THE CURRENT GOVERNOR of Arizona had an embarrassing meltdown in a TV debate, being caught for words in the middle of her uninterrupted opening.

Being offered 60 seconds to introduce herself and outline her general electoral plans, Brewer found herself simply unable to string sentences together and looking sheepishly at her hands before recovering.

Though Brewer, a Republican, recovered her poise to take part in the round-table debate afterward, she quickly bolted from a scheduled question-and-answer session after the TV debate concluded.

Brewer has described the silence – which has quickly accrued millions of views on YouTube – as “the longest 16 seconds of my life.”

She has since admitted she didn’t want to take part in the protest in the first place and says she is unlikely to do so again.

Recent opinion polls have put Brewer with a 19% lead over her Democrat opponent Terry Goddard, however, so Brewer is unlikely to need to put her case much further.

The election takes place on November 2.