Don't write off Rick Perry just yet.

Reports of Rick Perry's demise, over his memory lapse in Tuesday's debate, are greatly exaggerated.

Dr. Jerry Pournelle's take on the Michigan debates.  …
The Michigan Debate: Candidates 9, Moderators 0; The Cain Affair

(Emphasis mine)
As to Perry, he had a momentary fit of absentmindedness as he tried to remember the names of the Departments of the government that he would eliminate the day after his inauguration: Commerce, Education, and – and he couldn’t remember. Gov. Romney suggested EPA, and for a moment Perry accepted that, then recalled that it’s an Agency, not a Department. Given another chance to name the Department he would eliminate, he once again had a lapse of memory. Eventually he realized, as everyone who has listened to his previous speeches already knew, that it was the Department of Energy.
 ...
But when all is said and done, while the incident was embarrassing, it was hardly definitive. It doesn’t show Perry more or less qualified to be President. We know that Perry has been an effective and re-elected governor of a prosperous state. We know that candidates can be dependent on a teleprompter and get elected. We know that Perry’s lapse of memory was both temporary and unimportant.
 ...
...but my conclusion from the debate is that all the candidates are alive and well, any one of them would be capable of beating Obama, and any one of the would be infinitely superior to the current president.
...
I came away much relieved.

That's Dr. Pournelle's perspective.  Here's mine ...

I don't recall anyone ever describing Rick Perry as an ace debater, but I also have difficulty in recalling just how much help that ability is to actually getting the job done as Governor, or as President of the United States.

1600 Pennsylvania is currently occupied by one who is supposed to be a fantastic debater (although I've yet to see any evidence of that -- all the supporting praise comes from a media that drools over his every pronouncement), but going by his actual performance over the last three years, is debating skill going to be your definitive test of the man you will vote for?

Really?!!!
-