Transcript: Face The Nation (1-1-2012)

Full transcript. Excerpt below:

SCHIEFFER: And good morning again. Happy new year.

Well, the Des Moines Register is out today with a new poll, as we`re just hours away now from the Iowa caucuses. In the top spot, Mitt Romney is at 24 percent, followed closely behind by Congressman Ron Paul at 22 percent, and now former Senator Rick Santorum at 15 percent, and he is closing fast. Rounding out the rest of the field, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, and Jon Huntsman.

This morning, we are joined by supporters from three of the top candidates, Senator Rand Paul, the son of Ron Paul, he`s in Bowling Green, Kentucky; Romney supporter, former Senator Jim Talent in St. Louis; and former Congressman J.C. Watts, who is the surrogate for Newt Gingrich. He`s in Oklahoma City.

Let`s go first to Senator Paul. Senator Paul, your dad obviously has a shot at winning Iowa now, but the pollsters out there seem to think that Rick Santorum has -- has really caught the momentum, and he`s been closing fast here in the last two days. They say if you measure just the last two days, he`s actually in second place. What do you think happened? I thought your dad was the darling of the evangelical Christian vote, which is such a big vote out there, and a lot of conservatives. What`s happening?

PAUL: Well, I think if you look at it, we`ve had several frontrunners. We`ve had several people surge to the top. And I think this is the best time to be surging to the top. And Ron Paul has surged probably as much as anyone in the last two or three weeks and has been the frontrunner or near being the frontrunner in Iowa. He`s closing the gap in New Hampshire. So I think he`s surging at precisely the right time.

SCHIEFFER: Well, if Rick Santorum does wind up either winning out there or running ahead of your dad, will he be the sort of anybody-but-Romney candidate going into New Hampshire?

PAUL: Well, I think he has a lot of things to overcome. I mean, he was in his last election defeated by over 20 points. He was a big supporter of Arlen Specter against Pat Toomey. He`s really been a big government type of moderate. And a lot of people don`t know that because he hasn`t surged to the top yet so he hasn`t had much scrutiny. When he has the scrutiny, I think he`s going to have some of the same problems that some of the other fair-weather conservatives have had.