Rick Perry: Oops and out

Oops indeed.

Perry is surely dead in the water after his primetime humiliation, grasping for the name of a department he wanted to abolish, floundering a while and still failing to find the elusive word "energy".

The energy has indeed gone out of his campaign. It was a moment that made me squirm, hide my face in the cushions. Anyone who has been in front of a TV camera has some sympathy. As one colleague once put it to a correspondent who'd just made a similar boo-boo: "Don't worry, we've all ALMOST done the same."

Even those who've never been near a TV studio may know the quite inexplicable moment when you forget the name of someone you know well. Empathy is a fine quality, but don't overdo it. This is serious.

For a start, this whole weird primary business is meant as a demolition derby. It is better for the Republicans that he does it now, than when debating with Obama. It is better for the US that he does it now than while meeting a foreign leader in front of the world's Press at the White House.

To me it is even more substantial than that. He didn't just forget a word, a name. He forgot an idea. If he was serious about his proposal he would have thought long and hard about what the Department of Energy does, whether any of its functions had to be replicated elsewhere, what the implications would be for the oil and gas industry. Sure, you can forget a name. It is much harder to forget a concept you have been wrestling with.

Perry is not loved or trusted by conservatives and was already on a downward curve. He may well stay in the race for months, but it is hard to see how he recovers. A few other quick thoughts. The sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain are very serious, but unproved. Conservatives will like his strong performance in the debate, with its almost comic, self-mocking repetition of his 9-9-9 plan.

He is not out, even if it is hard to see him getting the nomination while such allegations hang over him. Watch out for the brief rise of Newt Gingrich. He is the last credible anti-Mitt Romney candidate left and along with Ron Paul, does some thinking outside of the box. And, as I always seem to end these columns, in the end the one person who benefits: Romney.