Texas Governor Rick Perry delivered his biggest fumble of his campaign to date at Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate when he failed to name the third agency he would eliminate if he were to become president.

“It’s three agencies of government when I get there that are gone – Commerce, Education and the um, what’s the third one there? Let’s see.  Oh five – commerce, education and the um, um,” Perry said as he struggled to remember the third agency.

Rep. Ron Paul, standing to Perry’s left, chimed in offering the EPA as a suggestion.

“EPA, there you go,” Perry said.

But then, the Texas governor quickly retracted his statement, saying the EPA doesn’t need to be eliminated but simply rebuilt, and Perry attempted to name the third mystery agency again.

“But you can’t name the third one?” CNBC moderator John Harwood asked.

“The third agency of government I would od away with the education, the uh, the commerce and let’s see.  I can’t the third one. I can’t.  Oops.”

The third agency Perry couldn’t think of was the Department of Energy, which he rails against on the stump nearly every day and has made a central point of his campaign.

Perry finally remembered the third agency 15 minutes later after referring to his notes, saying “By the way, it was the Department of Energy I was talking about.”