Like: In new Rick Perry ad, candidate pokes light fun at “brain freeze” moment

You don’t see political ads this one often:

Politico’s Maggie Haberman describes it, and speculates on the main reason for it being released today:

Rick Perry is heading to Jay Leno’s couch tonight, and he’s making the most of it – airing this campaign ad in Iowa, in which he takes on his own “oops” moment from the CNBC debate in which he couldn’t remember the third agency he’d cut (it was the Dept. of Energy, as he notes in the ad).

The spot itself opens with the brain freeze, and then pivots to Perry poking fun at his own gaffe, noting it happens to everyone, but not quite on that scale. He then ends by pretending to forget the disclosure signoff of “I’m Rick Perry and I approved this message.”

[…]

But the clear goal of the spot is to show Perry not taking himself too seriously, and with an ability to demonstrate an ability to take blows and keep fighting, at a time when the rest of the GOP field is either battling fresh allegations related to sex, or battling each other over who is the least consistent candidate in the field.

Ads are not the primary, or even secondary reasons I vote for or against a candidate, but they are part of the “total package”, so to speak (the awesome Reagan ads from his two successful Presidential runs come to mind) and I have to give the Perry campaign some clever points on this one. That brain freeze moment was widely regarded as the death of Perry’s campaign for the presidency, yet his ad people are turning it around and trying to paint it as a positive. Can you imagine our “perfect” celebrity President ever doing something like this with, say, his “corpsman” gaffe?

In other GOP candidate news, Newt’s arrogantly declared himself the nominee already. Seriously. The Bachmann campaign is under fire for allegedly gaining access to a homeschool email database in Iowa and using it to send campaign information. Meanwhile, Herman Cain told the NH Union Leader paper that his wife did not know about his “friendship” and financial aid to Ginger White, who has alleged a 13 year affair with Mr. Cain. Cain also said in the interview that dropping out of the race “is an option.”

As they say, stay tuned …