"Huckabee has a skeletal organization in New Hampshire and he's barely up on the airwaves, and despite winning Iowa he looks anything like a front-runner here right now," said Dante Scala, a political scientist at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. "The evangelical vote is a much different animal here, probably only one out of seven likely Republican vote — Huckabee really has no base to start with here."

But Iowa bestows an advantage on its winners that has trumped bodies and dollars in other states before: political momentum. Huckabee now has substantial wind at his back; political analysts say his success in Iowa could translate into a 5 or even 10 point boost in the polls in New Hampshire, which votes on Tuesday.

"Huckabee could easily struggle in New Hampshire but still try to re-ignite himself in South Carolina, where he has a base," said Steffen Schmidt, a professor of political science at Iowa State University. "His bigger problem is that he doesn't have a national campaign or money for the big expensive primaries that are coming."

Romney, like a past candidate from Massachusetts, John Kerry in 2004, had hoped that a victory among strangers here would add luster to his candidacy among people who know him better as a resident of a neighboring state.

It worked for Kerry. Yet Romney now faces a pitched battle there against not only Huckabee but also McCain, who, more than any other Republican, has been campaigning intensely in New Hampshire to win back the independents and party faithful who rallied around his banner in 2000.