Huckabee on the Offensive in Iowa

"There will be a total upheaval of the process" if he wins Iowa, he predicted. "Momentum is unstoppable in an election process. If people suddenly say, 'This guy's got the mo. He's going somewhere,' no matter what the polls were the week before, all bets are off once these contests start."

The challenge for Huckabee is to find a way to communicate what he believes without much money or a vast network of political operatives such as Romney and others have built. Yesterday, Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa's leading Republican, said in an interview that he thinks Huckabee is "the guy who could surprise everybody" in January. "It's demeanor, background, personal beliefs, friendliness, stuff like that," Grassley said. "How he conducts himself, things of that nature. I'm talking about who fits in with the average Iowan, who are they going to feel comfortable with."

But asked then why he would not endorse Huckabee, Grassley said it is because he is not yet a national contender. "If he had $10 million to spend on television, to reinforce what he tells you personally, then I think it would make a difference," Grassley said.

To describe Huckabee's campaign as a "lean, frugal operation," as he did recently, would be generous. In Iowa, he has run no ads on television and has sent just a few pieces of mail to voters, though he promises to do more soon. He has 10 Iowa staffers, compared with more than 60 in Romney's operation.

As he campaigned through Iowa, his 25-year-old daughter, Sarah, who moved from campaign headquarters in Little Rock to Iowa late last month to help her dad, essentially served as his scheduler, press secretary and top adviser.

A conservative on most issues -- such as the war in Iraq, where he says U.S. troops should stay until "we win" -- Huckabee is chatty and conversational, without Giuliani's fiery anti-liberal rhetoric or Romney's peppy optimism. Instead, he alternates between homespun, irreverent and plain goofy.

In interviews, he often cites his endorsement from action-movie hero Chuck Norris as a key moment in his campaign. "I think people are afraid now not to support me," Huckabee jokes. "We're going to send him to their house, and he'll knock on their door."

Dave Vermedahl, a Republican who attended a Huckabee event here but is undecided, said of the candidate, "I like his ability to laugh."

But Huckabee is dead serious when it comes to the issues he cares about. Describing himself as "a generation away from dirt floors and outdoor toilets," he at times sounds more like Democratic candidate John Edwards than someone who wants the Republican nomination.

"If you're rich, it's great," Huckabee said of the economy. But, he said, "there's a growing divide. . . . when you see the middle class shrinking, it's a terrible sign. People who have college degrees are not gaining ground economically."

He bashes the IRS frequently, backing a controversial idea called the fair tax, which would replace all current taxes with a 23 percent sales tax on all goods. Huckabee says it would make the tax code simpler, but it would take away breaks many Americans like. And he talks about the need for energy independence, so the United States can "tell the Saudis we need their oil about as much as their sand."

Unlike Giuliani and Romney, he rarely invokes the name that has become a Republican obsession: Hillary Rodham Clinton. In Vinton, he said he has a "civil relationship, a cordial thing" with the Clintons, who left Arkansas before Huckabee became governor. He instead brags about his record of beating Clinton allies in one of the few states in the South that remains heavily Democratic and has two Democratic senators.

Sarah Huckabee says the campaign is reaching out to home-school groups and churches to look for supporters. The fliers at the candidate's events describe him as "a family man with authentic conservative values." Supporters approach him after campaign events and say "I'm praying for you" or "God bless you."

Asked by reporters about his faith recently, Huckabee said: "Your whole life is not built around what you see but what you can believe. That's really what faith is."

Staff writer Shailagh Murray contributed to this report from Des Moines.