Plagued by flubs and lapses in memory, presidential candidate Rick Perry had more causes for concern in the Nov. 22 Foreign Policy debate, as he added mathematical equations to the growing list of mistakes in his campaign trail. When talking about President Barack Obama’s refusal to consider funds eligible for the department of defense, he stated, “It was reprehensible for me, for this president to stand in front of Americans and to say that that half a trillion dollars, $500 million plus, is not going to be on the table.” A proportionally equivalent mistake for perspective would be, “close to $500, almost $5.”
While misstatements of fact and forgotten trains of thought are a casualty experienced by every presidential candidate at one point or another, simple mathematic mistakes have to be sending off warning flares for the Perry Camp. In addition to trying to regain nomination viability, they must now fend off attacks of another Bush-clone in office, smooth talking at one point, decidedly stooge like the next. Perry has been able to shrug off past mistakes, for instance poking fun at himself on David Letterman about his forgetting of the, of the, of the…departments of government he would like to remove. However, while such forgetfulness can easily be defended as a one-time miscue, a lapse in preparation, or other such excuse, the lack of knowledge in the difference between millions, billions and trillions, is hard to pass off as anything but ignorance. You can see the evidence for yourself at the 5:40 mark in the video here: Rick Perry’s Math Blunder at Nov 22nd Foreign Policy Debate.
Although other candidates have avoided using Perry’s flubs against him so far, such mistakes will not go unnoticed if his campaign is able to regain momentum ahead of the primary election. But this is probable the least of his concerns, considering Newt Gingritch and Mitt Romney are the supposed national frontrunners far ahead of Perry. Even Ron Paul, long considered by the media to be a longshot, has now shot to the top in recent polls of the key voting state of Iowa. This recent November poll by Bloomberg News put Paul and businessman Herman Cain, who has since suspended his campaign, in a statistical tie for first place. If however, Perry did somehow return to the prominence he was first hailed with, the issue of his lack of knowledge with numbers (something a president should be very knowledgeable in considering nominees are discussing a federal deficit of Trillions), will seriously undermine his viability as the next president of the United States.