During the debate, he was asked which departments he would close as President. He started out fine naming the first two (education and commerce), but then he got to the third. For me, it was painful to watch. Here he was, a presidential candidate, and he couldn't even remember what he was going to do! He stood there on stage and hemmed and hawed while the rest of his competition through in "helpful" hints that only made him struggle more as he made jokes about it. He finally settled with I can't name the third one. "Sorry. Oops."
Oops is right. If you are a presidential candidate, shouldn't you know what you are going to do once in office? He knew he was going to cut something, he just didn't know what he was going to cut. How is that okay? How can there people who still support him? If he can run for president on a campaign like that, then the people have some serious reasoning issues. A man who has absolutely no clue what he is doing is running for the most politically powerful position in America. That is just not right in my opinion. After tonight, I hope Rick Perry's campaign is derailed. If a man like this becomes president, we all lose. If he can't prepare adequately for a debate, then how can he be expected to run an entire country. Not just Texas, but the entire U.S. If it is any help, I believe the third agency he was trying to remember was energy.
Here is a video of the event:
11 comments:
The state of the GOP debates really astound me sometimes because they are simply so bad. However, Rick Perry is actually notable for something, which may be a plus, versus someone like Michelle Bachman.
Honestly, I think that Mitt Romney is the GOP's best choice as he was the governor of a semi-liberal state. Although he is failing among the super-right, he might actually have a chance when it comes to the actual elections.
okay I have to give credit where credit is due. He did eventually remember the department he would cut so...... yeah for him. Even so, the fact that he looks unprepared still stands and I would still count his campaign as dead in the water because that was a huge mistake regardless.
Thanks for posting that video, I quite enjoyed it. Although I agree that candidates should really be prepared for debates - and that if our president did that during a speech, it would be really embarrassing - I still believe that we should not judge any candidate by a singular action (or rather inaction). I can imagine forgetting a few words during a debate, and while I hope that an presidential aspirant would do a bit better than me, I do not believe that it is fair to hope that this one incident would cost Perry the campaign - even if it does affect his campaign seriously.
Let’s be real, Rick Perry is not going to be president. I agree with Patrick, any future president must know what he wants to cut! I almost feel bad for him since really after all this man was just a victim of a brain freeze. I know he tired to change the subject, but unfortunately it failed. The reality is that Perry is neither a good debater nor a smooth politician. He did apologize in “The Early Show” by saying that he just had a lapse of memory which I think was a good move. Even though he looked like a fool I doubt that’s going to break his campaign although I still think he is not going to become president.
I agree with Sophia that Mitt Romney is the GOP's best candidate for presidency. According to the polls described in this article, (http://www.toledoblade.com/State/2011/11/10/Romney-top-GOP-candidate-among-likely-voters.html), Romney would fare better than others, say Herman Cain, in a head-to-head race against Obama, especially in swing states such as Ohio. I think that because Romney has proven thus far to be a more moderate choice, and has not made a complete fool of himself yet, he is the GOP's best choice and has the best chance against Obama.
I feel like while Rick Perry's slip-up may win him some extra critics, I do not think this one mistake of his destroys any chance he ever had at winning the election. Sure, as a presidential candidate, he should be clear on what initiatives he supports, disagrees with, wants to implement, etc. However, just because he's a presidential candidate does not mean he's exempt from making mistakes. In the end, I think people who were originally against Perry will use this to further their disagreement, and people who originally supported Perry will overlook this as a human mistake.
It doesn’t alarm me that much that he forgot his lines. I always think that he is not a very persuasive speaker, which is important especially on steering attention and votes. Besides, he is not the only debater who has experienced this kind of damaging moment. There are also other candidates in the past that stumbled and acted confused in debates. See the comparisons: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/rick-perry-is-he-the-worst-presidential-debater-ever/2011/11/10/gIQAtESTCN_blog.html. In psychology terms, I think he just experienced some retrieval failure or like it’s on the tip of my tongue phenomenon. But that doesn’t deny the fact that he’s incapable of good public speaking. Communicating to the people about your views and plans is really important. Meanwhile, the issue in his debate that caught my attention was his idea of abolishing departments like education. Shouldn’t he be investing more on education? American students have fallen behind countries such as Finland in subjects like math and science. Moreover, some public schools especially in impoverished areas are insufficiently funded. An educated citizenry is more productive and helpful.
While one mistep in a debate shouldn't affect a candidate's credibility, it most likely will. Even though Perry eventually remembered what he would do if he became president, the damage was already done. I don't recall former presidents being the laughing stock of important debates. A president needs to be able to think on their feet, and know exactly what they're talking about. Since Perry seems to do neither, this debate should have easily cost him his credibility.
Shawn Murphy-Hockett
I don't think this one single event will be what causes Rick Perry's downfall. But when you add it together with all the other absurdities he has said and public mistakes he has made, then I think we have an answer as to whether Perry will be in the running for president. Being an extremely conservative candidate, he did not have much support to begin with, and now that his campaign has almost become a joke to the public, I think it is safe to say he is pretty much out of the campaign.
I disagree with some of the previous comments. I honestly believe that this "misstep" has mostly ruined his credibility to be a prospective presidential candidate.
I mean honestly, it's like as if his whole platform is a list someone put into his hands and made him memorize. It's not even that he didn't prepare adequately enough for a primary debate. For goodness sakes, he doesn't even know his own political stance. Who wants a president who doesn't even have the decency to come up with his own agenda? I completely agree with your comment that "a man who has absolutely no clue what he is doing is running for the most politically powerful position in America."
Moreover, I find it quite amusing that one of the departments he proposed to cut is the department of education. Seriously?
Oh and the part where Ron Paul holds up five fingers as Perry tries to remember the third department was hilarious... And when Romney suggested the "EPA" and Perry took the bait. The moderator then asks "Seriously, is the EPA the one you were talking about?", to which Perry responds "No, sir, no, sir". How embarrassing.
It was pretty funny to watch that, but at the same time I can understand that he was under a lot of pressure. I have to give him some cool points for playing it off and not making it super awkward. They did have a really good skit making fun of Rick Perry on SNL, you guys should watch it. Even though most agree that he should be more prepared, I would say that he simply blanked out which can happen to anybody. I'm sure that people willl get over it and they should, because it's not a good enough reason to not vote for him. I mean, Bush was our president and he did way more embarrasing things than forget things in his speeches and stuff and he lasted for like 8 years or something right? But seriously though, check out that SNL skit on YouTube... it's awesome.
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