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Candidate’s grace impresses student

Republican Rick Perry joins in on jokes regarding his nationally televised brain fart

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry made a mistake on Nov. 9 during the Republican debate in Michigan that could have been detrimental to his campaign for the 2012 presidential election.

After naming the first two government agencies he would cut, education and commerce, Perry then struggled to remember the third. He floundered for awhile before the CNBC moderator, John Harwood, asked once again for the third agency. “The third agency of government I would do away with — the education, um, the commerce and, let’s see. I can’t … the third one. I can’t. Sorry. Oops,” Perry said.

Essentially, the blunder was a painful two minutes of pure awkwardness as he scrambled to remember the third agency that he would cut should he become president. This moment was highlighted and mocked in late-night talk shows and satirized on “Saturday Night Live.”

But the grace with which Perry embraced his gaffe has made me admire him, and, quite honestly, I now love the guy.

Never have I thought that I would be persuaded to like a politician solely based on his charisma.

In fact, I spent all of the 2008 presidential election getting ticked off at people who supported now-President Barack Obama because of his personality. To me, politics should always take precedence.

So why is it that I now hold a tender place in my heart for Perry? As an openly tree-hugging liberal from Portland, Ore., I never thought I’d find myself supporting a Republican candidate.

Even so, I still disagree with the platform of the Republican Party, which definitely includes Rick Perry.

Perry is pro-life, and I am pro-choice. He wants to end lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court, and I find them vital to the judicial system. And while he has made successful efforts in favor of concealed weapons laws, I’d rather not get shot while fighting over the last box of strawberry Pop-Tarts in Kroger.

However, the way that Perry has come back from this blunder truly makes me respect him as a politician. Not only has he accepted his slip-up, but he openly makes fun of himself.

One day after the incident, he was on “Late Night With David Letterman” reading the top 10 Rick Perry excuses, my personal favorite being No. 6: “Hey, listen. You try concentrating with Mitt Romney smiling at you. That is one handsome dude.”

His willingness to stand up on a national network and joke about his situation will definitely build his reputation as a charismatic politician and help keep his ratings from falling.

In addition to his appearance on late-night television, he also jested about his slip-up during the next Republican debate on Nov. 12 in South Carolina. This time the debate mediator, Scott Pelley, asked him a question specific to the program that Perry had forgotten only three days prior.

After the agency was stated, Perry jumped in, saying, “Glad you remembered it.”

To which Pelley responded, “I’ve had some time to think about it.”

Perry quickly followed up with, “Me too.”

It’s rare that I laugh at the Republican debates for something other than the politics, and I truly admire Perry for standing up and laughing with us.


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