“You see Perry working the crowd. They’re impressed with him on a personal level,” Funk said. “It’s the same thing that Palin and [Mike] Huckabee have, and for that moment you’re the most important person in the world to him when you talk to him. I’m not sure that Mitt Romney has that skill.”

For that reason, Funk believes Romney will have a hard time competing in Iowa; he said Romney needs to set the record straight about what his record is, because voters are confused. “It’s very difficult to capture the attention of those people when you’re not there,” he said.

And that’s what leads Funk and others to say that, ultimately, Romney will be on defense rather than offense in Iowa.

“If Romney is going into the prevent defense, then he’s going to prevent himself from winning,” Funk asserted. If that’s how he continues to play, the GOP official said, “He should quit wasting his donors’ money, because if you’re playing prevent when you’re behind in the polls, you’re going to lose.”