How Rick Perry's campaign imploded: 4 new revelations

A reporter who followed the Texas governor's failed bid for the White House dishes the unheard story behind the "oops" moment that sealed Perry's doom

Rick Perry
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Some political gaffes are so bad, so disqualifying, that they act like the "political equivalent of antibiotic-resistant bacteria" and simply kill a campaign, says Jay Root, a reporter for The Texas Tribune and author of the new e-book Oops! A Diary From the 2012 Campaign Trail. That's exactly the kind of blunder that Texas Gov. Rick Perry, once considered the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, committed on Nov. 9, 2011, when, during a primary debate, he tried to recall the three cabinet departments he would eliminate if he became president. "I would do away with the Education, the, uh, Commerce, and, let's see," Perry said, in the campaign's most agonizing 53 seconds. "I can't. The third one I can't. Sorry. Oops." That last word became the epitaph for Perry's doomed bid. How did it happen? Here, four revelations from the vantage point of a reporter covering Perry's campaign:

1. Perry got no sleep the night before his "oops"

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