Pawlenty Watch: Former Governor Calls it Quits

It's over.

Tim Pawlenty, Eagan's favorite son and Minnesota's former governor, dropped out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination this morning, just hours after finishing a disappointing third in the Ames, Iowa straw poll.

"I wish it would have been different. But obviously the pathway forward for me doesn't really exist so we are going to end the campaign," Pawlenty said on ABC's "This Week" from Iowa shortly after disclosing his plans in a private conference call with supporters.

Pawlenty senior adviser Phil Musser told The Huffington Post (which like Patch is owned by AOL) that the Minnesota Republican "just wasn't willing to risk debt to soldier on--part of why he would have been a good president."

The two-term governor, described by news services as a "low-key Midwesterner," never really gained traction in a state he had said he must win and never caught fire nationally with a Republican electorate seemingly craving a charismatic, non-establishment type to go up against President Barack Obama.

Pawlenty tried to turn up the heat on Obama and his GOP rivals. But it often came across unnatural and he never was able stoked the passions of voters.

"What I brought forward, I thought, was a rational, established, credible, strong record of results, based on experience governing - a two-term governor of a blue state. But I think the audience, so to speak, was looking for something different," he said.

In recent weeks, he withered under the rise of tea party favorite and fellow Minnesotan Michelle Bachmann, whose rallying cry is a sure-fire applause line about making Obama a one-term president, and libertarian-leaning Ron Paul, as well as the promise of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who entered the race Saturday.

"I thought I would have made a great president," Pawlenty said. "I do believe we're going to have a very good candidate who is going to beat Barack Obama."

Pawlenty has not yet endorsed a candidate.

As late as Saturday evening, Pawlenty had said that he wasn't dropping out of the race. He called the test vote in Ames "an important first step on the road to the Republican nomination and, ultimately, the White House.