One day after a disappointing second place finish in South Carolina, Mike Huckabee got back in the saddle Sunday to party at the ranch of action movie icon Chuck Norris, who suggested that Huckabee's chief rival may be too old for the job.

In a day that had much piling on against McCain, who won the South Carolina primary the night before and is maintaining the lead in polling for the next contest of Florida, Norris, 67, suggested McCain, 71, is too advanced in age for the rigorous job of president.

Norris said he really likes McCain, but the presidency has an accelerated aging effect on the office-holder such that for every year of an average person's life, a president ages three years.

"If (he) takes over the presidency how much will he age in four years? He'll be 84 years old," Norris told reporters.

Asked about McCain's age, Huckabee, 52, kidded, "Only John McCain and his hairdresser know for sure."

"I think he's got a lot of vigor," Huckabee continued. "I think, you know, Chuck's point is, it is a very stressful position. ... I'm not going to say he's too old. I think he has a lot of strength, good genetic factors from his mom. So you know, I don't know. I know more about whether I'm fit to do it, and I think I am."

In a press availability at Norris' ranch in Navasota, Texas, where a fundraiser barbecue was held for about 200 people who paid $1,000 each to chow down and listen to Huckabee's band, Capitol Offense, the former Arkansas governor also repeated a claim by his campaign chairman that Fred Thompson was his biggest barrier to defeating McCain in the Palmetto State.

Huckabee came a close second to McCain in the seven-man Republican presidential line-up, 33-30 percent. But Thompson took third place with 16 percent, and exit polls showed many of Huckabee's and Thompson's supporters shared the same priorities on issues like values, immigration and taxes.

“We obviously wanted and we honestly thought we would win. The fact of Fred Thompson's being in the race took away some votes that we most likely had. I believe every analyst has looked at it that way,"Huckabee said. "The snow pretty much – not only froze the streets of the Greenville-Spartanburg area, but the votes came to a stop when it started snowing. That was an area where we had really looked forward to getting a heavy and significant vote margin."

Huckabee said he wasn't trying to make excuses.

"If you look at the resources we expended and the results we got, I think it was a pretty good showing for us. Again, we wanted to win, no doubt about that. But we didn’t lose. We just didn’t come in first place. There’s a difference," he said.

"Starting today, we reset the clock," he added. "I woke up this morning and I thought 'the momentum is back."'

Like the others now headed to Florida for the Jan. 29 primary, Huckabee has to revamp his strategy for the state that decided the 2000 presidential race, and for Super Tuesday, Feb. 5 the following week. Twenty-one states are participating in Republican events that day.

"Even a contest of delegates isn't going to be over after Florida and probably even after February 5," he said. "So everybody's sort of retooled and said, 'No, this could go on all the way to the convention."'

Huckabee joined other opponents, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, in criticizing McCain, who called himself the front-runner at the beginning of the 10-day sprint before Florida. At a rally in New Port Richey, Fla., Giuliani, who has banked his political fortunes on Florida, with its 57 delegates to the national convention, assailed McCain for never running a government.

"When you have that executive experience, you have to make decisions and decisions have consequences. ... Some of my opponents maybe don't have that same fervor and that same understanding," he said, emphasizing his experience as mayor of New York City.

Romney, who has won in Nevada, Michigan and Wyoming, portrayed McCain as a consummate Washington insider and himself as the solution to Washington's ills.

"He has been in Washington all of his career. And I don't think you're going to see change in Washington by somebody who's been such a part of it all of these years," the former Massachusetts governor told "FOX News Sunday."

A former venture capitalist, Romney also took issue with Giuliani, saying, "He's spent his life working in the public sector, in the governmental sector" and, thus, doesn't necessarily understand how the economy works.

Recent polls show McCain, Giuliani, Romney and Huckabee fighting for the lead in Florida. The latest RealClearPolitics average of Florida polling shows McCain with 23.2 percent, compared to Giuliani with 20.3, Romney at 18 and Huckabee at 17.3 percent. Thompson has 8.5 percent and Ron Paul was at 5 percent.

Despite the close race, few of the candidates had very heavy schedules planned for the week, and fundraising was likely to be a big part of their plans.

Also on the schedule, Huckabee, a Baptist minister, planned to attend Ebenezer Baptist Church on Monday for Martin Luther King Day celebrations. Democrat Barack Obama visited the church on Sunday.

Thompson, the former Tennessee senator and "Law & Order" star, returned home Saturday from South Carolina to visit with his ill mom and consult with advisers about his plans. Many analysts said his speech Saturday night sounded like a prelude to a withdrawal.

FOX News' Serafin Gomez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.