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Looks like Mike Huckabee has the inside track on the pro-Confederate flag vote in South Carolina.

New radio ads airing in South Carolina during conservative talk shows praise Huckabee for calling disputes over the confederate flag an issue for the states, the Associated Press reports. South Carolina Republicans go to the polls Saturday.

"You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag," Huckabee said in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Thursday. "In fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell 'em what to do with the pole, that's what we'd do."

The radio ads, from Americans for the Preservation of American Culture, also take aim at John McCain – he has been "calling the flag a racist symbol for years," one spot says – and Mitt Romney, who said "that flag shouldn't be shown" in a debate.

Huckabee, by contrast, "understands that all the average guy with a Confederate flag on his pickup truck is saying is he's proud to be a Southerner," according to one ad. "Mike Huckabee understands we value our heritage and why."

The flag flap is not the only social issue Huckabee finds himself involved with: He is taking heat for comments he made to beliefnet about gay marriage this week.

"I think the radical view is to say that we're going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and animal," Huckabee said.

David Smith of the gay rights group the Human Rights Campaign told CNN that Huckabee is "equating a loving marriage between two people of the same sex with some form of bestiality. I think that's really out of the mainstream of American thought, and most people will find that offensive."

John McCain's losing 2000 campaign in South Carolina continues to follow him as he travels the state this time around.

At multiple events today in the state, protesters waved Confederate flags and passed out flyers as the candidate's bus arrived -- and one of the protesters asked the senator a question at an event, the Associated Press reports.

The protesters were against McCain's call in April 2000 (after the primary) for the flag to be removed from the top of the statehouse -- even though he sidestepped the question during his primary battle with George W. Bush. At the time, he said not taking the stance during the campaign was a "sacrifice of principle for personal ambition."

In an interview from a few months ago with Katie Couric that airs tonight on the CBS Evening News as part of the Primary Questions series, McCain also stood by his stance and called it the "worst advice" he had ever given himself.

"Probably the worst piece of advice I've ever given to myself was when the Confederate flag was flying over the state capitol in South Carolina," he said. "And I decided that I would say it's not an issue I should be involved in, that it should be decided by the people of the state of South Carolina. I knew it was a symbol that was offensive to so many people. And afterwards, I went back and apologized. But it was needless to say, by saying that I wouldn't have anything to do with an issue like that was an act of cowardice."

At the event today, after one of the questioners said he thought taking down the flag was wrong, McCain responded by saying he "could not be more proud of the majority of the people of this state'' who agreed the flag should be removed, according to the AP. He later told reporters, "I believe the issue has been resolved in the minds of the overwhelming majority of the people of South Carolina."

The McCain campaign is aggressively going after any negative attacks on the senator, trying its hardest not to have a repeat of 2000. Although he leads in polls following his New Hampshire win, he still has many critics in the state.

Read the other candidates' responses to the question on the worst advice they have ever given or received.

CBS News' Fernando Suarez reports:

If you want to be president, it's important to act – and look – presidential. Staff members and campaign consultants spend countless hours setting up the perfect backdrop and the perfect settings for their candidate. But sometimes things don't go as planned.

During a Veteran's Day campaign stop in Waterloo, Iowa, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton stood before five American flags and addressed members of the press. After her media availability, Clinton turned around to depart. In a matter of seconds one of the flags came crashing down, followed by another and another. What ensued was an unscripted moment of panic where both staffers and the Senator were reaching to grab the flags. Mrs. Clinton was heard saying, "I don't think - I think the bases are not weighted."

This sort of mishap can happen at any moment, to any campaign. But it comes at a difficult time for the Clinton campaign. The candidate has been under fire over a fumbled answer in a recent debate on whether illegal immigrants should be permitted to obtain driver's licenses. The falling flags may not mean much, but they may be seen as a symbol that a campaign once viewed as calculated and flawless may be more vulnerable than once thought.