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Republican
presidential candidate Governor Rick Perry of Texas speaks
at the Republican
Jewish Coalition's (RJC) 2012 Republican Presidential
Candidates Forum in
Washington December 7, 2011.
(Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
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(Reuters) -
Texas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry on Thursday
mistakenly referred to a U.S. war with Iran, confusing the country with Iraq in
the latest gaffe to hit his White House bid.
A South
Carolina woman at a Perry campaign event asked him to comment on the two wars
in which the United States was involved. "She asked about Iran,
Afghanistan," Perry said.
Members of
the audience shouted out "Iraq," and Perry stopped himself. "Excuse
me, I mean Iraq," he continued. "That'll be on the front page,"
he added to laughter.
Perry shot
to front runner in the Republican primary for the Republican nomination in the
summer, but a series of gaffes during debates was followed by a sharp decline
in support from which he is struggling to recover. He is down in single digits
in South Carolina, behind Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, recent polls show.
Perry has
responded by making light of the slips. Most famously in a presidential debate
he forgot the third of three U.S. departments he planned to eliminate.
"Oops," he said at the time. On Thursday, he said that every now and
then when speaking without a teleprompter "you forget your third
thing."
Although
Perry meant to say Iraq, tensions between the United States and Iran have
heightened recently over Tehran's nuclear program. Iran last weekend said it
had shot down a U.S. reconnaissance drone in the east of the country.
Related Article:
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Herman
Cain, a candidate for the Republican party's presidential
nomination, made
another mistake over Libya and US foreign
policy. Photograph: Brian
Snyder/Reuters
|
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| Gingrich opposes gay marriage and did not attend his half-sister's wedding. Photograph: Andrew Burton/Reuters |
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