AMES, IOWA - Tim Pawlenty spent more money, locked up more political talent and blitzed the presidential proving ground of Iowa longer and harder than anyone else.

But early Sunday, after reflecting overnight on his distant third-place finish in the Iowa straw poll, Pawlenty abruptly ended a White House quest that has fueled his every move for the past two years.

He was out of gas.

"I'm from a small state. I don't have a big national network, a political network, and so the measure of us in this phase was 'Can you get some lift?'" Pawlenty said on Sunday morning on ABC's "This Week."

The former two-term Minnesota governor, who started his presidential efforts nearly two years ago, said that fundraising would become too difficult and acknowledged that he simply was not what Republicans were looking for.

"I thought what I brought forward was a rational, established, credible, strong record of results, based on experience ... but I think the audience, so to speak, was looking for something different," Pawlenty said.

Pawlenty held an early morning conference call with supporters, expressing his appreciation, but admitting he saw no viable path to victory.

"The governor said he still has the fight in him but didn't have the necessary tools in the toolbox to get the job done," said longtime gubernatorial aide Brian McClung.

Always a struggle, the campaign started to unravel after the first televised GOP debate in New Hampshire in June.

Early in the debate, Pawlenty was presented a primo opportunity to land a direct hit on frontrunner Mitt Romney, whose health care plan he had derided days earlier as "Obamneycare."

But Pawlenty demurred, displaying a moment of weakness from which he never recovered. That, and a chronic inability to excite Republican voters contributed heavily to his disappointing finish in Saturday's straw poll, a dry run for the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses five months from now. Fellow Minnesotan Michele Bachmann, a late entry to the race, garnered more than twice as many votes as Pawlenty. So did U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.

"Pawlenty lost the Iowa caucuses in New Hampshire," said Steve Deace, an influential Christian broadcaster in Des Moines.

Too little fire

The obituaries of Pawlenty's once-promising presidential bid will have to say that for all his executive credentials, candidate Pawlenty never managed to deliver the fiery, full-throated conservatism Republicans seem to yearn for.

As the first major candidate to declare, Pawlenty for months rode a wave of Washington buzz. He courted pundits and impressed many by locking up some of the party's top political strategists. But that insider credibility never translated into popular support.

"On paper he looks good," said University of Iowa political scientist Cary Covington. "But he just hasn't caught fire."

Aware of the rising influence of the Tea Party, Pawlenty attempted to vie for their support.

Then came Bachmann.

Pawlenty's game plan, carefully formatted over the past two years, did not foresee the unexpected entry of the Tea Party maven. The Minnesota congresswoman swept into her native Iowa and quickly electrified the deeply conservative straw poll voters in Ames.

Pawlenty, despite once being characterized as the most conservative governor in modern Minnesota history, barely made a ripple, registering in low single digits in polls of Iowa Republicans.

Another stumble may have come in Thursday's debate in Ames, when Pawlenty went after Bachmann's record hard, accusing her of having no legislative accomplishments. She returned fire, questioning his conservative bona fides on health care, the environment and even taxes, comparing him to President Obama.

"She's an effective counter-puncher," observed U.S. Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican and Tea Party ally of Bachmann's. "I don't think it helped Pawlenty at all."

Meanwhile, Pawlenty never made any inroads against Romney, the establishment frontrunner who parried the Minnesotan's debate points with dismissive one-line quips.

Rebranding T-Paw

Pawlenty first gained notice as potential presidential timber when he won a second term in 2006 -- a year when many Republicans fell -- by appealing to moderates and independents. But later in his second term he edged further right, shedding earlier, more moderate positions and outright apologizing for others.

As his presidential ambitions grew, Pawlenty worked to craft a profile that could appeal to Republicans further on his right.

He scuffed off his support for environmental programs, which looked too green to many in the GOP, rejected some of his earlier positions on health care and took on an angrier tone than the one that marked his gubernatorial years.

Once he formally launched his bid, he ran a series of slick, super hero-style ads to inject some brio into a persona many called bland. He tried breathing more fire into his speeches, even adopting a seemingly Southern accent in one appearance.

None of it worked.