Will Romney's Attacks Backfire?As with Gingrich today, Huckabee reacted to the spots by officially refusing to go negative. Instead, he attacked Romney for going negative, and then showed reporters a campaign ad he had decided not to run attacking Romney. It worked for Huckabee. In Iowa in late 2007, the negative attacks only confirmed voters suspicions of Romney as a robot candidate without clear conviction.
http://swampland.time.com/2011/12/09/mitt-romneys-return-to-negativeland/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fswampland+%28TIME%3A+Swampland%29
EDIT - Two polls that are interesting for two different reasons.
Gallup: National GOPNewt 37%
Romney 23%
Paul 9%
Perry 6%
Bachmann 6%
Santorum 2%
Huntsman 1%
Remember that meme that Mittens has hit a ceiling? So far I've nothing to dispel it.
And at the state where Mittens' Daddy was Governor...
National Strategy: MichiganNewt 31%
Romney 29%
That primary, btw is 2/28/12.