Rick Perry — out!

The new glasses apparently didn’t do the trick.

The former governor of Texas threw in the towel on Friday and the Republican race is now totally lacking in candidates who claimed to have shot a coyote while jogging.

His departure is a crushing blow for those of us who have already put in the time to read “Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America From Washington,” in which Perry announced that Americans were tired of being bossed around and being told “how much salt we can put on our food, what windows we can buy for our house” and “what kind of cars we can drive.”

I will not even have the opportunity to point out that Washington doesn’t actually tell us any of those things.

And now the loser debate on Wednesday will only feature four candidates, one of them George Pataki.

We make fun of presidential debates, for excellent reasons. But you will remember that at this time four years ago, Rick Perry was at the top of the polls. Way ahead of the pack. Then one “Oops” and an entire major-league political career was ruined forever.