Rick Perry's debate gaffe latest in shameful series of performances
On national television, current Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry told the world three things. If elected president, he would do away with the Department of Commerce and the Department of Education, and (after several minutes of thinking) he could not remember the name of the third government agency he would axe. You can watch this embarrassing incident on a YouTube clip titled "Watch Rick Perry's Campaign End Before Your Eyes," and it is only the most recent in a string of gaffes for the current GOP frontrunners.
Let me preface this by saying gaffes are not solely a Republican problem. The Democrats are far from immune from this phenomenon, as Vice President Joe Biden has become a regular offender. However, as the Republicans battle it out and continue to drown in the media spotlight, the frequency and level of these slip-ups have made the ongoing spectacle almost too sad to watch. It appears as soon as someone takes the lead, the extra five minutes of media coverage becomes just the right amount of time for a quick and inevitable shot in the foot.
Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann was initially in the front after the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa, yet after a few weeks lost that lead due to her misleading quotes on the HPV vaccine. Then Herman Cain received the spotlight and practically flaunted his ignorance. When asked about foreign policy issues, he mockingly said, "When they ask me who's the president of Ubecki-becki-becki-stan-stan, I'm going to tell them, "I don't know, do you know?'" Now that one of Perry's closet skeletons has blown over (his family's ranch containing the N-word), he claims he is going to overturn decades of federal policy without even being able to remember the name of a government agency he wishes to abolish.
The saddest part is many will forget these things by next month. People consistently vote more with emotion rather than logic, but it's going to take more than a drinking buddy with a pretty smile to save the U.S. economy. We need people who know what they're doing, but politicians are proving more and more these days that they might perform better on an episode of "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" than as the country's chief executive. While a fifth-grader may not know all the agencies of government, one would assume anyone who would want to abolish one would at least be able to remember what it was called during a nationally televised debate.
Are people perfect? No. Do people make mistakes? Of course. But we cannot let these signs of ignorance go unnoticed. A lot of people do take rumors for truth. Most people do not know who the president of Uzbekistan is. A number of people probably can't even name three agencies of the federal government. None of those people, however, should even be considered to run our government and hold the highest political office in the country.
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