ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Tim Pawlenty has dropped out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination, a day after finishing a disappointing third in the Iowa straw poll.
The former Minnesota governor tells ABC's "This Week" he thinks he would have made a great president, but "obviously that pathway isn't there."
Pawlenty says 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."
He says another "very good candidate" will emerge who will defeat President Barack Obama.
Pawlenty had struggled to gain traction in Iowa, a state he had said he must win, after laying the groundwork for a campaign for nearly two years.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
