DES MOINES — The way that Newt Gingrich sees it, the Iowa caucuses will be a contest involving himself, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.
"You've got Romney's money, Ron Paul's intense supporters and my supporters, and I think it's a three-way race right now," the former House speaker said Thursday during a taping of the IPTV program "Iowa Press." "I don't think it's clear to me who's going to win" the caucuses.
Gingrich is the front-runner for the 2012 Republican nomination for president, according to several recent Iowa polls.
Mary Erickson, 28, of Des Moines went to see former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania speak this week at Des Moines' Principal Financial, a global investment manager and provider of 401(k) plans, mutual funds, retirement plans and insurance. But she said Gingrich appeals to her.
"I like Newt. I'm not going to lie," Erickson said, noting that she also recently went to see Paul, who didn't impress her as much.
Gingrich's front-runner status has made him the target of a barrage of attacks on all fronts. He estimated Thursday that $6 million to $9 million has been spent on ads against him.
Gingrich said he knows his lead is soft, adding that he expects to see some ups and downs between now and the Jan. 3 caucuses.
An Iowa poll released Tuesday showed Gingrich only one point ahead of Paul, with 22 percent compared with Paul's 21 percent, which was well within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.
Paul's campaign attributed his recent gains to negative information about Gingrich that has been highlighted in recent ads from the Texas congressman's campaign. The survey of 555 likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers was taken Dec. 11-13 by North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling.
The attack ads also include Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry criticizing Gingrich for his past support for requiring all individuals to have health care, though the "individual mandate" was first suggested by the right-leaning Heritage Institute and was embraced in the late 1980s by many conservative Republicans.
Romney's campaign pulled out an old TV spot that Gingrich taped with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, showing his support for climate change legislation. The Romney campaign said it shows that Gingrich is an "unreliable conservative and an unreliable leader."
But Gingrich said he is determined to rise above it all and stay positive in the primary and caucuses campaign, as he did Wednesday when talking about brain science in Iowa City. He said he believes a positive, solution-oriented campaign focusing on President Barack Obama as the only opponent is a winning strategy.
"What I have to prove in the next few months is I can allow my opponents to say a variety of unpleasant things, and cheerfully ignore them," Gingrich said. "This is a great gamble. It's an act of faith in the American people."
Gingrich went negative at Saturday's GOP debate at Drake University in Des Moines when he told Romney: "The only reason you didn't become a career politician is you lost to Teddy Kennedy in 1994." Gingrich said he now regrets that remark.
"I do regret taking a shot at Mitt. It was foolish on my part. He had taken one more shot at me that he knew wasn't true and made an assertion that he knew was absurd," Gingrich said. "But it violated all the core principles. I have been trying to stay positive despite temptation."
Gingrich said as candidates enter the final caucuses sprint after Christmas, people are going to be sick of the negative ads.
He also acknowledged that he has political baggage, including two divorces and admitted infidelity. But he said his supporters are willing to look past that. He said he has tried to answer questions candidly, and people accept his sincerity.
"They understand my weaknesses, and they understand my strengths, and they believe that at a time when the country is in big trouble, they want someone with big solutions and somebody who has a track record of getting big things done, like balancing the budget for four years and reforming welfare," Gingrich said.
"A big-solutions campaign does have attractiveness at a time when this country is in trouble."
James Welsher, 42, of Des Moines, who on Wednesday night attended an anti-abortion film screening, said Gingrich is simply "the smartest man in the room," who can bring this country back to where it was.
Gingrich's past problems don't bother Welsher.
"I think we all have a past, and Newt has said he's learned over the years," Welsher said. "I mean, I've changed my position on things over the years too."
But Eric Lyons, 31, of Des Moines, who last week went to see Bachmann speak at Nationwide Insurance, is among those still undecided about whom to support. Gingrich isn't in his top five.
Two whom he liked — former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty — are no longer in the race. He said Romney, Bachmann and Paul also appeal to him.
The Gingrich episode of "Iowa Press" can be seen on Cox Cablevision at 7:30 p.m. Friday (Cox Channel 113); at 8:30 a.m. Saturday (Channel 115); and at 11:30 a.m. Sunday (Channel 113).
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