New Bloomberg polls in New Hampshire and Iowa find wide majorities of likely Republican voters view Mitt Romney as “smart, business-savvy and fit to be president” however “substantial numbers, almost half in Iowa and two out of five in New Hampshire, also view him as someone who will do or say anything to get elected, ‘a flip-flopper,’ or not a true social conservative.”

“Those warring impressions help explain how Romney has attained front-runner status in national polls while remaining unable to secure enough backing to break away from his rivals.”

Said pollster Ann Selzer: “They see the competence, and they see that the problems that are immediately to be solved are in his wheelhouse, but there’s sort of this lurking suspicion about whether they can trust him or that he is going to be their guy on social, moral issues.”

A new Fox News poll shows Newt Gingrich leading the GOP presidential field nationally with 23%, followed by Mitt Romney at 22% and Herman Cain at 15%.

The rest of the pack: Ron Paul at 8%, Rick Perry at 7%, Michele Bachmann at 6%, Jon Huntsman at 3%, and Rick Santorum at 2%.

Rick Perry released a new ad to run nationally and in Iowa slamming President Obama’s recent comments that “we’ve been a little bit lazy I think over the last couple decades.”

For bonus points, see if you can spot the missing “is” in Perry’s statement.

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Obama administration Cabinet members and senior aides “are fanning out across the country in an aggressive fundraising drive, taking advantage of porous campaign finance laws that allow them to appear as marquee speakers and raise substantial money for the president’s reelection effort,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“For $5,000, a donor can get a kind of season pass to see officials when they come to town — a bargain compared with the $35,800 typically charged for dinner with President Obama… None of this is illegal, although the appearances must be carefully choreographed to avoid running afoul of the federal Hatch Act, which regulates political activity by government employees but allows ample wiggle room.”

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) mocked Mitt Romney’s Iowa expectation-setting and warned him that he “would meet the same fate as Rudy Giuliani four years ago if he didn’t get serious about the caucuses,” Politico reports.

Said Branstad: “I think he’s making a big mistake…by not coming here and spending more time. I mean Romney is dropping in the polls and I think he thinks that he wants to keep down expectations, you know. Well, his expectations may get really bad if he doesn’t get a little more serious.”

He added: “Iowans don’t like being ignored, they don’t like being ignored!”

Nate Silver: “Romney certainly does not need to win Iowa to win the nomination. But
unless he builds up more of a cushion in the national polls before the
voting there, a loss for his campaign in the caucuses would at least
make for an exciting January.”

A new SurveyUSA poll finds President Obama leading Mitt Romney nationally, 46% to 44%.

However, if the survey only includes landline respondents (72% of registered voters), Romney leads by 6 points. Among those who only use mobile phones (28% of registered voters), Obama leads by 22 points.

“I’m not supposed to know anything about foreign policy. Just thought I’d throw that out.”

— Herman Cain, quoted by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, still reeling from his inability to answer a question about U.S. policy towards Libya.

Two-thirds of the House Republican freshmen — 43 of 65 — saw their fundraising dip in the past quarter, USA Today reports.

“In addition, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took in nearly twice as much campaign cash as House Republicans in September — a sign Democratic donors are energized, despite low poll rankings for Congress and President Obama.”

A new Public Policy Polling survey shows that just 37% of voters think that Republicans were an upgrade from when the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, while 41% think they’ve been worse.

Nonetheless, the generic congressional ballot is a tie — with 45% favoring a Democratic candidate and 45% going for a Republican — because Democrats are almost as unpopular as their GOP counterparts.

With the way the GOP presidential race is going, he just might win.

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