Rick Perry bowed to the inevitable on Thursday dropping out of the Republican presidential race after consistently finishing at the bottom of the pack in all polls in the run-up to Saturday’s South Carolina primary.
In quitting, Perry endorsed Newt Gingrich, who this week urged both him and fellow conservative Rick Santorum to drop out to give him a clear shot at front-runner Mitt Romney.
“I believe Newt is a conservative visionary who can transform our country,” he said as he announced his decision in Charleston, S.C.
“We have had our differences which campaigns will inevitably have,” Perry said. “Newt is not perfect, but who among us is?”
Gingrich said he was “humbled and honored” to receive Perry’s endorsement. “His selflessness is yet another demonstration of his deep sense of citizenship and commitment to the cause of limited government, historic American values and greater freedom for every American."
Editor's Note: With Perry out will Newt Gingrich win South Carolina? Tell us who you would vote for. Click here to vote.
The former House speaker said Perry “will continue to be a leader for the cause of conservatism, especially for more American energy and for implementing the 10th Amendment across the country.”
Pollster Scott Rasmussen told Newsmax that the main effect of Perry's dropping out will come in Thursday’s debate when the four remaining candidates, Gingrich, Romney, Santorum, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, will each have more time to get their points across. Gingrich generally has been seen as a better debater than his opponents.
In his speech announcing his decision to “suspend” his campaign, Perry said, “I have never believed the cause of conservative is embodied by one individual. Our party and the conservative philosophy transcends any one individual. It’s a movement of ideas that are greater than any one of us and will live long past any of us in our lives.”
The objective at the election is not only to defeat President Barack Obama but also “to replace him with a conservative leader who will bring about real change," Perry said.
Perry said that he had come to the conclusion “that there is no viable path forward for me in this 2012 campaign.”
Even before Perry made his announcement, Gingrich had caught up with Romney, according to an InsiderAdvantage/Newsmax poll released on Wednesday night.
The decision spares Perry from the debate Thursday night in Charleston. Although his performance has improved in the most recent debates, he struggled and made a series of blunders in the earlier ones.
Perry will long be remembered for his “oops” moment during a Nov. 9 debate, when he confidently said he wanted to abolish three federal departments, but then could only remember two of them.
“I can't think of the third one. I can't. Sorry. Oops," he told CNBC moderator John Harwood.
His debating flaws were first discovered during a Sep. 22 event in Florida when he slammed people who disagreed with him on providing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants as “heartless.”
He later apologized, telling Newsmax, “I was probably a bit over-passionate by using that word and it was inappropriate.”
He admitted, “Debates are not my strong suit,” and told Fox News. “These debates are set up for nothing more than to tear down the candidates. It's pretty hard to be able to sit and lay out your ideas and your concepts with a one-minute response."
Perry even considered dropping out of all debates, saying he wanted to spend more time with real voters rather than his opponents. However he soon realized that that was not a reasonable option and he had to continue facing his rivals on stage.
Perry’s flubs were not limited to the debate stage, though. In late October, he gave a rambling, animated and semi-coherent speech in New Hampshire, giving many onlookers the impression that he had been drinking or was on painkillers, a suggestion he denied.
And addressing students at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., he got both the voting age and the date of the general election wrong when he urged students, "Those of you that will be 21 by Nov. 12, I ask for your support and your vote."
Other campaign misstatements included:
- Telling a 7-year-old boy that the minimum age for a president was 21, when it is in fact 35
- Claiming the American revolution occurred in the 16th century not the 18th
- Saying Woodrow Wilson was president just a decade ago
- Telling "Today" show host Meredith Viera that President George W. Bush had done a great job “defending us from freedom
- Forgetting Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s name, calling her “Montomayor” during an interview with the Des Moines Register editorial board.
Perry’s decision to pull out ends a desperately disappointing campaign for the three-time governor of Texas. He came into the race in August and immediately attracted a large following of conservatives. His cut, cap and balance plan and his consistent support for a flat tax plan earned him plaudits.
By September, he was leading in most polls, at one point holding a 12 percentage point lead over Romney with the rest of the field trailing. But by October, voters were seeing his flaws.
After his fifth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, he said he was returning to Texas to reconsider his campaign, leaving the impression that he was quitting then. But by the following morning, he had reconsidered and tweeted that he was going on to South Carolina. He basically skipped the New Hampshire primary, barely registering with voters and finishing sixth with less than 1 percent of the vote.
But his strategy failed, and he was to pick up only 3 percent of the vote in the Palmetto State according to the InsiderAdvantage poll.
However, he had the financial backing that allowed him to stay in the race longer than either Herman Cain or Michele Bachmann, who were both ahead of him in the polls at the time they dropped out.
Editor's Note: With Perry out will Newt Gingrich win South Carolina? Tell us who you would vote for. Click here to vote.
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