Hours from voting, Iowa still unpredictable

DES MOINES, Iowa — In the kickoff contest of the 2012 presidential race, Republican candidates argued right up to Tuesday's finish line in Iowa over which candidate the voters can trust and who they can count on to defeat President Barack Obama.

With large numbers of likely caucus goers still undecided or willing to change their minds as the Iowa race wound down, a confident-but-cautious frontrunner, Mitt Romney, said in an interview broadcast Tuesday on NBC that he's poised to claim "the kind of send-off we need for a pretty long campaign season." Backing off earlier declarations he'd win out...