Eugene Robinson on Ben Carson

[MBS]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gops-scariest-candidate/2015/10/12/370444f2-710d-11e5-9cbb-790369643cf9_story.html

From the introductory paragraphs:

The craziest thing about the Republican presidential contest isn’t that Donald Trump is in the lead. It’s that Dr. Ben Carson — who truly seems to have lost his mind — is in second place and gaining fast. Trump may be a blowhard, but Carson has proved himself to be a crackpot of the first order. Of all the GOP contenders, he’s the scariest.

I say this as a longtime admirer of Carson for his stellar medical career. As the head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Carson not only saved lives in the operating room but also inspired countless young people to overcome rough beginnings and reach for the stars. That sounds like a cliche, but I’ve seen the effect Carson has on a room full of low-income African American students when he tells the story of how he escaped a childhood of poverty in Detroit to graduate from Yale University, study medicine at the University of Michigan and become one of the most acclaimed surgeons of our time. Carson’s message — if I can do it, so can you — has a powerful impact on young people. I wish he were still delivering it.

Instead, alas, he is running for president. And despite spouting more utter nonsense than the law should allow, Carson has the support of 18 percent of GOP voters, according to the RealClearPolitics poll average — five points behind Trump and miles ahead of the rest of the field.

Carson speaks softly, slowly, thoughtfully. Much of what he says, however, is dangerously wrong. . .

(Robinson goes on to dismantle Carson's outrageous statements on the Holocaust, gun control, and more)

I keep wondering: was Carson like this when he was a practicing physician? It's hard to believe. His mind really seems to have gone AWOL.
Ditto the minds of any voter who favors him in the presidential election.
The crazy voters are at least as much of a problem as the crazy politicians they support.

[underpants]

1. Great read

Thanks

[MBS]

4. you're welcome!

[n2doc]

2. The comments section is full of nasty hypocritical wingnuts

Apparently any criticism of Carson is 'racist'. Didn't see anyone ask those nut jobs about criticizing Obama.

[MBS]

3. Pretty rich, considering that Eugene Robinson

. . is himself African-American, and explicitly gave credit to Carson's medical career and his impact on African-American youth.

Luckily, I didn't look at the online commentary. .from what you said, I will now definitely resist the urge to take a peek. I've got more than enough stress in my life already.. .

[niyad]

5. according to some of the articles I have read, if one actually read his book, for example,

his whole nutcase mentality was out there for anyone to see--is seventh day adventist world-view, etc.

one of the other things I read was that the man was absolutely not social in any way. none of his neighbors really interacted with him or his family. one person said, despite how long he had lived in the community, he could not even be elected mayor, that was how little anyone knew him.

[MBS]

6. Thanks.

That's useful to know. It would make sense that it didn't just come out of nowhere.

[niyad]

7. here is one article:

Could Running For President Destroy Ben Carson’s Legacy?


Long before Ben Carson was a champion to social conservatives and an anathema to liberals, he was a legendary neurosurgeon and an icon of black triumph. Will his turn to politics destroy his legacy?



. . . . . .


But he’s now risking this previously unassailable legacy in national politics, where reputations are broken as often as made. He’s making a series of sharp-edged statements that undermine his previously universal appeal, particularly in communities he once sought to set an example for. He has traded one kind of national stature for another one, hotter but also faster burning.

. . . .

Carson has already seen elements of his legend fall away. In one of the most painful, in March 2013, he was forced to withdraw as the commencement speaker at Hopkins after comparing same-sex marriage to bestiality and pedophilia, setting off a round of protests at a place where he’d worked, with much distinction, over five decades. This was a new turn for those who have long known Carson as famously soft-spoken at the hospital and fiercely protective of his privacy and time with family away from it. His former colleagues — to a person — bemoan his loss to the field of neurosurgery.

“He has never pushed anybody, never told anybody else what to do,” said Dr. Henry Brem, director of Hopkins’ neurosurgery department and a friend of Carson’s who joined the hospital’s staff with him on the same day in 1984. “And then there he is telling people how to fix the country. I realized, when he’s out there giving these public speeches, it’s a very different side of his personality.”

“The tack he took in recent years was a surprise to everybody,” said Elaine Freeman, a former longtime spokesperson for Hopkins, noting that Carson and her late husband often debated political issues away from the hospital. “The tenor changed.” But tracing the trail of sound bites and dispatches given by Carson, the doctor nicknamed “Gentle Ben,” over the past quarter-century suggests Carson’s political turn is less a shift than a revelation. His values, his views, his way of looking at the world — they haven’t changed much.

“We had to read his books, and listen to his speeches and other public utterances,” said Vernon Robinson, campaign director of the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee. “It’s a pain in the behind to do that but that’s what you’ve got to do. It’s all there.”

. . . .

http://www.buzzfeed.com/joelanderson/ben-carson-politics-legacy#.sevxNmP3wK

[MrScorpio]

22. There's a school named after him in the Detroit Medical Center area...

If he keeps this shit up they'll probably rename it.

[niyad]

8. another fascinating article, on why ben carson is not a scientist:

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2015/09/24/most-doctors-are-not-scientists/

[MBS]

11. He's one of my favorites, too.

His columns are always thoughtful, and, on TV, I appreciate his ability to chuckle about situations that leave me in despair. He just keeps my hope up.

[Turbineguy]

10. It's the primaries.

Only crackpots stand a chance of winning.

[7962]

12. I think Cruz is a lot scarier. Along with his dad. nt

[MBS]

13. I agree -Cruz truly gives me the creeps

But I think Robinson singled out Carson because he's rising in the polls, and also because he has intimate knowledge of the arc of Carson's earlier career history.

[MrScorpio]

14. Actually, I disagree with the notion that if Carson can be a neurosurgeon, anyone can…

"Anyone" clearly cannot and will not be neurosurgeons of Carson's calibre. He became one under a certain set of circumstances unique to Carson. Frankly, I think that arguments such as, if such and such can do it, anyone can do it is a completely bullshit argument. Most people will never be neurosurgeons, most people will never be president and simply because Carson was a neurosurgeon, that doesn't mean that he's either fit to be President of the United States or will ever be President of the United States.

We do this crap of holding up the most remotest outliers as people who are generally attainable. Yeah, "anyone" can be President, "anyone" can be a sports hero, "anyone" can be a multi-millionaire.

It's a lie.

[7962]

15. Agreed. I dont see how anyone can simplify one of the most precise jobs like that.

Its not just a matter of passing the training, its a matter of having the skill, the "touch", to be able to do it.
No amount of training will get me to the level of a pro athlete

[Joe Chi Minh]

19. Like being free to dine at the Ritz or sleep under a bridge. That is

the kind of mind-bogglingly simplistic cliche I was talking about in an earlier post.

[jmondine]

16. But... but... I thought Eugene Robinson supported Obama just because he was black!

Didn't Rush Limbaugh say so???

[NonMetro]

17. Ben Carson Is An Anti-Semite, And Other Republicans Agree With Him.

That's what it boils down to: No Republican has even denounced him for repeating the long discredited anti-Semitic screed that the Jews in Europe were not brave enough to defend themselves, or could have prevented the whole thing if they just had more guns. I'm not Jewish myself, but the way the media fawns over this horrid anti-Semite, and the fact that so many Republicans support that man is sick! Sick!

[Joe Chi Minh]

18. The first two or three statements made by Carson (I haven't read any since)

absolutely stunned me. Though I did read some incisive remarks of his by way of Christian apologetics.

You expect very few, thoughtful, eloquent or witty comments from politicians, least of all from modern-day Republicans, but the sheer disingenuous vacuity of Carson's remarks took my breath away; particularly since the journalist reporting it seemed to actually favour him! He'd surely earn the enthusiastic support of the tea-partygoers, who presumably would prefer to hear thoughts best expressed in monosyllables, even if they are not.

[red dog 1]

20. K&R...Thanks for posting

What a whack-job!

Ben Carson makes Trump look like a sane person!

[Fred Sanders]

21. The Extremist Religion virus. No further elaboration needed.