HAMPSTEAD NH—Over the past week, Jon Huntsman has said he needs a “market moving event” to perform well in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. Today might have been his exactly what he was hoping for.
Throughout the day, the self-ascribed underdog Huntsman has turned an attack by Mitt Romney into an opportunities to hit back, expressing exactly how he feels about the front-runner.

At this morning’s Meet the Press/Facebook debate, Huntsman opened with a reference to an attack from Romney at another GOP debate last night, in which the former Massachusetts governor criticized Huntsman for
serving as Obama’s ambassador to China.

"I was criticized last night by Gov. Romney for putting my country first," Huntsman said this morning on the debate stage in Concord. "He criticized me, while he was out raising money, for serving my country in China, like my two sons who are in the United States Navy … I will always put my country first. I think that's important.”

Later this afternoon, at a coffee shop miles away from the stage, Huntsman was asked if he felt that he “found his voice.”

Clad in his signature bomber jacket emblazoned with “Governor Huntsman” and an American flag, Huntsman did not politely steer away from attacking his rival as he is wont to do. For once, he capitalized on the attack and fired back.

“Let's just be honest about it. I put my country first. Apparently, Mitt Romney doesn't believe in putting country first,” Huntsman told
reporters. “He's got this bumper sticker that says ‘believe in America.’ How can you believe in America when you're not willing to
serve America? That's just phony nonsense.”

Referring to Romney’s ubiquitous blue bumper stickers and signs that far outnumber his red counterparts along New Hampshire roads, Huntsman explained a position he and his wife Mary Kaye have articulated ad nauseam at more than 160 public events across the state.

“I say I served my country, I step up when my president asked and I always will, its part of my philosophy. I know it may be hard for Mitt Romney and some people to take, but most of America is with me because in the end they want this America to be working together.”

With just over 36 hours hours to go until voting begins in the first-in-nation primary, Huntsman declared he will continue to make his case to voters until the final hour. He has told reporters he doesn’t have to come in first, but only needs to “beat market expectations.” With polls ticking up for him in recent days, Huntsman is optimistic that his decision to focus his entire campaign in the Granite State will propel him to the next stop, South Carolina.

"We're going to barnstorm this state as we have been doing for months, more so than any other candidate," Huntsman said. "We're going to remind people that the underdog is out there, the underdog that can change this country. But in order for the underdog to perform at the top, we need the help of the people."

CONCORD, NH -- GOP presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman today strongly objected to a video made by an apparent Ron Paul supporter about his two adopted daughters and his ability to speak Mandarin Chinese.

"It's just stupid," he told a group of college students today. "If someone wants to poke fun at me for speaking Chinese, that's okay. What I object to is bringing forward pictures and videos of my adopted daughters, suggesting that there is some sinister motive there."

Huntsman went onto describe how 12-year-old Gracie, who often appears on the campaign trail at his side, was found in a vegetable market in China and taken to an orphanage, from which Huntsman and his wife Mary Kaye adopted her. At campaign stops throughout New Hampshire, Huntsman often playfully introduces Gracie his "senior foreign policy adviser."

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The video, posted by a user named NHLiberty4Paul on YouTube, questions Huntsman's American values and calls him a "Manchurian candidate," before showing Huntsman with a Mao Zedong suit super imposed on his likeness. The video also features images of him with his adopted daughters Gracie Mei and Asha, who were born in China and India, respectively.

Yesterday, Huntsman's campaign spokesman Tim Miller condemned the video as "offensive" and called on Ron Paul and the people who created the video to apologize to the Huntsman family.

The Paul campaign immediately responded and called the video "utterly distasteful."

"Anyone who would post something like this is clearly not a supporter of Dr. Paul's principles," said Kate Schackai, Paul's New Hampshire media coordinator.

The user did not immediately respond with comment, and NBC News has not yet been able to confirm if NHLiberty4Paul is indeed a Paul supporter.

When asked whether Paul himself should apologize, Huntsman told reporters, "If the group is in any way affiliated with his organization of course he should. It's just political campaign nonsense. It happens from time to time."

But ever the diplomat, Huntsman steered the conversation to a larger lesson, telling his college-aged audience that Gracie and Asha are "a daily reminder that there are a lot of kids in this world who don't have the breaks that you do and who face a very, very uncertain future that lacks health care that lacks the ability to dream and plan and any sense of upward mobility."

"Now these two girls are on the presidential campaign trail," Huntsman said. "I say, how cool is that?"

Huntsman's oldest three daughters have been particularly active on Twitter, campaigning for their dad as the @Jon2012girls.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- With just five days to go until the New Hampshire primary, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman's most threatening opponent may not be Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum, but Father Time.

"We've got the tyranny of the clock moving against us now. And we're moving as quickly as we can," he said in Portsmouth today, citing his late entry into the race this summer.

Huntsman, who finished serving as Barack Obama's ambassador to China in May, has campaigned aggressively in New Hampshire and skipped Iowa over the past six months. However, with less than a week to go, he remains stuck in high single digits in state polls.

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With time running out, Huntsman admits he needs a "market moving event" to keep his candidacy alive. Consequently, he has ratcheted up his attacks on front-runner Romney, after criticizing the former Massachusetts governor as an "establishment" and "status quo" candidate for the last week.

"The people of New Hampshire will not be told for whom to vote," Huntsman told an audience of about 300 tonight in Newport. "They want people to earn their vote, as opposed to sitting down in South Carolina, so certain of victory."

Huntsman was referring to Romney's Thursday trip to South Carolina, where he will campaign before returning to New Hampshire Friday afternoon.

The former ambassador to China added that Romney is resting on his laurels as he enjoys a wide lead in New Hampshire polls. By spending time outside of the first-in-the-nation state, Huntsman said, "That would pretty much suggest that you feel you've got it wrapped up and that would be taking the voters for granted."

Meanwhile, Huntsman is searching for every last vote he can find in a style that resembles Rick Santorum's town-by-town Iowa campaign.

 "I need your vote," he routinely bellows into the microphone at town hall meetings.

Huntsman hopes his handshake-by-handshake method will pay off. Santorum's near win in Iowa, he said, proved that "grassroots politicking still means something."

"You can't Twitter your way to prosperity. You can't Facebook your way to prosperity. You have to be in the state," Huntsman said today.

One voter in Portsmouth pointed out to Huntsman today that his long-shot campaign for the GOP nomination resembles a David versus Goliath effort, with Romney as Goliath. Huntsman agreed, then paused and tried to add a positive spin: "New Hampshire loves an underdog!" he said hopefully.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The daughters of two presidential candidates – Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman – made appeals on behalf of their fathers to a Republican women’s club here tonight, one damning her father’s opponents with faint praise, the others making an electability argument for their dad.

Addressing about 30 members of the Capital City Republican Women’s Club, Jackie Gingrich Cushman, Gingrich’s daughter with his first wife, first said Rick Santorum, who finished a close second in the Iowa caucus, is a “great guy” and seemed to praise his Congressional record.

“If you remember with the debates,” she said, “he’d mention that he did welfare reform… under Newt Gingrich. And then he did something else… under Newt Gingrich,” she said.

She also seemed to commiserate with the Santorum campaign, saying that the newly high-flying candidate would be bombarded with negative ads just like Gingrich was in Iowa. But, she added, her father was able to weather those attacks, and would be able to handle the general election onslaught.

“People say, ‘can Newt Gingrich survive a billion dollars from the Obama campaign?’ The answer is absolutely yes. He can survive it and he’s been through it in Iowa.”

Santorum was not the only object/target of Cushman’s praise/criticism, as she also took on Rick Perry and Mitt Romney.

“[Perry’s] a great guy, he’s done very well in Texas, he’s a very good governor of Texas. But Texas is different from a national scene,” she said. “A part-time Texas legislature is very different than having full-time people in Washington that are determined to stay there and do what they do best. It is a different world.”

As her father has in the past, Cushman called Romney a “great businessman.”

“Anyone can tell you he’s a great businessman. He is. I’m just not sure we need to send the best businessman to Washington to manage something.”

Cushman ended her speech with a personal story about her father, talking about how, as a boy, he rescued his dog Pride from under the cracked ice of a frozen pond in Pennsylvania. In the process, Cushman said, he fell under the ice himself.

“He’s literally under the ice. And he said that’s when he learned in his life not to panic. Because he knew if he panicked, he would die,” she said.

Cushman said the story accomplished two goals: “I think it shows you that he doesn’t panic. And I think you see that as he progresses in this campaign. The other reason is because I think it shows you a window into who he is as a person.”

“That he is a man who would risk his life to save his dog,” she continued.

Jon Huntsman’s daughters Mary Anne and Liddy – two thirds of the “Jon 2012 Girls,” addressed the 20 women who remained in the room after Cushman left.

As she re-introduced herself and her sister (the two spoke to the club over the summer), Mary Anne Huntsman referenced their popularity on YouTube, saying, “we’ve made a couple of videos, maybe you’ve seen them,” as the women chuckled.

Liddy Huntsman called her father the “modern candidate” who would restore a sense of trust that she said has been lost during the Obama administration.

“I think our generation, we were promised hope and change four years ago,” she said. “The fact that we’re being handed down a country that is less good, less confident, is unacceptable.”

Mary Anne touted what she characterized as her father’s ability to go toe-to-toe with President Obama, for whom Huntsman worked as ambassador to China.

“Another huge thing in electing a candidate is the electability factor. We need someone who can really go against Barack Obama,” she said.

MANCHESTER, NH -- As the saying goes, better late than never?

With less than one week to go before New Hampshire votes, Jon Huntsman's campaign has announced he has raised enough money to air his first TV ad on the state's largest television station, thanks to a special fundraising effort along with a major personal contribution by Huntsman himself.

Spokesman Tim Miller told NBC News that the ad will go up "in a day or two" on WMUR, New Hampshire's largest television station. The 30-second advertisement, entitled "Only One," calls Huntsman a "consistent conservative" and runs through Huntsman's resume and hits on what has become his closing argument: the "trust and economic deficits."

"The ad will drive home a message Gov. Huntsman is uniquely qualified to deliver to New Hampshire voters about closing our economic deficit, creating jobs and restoring trust in Washington," Miller said on Wednesday.

Huntsman's inaugural ad will hit the airwaves just as the campaign spotlight shifts to New Hampshire from Iowa, which Huntsman skipped.

The ad is only possible thanks to a targeted online appeal for contributions to get Huntsman on the air starting late last week, coupled with Huntsman's own wealth. Two days after fundraising started, Huntsman and his wife Mary Kaye decided to inject personal cash into campaign in the ninth hour.

As of this writing, the campaign had raised $88,115 from donors alone, according to its website. Most of this will be matched by Huntsman, though the campaign could not yet confirm exactly how much will be matched by the candidate and how much was raised before his pledge to match.

When the ad makes it on the air, it will be the fourth spot featuring Huntsman to go up here. Three pro-Huntsman ads from Our Destiny PAC, a super PAC supporting his candidacy, have aired in New Hampshire over the past several months.

Our Destiny, according to NBC's ad-tracking numbers, has spent $1.8 million in New Hampshire -- more than any other campaign or political action committee. That's followed by Ron Paul at $1.5 million, Mitt Romney at $1 million, and Rick Perry at $230,000.

PITTSFIELD, NH -- Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman had this reaction to the news that John McCain -- whom Huntsman endorsed four years ago -- was backing Mitt Romney today in New Hampshire:

Nobody cares.

"I have great regard for Sen. McCain. I love the man. But it's another example of establishment piling on," Huntsman told reporters at Globe Incorporated, a first-responder fire suit manufacturer today.

"It seems the more establishment piles on, Dole, McCain, all the rest, nobody cares. Nobody cares about this. I mean, none of the endorsements that Romney picked up have been a thing in terms of how people respond, because the people are looking for a new generation of leadership. They're looking for a new approach to problem solving in this country. You can get all the Doles and McCains in the world as Romney probably will, but in the end, nobody cares."

Last night, Huntsman -- who has focused his entire campaign here and skipped Iowa -- had the same message for the eventual winner of the Iowa caucuses, Rick Santorum Mitt Romney: "Welcome to New Hampshire. Nobody cares."

LEBANON, N.H. -- In his final twenty four hours before the rest of the GOP pack descends upon his temporary home, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman has one thing to say to his incoming GOP rivals: "Welcome to New Hampshire."

While the rest of the field awaits Iowa's decision, Huntsman is hoping his fortunes will mirror what Rick Santorum has experienced Iowa.

"He's had good momentum in Iowa and that's a tribute to his grassroots work,” Huntsman said of Santorum last night. “We've done the same grassroots work here in New Hampshire."

“I feel a little surge, a little renaissance,” Huntsman added, speaking to more than 120 voters last night in Dover. Just a month ago, in the same venue, he attracted only 30 people in a small classroom.

It is true: things in New Hampshire have turned up ever-so-slightly for Huntsman. Like Santorum, Huntsman’s audiences have swelled to the low triple digits. In the latest Suffolk/7News New Hampshire poll, he has hopped to third, above Newt Gingrich, but behind Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

But with a week to go, is it too little too late?

Because he is appealing to a large group of undeclared voters in New Hampshire, it is hard to project exactly what will happen.

Huntsman routinely says he is looking for the support of Republicans, independents and even Democrats. But at the end of the day, the former ambassador to China knows time is running out, so he has deployed two new strategies he hopes will get him what he calls “a ticket out” to South Carolina.

That strategy involves sharpening attacks on Romney. With just seven days left, Huntsman is relatively aggressive, capitalizing on the “anyone but Mitt Romney” sentiment seen in some pockets of New Hampshire. Yesterday, he implored voters to question Romney as an “establishment” candidate.

He draws a contrast with the other Mormon, former governor in the race, saying it is "pretty simple."

"I can get elected," Huntsman told reporters at the Dartmouth Medical Center today. "People want to know your core and they want to make sure you have a  consistent predictable core. I haven't been on three sides of all the issues."

Huntsman keeps saying he does not think voters are looking for a Romney "coronation." 

“You can do what the establishment wants you to do,” Huntsman offered in in Dover last night, holding the microphone close.

“You’ve got a good candidate in Mitt Romney. He’s a good guy. I respect him. But you know what, if you have 47 members of Congress supporting you, as he just announced today, you think you’re going to be to do what needs to be done in terms of reforming Congress? No how, no way. You think if you’re the largest recipient of donations from Wall Street you’re going to be able to take care of the banking problem and address too big too fail?No how, no way.”

Words aside, Huntsman has also decided to inject more of his personal wealth into campaign in the ninth hour. In an email with his wife Mary Kaye to supporters three days ago, Huntsman promised to match all donations “dollar for dollar” to help get their own thirty-second advertisement on the New Hampshire airwaves. 

Why put in cash now? 

“To stimulate a little more giving over a short period of time,” he explains. As of Tuesday afternoon, the campaign had raised more than $61,000 on their way to their $100,000 goal.

If the ad makes it on the air, it will be the fourth spot featuring Huntsman to go up here. Three pro-Huntsman ads from Our Destiny PAC, a super PAC working on his behalf, have gone up in New Hampshire over the past several months, though none have seemed to move his numbers in the polls.

FRANKLIN, N.H. -- While the rest of the pack campaigns in Iowa, here in New Hampshire Jon Huntsman is playing the electability card aggressively, calling himself the only viable alternative to Mitt Romney. Today, the former Utah governor who is skipping Iowa said that while Iowa is key in "winnowing down" the Republican field, he believes the New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary will determine the candidates' electability in a race against an "establishment" candidate.

"Electability is not going to come out of Iowa, it is going to come out of New Hampshire," Huntsman told voters in Franklin, referring to his 6 rivals campaigning in Iowa this weekend. "Electability is what people are going to be looking for in South Carolina and in Florida."

"I think there's a natural winnowing out process that takes place in Iowa," he added earlier in Derry. "There will be an outcome and that outcome will be quickly forgotten and then you have New Hampshire."

Huntsman argues that New Hampshire "will set the standard going forward." As he tries to downplay his absence from the Iowa caucuses, he added that he believes the Jan. 3 results will be forgotten "within a day or two."

It is an ideal but unlikely scenario for Huntsman, regardless of which GOP candidate walks away with the Iowa win on Tuesday. Despite the fact he has invested everything in New Hampshire, he has trailed front-runner Mitt Romney by double digits in state-wide polls since he got into the race last spring.

However, the wide gap has not stopped Huntsman from painting the New Hampshire contest as a two-man race. The former ambassador to China has targeted the lion's share of his attacks on Romney, calling him a "serial flip flopper" and predicting he would be an "status quo" president."

"You want Romney? Everybody wants an alternative," Huntsman said. "Let's face it, they want competition in the marketplace. And they are still looking for that key alternative."

Huntsman took every opportunity to draw clear distinctions between himself and the former Massachusetts governor.

"We are two different people. How can you bring change to Congress and capitol hill when you have half of congress supporting you?" Huntsman said in Franklin today, referring to a long list of prominent endorsements Romney has received. "No way, no how."

Huntsman has received almost no national-level endorsements except for former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge.

Yet at the same time, the candidate's campaign staff also seem threatened by Ron Paul. Starting last week, the campaign have put out a series of direct attacks on Paul, who also tops Huntsman in the polls in New Hampshire. Huntsman has called the libertarian-minded Paul "unelectable" and his foreign policy untenable to audiences across New Hampshire. And last night shortly after midnight, the campaign unveiled a new Twilight Zone-themed web video that features controversial statements by the Texas representative.

When asked about the new spot today in Derry, Huntsman tried to play down Paul's role as his competition.

"You have to compare and contrast with the leading candidates in the race here in New Hampshire," he told reporters. "It's only natural and that's what people expect. That's how people can better understand you and your message."

He quickly pivoted back to the electability factor.

"But I don't believe Ron Paul can go on and win the general election," Huntsman said. "I don't believe he can put together enough mainstream support to be successful in the general election and that's increasingly the question people I think need to ask."

EXETER, NH -- As Jon Huntsman campaigns in New Hampshire for votes one handshake at a time, the pro-Huntsman Super PAC Our Destiny has purchased $218,000 of air time in the Granite State labeling Mitt Romney a "chameleon."

It is the first TV ad of the cycle to single out and criticize Romney, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination.

The ad, which will appear in both New Hampshire and the greater Boston area, attempts to paint a narrative that Huntsman and Romney are the "two serious candidates" left in the race.

"Two serious candidates remain. One willing to say anything; be anything. One who can actually do the job," the narrator says in the ad. "Stop the chameleon, vote Jon Huntsman."

The new spot coincidentally aligns with Huntsman's new -- and more aggressive -- verbal jabs at both Romney and Ron Paul in the past two weeks.

Last night in Wolfeboro -- the New Hampshire town where Romney owns a vacation home -- Huntsman called Romney "establishment." Two weeks ago, he also named the former Massachusetts governor a "serial flip-flopper."
 
"You know the establishment wants to tell you that we've already got somebody chosen in Gov. Romney. I say nonsense," Huntsman bellowed to an audience of more than 200 last night in what is considered Romney country. "The last thing this country needs is a status quo president at a time when change is so desperately required."

In the past, Huntsman has told NBC News he is grateful for any outside support. Operating on a shoe-string budget with little fundraising, Huntsman consolidated his campaign from a multi-state strategy to just New Hampshire this fall.

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."