Rick Perry, Presidential Debate | featured news

Is it too late to fire the moderator? Two more Republican candidates -- Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry -- said thanks but no thanks to an invitation to participate in an Iowa debate managed by real estate mogul Donald Trump.

It was the Hoover Dam of mental blocks. Pundits referred to it as a “brain freeze” or a “gaffe.” In Internet parlance, it was an “epic FAIL.” But to neuroscientists, what happened to Texas Gov. Rick Perry Wednesday night looked like something very ordinary, exacerbated by stress: a “retrieval failure.”

Rick Perry gives his Top 10 excuses for a huge debate gaffe on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Perry says his campaign won't end despite debate blunder. "Oh, shoot, no," Perry told The Associated Press Thursday morning, a day after he stood on stage unable to remember the third federal department he would cut. He was asked if his campaign, struggling to regain traction, could survive. "This ain't a day for quitting nothing."

Perry, who struggled in his previous debate performances, was talking about the three departments that he would cut to curb the size of the federal government. He named two — Education and Commerce — but for an excruciating period searched his mind for the third, as competitors tried to help him out.

Rick Perry may skip some upcoming GOP presidential debates, sidestepping a campaign staple that hasn't been kind to the Texas governor in his first two months on the national stage. It's a decision that ultimately could cause other Republicans to bow out of the more than half-dozen face-offs scheduled between now and the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3....

Tuesday night was fight night in Las Vegas. Seven Republican presidential candidates clashed sharply over issues such as illegal immigration, taxes and health care at a presidential debate in Nevada sponsored by CNN and the Western Republican Leadership Conference. But it was the three Republican frontrunners -- former Godfather's Pizza executive Herman Cain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov Rick Perry -- who came under frequent attack.

President Barack Obama is swiping at Texas Gov. Rick Perry, criticizing him as "a governor whose state is on fire, denying climate change."

Former pizza executive Herman Cain surprised rival Rick Perry with an upset victory on Saturday in a Republican presidential straw poll in Florida, dealing a disappointing loss to the Texas governor two days after a shaky debate performance.

The Republican contenders for the presidential nomination aimed their fire Thursday night at front-runner Rick Perry while several second-tier candidates tried to gain traction in the GOP field as they faced off at a debate in Orlando, Fla.