Anita Perry just delivered presidential pitches in Concord and Rye. Ann Romney will chat politics over coffee today in Salem. Dignitaries. Celebrities. Scholars. The campaigns are a cacophony of preselected voices and VIPs, but it's the spouses who really humanize their candidate. Put them in coach, their message is ready to play.

Here is your Primary Countdown for Tuesday, Dec. 20, with 21 more days of political glad-handing and baby kissing to go.

First, a word of spousal support: "We've had a tough time but we are Americans and we are strong and we are winners and we can come back," said Anita Perry at a house party in Rye on Monday. Earlier, she talked to seniors in Concord about the scrutiny a presidential campaign gets. "But it's good because every candidate should be vetted, everybody should know what every candidate stands on every issue. We have no secrets and we're all in."

Ann Romney returns today for a coffee klatch with state Rep. Marilinda Garcia, a smart, young conservative from Salem. While she talks shop, Mitt Romney will be up in Bedford to make a major policy statement before launching a three-day "Earn it" bus tour across New Hampshire.

Speaking of Romney: So is Jon Huntsman. Again. "I'm saying I'm more electable than Mitt Romney," Huntsman said while touring a business in Salem. "People want somebody that can go the distance against Barack Obama and actually win the election."

Doctor Know: Ron Paul, never to be underestimated, is proving to be a most formidable foe for Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney et al in Iowa. Public Policy Polling, in a survey of almost 600 likely Republican voters in Iowa from Dec. 16 to Dec. 18, found Paul in the lead with 23 percent. Romney was second with 20 percent, followed by Gingrich with 14 percent. Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum had 10 percent each, while Gary Johnson came in at 2 percent.

If those numbers hold up, they can only help Ron Paul's muscular ground game in New Hampshire. Paul's first-in-the-nation campaigning today features a town hall-style meeting at Exeter Town Hall.

Click this link to read the "Biggest Story" nobody's talking about.

Quote of the Day: "First time I've run for anything. My family thinks I"m crazy, if you want to tell you the truth." –John Haywood of North Carolina, with a touch of good humor. He is one of the lesser-known presidential candidates on the Democratic Primary Ballot on Jan. 10, 2012. He was in state Monday to participate in a lesser-known candidates forum at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.

Around the Horn:

• New Hampshire Primary: Why the 2012 campaign is different. 
• Rick Santorum pitches electability just two weeks before the Iowa caucuses. (Here is one of a handful of stories tracking Santorum's steady progress in Iowa.)
• Romney says Gingrich's idea to send police after judges neither practical nor constitutional. (Yes, these guys do not like each other.)
• Rick Perry draws Texas retirement plus his salary.
• Gingrich sale of mailing list unlawful, watchdog group charges.

What we'd like to see more of: Christopher V. Hill, as in Hill for President. The Kentucky Republican, a veteran and airline pilot who grew up in Bedford, N.H., delivered a smart elevator speech during the "lesser-known candidates" forum Monday. He tells Patch he will consider it a "W" if he can beat one of the eight well-known GOP candidates on Jan. 10.

"It's not what you expect," Hill said of running for the White House. "First of all, it's so much more about money than we all thought."

Primary tips or quips? Send 'em to dan.tuohy@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter and follow Primary Patch coverage on Twitter.