The day after Governor Rick Perry’s devastating debate flub on Wednesday’s CNBC debate, when he forgot one of the three government agencies he had pledged to cut, Texas First Lady Anita Perry appeared on American Family Radio to do damage control. She stressed that the CNBC debate was only his sixth and claimed that the debates were unfair to Perry because “there were people on that stage that have been on the national debate stage for six years, some have been running for president for six years, some have run for president before” and “of the eight candidates on the stage, four of the candidates on the stage had run for president before.” Actually, of the candidates, only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul have run for president before.
Anita Perry went on to say that Perry was busy working as governor and fundraising for his campaign, hindering his debate performance. While she cited Texas’ legislative session, the last day the governor can sign or veto bills was actually in June, giving the governor more than four months to prepare for the debate last week.
Of course, maybe Perry would have had more experience debating if he didn’t choose to skip all of the debates against his Democratic opponent in last year’s gubernatorial race. But apparently raising $17 million, and remembering his anniversary, is more important than crafting and learning his own sweeping policy proposals.
I look at this man who performed his sixth national debate last night—sixth—there were people on that stage that have been on the national debate stage for six years, some have been running for president for six years, some have run for president before. Out of the eight candidates there, four of the candidates on the stage had run for president before. So we got into this twelve weeks ago, Rick is a sitting governor of Texas, we had a legislative session, he had a veto period, he raised almost $17 million across America in forty-seven days so that he can be a serious contender. So when I’m looking last night at the stage and I see this man who forgot a word, which is very, very, human, I must say, to forget a word when you’re trying to perform on the national stage, I mean I don’t know how they all don’t do it except, you know, they got more under their belt. But I will say this about him, he may have forgotten a word last night on stage, but he remembered our anniversary last week.
