POLITICO's Jake Sherman reports this gem from the trail in Portsmouth, N.H.:

Twice during an hourlong event here, Mitt Romney dinged Newt Gingrich for failing to qualify for the Virginia ballot.

First, he met a man named Virginia, to whom he responded "I'm on the ballot in Virginia, that's good news."

Then, asked by a reporter about the former speaker's inability to garner the signatures needed by the commonwealth, Romney went at Gingrich harder.

"I think he compared that to ... Pearl Harbor," Romney said. "I think its more like Lucille Ball at the chocolate factory. So, I mean, you know, you gotta get it organized."