The TicketRick Perry’s debate flub prompts some Iowans to rethink their support
Rick Perry spent much of Thursday on television, trying to contain the damage caused to his campaign by his cringe-worthy memory lapse at Wednesday night's Republican presidential debate in Michigan.
The Texas governor tried to cast his momentary brain freeze as a lighthearted human moment that could happen to anybody. But there are already signs that some Republicans in key primary states are beginning to rethink their support of his 2012 bid.
In Iowa, a state the Perry campaign considers pivotal to the governor's GOP nomination bid, Perry supporters were divided on how much his debate misstep will actually hurt his chances in the race.
"We all get tongue-tied," Chad Rumbaugh, an Elkhart City councilman who has endorsed Perry, told the Des Moines Register's Jennifer Jacobs.
But Ann Paulsen, a key Perry supporter from Cedar Rapids, told the paper his memory lapse was "probably a deal breaker" for her.
"What it felt like to me is that he had memorized a talking point that someone had given him and was not able to remember it, rather than it being a conviction of his heart," Paulsen told the Register.
It probably doesn't help Perry that video of his debate flub continues to blanket TV airwaves. It was also the most viewed video on YouTube Thursday in the United States—and perhaps more important, it was the No. 1 clip in two key Iowa cities: Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.
And while Perry was on TV joking about his brain freeze, his family and other campaign allies were out in force defending the governor. Speaking at a Republican Women's Club event in Duval, Fla., Perry's wife, Anita, defended her husband's debate performance.
"He may have forgotten a word last night," she said. "But you know what, he didn't forget my anniversary, our anniversary, last week."
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