Martin Sheen to Campaign with Richardson
BLITZER: With less than a week to go until the Iowa caucuses, Mitt Romney is stepping up his criticism of Senator John McCain and in light of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Romney is also highlighting questions about leadership and experience. Let's go out to the campaign trail. Mary Snow caught up with Mitt Romney in between campaign stops out there and Mary is joining us right now from Iowa. Update our viewers on what happened.</s>MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, John McCain has said that the crisis in Pakistan really underscores the need for the next president to have extensive foreign policy experience. As you said, we caught up with Mitt Romney today and his campaign bus. We asked him about that. He took a swipe at John McCain.</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 99 other people talk about issues and go and visit the world and have view points on issues and another thing to actually lead.</s>SNOW: Now, he is saying that experience is needed. It doesn't necessarily have to be experience in the senate. John McCain was on CNN last night and asked about these increasing attacks against him from Mitt Romney.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think he's in the tail spin. I'm familiar with those. Look, I have been involved in every major national security issue for the last 20 years. I understand the issues.</s>SNOW: And, now, Mitt Romney is also stepping up criticism of John McCain in a new ad that began airing in New Hampshire, where he is calling into question John McCain's stand on opposing President Bush's tax cuts in the past and also his immigration reform bill, trying to kind of portray him as being soft on immigration. McCain, on the other hand, is out with his own ad, touting his endorsements using the words integrity and principles in his advertisements and also any doubt what we're doing well Mitt Romney starts attacking. Mitt Romney today, I asked him about that, yes, indeed, John McCain is doing well, that it's a very tight race. He's not so much attacking, he's contrasting their policies. Wolf?</s>BLITZER: Mary Snow in Iowa for us, thanks very much. Pre-caucus polls of Iowa democrats show a virtual toss-up among the top three, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards. Today, the candidates are trading some punches, only less than a week to go before the Iowa caucuses. Jessica Yellin is out there in Iowa. What are you hearing and seeing today, Jessica?</s>JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, today I had a chance to sit down for an interview on Barack Obama on our CNN Election Express and he pushed back against comments by Senator Clinton and Senator Edwards. He responded to Senator Clinton's claims that his campaign had politicized Benazir Bhutto's death saying no it wasn't his campaign that did that. Let's listen.</s>SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Clinton campaign started pushing this notion that somehow immediately after this happened that somehow this was going to manage their campaign and one of my campaign's aides responded.</s>YELLIN: He also told us, Wolf, that he does not share Senator Clinton's view that there should be an independent international investigation into Bhutto's death saying that we shouldn't suggest Pakistan cannot handle its own internal affairs. Now, he pushed back, as well, against some new comments by John Edwards who, himself, suggested that he, Edwards, was better able to take on special interests and fight for the working man. Obama, he takes issue with that.</s>OBAMA: I think you look at the track record, you know, what John is talking about now is not what he was talking about four years ago. It's not what he was talking about eight years ago. On issue after issue he now says he made a mistake. But when he suggests that somehow he's going to fight more steadfastly on the behalf of the American people, then I have to point out that my track record of fighting on behalf of working families in America has been unwavering.</s>YELLIN: Some pointed comments from a campaigner that made his every effort for the last few months to try to avoid these kind of personal distinctions that we're now hearing on the campaign trail from every direction from every candidate as they get down to the wire on this one. Wolf?</s>BLITZER: It is down to the wire. Thanks, Jessica, for that; Jessica Yellin out in Iowa. An international investigation, democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is calling for it now in the wake of Benazir Bhutto's assassination. I'll ask her why she thinks it's needed in an exclusive one-on-one interview. That's coming up. Plus, identifying the candidates. Can voters match the name, that is, to the face? We're going to show you. Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.