After wrapping up Tuesday night's economics-oriented debate at Dartmouth, Rick Perry stopped by the school's Beta Theta Pi fraternity chapter to deliver a little history lesson about the American Revolution. And he slipped up on the exact date of the war by about two centuries. As ABC News quoted him, he seems to have misremembered either the date of the American Revolution or the way that centuries are counted: 

"Our Founding Fathers never meant for Washington, D.C. to be the fount of all wisdom. As a matter of fact they were very much afraid if that because they’d just had this experience with this far-away government that had centralized thought process and planning and what have you, and then it was actually the reason that we fought the revolution in the 16th century was to get away from that kind of onerous crown if you will," Perry said.

Slip ups happen, he surely knows the revolution was in the 18th century. Remember, Rick Perry gets tired after a long night of debating. At the same fraternity press conference he admitted once again: "Debates are not my strong suit."

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at ehayden at nationaljournal dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Erik Hayden