In an appearance on Fox News Tuesday night, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin suggested that Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-Minn.) campaign for the Republican presidential nomination may be coming to an end after a disappointing showing in the Iowa caucus.
"Down the road, unless something really turns around for her, I don't see a way to progress her candidacy to become the top tier candidate," Palin said.
Bachmann finished sixth in Tuesday night's caucus, which, for all intents and purposes, was dead last. She told a group of supporters on Tuesday night, however, that she's not quitting the race. "I believe that I am that true conservative who can and who will defeat Barack Obama in 2012," she said, according to the Associated Press.
"I am not saying that to disparage her personally," Palin, a Fox News contributor, continued. "She's got good things to offer, she's done a great job. I'm proud of her. I think she is going to be back in the House of Representatives, and we are going to thankful for her being there."
Bachmann, a three-term congresswoman from Minnesota, said last June that she's not going to run for re-election, according to The Hill. She has until June 5 to file for re-election.
In the same interview, Palin praised Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania lawmaker, who ran neck-and-neck with Mitt Romney in the caucuses.
"I'm not surprised at his success tonight. He is a social conservative -- that is what he is known for -- and a lot of Iowa voters respect that and that is reflected in the vote tonight," the former governor of Alaska said.
Palin also warned the Republican Party establishment not to discount Ron Paul.
"The GOP had better not marginalize Ron Paul and his supporters after this, because Ron Paul and his supporters understand that a lot of Americans are war weary and we are broke."
Paul, the congressman from Texas, finished in third place in Tuesday's caucuses with 21 percent of the vote.