(Newser) – Jon Huntsman's go-for-broke strategy in New Hampshire paid off today with an endorsement from one of the state's biggest newspapers. The Concord Monitor weighs in: "Huntsman, a consistent but never doctrinaire conservative, would present the greatest challenge to Obama," write the editors. "If elected, he would provide mature, informed, and steady leadership."

The state's biggest paper, the Union Leader, has backed Newt Gingrich, but the Monitor's endorsement should give Huntsman a boost ahead of the Jan. 10 vote, notes the Hill. Its editors discount Gingrich as an "unprincipled nominee" and diss Romney because voters "wouldn't know who they would get." As for Huntsman, "we found him, despite his calm demeanor, to be a proponent of bold, hard-nosed reforms that voters, no matter what their party, should consider." (Read more Jon Huntsman 2012 stories.)

