It was disappointing that Dr Ben Carson, 64, had to drop out of the Republican (GOP) presidential race at the weekend.
(Photo credit: Blue Nation Review)
Carson’s campaign
In October, despite his being a Seventh Day Adventist (sect), I was hopeful for his campaign. Polls showed that only he had a chance of beating Hillary Clinton: early in December, he was ahead by one point and early in February 2016, she was ahead by just 1.3 points.
However, the endless focus on race in the West, particularly in the United States, makes it difficult for a black to declare himself (or herself) as a conservative. An offended Left — including the MSM — would have to take Carson down.
Before that happened, however, Carson revealed vulnerability in the GOP (Grand Old Party) debates, particularly on foreign policy.
Another thing people remember from his participation in the debates was his statement that the pyramids were grain silos. Before I go into that, however, leftists commenting online seized on it and called him all sorts of names, including ‘stupid’, ‘idiot’ and ‘fool’. They were frothing at the mouth. These comments continued until Carson dropped out of the race.
Early in November, Politico tried to make Carson out to be a liar. Mollie Hemingway, writing for The Federalist, explains the story and subsequent retraction. In short, Politico‘s Kyle Cheney accused Carson of fabricating receiving a West Point scholarship. Cheney had to retract this shortly afterwards.
Hemingway says:
Ben Carson’s campaign did not “admit” that a central point in his story “was fabricated.” Quite the opposite. The central point of the story is falsely described by Cheney/Politico as being that he applied and was accepted at West Point. Carson, in fact, has repeatedly claimed not to have applied. So any claim regarding the absence of West Point records of such an application would not debunk Carson’s point. And, again, Carson’s campaign never “conceded” the story was false at least in part because the story, as characterized by Politico, is not one he told. Further, Cheney is unable to substantiate his claim that Carson told this story. Nowhere in the article does he even explain, with facts, where he came up with the idea that Carson has ever made this claim.
What happened was that, in 1969, as a 17-year-old, Carson had the exceptional opportunity to meet General William Westmoreland, recently retired from service in Vietnam, for dinner. Westmoreland offered him a full scholarship to West Point, but Carson politely declined. Politico said there was no record of Carson’s application to West Point. Again, he never applied.
Politico changed the headline of their story to:
Exclusive: Carson claimed West Point ‘scholarship’ but never applied
Hardly an improvement.
Carson had been in the cadets in high school in Detroit. Furthermore, as one would expect of a future brain surgeon, his academic performance was excellent. It’s no wonder the general asked him to apply to West Point, offering a full scholarship.
By December 19, GOP polls had changed. Fox News reported:
Donald Trump, a candidate even Republicans once considered a side show, increases his lead yet again in the nomination race, according to the latest Fox News national poll.
The poll also finds Ted Cruz ticking up, Marco Rubio slipping, and Ben Carson dropping.
At that point, he was in fourth place on
9 percent. He was at 18 percent last month and had a high of 23 percent support earlier this fall.
Yet, he still had more approval points than Jeb Bush, who had 3%!
On December 26, Real Clear Politics had a go at Carson about his paid speaking engagements and book tour during his candidacy. This ‘concern’ piece wondered if there was enough separation between his revenue generating interests and his campaign. Carson’s campaign spokesman Doug Watts said:
We segregate as much as feasible.
The Atlantic had similar ‘concerns’.
Most of this would have gone under the radar of Republican voters. However, as with the grain silos, Carson’s book tour became a running theme of online leftists. That also continued until he dropped out at the weekend.
Rafael ‘Ted’ Cruz’s cheating at the Iowa caucus — saying Carson had dropped out of the race — cost the good doctor dearly. Donald Trump still talks about it, and rightly so, because Cruz’s team’s intimidation of Carson voters created a win for the Christian constitutional expert from Texas, pushing Trump into second place — and leaving Carson in fourth with 9% of the vote.
Cruz and his team seized their opportunity when Carson said that he was going home to Florida the weekend before the Iowa caucus for a change of clothes. Cruz’s people said they got the information from CNN.
I feel badly for Carson. He assumed Cruz was a nice guy and that the media would play fair ball. At a press conference held after the Iowa caucus, Carson rightly took issue with both.
However, I wonder why Carson didn’t just say that he was going home to regroup before going to Washington DC for the annual National Prayer Breakfast, after which he would go on to campaign in New Hampshire. Donald Trump is always clear about where he is going next, probably to avoid similar speculation.
So, as much as the Left wanted Carson to fail because, in their eyes, blacks have no business being conservatives, the true kisses of death came from two of his fellow candidates — avowed Christians, let’s remember — and their people. In addition to Cruz’s was Marco Rubio’s team. The Politistick has the full story about a tweet from a Rubio supporter, since deleted, which said that Rubio’s campaign was spreading the narrative that Carson was dropping out of the race.
Whilst there were also internal issues in Carson’s campaign, such as spending, the Iowa rumours dogged him in New Hampshire. His party after the primary there was a damp squib, sadly.
In mid-February, he said he would be open to discussing running with Trump as the Vice Presidential nominee and would stay on through the South Carolina primary to help the billionaire. Having a lot of primary candidates is good; they help split the vote, thereby preventing an immediate overall dominant front-runner.
Super Tuesday — March 1 — was the decider. The next day, Fox News reported that it was ‘game over’ for Cruz, Rubio, Kasich — and Carson. (Since then Cruz is proving to be Trump’s main rival.)
He suspended his campaign on March 4, which also made the news in France.
How Carson’s campaign came about
The Washington Post (WaPo) report was the only one I saw that actually explained how Carson came to run for president in the first place.
In 2013, he addressed the National Prayer Breakfast where:
he spoke about the dangers of political correctness, put forward the idea of a flat tax and criticized President Obama’s health-care law. What stood out was that he did so right beside a steely-faced Obama.
Brilliant!
The Wall St Journal thought so, too, and they carried an editorial to that effect days later, entitled:
“Ben Carson for President.” By August of that year, there was a “National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee.” Before he launched his presidential bid last May, the group had raised close to $16 million, gotten a half-million signatures encouraging Carson to run and had 30,000 active volunteers across the country, according to organizers.
WaPo‘s article goes on to say that, at age 33, Carson was the youngest major division director in the history of Johns Hopkins Hospital and:
he was the first pediatric neurosurgeon to successfully separate twins conjoined at the head. He wrote a best-selling book, “Gifted Hands,” about his life, which later became a television movie.
He got a lot of flak for his blunt opposition to Obamacare, his comparison of the United States to Nazi Germany and his denunciation of same-sex marriage.
It was hard for him to not speak about morality in uncertain terms and, paradoxically, be more assertive against other GOP candidates, such as Trump. If he knew something to be immoral, he would say so. Yet, he did not want to be seen to go on the attack against a candidate just for a show of strength.
Of politics, WaPo quotes him as saying:
“Many people told me that this business is corrupt, that it’s evil, that it’s how it’ll always be,” Carson said in a phone interview Monday. “But I don’t believe that we have to accept that. We should rail against that, fight against it, and get something that’s decent and inspirational.”
I couldn’t agree more. This is one of the reasons I read a lot about politics. I continue to look for the ‘decent and inspirational’. Hmm. Like digging for gold.
One thing Dr Ben Carson can be proud of in his campaign: he outlasted Jeb!
Tomorrow: Ben Carson and the grain silo theory
11 comments
March 7, 2016 at 10:48 pm
churchmouse
More from Dr Carson:
‘Carson On Romney’s Big Anti-Trump Speech: “I Don’t See How That’s Helpful”‘:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/carson-romney-trump-criticism-unhelpful
Thank you, Dr Carson. Nor do many of us.
Nor would Ronald Reagan, who wisely advised Republicans against criticising fellow conservatives. If Reagan were alive today, he would have most probably have reminded Mitt how he was elected Governor of Massachusetts: by the will of the people.
It is a shame that this debacle happened just when Nancy Reagan went to her rest at the age of 94. May she be at peace with the Lord and once again enjoy the company of her much loved husband, a great President of the United States of America. My sincere condolences to her family.
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March 8, 2016 at 3:43 pm
Flyinthesky
I was interested in the caption on Carson’s picture so I did some looking on the net and I came up with this quote from him:
“You know Obamacare is really I think the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery,” Carson, who is African American, said Friday in remarks at the Values Voter Summit in Washington. “And it is in a way, it is slavery in a way, because it is making all of us subservient to the government, and it was never about health care. It was about control.”
I know it’s heretic to say so…….but he’s right. And the phenomenon is global.
Sorry if I’m OT.
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March 8, 2016 at 9:32 pm
churchmouse
Not in the slightest! Thank you!
I really liked Dr Carson, despite his being Seventh Day Adventist. As a now-deceased nun told me about my concerns with Romney’s Mormonism in 2012, ‘Who cares? You’re voting for him as President, not as Pope!’
Obamacare is slavery to the government. I don’t know if the original plan for declaring coverage on your tax return is still or ever was in place, but the original idea was to make people declare their coverage on their tax returns. If they had none, they got fined (at best, ‘cost’ of coverage taken out of their tax refund, at worst a payment due of, maybe, $2k). My American readers can tell us more. I would be most grateful if they did.
I notice my offline friends — and family — in the US do not want to discuss Obamacare. Maybe they are ashamed that it sounds too much like slavery. Mr Fly, I am so grateful for the NHS you can’t imagine.
I took a political ‘where do you stand’ test several weeks ago re the 2016 election. My results were 82% in agreement with Donald Trump and 80% with Ben Carson. Happy days.
I wish Dr Carson well. He has been a great pioneer in neurosurgery for America and the world with regard to separating conjoined twins and has had patients — children — from various countries. Those procedures took several hours — 8 or 12 not unusual — and a lot of concentration with him as the surgeon.
It is a pity that so many ignorant leftists ridicule him. For shame.
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March 8, 2016 at 9:36 pm
churchmouse
This is the test. I know you are British, but out of curiosity, you might wish to take it (no need to let us know of the results, unless you wish to do so):
https://www.isidewith.com/political-quiz
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March 9, 2016 at 5:12 pm
churchmouse
Wall Street Journal article about healthcare, published today, March 9. You might have to open this link in a private window in order to read ‘$lammed by Obamacare’:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/lammed-by-obamacare-1457395478
The author has been involved in the healthcare industry all his life, including as a university Professor of Public Health. Excerpts:
‘In December 2014, I shopped on the Internet (not so quaint) for new health insurance. I bought a Bronze plan for two people that cost $1,037 a month and had a $12,600 family deductible ($6,300 each). We were blessed last year; we didn’t have perfect health but never filed a claim.
‘So I was shocked when my 2016 renewal notice showed a 19% monthly premium increase to $1,231—with a higher deductible. All comparable Bronze plans were within dollars of each other, so I grudgingly renewed. My individual health-care cost risk for 2016? It is $1,231 x 12, plus $12,900 in deductibles, for a grand total of $27,672. My individual share is half—$13,836. Nearly 13 times more than the $1,072 of 1999.’
That’s outrageous enough, but ending up in hospital is $$$$$. A friend of mine had to be rushed to hospital by ambulance six years ago. That alone cost between $700 and $1000 for a six- or seven-mile trip. That was only the beginning.
Even when I worked in insurance (back office) during the summer in the late 1970s, I was amazed at the itemised bills. At that time, an aspirin or similar pain reliever was 50 cents a pill!
The only people who do well with health insurance these days are members of unions. Unionised teachers do a bit less well than those who work in other sectors. And the longer they were members, the better their healthcare deal seems to be, even post-retirement. I understand now why they are so pro-Democrat and so anti-Republican.
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March 9, 2016 at 5:51 pm
Flyinthesky
” I am so grateful for the NHS you can’t imagine” This is where our opinions might diverge. I see the NHS is as much of a control mechanism as obamacare. And equally a corporate facilitation exercise. From drugs to labour, they are not valued on what they’re worth they are costed on what the system will stand.
A 4K bed is sold to the NHS for 10, why, because it isn’t perceived as anybody’s money, it’s just a number and nobody has to open their wallet.
We call the NHS free but it isn’t is it. I had occasion to call a doctor in Spain for my grandson a few years ago, he arrived in a very timely fashion did his consultation, about fifteen minutes, wrote a prescription and presented me with a bill, 20 euros !!, here you wouldn’t have got one and if you paid privately it would have been £200.
Another instance, my wife suffers from a chronic condition, I went to a pharmacy with a name of a drug I wanted, She, the farmacist, said I’m not familiar with that. I said Oh well, She said, wait a while, OK I said, She went into the dispensary and returned with what I can only assume is the Spanish pharmacopeia. She spent near half an hour trawling through it until she found an equivalent and sold it to me. At no point was a prescription mentioned.
Can you imagine that happening here! you would get short shrift and told to see your GP. People in Spain are not dying like flies, the assumption is if you ask for something and you know what it’s for and it’s name you can have it.
The problem with us is we have been successfully infantilised for someone else’s benefit.
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March 9, 2016 at 9:46 pm
churchmouse
I anticipated your feelings about the NHS. And, yes, it is true: we do pay for it but with comparatively little hassle through tax. We don’t have to worry about standard treatment.
But did you read the WSJ article I cited earlier? Scary. Reminds me of the time I had to go to the doctor with my mum 12 years ago. There my mother was, with the onset of Alzheimer’s (why we went in the first place, looking towards temporary home then permanent assisted living care), and the first thing the two receptionists asked in unison was, ‘What’s your co-pay?’ She was so nervous, she could barely find her card.
Your story of the farmacist. Yes, one can imagine that in Spain they will look for a close equivalent, if only through common sense. No, I can’t imagine that happening here. Not sure it would happen in France nowadays, either, even near the Med. Glad you found the right thing for Mrs Fly.
Our problem is part infantilisation but more, IMHO, ‘ELF ‘N’ SAFETY’, innit?
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March 9, 2016 at 6:07 pm
Flyinthesky
Trump 94 Rubio 83 Cruz 74 Johnson 64 Clinton 34
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March 9, 2016 at 9:37 pm
churchmouse
Brilliant! Thanks for sharing your results.
I had Sanders in third place, Cruz and Rubio in a distant fourth and fifth and Hillary last, with about the same percentage as you had. Johnson ranked just above Hillary, which is strange, since I have a lot of time for libertarianism — perhaps just not his variety of it.
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March 9, 2016 at 11:59 pm
Flyinthesky
Curious, Carson didn’t come up on mine:
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March 10, 2016 at 12:23 am
churchmouse
He won’t have as he’s dropped out.
IIRC, I agreed with Sanders on preserving America’s national parks for the people. How a couple of answers can bring him into third on my result is anyone’s guess. Must’ve voted those questions as being higher priority. Ahh, the magic of algorithms …
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