After weeks of Perrytales by Tricky Rick, the fat lady may have sung. Even if there is a little life left, the one time front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination suffered a senior moment so excruciating, and so critical for his rabid base, that his own party may decide to put him out of his misery. It was captured in video so there’s no getting around it (Below). Perry’s hitting the airwaves this morning to try to salvage his political life, but insiders say it’s over:
(ABC News) — “The bottom line is that we’re going to get up every day and talk to the American people and they know that there is not a perfect candidate that’s made yet. I’m kind of proof positive of it every day that people make mistakes when they debate. People make mistakes when they make statements,” he told me. “But there is one thing that Americans do know about me, and that is my conservative beliefs about getting this country back on track are very deep founded.”
Let me help you out there, Rick. The third department of government you were vainly searching through what passes for your brain to remember was the Department of Energy. The DoE is responsible for nuclear weapons and reactors for the US Navy, nuclear waste disposal, and general nuclear safety and regulation, among other duties. The Secretary of the DoE is currently Nobel Laureate Steven Chu. Nixing this agency after what happened in Fukishima Japan would be like disbanding Seal Team Six to save a few bucks in the wake of 9-11.
This is not a senior moment, Perry is just stupid. With any luck Perry’s presidential campaign will also kill his political career in Texas. Now we know why he refused to debate during the last gubernatorial race.
Was Perry drunk? I know George W Bush lowered the minimum standard conceivable for a U.S. President, but Perry’s performance in this GOP debate was abysmal.
The other alternative is that Perry is a puppet, and he really has no clue. Somebody told him to say he’d eliminate 3 departments, and he can remember the number 3, but … not quite all the names of the departments concerned.
After the debate Perry stressed his “conservative principles”. I prefer to think of it as his guaranteed moron vote. No matter that Perry is so clueless he can’t even remember the names of departments he will shut down, all his voters need to do is remember that he has “conservative principles”! News flash from Earth to Rick Perry: All the other republican candidates up on stage with you have conservative principles too. And they can probably tie their own shoelaces in the morning.
I think Perry is just not very quick on his feet. The more I see of him the more I think local Austinites who have known him a long time are right. The general consensus therein is he has been really, really lucky. I know from my investment banking days, it’s both easy and incredibly seductive to confuse luck with talent or hard work when you’re on a roll.
Wow, that was uncomfortable to watch. I mean he really couldn’t think of it. I kind of felt sorry for him. Oh, who am I kidding, I enjoyed every moment of it. Implode, Perry, implode…
Put a fork in him …