A Super PAC supporting Ron Paul -- Revolution PAC -- has produced an online web ad in an effort to push back on racism charges stemming from newsletters published under Paul's name.

In the ad, an African-American man describes in his own words how, in 1972, his white wife had complications with her pregnancy. And in Texas, he says, no doctor would care for her or deliver their bi-racial child.

The man, James Williams, claims one hospital nurse even called the police on them after his continued inquiry. Williams then says Dr. Paul took care of his wife and delivered their baby, which was a stillborn. He says Paul didn't charge them for the service, saying he would take care of everything, and they never received a bill from the hospital.

Yesterday on WHO Radio, Jan Mickelson played a portion of the ad for Paul and C-Span cameras were in the studio. The Texas congressman appeared very touched by this man's words, afterwards saying he didn't remember that specific situation. Paul said it was just the way he practiced medicine.

"That is what I thought my responsibility were, but I never had the knowledge how grateful he was and to me that is magnificent."

PORTSMOUTH, NH -- When former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson decided to leave the GOP to pursue the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination two days ago, his former New Hampshire staffers chose not to go with him.

This morning, Johnson's New Hampshire staff declared their support for Ron Paul -- with just four days to go until the Hawkeye State votes and 11 days to the New Hampshire primary.

"Like many political observers, we see clear and compelling differences between Congressman Ron Paul and the other candidates who will garner significant support in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary," the staffers said in a statement.

They explained their move to Paul was born out of necessity.

"We think the people who care about the things we care about should get behind Ron Paul....we wish Gov. Johnson well," Matt Simon, Johnson's former New Hampshire communications director, told NBC News on Friday.

The decision to back the Texas congressman came two months after Johnson suspended his New Hampshire-centric campaign in October. His staff left shortly thereafter in search of a new candidate.

Simon added that they would be willing to continue support Johnson in the general election -- assuming Paul does not win the GOP nod and Johnson wins the Libertarian nomination.

But for now, supporting libertarian-inspired ideals as early as possible is the top priority for the former Johnson staff.

"I've never been someone who votes for the lesser of two evils," said Simon, referring to New Hampshire front runners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

In addition to Simon, Johnson supporters who are now backing Paul include Brinck Slattery, the former New Hampshire state coordinator; Nick Murray, former Seacoast field coordinator and college coordinator; Andy Hauger, former Merrimack Valley field coordinator; and Eric Jackman, former Southwestern New Hampshire field coordinator to Paul.

The five will simply support Paul -- and, as of now, they will not formally join his organization or be paid. The Paul campaign could not be immediately reached for comment.

Joe Hunter, Johnson's communications director, told NBC: "With the New Hampshire primary coming and with Gary having announced he is running as a libertarian, it makes perfect sense for them to be supporting Ron Paul in the primary."

Three storylines from our new NBC-Marist poll: 1) The negative TV ads against Gingrich have worked, explaining why his numbers have sunk … 2) The Tea Party support is splintered, explaining why Romney could win this thing… 3) There’s a lack of enthusiasm for Romney, explaining why he could still lose… Other observations: Paul has a high floor but perhaps a low ceiling, and Santorum and Perry have room to grow, if there’s enough time… And “Meet the Press” has Santorum on Sunday. 

DES MOINES, IA -- Here’s the headline from our new NBC-Marist poll of Iowa: With just four days left until the Jan. 3 caucuses, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are running neck and neck, with Romney at 23% among likely caucus-goers and Paul at 21%. Meanwhile, Rick Santorum has surged to third place (going from 6% last month to 15% now) and Newt Gingrich has collapsed (from his lead of 28% to fifth place at 13%). Also in the poll, Rick Perry finds himself in fourth place (at 14%) and Bachmann is in sixth (at 6%). But the poll contains three big storylines beyond the horserace numbers.

*** The negative ads hitting Gingrich worked (and why he could end up in single digits): First, the negative TV ads directed at Gingrich -- from the pro-Romney Super PAC and also the Paul campaign -- have worked, and they might be the most consequential story so far of the GOP presidential race. Besides Gingrich’s drop from first place to fifth, 35% of likely caucus-goers now say the former House speaker would be unacceptable as the GOP’s nominee (only Paul has a higher "unacceptable" rating). That’s a whopping 19-point increase (!!!) from last month, and only Paul has a higher “unacceptable” rating. (Just 21% say Romney would be unacceptable and 24% say Santorum is unacceptable.) What’s more, only 6% in the survey identify Gingrich as the “true conservative” in the Republican contest. “He took it on the chin,” says Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the survey. For Gingrich, there wasn’t a sex scandal (a la Herman Cain) or an “oops” moment (a la Perry). Instead, it a pure old-fashioned "voter-education campaign," and Romney didn’t have to get himself dirty in the process.

*** Splintered Tea Party support (and why Romney could win this thing): A second storyline is that the divided conservative vote in Iowa creates a path to victory for Romney. In last month’s NBC-Marist poll of Iowa, Gingrich had a large lead over Romney (and the other GOP rivals) among Tea Party supporters. But in this new poll, Tea Party supporters -- who make up about half of all likely caucus-goers -- are splintered. Santorum gets 20% from them, Romney and Paul get 17%, Gingrich 16%, Perry 15%, and Bachmann 10%. So six candidates are WITHIN THE MARGIN OF ERROR among Tea Party supporters. Simply stunning. “This is the Romney dream scenario,” Miringoff says. “When you look at the Tea Party and conservatives, they are all splintered.” And it explains how Romney getting 25% of the vote on Tuesday -- the exact percentage he received when he finished in second in Iowa four years ago -- could put him in first this time around.

*** A lack of enthusiasm for Romney (and why he could still lose): So while Romney might benefit from a splintered conservative vote, his support isn’t the strongest. That honor goes to Santorum with 59% strongly supporting him. Next is Paul at 54%, then Perry at 52%, and Romney comes in fourth at 51%. Iowa voter Carolyn Erickson told NBC News yesterday that she is leaning toward Romney because her preferred candidate -- Bachmann -- is unlikely to win. "Even though I love Michelle Bachmann and would like to see her maybe be vice president or whatever, I just don't think that she has a chance.” So the danger for Romney is that people who are leaning to him (because of electability, etc.) don’t show up on Jan. 3.

*** Paul’s low ceiling; Santorum and Perry have room to grow: In addition to those three storylines, here are some more observations from our poll. For one thing, Ron Paul appears to have a high floor (with his 54% strong support), but he might have the lowest ceiling (41% believe he’s unacceptable as the GOP nominee). Also, both Santorum (just 22% think he’s unacceptable) and Perry (24% unacceptable) have room to grow, if there’s enough time. And speaking of time, chew on this: What if this race is already frozen due to the upcoming New Year’s holiday? Is there time left to make a move?

Countdown to Iowa caucuses: 4 days
Countdown to New Hampshire primary: 11 days
Countdown to South Carolina primary: 22 days
Countdown to Florida primary: 32 days
Countdown to Nevada caucuses: 36 days
Countdown to Super Tuesday: 67 days
Countdown to Election Day: 314 days

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*** Friday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up (live from Java Joes in Des Moines): Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn on the lay of the land with just about 100 hours to go… Marist College's Lee Mirgingoff on the new NBC/Marist numbers on Iowa… One of us (!!!) with a caucus primer... More news from the trail with the AP's Liz Sidoti, Politico's Jonathan Martin, the Washington Post's Nia-Malika Henderson, and Southern Illinois University's David Yepsen.

*** Friday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews Romney Senior Adviser Eric Fehrnstrom, DNC Vice-Chair Mayor R.T. Rybak,  Democratic strategist Kiki McLean, former Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler, USA Today’s Susan Page, Rep Frederica Wilson (D-FL) on anti-hazing legislation; and Politico’s Alex Burns on 10 Major Political Blunders of 2011.

*** Friday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include New York Magazine’s John Heilemann, MSNBC’s Richard Wolffe, Politico’s Ben White, Brown University’s Wendy Schiller, and radio host Kurt Anderson.

*** Friday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell -- live from Java Joes in Des Moines -- interviews GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Also on the show: NBC’s Chuck Todd, Politico’s Roger Simon, Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, CNBC’s John Harwood, and former Defense Secretary William Cohen (on Iran).

*** Friday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Richard Lui interviews Agriculture Secretary (and former Iowa Gov.) Tom Vilsack and the Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe.

*** Saturday’s and Sunday’s “UP with Chris Hayes” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Hayes interviews Lt. Gen. (ret.) Ricardo Sanchez and former Rep. Joe Sestak (on Saturday) and MSNBC contributor Dave Weigel and The Nation’s Corey Robin (on Sunday).

*** Sunday’s “Meet the Press” line-up: NBC’s David Gregory interviews presidential candidate Rick Santorum.

BACHMANN: “Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is limping toward Tuesday's Iowa presidential caucuses,” the AP writes. “She's losing staff. She's faced calls for her to abandon her bid. And she has no money.” And: “[I]nstead of ending the exhausting sprint on a high note, Bachmann found herself facing a new reality: Rick Santorum was the conservative candidate whose standing was rising ahead of the caucuses, not her.” A day after losing a state campaign chairman, she lost her political director.

The Boston Globe’s Glen Johnson highlights more difficulties: “But as if to underscore the momentum she has lost, Bachmann had several uncomfortable pauses as she waited for audience questions after her speech. And later, during an appearance before mortgage brokers at the Iowa State House, she suffered another indignity: Bachmann walked in with a speech in her hand but no podium upon which to place it. As she delivered opening to a group numbering no more than 40, aides carried over a table and placed a platform atop it.”

GINGRICH: Rep. Steve King’s still not endorsing (yet), but he said he’d pick Gingrich over Romney (though he wasn’t without some praise for Romney). “Mitt Romney is a significantly better candidate than he was four years ago,” King told Newsmax. “He’s been campaigning now for five or so years for president,” King said. “If you want someone in charge that you’ll know the trains will run on time, Mitt Romney is the man that we have confidence in that he can do that.”

More: “He’s been consistent over the last four or five years, however, and the burden that he carries with him is his healthcare policy in Massachusetts makes it really hard for him to challenge Barack Obama on Obamacare,” King said. “And this race must be about a full 100 percent repeal of Obamacare. I give the nod to Gingrich in that particular contest.”

HUNTSMAN: He picked on Iowa yesterday for picking “corn” not presidents, but the Des Moines Register reminds Huntsman that New Hampshire actually only has picked the eventual nominee just one more time than Iowa has since 1976. It suggests Huntsman should instead focus on South Carolina, since its gotten every nominee right since 1980. But “If Huntsman makes a push there, he might want to lay off the tobacco jokes,” the paper writes.

The Boston Globe notes that as Huntsman has New Hampshire to himself for the next few days, he’s confronting skeptical voters, asking him about his viability as a Republican candidate -- if he’s considering an independent bid and why he didn’t get on the Virginia ballot. And: “According to the Associated Press, Huntsman said he may drop out if he does not finish in the top three in New Hampshire.”

PAUL: The New York Times: “This month, a wealthy Republican called up two officers who served as platoon leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan with a proposition: He would lend them his private jet, and they would fly around Iowa to Representative Ron Paul’s campaign events in the weeks before the Jan. 3 caucuses, telling reporters at each location that the congressman’s foreign policy and military positions were dangerous and naïve. The deal never came to pass. But it reflects both Republican establishment concern about his insurgent candidacy — polls now place Mr. Paul, of Texas, at or near the top of the pack in Iowa — and unease among many traditional Republican voters who support the party’s tougher line on national security."

PERRY: “It’s been a long 12 months for Rick Perry. The Texas governor started 2011 in triumph, at the peak of his political power, with a high gloss on his boots and a national audience of conservatives eager for just the tale he was telling,” The Texas Tribune writes. “He ends the year treading water. His boots — ‘Freedom’ and ‘Liberty’ — might as well be named ‘Oops’ and ‘Dang.’” Ouch.

“Explaining that he's ‘not a lawyer,’ Rick Perry on Wednesday said he was unfamiliar with the anti-sodomy case Lawrence v. Texas litigated in part during his time as governor of Texas,” NBC’s Carrie Dann reports.

The Texas Tribune: “The seminal civil rights decision overturned a Texas law that outlawed the practice of sodomy between homosexuals.” And: “Despite his failure to remember it today, Perry mentioned the case in his anti-Washington book, Fed Up! In the book's sixth chapter.”

ROMNEY: The AP’s Elliott: “Mitt Romney, watching as Republicans flail for a not-Romney alternative, is looking with optimism at Iowa, the state that rejected him four years earlier but now appears at least open to the possibility that he could be the GOP presidential nominee.”

The AP’s Hunt: “Romney's effort to come across as a man of the people” with talk of Ramblers and cross-country trips “has been anything but a smooth transition.” And that “he can still struggle to connect with people on a personal level.”

Examples: “One woman recently told him that she had to endure a five-hour commute to work because her company moved out of state. How could he help keep good jobs in Iowa, she asked. ‘Sometimes it's counterintuitive,’ replied Romney, a former businessman, explaining that businesses often invent new, more efficient ways to compete. ‘The term is called productivity. Output per person,’ he said. ‘Our productivity equals our income.’”

And: “When one retired firefighter in New Hampshire said he was drawing a reduced Social Security check because he also had a state pension, the former Massachusetts governor was less than sympathetic. ‘If there's a competition for who will give you the most free stuff, go vote for that guy.’ When the man said he wasn't asking for any handouts, Romney said, ‘You knew what you were getting into…  I wish you well, but I'm not going to promise you more bucks.’” (Wow.)

Romney seemed to up the stakes in Iowa yesterday: When he “was asked by CNN whether finishing second after Ron Paul in Iowa could still be considered a win, Romney quickly responded, ‘Uh, no,’” Political Wire writes.

The New York Times adds, “With days left before voting begins in Iowa, Mitt Romney has fully embraced the state that spurned him four years ago, betting that heightened expectations for his performance at the Republican caucuses here on Tuesday will not undercut his chances of a strong start to the presidential nominating contests.”

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) endorsed Romney.

SANTORUM: “Santorum's vehicle of choice is a supporter's heavy-duty pickup truck with an aide working in the back seat,” AP’s Glover writes. “Iowa's airwaves are filled with TV commercials. But Santorum's presence is much more restrained. That's largely a consequence of the fact that he can't afford much of one. And yet, Santorum's low-key, scaled-down approach appears to be working.”

Rick Perry attacked Santorum for requesting earmarks as a senator. Santorum’s response: "Absolutely I had earmarks while I was in the United States Senate. Look at the Constitution. Who has the responsibility to spend money? Please go take a look at my earmarks. Are there things in there I'm proud of? You bet there are.

More: "People say I voted for the 'Bridge to Nowhere.' I did! Who am I in Pennsylvania to tell Alaska what their highway priorities should be? You had a city that was separated from its airport. And of course in Alaska, you travel by air, and they had to have a ferry. Well there were times when they couldn't get across and so they built this bridge. I gave the benefit of the doubt to the people who have the expertise and knowledge about what's best for their state. Look at the Constitution. The Constitution says, 'roads.' So this is clearly a federal function." (hat tip: GOP 12.)

AMES, Iowa -- Mitt Romney’s chances of winning Iowa could have as much to do with Ron Paul as with Romney himself.

“No one will come back here in four years if Ron Paul wins,” said Craig Wearmouth, an undecided Republican from nearby Ogden.

“We’re worried about the caucuses,” said Norm Hill, also from Ogden and who traveled with Wearmouth to this warehouse of Kinzler Construction to hear Romney speak tonight.

Wearmouth, his wife Sue, Hill, and about a half-dozen other voters of the 400 or so here to hear Romney that First Read spoke with, who said they were undecided, echoed those sentiments. And they are now strongly considering voting for Romney.

For these Republicans, nowhere near the staunchly social conservative Western part of the state, the most important thing is beating Barack Obama, they said.

“He’s a great man, just a fantastic guy,” said Dean Thompson gesturing toward Romney, as Romney shook hands with everyone who wanted to following his speech. “I’d vote for anything that had a chance to get Obama out.”

Thompson said he leans to the libertarian wing of the Republican Party and even voted for Paul at the Ames Straw Poll. But, “I can’t,” he said of Paul. “The way he’s voiced his opinions on Iran – that’s a downfall for me.”

The Wearmouths, Hill, and Thompson all said they were Herman Cain supporters, but are still searching. They like Bachmann and Santorum, but worry about their electability. They like Perry, but said his debate performances were too damaging. And Gingrich just has too much “baggage.”

Romney’s “steady, no extremes,” Thompson said.

Still, none of these undecided had their minds made up on Romney yet. Thompson said he likes that Romney is talking about “spending more than we take in,” but wishes he were a little bolder on tax policy – like a consumption tax (aka Fair Tax) or a more “innovative” flat tax, kind of like, oh, 9-9-9.

But they liked what they heard tonight.

“Yeah,” Wearmouth said. “He was good.”

Thompson put it this way: “He’s the presumptive nominee,” he said, with a shrug of the shoulders, “So….”

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's campaign lost another high-ranking staff member on Thursday after that staffer defended another former Bachmann official's defection to a rival campaign.

Wes Enos, Bachmann's political director, has left the campaign, spokeswoman Alice Stewart confirmed to NBC News on Thursday evening.

The resignation comes on the heels of last night's announcement by Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, who had served as Bachmann's Iowa chairman, that he had stepped down from that position to support Texas Rep. Ron Paul's campaign instead.

Yesterday, Enos publicly defended Sorenson, an Iowa state Senator, against charges voiced by Bachmann that Sorenson had accepted money from the Paul campaign, in violation of state law. (This narrative is disputed by Sorenson himself.)

"I can't in good conscious watch a good man like Kent Sorenson be attacked as a sell-out," Enos told NBC News on Wednesday night, insisting that Sorenson felt personal loyalty to colleagues in the state legislature backing Paul.

A similar statement from Enos was released via the Ron Paul campaign shortly after midnight today.

Reached via text message today, Enos told NBC News, of his departure from the Bachmann campaign: "It was a mutual thing. I knew when I undermined [Bachmann's] statement last night that I effectively was tendering my resignation."

Enos adds he has no "ill will" toward Bachmann.

That hasn't stalled the emerging feud between the Bachmann and Paul campaigns.

Bachmann re-iterated her charge against Sorenson at a campaign stop on Thursday, saying that Sorenson had told her he had been "offered a great deal of money" to support Ron Paul, but had given her campaign assurances he would stay.

"He said that he would be staying. He was with me at our campaign stop in Indianola," Bachmann said.

Sorenson joined Bachmann at a Pizza Ranch in Indianola yesterday, where he spoke with voters as he stood by Bachmann's side. Later, he declined to speak on her behalf, citing dental work he had received earlier in the day.

“I’m numb, so I’m afraid I’ll start drooling," Sorenson told the crowd, to laughs.

Today, Bachmann told reporters that, "He told all of our campaign that he was definitely on board and then he got in his car and he went and announced that he was going with the Ron Paul campaign."

The visit to the Indianola event followed a discussion over the phone Tuesday, Bachmann said, in which Sorenson told her he had been offered a "great deal of money" to defect to the Paul campaign. 

STORM LAKE, Iowa -- Newt Gingrich said he has the dirt on his competitors in Iowa's Republican caucus, but would continue to stay positive before Tuesday's contest.

The former House Speaker has been slipping in the polls here and is being hammered by his GOP opponents and their super PACs every day both on TV and in mailboxes. Just today, the pro-Mitt Romney Super PAC, Restore Our Future, mailed two pieces of literature to Iowans attacking Gingrich.
 
"I'm not going to respond to negative ads,” Gingrich told the crowd inside a conference room at King's Pointe Waterpark Resort. “We have plenty of ammunition but we're not going to shoot."

Gingrich instead continues to push his economic record, today bringing the mastermind of Ronald Reagan’s economic policy with him to a stop on his Iowa bus tour Thursday. His bus tour across Iowa is even called “Newt's Jobs and Growth Bus Tour.”
 
“My view is that of the candidates today, Newt Gingrich is far and away the best person to bring this country back into prosperity,” Art Laffer, the so-called ‘architect’ of Reagan’s economic plan and father of supply-side economics, told a crowd of roughly 100 people. Laffer endorsed Gingrich earlier this week.
 
“I think my record on social issues is very solid and very compelling but if you go out and talk to the average Iowan, they are really worried about the economy,” Gingrich told reporters when his strategy here in Iowa to not talk more about more conservative issues was questioned.
 
Perhaps sensing that he may not finish as well in the Iowa Caucuses on Jan. 3rd, the Speaker told reporters that there are more than three tickets out of Iowa.
 
“It's all going to be just turmoil until Tuesday night,” Gingrich said inside his Sioux City, Iowa office.
 
Gingrich did add that he's "very satisfied with where we are” going into the caucus.

A hearing on the request from Texas Gov. Rick Perry for a federal court order to place him on the Virginia primary ballot has been scheduled for Friday, Jan. 13th in Richmond before Judge John Gibney, Jr.

Lawyers for Perry claim that Virginia's stringent requirements to qualify for the ballot froze him out of the March 6 primary.

"Because of the overly burdensome and unconstitutional requirements" of the state's election law, they argue, he was "unable to obtain a sufficient number of signatures from qualified voters to qualify for the Republican Party presidential primary ballot in Virginia. If either the state-residency requirement for petition circulators or the threshold amount of signators is constitutionally unenforceable, plaintiff should be certified for the March 6, 2012 Republican Party primary ballot."

The state requires that those who circulate petitions must be either registered to vote in the state or qualified to do so. Such a rule, however, prevents candidates from using out-of-state volunteers to gather signatures. And Perry points out it prevents even presidential candidates themselves from gathering signatures on their own petitions, unless they happen to be from Virginia.

The court must act soon, Perry argues, "because the deadline to print ballots is in the next two or three weeks."

MASON CITY, IOWA-- Mitt Romney's campaign schedule for the final four days of his Iowa campaign turns an old axiom on its head.

While veterans of recent bus tours by Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry likely won't be impressed, with 10 stops in three-and-a-half days, and some 770 miles of driving between them, the final stretch amounts to both a both a marathon and a sprint for the Romney campaign.

Touching down Saturday afternoon after a roughly 24-hour New Hampshire detour, Romney will criss-cross Iowa one last time -- putting roughly enough miles on his bus to get from Boston to Columbus, Ohio -- and hitting towns and counties which largely supported him four years ago.

On Saturday, Romney will make two stops in Northwest Iowa -- in Le Mars and Sioux City -- both of which are in counties Romney carried in 2008. Sunday morning, Romney visits Atlantic Iowa, in a county he lost to Mike Huckabee by 6 percentage points. Council Bluffs, where Romney will hold an afternoon rally, is Iowa's second-largest county, and Romney carried it by 11 points in 2008.

Overnight Sunday and into Monday, Romney will travel across the state to campaign in Dubuque and Davenport, on the state's Eastern border -- more friendly territory for Romney. Romney won Davenport's Scott County by 11 points, and Dubuque county by a whopping 23 points.

Monday afternoon the campaign works it's way to Cedar Rapids, where Romney pulled off a 5-point win four years ago, then terminates in Des Moines for events Monday night and Tuesday. It is there, in Polk County, which Romney lost by 13 points last cycle, where Romney will host his final rally and caucus-night event.

In what some see as a sign of the campaign -- and the candidate's -- confidence of a win or a very close second-place finish in Iowa, Romney will overnight in Des Moines, and conduct morning-show interviews there Wednesday -- rather than go straight to New Hampshire.

The campaign's explanation for staying the night? Eric Fehrnstrom, a Romney senior adviser, told NBC's Andrea Mitchell today simply, "We want a well-rested candidate."

Ferhnstrom added Romney will leave for New Hampshire Wednesday -- at a "more sensible hour."

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa --  Explaining that he's "not a lawyer," Rick Perry on Wednesday said he was unfamiliar with the anti-sodomy case Lawrence v. Texas litigated in part during his time as governor of Texas.

Perry responded to a question about the case, which struck down laws against sodomy in Texas as unconstitutional, with a soliloquy on the dangers of spending; Perry later admitted to reporters that he was unfamiliar with the case.

"And I wish I could tell you I know every Supreme Court case, I don't," Perry said when a voter in Cedar Rapids asked him about the landmark 2003 case that struck down a law criminalizing homosexual activity. "I'm not a lawyer, but here's what I do know: I know they're spending too much money in DC and $15 trillion worth of debt is on the back of that young man right there. And if we don't go in and cut the size of government, court cases aren't going to make one tinker's heck."

"And we can sit here and play 'I gotcha' questions on what about this Supreme Court case or whatever," he continued. "But let me tell you, you know and I know the problem in this country is spending in Washington DC, it's not some Supreme Court case."

Asked by Ken Herman, a journalist with the Austin-American Statesman, after the event if he knew what the case was about, Perry replied "I don't. I think I explained that to him."

The 6-3 decision attracted major public attention and offered a victory for the LGBT community,

Perry appeared in a crowded coffee shop before a raucous crowd of about 200 Iowans who roared approval for Perry's shots at Washington DC "insiders" and President Barack Obama's administration.

Repeating his earlier critiqueof former Sen. Rick Santorum's record on earmarks, an animated Perry declared "I'm calling you out, senator!"

While Santorum received most of Perry's ire Wednesday, Perry also offered a concise appraisal of apparent frontrunner Mitt Romney, even after defending the former Massachussetts governor's family history as the son of a politician.

When a questioner suggested that a Romney presidency could represent a dangerous "dynasty" -- Romney's father served as Michigan governor and ran for president in 1968 -- Perry defended public service "an honorable thing."

"I'm a politician's son," he joked. "My daddy was a county commissioner." Perry also declined to take the bait on the man's suggestion that Romney was from a different "socioeconomic" background but did take the opportunity to slam Romney as inconsistent on key issues.

"I am a consistent conservative. I've always been pro-life. I have always been pro-traditional marriage. I have always been a fiscal conservative. I have never been for global warming. Yeah, me and Mitt are different."

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Thursday that he's "proud" of the money he brought back to his state by way of earmarks, rebuffing new attacks by Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Santorum said that if he were elected president, he would oppose earmarks -- the process by which a lawmaker directs spending to a particular project -- because Congress had placed a temporary moratorium on the practice.

But he didn't back down from new attacks this morning by Perry, who labeled the surging Santorum a "prolific earmarker," and launched a radio ad, to boot, echoing that charge.

"If you look at the Constitution, the Constitution gives the power of the purse to Congress; the Congress is the one that's supposed to spend the money," Santorum said on Fox News. "So the idea that earmarks is somehow against the Constitution or something that is illicit, that the congressman can or shouldn't do is simply, factually incorrect."

He was pressed as to whether the practice should still be encouraged, even if it weren't illegal, because of the public's perception that earmarking contributes to corruption in Washington.

"I’ve defended my earmarks in the sense that I'm proud of the money that I did set aside for things that were priorities in my state instead of having bureaucrats do that," Santorum said. "But I've recognized that the American public have sort of seen this as a pox upon the congress and that's where the American public is today and as a president, it's sort of easy for me to say I'll oppose congressional earmarks."

The practice of earmarking had long drawn the ire of reform-minded conservatives in Washington, which contributed to House and Senate lawmakers approving a moratorium -- of a limited length -- in late 2010.

But the moratorium came over the objections of some old-guard Republicans, including a series of noted conservatives, who cited a similar fear that banning earmarks would essentially cede spending authority to the president.

Perry's bet is that he can stoke anger among the conservative base toward Santorum on the issue of earmarks, in keeping with his broader theme of congressional reform (calling for a part-time Congress, reduced pay for lawmakers, and a ban on insider trading).

Whether the attack will work in the limited time frame before the Jan. 3 caucuses in Iowa, where the state's veteran GOP Sen. Charles Grassley had long been a proponent of earmarks, is another story. Santorum's seen his polling numbers rise in recent days, leading to greater scrutiny from his opponents.

WASHINGTON, Iowa -- In his first targeted attack against the recently surging Rick Santorum, Rick Perry on Thursday labeled the former Pennsylvania senator a "prolific earmarker" who "loaded up on Pennsylvania pork" during his time in Congress.

Appearing at a coffee shop in Washington, IA, the Texas governor took direct aim at his rival's spending record less than 24 hours after a new TIME/CNN/ORC Iowa poll showed Santorum jumping into third place, with Perry stalled at fifth among GOP contenders.

"Rick Santorum is a friend," he said. "I've got great respect for him, but when he talks about fiscal conservativism every now and then it kinda leaves me scratching my head, because he was a prolific earmarker."

"You know I love Iowa pork but I hate Washington pork," Perry said to laughter from the crowd of about 50. "And Sen. Santorum, he loaded up his bills with Pennsylvania pork. And he even voted for the Alaska Bridge to Nowhere."

Perry then read a quote from a Santorum appearance on Fox News in February 2009 in which the former senator said "I'm very proud of all of my earmarks... I will defend earmarks."

"Senator Santorum I'm going to give you that opportunity to defend your earmarks," Perry added. "Because earmarks are the gateway drug to the spending problem that they have in Washington DC."

A radio ad echoing the same critique hit Iowa airwaves this morning, according to the campaign.

While Perry previously has lumped Santorum with other candidates whose tenure in Washington make them 'insiders," today's attack is the first shot directed squarely at him alone.

The news of Perry's continued idling in Iowa polls yesterday raises further questions about whether or not the Texas governor will push on to South Carolina after the caucuses.

Asked by a reporter today if there's any caucus night scenario in which Perry doesn't continue the race, he responded "Well that's God's will. There might be an outcome that He decides that I wouldn't go on"

"Is God caucusing?" came the followup.

Perry, smiling, replied, "I'm pretty sure He will be.

Prepare for Jan. 3's Iowa caucuses and the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary with NBC News' definitive guide of the history, tradition and statistics surrounding these nominating contests.

The guide below (view as a .pdf here) contains a complete rundown of this year's primary calendar, and a look back at the political events to have govern the past year. It also breaks down the way delegates are apportioned to candidates throughout the GOP primary.

It dives even further into the history and demographics guiding the Iowa and New Hampshire contests, and includes data from the 2008 caucuses and primaries, too.

CORALVILLE, Iowa -- The day after a national poll showed signs of a surge in Iowa for Rick Santorum, the presidential hopeful took to the campaign trail to voice a familiar message -- one that's now receiving an unfamiliar amount of attention.

The nearly 70 Iowans who came to hear the former Pennsylvania senator at the Coralville City Hall were nearly matched in attendance by members of the media. In the wake of a CNN/TIME poll that shows Santorum polling third in the state, the candidate who most frequently complains about his lack of media coverage has found himself swarmed by reporters just five days before the caucus.

"We used to hear all the time, 'Well you know, we like what you say, but you're not doing well in the polls.' And I kept saying, 'Don't pay attention to the polls...don't pay attention to what you see on TV, pay attention to what you feel and what you know in your heart and in your head," Santorum told reporters after the event.  "And that's what Iowans are doing right now, and I think they're coming our way."

Campaigning throughout the Hawkeye State this week, Santorum has leaned on his conservative track record and time spent in the state to ask voters not to settle on a candidate whose has not consistently shared their values. He's used strong rhetoric against Ron Paul, saying the Texas congressman's foreign policy is "disconnected from reality."

Dinging the health care bill Mitt Romney signed into law as governor of Massachusetts, Santorum said, "I've been a private sector health care guy since day one."

Operating primarily at the lower tear of the polls, Santorum has been able to largely avoid the attacks other top-tier candidates have waged on each other.  But -- in a race with a heavy emphasis on being a Washington outsider -- the 12 years Santorum spent in the U.S. Senate will likely give his detractors plenty of ammo. By mid-morning, the start of those attacks commenced with Texas Gov. Rick Perry calling him a "prolific earmarker" who "loaded up on PA pork."

Santorum explained his time in Washington as a member of Congress has given him needed experience that will complement his desire to overhaul some functions of the federal government, a delicate balance to strike in a political environment in which voters are deeply skeptical of Congress.

"I've got a recorder of an insider in the sense of being able to get things done, but an outsider in being able to do what I've done, which is reform Congress," he said.

He has used his parliamentary knowledge to blast rivals over their plans to repeal the President Obama signed health care law of 2010.

Referring to Romney's plan to give each state the opportunity to opt out of the law, the 12-year senator said, "Experience does help. And the experience of waivers is, some states will and some states won't."

Shortly thereafter, he critiqued another popular GOP plan to dissemble the legislation: "You can't do it by executive order like some others have said in this campaign. Again, experience helps."

But as Santorum enjoys the bump, signs of his lack of organization continue to show.  His campaign cancelled his next event just hours before it was scheduled to happen because the family-owned store he was set to tour ended up being closed.

If you buy the new CNN/Time poll and the other anecdotal evidence of growing crowds and newfound swagger, Mitt Romney is on the verge of winning next week's Iowa caucuses.

And he could do it with the same percentage -- 25% -- that gave him a second-place finish in Iowa four years ago.

If that happens, it would mean that Romney -- who supported abortion rights just six years ago, who enacted an individual health-care mandate in Massachusetts, and who raised revenues to balance his state's budget -- would be thisclose to wrapping up his party's presidential nomination.

So why are his GOP presidential rivals attacking each other and not Romney?

Consider some of today's activity:

-- Rick Perry is up with a new TV ad hitting Bachmann, Gingrich, Paul, and Santorum for their current or previous service in Congress. But it makes no mention of Romney.

-- Perry, while campaigning in Iowa today, called Santorum a "prolific earmarker" who "voted for the Bridge to Nowhere" and "loaded up on Pennsylvania pork," per NBC's Carrie Dann.

-- And Jon Huntsman's campaign has a new web video hitting Paul for those racially charged newsletters.

And this all raises the point we raised in First Thoughts this morning: Romney can win Iowa with just 25% if his rivals split up the other 75%.

WINDHAM, N.H. -- Four of the five telegenic Romney sons descended upon New Hampshire today to cement support for their dad Mitt as he barnstorms across Iowa.

The Romney sons' trip was the latest in an ongoing effort to showcase the personal, if not quirky, side of the former Massachusetts governor as he tries to solidify his lead ahead of the January 10 primary.

Standing in front of about 40 voters at a quaint homestyle restaurant in southern New Hampshire, Romney's oldest son Tagg introduced his brothers before telling stories of an energetic and thrifty dad who likes to vacation with a packed itinerary.

"Matt is only a year and a half younger. Matt is the smartest of the brothers. Craig is the youngest and funniest of the brothers. Josh is, as you can tell, the most handsome. I'm only the oldest," Tagg said.

"I'm the only one who got stuck with a weird name."

The fifth son, Ben, is a medical doctor busy with a residency at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The four sons entertained supporters with personal nuggets from the Romney family early years, fondly calling their mother Ann a "pushover" for cash when they were kids.

"One thing about him is he is tremendously cheap," Josh told voters over sticky buns and coffee. "We learned as kids never go to my dad if you needed some money to go to the movies. You didn't ask dad because you wouldn't quite get enough to make it to the theater. You'd go to my mom. My mom was easy."

The appearance of the four sons together marks the highest concentration of Romney sons in one place in New Hampshire this campaign cycle. Far more active on the 2008 campaign trail, Josh explained that said their father has tried to keep his sons' family and work lives relatively normal as he ramped up his White House bid.

However, that hasn't kept the sons away.

"My dad took each of us aside and said, 'You guys are not going to do this time what you did last time. I don't want you on the campaign trail. You did too much last time you've got families and careers and you're going to stay at home and keep doing that,'" Josh said. "And we kind of all said 'Okay, Dad.' And the next call we made was to the campaign manager and said, 'Send us out as much as you can.'"

Josh said he usually campaigns about once a week, often with his mom Ann. Jokingly, he jabbed his dad, "He doesn't give me a campaign title, he never gave me a job at any of his companies, so I have taken it upon myself to give myself a title and that's 'campaign manager for Ann Romney for First Lady.' So I get to campaign with my mom a lot and I love it."

When asked about the Huntsman family -- the other family canvassing and tweeting their way across New Hampshire as @Jon2012girls -- Josh appeared unfamiliar with exactly who they are.

"I really don't even know anything about it to be honest with you,"

Josh told a reporter. "We've just been focusing on my dad."

Last week, the New York Times reported that eldest son Tagg (@tromney) wanted to engage with the Huntsman daughters, Abby, Mary Anne and Liddy, on Twitter but the campaign nixed the idea.

Santorum surges in new poll, but that surge could be short lived… Breaking down Iowa’s conservative vs. non-conservative vote… Romney’s playing to win in Iowa… What we learned in our Gingrich interview… Where have the Palins/Cains/Huckabees/DeMints gone?... And Kucinich vs. Kaptur in Ohio.

*** Why not Santorum? If you believe the new CNN/Time poll numbers out of Iowa -- and some are questioning the survey's methodology -- then Rick Santorum is the latest GOP presidential candidate to begin to surge, jumping 11 points in less than a month. And, in some ways, the surge is fitting. After all, he is a more consistent conservative than the other candidates (especially Romney, Paul, and Gingrich); he has busted his tail campaigning throughout Iowa the old fashioned way (one county, church, Pizza Ranch and coffee house at a time); and he's been a consistently solid performer at the debates. What’s more, he’s won statewide in an important swing state TWICE (though also lost there badly in 2006), and he’s a big hawk on national security and Iran (an issue that could become bigger and bigger in the days ahead). So why not Santorum? In these ways, his surge seems to make more sense than Gingrich’s did a month ago.

*** And why his surge might be short lived: But here's the big reason why Santorum’s surge might be short lived, even if he's able to maintain it through Jan. 3: Like Gingrich and Cain before him, he lacks the organization and money to compete for the long haul. In addition, he’s viewed as a bit too conservative, especially on social issues (one example: on contraception). Santorum was on “TODAY” this morning, displaying his conservative credentials. “What I say I’m going to do is what I’ve done in the past… We’ve got the record to back it up.”

*** Iowa’s conservative vs. non-conservative vote: In that CNN/Time poll, Romney is in first place among likely caucus-goers at 25% (up five points from earlier in the month), Paul is in second at 22% (also up five), Santorum is at 16% (up 11), Gingrich is at 14% (down a whopping 19 points), Perry at is at 11% (up two), and Bachmann is at 9% (also up two). But look at those numbers this way: When you add up the percentages for the conservative/evangelical bloc of Santorum/Gingrich/Perry/Bachmann, you get 50%, versus the combined 47% for the moderate/establishment/outsider bloc of Romney/Paul. In a way, this explains last night’s defection by former Bachmann Iowa state chairman Kent Sorenson to Team Paul. If four GOP candidates are dividing up that 50% conservative/evangelical bloc, then Romney is likely to win this contest. But if it’s three -- or even two -- dividing up the 50%, you can see how Romney could lose.

*** Romney’s playing to win in Iowa: Yet everything we’ve seen in the last week or two suggests that Romney is playing to win in Iowa. The latest sign: The Des Moines Register is reporting that Romney will hold a post-caucus party in Des Moines. “The next morning, the former governor will do press interviews before flying to New Hampshire, the next state on the voting calendar and a crucial contest for Romney.” Folks, that is playing to win. Talk about confidence The safe move -- and the one that seemed telegraphed a few weeks ago -- would be to travel to the friendly confines of New Hampshire before or immediately after the caucuses, to downplay their importance and do the morning shows from Manchester, NH. But his campaign is now playing them up (and finishing anywhere outside of the top spot or JUST behind Ron Paul would be embarrassing). Here’s another sign of increased confidence: Team Romney is up with a new 60-second TV ad, which is taken straight out his stump speech. And get this: The campaign has approximately 1,000 advertising points on the air in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines. That’s playing to win.

*** What we learned from our interview with Gingrich: We learned a few things when one of us interviewed Gingrich in Iowa yesterday. He said he needs to finish only in the top four in Iowa but then win South Carolina. “You have to be in top three or four,” Gingrich said. “This is so bunched and confused you could have 100 votes separating -- you've got to come out of here credible enough.” When asked if he needs to win Iowa or New Hampshire, he answered no. "You need to win South Carolina... [E]veryone who has won South Carolina has been the nominee. Every single one." He said -- honestly -- that no one would pick him as a VP choice. “I am too strong a personality. Would you want to be the presidential nominee with me as your vice presidential nominee?... I believe in very bold, very decisive change.” And he admitted that he maintains a relationship with his first wife. “With my first wife we have a relationship because we share two daughters and two grandchildren. I think it is very respectful on both sides.” His second wife? “We don’t have a relationship.”

*** Where have all the conservative voices gone? Here’s a question worth asking: Where are all the endorsements, especially from prominent conservatives? Has anyone heard a peep from Sarah Palin? What about Herman Cain? Mike Huckabee still hasn’t endorsed anyone. And neither has Sen. Jim DeMint. In fact, a DeMint spokesman tells First Read that the senator won’t be endorsing anyone, that DeMint announced it a month ago, and that it’s not changing. So at the very time when Romney appears like he’s close to clinching the GOP nomination -- and maybe in January -- some of the top conservative/Tea Party voices are remaining silent. We’ve come a LONG WAY since Palin crashed Romney’s June campaign announcement in New Hampshire and took a shot at his health-care law at Bunker Hill.

*** Kucinich vs. Kaptur: Lastly, we have ourselves a good Democratic House primary to watch next year. Yesterday, liberal Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) announced that he will primary Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D) after he lost his seat in redistricting. Kucinich had explored the possibility of trying to run for a seat in Washington state (which could end up hurting him in the Buckeye State), but he eventually decided on Kaptur’s seat. “Our campaign will focus on jobs and peace - supporting Ohioans and challenging Washington,” Kucinich said in an fundraising email yesterday.

Countdown to Iowa caucuses: 5 days
Countdown to New Hampshire primary: 12 days
Countdown to South Carolina primary: 23 days
Countdown to Florida primary: 33 days
Countdown to Nevada caucuses: 37 days
Countdown to Super Tuesday: 68 days
Countdown to Election Day: 315 days

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*** Thursday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: Much more of Gingrich's interview with NBC News… Politico's Mike Allen on his 2012 e-book "The Right Fights Back"… More 2012 headlines with the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus, National Journal's Reid Wilson and Democratic pollster Fred Yang.

*** Thursday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews RealClearPolitics’ Erin McPike, the Chicago Tribune’s Clarence Page, political scientist Allan Lichtman, MSNBC’s Richard Wolffe, Roll Call’s Christina Bellatoni, Politico’s Patrick Gavin, and Carson Daly.

*** Thursday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include The Nation’s Ari Melber, Brown University professor Wendy Schiller, Time’s Rana Foroohar, and the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart and Nia-Malika Henderson.

*** Thursday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews Romney campaign senior advisor Eric Fehrnstrom, Mayor R.T. Rybak from the DNC in Iowa, National Council on La Raza President Janet Murguia on the new Pew poll about Hispanic voters, Fortune Magazine’s David Whitford on “Romney Means Business” piece, Politico’s Charlie Mahtesian from Iowa, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, and NBC’s Chuck Todd.

GINGRICH: “Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says he was never a lobbyist. But three US representatives, including former New Hampshire Representative Jeb Bradley, have said Gingrich did in fact lobby them – whether he met the technical definition of a lobbyist or not,” the Boston Globe writes. “Bradley told the Globe that he remembers Gingrich, in 2003, advocating in favor of the legislation that created the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit before a group of around 10 members of Congress. ‘I think the average person would see it as lobbying plain and simple,’ Bradley said.”

More: Yesterday, “the Des Moines Register reported that US Representative Jeff Flake of Arizona and former Representative Butch Otter of Idaho said Gingrich lobbied them in 2003 to vote for the Medicare prescription drug benefit program.”

The founder of the pro-Newt Gingrich Strong America Now, whose super PAC ran negative ads against Mitt Romney last week, said he will be dropping similar mailers in South Carolina, National Journal reports. 

PAUL: “Republican presidential contender Ron Paul, largely dismissed both by the mainstream media and many in the general population, nonetheless has the endorsement of an invigorated core of supporters who may propel him to victory in the Iowa caucuses,” the Boston Globe writes.

The New York Times has this headline: “Marching Orders for Paul’s Volunteers: Do Shave, Don’t Tweet.” From the article: “Four years after young people flocked to the state to help propel the campaign of Barack Obama, this radically different movement is embracing a 76-year-old veteran Texas congressman who is drawing supporters for his libertarian and antiwar views. And they say they are under strict orders: To look, dress, shave, sound and behave in a way that will not jeopardize Mr. Paul’s chances.”

Jonathan Martin on the defection of state Sen. Kent Sorenson from Bachmann camp to Paul: “Sorenson's switch is a major boost to Paul's campaign, which has been dogged by criticism from establishment Republicans that his support here was largely among Democrats and independents."

Sorenson denied making the move for money, as the Bachmann camp charged. Instead he “suggested the GOP contest had become a two-man race and that he wanted to defeat Mitt Romney. ‘I adore Michele Bachmann, but the fact of the matter is I believe we have an opportunity to take Romney out here in Iowa and I believe that person is Ron Paul,’” he said, adding, “I love Michele, I love the Bachmann family, but I love this country, also." And: “Sorenson explained that Paul had campaigned for him in his state senate bid and that he had stayed in touch with the congressman's local supporters even after signing up with Bachmann. Those conversations intensified in the last few days, according to both Sorenson and Benton, but the Iowan said Paul's team didn't know until he showed up at the event that he had firmly decided to switch.”

ROMNEY: The Des Moines Register: “On Tuesday night, the Romney campaign will host a post-caucus party at the Hotel Fort Des Moines. The candidate will give remarks, and he and his wife and some of his five sons will mingle with supporters, Romney’s Iowa consultant David Kochel said. [Communications Director] Gitcho said: “He has always said that he was going to campaign in Iowa and he’s continued to build support there, so obviously Iowa is important to the campaign.” The next morning, the former governor will do press interviews before flying to New Hampshire, the next state on the voting calendar and a crucial contest for Romney.”

“Buoyed by internal polling and a CNN survey released Wednesday afternoon that showed Newt Gingrich falling to fourth place in Iowa, with Ron Paul in second and Rick Santorum climbing to third, Romney told reporters in a deli here that he couldn’t think of a reason why he won’t win the state,” Politico writes. “‘I can’t imagine, except that there are other good people running, and they’ve got good campaigns,’ he said. ‘I like the fact that my support is building and the momentum is positive, but I can’t tell you where it’s going to end up.’”

He went after Ron Paul yesterday: “One of the people running for president thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I don’t, I don’t trust ayatollahs ... I don’t trust those who back Hamas and Hezbollah.”

The Boston Globe: “Romney’s critique of Paul this morning, which came in response to a voter question, could indicate a shift in strategy for the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign.”

Romney also got Elizabeth Dole’s endorsement yesterday.

Steve Forbes, stumping for Rick Perry, said this of Romney: “His capital gains [tax policy] is almost weaker than [President] Obama’s because he fears he’ll be called a friend of the rich. Well, get over it, governor. You’re going to be portrayed as a friend of the rich no matter what you do.”

SANTORUM: Christian Heinze: “Santorum is finally getting the surge I never thought he'd get. And you know Mitt Romney is in a SERIOUSLY good position when his top two competitors are Ron Paul and Rick Santorum.”

“Four-star general-turned-CIA director David Petraeus almost resigned as Afghanistan war commander over President Barack Obama's decision to quickly draw down surge forces, according to a new insider's look at Petraeus' 37-year Army career,” AP writes. “Petraeus decided that resigning would be a ‘selfish, grandstanding move with huge political ramifications’ and that now was ‘time to salute and carry on,’ according to a forthcoming biography.” More: “The book also is peppered with Petraeus quotes that sound like olive branches meant to soothe Obama aides who feared Petraeus would challenge their boss for the White House.”

Political Wire: “In a hypothetical general election match-up against Mitt Romney, a new Pew Research poll finds President Obama wins the Latino vote by a 68% to 23% margin. These results are quite similar to the outcome of the 2008 presidential election, when Obama carried the Latino vote over Sen. John McCain by 67% to 31%.”

The New York Post: “One of the biggest and best-organized campaigns in Iowa doesn’t belong to any of the Republican presidential hopefuls — it’s President Obama’s. While the fight among Republican candidates has received all the attention, Obama’s re-election campaign has quietly put together a massive operation geared toward winning the Hawkeye State in the November general election. Obama also is running in the state’s Democratic caucus Tuesday night, the same night as the Republican contest, and the president will beam a live address to every caucus site.”

Elise Amendola / AP

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman speaks and shakes hands after a town hall in Pelham, N.H., Wednesday.

PELHAM N.H. -- On his first day back on the trail since Christmas, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman stepped far beyond the boundaries of his usually polite stump speech to repeatedly slam Ron Paul as "unelectable" because of "out there" views on foreign policy. Huntsman is the latest candidate to join an intensifying Republican crescendo of criticism of the Texas Congressman as the Iowa caucuses approach.

"He is not electable at the end of the day. Let's be real about it," Huntsman told more than 150 voters at a town hall meeting in southern New Hampshire. "I'm not an isolationist. I don't share the Ron Paul world view. I am a realist."

Paul currently commands a strong second place position in the lead up to the January 3 Iowa contest.

Huntsman dubbed Paul's positions on Iran and American military presence overseas as "out there enough" to be harmful to U.S. national security. With issues like Iran "on the ascent," Huntsman warned Iran would become the "transcendent foreign policy challenge of the decade."

Huntsman didn't stop there. "Things like legalizing drugs -- I just don't think this is a position that is going to sell well," Huntsman told reporters on Wednesday night. "I just don't think he's going to get enough mainstream support to win."

'Make the math work'
When asked by NBC News, Huntsman declined to say whether he would support Paul if he does indeed become GOP nominee, bristling at a hypothetical scenario. Front-runner Mitt Romney has committed to voting for Paul if the latter becomes the Republican party's choice. Gingrich has declared he would not support Paul over disagreement on foreign and domestic policies.

"I'm just making a case for electability," Huntsman said. "You know at the end of the day we've just got to win back some people who actually voted for Barack Obama, just to make the math work. So who at the end of the day is the most electable? I believe I'm the most electable candidate in the race right now."

However, current polls indicate Huntsman has a long uphill battle to win in New Hampshire. He placed a distant fourth place here, the state in which he has centered his campaign efforts. According to a poll by CNN and Time magazine published Wednesday, the former ambassador to China sits at 9 percent of likely Republican support while Romney leads with 44 percent, followed by Paul at 17 percent and Gingrich with 16 percent in the Granite State.

Huntsman -- who until Wednesday night rarely disagreed with his GOP opponents by name -- added that the recently-discovered controversial newsletters published under Paul's name in the 1990s also undercut his legitimacy as a candidate.

"You gotta own up to that history and ultimately he is going to have to explain that to the American people if he wants to get enough support to be a legitimate player," said Huntsman.

Paul recently responded to the newsletters, saying that he was not aware of the content at the time and disavowed the remarks inside his namesake publication.

When asked if Paul's explanation was adequate, Huntsman replied, "Not so far."

Huntsman's long game was also questioned tonight as he kicked off a packed campaign schedule that leads up to January 10 primary. When a voter asked Huntsman about his failure to collect enough signatures to appear on the Virginia primary ballot, he brushed it off.

"I'm not too bothered about that," Huntsman said. "Our philosophy has always been, if we come out of New Hampshire with a head of steam, we're going to well in South Carolina, we're going to do well in Florida, in which case you're going to get the early delegate states who are going to want to be with the most electable candidate."

Updated at 10:12 p.m.

One of the most prominent Iowa supporters of Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign jumped ship late Wednesday, announcing just days before the state's Jan. 3 caucus that he would instead back Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, one of three Iowa co-chairmen for Bachmann's campaign, made an appearance at a Veterans for Ron Paul event this evening where he endorsed the Texas congressman in Tuesday's caucuses.

Sorenson, in a statement distributed by Paul's campaign, said he had "an immense amount of respect" for Bachmann, but had essentially judged her to have fallen out of contention in the caucuses.

"I believe we have a clear choice here in Iowa and, I believe, across the country," he told NBC News in an interview after the event.
"All the recent polling is showing that Ron is in a neck and neck race with Mitt Romney.  I believe that we have a real opportunity to elect a constitutional conservative."

Sorenson further characterized his decision as a "spur-of-the-moment" one.

Bachmann accused Sorenson of being a sell-out in a statement released Wednesday evening.

"Kent Sorenson personally told me he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the Paul campaign," she said, accusing Paul of trying to stymie her campaign's momentum. "Kent said to me yesterday that 'everyone sells out in Iowa, why shouldn't I,' then he told me he would stay with our campaign. The Ron Paul campaign has to answer for its actions."

In a follow-up interview, Sorenson categorically denied having received any offer of compensation by Paul's campaign.

"Listen, that's absurd. Like I said before, people on this campaign supported me in my race. They worked tirelessly for me. They stuffed envelopes, they door knocked for me," he said. "I feel like I'm coming home to them."

While he hasn't been particularly busy on the campaign trail for the Minnesota congresswoman, Sorenson was missing from a Bachmann campaign stop this afternoon in Osceola, Iowa; he told NBC News at a subsequent event in Indianola that he hadn't been on the Bachmann trail earlier today because he was having a root canal. Both events preceded his appearance this evening with Paul.

The defection carries a degree of symbolic importance, however. Sorenson was one of the first people to join the Bachmann campaign outside of her DC and Minnesota staff. In fact, even before Bachmann made the final decision to get in the race, he was urging her to run. Sorenson was also involved when Bachmann's closest political advisers from Minnesota and D.C. bolted the campaign, saying they disagreed on Iowa strategy.

The news came after a new CNN/TIME poll released Wednesday showed Bachmann in last place, at nine percent among Republican likely caucus-goers, among Republicans actively competing in the Jan. 3 contest. Paul, by contrast, trailed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by just three points -- good enough for second place, and within the poll's margin of error.