Chris Matthews: Iowa caucuses shaping up to be 'a victory of dollars over democracy'

MSNBC host Chris Matthews blasted multimillionaire Mitt Romney on his show Monday night, just a day before the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses.

"This Republican caucus in Iowa has the looks of a travesty," he said. "A victory of dollars over democracy, financial equity over equality. Romney is destroying the only opponent he fears for the nomination with a relentless wealth-driven advertising campaign that the voter can only escape if he turns off his television set. He's doing it without his finger-prints on the ads, without his face or voice or name attached to it... If there has even been a more cynical use of money and media it has been hard to recall it.

Matthews predicted that Mitt Romney would win the Iowa caucuses and that Rick Santorum would receive about 30 percent of the vote, thanks to Christian conservatives.

Outside groups spent $4.6 million to aid Romney, with much of that money being used in attack ads against Newt Gingrich.

"And so what exactly will Tuesday night's results mean?" Matthews added. "Will they mean that Iowa likes Romney or will it say that the voters of Iowa have been used to destroy his most formidable national opponent."

If Romney received more than 50 percent of the vote in Iowa, it would be "a victory of stealth over openness" and "cynicism over conviction," he said.

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:

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