PERRY, Iowa -- In the town bearing his name, Governor Rick Perry finally seemed at home.

The Texas governor, now facing the prospect of failing to crack the top tier in a state once predicted to hand him a cakewalk victory, offered perhaps the most fluid and passionate performance of his 42 city bus tour during its final stop.

Perry, who throughout the final weeks of his Iowa campaign has frequently consulted notes during remarks and offered lengthy and tangent-laden answers to questioners, spoke concisely and emotionally  Monday night about the dangers of big government and the importance of nominating a GOP candidate who shares social conservatives' "values."

"Why would you settle for anything but an authentic conservative who shares your views and values and will go to Washington DC and not apologize one moment for them?" he asked.

About 200 supporters packed into a ballroom of the Pattee Hotel, offering choruses of "yeah!" and "damn straight" as Perry delivered a punchier version of his typical stump speech.

But his remarks were stripped of their recent direct hits on top rival Rick Santorum, attacks he has delivered over the past week with heavy reliance on rehearsed lines and written notes.

Slideshow: Rick Perry

Joined on stage by his family and top surrogates  - and introduced by early backers Governors Bobby Jindal and Sam Brownback - Perry won sustained applause from the crowd for his praise of two veterans - Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell and former Marine Capt. Dan Moran.

"That's part of what this is all about," he said, appearing briefly to fight tears. "It's about those young men and women. It's about supporting them when they come home."

Perry now approaches a caucus night that will weigh his campaign's organizational muscle against the gaffes, internal sniping, and sluggish response to missteps that have plagued his run.

 Updated at 9:05a.m. ET:

WATERLOO, Iowa -- On the first day of the New Year, Newt Gingrich admitted to having been “Romney-boated” with the immense amount of negative ads being run against him, vowing that his campaign will run more contrast ads going forward.

Mitt Romney “didn't get rid of me, he just slowed me down,” Gingrich told reporters in Marshalltown, Iowa, Sunday afternoon. Asked whether he felt like he had been “swift-boated” by the barrage of ads run against him in recent weeks, Gingrich responded, “I feel Romney-boated” – a reference to the outside advertising campaign launched against Democratic nominee John Kerry in 2004.

The former House Speaker even hinted that Romney was trying to buy the election.

“He would buy an election if he could,” Gingrich told NBC News. But he wouldn’t directly say Romney was attempting to buy the 2012 election. “Well I dunno, $3.5 million in negative ads, you tell me,” Gingrich continued. 

Romney, campaigning on the opposite side of the Hawkeye State Sunday, pushed back against these allegations from the Speaker. 

“Speaker Gingrich I think announced that he raised $10 million this quarter and he ought to be proud of that. We’re working hard to raise funds, as well, this is an election,” Romney said in Atlantic, Iowa. “However, that’s not being driven by money raised, its being driven by message connection with the voters, debate and um experience and I think that those are the features that are driving the campaign so far and I think they probably will be through the entire process.”

Gingrich told reporters his campaign would be increasing the number of positive yet contrast ads on television and radio moving ahead to better combat the negative attacks from his GOP rivals.

“If somebody spends $3.5 million lying about you, you have some obligation to come back and set the record straight,” the Speaker said after his campaign heavily underestimated the damage these ads could do.

The negative attacks have worked here in the first-in-the-nation caucus state: Gingrich dropped from first place in the Des Moines Register’s early December poll to fourth place in Saturday’s DMR poll. Romney now leads in Iowa, according to the new poll, with Ron Paul and Rick Santorum finishing ahead of Gingrich. 

Gingrich told the standing-room only crowd inside LJs Neighborhood Bar and Grill here in Waterloo that not answering these negative ads was his biggest weakness. 

“I am too reasonable and I should have responded to the negative ads two weeks earlier,” Gingrich said after an interesting exchange between himself and wife, Callista, when the Speaker was asked about his biggest weakness.

The crowd began to laugh after Gingrich and Callista looked at one another with smiles about Newt’s biggest weakness. “Go ahead,” Callista told him as many in the audience expected him to perhaps mention his infidelities years ago. Rather, Gingrich stayed the course and linked his weakness answer back to the negative ads.

The Speaker’s ‘Jobs and Growth Bus Tour’ continues Monday with four stops in Eastern Iowa on caucus eve.

NBC’s Garrett Haake contributed to this report.

Des Moines - As Republican candidates crisscross Iowa seeking last-minute support, the Democratic Party is ignoring the field and focusing on front-runner Mitt Romney.

Today in a Des Moines press conference the DNC turned to a former factory worker who lost his job in the 1990’s to attack what it calls Mitt Romney “job killing record” in the private sector.

Randy Johnson, a former union official at an Indiana paper plant that Bain Capital purchased and then sold after labor discussions broke down in 1995 said of Romney, “I really feel that he didn’t care about the workers.”

Johnson said he’s telling his story now to let voters decide for themselves whether Romney should be president.

Now employed by the United Steelworkers Union in Pittsburgh, Johnson admitted Bain likely acted legally in its dealings with Ampad, but he’s accusing Romney of getting rich at the expense of workers.

“They let Ampad go bankrupt and they made 100 million…tell me there’s nothing wrong with that.”

This is not the first time Johnson’s story has been used as a political weapon against Mitt Romney. In 1994 Democrats used Johnson’s story in television ads attacking Romney during his campaign against then incumbent Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Romney’s 14-year tenure at Bain has been a frequent target of attack from the Obama re-election team and his Republican rivals.

Romney claims during his time at the firm Bain created a net total of 100,000 jobs, but he’s also acknowledged not all of the investments have worked out.

“We invested in over 100 different businesses,” he said last month on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,”  “and in those businesses, many were successful, added lots and lots of jobs. Some were not successful. That is the nature of free enterprise.”

On the campaign trail Romney argues that private sector experience is what’s needed to turn around the economy.

Obtained by NBC News

DES MOINES, Iowa -- When Iowans opened their mailboxes this week, they found a lot of campaign literature criticizing none other than the current front-runner, Newt Gingrich.

With just days to go before the Iowa caucuses, at least five separate direct-mail pieces from the Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Perry campaigns are floating around the Hawkeye State targeting the former House speaker. In addition, a pro-Romney SuperPAC, Restore Our Future, also has anti-Gingrich literature out.

Newt Gingrich is the “latest flavor of the month,” a letter from Ron Paul to his fellow conservatives says. “This particular flavor, however, will leave a bitter taste, as there are serious problems with his policies and beliefs.”

Obtained by NBC News

Romney’s campaign literature links Gingrich to fellow former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It shows a distorted black and white version of a TV ad that the two former speakers did together and reads: “When Al Gore needed allies … he turned to his friend Nancy Pelosi to push job-killing climate change legislation. When Pelosi wasn’t enough … They turned to Newt Gingrich.”

Restore Our Future also tries to link Gingrich with Pelosi. “Pelosi and Gingrich: More in common than you think,” a mailer from the PAC says. It accuses Gingrich of co-sponsoring 418 bills with her in Congress and of flip-flopping on a number of issues, including global warming. “When you attend the January 3^rd caucus, ask yourself: Who is the consistent conservative who can defeat President Obama? IT’S NOT NEWT GINGRICH,” the double-sided mailer reads.

In another mailer paid for by Restore Our Future, it asks “Why does the Obama machine want to run against Newt Gingrich?” and lists 11 different issues that it says Gingrich has “flip-flopped on” over the years. The front side of the mailer depicts a smiling President Barack Obama holding a newspaper with a faux headline reading “Newt wins Iowa.”

And Texas Gov. Rick Perry took on both Gingrich and Romney in his new mailer, questioning whether conservatives can trust either of the front-runners with their vote. “Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have abandoned our values and profited at our expense,” the ad reads. “Romney and Gingrich: supported Obamacare mandate. Wrong on abortion. Rich off of America’s misery.”

Obtained by NBC News

These anti-Gingrich pieces are just the latest in a slew of attacks on him from his GOP rivals, including attacks on the air in Iowa.

In just a 30-minute period during Friday's nightly news program on a local television channel in the Des Moines market, eight presidential campaign ads ran during commercial breaks. Half the ads that ran were attacking Gingrich (paid for by Restore Our Future, Ron Paul or Rick Perry). The other four were positive ads by the Paul, Romney and Perry campaigns plus one from a pro-Rick Santorum SuperPAC.

Gingrich vows to remain positive in his campaign for the nomination and only hit one opponent: Barack Obama.

Obtained by NBC News

Obtained by NBC News

Alex Moe / NBC News

This new flier from Rick Perry's campaign lays out his plan to fix Washington, D.C.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- Thirty-three days and counting till the Iowa caucuses and Texas Gov. Rick Perry is out with new campaign mailers and another television ad in the state.

“It’s time for a Washington overhaul,” the front cover of the trifold brochure reads. A bulldozer is depicted knocking over the Capitol on the front of the mailer Iowans found in their mailboxes today.

The inside pages explain Perry’s three-part plan to overhaul the nation’s capital:

Part 1: End lifetime appointment of federal judges.

Part 2: Create a part-time Congress, cutting pay and time in Washington in half.

Part 3: Overhaul the permanent bureaucracy.

Despite the governor not having been in the first-in-the-nation caucus state since Nov. 19, his campaign released another new television ad to run in the state Thursday.

The 30-second TV spot is entitled “Energy Jobs,” during which Perry says, “I’m an outsider so I’ll step on a few toes if necessary to reopen our oil and gas fields.”

While other GOP presidential campaigns are mailing out lots of campaign literature, Perry has rolled out by for the most TV ads throughout the Hawkeye State.