Former Arkansas governor and 2008 GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said this week that Rick Perry may have damaged his presidential campaign irreparably in the wake of his fifth-place finish in Iowa.
"When he got up in Iowa and said I'm going to reassess my campaign, in other words I'm thinking about quitting, in essence he did quit. In a campaign you never say I might not make it," Huckabee told Newsmax in an exclusive interview. "I just think that was an incredibly bad blunder from a tactical standpoint."
Beyond that, Huckabee said he doesn't see a way for Perry to rekindle his White House run, citing a number of gaffes that the Texas governor made on his way from the top of the pack in polling as a newcomer, all the way to the bottom tier.
"I don't see it happening. The problems Rick Perry had were substantive, not just stylistic. When he clearly was unable to name Supreme Court justices properly and didn't know how many there were -- those are the things that cause people to say he's not ready for prime time," Huckabee said.
After Perry's disappointing performance in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday, the man who had never lost an election took the stage and announced that we would be returning to Texas to reassess whether to continue his presidential bid.
He didn't mull the decision for long.
On Wednesday morning Perry tweeted: "And the next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State... Here we come South Carolina!!!" with a picture of the persistent, spandex-clad candidate giving the thumbs-up sign.
Perry said he had come to his senses about continuing his quest for the White House while on a morning jog.
Video of the Huckabee interview above via Newsmax.