JOHNSTON, IOWA -- Mitt Romney said he is still optimistic for his chances to win Iowa after a Des Moines Register poll released Tuesday showed Mike Huckabee with 32 percent of the vote compared to 26 percent for Romney and 13 percent for John McCain.Ron Paul and Fred Thompson tied for fourth place with 9 percent of the vote. Rudy Giuliani was fifth. Duncan Hunter and Alan Keyes trailed with 1 percent, behind the 4 percent of undecideds in the poll of 800 likely Republican caucus-goers.Both the newspaper's Republican and Democratic polls have been eyed for inaccuracy because of the difficulty of surveying respondents in the week before New Year's Day.  Romney said other polls show different directions.

"They all say different things. It just points out that this one is just too close to call and I think it's going to get decided on Thursday in a way that will probably surprise all of us. I anticipate either getting the gold or the silver. I'd like the gold. If I get the silver, I'll be pleased to get one of those top two tickets, if you will, that you take coming out of Iowa and then go on to New Hampshire," he told reporters trailing him to seven football watching parties in Iowa.

Romney said his optimism for Thursday's race isn't the result of any internal polling that tells him differently, and had a laugh with reporters about whether he has a leg up on inside information.

"I'm sure I know a lot of things you don't know. No, I'm kidding. Oh you mean about the election? No, I'm sorry," he said to laughter. " I don't think I have some secret poll. I know I don't have a secret poll or something that describes to me something that you don't know. But look, two weeks ago, I was 20 points down in this election and now three polls came out this morning -- all have it within a few points. One has me ahead, one has the other fellow ahead and the other has us tied."

Romney hasn't released his campaign finance figures yet, but admits donating more of his own money to his campaign in the fourth quarter. He would not say how much.

" Did I give any more in the fourth quarter as opposed to the third? I'm sure I made additional contributions in the fourth quarter but I don't have any numbers for you," Romney said. "And we're not going to get into the numbers probably until some time in the middle of the month. Right now, we're focused on voters. "

Romney did explain the source of some of his confidence, but it was couched in a shadow of doubt.

"There's a great deal of freedom and confidence which comes with speaking about running for office because of what you can do for the nation and not worrying about what it's going to do for me. I don't have to win this election to feel good about our campaign and what we've done as a family to try and make a difference in America," Romney said.

"This is a serious and sober time for America and I want to make sure and draw that experience to help the country, but I'm not losing sleep. Frankly, this is the experience of a lifetime. You know how much fun it is to go across the country and meet people in homes like this and make so many friends? This is something I would have never dreamed I'd have the chance to do, and if its successful, boy that would be great. If I don't end up, you know, at the final stage, why Ill certainly get behind whoever it is that's our nominee and work for them because these are critical times and I believe in the principles of our party."

The former Massachusetts governor also responded to news that his chief rival, Huckabee, had filmed an attack ad against him, then didn't schedule it for television time but instead showed it to reporters, a strategy that some say manipulated the media and gave him more bang for his buck than airing the ad would have.

Romney said he thinks Huckabee was trying to have it both ways, releasing the ad so close to a holiday that some stations were not able to pull it from their rotations. He added that his own advertising has not been personal but strictly based on his rivals' records.

"I don't think it's going to fool anybody. It didn't fool the media yesterday. I don't think it will fool the people of Iowa. His approach to the campaign has been anything but positive and I don't think people will think of it as a positive approach. If you look at his comments over the last several weeks and look at this ad and his way of putting it into the public marketplace, I think that's made it very clear," he said.

"If you look at my comments about Governor Huckabee, you'll see I always treat him with respect. We differ on issues and I hope that people understand the difference between pointing out differences on important issues and making attacks on other people or disparaging their character or their person. I do my best to speak positively of the people I'm running against. I think they are good people, they are friends, but I disagree with them on matters of issue and policy," he continued, adding that he didn't think that the Iowa voters would buy the explanation Huckabee gave regarding the decisions to cancell the ad buy.

"It does remind you a bit of person who stands up and says I'm not going to call my opponent any names but here's the names I'd call him if I were going to call him names."

Click here to watch Romney in Iowa.

Regarding policy, Romney did say he thought Huckabee was wrong to attack President Bush on his foreign policy, something Huckabee repeated on the campaign trail on Monday when he complained that Bush wasn't informed about the National Intelligence Estimate. Ironically, Huckabee hadn't heard about the latest NIE revising Iran's nuclear weapons until the day after an unclassified version was released on Dec. 3."I was disappointed yesterday to see that Governor Huckabee attacked the president by suggesting that he was not well-versed in national foreign policy affairs or supposedly not having read the National Intelligence Estimate at any time over the last four years. That's obviously completely inaccurate and wrong. The president has kept us safe over these last six years and is extraordinarily well-versed in matters of foreign policy. I'm not sure whether Governor Huckabee did the attack as a joke, but this is not a time to be mocking our president. And it was I think in bad taste. ... This is the kind of stuff you expect of the Democrats. But it's certainly not something you'd expect of a presidential contender on the Republican side."Romney also said that he agrees and disagrees with Bush's foreign policy actions. He said he liked Bush's response after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, supported his decisions to go into Afghanistan and Iraq and credited Bush with handling very well the collapse of Saddam Hussein's military and government."I think we did a less than effective job in managing the conflict following the collapse of Saddam Hussein. That's been said by many people. A number of mistakes were made during those years following the collapse of Saddam Hussein. I think we were underprepared for what occurred, understaffed, underplanned, and, in some respects, undermanaged. I do believe the new course that's been set by the president and by General Petraeus is working. It is working and I have confidence in the work that's being done by our military and I have confidence in our president as he leads this effort," he said.

Romney said he also agreed with the president's decision to pursue No Child Left Behind and that it was important to give senior citizens access to cheaper prescription drugs but the Medicare Part D program "added a very substantial amount to our entitlement burden that I think was unfortunate."

Finally, Romney said that he doesn't think appealing to voters based on religion is the way to get elected, even though faith is very important to many people. He said he is rarely asked about his own Mormon faith while traveling around Iowa.

"Not terribly often. Occasionally," he said. "As you know there have been efforts on the part of some groups to stir up questions about religious liberty. You know that's just not the American way, I don't think that will be successful. In the final analysis I believe people will choose an individual based on his or her vision and their experience, their character. And so I'm confident when the final tally is counted for delegates I'll be the person standing on stage."

FOX News' Shushannah Walshe contributed to this report.