VIDEO: Post-Mortem-Rick Perry does 'Letterman' Top 10 List

Is this the way to mitigate a crisis?

Rick Perry ran into trouble in the debate this week when he twice forgot that the Department of Energy was one of the federal agencies his policy proposals would impact.

Now we've all forgotten what we were going to say (I do it every day), but the media treated this as if it were a nuclear gaffe that would knock Perry out of the race.

Seeming to learn from the slow and inconsistent reaction that got Herman Cain into trouble, Perry's PR team jumped into action immediately after the debate. The next morning he was on all the major TV shows positioning the error, coming across as human and approachable.

To cap it off, Perry ended his unexpected New York media tour with David Letterman. Check this out:

My favorite isn't in this clip. It was the one where he said he thought it would be a good idea to take the heat off of Herman Cain (LOL!).

This was a fast response to a potentially dangerous crisis by the Perry campaign. Instead of Rick Perry dealing with the image of a "forgetful buffoon", he attempted to own the error and begin restoring some credibility.

PR observations:

1. The Perry campaign acted quickly. They implemented a decisive, immediate plan. I'm most certain Rick Perry had other plans Thursday. But he was willing to listen to his team, scrap his schedule, and attempt to preserve his credibility.

2. They communicated in the right channel. This is a nuanced response. The "gaffe" was made on national TV. Instead of waging a war in the print media, the Perry team went right to work and booked their man on every national TV outlet that would take them. Has it paid off?

3. By proactively taking the bull by the horns, Perry's camp attempted to neutralize the controversy, shorten the media cycle, and move back to the campaigns regularly scheduled programming (i.e. get back on message).

It will be interesting to see how this response impact's Perry's polling numbers.

Do you think his response worked?

Or is he being too glib about forgetting the name of a major federal agency that is the focus of cuts?

Updated 11-12-2011