Last day: 23 Iowa campaign stops combined

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The White House their goal, Republican presidential hopefuls raced across Iowa on Monday in final, full-day of frenzied appeals for support in precinct caucuses that open the 2012 campaign. “It is the race you make it,” an upset-minded Rick Santorum told voters soon to pick a winner.

Santorum drew large crowds as he hustled through five events; the six-person field had 23 combined. That and the $13 million or more already spent on television commercials was evidence enough of the outsized importance Iowa holds in the race to pick a Republican opponent for President Barack Obama next fall.

Campaigning like a front-runner, Mitt Romney had one eye on his GOP rivals and another on Obama as he argued he is in the best position of all to defeat the president. “The last three years have been a detour. They’re not our destiny,” said the former Massachusetts governor, who is making his second try for the nomination and has been at or near the top of the Iowa polls since the campaign began.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul flew into the state accompanied by his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and urged supporters to “send a message tomorrow night that echoes not just around Iowa but ... around the world.” Many in the audience of about 300 chanted “end the Fed,” a reference to the Texan’s pledge to abolish the nation’s central bank as a first step toward repairing the economy.

Most polls in recent days have put Romney and Paul atop the field in Iowa, with Santorum in third and gaining ground. More than a third of all potential caucus-goers say they could yet change their minds.

“Do not settle for less than what America needs to transform this country. Moderate candidates who try to appeal to moderates end up losing,” Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, said in a slap at Romney.

Alone among the contenders, Newt Gingrich conceded defeat, at least in the first contest of the campaign.

After absorbing a pounding in television commercials from Romney’s deep-pocketed allies, the former House speaker said he was looking ahead to next week’s primary in New Hampshire, and then to one in South Carolina on Jan. 21.

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