John Makely / msnbc.com

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman makes a campaign stop in Concord New Hampshire on Monday, January 9, 2012, in Concord N.H.

NASHUA, N.H. – Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is hoping he experiences the Santorum effect here in New Hampshire. 

Huntsman has done the Granite State the "traditional" way, concentrating his campaign on winning Tuesday's first-in-the-nation primary, and seeking votes one handshake and kissed baby at a time.

His efforts might finally be paying off. After failing for months to gain much momentum, there are signs voters are moving towards Huntsman, a shift driven by his strong weekend debate performances, a looming primary deadline and undecided voters who are breaking his way late.

Recommended: Voters head to the polls in N.H.

“I’ve done my due diligence on the GOP candidates, and his policies really resonate with me,” said Barbara Morris of Concord, N.H., who said she only settled on voting for Huntsman in the past few weeks.

Morris is just one of the voters in Tuesday’s primary who decided recently for Huntsman. His performance Sunday at the NBC News-Facebook debate on Meet the Press, during which Huntsman forcefully answered criticism of his service as President Obama’s ambassador to China, appears to have driven some undecided voters in his direction. That line of criticism came from Mitt Romney, the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, and the leader in polling of today’s primary.

“I listened to the Sunday debate – it was the first once I had listened to – and I was very impressed by his responses for most of the debate,” explained Erin Crowley, of Bedford, who attended Huntsman’s stop in Nashua late Monday afternoon.

Recommended: The road ahead looks favorable for Romney

Huntsman supporters cite his temperament and somewhat centrist tone as a reason to vote for the former Utah governor. But they also point to his service as an ambassador – both for Obama and in both Bush administrations – as giving him the kind of foreign policy credentials no other candidate has.

“He’s an American first, because he participated in the Obama administration, and served over in China,” said Marian Towle of Henniker, N.H., where Huntsman stopped on Monday as part of a seven-stop barnstorm of the Granite State. “I like that he’s an American first, and a conservative Republican second.”

Adam Hunger / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman gestures during a town hall meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire January 9, 2012.

Huntsman also has a degree of crossover appeal – one of the reasons why Democrats had expressed initial misgivings about what a Huntsman candidacy would do for Obama’s re-election prospects.

“When I post on about Facebook about Jon Huntsman, my liberal friends are like, ‘Yeah, you know, Huntsman’s the only candidate who’s not completely crazy!’” said Sarah Neville, a New Hampshire native on break from Tufts University, and who’s spending part of her break volunteering for Huntsman. “And that’s basically why I support him, because the other ones are just so far out there.”

Other New Hampshireites cite Huntsman’s dedication to the state for his late surge here. While Huntsman had never been expected to compete for Iowa, he had an initial strategy that focused on New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida – a strategy that was scaled back eventually over the course of the summer to focus only on winning this first primary.

While his efforts have experienced some setbacks, Huntsman appears to have rebounded to a degree. The final Suffolk University tracking poll of the primary showed Huntsman up to third, at 16 percent, and just behind Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who ranks second, at 18 percent.

The campaign here is, in many ways, a race for second since Romney (at 37 percent in the Suffolk poll) seems to enjoy a healthy lead. Huntsman supporters don’t necessarily expect him to beat Romney, but said they’re hoping for a strong enough finish to catapult him out of the state.

“If he finishes second, he’ll be able to attract money and go to South Carolina,” said Bill Mauser, another late-decider for Huntsman, yesterday in Nashua. “If he gets more than 20 percent, that’s a big deal.”

There are also signs that Romney’s lead is weakening. A few voters made reference to Romney’s work at Bain Capital – the subject of tremendous scrutiny for the campaign’s frontrunner – over the last few days as a reason they were turned off to the former Massachusetts governor.

“I think people are starting to read things about Romney and his record – like that thing, the pink slip?” said Ann Willis of Amherst, N.H. “Those kind of comments? I said how far out of touch is he with people with real economic concerns?”

Nonetheless, expectations for Huntsman among his supporters seem pretty clear.

“I would say top three gives him momentum,” said Jim Waddel, a state representative who supports Huntsman, at Monday’s Concord rally. “I would say something in the 20 percent range is going to give him some momentum.”

But some supporters, like Nashua’s Larry Stubbs, have their misgivings.

“I do realize that people have the first vote have the advantage of identifying the key candidates,” speaking about the intense effort Huntsman’s put on New Hampshire. “Hopefully he’s got some strategy for picking up some other states really quick.”

But maybe best of all for Huntsman would be a surprise victory, an unlikely if not impossible scenario given the number of independent voters who could participate in today’s election.

“Most of the independents haven’t decided yet, and I think when it comes down to it, they will vote with their heart and their country in mind,” said Epsom’s John Grant, a supporter of Huntsman’s who thinks the former Utah governor can win today.

Sargent First Class Jon F. Worrall was retired from the U.S. Army after an IED exploded six feet away from the Humvee he was driving north of Baghdad in January of 2005. Eleven surgeries later and diagnosed with PTSD and a non-penetrating Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) he now counsels young soldiers returning with similar injuries under the Soldiers Helping Soldiers program.

Worrall would like whichever candidate is elected as the next President to address the issue of retirement and VA disability payments to the young soldiers who suffer TBI and other disabilities. While Worrall has worked for years and has a 401k and his Army retirement, younger soldiers are left with retirements as low as $125 per month and will have a hard time starting a career after suffering a traumatic brain injury.

NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell hosts an all-political hour from 1 p.m. ET to 2 p.m. ET weekdays on MSNBC. Join us to chat with her live at 2:15 p.m. ET.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, former Sen. Rick Santorum, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and Rep. Ron Paul, gather on the stage prior to the NBC News- Facebook Debate on 'Meet the Press' Jan. 8, 2012.

Updated at 10:40 a.m. ET

CONCORD, N.H. -- The second debate in 12 hours for the six GOP presidential hopefuls was book-ended by moments of scrutiny for Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and prohibitive favorite to win New Hampshire's Tuesday primary.

Mitt Romney found himself under fire from conservative detractors in the opening and closing moments of an NBC News-Facebook debate, broadcast on "Meet the Press" Sunday morning. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum led the charge against Romney, questioning just how conservative of a nominee he would be for Republicans.

The heat on Romney fizzled during the middle of the portion of the debate before re-emerging toward the end, when Romney and Gingrich did public battle over the negative ads run by various super PACs in Iowa and New Hampshire, which have affected the trajectory of the GOP campaign.

The scrutiny represented a last effort by the other five Republican presidential candidates to draw contrasts with Romney with just 48 hours to go until Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.

VOTE NOW: Did the NBC News-Facebook debate change your pick for president?

"If his record was so great as governor of Massachusetts, why didn't he run for re-election?" asked Santorum, who battled Romney to a virtual draw at last Tuesday's Iowa caucus. "If it was that great, why did you bail out?"

But Romney kept the focus on his own record and eschewed attacking candidates, especially Santorum and Gingrich, who are expected to pose little threat to his strong lead in advance of the primary.

"I'm very proud of my record and I think the one thing you can't fool the people of New Hampshire about is the record of a governor next door," Romney said in response to the pile-on, largely avoiding making direct attacks against his detractors.

At one point, though, when Santorum interrupted him, Romney snipped: "Rick, it's still my time."

The attacks on Romney were an element largely absent from another GOP debate Saturday night in Manchester. The rest of the Republican field is looking to draw distinctions with Romney in the remaining 48 hours before the New Hampshire primary, in which, according to polls, Romney is leading.

We live-tweeted the NBC News/Facebook debate – check out what was said

Gingrich, who had vowed to draw more stark contrasts with Romney in New Hampshire after having been assailed by ads in Iowa run by a pro-Romney super PAC, voiced criticisms of Romney similar to the ones he'd voiced while barnstorming through the Granite State this week.

"I think that a bold Reagan conservative, with a very strong economic plan, is a lot more likely to succeed in that campaign than a relatively timid, Massachusetts moderate who even the Wall Street Journal said had an economic plan so timid it resembled Obama," Gingrich said.

But the former speaker also said that he didn't think that Romney was unelectable -- backing off from the language contained in a flier distributed by the Gingrich campaign calling Romney "not electable."

Gingrich and Romney sparred again in the waning moments of the debate, in which Romney said he hoped a super PAC spending on his behalf would delete any inaccurate material from its ads about Gingrich. Those ads were particularly effective in diminishing the former speaker's support in Iowa. But Romney said the criticism of Gingrich contained in the Restore Our Future ads were largely accurate.

Special weekend First Thoughts: Rivals pile on Romney

"I'm glad, finally, on this stage, weeks later he has said, 'Gee, if they're wrong, they should take them down,'" said Gingrich, who's complained vocally about the ads.

The gathering featured a number of secondary storylines, particularly former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman's bid to gain traction in New Hampshire, and the bickering between Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Huntsman sought to make a final pitch to voters in New Hampshire, where he has concentrated his campaign on winning Tuesday's primary, but has stuggled to gain traction in the polls. He defended his service as ambassador to China for President Barack Obama, but also emphasized his fiscal plans as most in-line with conservative principles.

"The American people are tired of the partisan division. They have had enough," he said, making a pitch to independent voters. "And I say, we've had enough, and we have to change our direction in terms of coming together as Americans first and foremost and finding solutions to our problems."

And in one of the morning's undercard battles, Santorum and Paul sparred over the libertarian congressman's scant record of legislative accomplishments, and Paul's foreign policy favoring more limited international involvement.

"The problem with Congressman Paul is that all the things Republicans like about him he can't accomplish, and all the things they don't want him to do, he can do day one," Santorum said.

Paul has drawn boisterous crowds in just a handful of rallies here in New Hampshire. But he ranks second, at 22 percent, in this week's NBC News-Marist poll of likely GOP primary voters in the state.

He defended his legislative record as evidence that it's Congress that's out-of-touch.

"That demonstrates how out of touch the U.S. government and the U.S. Congress is with the American people," he said.

The gathering represented another chance for candidates to draw contrasts with each other after a Saturday night debate did little to alter the trajectory of the campaign. Romney went relatively unscathed in that outing.

New Hampshire voters head to the polls on Tuesday to vote in the nation's first primary of the 2012 cycle, and the second nominating contest following last Tuesday's Iowa caucus. Romney battled Rick Santorum to a virtual draw in the Hawkeye State, earning an 8-vote victory over the former Pennsylvania senator.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Republican presidential hopefuls will have a renewed opportunity to draw contrasts with each other in their second of two debates in a 12-hour span on Sunday morning.

A Saturday night debate in Manchester yielded few defining moments, and did little to add new scrutiny that had been expected of Mitt Romney, the frontrunner in the Granite State's primary on Tuesday.

The rest of the GOP field will have their second -- and last -- chance to draw those contrasts with Romney at the NBC News-Facebook debate on Sunday morning in Concord, N.H. The debate will be broadcast on "Meet the Press" at 9 a.m. ET, and viewers can share their thoughts here in the last few hours before the debate begins.

It all leaves the Sunday morning debate as the final opportunity, with just two days until the New Hampshire primary, for candidates who had been positioning themselves as the prime alternative to Romney to make that case to voters.

Most notably, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who had promised to take a new, aggressive tack against Romney and had barnstormed New Hampshire this week voicing that type of rhetoric, largely pulled his punches on the former Massachusetts governor.

That came in defiance of expectations Gingrich's campaign had built going into the debate, having circulated a research memo on Romney's tax record.

Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum -- who battled Romney to a virtual draw in last week's Iowa caucuses -- offered relatively tepid criticisms of Romney about three quarters of the way through the debate, but had otherwise held off heavy criticism of Romney.

"I do think there's a difference between a bold Reagan conservative model and a more establishment model that is a little more cautious about taking the kind of changes we need," Gingrich said in comparing his jobs plan against the former Massachusetts governor's.

"I don't think Governor Romney's plan is particularly bold, or is particularly focused on where the problems are in this country," Santorum said.

Share your thoughts for Sunday's NBC News/Facebook debate on Meet the Press

Romney leads in the battle to win Tuesday's election in New Hampshire, the first primary of the 2012 cycle, and the second nominating contest after Iowa's caucuses. He's worked to build the state into a kind of firewall for his campaign, and recent polling reflects his frontrunner status here.

Forty-two percent of likely Republican primary voters intend to vote for Romney, according to an NBC News-Marist poll released Friday evening. Twenty-two percent prefer Texas Rep. Ron Paul, followed by Santorum at 13 percent, Gingrich at 9 percent and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman at 9 percent.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who's elected to skip the New Hampshire primary to focus on the next primary in South Carolina on Jan. 21, polls at one percent in New Hampshire. (In one of the debate's most newsworthy moments, Perry said he would favor sending troops back into Iraq.)

Candidates continue later this month from South Carolina onto Florida, which hosts its primary on Jan. 31.

John Makely / msnbc.com

New Hampshire voters turn out in Meredith, N.H., to meet Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich at a Tea Party Town Hall event.

MEREDITH and LEBANON, N.H. - Newt Gingrich is working in New Hampshire to overcome voters' doubts about the viability of his campaign after his tumble from frontrunner status to fourth place finisher in the Iowa caucuses.

After having been pummeled by negative ads run by Restore Our Future, the super PAC working in favor of Mitt Romney, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s campaign, Gingrich finished at just over 13 percent among caucus-goers Tuesday night.

“He wasn’t strong enough and hard enough toward other candidates. You can’t be nice in politics; dirty politics works,” said Ray Vaillancourt, an undecided Granite State voter considering Gingrich. “I think it’s too late. He’s going to have to convince me tonight so that I feel stronger about his potential.”

“I think he’s got an uphill struggle ahead of him,” added Roy Sanvorn, who was with Vaillancourt on Thursday night in Meredith, N.H.

Ann Chiampa, a supporter of the former House speaker in attendance at that event, blamed “smear tactics” from Romney allies for Gingrich’s troubles.

“The attack ads certainly are working,” she said, bemoaning the way Restore Our Future has been able to drop millions into the presidential campaign. But Chiampa said she hopes Gingrich fights back (“Just retaliate, only verbally,” she explained.)

Send in your questions for Sunday's NBC News-Facebook debate on Meet the Press

One full-time working nurse who hopes to retire soon and was in attendance, declined to give her name, but said she was undecided before Tuesday's primary, adding that she was disinclined to vote for Gingrich after viewing the ads.

She said they were entirely fair to the former speaker. “The baggage, I’m not thrilled about,” she said.

It’s a delicate balance Gingrich must strike in order to keep his campaign viable through the New Hampshire primary.

A Suffolk University tracking poll of the race found that 9 percent of likely primary voters on Tuesday would back Gingrich. That puts him in fourth place, and just one point ahead of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.

After having vowed to only stay positive, Gingrich pivoted after Iowa to launch fresh attacks against Romney in New Hampshire, the firewall for the campaign of the former Massachusetts governor. Romney leads big here, but Gingrich is hoping his criticism of Romney – labeling him a “Massachusetts moderate,” for starters – will add some tarnish to the frontrunner.

It seems that Gingrich risks backlash from some voters after his decision to go negative against Romney. (The candidate himself and his aides insist that he’s not going negative; Gingrich says he’s simply drawing contrasts with Romney, based on facts.)

“Seeing the way he’s been going after Romney the last few days as really made me a little upset. I don’t think it helps the cause much,” said Frank Marino, an undecided Republican voter who’s leaning toward Romney on Tuesday, but said Gingrich was his second choice. “I think all it’s going to do is help Obama get re-elected.”

Stephen Murray of Wolfeboro, N.H., said he would prefer to see the candidates fight it out. He’s deciding between Romney, Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, and has gone to see each of the candidates.

“I like seeing them all fight back and explain where they’re from,” he said. “I think a hard fought primary battle will strengthen our candidate ... I want people to be challenged.”

Send in your questions for Sunday's NBC News-Facebook debate on Meet the Press

For his part, Gingrich expressed optimism in Meredith about his overall prospects in the Granite State. “I think we’ll do better in New Hampshire than people expect because when you describe the 'Massachusetts moderate,' and you remind people of his record, they’ll go, ‘Oh yeah! He’s not a conservative; it’s a joke to call him a conservative,’” Gingrich said. “I don’t mind contrast. I am saying some fairly strong things tonight that are issue-based. I’m not going to attack him personally, I’m not going to defame him, I’m not going to lie about him. And if that’s the price of being president, I don’t want it.”

But if Thursday night’s event was an attempt by Gingrich to move votes, the intent of his first event on Thursday morning was less clear.

The former speaker spoke about a pet issue, brain science, in a speech at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock hospital in Lebanon, N.H.

The event started with the blare of country-rock music from loudspeakers (as had the previous evening’s campaign event), but Gingrich skipped any mention of Romney in the speech – an especially odd thing given the health care backdrop of the event. And for the most part, President Barack Obama escaped criticism, too.

Instead, the audience was packed with medical professionals who immediately shuffled out following the speech. They asked more pointed questions than the previous night’s audience. One questioner said he identified Gingrich as the progenitor of harsh rhetoric in Washington, and another wanted to know about Gingrich’s use of “death panel” language first popularized by former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Another young researcher wanted to know about women’s health and contraceptives.

Gingrich didn’t stick around much longer, either, after the event. He headed to two more traditional events – town halls in Newport and Salem – scheduled later in the day. 

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

A supporter of Republican presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum attends a campaign stop at Rockingham County Nursing Home in Brentwood, New Hampshire Jan. 4, 2012.

“I’ll be very upfront about this: I am not a libertarian,” Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum told those who showed up to hear him at a two-hour town hall meeting in Brentwood, New Hampshire on Wednesday night. “I am a conservative. I am a Reagan conservative; I am not a libertarian. And the people who call me a big government guy are libertarians.”

If you couldn’t be there to hear Santorum, or if you missed the live broadcast of his town hall event on C-SPAN, the former Pennsylvania senator detailed his views at great length in his 2005 book “It Takes A Family,” which is, in part, a rebuttal to Hillary Clinton’s more famous “It Takes A Village.”

Send in your questions for Sunday's NBC News-Facebook debate on Meet the Press

Santorum’s book doesn’t deal with foreign policy but does set out his approach to domestic policy: an active use of federal power and of the tax code to promote traditional behaviors and to preserve man-woman marriages.

Unlike Tea Party activists, Santorum doesn’t shrink away from the federal government; he wants to use it to nudge people toward more virtuous behavior, which he thinks will be best taught in traditional heterosexual families.

“Every statistic I am aware of ... indicates that marriage is better for children, and usually by a very wide margin,” he says in the book.

“There really should be no family ‘debate,’ no marriage ‘debate.’ The social science, four thousand years of human history and common sense have long settled the question. In a decent society, every child should have the best shot of growing up to be a healthy and successful adult. That opportunity is found in healthy, married, mom-and-dad families.”

Santorum spends much time in the book denouncing and rebutting what he see as the misguided live-and-let-live attitude of liberals.

He says, “Liberals believe that the traditional family is neither natural nor vital, that it’s an antiquated social convention which has not only outlived its usefulness, but is now inherently discriminatory and repressive toward legitimate alternative ‘families.’”

He rails against the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court which in its 2003 Goodrich decision legalized same-sex marriages and ruled that Massachusetts marriage law discriminated against gay people for no rational reason. “No amount of tinkering with language will eradicate that stain,” the court said, to which Santorum replies, “So, traditional marriage is a stain on the fabric of America that needs to be ‘Shouted out.’ How have we come to this?”

He contends that smaller social units than the federal government – the family, the neighborhood, churches, schools and civic associations – are best suited to build up America’s “social capital” – its legacy of traditional values.

“When government steps in and imposes a bureaucratic solution based on individualistic presuppositions, it removes expectations and responsibilities from smaller social units – especially the family,” he says, citing the pre-1996 welfare system as the prime example of a top-down federal solution that led to disaster in his view.

He does say there have been times in American history when the federal government had to act “in the face of gross failure at the smaller levels of the state or community,” citing the creation of the Social Security system and the enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as examples. But he adds, “Usually it is best if the government is the silent partner, not the managing partner.”

Slideshow: Rick Santorum's political life

A look at the Pennsylvania politician — his career on Capitol Hill and his White House aspirations.

Launch slideshow

But Santorum does support “aggressive enforcement” by the Federal Communications Commission of standards that ban obscenity on television. And he praises the Federal Trade Commission for monitoring marketing to teenagers and children. He calls for greater federal scrutiny of violence in the movies and in video games. “Government has a role to play here, just as in food safety and drug certification,” he says.

He does not argue for creating a federal Department of Marriage, or Department of Parenting, but he does call for grants to local governments and to non-profit agencies to bolster traditional marriages and educate people about the benefits of marriage. “Other eligible projects might include premarital counseling, couples counseling, conflict resolution and parenting classes,” he writes in the book.

Along with former Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, a Democrat, Santorum called for $50 million a year in federal outlays for “community- and faith-based programs that promote and foster healthy fatherhood.” He says, “There is simply no substitute for the natural family, no substitute for a real dad, however flawed.”

Arguing that parents need to spend more time with their children, Santorum calls for federal outlays and tax credits to encourage telecommuting, so that mothers and fathers could work at home. He also gets in some sardonic asides at “radical feminism’s misogynistic crusade to make working outside the home the only marker of social value and self-respect.”

If families could keep more of what they earned, he says, they could better care for their children: “The more government taxes someone, the less they are able to take care of themselves and their families ... .”

So “we need a tax policy that stops discriminating against families and starts favoring them,” he says, calling for an increase in the $1,000 tax credit for each child under age 17 and for revamping the Alternative Minimum Tax so it does not impose a penalty on families with lots of children.

In rhetoric that might appeals to some in the Occupy Wall Street movement, Santorum says, “When the top 20 percent of our population commands 83 percent of the wealth, we have a wealth gap that is unhealthy. It leads to class envy and hopelessness, in addition to political hyperbole. The opportunity to build wealth, and the understanding of how to do that, needs to be democratized.”

How to do that? Santorum calls for federal, state and private grants to faith-based organizations to help their low-income clients set up tax-free Individual Development Accounts, which would be used to build assets to buy a house, pay for education or start a small business.

"It Takes A Family" supplies ample proof that, as Santorum said Wednesday night “I’m  not a libertarian” and that his critics’ charge that he is “a big government guy” is not so off the mark. 

Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum presents his ideas at a "Faith, Family and Freedom" Town Hall event held at the Merrimack Valley Railroad in Northfield, New Hampshire.

TILTON, N.H. – Rick Santorum isn’t expected to win New Hampshire’s primary on Tuesday.

 But over 150 Granite State voters, their interest piqued in Santorum after his strong showing in this week’s Iowa caucuses, packed Merrimack Valley Railroad here Tuesday morning, eager to learn about the former Pennsylvania senator.

Santorum spent about an hour and a half answering questions at length in this wood-paneled room heated by potbelly stoves, a venue which, Santorum joked at the outset of his town hall meeting, “reeks of New Hampshire.”

The audience was composed of some who said they were already inclined to have supported Santorum before Iowa, and other, undecided voters who were interested in learning more about him after his late surge in the caucuses  –   in which he fell eight votes short of beating former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. And still others wondered whether Santorum could make for the best conservative challenger to Romney, the frontrunner in Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary.

“I’m looking for someone genuine and highly-principled, and I think he fits the bill,” said Mary Keoham, from nearby Gilford, N.H.

The potential voters who showed up here said they felt Santorum was had little attention paid to him in national debate appearances and, after his performance in Iowa, were looking to learn more about his candidacy.

“Iowa really was really the thing that made me think about him,” said Tim Moreau, a Coast Guard reservist from Belmont, N.H., who was on leave from his post in Alaska.

Undecided voters Thelma and Tom Phillips, of Guilford, N.H., listen to Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum at a

“When they had the last debate, the questions were geared toward (Newt) Gingrich and Romney. Whenever he had something to say, it was very intelligent,” said Bruce Wakefield, of Franklin, N.H. He and his wife, Sarah, decided to attend the Santorum event after receiving a recorded call from the Santorum campaign promoting his appearance.

That’s a positive – if small – beacon for Santorum, whose campaign has struggled at points to build the necessary organization to carry his campaign beyond Iowa, where his virtual tie with Romney had essentially qualified as a victory, in the sense that it legitimized his status as the conservative alternative to Romney (at least for now).

Having been one of the first candidates to make his exploratory bid official, Santorum had registered a number of stops already in New Hampshire, though most of them came before this fall, when he concentrated primarily on Iowa. His campaign has been working to build momentum from his narrow, second-place finish this past Tuesday, though, and announced new support of Tea Party leaders on Thursday.

But Santorum, at 8 percent, still lags in third place in New Hampshire, in a Suffolk University tracking poll conducted Jan. 3 - 4. Romney leads at a whopping 43 percent among likely voters, followed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul at 18 percent.

One of the ways Santorum might make inroads is by stressing the fact that he’s not Romney or Paul.

Melissa Barstow and her son Jonah, 5, arrived early to hear Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum at a "Faith, Family and Freedom" Town Hall event held at the Merrimack Valley Railroad in Northfield, New Hampshire.

Some of the audience members in Tilton said that they were inclined to support Paul and his strong fiscal message, but were turned off by Paul’s foreign policy views, which emphasize a limited global role for the U.S.

“He’s strong on both, as opposed to somebody like Ron Paul – who I love on what he’d like to do with government and making in smaller – but his foreign policy scares me a little bit,” explained Melissa Barstow of Tilton, who said she intends to vote for Santorum next week.

(Moreau, of the Coast Guard, said he might have also supported Paul if not for the Texas congressman’s foreign policy views.)

“I also feel like he’s not interested in just satisfying the media, because in some respects, I get that sense from other candidates, that sort of centrist viewpoint,” said Liz Lempka of Gilford, a Santorum supporter, referring in part to Romney. “And I really want somebody to stick up for our rights.”

Santorum gave answers to questions that sometimes dragged on and became long-winded. A handful of audience members bailed during a particularly lengthy answer by Santorum in response to a question about entitlement reform. But his attention to detail impressed some observers.

“He was very knowledgeable on national security, much more than came through in the debates. He really didn’t get an opportunity in some of the debates,” said Northfield’s Ken Barrett, a committed supporter of Gingrich who said he decided to attend today’s event only after Santorum’s showing in Iowa.

That’s not to minimize doubts about Santorum.

“Being a president takes executive experience. So I always look for somebody who’s probably in the gubernatorial-type mindframe,” said Tom Phillips, later adding that he would have preferred Santorum to have had experience as a governor.

“I don’t know how forceful he will be. He seems like a really nice guy, but I don’t know – maybe too nice?” said Phillips’s wife, Thelma.

Sarah Wakefield, sitting toward the back of the audience with her husband, Bruce, voiced a similar concern: “I worry about him being the quiet one, but he showed strength in Iowa.”

But if nothing else, Santorum’s showing in Iowa seemed to earn him a new look in New Hampshire, an exciting prospect for admirers like Barstow, who said she wouldn’t change her mind before Tuesday unless one thing changed: “Yeah, if Marco Rubio got in the race.”

Matthew Cavanaugh / Getty Images

Republican Presidential candidate and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum holds up raffle money won and then donated to his campaign at a Rotary Club breakfast in Manchester, N.H. on Jan. 05. Santorum gave the money back to the club. Santorum continued his campaign in New Hampshire for the upcoming primary election after he finished second in the Iowa Caucus, losing to Mitt Romney by only eight votes.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Audience members listen to Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain during a campaign town hall meeting at the Boys and Girls Club Jan. 5, in Salem, N.H. McCain, who ran against President Barack Obama in 2008, endorsed Romney on Wednesday. Romney eked out an eight-vote victory in the Iowa Caucuses against former U.S. Senator Rick Perry, who is also stumping in New Hampshire.

Win McNamee / Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, speaks with his wife Callista during a town hall meeting at Littleton Opera House on Jan. 5, in Littleton, New Hampshire. After finishing 4th in the Iowa Caucus, Gingrich continued his campaign in New Hampshire for the upcoming primary.

• Romney now focus of attacks
• Debate on Sunday, Jan. 8 - ask a question via Facebook
• Santorum tries Iowa message for N.H bounce
• Gingrich takes aim at Romney
• More politics news

Charles Dharapak / AP

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, greets supporters at his caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012.

What we learned from last night: 1) Romney still has a problem with his party’s conservative base… 2) Rick Santorum may be for real… 3) New Hampshire is going to be fascinating to watch… Also: Measuring Santorum’s NH bounce… Romney gets McCain’s endorsement (but is that the best way for him to shore up his conservative-base problems?)… On Paul’s third-place finish… Newt strikes back… Perry sounds like he’s done… So does Bachmann (she holds a presser at 11:00 am ET)… And the GOP’s record (and still disappointing) turnout.

Read Wednesday's original First Thoughts: What we learned from last night

*** What we learned from last night: Despite the thrilling photo-finish start to the first voting of the 2012 presidential contest -- with Mitt Romney finally topping Rick Santorum by just eight votes (!!!) -- we learned pretty much what we already knew heading into last night’s Iowa caucuses, albeit with one big exception. We learned that Romney has a LONG way to go with his party’s conservative base. Of the 47% of caucus-goers identifying themselves as “very conservative,” Romney got just 14% of that vote (compared with Santorum’s 35%). Romney won another 14% from the nearly six in 10 who are evangelical Christians (versus Santorum’s 32%). At some point, he will have to win where conservatives put him over the top, and once he does he’ll be the nominee -- but not until then. (Maybe it'll be in South Carolina, maybe Florida, but he needs it somewhere.) We also learned that Romney still can’t crack the 25% he continues to get in many polls (and what just happened to be the percentage he won in Iowa four years ago).

*** Glass half full for Romney: On the positive side for Romney, we learned that he does MUCH better among Republicans who see the economy as their top issue and who want to beat President Obama in November. And we learned that his final opponent probably won’t be Newt Gingrich or Rick Perry, two folks who either had the money or the potential to go toe to toe with Romney over the long haul. On Monday, Romney said he was going to win Iowa. And he did. Unfortunately for him, his victory -- something he was unable to accomplish four years ago -- got overshadowed by someone else.

*** Santorum may be for real: The one thing we didn’t know heading into last night that we ultimately learned: Rick Santorum is for real. Indeed, he became the story of the night, consolidating just enough of the conservative/evangelical vote to nearly win. (By the way, we’re guessing had Santorum had one more day, he probably would have won). His challenge now? To get the time to start putting together the resources and campaign infrastructure to compete with Romney in New Hampshire and beyond. What to watch: Do movement conservatives who have so far stayed on the sidelines (the Palins, the Cains, the DeMints, Tea Party groups, etc.) begin rallying to his side? This is the last conservative train leaving the station. Does Romney upset these folks enough that they want to potentially upset the eventual Republican nominee? That's the calculation that may be taking place among these folks.

*** New Hampshire is going to be fascinating to watch: And here’s another thing we didn’t know that we ultimately learned from last night: The upcoming New Hampshire contest is going to be FASCINATING, as well as potential trouble for Romney. It’s do-or-die time for Jon Huntsman. Gingrich last night warned that he will make New Hampshire his Alamo (more on that below). So you could have Huntsman hitting Romney from the middle and Gingrich hitting him from the right. That creates an opportunity for Santorum, who has the potential to stay above that fray and pull off another surprising finish. Second place in New Hampshire is worth something if it’s 25% or more.

*** Measuring Santorum’s New Hampshire bounce: How much can Santorum benefit in New Hampshire with his virtual tie for first in Iowa? Traditionally, the top-three finishers in Iowa haven’t experienced much of a boost – just 3 points jump on average from the last New Hampshire poll before the Iowa caucuses to the actual New Hampshire result. But the 1996 Republican presidential primary might be instructive (another year when a fairly weak front-runner (Bob Dole) was running for the second time and against a Democratic incumbent in the general election.) In 1996, Pat Buchanan finished second in Iowa and jumped 12 points in New Hampshire to win with 27%. Sen. Lamar Alexander, who faced questions of viability in the Granite State and was polling at just 9%, got a 14-point bounce and finished a very close third with 23%. The last Suffolk tracking poll showed Santorum at just 5% in New Hampshire, so if he gets the 12-to-14 point Buchanan-Alexander bounce, he could finish with 17%-21% -- still far short of what Romney is expected to get.

*** Romney gets McCain’s endorsement: When Romney gets to New Hampshire today, he’ll pick up the endorsement from John McCain, NBC News has confirmed. This means, by the way, that Romney will now have endorsements from three of the four living past GOP nominees (George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, and John McCain). The exception: George W. Bush. But here is something to chew on for Romney: If he has a problem with conservative Republicans, and if they are his threat heading into the future GOP contests, why is he highlighting the Republican whom many movement and social conservatives love to hate?

*** Obama camp on Romney’s “poor performance”: Not surprisingly, the Obama campaign has pounced on last night’s results for Romney. “A day after predicting victory and after six years of trying to win Iowa, Mitt Romney was unable to reach the same margin of the vote he received in 2008 among a Republican field widely recognized as weak,” a campaign official emailed First Read. “It was a poor performance from a candidate who did everything possible to win -- even sacrificing principles to become the self-professed Tea Party candidate and to get to the right of Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich.” Also, the Obama campaign’s Jim Messina and David Axelrod will hold a conference call with reporters at noon ET.

*** On Paul’s third-place finish: Turning to the other candidates, Ron Paul certainly did well with the young voters, independents, and first-time caucus-goers. But it wasn’t enough to avoid finishing third, at 21%. With his campaign money and his devoted followers, Paul has the potential to stay in the race for the long haul. But third place is a disappointment for the Texas congressman, because Iowa was the one place that had the potential for him to score a victory.

*** Newt strikes back: Gingrich made it very clear in his speech last night that he’s going on the attack against Romney. During his speech last night, Gingrich praised Santorum for running a positive campaign, but then he added: “I wish could say for all candidates.” Gingrich went on to say that the GOP would have a debate on whether to elect a Reagan conservative who helped change Washington, or a “Massachusetts moderate good at managing decay.” In fact, his campaign is already running a full-page ad in the New Hampshire Union Leader casting Romney as a “timid Massachusetts moderate.”

*** Perry sounds like he’s done: When Rick Perry -- after finishing a disappointing fifth -- said he was traveling home to Texas to assess the state of his campaign, he sounded like someone who is already done. We’d be very surprised if he makes it to New Hampshire or South Carolina.

*** Is Bachmann about to call it quits? Meanwhile, NBC’s Jamie Novogrod reports that Michele Bachmann -- who finished in sixth – will be holding a media avail this morning at 11:00 am ET at the West Des Moines Marriott. Spokeswoman Alice Stewart says that Bachmann has canceled her trip to South Carolina. While Bachmann last night vowed to stay in the race, this feels like someone who could call it quits today.

*** The GOP’s record (and still disappointing) turnout: Here’s a final point on last night: GOP turnout in Iowa -- roughly 122,000 -- was a record. And it was important for Republicans that this turnout exceeded what they got in 2008 (118,000). But make no mistake: It was a disappointing number, especially given what Republicans were hoping for to show the enthusiasm to defeat President Obama in the fall. Getting 140,000 or 150,000 would have shown real enthusiasm. Republicans didn’t get that last night. It may have been more a reflection on the candidate field than on the prospect of defeating the president.

Countdown to New Hampshire primary: 6 days

Countdown to South Carolina primary: 17 days

Countdown to Florida primary: 27 days

Countdown to Nevada caucuses: 31 days

Countdown to Super Tuesday: 62 days

Countdown to Election Day: 307 days
 

Click here to sign up for First Read emails.
Text FIRST to 622639, to sign up for First Read alerts to your mobile phone.
Check us out on Facebook and also on Twitter. Follow us @chucktodd, @mmurraypolitics, @DomenicoNBC, @brookebrower

PROGRAMMING NOTES.

*** Wednesday's “Daily Rundown" line-up (live from New Hampshire): Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) on last night's results and what's next for his campaign… Southern Illinois University's David Yepsen and the University of New Hampshire's Dante Scala on what Iowa momentum (or lack thereof) means for New Hampshire and beyond… Rep. Steve King (R-IA) on what he saw in his caucus last night… More 2012 headlines and analysis with NBC's Ron Mott, the New York Times' Gail Collins and WMUR's James Pindell.

*** Wednesday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews former NH Sen. Bob Smith (a Gingrich supporter), SC Dem Chair Dick Harpootlian and SC GOP Chair Chad Connelly, FL GOP Chair Lenny Curry, the New York Times’ Charles Blow and Karen Hunter, the Nation’s David Corn, Dem strategist Steve McMahon, and MSNBC political analyst Michelle Bernard.

*** Wednesday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’S Thomas Roberts talks with MSNBC’S Ed Schultz, Gingrich campaign adviser David Winston, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), Politico’s Reid Wilson, the Huffington Post’s Jennifer Donahue, Republican Strategist Susan Del Percio, and Democratic strategist Doug Thornell.

*** Wednesday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include former Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton, MSNBC Political Analyst Richard Wolffe, MSNBC contributor Meghan McCain, Time’s Rana Foroohar, and the Huffington Post's Jon Ward.

*** Wednesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up (from Manchester, NH): President Obama delivers remarks on the economy from 1:15 pm to 1:45 pmET. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell also will talk to the Washington Post’s Dan Balz and Chris Cillizza, Romney adviser Kevin Madden, Steve Forbes, and Politico’s Joe Williams.

*** Wednesday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall interviews The Hill’s AB Stoddard, Michael Smerconish, Steve Deace, and Scott Siepker.

2012: Eight is Enough

The Des Moines Register: “Mitt Romney wins Iowa caucus by 8 votes.” (The print edition front page: “Romney wins by 8 votes.” Subhed: “Contrasting tactics yield photo finish.”)

The AP’s Beaumont: “In many ways distinctly different, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney took near opposite paths to twin victories in Iowa's presidential caucuses.”

With 30,015 votes, Romney finished six votes short of his 2008 total of 30,021.

The New Hampshire Union Leader: “Romney edges Santorum by 8 votes in Iowa caucuses; on to NH.”

“Mitt Romney’s quest to swiftly lock down the Republican presidential nomination with a commanding finish in the Iowa caucuses was undercut on Tuesday night by the surging candidacy of Rick Santorum, who fought him to a draw on a shoestring budget by winning over conservatives who remain skeptical of Mr. Romney,” the New York Times says.

The New York Daily News: “Mitt Romney tops Rick Santorum in historically-close Iowa caucuses.” Its lede: “Mitt Romney pulled off a shocker over a surging Rick Santorum in an historically-close Iowa caucuses Tuesday night - winning by a razor-thin eight votes out of nearly 122,000 that were cast. Santorum’s strong showing dashed Mitt Romney’s hopes to quickly lock up the inside track to the GOP nomination.”

The New York Post front page: “GOP dead heat.”

The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C.: “Right candidate could topple Romney in S.C.”

The AP: “Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney waged a seesaw battle for supremacy in Iowa's Republican presidential caucuses late Tuesday night, a dramatic opening round for the campaign to pick a challenger to President Barack Obama.” It called the dead heat, a fitting conclusion to a race as jumbled as any since Iowa gained the lead-off position in presidential campaigns four decades ago. Regardless of the outcome, there was enough for both to claim a victory -- Romney as the man to beat for the party's nomination and Santorum as the leader among those struggling to emerge as the former governor's unvarnished conservative rival in the primaries yet to come.”

“Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he's looking forward to a long nomination race as he finished in a dead heat Tuesday with Rick Santorum in the Iowa caucuses,” AP’s Hunt writes.

“Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum declared that his strong Iowa showing means it's ‘game on’ for the party's presidential nomination, and he's heading to New Hampshire for round two,” AP’s Glover writes.

BACHMANN: “Michele Bachmann told a small group of supporters Tuesday night that she's staying in the presidential race as the only true conservative who can defeat the sitting president, despite a bleak showing in the Iowa caucuses,” the New York Daily News writes. “The Minnesota congresswoman was running in last place among six candidates as returns came in from the nation's first Republican presidential nominating contest.”

HUNTSMAN: “As all eyes turn from Iowa to New Hampshire, Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman today sharpened his critique of his major rival in New Hampshire, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney,” the Boston Globe writes. Huntsman said: “If you’re the largest recipient of funds from the banking sector, as Governor Romney is, for example, do you think you can fix what needs to be fixed?” No way, no how. It’ll be a status quo outcome.”

Yesterday, Huntsman had a message for whoever the winner is of the Iowa caucuses, per NBC’s Jo Ling Kent: "Welcome to New Hampshire. Nobody cares."

Marking his 150th public campaign event last night, Huntsman -- who skipped campaigning in Iowa and is fully focused on New Hampshire -- got his biggest New Hampshire audience since entering the GOP race, with more than 350 people packing an iconic town hall.

PAUL: “Ron Paul, the libertarian maverick, displayed the strength of his candidacy among young people at a joint public event on caucus day,” the Boston Globe writes

PERRY: “Perry’s stunning revelation – which pundits believe will soon lead to the official termination of his campaign – was a stark reversal from his tough talk just hours before,” the New York Daily News writes. “He vowed to stay in the race. Perry released a campaign schedule for South Carolina – held in two weeks – and he also announced a TV ad buy in the Palmetto State, seemingly clear signals that he intended to fight in the Southern battleground state.”

ROMNEY: “Mitt Romney likes to boast that he built his 2012 presidential campaign for the long haul. Good thing,” the Boston Globe’s Glen Johnson writes. “By virtually splitting the vote in last night’s Iowa caucuses with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul, Romney not only gained an emboldened opponent with an organization of this own (Paul), but also one with an ideological backing that has always eluded him (Santorum). In addition, he now faces a trident of sorts, as a wounded Newt Gingrich launches his own assault on the former Massachusetts governor.”

OBAMA AGENDA: Obama speaks to Iowa Democrats

President Obama holds an event on the economy in Cleveland, OH, and he speaks at 1:15 pm ET.

“Trying to drown out the Republican din Tuesday night, President Obama said his first three years in office have shown he is making good on his 2008 campaign pledge to bring hope and change,” the New York Daily News writes. “‘In some ways, I’m actually more optimistic now than I was when I first ran, because we’ve already seen change take place,’ Obama said in a Web chat with Democrats in Iowa, who held their own caucus, albeit symbolic, on the same night as the GOP. ‘And part of what 2012 is about is ... reminding the American people of how far we’ve traveled.’

More: “Obama used the video talk to tick off the promises he has kept since he won the contested Iowa Democratic caucus in 2008: ending the Iraq War and expanding the number of people with medical insurance and a variety of middle-class tax break.”

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.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney may well be the emerging front-runner heading into Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, according to a new poll of Hawkeye State Republicans likely to participate in the contest.

Romney enjoys a slight advantage over Texas Rep. Ron Paul, according to a CNN/TIME poll released Wednesday; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who's been pummeled by ads in the state, has fallen to fourth -- behind former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

Romney also enjoys a commanding lead over other Republican candidates in New Hampshire.

Twenty-five percent of likely caucus-goers said they would choose Romney. Paul was the choice of 22 percent, while 16 percent named Santorum, and 14 percent named Gingrich. Eleven percent said they would support Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and nine percent back Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, the winner of August's straw poll.

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who's not competing in the state, ranks as the choice of one percent of Iowa Republicans.

The polls reflect shifting political terrain in Iowa since the release of polls earlier this month, which showed Gingrich ahead of his GOP challengers in Iowa. An NBC News-Marist poll released Dec. 4 found Gingrich leading as the preference of 21 percent of likely caucus-goers, followed by Romney at 18 percent and Paul at 17 percent. The Des Moines Register's Iowa poll showed similar results.

(A new NBC News-Marist poll of the Iowa caucuses will be released later this week.)

In the intervening weeks, the different candidates -- along with super PACs acting on their behalf -- have spent millions on ads in the state. Arguably the most significant expenditures have been made by Restore our Future, a pro-Romney super PAC that has run ads castigating Gingrich, and the Paul campaign, which has also spent to promote the libertarian-minded candidate, and in opposition to Romney and Gingrich.

Santorum has also been the beneficiary of increased social conservative suppoprt, most notably from Bob Vander Plaats, the head of The Family Leader, who endorsed the former senator independent of his group.

The new figures also underscore the fluidity of the GOP field ahead of the Jan. 3 caucus. Gingrich has slid over the past month just as Herman Cain and Bachmann -- who had each led in Iowa at one point -- had faded. The poll points to the possibility of even more shifting in the final days of the Iowa campaign: 54 percent of likely caucus-goers said they will definitely support the candidate they named, but 43 percent said they might change their mind.

Once Iowa's contest is decided, the candidates will head to New Hampshire, the host of the nation's first primary and the cycle's second nominating contest.

Forty-four percent of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire said they would back Romney. Paul places second, at 17 percent, followed by Gingrich at 16 percent, Huntsman at nine percent, Santorum at four percent, Bachmann at three percent and Perry at two percent.

Fifty-one percent of New Hampshire primary voters said they've made up their mind, while 45 percent said they may change their mind -- offering hope to the winner of Iowa's caucuses to use a win there as a springboard heading into the Granite State.

The polls, conducted Dec. 21-24 and Dec. 26-27 by ORC, have a 4.5 percent margin of error for the Iowa results, and a four percent margin of error for the New Hampshire results.