Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry could not remember Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's name Friday in an editorial board interview with the Des Moines Register before an editorial board member helped him out.
"Do you really think he [President Barack Obama] is waging a war on religion?" asked an editorial board member, referring to Perry's recent ad pledging to "end Obama's war on religion" and "fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage" as president.
"I do because when you see his appointment of two -- from my perspective, inarguably -- activist judges, whether it was," he said, then trailing off for about six seconds trying to recall her name. "Montomayor," he said. Someone on the editorial board said Sotomayor's name. "Sotomayor and [Elena] Kagan, who are both activist judges," he continued.
(Video above via ThinkProgress.)
After this flub, Perry mentioned "eight unelected" justices when discussing school prayer. The Supreme Court has nine justices.
The controversial ad Perry was asked about compares gays openly serving in the military to children being able to celebrate Christmas in schools. The Huffington Post reported that the ad was created over the objections of his pollster, Tony Fabrizio, who called it "nuts." Nelson Warfield, a top Perry aide, said that the ad was all Perry's idea.
Perry's campaign has been plagued by gaffes. He misspoke Thursday and said that the U.S. was at war with Iran instead of Iraq, but corrected himself. During a presidential debate in November, he forgot one of the three agencies of government he had promised to abolish.
