Posted on 11/10/2015 7:38:57 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Another nice catch by Andrew Kaczynski and BuzzFeed to go with the old clipping of Carson’s mother telling a newspaper in 1997 that the stabbing incident most certainly happened. Nothing’s going to prove that definitively, but knowing for a fact that Carson was telling this story before he had any reason to (when he had every professional reason not to) is the next best thing. And every time one of Carson’s biographical anecdotes is tested and checks out upon close scrutiny, the impulse to believe him among those who are already well disposed to him and see him as the most honest in the field grows stronger. The perception that he’s fought the media and won could be a tonic to voters.
This isn’t the only corroborating evidence for a Carson story floating around today either. Legal scholar Seth Barrett Tillman chipped in with his memory of being informally recruited to attend West Point at a conference for high-school students in the late 1970s:
During the conference, a major approached me individually, by name, and pulled me out of earshot of other student-attendees. I have always assumed he (or his colleagues) had similar conversations with many if not with all the other student-attendees. I was told that if I apply, I would get in. It was as simple as that. I had very good standardized test scores and very good grades from my high school. When the major told me that I would get in if I applied, I believed him. I was told that West Point would find a Senator or Representative to nominate me, or I would come in with a number of students the academy could choose itself…
My scores and grades were good, very good, but I have no reason to think mine were the highest among the many student-attendees. I cannot believe that I was the only person to have received, what was in effect, assurances that if I applied I would get in. By any fair-minded description: it was an offer to attend West Point. Albeit, the offer was not in writing; it was an informal oral offer. Surely, many, many other people received similar offers. I expect that large list also includes Ben Carson.
PS: This conference was less than a decade after the end of the Vietnam War. This was a time when the service academies still had to make some substantial efforts to attract candidates with strong academic records. I expect those days are long gone.
One of the sticking points about Carson’s memory of being “offered” a “scholarship” (i.e. free tuition) to West Point during a conversation with Gen. Westmoreland was the idea that recruiters wouldn’t and couldn’t guarantee admission when encouraging a student to apply. It’s not an “offer” unless an acceptance letter has been issued, right? Wrong, per Tillman. Some students were sufficiently attractive to the military that the application process was treated as a formality. It’s not hard to believe that Carson, a brilliant student involved in ROTC who’d overcome poverty, would be seen as worthy of an informal offer if so many others were.
Now, anyone want to explain to me why it’s fallen to BuzzFeed instead of Carson’s campaign to dig this stuff up? I don’t get it. Exit question: What’s the next story that’ll be proved entirely or mostly true? This one seems similar to something that really did happen, although the detail about a professor rewarding Carson for his honesty is hard to square with the fact that the make-up exam was a prank.
Update: Well well. Kaczynski scores a hat trick by answering the exit question:
In an interview with BuzzFeed News on Monday, Curtis Bakal, an editorial assistant at the satirical Yale Record who says he helped write the fake test, said he was “99% certain the way Carson remembers it is correct.â€
"When I read about the story in the Wall Street Journal, I immediately said, to my wife and friend, 'That was the prank we played at the Record! And Ben Carson was in the class,'" said Bakal, who noted he wasn’t actually present during the taking of the fake test. "We did a mock parody of the Yale Daily News during the exam period in January 1970, and in this parody we had a box that said: 'So-and-so section of the exam has been lost in a fire. Professor so-and-so is going to give a makeup exam.'"
"We got a room to do do the test in and one of us from the Record impersonated a proctor to give the test," he said.
I’m really getting sick of Ben Carson 24/7. He’s not going to ever be the GOP nominee and he’s just taking up space. Go home Ben.
I didn’t think the West Point story was a big deal. But I fail to see how the stabbing thing should be a story Carson wants to get out.
the theme of turn your life around pull yourself out of your own terrible situations is a very powerful message and sadly one much needed to counter the freebie handouts of liberals who tell you its never your fault and don’t worry vote for us and we will use other peoples money to take care of you...
Lets Celebrate! Carson has no Presidential qualities, is wrong on amnesty, gun control and TPP, but now apparently attempting to stab someone is a badge of honor that overrides his country destroying policies. Just WOW...
Yes the guy is a trainwreck. Now he’s involved in controversy. What a shock.
The first Carson lover who comes on here frothing at the mouth I’m going to want to hear them say that they agree with all of Carson’s BS positions on the issues and plan to vote for him.
Why would anyone write in their book, the horrible things Carson did as a youth, who does not? Who wants to be proud of trying to kill their mother? What kind of person wants to remember it?
There may be person who remember that about him, but being 50 years ago, it is now only Hearsay.
I don't know what type of person that is but it is not normal.
Carson needs a Dr., or his campaign managers need to stop trying to make him look tough/high energy.
Okay. I’ve had some pretty dark times before and pulled through. Never felt the urge to stab anyone though.
He had two books out before 1997. Did he mention his strange behavior in either of them?
It is especially maddening because we know that most of these shills hyping him at the present are only doing it as part of a strategy to take Trump out.
Well tonight watch for Carson to stumble around trying to remember his memorized economic plan like last debate. Its sad. I do not see any way this guy stays up in the polls much longer.
To libs, that might be a powerful message. The message it sends me is to stay far, far away from deviants and freaks. Who knows when they’d come at me or mine with a hammer or knife or use me as a shield from a gunman.
Heck, he wouldn’t be “up” in the polls if they weren’t manipulated for that effect: http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/11/09/incredible-amazing-almost-well-unbelievable-ben-carson-skyrockets-with-massive-surge-in-south-carolina-poll/
With that said, on the "West Point" non-story, someone needs point out a fact which any person who attends "Awards Day" programs at local high schools can confirm--that where dollar amounts of scholarship "awards" are announced and applauded, the "full ride" equivalent for students bound to military academies is equated to a "scholarship." That happens every Spring in every community in America.
Only in a PC, it "depends on what the meaning of 'is' is, semantically-controlled-media-world mindset would one even think to question whether a man who was relating an event from his distant past might not remember then, as now, a common understanding of a conversation about being a young Black man from an impoverished setting, in the presence of a famous General whose praise of that young man had included a comment that, with his outstanding academic record, he could get into and attend West Point for free (translated then and now as "a scholarship").
We can only imagine how a reporter for Politico defines a "free ride" to college these days, one who has fallen under the spell of those pseudo-intellectual "progressives" who now wish to rewrite the dictionaries, give their own mind-control definitions to common terms, and dictate to the rest of us how we "evaluate" presidential candidates; but, this one thing we know: Ben Carson's life record of achievement and contributions to humanity will far outlive that little reporter's miniscule words, no matter how one defines them.
Decent Americans, whether they favor Dr. Carson for President or not, may reject such attempts to play with their minds on such a serious subject.
To choose another favorite candidate than Carson represents what America is all about. Participating in the Democrats' Alinsky tactics is another.
I am praying that God’s will be done & that He set up the
right person for the job to the end that His will be done.
“watch for Carson to stumble around trying to remember his memorized economic plan like last debate”.
His last debate was awful. I was embarrassed watching him fumble around.
Now you know how us Cruz supporters feel when it comes to Trump.
Wonder how President Trump will fare and govern while continuously insulting people.
I suppose the stabbing and hammer incidents are his sorry attempt to win street cred, and get the gangbanger vote.
Anyone who would support this guy should be ashamed of themselves. He’s nothing more than an 0bama with an R after his name.
I have a feeling your frustration should be aimed at Carson. Cruz has to step over Carson to get to Trump. :-)
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