s no comfort back home either: she faces uncertain re-election prospects in her own House seat at the end of the presidential primary season.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY- Mitt Romney “When the president’s characterization of our economy was, ‘It could be worse,’ it reminded me of Marie Antoinette: ‘Let them eat cake,’” Romney said, referring to the infamously dismissive remark toward the poor attributed to the queen.”

ALEX BURNS’ WHO WON THE DAY- RON PAUL

“But it was today when the full impact of state Sen. Kent Sorenson’s defection sank in, triggering a daylong firefight between Bachmann and her onetime supporter, whom she accused of taking a payoff to abandon her. When another Bachmann adviser, Iowa operative Wes Enos, came to Sorenson’s defense, he was booted off the campaign. If Bachmann had any chance of delivering a strong closing message to regain traction in the race, she just lost a day squabbling with a defector.

It wasn’t only Bachmann whose campaign shifted gears Thursday in reaction to Paul’s strength: Jon Huntsman put out a web video attacking him for the first time and Rick Santorum, the Iowa momentum candidate of the moment, went after Paul at multiple campaign stops. Add to that a Union Leader editorial blasting Paul as a “dangerous man” and it’s clear which candidate was at the center of the 2012 universe.”

ATTACK OF THE DAY: Huntsman v. Paul in this web ad in which he asks “Can New Hampshire voters really trust Ron Paul?” 

ROMNEY’S CLOSING ARGUMENT: Believe in America Again. 60-second ad airing in Iowa. 

POLL OF THE DAY: INSIDER ADVANTAGE FINDS A 3-WAY TIE IN IOWA

Romney 17%
Paul 17%
Gingrich 17%
Santorum 13%
Bachmann 12%
Perry 11%
Huntsman 3%

RASMUSSEN FINDS ROMNEY UP BY ONE IN IOWA

Romney 23%
Paul 22%
Santorum 16%
Gingrich 13%
Perry 13%
Bachmann 5%
Huntsman 3%

AND GALLUP TRACKING HAS ROMNEY UP BY FOUR NATIONALLY

Romney 27%
Gingrich 23%
Paul 11%
Perry 8%
Bachmann 5%
Santorum 4%
Huntsman 2%

DAVID YEPSEN IN THE WASHINGTON POST- FIVE MYTHS ABOUT THE IOWA CAUCUSES

1/ Iowa voters don’t represent the United States.
2/ Retail politics is king in Iowa.
3/ To win, you need to appeal to right-wing activists.
4/ The weather will influence the outcome.
5/ Iowa caucus-goers take voting more seriously than people in other states.

READ THE DEAN OF THE HAWKEYE STATE’s full analysis 

WALL STREET- from CNBC- “Stocks End Near Highs, S&P Positive for 2011”

• DOW up 136
• NASDAQ up 24
• S&P 500 up 14