You are right, Perry should have deferred participating in the debates until his back was healed. Huge strategic blunder, he should now bow out of the race and chalk it up as a lesson learned. Try again in the a future election. It will be mostly forgotten by then.
I agree. Perry can go back to TX and regroup his forces over the the coming 4-8 years, then give it another try.
Remember, Clinton was loudly boo’d at one Democrat convention, nominated at the next; then went on to be elected twice and today is the most beloved (among Dems) pol in the USA today.