Huckabee defends his handling of anti-Romney ad

By Ed Stoddard

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Reuters) - With two days left in a tight Iowa race, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee defended on Tuesday his unorthodox and heavily criticized handling of an attack ad against rival Mitt Romney.

Huckabee said he did not regret Monday's news conference in which he announced he would not run a television ad critical of Romney -- then showed it to reporters, ensuring its accusations got a wide airing.

"I expected to get criticism," the former Arkansas governor told reporters in Cedar Rapids. "This is a big boys' game and so you take your lumps."

A new Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll of Iowa, taken before Huckabee's news conference, showed him opening a four-point lead over Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, 29 percent to 25 percent. Arizona Sen. John McCain was third with 12 percent. The poll had a 3.3-point margin of error.

Among Democrats, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton maintained a four-point edge over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, 30 percent to 26 percent, with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards at 25 percent. A new Des Moines Register poll gave Obama a slight edge on Clinton.

Huckabee said he decided not to run the ad because he wanted to set a more positive tone for the campaign, which has featured harsh exchanges with Romney over their respective records as governors.

"I have no regret at all about pulling the ad. I slept well last night and woke up this morning feeling even better about it. It was the right decision," Huckabee said, drawing cheers from supporters.

Critics and rivals called it hypocrisy.

"It does remind you a bit of a person who stands up and says I'm not gonna call my opponent any names but here's the names I'd call him if I were gonna call him names," Romney told reporters in Johnston.

"I don't think it will fool the people of Iowa. His approach to the campaign has been anything but positive and I don't think people will think of it as a positive approach."

The contest in Iowa opens the state-by-state battle to choose candidates for the November presidential election. The Democratic caucus opens at 6:30 p.m. CST (7:30 p.m. EST/0030 GMT), with Republicans starting 30 minutes later. Results could begin to appear within an hour or two.

NO HOLIDAY

The first day of the year was hardly a holiday for presidential candidates in Iowa, who spent it crisscrossing the state to drum up support before the first big test of the presidential nominating race.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards planned a 36-hour marathon campaign sprint to Thursday. Romney visited a series of parties where supporters were watching college football bowl games on the New Year's holiday.

Clinton and Obama hopped planes to make quicker time. Clinton leveled a new blast of criticism at Republican President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.