On the Ground in Iowa, in Quotes Four of the Republican presidential candidates actively campaigned in Iowa on Sunday, two days before the state's caucuses. This is what they were saying: Mitt Romney in Atlantic: I'll let people make their own assessment of our respective records, but I'm a conservative. I'm proud to be a conservative businessman, and what distinguishes me I think from others in the field is that I understand the economy first-hand having lived in it. And I think that the people of this country recognize that with our economy as the major issue we face right now, that it would be helpful to have someone who understands the economy first-hand, who spent the bulk of his career working in the private sector. Newt Gingrich was in Marshalltown, where he talked about his opponents Rick Santorum, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, Mr. Romney and Representative Michele Bachmann: If you count Santorum and Perry and Bachmann and me, compared to the Romney numbers, it's going to be overwhelming that the conservative base of the party is still there and that Governor Romney remains basically a Massachusetts moderate. He has not broken out despite spending millions of dollars, and as we go on in New Hampshire and South Carolina and Florida, those numbers will ultimately prove decisive in the race. I think New Hampshire is the perfect state to have a debate over Romneycare and a debate about tax-paid abortions, which he signed. Mr. Santorum talking to supporters in Sioux City: This is the most important election in our lifetime. This is a decision as to what kind of America you are going to hand to your children and grandchildren. Are you going to leave an America that is more and more dependent on bigger and bigger government to do the things families and churches and local communities should do? Representative Michele Bachmann in Oskaloosa: Who stands for marriage between a man and a woman? Who stands for life and the protection of human life from conception to natural death, not just to be politically popular, but who really means it? And who's going to do something about it? I am not a politician. I am not an establishment person. I believe I'm the best person to take on Barack Obama and defeat him.