With the 3rd quarter ending today, we’ll begin to see fundraising reports from the presidential candidates.

First Read: “It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the Texas governor, but a strong fundraising showing — say in the neighborhood of $15 million since announcing his bid in mid-August — would give him a much-needed boost and would solidify his chances of competing financially with Mitt Romney (who raised $18 million last quarter). More than that amount would signal some SERIOUS fundraising chops for Perry, while less than that would be considered trouble for him… Right now, Perry World is simply promising more than $10 million.”

“Besides Perry, the other big players are expected to post fundraising numbers less than what they raised in the 2nd quarter.”

The Fix: “If Romney’s number is indeed between $11 million and $13 million, then Rick Perry’s team has its target. The name of the game is beating Romney, period. Perry’s team has beat back a report that suggested it pulled in $20 million in the opening days of the campaign, noting that much of that was pledges.”

Michael Kinsley: “Look, I’m sorry, but New Jersey Governor Chris Christie cannot be president: He is just too fat. Maybe, if he runs for president and we get to know him, we will overlook this awkward issue because we are so impressed with the way he stands up to teachers’ unions. But we shouldn’t overlook it — unless he goes on a diet and shows he can stick to it.”

Eugene Robinson: “Christie’s problem with weight ceased being a private matter when he stepped into the public arena — and it’s not something you can fail to notice. Obesity is a national epidemic whose costs are measured not just in dollars and cents but also in lives. Christie’s weight is as legitimate an issue as the smoking habit that President Obama says he has finally kicked.”

Of course, Jon Corzine tried to bring up Christie’s weight in a tough campaign ad and that didn’t work out so well.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) “is seriously rethinking his months of denials and may launch a campaign for the White House after all,” the Newark Star Ledger reports.

“In the last week, Christie has been swayed away from his earlier refusals to run by an aggressive draft effort from a cadre of Republicans and donors unhappy with the GOP field, said the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.”

A new SurveyUSA poll in Florida finds Mitt Romney leading the Republican presidential pack with 27%, followed closely by Herman Cain at 25% and Rick Perry at 13%.

The remainder of the field: Newt Gingrich at 6%, Pon Paul at 5%, Michele Bachmann at 5%, Jon Huntsman at 3% and Rick Santorum at 2%.

O. Kay Henderson has the audio of a testy exchange today:

Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times: “With the fundraising quarter coming to a close, what…”

Newt Gingrich: “See, I knew you couldn’t resist. I’m not going to answer you. I think you should, you should really go home and think about why you would even ask that today.”

“Even though 50-some percent of the American people think the economy
tanked because of the last administration, that’s not relevant. What’s relevant is we’re in charge.”

— Vice President Biden, quoted by CBS News, pointing out that it is “totally legitimate” that the 2012 election be a referendum on the Obama administration.

Jon Huntsman is moving his presidential campaign headquarters from Florida to New Hampshire, “a decision that underscores that his path to the nomination is wholly dependent on trying to score an upset in the nation’s first primary,” the New York Times reports.

“The Huntsman campaign has been focusing intensively on New Hampshire for weeks, all but abandoning the three-state strategy that also once included South Carolina and Florida. But the decision to close the Orlando office and relocate the staff to Manchester signals a new sense of urgency and is part of what one adviser characterized as a ‘course correction.'”

Mitt Romney “is on pace to raise between $11 million and $13 million for the latest fund-raising quarter, a haul that would be much lower than the $18.2 million haul he brought in during the previous three months,” the Boston Globe reports.

“Romney’s strong performance in a trio of recent debates had helped his fund-raising by motivating his existing supporters, but it was not enough to move some of the fence-sitters over to his camp, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the campaign has not publicly released its numbers yet.”

Mitt Romney is scheduled to sit down for an interview with Mike Huckabee, to be shown this weekend on Fox News, The Caucus reports.

The two men have had a tense relationship since they both ran for president in 2008, but Huckabee’s statements in recent weeks suggests he dislikes Rick Perry more. Could an important endorsement be in the works?

Florida could be the new
presidential kingmaker, according to the latest National Journal
Political Insiders Poll.

Strategists and advisers from both parties
said Florida will be more important than Iowa, New Hampshire,
or South Carolina in determining the 2012 Republican nominee for
president.

Several sources tell Politico that Michele Bachmann’s campaign has “serious money issues on the horizon.”

New York Post: “Insiders are whispering that the Tea Party darling’s financials are grim and she may be out of the race before she makes it to the Iowa caucus in February, even though she has a strong base in the state. Sources tell us say Bachmann’s skeletal staff are holding their collective breath until the deadline to disclose her fundraising report on Oct. 15.
Meanwhile, we hear a computer vendor has called her campaign headquarters threatening to shut down the power due to an outstanding bill. Sources say she had about $400,000 at the beginning of September, but also stacks of bills.”

Said one source: “She does not like to ask for money. She should have been focusing on big donors about three months ago. She’s only cultivated low dollar donors with direct mailings and that’s hurt her.”

The New York Post reports New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) “is giving serious thought to jumping into the ring for a GOP presidential run” and that an announcement “may come as soon as Monday, said sources familiar with Christie’s thinking.”

“Contradictions in sworn statements about Rick Perry’s fundraising for his 2006 reelection bid raise questions about whether aides to the Texas governor… gave false or misleading testimony under oath,” Reuters reports.

“At issue were the circumstances surrounding a $1 million contribution to the campaign, and whether the Republican Governors’ Association, which paid out the funds, was used as a conduit to camouflage their true origin. The lawsuit alleged that the actual donor was Texas multi-millionaire Bob Perry, a long-time supporter of Rick Perry (no relation) better known for bankrolling the Swift Boat campaign that torpedoed Senator John Kerry’s presidential bid.”

Jill Lawrence: “When Perry is under fire over some aspect of his Texas record, he hasn’t pivoted to signature plans for jobs or foreign policy. A spin through Perry’s website underscores the problem. Under ‘Jobs,’ we find five paragraphs of conservative boilerplate. The most detailed sentence refers to ‘low taxes, reasonable regulations, a predictable civil litigation system and an educated workforce.'”

“Moving along, there are six paragraphs on fiscal responsibility, hitting on similarly broad themes (tax cuts, spending cuts, balanced budgets); three generic paragraphs on foreign policy (he believes in American exceptionalism and defending our borders); and two paragraphs on health care (he would repeal Obamacare and create more jobs).”

Mike Murphy: “At this moment of inflection, two people hold the keys to the GOP primaries. First, Sarah Palin: if she enters, Perry will have far more trouble on his right and Romney will become much more likely to enter Iowa to win… The second is Perry’s debate coach. If the governor of Texas cannot dramatically improve his performance in his next showdown with his GOP rivals, he may not even make it to Iowa.”

The New York Times and Washington Post both take a  look at Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign and wonder why he hasn’t been able to excite Republican
primary voters.

First Read: “Yet here’s one reason both articles don’t really mention:
his past positions on issues… Only six years ago, he
supported abortion rights; in 1994, he sent a letter saying he’d be a
stronger advocate for gay rights than Ted Kennedy; according to a 2006
article, he supported a path to citizenship for law-abiding illegal
immigrants; he has said that his Massachusetts health-care law should be
a model for other states; and he said back in June that humans have
contributed to the world getting warmer — and that it’s important to
reduce emissions to combat that. All of those positions are anathema to
conservatives. A question: Does this Republican electorate want to ‘settle,’ gravitate behind the most electable? When they’ve ‘settled in
the past, many conservative leaders have regretted it (see McCain or
Dole or Bush 41).”