.
Before all three rings fill up, while the audience is still finding seats and the acrobats are checking the wires, the circus starts with a lone clown in the spotlight. Eric Wemple’s Washington Post headline was promising — too promising. “Fox News cuts ties with Ben Carson“:
Following an ABC News report that Fox News contributor Ben Carson is set to air an hourlong ad/documentary “introducing himself to the American people” as part of a 2016 Republican presidential bid, Fox News has cut ties with him, according to a Fox spokeswoman…
The next step in that progression is a surprise to absolutely no one. Carson, 63, has openly talked of the appeal of running for president, including on the airwaves of Fox News… Carson at one point expressed concern that a 2016 election might not even be held because there might be “so much anarchy going on.”
In the 2012 election cycle, Fox News ended the contributorships of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum as those men moved toward presidential bids. A similar cutoff occurred with Scott Brown, who was a Fox News contributor prior to his failed 2014 New Hampshire Senate campaign…
And we all remember how well those three guys did, out in the world beyond the Wingnut Wurlitzer. I’m assuming Dr. Carson’s new fillum is modeled on the Gingrich model (expand awareness of the brand, to increase speaking fees & product sales) rather than that of Sanctorum (establish ‘next in line’ credentials, while simultaneously making even your paid supporters loathe you) or Cosmo Boy (lose repeatedly, but in a manner entertaining enough to keep one’s name ‘relevant’).
Because I love you guys, I risked the good health of my hard drive by spelunking over to the Carson infomercial’s loudest proponents, Dead Andrew Breitbart’s idiot media offspring:
Armstrong Williams, whom Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon called an “entrepreneur, media personality, strategic thinker, and dear friend of Andrew Breitbart,” joined Breitbart News Saturday to announce the nationwide release of the biographical documentary on Dr. Ben Carson, A Breath of Fresh Air: A New Prescription for America…
People will be so impressed with Carson, according to Williams, because “they think that they know him. But, they will be amazed when they see this story. He is such a good man. He is such a genius. He’s different. He’s not an ideologue. He’s a very caring person.” Beyond this, however, Williams reminds us that Carson is a surgeon by training and, as a result, he is very decisive…
Bannon asked Williams why would Carson want to descend into the “muck and grime” of what modern politics has become. Williams replied, “As his business manager, it is the last thing that I want him to do.” But Williams goes on to assert that watching Carson is “like watching a tsunami—he’s a strong wind every day. I see him change, it’s like watching the Ten Commandments, watching Moses when he found out what God had for him—he became renewed and refreshed.”
Williams recounted that he has reminded Carson many times of the evils of politics, how people will try to destroy him, tear down his family, and undermine his reputation, which Carson spent a lifetime building. Yet, Williams explained that Carson told him that “I feel a deeper calling here, I can’t say I won’t do it, I can’t say I will.”
He reminded Williams of how critics undermined Lincoln and made him look goofy and unqualified to hold office, yet he made the world a better place to live, even though he gave his life. Carson also said,“You know there is some things worth dying for, there’s some things that if it causes you to lose your reputation it’s worth it, because it is not about me. If people see in me, something that I have, that can move this country forward, then that is what I’m going to do.” …
It’s the Lincoln comparison that’s the cherry on this BS sundae. But the punchline is, I can see one or another of the GOP’s Seventeen Dwarves of 2016 offering Carson the vice-presidential slot (although I’m not sure Carson would accept it). Not Santorum or the other godbotherers, of course, or the stone egomaniacs like Ted Cruz. But Jeb!Bush or Scott Walker or Romneybot mk.3 might decided the free publicity (post-racial GOP!) was worth the aggravation.
Violet
I really needed a laugh. That’s hilarious. Ben Carson as Moses. Sarah Palin thinks she’s Esther. Which Old Testament characters are other wingnuts and potential Republican presidential candidates?
Cervantes
@Violet:
The plagues?
Baud
Truth be told, I’m starting to think that maybe America does need a brain surgeon.
Buddy H
Rush Limbaugh went deaf. Glen Beck claims to be going blind. Is their god trying to tell them something?
Roger Moore
@Violet:
Santorum thinks he’s Jeremiah.
Roger Moore
@Buddy H:
I think He’s being too subtle. If He wants to get His point across, He should make them mute.
Tree With Water
Cut me slack when I say that Carson is a genuinely accomplished Alan Keyes.
Snarki, child of Loki
@Roger Moore: “If He wants to get His point across, He should make them mute.”
Probably there is one that’s mute (paging Breitbart on line three), but you haven’t heard much out of him.
Three monkeys.
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore: Jeremiah was a bullfrog.
kdaug
A) I appreciate you soiling your bytes so I don’t have to
B) Who?
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet: Proof there is no Jehova; the assclowns you mentioned have not been smited for their blasphemous carryings on.
SatanicPanic
We should have a betting pool on whether he’ll be more or less embarrassing than the median GOP presidential candidate. At this point I’m going with “less” but that’s only because of all the other, more shameful idiots they’ll probably run.
Gex
@Roger Moore: a good old smithing would be welcome. That’s the kind of God they prefer anyhow.
Howard Beale IV
Dr Carson best take real, good hard look at what befell C+ Agustsus-a man whose faith was probably every bit as strong as his-and the resulting shitstorn that not only befell him, but the country and the world as a whole. Sometimes, The Lord will leave you in the wildeness and humble the living fuck out of you when you try and ram your faith down others throats. Dr Carson, just because you did perform Solomonic skills in peadactric neurosurgery, don’t think for one attosecond you’ll be able to snatch other Bibilical skills at will and successfully wield them in critical arenas and expect to achieve the same result.
Howard Beale IV
Carson is least ratfuckable of the current 2016 GOP clowncar calvalcade.
SatanicPanic
@Howard Beale IV: Ben Carson should be asked why he thinks his skills are relevant to the job. And if genius is so transferable which former presidents he’d want to perform surgery on him.
jnfr
Bold of you to venture into the muck like that. We salute you!
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus: Was a good friend of mine.
Comrade Dread
If Jehovah really wants Dr. Ben to be my President, I’ll have to switch to team Buddha.
Omnes Omnibus
God damn, Micah Hyde is having a good game.
mdblanche
I see from a Noisemax headline that Dubya is saying his father almost skipped a second term. I assume they’re missing the word “voluntarily” there.
Mike in NC
Turned on the fucking TV early today only to see where CBS Sunday Morning was offering a tribute to the Bush family called “41 and 43”. Wanted to puke up my breakfast halfway through.
RaflW
I shouldn’t be the least bit surprised, but the writing on that Breitbart piece, wow is it shit. Just H.S./early collegiate word-farting, with some very strange notions. Carson is Moses-like? You’re advancing that imagery to a 21st century audience? Of 80 year olds, maybe…
Tommy
@Howard Beale IV: My grandfather was a racist. A bigot. In his daily life when he wasn’t being a doctor not a great human. But he was a stellar doctor. I’ve never been able to figure it out. How he gave care to anybody that needed it, I mean anybody, but walking out of his office he would belittle people not like him. I think this is Carson and people need to understand it. That he might be a great doctor but not a great human.
Gravenstone
@Omnes Omnibus: This is turning into a good old fashioned mauling.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gravenstone: I have to say that I certainly am enjoying it.
Gravenstone
@RaflW: Except your average 80 year old isn’t likely to see something published in a digital medium like (still dead) Breitbrat.
Burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus:
Not as good as Landon Donovan. Hat trick plus an assist. Galaxy 5-0 RSL. On to the Western Conference final, to face either Seattle or Dallas.
Cacti
And yet, S.E. Cupp remains on payroll of CNN after doing media training for GOP Senate candidates, on behalf of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Omnes Omnibus: Who is wearing green and not having a good game? Are the Bears really this bad?
Omnes Omnibus
@Burnspbesq: Fine, I’ll just offer Aaron Rodgers with15/18 for 283 yards and 5 TDs with time left in the first half.
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Tim Masthay isn’t doing much.
Wag
@Tommy:
This. A skilled physician is not necessarily a good person.
Howard Beale IV
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Two questions: (1) When will the Bears ever score ? (2) How long will it be before Trestman get the axe?
Bears have been outscored 73-7 in the first halves of their last two games. Ooof….
Cervantes
@Wag:
Doubtless — and does it take a good person to be a skilled president?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Omnes Omnibus: Are you kidding? He’s been awesome catching the snap on those extra points and getting the ball down.
Burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus:
OK, Rogers’ numbers are impressive–but are they devalued because he’s racking them up against the Bears?
Davis X. Machina
@Cacti: You’re not a playa until you’ve got a conflict of interest.
Howard Beale IV
@Burnspbesq: Nope.
JCT
I’m off to a meeting in Chicago next week – I think I’ll leave my Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers MVP ball cap at home….
And today on my way home I saw a car with a Ben Carson 2016 bumper sticker. Sigh.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cervantes:
Clearly not. I give you the example of Richard Nixon. Criminal scum.
Howard Beale IV
@JCT:
Guess I’m gonna have to start making ABC (Anybody But Carson) bumper stickers with a surgical knife slicing through the United States….
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Villago Delenda Est: You don’t need to go back that far. Bill Clinton was a very good president and a terrible human being.
Gravenstone
Six TD’s in the first half. Yeesh.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Is this Green Bay vs. the Bears? Or did someone at ESPN accidentally cue up a replay of the Baylor/Kansas game?
Omnes Omnibus
I kind of hope that raven went to bed early.
chrome agnomen
it’s telling that carson has a ‘deeper’ calling, not a higher one. at least we know where he’s coming from, so to speak.
Howard Beale IV
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Think they’ll go 70-0? The worst blowout was 73-0 in the 1940 Championship Game-and the Bears beat the Washington team.
Villago Delenda Est
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): He did Monica “because he could”.
His own words.
Yeesh. He’s one of the guys that the head alien, Eros, in Plan Nine From Outer Space was talking about.
“Earthlings are stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid!”
Heliopause
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
I read somewhere once that there are two NFL teams (outside of NY) that get scheduled for X number of national broadcasts every year because regardless of how bad they are it’s a guaranteed good TV rating, those teams being Dallas and Chicago.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Hey, it’s Tim Masthay! And he’s not kneeling on the turf!
JCT
@Howard Beale IV: Sounds about right, the primaries are going to be delightful, Carson is going to find out that being the top dog in the OR is a whole different deal as compared to the campaign trail.
@efgoldman: Hah – I pointed it out to my husband and he said basically the same thing. But I doubt it, it was plastered on an expensive late model car. Figures.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Oh, sure, we haven’t let them block a punt yet tonight. Why don’t we try that?
Cervantes
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yes, if his dalliance with Ms. Lewinsky was not the height of stupidity, I’m not sure what is.
Of course, it wasn’t only a stupid thing to do. It was also cruel, among other things.
burnspbesq
@Howard Beale IV:
Unproven. It doesn’t appear that any of those metrics adjust for quality of opposing defenses.
burnspbesq
@Cervantes:
How about lying about it under oath?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Cervantes: Not just stupid, but sleazy and unethical on lots of levels.
Howard Beale IV
So much for the shutout.
Omnes Omnibus
@Howard Beale IV: Even I wasn’t expecting a shutout.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@efgoldman: Agreed. The set of what is sleazy and unethical is much larger than the set of what is illegal or impeachable. That latter is not entirely a subset of the former, either.
ruemara
I, personally, welcome Dr. Ben Carson running for president. If he actually won the nomination, I’d love to see the wingnut meltdown at either voting for a black man or a white woman.
One major stressor is done today. With the memorial done, a major emotional and mental weight is off my shoulders. Now, I can totally focus on being unhireable. But at least that’s done and we all feel like we did our best and sent the boss off well. Still wish I could open the door and find her bustling about the place.
Comrade Luke
Another Valerie Jarrett article. Someone is trying to save their job.
newrepublic.com/article/120170/valerie-jarrett-obama-whisperer
Or more likely, someone is pissed, and looking for someone else to blame.
Poopyman
@Comrade Luke: Without reading it ( and I ain’t gonna), I’m gonna guess it primarily quotes anonymous sources. Right?
Comrade Luke
@Poopyman: Of course. The comments to the article are execrable, btw.
The point is: two of these stories coming out at the same time is not a coincidence.
beltane
I just saw the following headline: “I wouldn’t have been president without my dad”, says Bush.
No shit. It is doubtful he would have been employed in any capacity without his dad.
Howard Beale IV
@efgoldman: No mercy rule in the NFL-points scored get used as tie breakers, and they can put in third stringers and rest their star players.
Omnes Omnibus
And now a pick 6.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Cervantes:
I’d say the Iraq war tops that for stupidity.
Gian
@burnspbesq:
he applied the fundi definition of “sexual relations” which means penis to vagina. given his wife’s documented association with the fundi “the family” group of politicians, I think he believed it to be true.
not that I’d try the “it was only a blow job and not sex” defense with my wife, but he rolled with the “technically it’s sodomy” thing.
that whole series of events shows you just how right Biden was when he called Obama “clean” ;)
did he really think that when she was doing her thing? hell if I know, I doubt his brain was thinking more than “cool, I like this” at the time
rikyrah
@Comrade Luke:
Jarrett had nothing to do with the selection of bad candidates, or the “strategy” of NOT using the most popular Democrat in a BASE election…so just keep the hit pieces coming.
Gian
@rikyrah:
the approval rating is pretty low for the president. they ran away because of just that thing
of course the actual polls put it in the high 40s or so unless you pick an outlier… Of course those are national number, and I expect in Dixieland, the internal polls read differently than the national ones. If nationally it’s like 50% it’s gotta be like 35% in Dixie
GregB
One thing will be the caterwauling of every wingnut who will call out every critique of Dr. Carson as racist, because we all know Democrats and liberals are the real racists.
jibeaux
@efgoldman: what’s the gene that makes you capitalize randomly? I never have figured that out.
GregB
The Yahoo is reporting that Al Baghdadi was killed.
If only this happened last Sunday.
leeleeFL
@GregB: I don’t think it would have mattered if the President has strangled the bastard with his bare hands on Fox. This election was symptomatic of Peak Apathy. Democratic voters should be ashamed of themselves. We gave our country to the freaking Visigoths!
cckids
@leeleeFL:
I know. I’ve never been so down about an election in my life, even when the Supremes handed the White House to Bush. It is the depth of it; all the state houses, the governors, etc.
Freaking Brownback & Scott. Makes me ill.
mdblanche
@GregB: President Obama has gotten in his stress relief and/or warning shot to Congress.
Omnes Omnibus
@leeleeFL:
One of the greatest contributions of the Visigoths to family law was their protection of the property rights of married women, which was continued by Spanish law and ultimately evolved into the community property system now in force in part of the United States.
The Visigoths would have been better than the actual choices made.
Morzer
@Cervantes:
Sisera.
sempronia
I always thought it was so sad and such a waste that Ben Carson turned out to be the devoted wingnut he is. He gave the commencement address at Harvard’s med school graduation about 15 years ago, and it was a great speech. He said he had never been sued because he was honest and transparent with his patients about mistakes, etc., and got a standing ovation for that. He seemed like an empathetic, genuinely good person. Apparently not.
Lots of surgeons are deeply conservative (I can think of several reasons why, besides money). The TV in the surgeons’ lounge around here is always set to Fox, except when the lone black surgeon on staff is around – he switches it to ESPN.
Villago Delenda Est
@burnspbesq: Under questioning by unethical partisan scum setting up a perjury trap, in the most immoral, ruthless, and indifferent to precedent way possible. Their mission was to find something, anything, as a pretext for an Impeachment. No matter how trivial or inconsequential to Clinton’s performance of his duties as President.
My disgust with Clinton is only exceeded by my loathing of his enemies. Ken Starr, along with the four surviving Bush v. Gore SC justices are first in line for the tumbrels.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Villago Delenda Est:
Hey, von Village, your pedant license is suspended. Your sentence above should read: “Ken Starr, along with the four surviving Bush v. Gore SC justices, is first in line for the tumbrels.”
Gravenstone
@sempronia:
So, pre-9/11? If so, Carson wouldn’t be the first person to suffer irreversible brain damage as a result of the events of that day.
brantl
; he may be changing, but he’s still blowing from the same place, right out of the Republican party’s ass.
Cervantes
@burnspbesq:
What lying would that be, precisely?
brantl
@RaflW: Trying to cash in on the coming movie.
Cervantes
@GHayduke (formerly lojasmo):
I’m not sure. Clinton stupidly allowed his libido to get in the way of his presidency, whereas Cheney and Bush were not distracted away from their objectives.
Nunca El Jefe
“I feel a deeper calling here, I can’t say I won’t do it, I can’t say I will.”
Real decisive, right there.
bmcchgo
Remember, Black Conservatives are such a precious commodity that the GOP will forgive Armstrong Williams who settled multiple Gay Sexual Assault charges with payoffs:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104×2930498