Ben Carson says what America needs is more wild-eyed zealotry. http://t.co/YZ9CRxNa98
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) January 16, 2015
Michael C. Bender, at Bloomberg Politics:
CORONADO, California—Speaking to Republican Party leaders for the first time since apologizing for plagiarizing parts of a book, neurosurgeon-turned-activist Ben Carson delineated many of his most controversial moments, blaming a liberal media for misquoting him and turning him into a caricature.
“Carson says all these crazy things,” Carson said at the Republican National Committee winter meeting, mocking the “craziness narrative” about him in the mainstream media. “Every time a liberal press does something about me they say, ‘Oh you know, he’s the one that said Obamacare is worse than slavery.’ First of all I never said that. I said it’s the worst thing since slavery.”…
Carson was warmly received by the Republican crowd that had gathered near San Diego, earning a standing ovation when he started and winning applause throughout his 35-minute speech. Still, he failed to win over many converts. “Oh, no,” Joanne Moore, a California Republican attorney in California, said when asked whether she’d consider back him for president. “That would be like throwing me into an operating room. You’re going to die.”…
Thus the voice of Conventional GOP Wisdom. And yet, per the NYTimes, “Cash Is Piling Up for Ben Carson, with A Tea Party Tilt“:
As a political outsider, Ben Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon, is given only a slight chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination.
But people who want him to run for president have already donated $12 million to the cause. A look at whom those donors also backed suggests that his support isn’t relegated to the fringe of the Republican Party, although the donors have given more to Tea Party and insurgent Republican groups than to party committees…
Presuming that most of the people who donated to his committee would also support a presidential campaign with their money, a campaign by Mr. Carson would be able to raise enough money to contest one or more of the early Republican primaries or caucuses…
Many people who have given money to a committee to draft Ben Carson have solid mainstream Republicans credentials: Individual donors to the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee gave at least $2.3 million to national Republican party committees during the 2014 election cycle, Federal Election Commission records show….
It sounds to me, at the moment, as though the “fiscal conservative”, don’t-call-them-Team-Partiers wing of the GOP is trying to use Dr. Carson the way “progressive Democrats” are trying to use Senator Elizabeth Warren, as a threat to pull the party platform away from the Squishy No-Standards Center. Carson also offers a “post-racial” twofer, absolution for which the GOP understands itself to be in dire need. Of course, the Tea Party’s devotion and ten bucks will buy you a small latte when the RNC gets to Cleveland, but (in my partisan Dem dreams) I can see the last remaining Serious Candidate — Jeb or Mitt, right now — feeling they had to offer Dr. Carson the VP slot to shore up an insurgency from the Santorum-supporting “base”. The entertainment value might be the only redeeming feature of the convention.
***********
Apart from such happy phantasies, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
jeffreyw
Threads needz moar kitteh! (Less Carson)
jl
My comment on this earlier today:
” I was worried that Carson’s comments would mean a premature exit of his distinctive and unique voice from GOP politics. But the GOP officials thought what he said was just swell and applauded. So, looks like another entry in the annals of GOP outreach. This time to all those non-mass-murderers out there. Not sure how large that demo is, but there must be some. ”
Interesting that the response from a GOP official was not that what Carson said as repulsive and crazy, but that it would not persuade her to support him. Huh? So the message was OK but the messenger was not? At least no overt racial bigotry on display.
Not sure what point AL is trying to make about Warren. When has Warren said anything even 1 percent as crazy as half of what the supposed GOP prez hopefuls say on a daily basis.
Huck will have to up his game. His outrage that the Obama kids are allowed exposure to Beyonce is weak sauce compared to Carson’s fare.
Baud
@jl:
AL wasn’t comparing their respective craziness factors, but how the base of each party tries to use them to influence the party as a whole.
Pogonip
@jeffreyw: That’s a lot of cat!
SatanicPanic
Suckers.
MattF
Carson’s a loon– but even loons have to pay their mortgage. You wanna buy some snake oil? Just step right up to Uncle Ben:
http://wonkette.com/572033/ben-carson-shilled-scam-aids-and-cancer-cures-for-10-years-will-be-your-next-president-obvs
srv
Progressives, don’t be fooled by the party pandering to the left after their shellacking in November. You’re being played. Blacks weren’t met with flowers at those bridges and those drones aren’t carrying flowers today. Carson makes it clear you need to man up for what you believe in.
ThresherK
The charmed world black Republicans live in is best expressed in what we’ll never hear Ben Carson say: “I used to be a Republican until the day I stepped out of Fox News’ studios onto Sixth Avenue and couldn’t hail a cab”.
(Will someone please fix the phrasing for me?)
Anne Laurie
@jl:
My beloved Senator Warren is perfectly sane, but IMO the “progressives” who want her to quit the Senate “so she can drag Hillary to the left” are nutz. They want her to leave a position where she’s effective to go after a job she doesn’t want & almost certainly couldn’t get, because HILLAREEEE. Dr. Carson is, if not nutz, a flaming provocateur, but his supporters want him to go after the Repub candidacy that he won’t get because RINOS… which means they are nutz. It’s not the “candidates”, it’s their would-be supporters who share the same obsession on opposite sides.
Just One More Canuck
“It’s the worst thing since slavery”
Oh. Ok, then. That’s not crazy at all
Howard Beale IV
@jeffreyw: Now that’s a Northern-sized kitteh-now is it a Coon or a Weegie?
CONGRATULATIONS!
Never mind any reported crazy, a legit election with Carson as a GOP presidential candidate would pull single digits for said GOP because he’s black.
He will never survive the primary process as he is unelectable by his party, and the folks in charge of the GOP know this.
Find another shiny object to chase. This one isn’t worth even thinking about.
252man
I have seen a Carson for President 2016 bumper sticker. It was on a car in Walled Lake, MI
Bobby Thomson
Stay tuned for an outstanding entertainment program ~ The Best of Carson.
Mike in NC
Ben Carson will be the Herman Cain of 2016. Grifters gotta grift. Has he signed a book deal yet?
NotMax
Carson is as able as was Cain.
jl
@Anne Laurie: OK, thanks. I would like Warren to drag Hillary to ‘the left’ on domestic economic policy too. But I think Warren can do just as good a job, maybe better, from her current position in the Senate.
I disagree to some extent that Warren is trying to move things to ‘the left’. I read Warren was a Republican until the mid-90s, and a lot of what she is advocating used to be the stuff of solid bipartisan consensus among Democrats and moderate and liberal GOPers.
Moderate and liberal GOPers are extinct now, but that is what has changed, not the leftyness of what Warren advocates.
jl
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I agree about Carson. I think the fact that the GOP audience liked his speech and seemed to agree with his point does deserve attention.
Edit: this was not a speech to a bunch of CPAC crazy people lusting to fall for some nutjob grifter, it was to the Republican National Committee. But, maybe the two are starting the coalesce into one wonderful borg.
SiubhanDuinne
@jeffreyw: That is some awesome kitteh there.
satby
@252man: and one on an EScalade driven by an old white coot in Bridgman, MI. It’s a groundswell of crazy!
jl
But then, I never paid much attention in US history class. I may have missed something about Alexander Hamilton and James Madison unloading a muzzle of grape shot into an anti-federalist convention someplace.
jl
Looks like Fox News got a new, moar better terrorism expert. Says right now we cannot get rid of them because they are ‘no go’ zones. I guess like Manchester England.
Fox Guest: There Are ’19 Paramilitary Muslim Training Facilities’ In The U.S.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/wayne-simmons-neil-cavuto-muslim-training
Calouste
@jl: That not what I read into the following:
What I see there is that Ms. Moore that being a neurosurgeon prepares you as much for being president as being an attorney prepares you for being a neurosurgeon. Which is, I must admit, a surprising level of real-world-connectedness for a GOP operative, but it is exactly the argument I would make against Carson’s candidacy without having to go into his actual “ideas”.
Violet
All the grifters are going to come out to play. Expect Sarah Palin to flirt with running for something as well in hopes of refilling her SuperPAC coffers.
debbie
I didn’t know until now that Carson was a pediatric surgeon. Now that’s horrifying.
Another Holocene Human
Oh god, the shit-katamari of corruption in Florida just keeps rolling. Rick Scott apparently attempted to roll the Fla Dept of Law Enforcement into an arm of his campaign and when the longtime head resisted, he sacked him. Now nobody’s talking to the press including lying shitmuffin Pat Bondi, or playing dumb.
I hope all those South Florida Dems who sat on their hands and didn’t get friends and family to the polls because Crist was just a damn opportunist and a Republican are fucking proud right now.
agorabum
@Mike in NC: Carson could be much worse than Cain (for the Rs). Cain flamed out in part because of sexual harassment allegations. It looks like Carson is cleaner and more religious. So while he will continue to spout the crazy, there won’t be an easy scandal* to push him away with.
*Grifting is not a scandal on the right, since they all grift. So it can’t be a disqualifier.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@jeffreyw: Fluffy – and floofy – kitteh. M. Q was prepared to get “dat dog’s bro” and bring him to OH (and “the princess pup will just have to deal with it”) had he not been adopted. The whole litter was adopted or apps pending by 9 EST that evening.
That’s the end of my showing him your cute shelter pictures. I’m not sure Layla will tolerate a companion well yet. And while I can supervise closely until I get a new job, I’m rather hoping that day comes sooner rather than later.
Another Holocene Human
@jl: When they dissed GB they got the PM dissing them and a twitter hashtag. When they went after France they got a mocking TV segment interviewing residents of the ZUS’ who said “this question is stupid” and “this is a warm community”.
Now it’s the US … Jon Stewart, you’re up.
Howard Beale IV
@debbie: As a pediatric surgeon he was one of the best. If he starts to go into the grift/woo-iverse like Huckabee does, then that’s the ultimate tragedy.
JPL
@jl: Is Bundy letting them use his ranch?
SiubhanDuinne
@Bobby Thomson:
Ha ha ha
debbie
@Howard Beale IV:
Was he, really? I heard him say that when he was in the OR, he put more faith in God than in science. That would make me very nervous.
Another Holocene Human
@agorabum: If the Dems are putting forward a white female (with a history of gaffes towards the African American community, no less), then Carson is not their guy.
Herman Cain understood that. Carson is … well, he’s pulling a Romney. But without as many rich friends.
The GOP wants a token to prove they’re not racist, but when they start to realize that Obama isn’t running.
Let’s put it this way, if Deval Patrick (and his spouse) suddenly has a massive change of heart and decides to run for POTUS, then Carson’s stock will rise into the stratosphere with GOP voters. Until then, novelty candidate. Even with the socons it’s Santorum’s turn. What is he going to offer socons that Santovranola doesn’t have, except for the not-Catholic thing which really doesn’t count for so much as it used to.
Another Holocene Human
@debbie: In the OR you probably work with a plan and experience (and some good help) not so much science or God.
It sounds like rhetorical bullshit, like sports stars saying god helped them win. Some people do call on heavenly assistance to calm anxiety but that’s just words. If this guy was stopping everything in the middle of a surgery to call on Father God for five minutes word would get out. And he probably wouldn’t have had a job for long.
LABiker
A neurosurgeon who operates on himself has an idiot for a patient.
Violet
I don’t think he’s in it to run for real. He’s grifting. It’s a sweet deal if you can get it. Give some speeches. Get paid for those and while you’re there, beg for money.
trollhattan
Remember Beagle2? Me neither but the Beagle2 people did and they finally found the thing, splayed atop a piece of Mars.
dedc79
How’s that tax cut experiment working out for you, Gov. Brownback?
Another Holocene Human
@jl: Warren stands for a government that does good for society, rather than government as a grift and parasite. That used to be common sense but post-Reagan it makes her a radical.
It’s a very popular message. It makes the grifters nervous.
kuvasz
Ole’ Dr. Ben got the grift down pat.
JPL
Carson had a lot of help along the way with government assistance. He explained it away by saying his family was deserving and now families receiving aid aren’t. I wonder how he would identify those who are deserving. Do we line up families on food stamps, so he can make a determination?
Mike J
@debbie:
Most neurosurgeons I’ve met would agree with that if only because they think they are God.
jeffreyw
@Howard Beale IV: My understanding is that it’s a Maine Coon, they are a little hazy at the shelter about where it came from. The original owner surrendered it to a local rescue guy who became ill and turned over several of the critters he was keeping to St Francis, this cat being one of them. He’s two years old.
KG
@Calouste: in fairness, she’s a lawyer, so she understands how the law works. She’s likely less clear on how medicine works (depending on her practice she might know enough to be dangerous). So, it’s fairly easy for her to conclude that a doctor wouldn’t know how the law works in the same way a lawyer wouldn’t know how the practice of medicine works.
The nonlawyer types won’t get that as easily because they likely don’t fully understand how the law works. So the business types (who also are less likely to understand how the law works) will be more willing to address Carson on the issues.
And the godbothers will just ask him when life begins and if he agrees with them they’ll shout that a doctor agrees with them
catclub
@jeffreyw: definitely MOAR kitteh.
What about Kit Carson?
Another Holocene Human
@srv: Dude, where have you been? All the real progressives I know are trying to get $15/hr wage in their communities. The ones who can count, that is, and know the GOP has a majority in both houses of Congress.
I wouldn’t know where the ones who can’t count are because I try to avoid hanging out with shiftless moaners.
skerry
@debbie: He was on the team that operated on my daughter years ago. A very competent pediatric neurosurgeon. He never mentioned God or prayers to us in our consultations. He helped to save my daughter’s life. That does not mean I would ever send him a dime or vote for him.
catclub
@jl:
and we know because they are renting them from neonazi militias.
Howard Beale IV
@debbie: Yes, really-he was the chief pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins.
Baud
Does anyone know what this Newsmax headline is about?
JWR
Just now watching a PBS documentary about the Klan, and it mentions the Klan’s efforts to enforce, through violence, their idealized morals on the population at large. I laughed to myself, thinking, “how different in all but scale were those assholes from IS?”, and here’s good ol’ Dr. Ben, making the same point the Klan was making back in the ’50’s.
But then, Ben Carson has also likened the ACA to slavery, so this shouldn’t be at all surprising.
Baud
@skerry:
I think the fact that he was a good neurosurgeon is what makes his wingnuttery a shame to liberals and thus what makes him popular to conservatives.
Happy to hear about your daughter.
Mike J
@Baud: http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/16/john-boehner-politics-and-the-nuance-of-taylor-swift-gifs/
debbie
@skerry:
I’m truly glad he saved your daughter’s life, and I’ve no doubt he’s an accomplished and incredibly intelligent human being. I just wonder what got his thinking to where it is today.
By the way, it was in a television interview in 2012 that I heard Carson himself say that he put more faith in God than in science.
debbie
@JWR:
I watched that Klan special. The Frontline that followed it was about Putin and also very good. Not there’s a very scary human being.
Baud
@Mike J:
Thanks.
Liberty60
@ThresherK: ” “I used to be a Republican until the day I stepped out of Fox News’ studios onto Sixth Avenue and couldn’t hail a cab, then stopped and frisked, beaten and tased, and shot in the back for good measure”.
Updated for truth.
chopper
The more I read that bit the funnier it gets.
jl
@Baud:
I had to look, since I thought Boehner had Huck-envy and went after the Obamas for letting their kids be exposed to Taylor Swift. I would have disagreed since I approve of Taylor Swift almost as much as I approve of Beyonce, but maybe that is just hound dog me.
But no, it is weirder than that. Boehner’s staff thought a moving GIF of Taylor Swift doing a luscious move would outrage people over the Obama free community college proposal
John Boehner employs Taylor Swift GIFs to shake off Obama’s free tuition plan.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/john-boehner-employs-taylor-swift-gifs-shake-obama-article-1.2081016
I can speak for most hetero guys here. One tenth of a second of that GIF, and no guy will remember a thing about some stupid political proposal. Except maybe guys under the age of, oh, I dunno, 90 or so, who are thinking about going back to community college and will recall that pretty girls are often found on college campuses and who will henceforth support the proposal 1000 percent.
skerry
@Baud: @debbie: Thanks for the good thoughts about my daughter. She is fine today, excepting she has no feeling along the incision line and blames her lack of math aptitude on the injury/surgery. :)
Her surgery was pre-9/11. Maybe that changed the good doctor’s views on things. He wouldn’t be the only one.
Mike J
@jl: No, it’s Becky.
jl
@Mike J:
Actually, there are 12 GIFs. They should have gone with cats sitting on roaming roombas.
12 Taylor Swift GIFs for you
http://www.speaker.gov/general/12-taylor-swift-reactions-president-obamas-free-college-idea
ThresherK
@Liberty60: Nice tangent about the cops.
beth
@jl: As an American, I’m truly embarrased by this. The President put forth an interesting idea that shpuld have sparked some thoughtful policy discussion. Instead, the highest ranking Republican in the House responds like a 12 year old girl would. I’m really starting to hate this country.
sm*t cl*de
Threads needz moar kitteh! (Less Carson)
Mrs Spat is unimpressed.
beth
@sm*t cl*de: That is a truly magnificent beast!
jl
@beth: Why are you insulting 12 year old girls like that? At least, nice and thoughtful 12 year old girls. Shame on you.
Bobby Thomson
@jl:
Only those hetero guys here with questionable taste.
jeffreyw
@sm*t cl*de: Awesome kitty!
sm*t cl*de
Awesome kitty!
Uncertain ancestry because she was a feral rescue kitten.
JWR
@Baud: Here, already mentioned by others, is what people are laughing about:
John Boehner employs Taylor Swift GIFs to shake off Obama’s free tuition plan
Not sure why Newsmax thinks he bombed. Just a standard, typically childish, churlish GOP attack.
JWR
@debbie: Overall, it’s been a pretty good PBS afternoon for me, too. Right now, they’re showing “Klansville, USA”, about the evolution and growth of the Klan in North Carolina, which is also quite good.