If you missed Rick Perry’s colossal fuckup at last night’s debate, Anne Laurie has the video below. The conventional wisdom is that this is the end of Perry’s campaign, and that’s probably right, since he’s been in the low teens in the polls ever since Republicans got a good look at him. The guy is a moron, a delicate flower who can’t survive outside of the hothouse that is Texas, not to mention that he sounds just like George W Bush. This has been true for a long time and obvious to anyone watching any Perry public appearance that wasn’t totally scripted.
But as this media tool’s tweet indicates, one of Perry’s parting gifts is still more emphasis on one-moment campaign enders, something the Beltway media already fetishizes. The DC media loves the notion that saying or doing one dumb thing on camera can kill any campaign instantly. They love it because it shows the power they wield over the race by being able to report these little moments, it justifies the stupid “boys on the bus” tradition where the press has to follow each candidate for months as they repeat the same mind-numbing stump speech day after day, and it justifies beat ignorance. If one instance of forgetting a talking point, or yelling to be heard in a crowded room, can kill a campaign, why bother learning about the issues? You can sit around all day talking about whether the guy you’re covering connects with the common man, debate whether America would like to have a beer with him, and then when the campaign ender happens, you can tell the world that this isn’t your first rodeo.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Fuck him and the horse he didn’t ride in on!
Rich2506
And as another website pointed out, Jan Brewer suffered a similar brain freeze, but her candidacy didn’t collapse as a result because it wasn’t part of an established pattern. With Perry, he had already suffered from similar problems of not being very aware or with-it.
mikefromArlington
Romney is the luckiest man alive. He could basically skip the rest of the debates and show up on election day at this point.
He can probably stop pandering to the crazies too and still pull this off.
PeakVT
@mikefromArlington: So what happens when Obama’s luck for drawing lousy opponents meets Romney’s luck for drawing lousy opponents?
Emma
@PeakVT: The one with charisma and speechifying ability wins. That’s politics.
JCT
I have a running “argument” with a Texas colleague over who’s governor is the biggest idiot. I still think it’s mine (Brewer) but Perry is making this a real race.
To the bottom, YEAH!
El Cid
About time we put the right people in charge to administer our new austeritocracy liberation front.
That’s the ECB whose shitty policies are endangering the future of the European Union — meaning, the economies of all those countries within.
Maybe we need to put in another tough economist to take care of these god-damned welfare cheats looking for a bailout by producers like Rick Santelli.
However, it’s also all the fault of fedrul unfunded mandates.
What business is it of the fedrul gubmit if shit runs in the streets?
Emma
And totally OT but not: can one of you veterans notify someone in the hierarchy that Ron Paul’s advertising himself as “the military’s choice for president” as if he were being endorsed. Not cool.
harlana
They just aren’t the same. The Dean scream “campaign ender moment” was completely manufactured by the media. Perry’s moment was epic fail because he cannot complete sentences. It was just up there on the stage for all to see, no “sound effects” necessary. It’s just an unfair comparison.
El Cid
It’s really bad when I feel too embarrassed for Rick Perry to finish the clip.
Can’t he just get Karl Rove to run allegations that Mitt Romney’s a lesbian like he did to Ann Richards? [Note: the “he” being Rove.]
Oh, that’s right — Karl’s not working for Perry any more.
MattF
I agree that this is an astoundingly bad way of choosing candidates… But Perry really is a fucking idiot, and reporters (for some reason) can’t write stories with ledes like “Rick Perry, the fucking idiot, gave a speech today.” So, what’s the alternative?
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Emma:Hierarchy of what?
beltane
@PeakVT: So far, the opponents Obama has faced have all, with one exception, been less lousy than the ones Romney is facing. Hillary Clinton might have run a poor campaign but none of the Republican contenders Romney is facing now are anywhere close to being in her league.
The Other Bob
Maybe if reporters could write intelligently about some of Perry’s, or Cain’s or any other crazy-ass policy idea instead of waiting for a slip of the tongue we would have a more informed electorate.
Perry is all kinds of crazy, but having a brain freeze is not the real evidence here.
The MSM is so lazy.
kd bart
Brought back memories of The Honeymooners episode where Ralph didn’t know who wrote “Swanee River” on the $99,000 Question.
The Other Bob
@beltane:
I somewhat disagree. I think most people thought “moderate” McCain was the strongest Republican going into the race.
Of course that was the old McCain, not the crazy old winger who showed up in the general and picked Palin as a running mate.
Taylor
So Rick Perry says that if he is elected, he will abolish the Dept of Energy.
The IEA says we have 5 years to get carbon emissions under control, or we go past the point of no return. Global warming is happening faster than the most pessimistic models predicted.
Why oh why can’t we have a better press corps?
JPL
@Taylor: Hahaha..I better press corp..hahaha…
Why can’t we have a press corp?
Zagloba
You want news coverage of campaigns for office to be about policy? What are you, some kind of soshulist?
Kirbster
There comes a point in a political campaign where a candidate can no longer spin “ineptitude” into “authenticity”, even for the GOP base.
Violet
Excellent post, John. I’ve missed your posts in recent months.
I caught a minute of Perry on the Today Show this morning. He was laughing about it. Who knows. It might gain him some sympathy. People can relate to that kind of brain fart. But as it’s part of a larger pattern, I don’t think it’s going to help him in the long run.
Also, too, our media are pathetic.
Bill E Pilgrim
Yeah I don’t get how what Perry did was worse than when Cain didn’t know that China had had nuclear capability in 1964. For Perry to match that actually he would have just made up some government agency like “Department of Stimulus” or something to be the third one.
Actually, Palin made up the “Department of Law” once, and it didn’t end her chances right then and there, I mean any more than everything about her did.
Clearly barreling ahead with clueless entirely made up bluster is more impressive to Villagers than showing any weakness or hesitation in front of the enemy liberal media.
scav
Quick! Name a candidate that faded out early from a primary season say, 40 years ago!
They just don’t teach history the way they used to.
Trinity
@Taylor: This.
…and I love Brad DeLong too. :)
dmsilev
I wonder whether Perry, a hawk like just about every GOPer, knows that DOE designs, builds, and to a large extent maintains the nation’s nuclear weapons? There’s a reason that DOE’s annual budget is measured in tens of billions of dollars, and unfortunately it’s not primarily “research into solar cells” or the like.
Cat Lady
Carl Quintinilla is one of the blockhead bobblehead idiots Jon Stewart caught being a cheerleading whore on his Cramer take down show. Quintinilla’s just glad he was caught being craven and not a stone cold moron like Perry.
Chris
@The Other Bob:
This.
@Bill E Pilgrim:
This too.
Really, the saddest thing about the whole process is that it takes things like this to sink them. In a sane world, none of these people would gather enough support to run for dogcatcher in the first place.
Bill E Pilgrim
@dmsilev: He wants everyone to get a voucher for one atom and then they all bring them to church where Jesus raptures it into an unstoppable weapon. You know, like the olden days.
lonesomerobot
and yet, Herman Cain.
Mark B.
I honestly thought Perry’s plan was to skip debating altogether. Clearly, he overstepped his advisers here. Letting this guy near a microphone without a script is like giving a child a loaded gun. No good can come of it.
Mark B.
And I’ll agree with a lot of what was said above. Perry is no stupider than the other candidates, just a little less glib. He trips over his tongue, but Cain trips over his brain.
SensesFail
This.
The morons that comprise the current Republican presidential field take every opportunity given to them to scream out their platitudes, such as “Big government is evil!” and “The Free Market will solve all problems!”, but are they ever really pressed by the so-called “journalists” to support these assertions with evidence? No.
And if that’s not enough, the fact that any of these idiots can screech about abolishing the EPA, or how the government caused the financial system to collapse, or how evolution is wrong and still be taken seriously provides more evidence that the media is no longer serious.
marcopolo
I realize it’s been about 7 years now, but this still pisses me off.
I too was in the ballroom in Des Moines when Howard Dean gave his non-concession caucus concession speech. There were 3000 people packed in a tiny space and no one could hear much of anything, which was why Dean was yelling in the first place. I was near the front, no more than 30 feet away and I could hardly hear the man. Just his luck there was a mike on him that muted the background crowd noise. That was his faux pas. Of course, it also took the help of Adam Nagourney of the NYT to christen this as the Dean meltdown. Arsehole.
Disgruntled Lurker
IMO, the Rick Perry moment is embarrassing, but that’s about it.
Typically when candidates who are reasonably good at this stuff have a brain fart in the middle of a question like that, they start rambling and try and salvage the best non-answer they can.
So you end up with answers like “There are three departments I would like to end, the department of commerce, department of education, and..uhhh..I think it is important to the American people…that…umm…we respect the intent of…ummm…the founders and…ummm…privatize the free market…to…uhhh…shut down the departments that…ummm….aren’t in the best interest of the American people.”
Started off strong, quickly devolved into keyword nonsense. But at lease Erik Erikson can argue that in fact you did name three departments. (1)Commerce, (2) education, and the (3) all ones the founders wouldn’t like. And if you ramble on long enough, nobody can use it as a soundbite.
I’ll stop with the concern trolling for Rick Perry. The guy’s inner life it probably best described as one long brain fart.
rikryah
this was truly funny…you could only go, ‘ damn, he is SO not ready for the Big Leagues’.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Mark B.:
Parry has an advantage, he has no brain.
So Parry was declared the loser of the Republican Gong Show?
You don’t say. Wow am I not surprised. Not a bit. Good thing for him that the rest of the show contestants are losers too.
Same with most of the viewers.
El Cid
HA HA yeah, but, but, Obama one time said ’57 states’ when he meant 47! (Secretly he meant the 57 Islamo-Kenyonesian caliphates, though.)
El Tiburon
@Taylor:
We don’t have a press Corp, we have Judges from American Idol pretending to be journalists.
We need to occupy Fox, CNN and MSNBC just as much as Wall Street.
If Wall Street = Jerry Sandusky, then MSM = Joe Paterno
Disgruntled Lurker
@rikryah:
this was truly funny…you could only go, ’ damn, he is SO not ready for the Big Leagues’.
ARG! But why is not being able to hold 200 pre-approved two sentence policy positions in your head evidence you’re not ready for the big leagues?
Wait, that’s not right. My real question is:
Why is being able to do this evidence you are ready for the big leagues?
It’s possible it’s a necessary condition, but it sure as fuck isn’t a sufficient one.
The Republican field is supposed to make me laugh. For some reason it is just making me sad today.
Dyzo Bandit
Execute an innocent man? The Beltway media think you’re manly.
Have a brain-fart on TV? You’re DONE, boy!
cursorial
@Emma: Really? I hadn’t seen that. I am not familiar with any historical examples of libertarian military dictatorships, but maybe the good folks at Reason can help me out.
Ron Paul Junta 2012!
harlana
@marcopolo:
yes, thank you — as I said, completely manufactured by the media, and this CNBC clown is trying to act like it happened exactly the way it was played (the audio) and represented by the media, so I really doubt he could have had a frickin epiphany, as he suggests, at that particular moment in time. No, the “epiphany” happened after he media takedown of Dean, but he can say he “was there” — woopdee-frickin-doo
But, other than that, it’s EXACTLY like Perry’s amnesia moment!
harlana
@marcopolo: Also, although I was not physically there, I watched it in real time and, yes, before the media had not yet edited out all the cheering of the crowds, in real time, as originally broadcast, the cheering was so loud you could barely hear the scream itself. It was necessary to scream at the top of your lungs to be heard. But considering nobody could ever find one piece of dirt on the man, this is the best they had to work with.
Cris (without an H)
If it was, Ron Paul would be the guy.
Villago Delenda Est
@El Tiburon:
Yup, pretty much sums it up.
One of the principle reasons I loathe the MSM.
Linda Featheringill
I hate to defend Rick Perry but I think that he handled that brain freeze with grace and honesty.
McJluie
I thought the “Dean Scream” narrative was simply false.
At the time, it seemed to me that Dean actually went down because the Democrats were desperate to pick their “most electable” candidate, and the instant Dean lost the first primary, it was perceived as a sign that the momentum was running in the other direction.
The scream was just a dumb bit of media drama that happened to coincide with his campaign losing steam. Maybe an Archduke Ferdinand moment.
Perry’s gaffe seemed really substantive to me because of what he was talking about. Here’s this guy saying that he has a bold plan to eliminate three government agencies — big stuff — and he can’t even remember what they are.
If he just had an aphasia moment, he would have been able to talk about the function of the agency and why he would eliminate it, even if he couldn’t remember the name of it. That could have saved him.
This came across as “I don’t take my own plans seriously, why should you?”
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@scav:
Alex, I’ll take the category “Why you should never admit in public to having been brainwashed” for $500.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@El Tiburon:
One of the best comments of the year, IMHO. Pithy, to the point, and nicely expresses just how loathsome, morally corrupt and disgusting the whole business is.
Yevgraf
Howard Dean’s scream was recognizable to me as mere enthusiasm, even back then when I was kind of a wingnut. I wouldn’t have wanted to vote for him, but I found the characterization really unfair. Now, when I think of him, and having had the opportunity to watch him, I realize that what personally irritates me about his speech pattern is that he gets ahead of himself – and I don’t engage with that at all.
It is merely a personal preference.
phoebes-in-santa fe
A friend of mine had the best comment regarding P-Rick’s performance last night.
“Earth to Perry: if you’re going to dismantle three government agencies, placing thousands of people out of work, it might behoove you to remember what the agencies ARE.”
patrick II
First, Ron Paul amused me when he tried to help Rick Perry and suggested the EPA.
Second, I don’t see many candidate debaters putting a number in front of a list of things they are going to say. If Perry hadn’t done that he could have stopped at two and no one would be the wiser.
And Third…. well, uh…
SectarianSofa
Is Perry reminding anyone else of Reagan in the early stages of Alzheimer’s?
harlana
@Yevgraf: I LOVE Dean’s rapid-fire communication of facts and substance, it’s the best way to deal with the other side – he has a natural gift for this which I wish more Dem leaders had.
harlana
@McJluie: He doesn’t deserve defending, regardless. There really should be no room for compassion for any of these so-called “people” – they want to destroy us, plain and simple. They don’t deserve an ounce of compassion, IMO.
Also, too, if I were on an interview and pulled something like that, I wouldn’t get the job and would accept that, based on my interview performance, I did not deserve to get the job. In the real world, if you stumble, you don’t get a second chance.
Paul in KY
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: My try:
Alex, I’ll take the category “Why you should never cry in front of a newspaper building” for $500.
Lurking Canadian
It makes me very sad about our species that there are human beings currently alive who could seriously contemplate hiring this bozo who can’t even remember his own bullshit talking points to replace Barack Hussein Obama. What the hell is wrong with people?
AA+ Bonds
Perry’s campaign was over the moment Mitt zeroed on him and I have been telling y’all that foreverrrrrrrr
FINALLY can people start targeting Romney because
a) Cain will not be the candidate
b) FoxNews is now pimping NEWT GINGRICH
c) Cain will not be the candidate
AA+ Bonds
My guess is this is how it went down: Perry does a lot of drugs and drinks a lot – nothing in his biography indicates otherwise to me – and Romney’s campaign put a spotlight on it,
the end,
Attack Mitt Romney time for the Democrats.
AA+ Bonds
Lesson One: Romney is a clean liver. Rove corrects here based on lessons learned from the previous model.
I invite you to participate in Rove’s strategy: attack his strength.
Ian
@cursorial:
See- most of human history before around 1900. See also- living conditions for the average person, infant mortality rates in this time period, and rate of increase of standard of living compared to the 100 years of “soshulist” govmunt