Said Ben Carson, who just announced that he is running for the GOP nomination.
"The main thing I'm hoping is that a lot of young people will recognize themselves in me, recognize that they themselves are the most influential factor in achieving their goals...."
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75 comments:
Ben Carson is a good man, and his desire to be civically engaged is admirable and worth emulating.
That said, he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the GOP nomination. Even so, his voice is needed in the process. It will keep the likely winners honest.
For a little while, anyway.
Whatever he may have to say, the problem with his candidacy boils down to him never having won an election or served in executive office (same problem with Fiorina). Carson would have been better off running for Senate in MD--maybe a long shot in such a blue state, but if he's good on the stump and can resonate with enough voters, he can demonstrate what conservatives often say about their ability to win by sticking to principles.
But in the presidential race, I don't see the GOP nominating someone who never won an election before. The last time they did this was with Ike, and he invaded Europe.
Ben Carson is a good man and there is a message the GOP needs to learn from him.
But he supports gun control.
Big thumbs down.
Gak. Everyhody's a populist.
Achilles said...
But he supports gun control.
Big thumbs down.
5/4/15, 10:40 AM
What is wrong with wanting to maintain a tight shot group and breath control? Wait, what?
I'd vote for him over Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren
Champagne corks are popping at Politifact HQ.
Vanity campaign.
People who really want to serve run for offices they can actually win.
He'd be a great voice in the party -- but he's got to run for congress or governor.
America does not need another social issue candidate.
Where is the capitalist that wants to be President? Where is that person, who wants to re-invent the economy.
Where is the President who doesn't think we need 2400 nuclear weapons on alert.
Where is the President who thinks 96 Trillion debt is a big number?
Where is the President that can take on the Legislature, and make them cry Uncle? We ain't seen that person yet.
You got a social issue? Get off of my lawn!
If only he could operate on Hillary!'s brain.
Ben Carson's success has already been used enough by the media to show that anyone who is poor should blame themselves. He's served his purpose already.
harrogate said...
Ben Carson's success has already been used enough by the media to show that anyone who is poor should blame themselves. He's served his purpose already.
I suspect Ben would say he wants to change the focus in poor communities from how unfair being poor is to how poor people can stop being poor. It's a strange world where the self-appointed advocates for the poor focus on blame rather than improvement.
Rick said...
It's a strange world where the self-appointed advocates for the poor focus on blame rather than improvement.
5/4/15, 11:30 AM
The former pays better.
Given his slim chances, his candidacy would have been much more interesting and influential if he ran as a Democrat in the primaries and challenged Hillary to debate him.
I like Carson but not as president. He should run for governor but now he would be seen as an opportunist, I fear. Maryland has a GOP governor, courtesy of O'Malley.
Here comes the clown car!
Beep beep!
Marco Rubio/ Ban Carson ticket.
Carson = Even more irrelevant than the other republicans.
Interesting article in the WaPo about Ben Carson.
He's a hero! He's a great American!
Oh shit, he's a Republican. Which apparently is like being a heroin addict.
"Sebastian said...
If only he could operate on Hillary!'s brain."
He would find nothing.
Again Rubio-Carson would make a great ticket. First latino, and second black president but one who had a real job and wasn't a community organizer/saul alinksy leftist.
Both have issues, but purely in terms of optics for conservatives it would be great.
Plus, I'd love to be able to act like a lefty and make the argument that any opposition to either Rubio or Carson was racism straight up and/or racial code words signifying the lefts racism.
Immature, I agree. But then I could make argument that it worked so well for liberals. If its in fact immature then perhaps they have been acting that way for the longest. So, if I refrain from immaturity, and act like the adult in the room, its a refutation of liberal arguing styles.
I'm a huge fan of Dr. Carson. He's in my top 3, and I hope he's on the ticket.
Two strong reasons to think about Carson.
He hates Obamacare. And he knows more about it (presumably) than any other candidate. He knows about it from the inside. He can talk about the damage it's doing to the practice of medicine. If you want Obamacare to be the focus in 2016, think hard about Carson.
And two, I believe Carson might destroy the race-baiting the left has done for decades. And that would be huge, for the Republican party, and for our country. I think the racial divisiveness of Obama/Holder is rotten. Dr. Carson can and will speak to this.
I'm also not sold on the idea that one has to serve in government to be a good President. I like the idea of an outsider, an ordinary citizen.
I hope he makes a strong run, and I hope he's on the ticket, in either capacity.
@Titus: Here comes the clown car!
Racist.
I never thought I would say this...
but kudos to Al Sharpton.
As Carson waited to go on stage, Sharpton pleaded with the crowd to give him a fair hearing.
Not every day that a Republican gets a fair hearing.
I forgot Rand Paul is a doctor, too.
Paul and Carson would be a double whammy. Two doctors running to repeal Obamacare. I like it!
Please no Rand Paul.
The "liberal" Hive (and by "liberal" I mean of course "tax-happy, coercion-addicted, power-tripping State fellator") are already giving marching orders to its MSM hitmen. They don't like it when an African American gets uppity and threatens the Plantation.
"And two, I believe Carson might destroy the race-baiting the left has done for decades. And that would be huge, for the Republican party, and for our country. I think the racial divisiveness of Obama/Holder is rotten. Dr. Carson can and will speak to this."
I don't know about that--look at how the Left handles Clarence Thomas. A clear success story raised in segregation-era Georgia who is proud of his race and has sat on the Supreme Court since 1991. Yet the Left has been tarring him as a racial sellout and a "dim bulb" since the beginning.
And I'm fine with the Left not being fond of Thomas--after all, his opinions are clearly counter to theirs. But it's one thing to respect the man and vehemently disagree with him, and another to challenge his racial legitimacy and call him an "affirmative action hire" (note how they'd react if you called Obama, Holder or Thurgood Marshall an "affirmative action hire").
"The "liberal" Hive (and by "liberal" I mean of course "tax-happy, coercion-addicted, power-tripping State fellator") are already giving marching orders to its MSM hitmen. They don't like it when an African American gets uppity and threatens the Plantation."
Hopefully they overplay their hand and it backfires.
I don't think Carson will get much traction in the primaries, but it will be nice to have a racially diverse cast of characters on the debate stages.
"I believe Carson might destroy the race-baiting the left has done for decades"
Yeah - just like Colin Powel, Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice, etc. did.
Titus said...
Here comes the clown car!
Beep beep!
You drove to work today?
How do you drive wearing those wacky giant shoes?
Is there a trick to it?
Rubio-Carson would make a great ticket.
I'm a big fan of Rubio.
The only problem with Rubio is that if he's the nominee, immigration is our primary issue.
I hate immigration as an issue. It makes us look racist. It makes us look mean. And it's like #93 on my list of Shit That Needs Fixing.
As far as I'm concerned, screw the Path to Citizenship. And screw the Giant Wall To Keep the Yellow Man Out. I don't give a shit.
And I really, really, really do not want immigration to be the #1 issue in 2016. Whose bright idea was that? It's an idiotic idea.
Attacking Obamacare, on the other hand, is a no-brainer. People hate Obamacare.
So Rand Paul, or Ben Carson.
If, on the other hand, foreign policy blows up and becomes the big issue, then Marco Rubio is our best bet, I think.
In neither scenario do I see Walker as our best candidate. (Sorry, Wisconsin!) He's the anti-union guy, and (from the media point of view) the Corporate Stooge. Not sure that's a winning campaign, either.
Attacking Obamacare is the most obvious issue to run on, and the biggest winner for us. So who can do that most effectively?
If Republicans are going to retake the White House in 2016, they need to narrow the field to most the serious contenders early on and I’m hard-pressed to think of any reason why Ben Carson (who has no executive experience nor actually run and won a statewide campaign for office) would be part of a presidential debate other than the fact he’s not a white male.
"The only problem with Rubio is that if he's the nominee, immigration is our primary issue."
Why would Rubio make immigration the primary issue? He proposed a reform plan that go nowhere so he dropped it. If anything, that suggests he knows another immigration reform law won't go anywhere without support from his party.
Not that we don't need some sort of immigration reform--our status quo is a mess. But I don't see anything passing without bipartisan support.
I hope he is not on record as whistling at a white woman. Democrats don't like that. At least they didn't in Mississippi.
And then there's Herman Cain.
I hope he's cleaner than a whistle.
"If Republicans are going to retake the White House in 2016, they need to narrow the field to most the serious contenders early on..."
I don't think it's so much that the "unserious" contenders were still in the field that hurt Romney so much as the fact that he was too overcautious when it came to calling out the Cains, Trumps and Bachmanns of the race, and it looked to the average viewer like "nine nine nine!" and the birthers and the gay conversion therapy types were part of the GOP mainstream, and would have influence over Romney.
Carson and Fiorina (to name two of the candidates who only have a chance of getting the nomination if the rest are all raptured on primary day) could end up as part of the background noise, could have something positive to add, or could end up being a joke. If it's the last, then hopefully the nominee will call it as he sees it to signal to moderates that this will be a serious campaign and not a wacko tent.
Oh! Now that Ben Carson has told me to think for myself, I shall begin forthwith.
Why would Rubio make immigration the primary issue?
I don't think he'll have a choice. I think the media will go to him over and over to talk about immigration. He can't avoid it.
"Attacking Obamacare is the most obvious issue to run on, and the biggest winner for us. So who can do that most effectively?"
I disagree. To quote the competent Clinton, "It's the economy, stupid".
Obamacare, immigration, bloated public service unions, government over-regulation and more are all killing our economy and employment. The candidate that can propose a coherent policy that gets these monsters under control - and has a history of accomplishing what they set out to do should become our next President.
If Republicans are going to retake the White House in 2016, they need to narrow the field to most the serious contenders early on
He's an outsider to government. That can often be a positive. I do think he's more likely to end up as the veep candidate, for that reason. But we shall see!
But to pretend like he's a "fringe" candidate is kind of absurd. This is one of the finest doctors in the world. Compare his medical resume to Rand Paul's. And if you think medical knowledge is irrelevant to the Obamacare debate, well, that might be part of our problem.
no executive experience
You're mistaken, he had a leadership position at Johns Hopkins.
nor actually run and won a statewide campaign for office
Not impressed with the "I ran a campaign" argument for Presidential ability. That was Obama's argument, how did that turn out?
If his campaign sucks, we will find out very quickly. He's a wonderful speaker. And no teleprompter.
Voters frequently ask each election day if this is the best we can do. When you look closely at the political class (Democrat or Republican), you keep seeing the same flamingly pathetic people running again and again. Can't we do better?
Dr. Carson is better in just about every meaningful way than any politician we've had run for president in a long, long time. And for that, he doesn't stand a chance of getting elected. He might be a good VP choice, though.
Don't know enough about him to have an opinion, but it doesn't seem that President of the United States should be your first step into politics. On the other hand, neurosurgeons do tend to think highly of themselves.
saint Croix wrote:
hate immigration as an issue. It makes us look racist. It makes us look mean. And it's like #93 on my list of Shit That Needs Fixing.
Having a latino saying enforcing legal immigration laws is not racist would go a long way.
exhelodrvr1 wrote:
Yeah - just like Colin Powel, Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice, etc. did.
THey would certainly make the attack. But the great thing is that we can then hurl their own invective back at them.
I'd love to have chris Matthews talk about a Carson policy he disagrees with and then have a republican go on his show and talk about the racial code words the dems are using. Would just LOVE it.
I think he a very good chance of winning.
Oh, wait, he has zero chance of winning. He has no experience running anything.
Here comes Fiorina, who rose to the top of HP only to run it down. She has run and lost already. She is only slightly more qualified than Carson.
I think some people are delusional.
Right now it's looking like the Republicans are going to present a field of candidates every one of whom can be accused of inexperience, lack of age, lack of …….. NOT ONE (!!!!) of the Republican candidates is less accomplished than Barack Obama was when he first ran. It's going to be a really enlightening campaign with some really important topics being debated.
Hillary Clinton may be experienced, but that experience has exposed her dishonesty and incompetence for all to see. The Clinton Foundation mess is making it clear that it may be safe to actually expose the Clintons' underlying sleaze.
With the Republican field as numerous as it is I can't believe there aren't a couple of Dems ready to test Hillary. If nothing else they will think that the Repubs will be so weakened after the primaries that almost any Dem has a good chance. I am coming to believe that Hillary doesn't stand a chance against a reasonably qualified contender. The real problem is finding that reasonably qualified candidate in the Dem party. Cuomo could do it, but the Clintons will have his b..ls for breakfast if he does. Mark Dayton has done a reasonable job here in MN but he looks like a deer in the headlights on camera. Deval Patrick?
Carson's got more executive experience than Rubio or Cruz or Paul. My worry is that he doesn't have government experience. But leadership experience? He has that in spades.
And his life story is inspirational. His story is even stronger than Rubio's. And people respond to narratives. Narrative is important.
Keep an open mind on this guy, that's all I'm saying. Don't reel off a list of people with black skin and pretend like you made some smart comment. He's an individual. Respect that.
jr565: Hiding behind token ethnic minorities is a great strategy that the blacks, browns, and yellows will for sure swallow. What the republicrat party needs is the reincarnation of Lee Atwater to help heal the yawning divide.
igv wrote:
Oh, wait, he has zero chance of winning. He has no experience running anything.
Here comes Fiorina, who rose to the top of HP only to run it down. She has run and lost already. She is only slightly more qualified than Carson.
I think some people are delusional
But the community organizer was just brimming with experience.
This is what I mean.
Having Obama run means all of those talking points have lost meaning. YOu can't argue against inexperience since you guys nominated and voted for the guy with the least experience.
HOward wrote:
jr565: Hiding behind token ethnic minorities is a great strategy that the blacks, browns, and yellows will for sure swallow. What the republicrat party needs is the reincarnation of Lee Atwater to help heal the yawning divide.
Nah, I totally get Carson as a bridge in conservatism to people who want to vote for the black guy but are turned off by republicanism as being the white party.
But will he protect Texas from the American invasion?!?!
I don't think it's so much that the "unserious" contenders were still in the field that hurt Romney so much as the fact that he was too overcautious when it came to calling out the Cains, Trumps and Bachmanns of the race, and it looked to the average viewer like "nine nine nine!" and the birthers and the gay conversion therapy types were part of the GOP mainstream, and would have influence over Romney.
He was way too cautious calling out the President. He was quite ruthless taking out his primary opponents.
jr565: If he had a chance at the nomination, you might have a point. For the republicans to make a dent in the minority electorate, they are first going to have to stop with the racist dog whistles and the knee-jerk support of cops murdering peoples of colour. Next, stop sounding like crazed xenophobes on immigration.
Don't reel off a list of people with black skin and pretend like you made some smart comment. He's an individual. Respect that.
This was a little unfair. My apologies.
My argument is that one of the attributes of having Ben Carson on the ticket is that liberals will be confronted with their own racism.
The counter is that this did not happen with Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice, Colin Powell, etc. Liberals are still playing the racist racket.
The attack on Thomas was incredibly harsh. He responded very, very well, and won the fight. Yes?
Condi and Colin avoided any presidential run, in part because they wanted to avoid this sort of hostility. (I assume).
Ben Carson is putting himself front and center. I do believe there will be vicious attacks on him. And I believe this will do a lot of harm to the left.
I believed this about Sarah Palin too. I believed that she could and would counter the attacks, and ultimately win. She decided not to run, and so the attacks were not answered.
It will be a fight. But we are on the right side on this. It is a worthwhile fight, a winnable fight. In short I see Carson's skin color as a benefit, not a liability.
It would be nice if his skin color is irrelevant. But liberals won't let us get there. So we should welcome this fight and not shy away from it. Again, we're on the right on this. They are the bigots. They are the prejudiced ones. Let's remember that and stay on the high road.
damikesc: Maybe. But he also needs to lose the namby-pamby Mormon accent like Harry Reid. You can't get elected president sounding like a child molester wearing magic underwear.
Saint Croix: Palin? I'm bet Hillary would pay her cash money to run. It would triple her war-chest.
jr565,
"But the great thing is that we can then hurl their own invective back at them. "
Except that we never do that/when we do the media doesn't cover it adequately.
"The attack on Thomas was incredibly harsh. He responded very, very well, and won the fight. Yes?"
In politics, winning the fight doesn't matter if most of the voters think you lost. I bet that a poll would give him a 70% disapproval rating, and probably not much higher than 50% approval among conservatives. 'Cuz that's what keeps getting hammered into us from the media.
I think the Repubs can attract the votes of more lower income blacks and whites if they speak up about the crushing flood of illegal immigrants.
This is a link showing why I would take the exhelodrv1's bet.
"who has no executive experience nor actually run and won a statewide campaign for office"
You're right. We should limit participation in the system to only those who have served or run before. Why would we truly seek and outsider who has not been re-calibrated inside-the-beltway, who has not become a product of the very system of largesse that we despise, nor someone who has had to deal with the reality of a private sector business.
There is a social message that Republicans have that is shared with minorities but they won't hear it because the Republicans are white and male.
Carson can overcome that barrier. He can go to churches in the inner cities and make places like Pennsylvania competitive. He can talk about traditional marriage and how Sbrillary has abandoned them. Abortion? Abandoned. Health care? Destroyed by these idiots.
At the very least he can depress the vote, if not take a huge share of it.
He will also bring out the social conservatives who are tired of hearing the law professors telling us the culture war is over and we lost. We would love to pull the handle for Ben Carson if for no other reason than to be a njissance to those people.
I really like the idea of Ben Carson for President. I don't agree with him on a few issues, but on most be is solid.
Howard said...
Saint Croix: Palin? I'm bet Hillary would pay her cash money to run. It would triple her war-chest.
Wow! I haven't heard that kind of invective against Palin since the days of that has-been blogger who burned out on 7.5 hr workdays.
chickelit: If you think that's invective, I hope you have plenty of pearls to clutch while mommy gets the smelling salts.
eric: you pretty much outlined the out of touch clueless republican playbook.
---the knee-jerk support of cops murdering peoples of colour.---
Whack job speaks.
Howard,
I hope you're right.
Instead I think we will pull another McCain or Romney.
---the knee-jerk support of cops murdering peoples of colour.---
What's with the British spelling, Howard?
I'm enjoying how harrogate, Titus, and "Howard" skirt around the main reason why they detest Ben Carson:
He fails their litmus test on the most important civil rights struggle of our time.
"There is a social message that Republicans have that is shared with minorities but they won't hear it because the Republicans are white and male."
I don't think it's that simple, and if Carson were somehow the nominee I still think black voters would overwhelmingly vote for the white Democrat (though not quite as overwhelmingly as they went for Obama). While a lot of black voters are socially conservative, they still view the GOP as the party of "law and order" and while to Republicans that should be a good thing for blacks--safer neighborhoods!--for many blacks that sounds like more police brutality and arrests of blacks (who are arrested at much higher rates than whites). Most blacks feel that they have a better chance of being profiled or arrested than white people, and whether that's true it happens to be how they feel. Also, blacks tend to be poorer than whites, or at least be friends or related to more poor people, and see proposals to cut taxes as just a way to help the rich (they don't buy the idea that this creates more jobs, at least for black people) and they are more likely to know someone who needs government assistance (e.g., their parents may be more dependent on social security than the typical white retiree).
Ultimately, the economic and law and order issues are the bigger sticking points for the typical black voter and the GOP. Carson represents a small segment of the black electorate, and I doubt his campaign will move those numbers much.
"Having Obama run means all of those talking points have lost meaning. YOu can't argue against inexperience since you guys nominated and voted for the guy with the least experience."
The problem with that is that it's the Republican primary voters who are valuing experience more--they see Obama as a failure because of his inexperience so that matters more to them. Also, elections are often reactions to the negatives of the previous president (Obama's inexperience was seen as an improvement from Bush's insiders; Bush's "humble foreign policy" and "restoring honor" were a reaction to Clinton; Clinton's youth and "feeling your pain" was a reaction to Bush Sr., who was older and appeared less empathetic). GOP voters will be favoring more experience this time around.
But the main reason to worry about Carson never running before is that his greenness could mean a lot of rookie mistakes on the campaign trail. Right now it may seem charming that he "tells it like it is" and "isn't a career politician" but if he turns into a gaffe machine, bores crowds on the stump, or has weak advisers (or good advisers that he doesn't listen to) and wastes time and money in the wrong places or with the wrong ads, he could flop badly. One benefit of a politician who at least ran for office before is one would expect they may have learned a thing or two about campaigning and winning. The benefit of a politican who held executive office is they may have learned a thing or two about governing.
Howard said...
jr565: If he had a chance at the nomination, you might have a point. For the republicans to make a dent in the minority electorate, they are first going to have to stop with the racist dog whistles and the knee-jerk support of cops murdering peoples of colour. Next, stop sounding like crazed xenophobes on immigration.
5/4/15, 4:30 PM
So, they should sound more like Democrats? They should promise the moon and the stars regardless of the cost. They should hold people of "colour" to a lower standard and not expect as much from them cause to do other wise might hurt someone's feelings? They should support immigration policies that disproportionately hurt those very same people of "colour" and make a mockery of our laws?
OK, right, got you...
Ben Carson is a good man and will contribute greatly to the dialogue. And he is a candidate that can serve as a genuine role model for young people (surgeon vs. community organizer anyone?). Like others, I don't think he has a chance but maybe this will be a stepping stone to serve the next administration in some way. Good luck to him.
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