Rick Perry, Iowa Straw Poll Turn Republican Presidential Race Upside Down
WASHINGTON, Aug. 14, 2011— -- It was a dramatic reset to the Republican race for president this weekend with a big victory for one candidate, the exit of another and the entrance of a third.
Making the rounds on the morning talk shows today, Michele Bachmann took a victory lap in Iowa this morning after winning the Ames Straw Poll, but the political fight for Iowa's attention has just begun.
"Obama is my strategy," Bachmann said on ABC's "This Week." "I intend to be the nominee of the Republican Party and to take him on and to defeat him in 2012."
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced today that he is dropping out of the presidential contest, after a disappointing third-place finish in the straw poll.
"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."
Perhaps the bigger game changer in the Republican presidential field Saturday happened 1,200 miles away from Iowa with Texas Gov. Rick Perry announcing his candidacy at a Republican gathering in South Carolina.
"It is time to get America working again, and that's why with the support of my family and unwavering belief in the goodness of America, I declare to you today as a candidate for president of the United States," Perry said.
Perry, who will now challenge Bachmann for the social and Christian conservative vote, made his first appearance as a presidential candidate in Iowa tonight.
