Michele Bachmann Cancels South Carolina Travel Plans After Loss in Iowa Caucuses

Rep. Michele Bachmann cancelled plans to travel to South Carolina this morning and scheduled  an impromptu news conference for later today, an indication that she might drop out of the GOP sweepstakes after her last-place finish in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses.

Campaign officials would not say whether Bachmann would drop out. One senior official said Bachmann was still deciding whether to concede this morning but was leaning toward exiting the contest. Another official said her mind was made up, but would not confirm her decision.

Bachmann staked her candidacy on Iowa, the state in which she was born and raised. In September, campaign manager Keith Nahigian called Iowa a "must win" state.

Bachmann placed sixth out of the six candidates competing here in Tuesday's first-in-the-nation caucuses, receiving only 5 percent of the vote and losing in Waterloo, the town where she was born.

At a post-caucus speech Tuesday night, the Minnesota congressman suggested she would remain in the race and that she believed she could beat Barrack Obama in the general election.