This is a rush transcript from "The FIve," August 15, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: I know everyone around home and you guys have been watching the results all weekend -- right, keeping it on Fox -- the happenings in Iowa, as closely as I was.

So, we're going to get right into it. Michele Bachmann, the big winner. Perry is in, and T-Paw is out.

Dana, what's the significance of Iowa? You know, Pawlenty got out. The rest of them stayed in. Why is that?

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Well, an interesting three days and how different our conversation was last Wednesday or even Thursday compared to today.

So, Michele Bachmann deserves a lot of congratulations. She came -- she only started campaigning and really in earnest sort in May. So, she made a very big impact early on. She knocked out Tim Pawlenty -- Governor Pawlenty of Minnesota, which I know that Bob has some thoughts on that.

But I do just want to pour a little cold water on this, OK? It is very unusual for the person who wins the Iowa straw poll to then become the nominee. Only one candidate, George W. Bush, who I worked for, won the straw poll, Iowa caucuses, and went on to get the nomination and, of course, the presidency. That's not the usual path. So, everything is still pretty much up in the air.

GUILFOYLE: So, she shouldn't be too optimistic.

PERINO: She got to keep working really hard.

GUILFOYLE: Yes, she's got a lot work still to do.

ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: You know, it was a great weekend. It was a fantastic weekend. Fox did a great job from top to bottom. You heard the candidates. You heard the people here.

But, really, I'm going to hold it up again. We held it up on Friday. Here is the real winner of the weekend, you guys. And, Bob, look at that.

GUILFOYLE: Does he ever take a bad picture?

BOLLING: Have you noticed the sheer hatred of this guy from the left? I mean, David Axelrod out there, Krugman, it goes on and on. They're just taking shots at Rick Perry.

BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: Looks like the guy from "Star Trek."

BOLLING: Good looking guy. Rick Perry, I mean, he was the real winner of the weekend.

GUILFOYLE: Yes, he definitely was. Look, he didn't even participate in the poll, right? He made his announcement.

BOLLING: Seven hundred votes.

GUILFOYLE: Seven hundred and eighteen votes. So, this is a guy who actually came ahead, placed ahead of Mitt Romney who was in sixth place in terms of the votes.

I mean, do you think, Bob, that's significant? Is he that guy that can beat Obama?

BECKEL: Who?

GUILFOYLE: Rick Perry.

BECKEL: No.

GUILFOYLE: Feast your eyes on that hair club for men spot.

BECKEL: Let me get back to something Dana said here. Let -- there's a couple things to think about Iowa. It is true that the Iowa straw poll winner doesn't often win the Iowa caucuses. But it's also true that the Iowa caucuses as a victory doesn't at all guarantee what happens in New Hampshire. In fact, New Hampshire electorate is negative on the Iowa caucus winners.

If you go back -- look at Barack Obama and go on back to the list with Bush. It is a place where it is a much different electorate.

And I think Michele Obama made -- excuse me, Bachmann may do very well in the Iowa caucuses. When she gets to New Hampshire, it's a whole different electorate. And think she's going to find the same thing that happened to others who came out of Iowa that New Hampshirans will pick you apart.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Yes, I don't -- I still don't get the importance of the straw poll. To me, it's like a ritual you perform even though it's utterly useless. It's like when you leave work every morning and you go, do I have my keys, my wallet and phone? You have it, but you still do it every day.

GUILFOYLE: Sometimes you don't.

GUTFELD: The straw poll is a political exercise. It's like movie previews. It doesn't matter if you miss it. Just show up for the movie.

PERINO: But it mattered in this case, Governor Pawlenty who is then considered a possible actual nominee for about four years, after the straw poll, he announces on the Sunday shows he's leaving.

GUTFELD: Yes, it's like that game show "Wipeout." It's good for getting rid of people. But it's not propelling for people to win.

BOLLING: It's a good thing, too, focuses the race. It narrows down the race.

GUILFOYLE: And now, Bob, we have to give Bob some credit because, Bob, you made a prediction. And Dana did as well in terms of T-Paw was going to bow out. He got a death sentence in Iowa basically from Bachmann.

BECKEL: Well, I said that I thought for a guy that put all of his chips in one thing, which is to try to get that Ames poll, that if he didn't come in first or very strong second, he'd be out of the race. And I really think that that's -- the Iowa straw poll does serve that purpose, whittling down the field.

And I'll tell you, I got a few other things I want to say here but I think the result of all this is going to -- pardon me? I'm sorry.

GUILFOYLE: Voices talking in his head again.

BOLLING: OK. But, you know, predictions in politics are always dangerous things because you can make a lot of mistakes. But that one was pretty clear to me. Pawlenty had rolled everything in Iowa and here's what drove him out of the race. It wasn't because he didn't think he could win. He didn't he'd win the caucus. He ran out of money.

(CROSSTALK)