“Huntsman, a consistent but never doctrinaire conservative, would present the greatest challenge to Obama,” the paper wrote, saying “If elected, he would provide mature, informed and steady leadership,” and citing Huntsman’s career as a public servent at various levels of government.

But while Huntsman got a gold star, the paper saved its best lines for criticism of the two New Hampshire frontrunners, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. “With Gingrich, voters would get an unpredictable, unprincipled nominee and, should he be elected, a white-knuckle four years of an imperial presidency,” the Monitor wrote.

For Romney, the paper riffed on the Democratic National Committee’s favorite theme — there are two Mitts, and it’s a mystery to which one will show up. Voters don’t know if they’ll get “…the moderate Mitt who was once pro-choice, in favor of a health-care mandate, a supporter of the auto industry bailout and a believer that human activity was contributing to climate change — or the newly conservative Romney, who opposes abortion, claims the reason for climate change is unknown, opposes a health insurance mandate and claims that bailing out Detroit was a mistake.”

Every percentage point that peels off of Mitt in New Hampshire is one more step to the eventual implosion of his campaign.  This is one is suppose to win in the lead up to Florida.