According to Public Policy Polling, a firm with connections to prominent national Democrats, businessman Herman Cain has jumped ahead of former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts to lead the pack of hopefuls for the Republican presidential nomination.

PPP released a national poll on Wednesday showing Cain with 30 percent and Romney trailing with 22 percent. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich was barely leading Texas Gov. Rick Perry for third place, taking 15 percent, with the governor of the Lone Star State right behind him with 14 percent.

Fading in the polls at the national level and in Iowa, where she claimed a big victory in the Republican straw poll in Ames in August, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann looked to get her campaign for the GOP presidential nomination back on track as she unveiled her jobs and economic plans on Tuesday -- and bashed President Barack Obamas economic record.

Three of the dark-horse candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, all of them former governors, have placed their bets on New Hampshire as they look to score a breakthrough in the Granite State, which hosts the first presidential primary. Long shots have done well in New Hampshire before, as the likes of Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Paul Tsongas and Pat Buchanan scored well in the Granite State during their presidential bids.

With former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announcing last week that she was not entering the Republican presidential race, former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah appeared on The View on ABC on Thursday and bashed the way she handled her exit. You string people along, Huntsman told the hosts. Everybody who has anything to do with politics knew she wasnt going to get in the race. She has a profit proposition, shes got a business. She makes money doing what shes doing. Who on earth is going to leave that for the uncertainty of presidential politics? ...