Rick Perry has raised eyebrows after an unusually expressive speech in New Hampshire last Friday. A video, above, shows the “highlights” (full video here), and has been viewed by more than 1m people on YouTube. It has been speculated that Perry was drunk — although the host of the event denies that he was drinking at or prior to the event — or that he was taking painkillers following recent back surgery.
However, in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, the Republican presidential contender denied that he was under the influence of anything, claiming that the speech was “pretty typical for me”. He said:
I’ve probably given 1,000 speeches. There are some that have been probably boring, some that have been animated, some that have been in between.
In Monday’s edition of the Daily Show, host Jon Stewart referred to the incident, saying:
Best-case scenario, that dude’s hammered. Worst-case scenario, that is Perry sober, and every time we’ve seen him previously, he’s been hammered.
Judge for yourself.