A new Public Policy Polling survey finds Sen. Olympia Snowe’s (R-ME) prospects for winning the GOP nomination for another term are looking the best they have in two years.

Two years ago, just 31% of Maine Republicans stood with Snowe, while 59% wanted to replace her with someone more conservative. Now, 46% of primary voters in the state stand with Snowe compared to only 47% who want to replace her with someone more conservative.

Key finding: Just 21% of Republican primary voters identify as Tea Partiers. While they want to replace Snowe with someone more conservative by an 80% to 16% margin, they’re drowned out by the rest of the GOP electorate supporting Snowe 58% to 36%.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) made clear that she “will be asking President Barack Obama to come to Missouri within the next few months to campaign for her, and help her raise money for her 2012 bid for re-election,” according to the St. Louis Beacon.

Said McCaskill, “I don’t always agree with the president. He’ll be the first to tell you that. But I support the president.”

The Hotline: “Vulnerable Democrats in comparable positions should take notice. Opponents will tie McCaskill to Obama no matter what she does… If you are going to be tied to an unpopular president, you may as well let him use his standing to help you raise some money along the way.”

Rick Perry will go on the air with his “I’m a doer not a talker” ad starting tomorrow in New Hampshire, NBC News reports. The same ad began running in Iowa this week.

An adviser called it a “significant statewide buy” but would not elaborate on how much money was spent.

A Public Policy Polling survey done over the weekend found Herman Cain leading Newt Gingrich, 30% to 22%, with Mitt Romney at 19%, Rick Perry at 10% and all other candidates below 5% support.

“The North Carolina results are particularly worth noting because it’s the first state we’ve polled twice since Cain began his surge in late September. Cain was at 27% on the first poll and expanded his support to 30% this past weekend. If anything those numbers suggest Cain was continuing to build momentum before the Politico revelations on Sunday.”

Most interesting: “If Cain’s candidacy does implode in the coming weeks our numbers suggest the candidate poised to benefit the most is Newt Gingrich.”

“I’ve been in Washington 35 years… and I’ve never seen a time when
people have put their own personal political feelings over how we can
get the economy moving.”

— Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the only Republican in President Obama’s cabinet, telling the Daily Beast that his party “is more committed to defeating the president than creating jobs.”

Herman Cain said that his wife, Gloria Cain, will soon give an “exclusive” interview, the Washington Post reports.

“It is by now a cliche — the political wife standing by her political husband as a kind of prop and validator as questions of some impropriety swirl about. What is unknown is whether her appearance will quell the speculation and allow Cain to return to his unconventional, take-it-straight-to-the-people campaign.”

The New York Times reports the interview with be on Friday night on Fox News.

The presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Jon Hunstman all tell The Hill they had nothing to do with the Herman Cain sexual harassment story.

Jon Huntsman told the Salt Lake Tribune that he and his wife recently purchased a condo in Salt Lake City.

Said Huntsman: “I’m a resident of Utah, and I always want to be. I’d like to spend more time out there, but right now it’s all on the road.”

“The presidential hopeful had sold his Salt Lake City home in 2005, when he moved into the Governor’s Mansion and later, when he resigned to take on the role of U.S. ambassador to China, used the mansion’s address for his voting registration as allowed by law for someone serving the government abroad. Huntsman bought a $3.6 million home in Washington, D.C., in June 2010, but he calls the Utah condo home.”

Herman Cain told an interviewer today there had been “a couple of other things” in the sexual harassment complaint filed against him in the 1990s, though he claimed not to remember the specifics, Politico reports.

Said Cain: “I don’t even remember. They were so ridiculous, I don’t remember what they are.”

When pressed, he added: “The reason I forgot them is because they were ridiculous. I dismissed them out of my mind.”

A new National Journal Congressional Connection poll finds voters split on whether President Obama deserves another term: 44% would like to see a Republican elected, while 42% want Obama to win a second term.

Meanwhile, when asked if Republicans should retain control of the House, 41% said yes and 43% said they would prefer Democrats to recapture the majority.

Mitt Romney has raised $1.9 million from Utah residents through September 30, almost as much as the $2.1 million he raised from Massachusetts, where he was elected governor, Bloomberg reports.

Jon Huntsman, who hails from a prominent family in Utah and was twice elected governor, has raised $255,850 from his home state. His total is only slightly larger than the $237,705 President Obama has collected from donors in Utah, a state he lost by 29 points in the 2008 election.

The Economist isn’t impressed with Rick Perry’s new Iowa ad in which he discounts his failings as a communicator by saying, “I’m a doer, not a talker.”

“Not to be overly pedantic, but talking is a kind of doing. Indeed, talking is primarily how one gets things done in politics. How does Mr Perry convey that he is a doer, and not a talker? By talking. What else is there? Interpretative dance? A presidential candidate unable to best a foe in a public exchange, or to communicate his position on a complex issue when the heat is on, is about as useful as a one-legged fullback. There’s a good reason Mr Perry’s embarrassing debate performances have left him trailing Herman Cain by 15 points in the polls not long after he entered the race with a comfortable lead: a candidate this feckless on his feet would be eaten alive by Barack Obama in the general-election debates.”

Can Herman Cain survive the allegations he sexually harassed as least two women and his shifting explanation of what happened?

First Read: “It all depends if there’s another allegation or a new piece of information that contradicts his current story. If there is, that would be a knockout blow. Indeed, conservative commentators largely gave Cain a free pass yesterday. Rush Limbaugh said, ‘Look at how quickly what is known as the ‘mainstream media’ goes for the ugliest racial stereotypes they can to attack a black conservative.’ And Laura Ingraham, who clerked for Clarence Thomas, said, ‘Doesn’t all this sound familiar? A black man who thinks for himself, who ends up surprising everyone…’ (One exception, however, was Karl Rove, demonstrating an establishment-vs.-base divide here.) But if another shoe drops, he most likely won’t get another free pass from them.”

The Note: “Cain’s dissembling represents a marked departure from his straight-talking persona on the campaign trail, but we still don’t know whether it spells disaster for his campaign or if it’s just a bump in the road. Will either of the two women who received monetary settlements speak publicly? Are there any other shoes to drop? If the answer to both of those questions is ‘no’, it’s hard to see this story get much more traction — even with Cains’ inconsistencies.”

Jon Stewart looks at sexual harassment accusations against Herman Cain and Rick Perry’s loopy speech in New Hampshire and concludes, “Mitt Romney is the luckiest Motherfudger on Earth.”

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