The reference was to McCain's limited time campaigning in a state where Romney has outspent his competition, building an organization capable of turning out the vote. Romney said 12,000 calls were made Tuesday to supporters from his Iowa headquarters in West Des Moines, while other volunteers braved the bitter, below-zero temperatures to knock on doors.

That organization helped Romney win the nonbinding Iowa Republican straw poll in August, although Huckabee surprised pundits by coming in second. Neither McCain nor the national GOP front-runner, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, participated in the straw poll.

Huckabee had little money or staff in Iowa last August, a situation that has only recently started improving. Thanks in large part to his appeal to evangelical Christian voters — who make up nearly half of Iowa GOP caucusgoers — Huckabee now is a formidable foe who Romney has targeted in television ads as well as a new Web ad available on the Internet called "Roundhouse Kick."

The ad, unveiled by the Romney campaign Wednesday, compares Huckabee with one of his most prominent supporters, actor and martial artist Chuck Norris. According to the ad, Huckabee granted more than 1,000 pardons and commutations as Arkansas governor, while Norris opposes clemency for criminals. The ad asks viewers, "Now who deserves the roundhouse kick?"

Romney, though, didn't bring up Huckabee except when he was questioned by reporters. Instead, he criticized McCain for opposing President Bush's tax cuts and for supporting failed immigration legislation.

McCain, meanwhile, is slamming Romney's lack of foreign policy experience in a tough, new ad that Romney said he has not yet seen.

Campaign stops by Romney also included brief visits to airports in Cedar Rapids and Mason City. His day ended with a rally in West Des Moines, where Olympic speedskater Dan Jansen introduced Romney as someone he was able to size up quickly as a leader.

Jansen told an enthusiastic crowd of some 800 supporters filling a conference center hall that shortly after their meeting in 1999 that he could say without hesitation that Romney could save the scandal-ridden Salt Lake City Olympics.

In a Cedar Rapids airport hangar, also visited earlier in the day by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Romney was introduced by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., as the man who was turned to when the 2002 Olympics were plagued by debt and scandal.

A few dozen Romney supporters also gathered in the tiny terminal of the Mason City airport to hear from the candidate, including some wearing bright yellow "Team Mitt" T-shirts that had been handed out months before during the straw poll when temperatures hit more than 100 degrees. Romney told them he needed their help today because he is "in a neck-and-neck race. ... We are on a razor-thin edge."

Romney joked that he knows people want him to predict the outcome of the election, but he had chosen to follow the advice of Yogi Berra, who famously said it's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.

Later, Romney headed to the back of the plane to ask reporters about the song lyrics, "Whatever will be, will be," claiming he had a bet with a campaign staffer.

Whatever will be tonight, Romney's future sees him heading straight to New Hampshire for the next leg of this presidential marathon.

---

E-mail: lisa@desnews.com