Rick Perry Channels Howard Dean in Epic Debate Gaffe

In last night's CNBC-hosted Republican debate, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney cemented his status as front-runner to take the GOP fight to President Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

However, Texas Gov. Rick Perry stole the show when he tried to name three government agencies he would eliminate upon his election to the Oval Office -- and utterly failed.

After naming the Commerce and Education departments, Perry struggled to name a third in a spectacular gaffe that for sheer awkwardness, rivaled the loudest scream heard in 2004 -- that of Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, which came during a 2004 speech following the Iowa Democratic caucus.

But please folks, watch the video. If you've already seen it, watch it again -- I promise you, it doesn't get old.



The mystery third target on Perry's hit list was the Department of Energy -- ironic, given Perry's supposed expertise in that field.

In addition, all Republican candidates have been outspoken supporters of small government, so you'd think that Perry would have the relevant talking points down cold.

And what was Perry's own take on the situation?: "I'm glad I had my boots on because I really stepped in it tonight."

Nonetheless, Perry has declared he will stay in the race.

If you recall, the Dean scream put a major hurting on his campaign momentum as it became one of the first truly viral political videos of the Internet age:

Perry was confused. Dean was emotional. But they had one thing in common -- looking very, very unpresidential.

However, Perry's embarrassment doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things -- Romney is destined to be the 2012 Republican presidential candidate by process of elimination.

Perry was ranking low in the polls even before last night, and Ron Paul has always been too radical (and, I'd argue, too honest about his convictions) to make it to the front of the pack.

Herman Cain has done a heck of a lot better than anyone could have expected, but he's taking a beating in the press on the sexual harassment allegations. Cain has also shown himself to be a poor study on economic and policy issues.

And last night, Romney did his job by not screwing up. The Intrade prediction market, which creates financial markets for politics, shows a growing likelihood that Romney will take on Obama:


(Click to enlarge)

So, I'll throw a few questions out to readers: Is Romney too Mormon for you? Is he too wishy-washy? Does he look too fit to play the bad guy in an Adam Sandler movie?

Well, get over it -- he's gonna be around for a little while.

And by the looks of things, Republicans could do worse. America's business sector is in major need of a confidence boost, and Romney's private-sector credentials could be carefully spun to market him as problem solver and supporter of entrepreneurs, given his work with companies like Staples (SPLS), Domino's Pizza (DPZ), Brookstone, and The Sports Authority.

Given Romney's private equity/leveraged buyout experience, it will be easy to paint him as a Wall Street insider and friend to big business at the expense of the working man.

But then again, Obama's seen his fair share of campaign donations from financial fat cats. According to OpenSecrets.org, Obama's No. 2 source of donations in 2008 was employees of Goldman Sachs (GS), with Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) following closely behind.

Twitter: @MichaelComeau

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