A REPUBLICAN analyst likened it to watching the space shuttle blow up. There, on live television, Texas Governor Rick Perry’s presidential campaign imploded.
It wasn’t even a “gotcha” question that got him. In the ninth Republican debate on Wednesday night, Mr Perry promised that if elected, he would shut down three government departments. “Commerce, education and the – what’s the third one there? Let’s see . . .”
There was awkward laughter in the Michigan auditorium. Mr Perry’s fellow Texan and presidential hopeful Ron Paul tried to help him, like a schoolboy in class. Could it be the Environmental Protection Agency? Mr Paul volunteered. Mr Perry said Yes, then No. The debate moderator gave it a second try, Mr Perry too.
“I would do away with the education, the commerce and – let’s see – I can’t. The third one, I can’t. Sorry. Oops.” The embarrassment was excruciating.
“We all felt very bad for him,” congresswoman Michele Bachmann, also a candidate, said when the debate was over.
Mr Perry's memory lapse was immediately singled out as the news headline. The word "oops" would appear in Mr Perry's obituary, Michael Scherer of Timemagazine predicted.
Had Mr Perry not already earned a reputation as a poor debater incapable of articulating policies and ideas, Wednesday night’s gaffe might not have been so serious. However there was also the speech in New Hampshire a week ago, where the Republican hopeful behaved so strangely that he was later forced to deny he was drunk or on drugs.
"The Perry campaign is over. Time for him to go home and refocus on being governor of Texas," a top Perry fundraiser told the Washington Post.
Mr Perry attempted to deflate his gaffe with humour. “I’m glad I had my boots on tonight,” he said after the debate, “because I sure stepped in it out there.”
Mr Perry tried to limit the damage on the morning talk shows yesterday. The gaffe made him human, he said. “Oh, shoot, no,” he told the Associated Press.
“This ain’t a day for quitting nothing . . . If Americans are looking for the slickest politician, the smoothest debater, I readily admit, I’m probably not their guy.”
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is “the slickest guy” in the Republican contest. Asked about his reputation as a “flip-flopper”, Mr Romney said: “I am a man of steadiness and constancy.”
He cited his marriage of 42 years, the fact that he has stayed with the Mormon Church and had worked for the same company for many years.
Mr Romney refused to comment on allegations of sexual harassment against the other frontrunner, former pizza executive Herman Cain.
Mr Cain referred to the House minority leader Nancy Pelosi as “Princess Nancy,” an ill-judged insult from a man who has been accused of sexual harassment by four women.
When Mr Cain was asked about the scandal, the audience booed the question. “The American people deserve better than someone being tried in the court of public opinion based on unfounded accusations,” Mr Cain said, speaking of himself in the third person. The crowd applauded.
Karen Kraushaar, a spokeswoman at the treasury department and one of Mr Cain’s accusers, has invited other alleged victims of predatory behaviour by Mr Cain to hold a joint press conference with her. Mr Cain’s lawyer however warned potential accusers that they “should think twice” before coming forward.
Sharon Bialek, an unemployed single mother who spoke out on Monday, was subsequently labelled "a gold digger" in Rupert Murdoch's New York Post,who "flirted like a tart".
The conservative Drudge Report noted that Ms Bialek had lived in the same building as Mr Obama’s adviser David Axelrod.
After she allowed her name to be published as one of Mr Cain’s accusers, Ms Kraushaar was revealed to have filed a complaint at the Immigration and Naturalisation Service which employed her after she left the Restaurant Association headed by Mr Cain.
Right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh said Ms Kraushaar showed “a pattern of whining.”