New Iowa Poll: Romney, Paul, Santorum Are 1-2-3

While Gingrich continues to fall

By John Johnson, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 30, 2011 11:44 AM CST

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New Iowa Poll: Romney, Paul, Santorum Are 1-2-3 — Mitt Romney pauses during a visit to St. Paul's Lutheran Church while campaigning in a Berlin, N.H.,neighborhood Thursday. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

With zero hour approaching in Iowa, the polls seem to be settling into a kind of clarity: Mitt Romney (23%) and Ron Paul (21%) are essentially tied at the top in a new NBC survey, with a surging Rick Santorum in third (15%). Former frontrunner Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, continues to fall. He's in fourth (13%), a point behind Rick Perry. Everyone else is in single digits. Sound familiar? It's pretty much the same results reported in a recent CNN-Time poll. Click to read about Michele Bachmann's rough, steep fall from the top. (Read more Mitt Romney 2012 stories.)