Ben Carson is leading polls in Iowa and is second after Trump everywhere else. What’s the appeal?
— All In w/Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) October 24, 2015
Part of the appeal may be his gentle, even soporific, persona:
That smile and his soft voice makes people very comforted,†said Miriam Greenfield, a farmer in Jewell, Iowa.
“He is kind when he speaks, and he doesn’t have an agenda to set himself up as wonderful,†said Donna Christiansen, a retiree in Ames.
Retiree Donna Christiansen might want to notice this:
Yesterday in Ames, Iowa, in the course of suggesting raising the retirement age for Social Security and asking people to voluntarily give up their monthly checks, Ben Carson said …
Ben Carson called for “groupthink†to combat the looming funding crisis in the country’s Social Security program at a campaign rally in Ames on Saturday.
“We have to start thinking, have groupthink in this country,†Carson said in response to a question from the crowd about unfunded entitlement liabilities.
“We need to maximize the potential of all our people if we’re going to be able to compete in the future. So we have to start thinking corporately as an entity.â€
Carson also promises to abolish Medicare and Medicaid and replace them with savings accounts. And he’s ahead of Jeb! and Rubio in the polls.
Ah, I see now. People nod off as Dr. Ben reads them their bedtime story, so that they miss all the crazytalk that comes inevitably.
“We need to maximize the potential of all our people if we’re going to be able to compete in the future. So we have to start thinking corporately as an entity.â€
So, when I retire, I’ll cease to be a productive member of American society– unlike Dr. Ben (who is retired, but has his super-awesome running-for-president hobby). His statement gives me the impression that I’m expected, then, to sacrifice. Live in a cardboard box and eat shoplifted cans of beans. Construct garments out of discarded Target bags. Do it for the future. Do it for the corporate entity that is America.
We need to start banging on pots and pans, whoop and holler so that people WAKE UP and hear what Ben Carson is really saying.
Most Republicans, IMHO, are dumber than geese, cynical b*stards, or both (at least one checkbox seems to be required).
I think Carson is genuinely mentally ill. He doesn’t just throw out “red meat” and “dog whistle” to the crowds, like Trump and Huckleberry and the rest; I think he’s scary. I wouldn’t want anywhere near the nuclear button. And I think he’ll flame-out, like Carly.
I still think Bush III will be the ultimate nominee, though that is not looking too likely right now.
“I really shouldn’t say this”!
Carson is just plain fucked up.. I hate to seem critical,but his demure manner just doesn’t cut it. Did anybody catch his little analogy of slavery and the overturning Roe V. Wade. It’s clear that he has no concept of history, human nature, or what the core value of slavery was all about.
And any time someone begins a statement with a preamble of “I really shouldn’t say this” you can know that either you’re being lulled into a deceit or the speaker doesn’t possess enough intellect and discretion to truly understand what they are talking about.
Carson is a sugar coated asswipe..and I think his whole biographical narrative weighs more hype than substance. Nothing personal of course…As a person he’s a decent guy, but as a presidential contender he’s a joke.
I guess the GOP figured that Herman Cain didn’t work out as personalities go so they’d try the polar opposite.
Ben Carson makes Chauncey Gardner look like a cross between Stephen Hawking intellectually, and LBJ, politicaĺly!
He spews more bullshit than the world’s largest fertilizer plant that specializes in bovine excrement!
And the (beyond merely) mentally challenged (stupid, ignorant, and bigoted) – faux Chriatian – rubes adore/worship him.
He’s like a darker, calmer, downright sopoprific, male version of Sarah “The Whore of Babblin-on” Palin.
It would be tough to determine which of these two uber-Christians is crazier and knows less about the real world.
I’ve heard that still waters run deep – apparently soft spoken but crazy waters run pretty damn shallow.
Carson may have been a brilliant neuro surgeon – but I wouldn’t trust him to give me directions if I was lost.
“Ok, so, I take a left at that wanton sluts house, a right at the couple living in sin, keep going past the house of the harlot who had an abortion, a right at the f*gs place and keep going until I come to that heathen Aaaarab’s gas station, and my destination wIll be the next one on the right after the Godless Commie Libtards Planned Parenthood baby -juice extraction facility. Ok, got it. Do you, by any chance, remember where the Mental facility is, here-a-bouts?”
Oy!!!
Carson may have been a brilliant neuro surgeon
Ah, Gulag, I’ve actually had brain surgery (ain’t it obvious?), and after hearing Ben Carson talk for 90 seconds, I wouldn’t let him anywhere near me.
One needs to be non-delusional when working in an open cranium.
Planned Parenthood baby -juice extraction facility
That made the sody-pop get all up in my nose.
We all know the republicans would never vote a black man into office, I think the last seven years have shown what they think about that situation. Carson is their perfect token black, he says what they want to hear and he has zero chance of getting elected much less the nomination. As each day passes with one extreme statement after another, I sometimes wonder if he’s scared of the traction he has gained thus far? I mean what presidential candidate says he told a gunman to shoot the clerk behind the counter at popeyes chicken and then admits he stabbed someone when he was 14? Could you imagine the outrage if Obama had done those things? He’ll win Iowa and then fade into the obscurity of a weekend FAUX news TeeVee show.
Maybe I should throw my hat in the ring as a Repuglican presidential contender..After all, I’ve overcome alcoholism, drug addiction, violence and whoremongering. Not to mention a totally misspent youth complimented a host criminal behaviours.
I can’t boast that my overcoming of character flaws was the result of the transformative power of Jesus Christ like Carson has, but nevertheless I think my overcoming 4 major character defects should carry more weight than one measly failed attempt to stab somebody.
Add to that the fact that I’m of Cuban descent..it would seem I would make a far better candidate than Carson would. I understand Carson has a perceptual advantage in regard to vocations and assumed intellect with his being a Neurosurgeon while I am just a humble Carpenter. However, I would point out that our Lord, God’s only begotten son and the first born of creation was also a Carpenter and we share the same vocation.
He uses the word ‘groupthink’? As a positive term?
What do you think will happen if you tease and tease a hungry dog with salami that you won’t ever give him. You get bit on the leg.
To stir up voters, the GOP has pandered to the worst fears and paranoia. That’s the hunger they’ve created. They want to take away your gun. They are attacking and mocking your religion. They are changing America. They promised a reversal of Roe v Wade is right around the corner. We’re one 5-dollar donation away from repealing Obamacare. We can eliminate food stamps for all those people too lazy to work. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Muslims. ISIS. Terrorists. Mexicans invading the US to steal jobs and cash in on free stuff. (How they do both is never explained.)
And the rubes have noticed that the grift goes on and on an there’s never any delivery on promises made. Now comes the bite. Nobody in the GOP POTUS race – and mean nobody who’s part of the establishment, having held office as a qualification, is polling in double digits. Overwhelmingly, out of sheer frustration, the GOP voters are eager to put someone in the pilot’s seat who has never piloted a plane. Here’s the funny part. The GOP whipped the voters into the frenzy which is the source of the frustration. They starved them with outrage, taunted the rubes with promises they could not keep, and are now under attack by the pack they bred.
This isn’t going to turn out well.
“Groupthink” is what the Reich-wingers already have.
No, wait. Maybe it’s ‘groupstink.’
If they could ‘ think,’ they’d never be a part of that ‘group.”
As each day passes with one extreme statement after another, I sometimes wonder if he’s scared of the traction he has gained thus far?
According to the “Ben Carson Story” he was plagued with self doubt and the belief that he was stupid while growing. It was his mother’s claim based on the word of God that he could do or be whatever he set his mind to that supposedly accounts for his success. It might make for an interesting narrative in promoting the Jesus angle — “I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me” — but the reality is if you are filled with self doubt and insecurity from an early age those feelings no matter how much you strive to subdue and overcome them will always have a residual effect in your being.
I don’t know if he’s subconsciously sabotaging his rising poll numbers by making totally stupid comments or if he’s testing the level of stupidity of conservative voters by making such stupid comments.
My guess is that whatever is occurring with Carson’s poll numbers is not only scaring him, but scaring the whole GOP establishment.
Wouldn’t you love to see him nominated and watch the right wing try to get out the vote on election day among all those angry white men it needs to win? Let him sweep Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina.
(True confession; do not let it get out past this audience: I am on the Top Secret Committee To Destroy The Republican Party and we have paid this man millions of dollars to do just what he is doing. We chose well, don’t you agree?)
” I’ve overcome alcoholism, drug addiction, violence and whoremongering”
Well your no fun anymore!
You should run for public office, Swami.
I just want to erect guillotines in every town square as a reminder to those who would take away our benefits. Seriously.
I can’t believe he doesn’t understand what “groupthink” means.