Texas Governor Rick Perry has announced that he is leaving the race for the GOP presidential nomination because he felt that he did not see a clear path forward to continue. Perry was in North Carolina on the campaign trail, heading to South Carolina where the next Republican caucus will be held on Saturday. Earlier in the week, rumors that Perry was about to quit were surfacing, with his aides and communications director, Ray Sullivan denying them. However, on Thursday, Perry himself held a press conference, confirming that he was in fact no longer pursuing the party's nomination and that he was giving his support to Newt Gingrich. Perry called Gingrich "a conservative visionary" as well as acknowledging that he was not perfect "but who among us is."

When he made his announcement to run in August, support was immense and immediate with strong poll numbers. But, he ended with a dismal, fifth place finish in the Iowa caucus after a number of serious missteps and mistakes, most notably during the debates. For instance, during the CNBC debates in November, Perry stumbled during a question about his plans to eliminate several government agencies. At first, he announced that he was going to get rid of three, naming two of them and then forgetting the third. After being prodded by the moderator and a side comment by Ron Paul, Perry became even more visibly flummoxed before throwing his hands up and giving up on the statement. Even more troubling, was his performance in an October debate where he appeared to be under the influence of either alcohol or some other substance. He would issue a statement after that debate saying that he was neither drunk nor drugged.

Experts are pointing at two different causes for Perry's failure to succeed and subsequent announcement. First, he shot up the political charts at the very beginning of his run but then slowly and steadily ended up losing steam. Second, the experts are citing his behavior and performance during the debates when he appeared to be visibly shook up when he was under pressure. Most would agree that that is not something they want to see in a potential leader. Others cite the number of gaffes that he has made both on and off the campaign trial. Perry has also changed some of his stands on a number of key issues, causing people to question his sincerity and his conviction.