United States: The contrast between contenders Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee could not be stronger, writes Denis Stauntonin Newton, Iowa.
Mitt Romney stood before the serving counter at Newton's Midtown Cafe, his hair exquisitely coiffed, his trim frame dressed in a dark blue shirt and khaki chinos with a razor-sharp seam. Looking out over a few dozen, mostly elderly Iowans sipping their coffee, the millionaire former governor of Massachusetts told them how much he needed them if he is to become the Republican nominee for president. "I'm in a real tight battle here in Iowa," he said, before promising, "I won't embarrass you in the White House".
That was as close as Romney came to mentioning his chief rival in the state, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister who is threatening to wreck Romney's strategy of sewing up the nomination with a string of early victories.
Romney has spent 20 times as much in Iowa as Huckabee, much of it on TV ads and mail shots questioning the former Arkansas governor's record on the hot-button Republican issues of tax, crime and immigration.
In Newton, however, Romney's message was relentlessly upbeat, stressing his record as a successful businessman who helped to save the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City after a corruption scandal and presenting himself as the candidate best placed to take on the challenges facing the US at home and abroad. "I don't think anybody votes for yesterday," he said. "I think we vote for tomorrow."
Last October Newton lost its biggest employer, appliances manufacturer Maytag, which once employed 4,000 people in the town. Carole Doane, who came to see Romney with her sister, Marilee, said a lot of people in the town would be very happy to vote for yesterday if they could and few were ready to back a Republican. "I think everybody in Newton seems to be a Democrat," she said.
Doane is backing John McCain, who has little hope of winning Iowa, but she was impressed with Romney. "He seems like a decent person. He has good morals and he's a professional," she said.
Although Romney spent much of the weekend touring coffee shops, he has never actually tasted coffee, much less an alcoholic drink or smoked a cigarette. He is a Mormon, a fact that some Republican strategists fear could damage his chances, especially among evangelical Christians, some of whom believe that Mormonism is not a Christian faith. "It doesn't bother me a bit," said Doane. "If people consider that a problem, then they are the problem."
While Romney was speaking, a young Republican activist whispered in my ear that a number of Arkansas legislators were waiting outside to rebut Romney's claims about Huckabee's record as governor.
In front of the cafe, three current and former state senators and representatives were holding one of Romney's leaflets that attacked Huckabee, refuting or clarifying each of its claims.
Until now, Huckabee had not responded personally to Romney's attacks, but as he arrived at Signature's Grill in Indianola on Saturday, the former Arkansas governor was looking grave.
A new poll showed he had lost his lead in Iowa as the Club for Growth, an anti-tax lobby group, launched a $500,000 TV ad campaign accusing him of being a serial tax increaser.
With his crooked teeth, his five o'clock shadow - already evident at midday - and his modest background in one of the poorest states in the US, Huckabee could not be a greater contrast to Romney. Romney's father, a former governor of Michigan, was chairman of general motors; Huckabee's was a car mechanic.
"My dad got dirty every day doing what he did," Huckabee told his supporters in Indianola.
Huckabee owes his success in Iowa to the support of evangelical Christians, who make up 40 per cent of likely Republican caucus goers, people such as Candice Melcomb, who came to the Indianola event with her two teenage daughters.
"He's got faith in God," she told me. "I believe prayer works and I believe that whatever he needs to do for the country will come by his faith." In his speech, Huckabee made little mention of God and as he spoke about poverty and the struggles of many middle-income Americans trying to make ends meet, he sounded more like a Democrat than a Republican. In Indianola, however, Huckabee's main purpose was to fight back against Romney's campaign against him, which he described as desperate and dishonest.
"If a person becomes president by being dishonest, he'll likely not start being honest when he gets the job," he said.
Only about 80,000 Republicans will caucus in Iowa next Thursday and Romney's organisation, which he has spent months creating at the cost of millions, should give him the edge in getting his supporters out.
Huckabee, who cannot afford much TV advertising and has a tiny paid staff, is depending on informal networks drawn from church groups and the home-schooling movement. "We may not have the money but I believe we have the heart of the people in Iowa," he said.