Rick Perry Murders His Own Presidential Campaign on Live Television

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I can never un-see that. You used to be one of my favorites, Paul Constant. Now I hate you.

michaelp on November 9, 2011 at 6:52 PM

He really must be a secret drinker. That was pretty ugly. In a good way.

thatsnotright on November 9, 2011 at 6:53 PM

Ha ha ha ha!

seatackled on November 9, 2011 at 6:54 PM

It's 3.. It's 5... No, wait, it's 35!! I'm sorry. I can't. Don't hate me. Wasn't that how Berger broke up with Carrie? Maybe Perry should stick to Post-Its! Man, I can't wait for tomorrow night's Daily Show!!

DannyG on November 9, 2011 at 6:58 PM

I don't understand Perry, but maybe it's because I'm not fluent in herp-derp.

sloegin on November 9, 2011 at 6:58 PM

He'll blame the liberal media and be fine with the GOP voters

Democrat1234 on November 9, 2011 at 6:58 PM

Maybe he could have written the answer on his hand.

prompt on November 9, 2011 at 6:58 PM

Whahahahahahanahahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!

Simply Me on November 9, 2011 at 6:58 PM

Did we ever find out what #3 was? Watching that clip, I was practically screaming "EPA Rick, EPA!", but apparently he's got something else on the block? Health & Human Services maybe?

mikethehammer on November 9, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Perry can remember his agencies.

Cain can't remember his victims.

Hurry up and install health care...we've got some Alzheimer cases here!

Supreme Ruler Of The Universe on November 9, 2011 at 7:00 PM

@9: Later he said the third was the Dept of Energy.

stinkbug on November 9, 2011 at 7:01 PM

Lawrence O'Donnell is starting his coverage on MSNBC right now to a cover of an Eminem song.

JonnyH on November 9, 2011 at 7:02 PM

Department of Energy

EricaP on November 9, 2011 at 7:02 PM

@9, he remembered it later.. Department of Energy

shanes on November 9, 2011 at 7:02 PM

to hell with all of you, @11 and @13

shanes on November 9, 2011 at 7:02 PM

http://newhampshireprimary.blogspot.com/…

EricaP on November 9, 2011 at 7:02 PM

Anyone else hearing "Another One Bites the Dust" playing in the background?

tacomagirl on November 9, 2011 at 7:07 PM

wow. he really is reagan-esque.

Adrian Ryan on November 9, 2011 at 7:08 PM

How does the biggest oil shill on the stage forget the dept of energy? Holy fuck? Not only did he botch it with the viewing public, his masters will no be well pleased @ all.

pissy mcslogbot on November 9, 2011 at 7:11 PM

I doubt this is his undoing. It is still way early and there is plenty of time for more crazy talk before Iowa. It is not like the Republicans are looking for someone who has good ideas.

Besides the obvious brain fart I think he used up his limited memory trying to remember new tag lines.

Zander on November 9, 2011 at 7:16 PM

Maybe Rick Perry realized that his politics really go against this conscience? Is he like the Republican Id telling us it's morally bankrupt?

bleepinbleep on November 9, 2011 at 7:18 PM

Let's see, he knew ahead of time that he doesn't do well in debates, and yet he goes ahead anyway and pulls this kind of shit?

Not very smart.

Fifty-Two-Eighty on November 9, 2011 at 7:31 PM

Where is keyboard cat when you need him?

matt! on November 9, 2011 at 7:34 PM

I love this. I love watching Republicans implode.

lauramae on November 9, 2011 at 7:36 PM

Of course a really perceptive person might conclude he was trying to be Reaganesque.

Supreme Ruler Of The Universe on November 9, 2011 at 7:38 PM

...So, having said that Perry performs badly in debates, can we talk about how insane it is to want to get rid of the Departments of Education and Energy?

I mean, it seems to me that an inability to remember what you're supposed to say on stage is a failing many of us might have, but that thinking you should abolish the government agencies that regulate some of the most fundamental elements of modern life is straight up batshit.

balderdash on November 9, 2011 at 7:44 PM

Perry's not stupid. This wound is self-inflicted. He wants an opening to depart... Albeit self-made.

Baldy on November 9, 2011 at 7:49 PM

@ 27: Yeah. Right.

David In Milwaukee on November 9, 2011 at 7:52 PM

Perry is the very last person in that group who should advocate eliminating the Department of Education. Granted, education apparently did fuck all for him. But just imagine how fucking stupid he'd be without the minimal standards of education bestowed upon him by the state of Texas.

I thought Bachmann was the worst the Republican party had to offer up. Jesus.

catballou on November 9, 2011 at 7:53 PM

I am so watching SNL this weekend.

Ron Paul ftw

Will in Seattle on November 9, 2011 at 7:53 PM

I think Jack Kemp ("Who am I? What am I doing here?") still has him beat, but wow.

levide on November 9, 2011 at 7:56 PM

@30: Sorry, but watching this moment live was funnier than any spin that SNL could do on it.

stinkbug on November 9, 2011 at 7:58 PM

@31: Was that Jack Kemp? I thought that was Admiral Stockdale.

TVDinner on November 9, 2011 at 8:02 PM

GOPers will love him for it: "he can't remember shit, he is like us". Just brilliant, really.

anon1256 on November 9, 2011 at 8:02 PM

yes, who corrects him? Ron Paul.
I just saw this on ZeroHedge, which also supplied a graph of Perry's presidential trading contract imploding.

Keister Button on November 9, 2011 at 8:07 PM

@34, could be a final attempt: this will either kill or resurrect my campaign... Not matter which, he'll be happy to be unstuck from the tedious middle.

Baldy on November 9, 2011 at 8:10 PM

It's like a smoked a j before going on stage. I feel sorry for his campaign manager.

Phoebe on NE 79th on November 9, 2011 at 8:10 PM

"There are five agencies I would disband!"

"Three, sir!"

"Three agencies I would disband. And those five agencies are..."

"Three sir!"

"...Those three agencies are..."

Urgutha Forka on November 9, 2011 at 8:11 PM

I actually don't think this kind of speaking damages a Republican candidate at all. If anything, it endears him to the GOP base. Did you hear the applause?

Mattini on November 9, 2011 at 8:12 PM

He's not dead yet. Reagan used to pull that crap all the time, and people just put it down to his bubble-headed charm.

Toe Tag on November 9, 2011 at 8:16 PM

@18--awesome.

MyNameIsNobody on November 9, 2011 at 8:19 PM

Only in this field could a Mormon get the nomination; his main opponents are a moron and a molester.

@38 for the hilarious win.

disintegrator on November 9, 2011 at 8:22 PM

This country has elected a mentally-handicapable Texan as president once. What makes you think this one's out of the running?

foolish-rain on November 9, 2011 at 8:24 PM

You guys are really overestimating how many people were watching this thing, let alone will remember it next week.

Olo on November 9, 2011 at 8:32 PM

I didn't watch the debate... Did he already use all of his lifelines?

SeattleSeven on November 9, 2011 at 8:51 PM

If you listen closely in the background, someone says "Oh my". Was that Romney's voice? I'm no good at that sort of thing.

ishf on November 9, 2011 at 9:01 PM

His best shot is to say that he was shaken up because Cain sexually harassed him just before the debate started.

igub on November 9, 2011 at 9:08 PM

Amongst our agencies are such elements a…

Warren Terra on November 9, 2011 at 9:22 PM

How many communists are in the Department of Defense?!! There's 57, I say, 57 communists working right now in the defense department.

Original Andrew on November 9, 2011 at 9:34 PM

@33

You are correct. How on earth did I ever manage to conflate the two?

levide on November 9, 2011 at 9:38 PM

The points made by @43 and @44 points are well taken. Also, it’s a year out before the election and the news cycle and information flow is more accelerated than it was in 2008. But this is worse than W’s long pauses and uhhhs, it shows lapses in short term memory and talking before you have mentally completed the sentence. That alarms voters more than responses they find stupid, uninformed, or sophomoric.

Phoebe on NE 79th on November 9, 2011 at 9:46 PM

Perry was actually playing it smart, when he realized that it might not be a good idea to say that he would eliminate America.

seatackled on November 9, 2011 at 9:54 PM

Cannabis is a hell of a drug.

sirkowski on November 9, 2011 at 9:57 PM

The Republican base worships ignorance. To the extent he sounded like he might not even know what departments he would be governing, it was probably a big plus to a lot of folks.

also on November 9, 2011 at 10:18 PM

"I forget what 3 was for."

PortervilleNerd on November 9, 2011 at 10:23 PM

@38, 48: "My least favorite government agency is Commerce...Commerce and Education...Education and Commerce.... My two least favorite government agencies are Education and Commerce...and the EPA.... My *three* least favorite government agencies are Education, Commerce, and the EPA...and the Department of Energy.... My *four*...no... *Amongst* my least favorite agencies.... Amongst my least favorite government agencies...are such bodies as Education, Commerce.... I'll debate again."

venomlash on November 9, 2011 at 10:31 PM

@56: Nobody expects the vanishing position!

also on November 9, 2011 at 10:43 PM

His support will erode, but not die off. Plenty of his supporters will just argue that anyone could have trouble when they're nervous - like most Republican arguments, there's a kernel of truth in there, but it's missing the point that this guy is A: in way over his fucking head, B: clearly on meds that will have to be revealed at some point, and C: dumb as a stump.

switzerblog on November 9, 2011 at 10:43 PM

At one time, I thought that having so many Republican debates was going to be a bad thing. Too much exposure to the evil madness and all that . . . but now, I see the genius in it. Give them all enough air time and each one of them will eventually make a complete ass of himself and provide lots and lots of fodder for the President.

Looking For a Better Read on November 9, 2011 at 10:48 PM

@46 It's Herman Cain! Who then smirks!

JonnyH on November 9, 2011 at 11:06 PM

Hooolyyyy fuck. That was spectacularly bad. Just... wow. He's a worse debater than Dan Quayle was, and that's saying something.

Reverse Polarity on November 9, 2011 at 11:16 PM

If you don't watch the speaker, then it is almost like listening to GW Bush implode on stage. "Is our children learning?"

StuckInUtah on November 9, 2011 at 11:17 PM

I don't see how this could possibly rank as any less damaging than the infamous Howard Dean scream (which I gotta admit, I don't think was nearly egregious enough to get him ousted from the Democratic primary. But I guess such is the modern media cycle and so Perry is done. Shame it couldn't have been Mutt.)

mikethehammer on November 9, 2011 at 11:33 PM

I just watched the Dave Letterman "Top 10 List" for the first time in years and the category was Top 10 Herman Cain pickup lines and one of them was, "Can I get you a glass of whatever it is Rick Perry is drinking?" = good times. #1 was "Baby my tax plan may be a 9-9-9, but you're a 10-10-10." Also enjoyable.

mikethehammer on November 10, 2011 at 12:01 AM

Best debate moment since Lloyd Bentsen pwned Dan Quayle with "You're no Jack Kennedy." (So far, that is. The election season is still young...)

Andy Niable on November 10, 2011 at 4:19 AM

Alright. I'm on record as saying I thought he wasn't finished. I didn't want anyone to underestimate Perry. But this seals the deal.

Matt from Denver on November 10, 2011 at 5:38 AM

Point: As much as I loathe Rick Perry, I'm kind of sad that we live in a country where an admittedly embarrassing slip-up in delivery will sink his campaign, rather than the content of what he was saying.

Counterpoint:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7wtNOkuHo

YakHerder on November 10, 2011 at 6:16 AM

All I want is to watch an Obama/Perry debate. I think this just destroyed that possibility... but hey, a girl can dream.

smilefred on November 10, 2011 at 6:32 AM

@63: Virtually anything sinks a Democrat (scream, windsurfing, riding in a tank). Virtually nothing sinks a Republican--except telling the truth.

the idiot formerly known as kk on November 10, 2011 at 6:37 AM

@57, I got it! Beautiful. FTW, big time.

Gospodean on November 10, 2011 at 7:00 AM

I didn't watch that embedded video because I saw it elsewhere. My favorite moment was when he said "Oops."

Daddy Love on November 10, 2011 at 7:03 AM

@ 63 and others, the reason why this is so damaging is because it has long been mantra with the far right to do away with these three departments (not agencies, as he called them - these are three cabinet departments). If Perry was with them, he'd have been able to roll it off his tongue because he would have been a believe for 20 years.

This shows that he was paying the far right lip service. If you ever check out hard right blogs, Perry was under suspicion already for things like the HPV vaccine. But failing to name the three departments they want gone is like telling someone you're christian but forgetting one of the members of the holy trinity.

Matt from Denver on November 10, 2011 at 7:10 AM

@63 As I understand it, the whole Dean "scream" thing was organic and worked very well at the event. Charged the crowd up and all. It played less well on TV, but wasn't really a problem until the machine got a hold of it and recontextualized and mangled it into something campaign killing.

A shame really; I thought Dean would have been a hell of a president.

on November 10, 2011 at 9:24 AM

@55: Don't you know that 3 is for house?
One is for peanut, two is for tuba, three is for house!

venomlash on November 10, 2011 at 10:16 AM

Too bad the mangling of his line obscures the truth about what he was trying to say. The reason certain groups want to eliminate the Dept of Education is that it is the government agency that essentially enforces Brown v. Board and student equality. Private schools can get around discrimination because they don't receive federal funding, which is the hammer used to keep public schools in line. No more Dept. of Education, no more hammer, and no more student equality.
Eliminating Dept. of Education = Segregated schools.

Sir Vic on November 10, 2011 at 10:32 AM

@75 wow.

Stop drinking the kool-aid.

Will in Seattle on November 10, 2011 at 10:59 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNyDjkPO8…

Fred Willard needs to play Perry in a Christopher Guest movie about the republican debate circuit.

Rob in Baltimore on November 10, 2011 at 11:55 AM

The man has the intellectual capacity of a houseplant. Look, brain freezes happen. I had one happen in an endorsement interview when I was running for office; I could not for the life of me think of the term "living wage." So I MOVED ON. I talked about another issue. But he couldn't adapt, because he has no idea what he's reciting. He was given a list of things to say by his corporate puppetmasters, he doesn't actually have any beliefs or know anything about issues. So he had no idea what the third department was, or if there were, in fact, five, once he let Johnny Walker bring him to the debate.

Geni on November 10, 2011 at 12:55 PM

@76 Praise from Nero! I must be onto something, then.

Sir Vic on November 10, 2011 at 2:02 PM

@ 25 - Of course a really perceptive person might conclude that this point had already been (hilariously) made by Adrian Ryan a scant 7 posts and 30 minutes prior.

@ 78 - Why you gotta be hatin' on houseplants like that? Why, I have a half-grown dieffenbachia that could debate circles around Perry! :-D

merry on November 10, 2011 at 2:53 PM

its OK the Obama can say he's been to all 57 states and to give the kid a breathalizer but someone else gets roosted go figure

on November 11, 2011 at 6:51 AM

Rick Perry Murders His Own Presidential Campaign on Live Television

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