ROCHESTER, Mich. – Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the onetime Republican front-runner who had hoped to regain traction in a candidates' debate Wednesday, instead suffered what may have been the worst memory meltdown in the history of presidential debates.
Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman stand on stage Wednesday before a debate at Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Mich.
By Paul Sancya, AP
Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman stand on stage Wednesday before a debate at Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Mich.
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By Paul Sancya, AP
Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman stand on stage Wednesday before a debate at Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Mich.
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"I will tell you, it is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone: Commerce, Education, and — what's the third one there? Let's see," Perry said, struggling to remember the third federal department he repeatedly has promised on the stump to eliminate. Texas Rep. Ron Paul suggested the Environmental Protection Agency as an option.
Pressed by moderator John Harwood to name the third agency, Perry finally acknowledged, "The third one, I can't. Sorry. Oops."
The next time the Texas governor was called on, he had remembered — "That was the Department of Energy that I was reaching for a while ago" — but it was too late to avoid damage to a presidential bid that has been sinking. After the debate, Perry told reporters, "I'm sure glad I had my boots on because I sure stepped in it out there."
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Perry's stumble was the moment sure to become an instant classic on YouTube from a debate in which former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney seemed in his element and businessman Herman Cain was forced to address allegations of sexual harassment that have surfaced since the last such forum.
The debate's bottom line: Good news for Romney, whose support has been steady as two rivals, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Perry, first soared and then crashed. In the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released Monday, Romney was tied with Cain at 21% each.
Cain, the former head of Godfather's Pizza and the National Restaurant Association, flatly rejected accusations of sexual harassment from four women and denied they had harmed his campaign.
"For every one person that comes forward with a false accusation, there are probably — there are thousands who would say none of that sort of activity came from Herman Cain," he said, referring to himself in the third person. "Over the last nine days, the voters have voted with their dollars, and they're saying they don't care about the character assassination. They care about the leadership and getting the economy growing and all of the other problems we face."
Romney, who called the allegations serious in an interview with ABC on Tuesday, declined to take a shot when asked whether his corporate takeover firm would have retained a CEO facing such accusations.
"Herman Cain is the person to respond to this question," Romney said. "The people in this room and across the country can make their own assessments."
The debate, sponsored by CNBC and the Michigan Republican Party, then returned to a discussion on tax plans, the eurozone debt crisis, housing policy, health care reform and economic philosophy. The eight candidates — just eight weeks away from the Iowa caucuses and subsequent contests likely to winnow the field — focused their fire not on one another but on President Obama, the news media and the Dodd-Frank Law regulating corporations.
Romney was asked whether he has flip-flopped over the years on the government's role in supporting the auto industry — a critical issue in Detroit.
He said he consistently opposed a federal bailout, including the loans backed by the Obama administration that helped rescue Chrysler and General Motors.
"Whether it was by President Bush or by President Obama, I said from the beginning it was the wrong way to go," Romney said, saying he supported "a private-sector restructuring and bankruptcy." He called himself "a man of steadiness and constancy."
The Obama campaign and some of Romney's opponents have labeled him a political chameleon for changing positions on abortion rights and other issues from his days as governor of Massachusetts. The Democratic National Committee bought local newspaper ads spotlighting Romney's opposition to the loans.
"What was Mitt Romney's plan for Michigan's automobile industry?" the ads asked. " 'Let Detroit go bankrupt.' "
Meanwhile, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, now third in the USA TODAY poll, was pressed on what he did for Freddie Mac for the $300,000 the housing lender paid his firm in 2006 — before the housing market imploded.
He denied that he lobbied for them and said he had given them advice that they ignored.
"I said to them at the time, 'This is insane; this is a bubble,' " Gingrich said.
When the Bush administration and Alan Greenspan, then-chairman of the Federal Reserve, expressed concern about the health of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac enlisted conservative power brokers including Gingrich with consulting contracts in an effort to push back.
Also debating were former Utah governor Jon Huntsman and Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.
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