DES MOINES -- Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney returned to Iowa on Tuesday, hammering President Obama for feeding a "debt and spending inferno," and warning of the dangers of a "nightmare mortgage" of debt that could swamp generations of Americans if tough decisions can't be made to cut government spending.

"This debt is America's nightmare mortgage. It's adjustable, no-money down, and assigned to our children," Romney said. "And politicians have been trying to hide the truth about this nightmare mortgage for years -- just like liar-loans. This is not just bad economics; it is morally wrong and we must stop it."

Appearing in the Hawkeye state for the first time since the Jan. 3 caucuses -- where Romney was briefly declared the winner before revised results showed Rick Santorum had won -- Romney stood in the very same ballroom in which he held his caucus night party and used stark imagery to warn of a debt and spending crisis he claimed was sweeping across the country like a prairie fire.

"The people of Iowa and America have watched President Obama nearly four years now. Much of that time, with Congress controlled by his own party. And rather than putting out that spending fire, he’s been feeding it. He has spent more and borrowed more," Romney said. "The time has come for a president, a leader, who will lead. I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno. We will stop borrowing unfathomable sums of money we can’t even imagine from foreign countries we’re never even going to visit. I will work with you to make sure we put out this spending and borrowing fire."

The former Massachusetts governor's speech was directed toward driving a wedge between President Obama and independent voters by labeling the president yet again as an "old liberal," to the left of more centrist "new Democrats" like former President Clinton.

"Even a former McGovern campaign worker like President Clinton was signaling to his own party that Democrats should no longer try to govern by proposing a new program for every problem. President Obama tucked away the Clinton doctrine in his large drawer of discarded ideas, along with transparency and bipartisanship," Romney said in prepared remarks. (In his actual speech, Romney inadvertently said "McCain" instead of McGovern.). "It’s enough to make you wonder if maybe it was a personal beef with the Clintons. But probably that -– it runs much deeper than that."

"What President Obama is doing is not bold; it's old. As president, I will make the federal government simpler, smaller, smarter," Romney said, summing up his arguments.

But while Romney's speech today touched on entitlement reform and his oft-repeated pledge to cut programs, it glossed over how Romney would pay for his 20 percent across-the-board tax cuts, or his plans to expand military spending without creating even more debt, upon which President Obama's campaign quickly seized.

"While President Obama has put forward a plan to reduce the national debt by more than $4 trillion over the next decade, Mitt Romney refuses to say what spending cuts or tax increases he’d make to cover the cost of giving $5 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans," Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said in a statement. "Mitt Romney simply wants to return to the same policies that caused the crisis and weakened the middle class: budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and letting Wall Street write its own rules. Loading the country up with debt while giving tax breaks to the wealthy—America can’t afford Romney Economics.”

The focus on debt and spending -- not job-creating and economic growth more broadly -- was notable here in a state with an unemployment rate of 5.2 percent, nearly three percentage points better than the national average and near full employment. For Romney to return Iowa to the Republican column in November, he'll have to overcome not just an economy that has comparatively thrived in the last four years, but also a significant organizational advantage to the Obama campaign, which boasts eight offices in the state -- including one here in Des Moines in the same location Romney used as his Iowa campaign headquarters during the caucuses.

"The Romney campaign will aggressively compete across Iowa and together with the Republican Party, we will have a bigger presence in Iowa than any previous Republican candidate for President," Romney spokesperson Rick Gorka said in a statement.

Despite the apocalyptic imagery of flames and nightmares, there was some levity in Romney's speech. Employing a metaphor for the inefficiencies and cronyism he sees in Washington DC, Romney, who once said President Obama was employing a "pay phone strategy" in a "smart phone world" described an imaginary scenario in which the federal government was the sole provider of cell phones in America.

"First of all, they'd still be under review, alright, you'd be listening to hearings in Congress on cell phones. When they were finally approved, the contract to make them would go to an Obama donor.  And of course they'd come out looking about the size of a shoe, with a collapsible solar panel attached to power it," Romney joked. "And of course campaign donors would be lining up see who could get appointed to be the App-Czar, alright."

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- President Obama appeared at his third "official event" in two days on Wednesday to promote extending student loan relief at an event that had the feel more of a campaign rally.

At the University of Iowa, the president voiced a message before a crowd of more than 4,000 centered on urging Congress to prevent the doubling of government-backed student loan interest rates in July.

"This is where I really need you guys, Congress needs to act right now to prevent interest rates on federal student loans from shooting up and shaking you down," Obama said to applause, imploring the students to turn up the heat on lawmakers.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Iowa April 25 in Iowa City, Iowa.

But the impasse on Capitol Hill doesn't stem from a debate over whether to maintain the current interest rate, but rather, how to pay for it. Extending the current interest rate for another year will cost about $6 billion, according to a White House aide. But the White House stresses they're committed to extending the rate without adding to the deficit.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced a bill on Wednesday to continue the lower interest rate, which the President said was "good news." However, the bill is financed by closing a payroll tax loophole for a certain type of business, something Republicans may not support.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was dismissive of Reid's bill, as well as the president's college tour.

"If the president was more interested in solving this problem than in hearing the sound of his own voice or the applause of college students, all he'd have to do is pick up the phone and work it out with congress. We don't want the interest rates on these loans to double in this economy," he said.

The Republican leader continued: "The only reason Democrats proposed this solution to the problem is to get Republicans to oppose it and make us cast a vote they think will make us look bad to voters they need to win in the next election."

But Obama pushed back at Congress with his own snarky rhetoric, saying that if Republicans think he's talking about student loans to distract from the economy then, "These guys don't get it. This is the economy...What economy are they talking about?"

According to the College Board, In 2010-11, 7.8 million undergraduate students took out subsidized Stafford loans to help pay for their college education. Many of them would see about $1,000 added, on average, to the cost of their loan over its lifetime if rates were to increase.

DAVENPORT, Iowa -- The folksy, shirt-sleeved assault on Mitt Romney continues.

Vice President Joe Biden, who's serving a stint as the Obama administration's top campaigner, assailed the Republican candidate again Wednesday in his third campaign speech in two weeks, this time portraying Romney as a prolific outsourcer of American jobs who is pessimistic and "out of touch" with the manufacturing sector.

"America is coming back," a jacket-less Biden declared to about 450 guests at an eastern Iowa high-tech manufacturing facility Wednesday. "It's not a political slogan. It's a reality."

Despite making a tongue-in-cheek reference to Romney's "Etch-a-Sketch" flip-flops during a speech to Florida seniors last week, today Biden labeled the president's rival-in-waiting as "remarkably consistent" but "wrong" on job creation.

"Mitt Romney has been remarkably consistent -- as an individual investor, a businessman, as governor of Massachusetts, and now as a candidate for president," he said. "Remarkably consistent. And I respectfully suggest, consistently wrong."

The vice president specifically skewered Romney's record on tax cuts and business legislation, saying policies he supported as governor and during his tenure at Bain Capital encouraged American companies to push facilities and jobs offshore.

Biden did not mention Romney's personal wealth -- thrust back into the news cycle yesterday by new details of the lavish home that the former Massachusetts governor is building in California -- but he did ridicule the president's rival for calling Obama "out of touch" when encouraging young people to pursue manufacturing jobs.

"Out of touch? Romney?" he added incredulously. "As an old friend of mine says, that's chutzpah."

While Biden has previously made specific reference to all of the Republicans still fighting in the GOP race (other than Ron Paul), he mentioned only Romney and Rick Santorum by name Wednesday, leaving Newt Gingrich completely off the list. (The campaign also distributed a four-page research document to reporters focused solely on contrasting Obama and Romney's records on manufacturing issues.)

Despite reserving most of his fire for Romney, Biden also slammed Santorum, who hopes to be competitive in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary in the manufacturing-heavy state where both Santorum and Biden have roots.

"Sen. Santorum is the only one even claiming to support manufacturing," he said. "But he voted for loopholes to send American manufacturing offshore."

Appearing at PCT Engineered Systems, a Davenport company that makes electron beam systems and employs about 70 workers, Biden offered an optimistic picture of the American economy.

"I've never been more optimistic in my life for the prospects for America," he said.

Biden's visit came on both familiar and friendly territory for the campaign's top surrogate, who visited the state of Iowa some 30 times during his own run for president in 2007. Obama beat McCain in Davenport's Scott County by a 15 point margin in the general election.

The speech was his third in a series of four campaign events. Biden previously visited Ohio and Florida to tout the administration's achievements.

All eyes are on the GOP hopefuls who are facing Iowa caucus-goers in the first nominating contest of the 2012 race.

The NBC political team will be live-tweeting the caucuses, offering minute-by-minute updates and analysis.

Tweets from NBC producers, embeds, and correspondents will appear in this post throughout the evening.

BURLINGTON, Iowa -- Newt Gingrich spent the day of the Iowa caucuses making one final pitch to Iowans and thanking them for their support over the past several months.
 
"Iowans have an opportunity tonight to send a message to Washington and to the political system that the age of negative consultants and negative attack ads is over,” Gingrich told a crowd of roughly 75 people at an event in Eastern Iowa Tuesday morning.
 
“Starting tomorrow morning, there will be fewer TV ads, you’ll have about a third of less mail in your mailbox,” Gingrich said in Muscatine. ”But I want to start the day by thanking all of Iowa. What I am really impressed with is how seriously Iowans take their decisions.”
 
The onetime frontrunner is struggling to finish in the top tier of candidates during the first-in-the-nation caucuses tonight after being hammered by negative television ads and direct mailers for weeks.
 
Gingrich dropped from first place in many polls back in early December to not even in the top three in the final days leading up to the Iowa caucus.
 
The former House Speaker vowed form the beginning to run a positive-only campaign and says Mitt Romney and Romney’s SuperPAC ads are filled with lies.
 
“I was asked did I think he was a liar and I said yes,” Gingrich told reporters in a press conference at The Drake Restaurant here in Burlington. “He doesn’t tell the truth.”

The Gingrich campaign announced recently they will report having raised just over $9 million for the fourth quarter of 2011, but noted a lot of that money will be spent on the Iowa Caucus itself. Today, Gingrich, who is still confident he can win the GOP nomination, said he will “raise more money” so he can begin airing TV ads in South Carolina and Florida. The Romney campaign is already out with television ads in South Carolina and aired its first Florida ad today.
 
But before those other early states, Gingrich has to make it out of Iowa. Today, he tried to sell his level of experience to Iowans on his final tele-townhall in the Hawkeye State, as well, but was careful not to make any predictions on how he would finish in the caucus tonight.
 
“Arguments are going to matter, attendance is going to matter” tonight, the Speaker told callers as he rode on his campaign bus to Cedar Falls, IA to speak at Black Hawk County’s caucus super site.
 
Caucus-goers in Iowa have the first voice in election 2012 starting at 8pm ET tonight. Former Congressman J.C. Watts, Rep. Burgess, and both of Gingrich’s daughters and sons-in-law will speak at caucus sites in Iowa tonight on behalf of the Speaker.
 
Gingrich, who characterized himself Tuesday as a “genuine old-time conservative,” hopes Iowans will help propel his candidacy on into the other early nominating states.

Final ad figures from Iowa show that a pro-Mitt Romney "super PAC" outspent Romney's own presidential campaign by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, with almost all the money dedicated to harsh attack ads against Newt Gingrich that succeeded in causing the former Speaker's poll numbers to drop precipitously.
 
Restore Our Future, the super PAC founded by three former Romney political aides, spent $2.8 million on ads in Iowa, nearly twice as much as the $1.5 million spent by Romney's own campaign, according to figures compiled for NBC News by Smart Media Group Delta, a media ad tracking firm.

When the ads began running, on Dec. 8, Gingrich was number one in the GOP field in Iowa with 26 percent, according to an NBC News-Marist poll conducted that week. By the end of the month, his support had been cut in half -- to 13 percent -- a dramatic drop that some political analysts say  vindicates the power of attack ads and more broadly, the clout of super PACs, which can accept unlimited contributions from wealthy donors and corporations. 

"The super PACs are not accountable to anybody so they can say what they want to say and it's not going to blow back on the campaign," said Scott Reed, a top GOP campaign consultant who is not affiliated with any of the current campaigns. "The super PAC can really do the dirty work on the advertising, and the direct mail and the robocalls."

Technically, super PACs are supposed to be independent of the presidential campaigns and not "coordinate" their activities. But critics say that those rules are hard to define given the multiple connections between the super PACs and the candidates and their campaigns. Not only is Restore Our Future run by former Romney political advisers, Romney himself spoke at one of the group's fundraising events last summer.

The Restore Our Future ads included blistering attacks on Gingrich's ethics, his profits from consulting for Freddie Mac, his appearance in an ad with Nancy Pelosi on the need to address climate change, and his flip-flops on issues.

What hasn't got much attention is the man behind the ads: Larry McCarthy, a veteran GOP media man and a master of negative campaigning who is best known for crafting the original Willie Horton ads against Michael Dukakis in 1988. He is one of the founders of Restore Our Future.

The Smart Media tracking numbers show that a pro-Rick Perry super PAC, run by Mike Toomey, a veteran Austin lobbyist and close political adviser to Perry, spent $1.6 million on ads in Iowa. This was not as much as the $4.3 million spent by the Perry campaign, however. The Red White and Blue Fund, a pro-Santorum super PAC, spent $530,000 on ads -- more than 10 times more than the $30,000 spent by the Santorum campaign itself.

The patriarch of the Duggar family, the 19-member clan subject of a TLC reality show, joined Rick Santorum on the campaign trail Monday to endorse the former Pennsylvania senator.

Jim Bob Duggar made an appearance on behalf of Santorum at the Pizza Ranch in Boone, Iowa on Monday, "asking Christians in America to get behind Rick Santorum" in the battle for the GOP nomination.

The Santorum campaign, which is leaning on support from social conservatives in its bid to win tomorrow's Iowa caucuses, touted the Duggars' support in a subsequent release.

"Rick Santorum is a pro-life, Christian conservative with the family values and common sense business perspective that we need to get our nation back on track, to create jobs and to stand for what is right!" Michelle Duggar said in that statement.

The endorsement isn't the first social conservative act of support for Santorum; he'd been backed by Bob Vander Plaats, a social conservative leader in the state, and courted many of the same activists to have propelled former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to victory in the 2008 Iowa caucuses.

But the Duggars' endorsement is maybe the most prominent for Santorum, given the ratings for their show, "19 Kids and Counting," and their identifiable status as evangelical Christians -- an important voting bloc in Iowa.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- With less than 48 hours to go until the Iowa caucuses become fodder for the history books, Texas Gov. Rick Perry says that the "marathon" of the presidential race is actually just beginning.

"This is the first, let's say, mile one of the marathon," Perry said during a Caucus Eve appearance in Sioux City. "I've run a marathon before. I felt great at mile one. As a matter of fact I felt pretty great at mile 17 and 18. At mile 21 you kinda start hitting that wall a little bit. And we'll see who's still running at mile 21."

"I finished my marathon," asserted Perry, an avid runner who says he tries to lace up his track shoes at least four times a week. "And I expect to finish this marathon as well."

The argument continues a case that the campaign has been making privately to potential supporters but that Perry himself did not publicly assert until this morning: that Perry's campaign -- unlike socially conservative rivals Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum -- has the nationwide infrastructure and fundraising ability necessary to go the distance and win the GOP nomination.

The campaign hopes that his 1,500 Iowa precinct captains and throngs of out-of-state volunteers will help boost the candidate above the fourth or fifth place finish predicted in recent polls. Exceeded expectations could remind disappointed supporters of the organizational and financial muscle flexed by Perry's campaign before a series of poor debate performances tempered his brief status as the campaign's frontrunner.

The candidate was introduced Monday by onetime presidential hopeful Steve Forbes and was joined by a throng of Texan lawmakers and supporters in addition to about 100 Iowans at a rustic hotel festooned with taxidermic creations.

Perry, who yesterday appeared publicly only for a brief visit toa West Des Moines church, exhibited renewed energy Monday as he echoed past swipes at rivals Rick Santorum and Ron Paul.

"I understand what pork-barrel politics is all about. I scratch your back, you scratch mine," he said of Santorum, whose past earmarking is also the target of a new web ad by the campaign. "That is not conservative governing, That is fleecing America and it's gotta stop."

But, as usual, Perry saved his harshest language for the man whose job he's eying.

"America, on the cusp of bankruptcy?" he asked incredulously. "Because [Barack Obama] truly believes if you print enough money that you'll create jobs. And we will expose him for the fraud that he is every day," he said. "I look forward to the opportunity."

DES MOINES, Iowa -- At a Des Moines hotel rally this morning with son Rand at his side, Ron Paul says enthusiasm for his limited government message is building ahead of tomorrow's caucus, while warning that a vote for his rivals tomorrow would be a vote for the "status quo."

"Believe me, you don't have to choose another candidate because the others represent the status quo," Paul explained in a stop here after having taken the weekend off to spend the New Year's holiday with family in Texas. "Variations of the status quo, but they're not talking about a foreign policy to defend America, they're talking about mischief around the world and policing the world."

A partition had to be opened by hotel staff inside the Marriott ballroom to make room for a large and vocal crowd, who greeted Paul with chants and cheers of support. A large media presence was also on hand, with more than a dozen still photographers snapping away at the base of Paul's podium.

"Today we're moving in the wrong direction, but the American people are stirring, this is what this campaign has been all about -- this is what the vote is about tomorrow, are we sick and tired of the expansion of government?" the congressman asked the crowd. "The endless spending and the deficit, doing the things they weren't supposed to do and forgetting about doing the things they should be doing?"

"The next generation is here today, that is why we have to change things today and bring back the traditions of America which means liberty, peace and prosperity," Paul said, to applause.

His son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, warmed up the audience promising a Iowa victory. He echoed his father's individual liberties and small government message asking, "anybody here want government to mind their OWN business?!"

DAVENPORT, IA -- Ann Romney recalled moments that any mother of multiple children could appreciate: the name-salad directed by mothers toward their children after an instance of misbehavior.

"At the last stop I introduced my son who is here as Matt. His name is Craig. But it reminded me of what it was like when I was an exasperated mother and I would say 'TaggMattCraig... you know who I mean! You!" Mrs. Romney said, earning knowing laughs from the crowd who had gathered for her husband's campaign rally.

It was the kind of accessible, humanizing anecdote that has made Ann Romney -- the mother of five sons whom she sometimes describes as "naughty" boys -- such an asset to Mitt Romney on the trail.

As a candidate, Mitt Romney has famously struggled sometimes to connect with the voters who crowd his events. He tends to focus almost exclusively on policy and politics on the stump, eschewing issues like family or fatherhood. Ann's anecdotal tales of being an "exasperated wife," have become ice-breakers with packed crowds at near every stop, and voters and political observers alike have praised her increasingly comfortable appearances on the trail.

But she's also emerged into a more explicitly political role as of late, opining this morning on the state of the race in Iowa.

"This is a serious thing we're all coming to, and I sense something happening as we've been going across Iowa," She said. "I sense a feeling, a coalescing, a momentum or whatever it is you want to call it around Mitt, and I think people are starting to figure out that this is the guy who is going to beat Barack Obama."

Mrs. Romney has also been more prominently featured in the campaign's advertising, praising her husband's character in one television ad, and doing the same in a new web ad, launched just this morning.

“I believe in him. I believe he has the experience. I’ve seen him in every situation. I’ve seen him as a husband, as a father, as a governor, and as a successful businessman," Mrs. Romney says in the ad. "Everything he does, he does well and he does it with his heart and his commitment.”

Previously a rarer figure on the campaign trail, Mitt Romney's wife of 42-years (not 25, as he once infamously flubbed at a debate) has become a near constant presence in the final weeks before primary voting begins in earnest. She joined her husband on his bus tour of New Hampshire last week, and is crisscrossing Iowa by his side this week. When Romney returned to New Hampshire this past Friday and Saturday morning, Ann continued on in Iowa, campaigning with Chris Christie on her husband's behalf.

The former first lady of Massachusetts is usually introduced by her husband, who often tells of their first meeting at a high school party, when she, then Ann Davies, was just 15.

"I was immediately struck by that beauty," Romney reminisced this morning in Davenport, telling the story of how he drove Ann home that night and never looked back. "We've been going steady ever since."

And while Mrs. Romney can quickly draw knowing sympathy from a roomful of women by telling stories of trying to manage her five rambunctious sons with a husband regularly traveling for work, and of her difficult battle with multiple sclerosis, she also elicits laughs with her tales of revenge as a grandmother.

"The best part of having children, I will tell you, is the grandchildren. And the best part of being a grandmother is watching their children misbehave," Mrs. Romney said this morning, smiling. "These boys deserve it."

The former Massachusetts governor continues to dote, though, on his wife's twin role in his bid for the presidency.

Following an appearance this morning by Mrs. Romney on "Fox and Friends," where she was peppered with questions about her husband's record at Bain Capital, and his travails as a candidate. Afterwards, the former Massachusetts governor praised her performance at a rally here.

"She was marvelous. They asked her tough questions and she did exactly what you're supposed to do: she didn't answer them," Romney laughed, before launching into his stump speech, on jobs and the economy.