Michele Bachmann's drubbing of Tim Pawlenty forced him out of the campaign (Reuters)
ABC's Jake Tapper:
Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is dropping out of the Republican presidential contest, after a disappointing third place finish in the Iowa Straw Poll yesterday.
“We needed to get some lift to continue on and have a pathway forward,” Pawlenty said this morning in an exclusive interview on “This Week.” "That didn’t happen, so I’m announcing this morning on your show that I’m going to be ending my campaign for president.”
So now that Republicans just used a procedurally meaningless straw poll (remember, it doesn't select a single delegate or play any official role in the nominating process) to push Pawlenty out of the race, what's next? Probably it won't make that much of a difference—it's not like Pawlenty had much support to begin with. But it is fun watching him backpedal on his criticism of Michele Bachmann.
As you may remember, during Thursday's debate, Pawlenty said this:
Now as to Congresswoman Bachmann's record. Look, she has done wonderful things in her life, absolutely wonderful things, but it is an indisputable fact that in congress her record of accomplishment and results is nonexistent. That's not going to be good enough for our candidate for president of the United States, that is not going to be good enough for the president of the United States to serve in that capacity.
And now, after taking a drubbing yesterday, what is he saying?
I think she's qualified to be President.
So, if nothing else, Michele Bachmann just won the coveted "you're qualified" endorsement from none other than Tim Pawlenty himself.