Pawlenty drops out of the race for president
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty ended his campaign for president this morning, just hours after finishing a distant third place in the Iowa Straw Poll. Pawlenty had said earlier that he needed to have a very strong showing in the poll in order to give his campaign a boost, but had not explicitly said that he would need a win to keep campaigning. A lot of political pundits were expressing that sentiment.
Pawlenty said on ABC's "This Week" this morning that he thinks he would have made a great president, but "obviously that pathway isn't there."
Pawlenty said he offered voters "a rational, established, credible, strong record of results," based on his two terms as governor of a largely Democratic state. But he says voters apparently were "looking for something different."
Pawlenty had spent a great deal of time and resources courting Iowa Republicans for much of the past two years, but he was eclipsed by the other Minnesota entrant in the race, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who won the straw poll last night. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas came in a close second.
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