Huckabee defends his handling of anti-Romney ad

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.

"There's a lot of reasons to judge the Bush administration harshly and I think history will certainly do that," she said at a campaign stop in Ames.

"After seven long years of George Bush and Dick Cheney, starting Thursday night we are taking our country back and you all are going to lead the way," she said.

All of the candidates planned a mammoth get-out-the-vote operation to identify supporters and get them to the caucuses, where voters are due to turn out on what promises to be a cold night and join with their neighbors to declare their support.

"The polls look good. But understand this. The polls are not enough. The only thing that counts is whether or not you show up for caucus," Obama said in Des Moines.

"Make the phone calls and knock on the doors and grab your friends and grab your neighbors and say, 'It is time for us to deliver on change,'" he said.

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich urged his supporters in Iowa to back Obama if Kucinich was not viable under caucus rules, which require Democratic contenders to earn backing from at least 15 percent of attendees in each precinct or their supporters can switch to another candidate.

"Sen. Obama and I have one thing in common: Change," Kucinich said.

Huckabee announced he would leave Iowa on Wednesday to head to California and appear on "The Tonight Show" hosted by Jay Leno on NBC.

"My guess is that a lot of people in Iowa are watching Jay Leno, probably more than would come to a rally," he said. He will return to Iowa after the taping.

Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, an anti-war libertarian who has built a huge and fervent following on the Internet despite lagging behind the leaders in polls, announced he raised $20 million in the final three months of the year.

(Additional reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, Andy Sullivan, Deborah Charles; writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

(For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)