Huckabee Insists He Won't Drop Out

Mike Huckabee brushed off predictions Thursday that he would drop out of the Republican presidential nominating contest, but dropped new hints that he'd prefer John McCain to Mitt Romney as the party's eventual pick.

Huckabee, who hasn't won a caucus or primary since Iowa, emphatically dismissed the suggestion that the GOP race was a two-man contest, with Rudy Giuliani out of it and questions about whether he was sticking it out to angle for a running mate spot.

"I'm staying in the race because I still think I can win," he told an enthusiastic audience of about 170 people at a campaign appearance organized by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Club.

"When people say, 'Why aren't you going to drop out?' I look at the two other guys and say, 'Why don't they drop out?"'

Huckabee also was scornful of the idea - apparently from Romney's camp - that he would siphon votes away from Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and thus help ensure McCain wins the nomination.

"I think it's pretty desperate when you say a vote for Mike Huckabee is a vote for John McCain. A vote for Huckabee is a vote for Huckabee," the former Arkansas governor said. "If Mitt Romney can't understand how electoral politics works, maybe that explains why he has spent so much money and doesn't have a lot to show for it."

Huckabee said his pared-down campaign has generated more bang for the buck than Romney's, taking another swipe at the former Massachusetts governor: "Look how much money he spent to get the same market share as I did - I would say my message is selling better than his."

But he had nary a negative word about McCain. Huckabee said he'd gone out of his way to congratulate McCain on his big endorsements from Giuliani and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and joked that McCain should leave some endorsement crumbs for him.

Huckabee said he'd be glad to capture some big-name Republican endorsements, but told reporters after the event, "I've never been the pick of the establishment. I probably will never be. That's OK, Ronald Reagan wasn't either."

According to his end-of-year FEC filing, Huckabee had his best quarter during the last three months of 2007 as his campaign began to gain traction, particularly in Iowa. He raised $6.6 million from October through December and had $1.9 million in the bank at year's end. Since the South Carolina primary on Jan. 19, the campaign has raised more than $3 million online and $1 million at fundraisers.

Huckabee's campaign plans to spend some of that money placing television ads in the Southern states at play Feb. 5, including Alabama, Georgia and Arkansas. It also will advertise in Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Yet the one-time Baptist preacher said he wasn't giving up hope in big states like California. Huckabee said at an appearance in San Diego later in the afternoon that he was gunning for deep red districts like the one in eastern San Diego County held by Rep. Duncan Hunter, who endorsed Huckabee after dropping his quixotic presidential bid two weeks ago.

"You need 1,191 delegates, and we're all fairly close in the number of delegates that we have," said Huckabee, who has seven to Romney's 27. McCain leads with 89 after his Florida win.

Stressing that contests in delegate-rich Midwest and Southern states where he has strong support are still to come, Huckabee pointed to the reversal of fortunes for Giuliani, who was the party's presumptive front-runner last summer while McCain's campaign was struggling.

Huckabee remained relentlessly optimistic when two women stood up on chairs demanding an end to the war in Iraq while he was speaking in San Francisco. One of them was carried out of room on the shoulder of a hotel guard.

"Let's not be angry at that person. Let's just be grateful that once more we are reminded how grateful we ought to be to be citizens of the United States of America," he said.

Huckabee basked appreciatively in the audience's frequent applause, and said he had no problem campaigning in a liberal bastion such as San Francisco because Arkansas had a Legislature controlled by Democrats when he was governor.

"I would like to think in San Francisco, a city that prizes tolerance, they would be tolerant of a Republican running for president, too," he said.

Huckabee was set to speak Thursday evening to a meeting of the Renewal Project, a nonprofit group that provides coaching for pastors, before heading to Oklahoma.