Free Republic

Ben Carson has edged out fellow GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump in a new national poll, taking the top spot from the real estate mogul for the first time in months. Carson is supported by 26 percent of GOP primary voters, followed by Trump at 22 percent, according to the CBS News/New York Times poll released early Tuesday. All other candidates follow in the single digits, with Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) at 8 percent and businesswoman Carly Fiorina and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 7 percent each. The poll represents growing momentum for Carson, who surpassed Trump in several...

Donald J. Trump, who is rarely at a loss for words, admitted “I don’t know what’s going on” when confronted by Ben Carson’s surge past him in early-voting Iowa, where Mr. Trump had led the Republican presidential field for months. Mr. Trump has derided Mr. Carson for lacking the vigor and fortitude to be president, but voters here are drawn to the retired neurosurgeon’s low-pitched manner. “That smile and his soft voice makes people very comforted,” said Miriam Greenfield, a farmer in Jewell, Iowa.

A frustrated Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday he can’t believe he’s so far behind in the Republican presidential race, with just 1 percent in polls — when Donald Trump is “crazy as hell,” and Ben Carson once “tried to kill someone.” Carson recalled his hot-tempered childhood on “Meet the Press” Sunday, saying he “would go after people with rocks, and bricks and baseball bats and hammers. And . . . when I was 14 I tried to stab someone.” That was too much for Graham, who consistently polls at the bottom of the GOP pack, way behind co-leaders Trump and Carson. “On...