Governor Perry’s Gaff

The video clip of Governor Perry’s brain freeze has gone viral, and it is the subject of almost every news show this morning. Seriously. Seriously???

Are we, as a community that shallow? To be sure, Perry’s senior moment was embarrassing for him, and for those who could feel the pain for him. However, which one of us has not suffered that type of momentary lapse? I know I have.

I remember being at a gathering, and introducing newcomers to the other people present. I was doing just fine, until my gaze fell on one lady. I could remember her last name, who her children were, her husband’s name, but for the life of me, I could not remember her Christian name. To make matters worse, she and I had been room mates for several months. I remember standing there, willing her name to come to me, but no such luck. The silence grew longer, and the look on her face was priceless. I was doing every brain trick I knew to get that elusive name to materialize, but it never did. Finally she looked at me in exasperation, said Angie, and my first thought was, of course!!!!!

My embarrassment was of a local nature, and cannot be compared to the chagrin of our governor. However, the mental pressure of having to perform in front of a crowd, albeit a much smaller crowd, caused the information I knew to be inaccessible.

As an educator, I know that this happens all the time. It is unfortunate that Governor Perry experienced this in front of the world, but come on, do we really want to negate his candidacy because he had a brain fart?

We have had four years of leadership, if you can call it that, by a man who almost never makes this type of mistake. We are told that he relies heavily on the teleprompter, and we have seen some mis-steps when he veers off topic, or is heard on an open mic saying things with his outside voice that should have remained private information. Almost everyone would say that our country is worse off, despite the President being camera ready and script perfect.

I am not endorsing any GOP candidate, but I do hope that we as the electorate are not as shallow as we appear. We must look for the substantive issues. We must value character over charisma. We must value experience over expectations. We must value track records over teleprompters.

Until next time,

Polly