Romney Says He Doesn't 'Have to Win' in Iowa

ANKENY, Iowa, Jan. 1, 2008 — -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney disputed the idea that, having spent millions of dollars on TV ads and his state organization, he has to win the Iowa Republican caucuses Thursday.

"There's no 'have to win,'" Romney said in an interview with ABC News Tuesday. The former CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympics predicted he'd win "either the gold or the silver and then go on from there."

Romney was spending New Year's Day hopping from house party to house party in the Des Moines suburbs. ABC News caught up with him in the town of Ankeny on the Mitt-Mobile, his campaign bus.

Watch the full interview tonight on "Nightline" at 11:35 p.m. ET

Acknowledging that he's locked in a dead heat with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Romney said he marveled at the fact that he started 2007 at 5 percent or 6 percent in the polls.

"To now be one of the top two contenders, with Mayor Giuliani and John McCain and Fred Thompson all the way behind me -- people who are household names -- that's really quite an accomplishment," he said.

In the past week, the rhetorical brawl between Romney and Huckabee has gotten intense and personal, seeming to climax with Monday's unusual press conference at which Huckabee convened the media to show them a negative campaign ad about Romney all set to begin airing across the state.

Instead, Huckabee announced that he wanted to change the tone and return to positive campaigning. He then showed the roomful of reporters and cameramen the attack ad he'd just said he didn't think should air on television.

"I think it's a very strange and confusing thing to the people of Iowa to say on the one hand you want to run a positive campaign and then on the other hand, 'Here, look at my negative advertisement, make sure and take careful notes,'" Romney said. "I think that's very confusing and puzzling to people here."

Romney, however, has been the leading creator of negative TV ads in this campaign season, launching them in Iowa against Huckabee -- on the subject of foreign policy, crime and immigration --