Republican White House hopeful Herman Cain stumbled badly in responding to a basic question on Libya yesterday, casting doubt on his ability to revive an embattled campaign.
A five-minute video shows Mr Cain's rambling response to a question posed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's editorial board.
After being asked if he agreed or disagreed with US President Barack Obama's response to the Libyan uprising, Mr Cain said ''Okay, Libya," before rolling his eyes up and pausing to gather his thoughts.
"President Obama supported the uprising. Correct? President Obama called for the removal of Gaddafi. Just want to make sure we're talking about the same thing before I say, 'yes, I agreed' or 'no, I didn't agree,'" he said.
"I did not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason - no that's a different one," the flummoxed Republican contender continued.
He then said he "got all this stuff twirling around in my head."
Mr Cain's inability to answer a direct and relatively simple foreign policy question stunned some pundits.
Last week, rival Rick Perry's had an "oops" moment when the Texas governor forgot the third federal department he wanted to shut down.
"Herman Cain-Libya answer might be worse than Rick Perry's debate moment; Smaller stage but wow," NBC political reporter Chuck Todd tweeted.
"So are we at the point where you can say, Herman Cain really Rick Perry'd that question," tweeted Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein.
The gaffe comes as Mr Cain fights to keep his campaign on track amid a spiralling sexual harassment scandal.
Mr Cain's wife Gloria has come out in defence of her husband, telling Fox News that he "totally respects women" and that she does not believe his four accusers.
Asked about the allegations, she said, "that's not Herman" who would have harassed women.
''He would have to have a split personality to do the things that were said'', she added.
