After Weak Iowa Showing, Bachmann Bows Out

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Last night's GOP presidential caucus in Iowa has narrowed the field of candidates by one. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who won Iowa's straw poll in August, bowed out today. She did so after finishing last among the six Republicans who actively campaigned in the state. NPR's David Welna has this report.

DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: Despite her bottom-of-the-pack finish in Iowa, Michele Bachmann initially said she'd stick to her plan of going on to campaign in South Carolina. But at a hastily convened Des Moines press conference today, she declared the time had come to call it quits.

REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN REPUBLICAN, MINNESOTA: Last night, the people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice. And so I have decided to stand aside.

WELNA: Bachmann got less than five percent of the caucus votes. It was a striking reversal of fortune for her five months after becoming the first Republican woman ever to wind a straw poll held in Ames, Iowa, a victory she pointed to once again today.

MINNESOTA: And I will be forever grateful to this state and to its people for launching us on this path with our victory in the Iowa straw poll.

WELNA: Bachmann made much of the fact that she was the only contender who was born in Iowa. And though she often boasted of having a spine made of titanium, many did not seem to take her seriously. Here's Fox News host Chris Wallace interviewing Bachmann last June.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY")

CHRIS WALLACE, HOST:

Are you a flake?

MINNESOTA: Well, I think that would be insulting to say something like that because I'm a serious person.

WELNA: Wallace later apologized for that question. Still, Bachmann continued to struggle with getting her facts straight, both in debates and on the campaign trail.

University of Minnesota political analyst Lawrence Jacobs says that may be what explains her poor showing last night.

LAWRENCE JACOBS: Bachmann's tendency to run undisciplined campaign and to make comments that were not carefully vetted ended up catching up to her. She ended up stepping on the bounds that she got in the August straw poll win.

WELNA: Bachmann today portrayed her quest for the presidency as a mission to stop what she called President Obama's policies based on socialism.

MINNESOTA: And while a congressman by title, a politician I never have been nor will I ever hope to be, because I am not motivated in this quest by vainglory or the promise of political power.

WELNA: As co-founder of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus and a frequent guest on Fox News, Bachmann has developed a national following of social conservatives. She spent three terms in Congress, but political analyst Jacobs has doubts about a fourth.

JACOBS: She may well decide not to run for re-election. In Congress, her seat looks like it may be redistricted in a way that will be unfriendly to her, and instead focus on this national audience and platform that she's created.

WELNA: And if Bachmann was disappointed about dropping out, she was not saying so.

MINNESOTA: I have no regrets, none whatsoever.

WELNA: David Welna, NPR News.

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