Posted on 09/03/2015 1:36:27 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
While Jeb Bush feuds Donald Trump and others kowtow to him, only one candidate is seriously gaining on him.
Ben Carson is now tied with Trump in one Iowa poll and is close in others, an especially notable result given that The Donald has jammed a lifetime's worth of free media into the past couple of months.
Carson's rise suggests that it's possible to catch the populist wave roiling Republican politics and yet not be an obnoxious braggart who abuses anyone who crosses him and will say or do anything as long as he's getting attention. Ben Carson is a superior outsider to Donald Trump.
He is more gentlemanly and more conservative, with a more compelling life story. Carson is a man of faith who, despite his manifest accomplishments, has a quiet dignity and winsome modesty about him. Ben Carson is a throwback, whereas Donald Trump is a bold-faced name straight out of our swinish celebrity culture.
What they have in common is that they are political neophytes light on policy details who are memorable communicators precisely because they speak and carry themselves so differently from other politicians. Although the similarities stop there — Carson is what Trump calls "low energy," and yet he makes it work for him.
At the Faith and Freedom event in Washington in June, Carson gave a speech that had no obvious applause lines, never rose above a conversational tone, had very little political content — and left perhaps the best impression of any presentation by a candidate.
Few politicians have ever wielded soft-spokeness to such rhetorical effect. Carson aced the Fox debate when in his closing statement he didn't puff himself up and attempt to soar like candidates always do, but gently said a few nice things about his background as a surgeon, with a touch of humor. It was a hit.
If Carson's surge continues, one wonders if other contenders now doing all they can to kowtow to and copy the bombastic real-estate mogul will instead decide to kowtow to and copy the mild-mannered retired neurosurgeon.
Carson is a more natural fit for conservatives than Trump. If you like your outsider not to favor higher taxes, not to have once opposed the ban of partial birth abortion, not to speak favorably of socialized medicine, not to have been an erstwhile booster of Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton, and not to have experience buying off politicians, Ben Carson (or Carly Fiorina) is a much better bet than Donald Trump.
And Carson is altogether a more sympathetic figure. He rose from nothing; Trump took over the family real-estate business. Carson's mom was one of 24 kids, had a third-grade education and worked as a domestic; Trump's father built tens of thousands of apartments in Brooklyn and Queens and amassed a fortune of $300 million.
Carson is a serious Christian who has a powerful testimonial about getting down on his knees as a young man unable to control his temper and saying, "Lord, unless you help me, I'm not going to make it."
Carson tells of how he prayed to God to give him the right woman and how he has been married to his wife, Candy, for 40 years; Trump brags about the beautiful women he has bedded.
Trump says he likes "The Art of the Deal" better than any book except the Bible, but he appears to have read just one of them. His evasions when he was asked a few basic questions in a Bloomberg interview about the Good Book were hilariously ham-fisted (he can't answer what his favorite verse is because that's too personal a question).
Trump is the most blatantly secular major presidential candidate since Howard Dean, and of course, he is running as a Republican, not a Democrat. Trump will have to do well in the Iowa caucuses that have been won most recently by Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee and George W. Bush — a devout Catholic, an ordained Baptist preacher and an evangelical, none of whom were prone to fits of awkwardness and shyness when the Bible came up.
Trump is, to say the least, not of this mold. He is a successful creature of our culture of conspicuous display and tasteless braggadocio. It's no accident that he played himself in WWE wrestling dramas, or that he names everything after himself, or that he doesn't have enough superlatives for own personal qualities and wealth and accomplishments.
Not content simply to brag about his real achievements, Trump says things that are obviously self-inflating fables. Does anyone really believe that other candidates came up to Trump after the Fox debate and told him he had won, as he maintained in his post-debate interview with CNN's Don Lemon?
Carson has certainly made the most of his own renown, churning out best-sellers and raking in the speaking fees, but he operates from a baseline of self-respect and respect for others.
It's impossible to imagine him engaging in juvenile insult wars with random targets of his ire. Or imagine him calling a female journalist a "bimbo" for asking questions that he found unwelcome. Or commenting crudely on women's appearances.
Like Trump, Carson excoriates the culture of political correctness and has said his share of outrageous things, but he also doesn't consider it beneath him to occasionally apologize.
America long ago turned its back on self-restraint and gentlemanliness. Conservatives were the last holdouts, but their dalliance with Trump makes you wonder if they, too, are willing to surrender to celebrity excess as the new norm.
Ben Carson stands for something different. His personal story shows how true class isn't about riches, but about character. Donald Trump has all the finest things and I'd hazard to guess barely as much class as Ben Carson's penniless mother struggling to raise her sons had in her pinky.
Carson may not ultimately have the political pull of Trump, who is more mediagenic and can potentially spend much more money. Yet, if conservatives want to flirt with an unconventional candidate, Carson provides the opportunity to do it without a guilty conscience.
Bkmk
There are some big issues where he is not conservative at all
Apparently (tongue in cheek) a conservative is a bombastic egotistical think-skinned vulgar petulant child-like person who loves themselves by putting others down while also loving low-class stuff like Mylie Cyrus and government healthcare, Kelo, ENDA and talks abut themselves ad naseum.
:p
According to who?
Raise your hand if you really believe Ben Carson has a ghost of a chance agains’t Donald Trump for the GOP nomination. :-)
No thanks. He has some negatives. He has led a very interesting life but that does not a President make. Trump and Cruz are better. He would not get in the face of others like Trump does. We need a fighter.
“He wants amnesty and gun control. That’s no Conservative, fool!”
And forced vaccinations without exceptions.
You don’t seem to be aware that Trump is as pro illegals as anyone with his empty talk about sending only the bad ones back.
Lowery needs a nice hot cup of STFU.
Rich Lowry. I don’t need to read anything else.
Not only amnesty and gun restrictions, but my greatest fear would be his wanting mandatory vaccinations.
Having 2 kids with extremely bad reactions to said vaccinations I’d rather see them eliminated but at least a choice to be able to “pick your ‘poison” so to speak.
Not to mention that 60% of vaccines today are made with fetal tissue.
Can’t see a loving God, who says that he has plans for his wee ones while they are still in the womb, putting His blessing on this misuuse of them.
“Sorry Ben, but when you receive an endorsement from Politico, red flags go right up.”
BINGO, gotta read between the lines.
Agreed.
Carson has come out as being on board The Cheap Labor Express.
There is nothing conservative about abandoning the rule of law.
They realize their entire global socialist utopia hinges on overwhelming the west, and America, with benighted third worlders. Its why they will NEVER accept border controls.
Never. Stopping them will take force.
Thanks for your attention to the contents of the post. Oh, if some leader would emerge who understood the ideas of liberty as did America’s founding generations!
I know! First, the use of our wonderful language forces one to think and reflect. The ideas and inspirations stir up my brain, which, as I get older, needs more stirring - less reacting.
Thank you for posting!
Well, I wish them all luck .. I’m voting for and supporting Ted Cruz.
Ted Cruz has been more vocal (on the most important issues) than most of the rest of the candidates (except for Trump). Ted is hated because he’s always willing to stand for principle instead of capitulating to the DemocRATS.
While Trump may be loud and brash; I’d have to say, he has been able to accomplish quite an empire of prosperous buildings all around the world. So, to intimate that he’s all “loud mouth” is a bit disingenuous.
However, I’m one of those who ALWAYS votes. I refuse to cede my vote to the DemocRATS, just because the candidate is not my very favorite.
The main reason the media likes Carson. He was a democrat for years. Then became a republican, then an independent when he got mad at the way republicans were treating Bill Clinton. So what can we take from this. We know he voted for Clinton, he all but admits it, and I would be willing to bet he voted for ZERO in 2008.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/4/ben-carson-officially-switches-parties-returns-gop/
“Mr. Carson said he switched to being an independent about 15 to 20 years ago after getting a “sour taste” watching Republicans who had their own personal foibles impeach President Clinton over an extramarital affair. “I just saw so much hypocrisy in both parties,” .
Re; black fixation and black lives matter
Carson is a black republican candidate for POTUS which unfortunately places an importance on him simply because he is such. Particularly since that segment as a group is creating strife where members of other races are being attacked and murdered in racial attacks by blacks
Carson while discussing “matters” fails to do what Walker did yesterday and attacked Obama for his use of the “Bully Pulpit” to inflame black passions and but remains silent in quelling them. The question I have about Carson is after a black LEO, Sheriff Clarke of Milwaukee has the his governor, Walker, share his observations of Obama’s machinations. Does Carson even understand what Obama is really up to and why he’s creating this division of races ?
Unfortunately because the focus was on Trump. Walker’s condemnation never made it to the front page or even get a mention. There should no doubt that Walker is getting a freeze job by the media and when they do they mislead his positions like the great border wall of Canada.
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