Huntsman: Iowa shows GOP race still "wide open"

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman bypassed Tuesday's Iowa caucuses.

The Republican presidential candidate has been focusing entirely on next Tuesday's primary in New Hampshire.

On "The Early Show," Huntsman spoke with CBS News' Nancy Cordes and Jim Axelrod from Manchester, N.H., about his thoughts on the Iowa results -- which he calls a "jumbled up three-way tie."

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He said the results have been "highly ambiguous" because people don't want to be told how to vote -- and the same is true, he said, in New Hampshire.

"The external influences are minimal," he said. "They want the candidates to come in. They want to learn their heart and soul and what is in their head and be able to understand their vision for a better America and then they do their diligence and then they'll stare down the ballot box and say, 'I have to make a decision. The drama, the circus act is over and I have to decide who can be the president of the United States of America?' And that's going to drive their thinking.

Huntsman also discussed his vision for his race in New Hampshire and his current third-place standing in the latest Suffolk University Poll. He pointed to Rick Santorum's rapid, late rise in Iowa as proof such moves can happen -- and predicted he'd experience a similar fate in New Hampshire.

Check out the video above for his full interview.