Perry says his campaign won't end

Rick Perry says he "stepped in it" during Wednesday night's Republican presidential debate, but insisted it won't force him out of the presidential race.

"Oh, shoot, no," Perry told The Associated Press Thursday morning, a day after he stood on stage unable to remember the third federal department he would cut. He was asked if his campaign, struggling to regain traction, could survive. "This ain't a day for quitting nothing."

With a blitz of early morning interviews and TV appearances, the Texas governor was looking to stem any fallout from a major gaffe the night before during a GOP presidential debate.

"The third agency of government I would do away with - the Education, the Commerce. And let's see. I can't. The third one, I can't," Perry said at the debate. "Oops."

Perry's glaring mistake was by far the worst in a series of missteps he's made over the course of six presidential debates he's attended. The pattern plays into stereotypes that the Texas governor isn't smart enough or qualified enough to be president - particularly as Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate to beat, has stood on the same stages and performed almost flawlessly. The episode also raised questions about whether Perry can take on not just those Republican rivals but also President Barack Obama.