Funniest Gaffes of Campaign 2012
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Herman Cain Gets His Founding Documents All Mixed Up
Declaring his candidacy in May 2011, Herman Cain urged Americans to reread, not rewrite, the Constitution, especially the part that talks about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, words which feature nowhere in the Constitution but quite prominently in the Declaration of Independence.
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Michele Bachmann Compares Self to Serial Killer
Kicking off her candidacy in Waterloo, Iowa, in June 2011, Bachmann sucked up to Iowans by likening her can-do spunk to the frontier spirit of local hero John Wayne. The only problem? The John Wayne from Waterloo isn't the one who starred in Westerns; he's the serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who raped and murdered dozens of young men in the 1970s.
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Mitt Romney Tries, Fails, to Relate
At June 2011 campaign stop in Tampa, multimillionaire former private-equity titan Mitt Romney sat around a table with a group of unemployed Floridians and attempted to lighten things up by joking, "I'm unemployed, too."
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Herman Cain Draws a Blank on Libya
In a November 2011 sitdown with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Herman Cain showcased his lack of foreign policy knowledge when asked to rate President Obama's handling of the Libyan uprising. Cain seemed to mentally run through a list of talking points, but came up short. "No, that's a different one," he eventually offered. "I gotta go back. Let's see. I got all this stuff twirling around in my head."
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Rick Perry Struggles to Arrange His Thoughts
During a Fox/Google debate in September 2011, Rick Perry uncorked a devastating attack on Mitt Romney's long history of flip-flopping. Well, that was the idea. What actually came out was: "I think Americans just don't know sometimes which Mitt Romney they're dealing with. Is it the Mitt Romney who's on the side … against the second amendment before he was for … the second amendment. Was it was before he was before these social programs, um, from the standpoint he was for, uh, standing up for Roe versus Wade before he was against vers… uh, Roe versus Wade, uh, he was for Race to the Top. Uh… he's … for Obamacare and now he's against it."
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Mitt Romney Has a Moment of Truth
During an October debate, Romney sought to knock down Rick Perry's charge that he'd employed illegal immigrants. It's true, conceded Romney, that the contractor he had working on his house had some undocumented workers on the payroll. But as soon as Mitt found out, he explained, he told the contractor — and here we have a rare moment of pure candor from a politician — "I can't have illegals. I'm running for office, for Pete's sake."
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Rick Perry’s Brain Freeze
During a November 2011 debate in Rochester, Michigan, Rick Perry let it be known that as president he would eliminate three federal agencies right off the bat. Which ones? "Commerce, Education and the – what's the third one there?" Perry fumbled. "Let's see …" An excruciating 54 seconds passed before the Texas governor settled on "Oops!"
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Mitt Romney Lays a $10,000 Bet
While sparring with Rick Perry over health care at a December 10, 2011 debate, Mitt Romney put his money where his mouth is – in the worst way possible. Romney challenged Perry to prove that Romney had, as Massachusetts governor, forced people to buy health insurance. "I'll tell you what,” Romney said to Perry. "Ten thousand bucks? A ten thousand dollar bet?" Perry replied winningly (for once), “I'm not in the betting business.”
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Herman Cain Doesn’t Know China Has Nukes
During an October interview on the PBS Newshour, Herman Cain laid out his approach to China. "My China strategy is quite simply outgrow China. … Yes, they're a military threat. They've indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat." China conducted its first nuclear test in 1964.