Umm, What Three Agencies Would I Kill Again?

OK, on one level it's funny watching Rick Perry stumble over himself trying to remember exactly which three federal agencies he has pledged to kill:

But there's a deeper point here: When a presidential candidate can't even remember which three large, established ongoing operations of government he would do away with (as if he could do so with the wave of his hand), it's fairly clear he's simply trying to follow talking points and not actually grappling with the issues of what government should be doing and how it should be structured to do it. And in the current fiscal situation, those issues couldn't be more important.

It would be nice if anyone across the political spectrum was taking seriously the task of coming up with a plan for a streamlined government that costs much less than it does today. But that requires more than talking about hacking away whole departments or stopping agencies from buying t-shirts and coffee mugs.

Update, 9:17 a.m.: Nice to see that Perry still isn't taking this seriously. He's actually trying to fundraise around the gaffe, and has put up a poll on his website asking supporters "which part of the federal government you would like to forget about the most." The list includes some typical targets (Education, Commerce and the one Perry forgot, Energy) but also the Marine Mammal Commission. Why? Just because the name sounds funny, I bet.