At a local veterans building here, Huckabee insisted that a top-three finish of any kind would be a remarkable achievement for such an under-funded campaign and that his campaign has enough money to push forward regardless of the outcome.

The former governor said he has more than $2 million cash on hand, and he will head to New Hampshire after tonight’s caucuses. Though many pundits have said he must win Iowa to overcome his dearth of funds, Huckabee is now at or near the top of the polls in several other states, including the early South Carolina primary, even though he lags far behind in New Hampshire, which holds is first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday.

“What I’m saying is that we don’t have to finish first here in order to feel like we’ve been successful,” Huckabee said. “But if we finish first here, I think we’ve exceeded everyone’s expectations, and we’ve certainly exceeded all of the conventional wisdom standards.”

“A lot of the campaigns are broke; they’re not sure how they’re going to go on,” Huckabee said later in a television interview. “We’re going to go on” because of our financial discipline.

In comments clearly aimed at former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Huckabee’s top GOP competitor in this state, Huckabee said voters must look for the candidate who is going to tell them the truth and not one who switched his stance on abortion for political gain.

Romney has been forced to defend his past views on the issue, which he had previously characterized as “effectively pro-choice.” Huckabee said: “It’s not a position that the pollsters gave me last week. … I didn’t become pro-life because I’m political. I became political because I’m pro-life.”

Huckabee did not bring up foreign policy once in his 25-minute speech, failing to mention Iraq, Iran or Pakistan. He instead focused on small business, gas prices and character.

Asked about his decision to appear on NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” on Wednesday while the Writer’s Guild of America is on strike and Leno’s writers remain in picket lines, Huckabee said the writers are striking against NBC instead of Leno.

Huckabee insisted that he supports the writers and noted that the show is not using replacement writers who crossed those picket lines.

“What Jay Leno did was put 160 people back to work and make sure that they have a living,” Huckabee said.