DEERFIELD, New Hampshire (Reuters) – They are handsome, wealthy and Mormon. They are former governors – and distant cousins – who are vying to become the Republican nominee for president this year.

In this campaign, however, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Romney, widely viewed as the favorite to win the Republican nomination, expects to do well in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday and then win the January 10 primary in New Hampshire, where he leads in the polls. Huntsman, by contrast, skipped Iowa and has staked his campaign on a solid finish in New Hampshire.

Now, in an effort to invigorate his campaign, Huntsman has begun criticizing Romney, even as polls have shown that the rivalry some had forecast between the pair in New Hampshire has not materialized.

Huntsman’s move comes at a time when Romney has received more than 40 percent support in recent New Hampshire polls, while Huntsman is running third with about 10 percent, well behind Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

During a town hall meeting on Sunday in Franklin, New Hampshire, Huntsman, a former diplomat who does not readily engage in hand-to-hand political combat, tried to portray Romney as the establishment’s choice as Republican nominee.

“He’s a good guy,” Huntsman said. “I respect him, but we’re two different people.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Occupy this: the trash bin. At least, so say students at Michigan’s Lake Superior State University who released an annual list of words they deem so misused, overused and cliched they should be banished in the year ahead.

“Occupy,” the term associated with the months-long protest movement in New York and across the United States against income inequality and a variety of other social ills, was among the 12 nominees after just a few months of overexposure.

“It has been overused and abused, even to promote Black Friday shopping,” said Grant Barnett of Palmdale, California, who was among those to nominate the word.

“We are headed to Grandma’s house – Occupy Thanksgiving is under way,” said Bill Drewes of Rochester Hills, Michigan, giving another example of how the word has been overused.

At the head of the class, though, was the word “amazing,” which garnered nominations from around the United States and from as far away as Israel and the United Kingdom for inclusion on the list by the school in remote Sault Ste. Marie.

Many nominators mentioned overuse on television, specifically by personalities such as Martha Stewart and Anderson Cooper, and on reality TV.

“Every talk show uses this word at least two times every five minutes. Hair is not ‘amazing.’ Shoes are not ‘amazing,’” said Martha Waszak of Lansing, Michigan.

HAMPTON, New Hampshire (Reuters) – It was standing room only as Mitt Romney briefly took time out from Iowa to campaign in Republican strongholds in New Hampshire, where he holds a wide lead approaching the state’s first-in-the-nation primary.

Romney spent almost as much time posing for photographs and signing autographs for energized fans as he did making his pitch to become the Republican presidential nominee.

With Kid Rock’s “Born Free” as his theme song, Romney appeared at a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Merrimack on Friday and in the seaside town of Hampton on Saturday to protect his double digit lead ahead of the state’s January 10 vote.

“I need you to go out and vote. In some states they ask you to vote early and often; I won’t do that,” he quipped.

Instead, Romney urged supporters to canvass friends and neighbors for him. Romney campaign officials estimate almost 300,000 telephone calls have been made on his behalf so far.

At both events Romney, who was flying back to Iowa on Saturday for the final push ahead of that state’s caucuses on Tuesday, stuck to his mantra of targeting Democratic President Barack Obama rather than his Republican rivals.

“This president is not a success, this president has been a failure. I don’t think he’s a bad guy, I just think he’s overwhelmed and is over his head,” said Romney, the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts who has a holiday home in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

By Ros Krasny

(Reuters) – Opinion polls come and go, but for those with money on the line Mitt Romney is now a heavy favorite to win the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and go on to challenge President Barack Obama.

Two electronic markets that allow wagering on real-world events have the former Massachusetts governor well ahead, days before the first votes are tallied in a months-long series of state elections to pick the Republican nominee.

The Iowa Electronic Markets, or IEM, on Friday showed a bid for Romney to win the nomination at 0.779 and an offer at 0.790, meaning expectations for his victory are 78.3 percent, against about 51 percent at the start of December.

IEM has been operated by the University of Iowa since 1988, chiefly as an educational and research project. Real money is on the line, albeit not exactly at Las Vegas, or Wall Street, levels. Trading accounts can be opened for $5 to $500.

Romney’s closest Republican challenger is currently “none of the above,” at 8.2 percent, followed by Texas Representative Ron Paul and former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich in the 6 percent range.

Intrade, a Dublin-based prediction market, shows Romney with a 77.4 percent chance of capturing the Republican nomination, a new high in the current election cycle.

CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Square-jawed and clean-cut, four of Mitt Romney’s five sons made a campaign swing through New Hampshire on Thursday to push their father’s presidential bid and try to boost his credentials as a family man.

While the elder Romney stumped in Iowa ahead of the January 3 caucuses there, Tagg, Josh, Matt and Craig Romney met voters at a coffee shop and ate lunch with local Republicans in New Hampshire, which holds its primary in the Republican race to nominate a presidential candidate on January 10.

The Romney sons planned to swing by the candidate’s state headquarters in Manchester, where a nightly phone-a-thon is taking place as part of a get-out-the-vote effort. A fifth brother, Ben, is doing his medical residency in radiology in Utah.

“We’re excited. It’s the home stretch. I like where we are,” Tagg Romney, the oldest son, who followed his father into the venture capital business, told Reuters.

“The priority of American voters is to turn the economy around, and they recognize that my dad is the best equipped to do that, and the best equipped to beat Barack Obama. I feel really good about it,” said Tagg, 41.

It was a not-so-subtle display of family values intended to make voters more comfortable with Romney, who has been a Republican front-runner for months but has failed to go beyond around 25 percent of the vote in polls.

Some of Romney’s television spots have highlighted family strength and consistency: a 42-year marriage, quintet of clean-cut sons and 16 grandchildren.

TILTON, New Hampshire (Reuters) – - Ten days before the first votes in the 2012 Republican presidential race, Mitt Romney’s well-funded campaign machine has held off the most serious challenge to his White House bid and is keeping him near the top of the pack.

The denting of his main rival, Newt Gingrich, endorsements from respected Republicans and a series of well-received media interviews over the past couple of weeks have boosted the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign.

The usually buttoned-down Romney also showed a lighter side with an appearance on Monday on comedian David Letterman’s late-night talk show.

Gingrich had overtaken Romney in some Iowa polls earlier this month, but a wave of negative television ads by the Romney campaign and his political allies on the former U.S. House of Representatives speaker has righted the ship.

Restore Our Future, a super political action committee (PAC) fundraising committee formed in large part by close associates of Romney, has spent $2.6 million in the past two weeks on advertisements opposing Gingrich, whose lead in the polls in Iowa has melted.

Romney’s failure to move above the 25 percent mark in national opinion polls throughout the year is a problem. But if Gingrich’s support collapses in Iowa, which holds its nominating contest on January 3, Romney could have a respectable showing and pick up momentum going into the January 10 New Hampshire primary.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul holds a narrow lead over Romney in most Iowa polls, with Gingrich having slipped to third.

BERLIN, New Hampshire (Reuters) – A more confident and energized Mitt Romney is putting his people skills to the test in New Hampshire as he tries to fix a likeability issue that hurt his failed bid for the White House in 2008.

The Republican presidential hopeful is shaking hands, signing autographs and pumping diesel in a dozen appearances over three days in a classic campaign bus tour aimed at winning the Republican nomination backed by television ads.

In an interview with Reuters, the former Massachusetts governor said he has embraced retail politics with a different mindset than in 2008 when he lost the nomination to John McCain, who was then beaten by Barack Obama in the general election.

A multi-millionaire former businessman, Romney was often described as wooden and unable to connect with ordinary people like mechanics, nurses and farmers during his earlier bid.

“I think I recognize this time, perhaps more than in my last run, that a lot of this is out of my control,” Romney said on his spacious tour bus, which was manufactured in North Dakota and custom-wrapped in Tennessee with the signage “Conservative Business Leader” and “Believe in America.”

“What ultimately happens is not just a function of my work, and my campaign, but also things that occur in the nation and things that occur in other peoples’ campaigns. And so I’m a little more philosophical about the process,” Romney said.

Romney has had some celebrated awkward moments on the 2012 campaign trail, from his “corporations are people, my friend” comment in Iowa to telling a group of jobless people in Florida that he is also unemployed.