'This Week' Transcript: GOP Candidate Rick Santorum and Rep. Barney Frank

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2011— -- (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR (voice-over): THIS WEEK: The Gingrich surge.

NEWT GINGRICH, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: While I was hoping for a wave, we've hit sort of a tsunami.

AMANPOUR: And just last night, The Des Moines Register poll shows Newt is number one. But can he stay there?

Curtains for Cain.

HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am at the peace with my wife. And she is at peace with me.

AMANPOUR: Defiant but defeated, the pizza mogul calls it quits.

So is Rick Santorum the right's hero in waiting?

SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALASKA: If voters start kind of shifting gears and decided they want ideological consistency, then they're going to start paying attention to, say, Rick Santorum.

AMANPOUR: Senator Santorum is right here to discuss his uphill road to the nomination.

And our "Roundtable" will rate his chances in this topsy-turvy race.

Also today, a Democrat who has campaigned enough for one lifetime.

FRANK: One of the advantages to me of not running for office is, I don't even have to pretend to try to be nice to people I don't like.

AMANPOUR: We'll ask the ever-quotable Barney Frank whether Washington will ever get back to business.

And later, Angelina Jolie on her new film about the war in Bosnia, a conflict I covered firsthand.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Newseum in Washington, THIS WEEK WITH CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, starts right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Good morning. And welcome to the program. We have lots to get to today, but first some news in your morning papers.

Mayhem in Oklahoma last night after thousands of overexcited Oklahoma State football fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts after the team's big win. Some people were trampled. One person fell 15 feet on to concrete. Thirteen people were taken on the hospital, including two with critical injuries.

In Germany, 45,000 residents of the city of Koblenz will be evacuated today as experts prepared to detonate a massive World War II-era bomb that was discovered in the Rhine River. And it was discovered after weeks without rain, which caused the water levels to drop.

In the presidential race, new proof the ground has once again shifted. Look at the new Des Moines Register poll. Newt Gingrich is on top with 25 percent. Ron Paul in second place with 18 percent. In third place, Mitt Romney at 16 percent. Eleven percent remain undecided. The other candidates are all in single digits.

The poll marks a new stage in the campaign, just one month before the all-important Iowa Caucuses. And here, as always, to guide us through the political jungle is our man, Jon Karl, with "THIS WEEK in Politics."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN KARL, ABC SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was the week it started to look like Mitt Romney could actually lose. Just look at the cover of TIME magazine or ask Newt Gingrich.

GINGRICH: I'm going to be the nominee. I mean, it's very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high I'm going to be the nominee.

KARL: Maybe. Maybe not. But Romney's week started with this blast from the DNC.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The story of two men trapped in one body: "Mitt versus Mitt."

KARL: On Tuesday, he once again brushed off questions from reporters.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You ask me at press avails and press conferences almost every day and...