Rick Perry's Brain Fart

Well, it's fun for us liberals watching conservatives have uncomfortable moments while campaigning, particularly a candidate as arrogant and undeserving as Rick Perry. 

At the same time, his inability to remember the third department he'd cut if he were president is understandable.  I've drawn a blank under pressure like that, and I suspect most of us have.  Unfortunately for Perry though, it fits the narrative that's already hurting him, that he's not very bright and he's too lazy to prepare for debates.

But to build on the point I posted about a few days ago, the gaffe isn't the reason Perry should be finished as a candidate.  The more we get to know about this guy, the more clear it is that he's a lot like George W. Bush- not too bright, and more importantly a man with no intellectual curiosity or sense of seriousness.  We can't picture him soberly sitting down and studying an issue.  Like Bush, I'm sure he'd make decisions "from the gut", and we saw how that went in the 2000s.

As an aside, I'm reminded again of the puzzling Republican talking point that Obama can't speak without a teleprompter.  Obama is remarkably articulate and good at thinking on his feet- he's actually great at speaking extemporaneously.  Rick Perry is the guy who really needs a teleprompter.  Sometimes I think Republicans have gotten so good at creating negative narratives of their opponents that they just pick issues that don't even have a grain of truth, just to prove to themselves that they can do it.  It's like they get bored 'cause it's so easy for them. 

"Hey, let's start hammering Obama for the way he talks so technocratically and boringly now that he's president!"
"No, that's too easy!  Let's say he's so dumb he needs a teleprompter all the time!"
"No way- that's so obviously untrue that Americans will never buy it"
"Hey, let's try it anyway!  A hundred bucks says I can pull it off"
"Alright, you're on!"

Rick Perry- Like W, only Dumber

I know there's a lot of noise now about Rick Perry, much consisting of attacks from the Left, but this video clip really blew me away (from Jon Chait at TNR).

Right at the start of the video we get this exchange:

Interviewer: Governor, why does Texas continue with Abstinence Education programs when they don't seem to be working, if fact I think we have the third highest teen pregnancy rate in the country.
Perry: Abstinence works (audience laughs)
Interviewer: But we have the 3rd highest teen pregnancy rate among all states in the country; the question and point is, it doesn't seem to be working
Perry: It works, maybe it's the way it's being taught or the way it's being applied out there but the fact of the matter is it is the best form to teach our children
Interviewer: Can you give me a statistic that shows that it works
Perry: Im gonna tell you from my own personal life, abstinence works...

Please pardon my elite east coast snobbery, but this guy doesn't have the first idea how to be analytical about anything.  He believes abstinence works for him, and common sense tells him it must work for halting teen pregnancy.  When confronted with the fact that it's not working, his mind just goes into lockdown and he insists that "it works" in the face of all evidence.

Look, I don't care that much about this particular topic, and I don't even have an ideological problem with Abstinence Education; I'm sure it doesn't make things worse, and it does send a good message to kids.  But it we're unwilling to look at problems analytically and prefer to "go with the gut" we're doomed to another Bush-administration level mess.

I don't like Mitt Romney much.  He'll say anything and change any position to be president.  But at least the guy's not an idiot.