Pawlenty finally realizes no one likes him and quits race

[Mr Bean]

Fox News

Tim Pawlenty announced an end to his presidential candidacy Sunday after what he called a "disappointing" third place finish in the Ames, Iowa, straw poll.

The former Minnesota governor said he had hoped to get some lift from the preference poll that is an early indicator of a candidate's potential strength in the primary season.

"I'm ending my campaign for president," Pawlenty told ABC's "This Week," noting that he wished the scenario had been different but voters were looking for something else.

Pawlenty received 13 percent of the vote in the Saturday poll, which is not generally a marker of the future presidential nominee. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann received 28 percent of the nearly 17,000 votes cast followed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who earned 27 percent. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum earned 9 percent and businessman Herman Cain received 8 percent.

But Pawlenty, who had relied on organizational strength and popularity in the lead-off caucuses state, has struggled to gain traction in Iowa, where he and Bachmann, who was born in the state, have conducted a surly back-and-forth.

After his third-place finish, Pawlenty issued a statement saying that he merely needed to show progress, and had achieved that goal.

"We are now moving onto the next phase of our campaign. Over the coming weeks we will be visiting New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida while continuing to grow our already strong ground game in Iowa," Pawlenty said.

But a senior adviser told Fox News that during a Sunday morning conference call, Pawlenty told supporters, "We cannot envision a path forward to victory and so therefore, we made a decision to end the campaign."

The winner of the Republican presidential nomination will face President Obama in the 2012 election.

It's funny that the thing that drove Pawlenty out of the race was not his terrible poll numbers, his lack of support from any group or his method of trying to win by copying everyone else. It was the made up lets face it money making scheme the straw poll that convinced him to get out. That or he's been planning to for awhile and this is his excuse. Now I expect something from the TYT or the Daily show showcasing all the clips of the media three months ago pretending Pawlenty was the frontrunner despite never polling above ten percent.

[erik_t]

An unusually honest and classy act for that shithead.

[Setzer]

Waitaminute... who the hell was Pawlenty? I mean, I only follow politics very loosely, but I never heard of this guy until now.

[Mr Bean]

Waitaminute... who the hell was Pawlenty? I mean, I only follow politics very loosely, but I never heard of this guy until now.

Tim Pawlenty, former Minnesota governor with a so so record who's one claim to fame was blackmailing Democratcs via shutting down the state government to get his way. He was enough of a backrooms power player to get on McCain's VP list during the 2008 campaign. After getting turned down for the spot in favor of Palin he's spent the last two years building up a Presidential campaign network and appearing on places like Fox News whenever possible to build name recognition. He just ran out of money and got third place in the Straw Poll despite all his efforts, out-spending Bachmann something like six to one in comparison for this Straw Poll and still losing.

*Edit Massachuetts, Minnesota same difference

[erik_t]

Minnesota. Minnesota governor.

[Knife]

I wonder how much pressure was on him to go away. He was the number one bomb thrower against Bachman and Romney.

[The Romulan Republic]

One down, about a dozen more idiots to go.

I don't know much about Pawlenty, actually. But I'm surprised to see anyone drop out this early.

[The Kernel]

The straw poll in of itself isn't why Pawlenty quit. He quit because it has become clear that he doesn't have a base to work with here. He doesn't have the lunatic vote of Bachmann or Palin nor the more liberal establishment appeal of Romney and he failed to make people on either side excited about him.

This is a perfectly normal culling that was bound to happen. Far more interesting of a development is Rick Perry entering which should make Mitt Romney extremely happy since he and Bachmann are going to be fighting for the same base.

[Patrick Degan]

With the field he's up against, all Romney has to do to win the nomination is to appear sane.

[FSTargetDrone]

After his third-place finish, Pawlenty issued a statement saying that he merely needed to show progress, and had achieved that goal.

The lament of a loser. If this is his only goal, then he has no business playing with the big kids. The only goal that matters is to win the nomination and then the presidency. Anything else is a waste of time and resources.

[Mr Bean]

The lament of a loser. If this is his only goal, then he has no business playing with the big kids. The only goal that matters is to win the nomination and then the presidency. Anything else is a waste of time and resources.

Unless your Newt Gingrich who's spent the past fourteen years threatening to run for President and keeping himself as a relevant figure in Republican politics by looking like he's trying to run for President. He makes his money off our election cycle because he's convinced people he's seriously trying to run for President and thanks to campaign rules that cash can be spent on lots of things to help out Newt's personal life, anything else book sales can cover (Except his campaign can buy books with election funds then hand those same books out as gifts to other donners in a bit of legal money laundering)

[kaeneth]

The lament of a loser. If this is his only goal, then he has no business playing with the big kids. The only goal that matters is to win the nomination and then the presidency. Anything else is a waste of time and resources.

Unless your Newt Gingrich who's spent the past fourteen years threatening to run for President and keeping himself as a relevant figure in Republican politics by looking like he's trying to run for President. He makes his money off our election cycle because he's convinced people he's seriously trying to run for President and thanks to campaign rules that cash can be spent on lots of things to help out Newt's personal life, anything else book sales can cover (Except his campaign can buy books with election funds then hand those same books out as gifts to other donners in a bit of legal money laundering)

This. Being a 'loser' in American politics is not necessarily a bad thing. Pawlenty raised over $4 million. Imagine if half of that found its way into his own pocket? He doesn't look like much of a loser now huh? :/

I'm not saying that was his intention. I'm just saying, any politician who runs for president and drops out...unless said politician is a complete moron, probably came out a million dollars richer (or more). Corruption ftw.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011 ... g-numbers/

Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, will report raising $4.2 million for his presidential campaign during the fund-raising period that ended on Thursday, his campaign announced Friday afternoon.

“Governor Pawlenty will report that his campaign has raised about $4.2 million and begins the third quarter with more available cash-on-hand than the Republicans who won the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary had in July 2007,” said Alex Conant, a Pawlenty spokesman, in a statement.

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