Posted on 08/01/2014 4:12:16 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon and popular conservative writer and campaigner, has announced the formation of a political action committee to explore a possible 2016 presidential bid, The Washington Times reported.
Carson told the Times on Friday that he had selected Houston businessman, Terry Giles, to be his 2016 campaign chairman if he decides to run and that he has signed off on the set up of a PAC called One Nation that would support his bid.
"Now is the time to start all of the appropriate exploration and investigation, and put down the structure that is necessary," Carson said.
Carson stopped short of commenting on the likelihood that he will run but told the Times, "I would say we are definitely a step or two closer than we were a year ago."
He said one of the factors affecting his decision would be the results of the 2014 elections and whether the GOP will be successful in taking control of the Senate. His PAC, he said, will be supporting candidates in line with his political philosophy.
"Obviously we are very interested in what happens in November," he said, according to the Times. "And if the people also continue to show strong desire for me to run, obviously that would be an important factor too."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
I wonder if Carson even knows what “semi automatic weapon” is? He throws the term around like Bloomberg.
“The math is this: 18% of the black vote equals= NO WAY ANY DEMOCRAT CAN WIN.”
Ok...so now conservatives are supposed to run a candidate because he is black? Is the GOP so devoid of ideas that they can’t run on ideas anymore.
That’s sad and pathetic.
Nice man, believes Trayvon was a “victim” and guns are bad. I know Trayvon was the attacker not a victim and after chasing off a family of racoons from my cats dish on my enclosed deck am looking for a gun.
Until a black candidate has the guts to challange the Martin/Zimmerman myth perpetuated by the regime I won’t consider supporting any black mentioned thus far.
Where is Ben Carson's experience in running a major entity of ANY kind?
I am not sure how I feel about Carson running for POTUS and am not jumping in to back his run should he decide to run, but if I understand anything about neurosurgery, especially high risk pediatric neurosurgery, that takes someone who can lead and make decisive, sometimes split second decisions.
And for what it is worth, we are not talking about someone who was a general practitioner, someone who practices “family medicine” or just a resident surgeon- he was, until recently, until his voluntary retirement, the director of pediatric neurosurgery and co-director of the Craniofacial Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital. That means not only was he still a practicing surgeon at the same time in addition to his teaching duties, but also overseeing the entire department and not a small unit FWIW at one of the premier hospitals in all the world, supervising all the other neurosurgeons and all the other staff members and in doing so probably had to deal with all the mundane things like budgeting and staffing, personnel issues and the politics, yes the politics of being a director at a major medical facility.
Dr. Carson was a professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery, and pediatrics, and he was the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital.[3] At age 33, he became the youngest major division director in Johns Hopkins history, as director of pediatric neurosurgery. He was also a co-director of the Johns Hopkins Craniofacial Center.
In 1987 Carson successfully separated conjoined twins, the Binder twins, who had been joined at the back of the head, making them craniopagus twins. The 50-member surgical team, led by Carson, worked for 22 hours. At the end, the twins were successfully separated and can now survive independently. As Carson wrote in his book:
“ ...they would always exsanguinate. They would bleed to death, and I said, ‘There’s got to be a way around that.... I was talking to a friend of mine, who was a cardiothoracic surgeon, who was the chief of the division, and I said, ‘You guys operate on the heart in babies, how do you keep them from exsanguinating?’ and he says, ‘Well, we put them in hypothermic arrest.’ I said, ‘Is there any reason that—if we were doing a set of Siamese twins that were joined at the head—that we couldn’t put them into hypothermic arrest, at the appropriate time, when we’re likely to lose a lot of blood?’ and he said, ‘No way.’ ... Two months later, along came these doctors from Germany, presenting this case of Siamese twins. And, I was asked for my opinion, and I then began to explain the techniques that should be used, and how we would incorporate hypothermic arrest... And, my colleagues and I, a few of us went over to Germany. We looked at the twins. We actually put in scalp expanders, and five months later we brought them over and did the operation, and lo and behold, it worked.[5]”
Carson figured in the revival of the hemispherectomy, a drastic surgical procedure in which part or all of one hemisphere of the brain is removed to control severe pediatric epilepsy. He refined the procedure in the 1980s, encouraged by Dr. John M. Freeman,[6] and performed it many times.[7][8]
In addition to his responsibilities at Johns Hopkins, he has served on the boards of the Kellogg Company, Costco, and the Academy of Achievement. He is an emeritus fellow of the Yale Corporation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carson
He is so far above and beyond being a mere “community organizer”. He would be IMO a vast improvement over what we have now. I’m willing not to throw him under the bus or dismiss him; rather I’ll wait and see how it shakes out.
They people that want to see him run did the math, and they make a compelling argument: the percentage of blacks consistently voting democrat HAS TO BE ADDRESSED. It was only one bullet out of many used to recruit people into the grassroots organization (RUNBENRUN.ORG).
But you can vote for a ham sandwich as a write-in candidate. I don't give a cogida.
Don’t Ben. You can’t win and we need to unite behind a strong candidate early on. 2nd. Amendment and illegal issues demand someone strong who is unafraid to take on the Democrats and undo this damage. Sadly, you’re not it.
Dr. Benjamin Carson On Gun Control: “It Depends On Where You Live” video:
Sorry. I just don’t think the color of his skin should be a qualifier. I’m more concerned about his ideas and positions.
I don’t think he understands or respects the 2A.
Limiting access to semi-automatic weapons because of your zip code is straight out of the Bloomberg/Feinstein play book.
We can agree to disagree.
My suspicion is that whoever is running the ads has no relation to Carson whatsoever and is running a fundrai$ing enterpri$e to nowhere.
I see Carson as part of the GOPe strategy to divide up conservative votes so their handpicked presidential candidate wins in the end as always.....he’s on their team saying things grassroots conservatives want to hear to suck em in.
and I’ve never been here before ...
-— So I don’t buy you need experience to be a good president -—
I don’t either.
Me too!
I would like to see our political office holders on both the federal and state and local levels go back to being part-time citizen statesmen. Congress and state legislatures and local political bodies should only meet for one or at most two months out the year (or more, but only in the case of war or dire emergencies and only then in very limited session) during which time either during the normal session or emergency session, they would be granted only a modest stipend for very modest living, meal and travel expenses and nothing more. They would not become wealthy by serving and those who were already wealthy would not become even more so. There would be no cushy retirement plans or benefits or any other perks of office of any kind. And I’d like to see something like a 10 year ban before any former legislator could work as a lobbyist or hold another paid government job and visa versa including serving as a cabinet member or a SCOTUS – serve then go back into the “real world” and if you wanted to serve again, then do so but only after taking a break for 10 years and working for a living or running a business.
So when Congress or the legislature is not in session, they’d have to make an honest living like the rest of us slobs and be subject to, in their professional life, their businesses and personal lives, ALL the very same laws they had passed.
As to experience at running something in the real world, I don’t know what his responsibilities are as the Division Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at John Hopkins - but it sounds like he must not be a total idiot to have gotten where he is.
Being the Director of the Pediatric Neurosurgery center at John Hopkins is, I would presume, not a cushy sort of job. In that role, in addition to being a practicing neurosurgeon and also teaching professor, he would have to deal with other neurosurgeons, not exactly a “low maintenance group” even among doctors which tend to be rather “high maintenance” and in supervising their work and outcomes, but he’d have to deal with things like budgets and fighting for budget $ and in personnel issues, staffing requirements, equipment requisitions, and all other sorts of administrative duties and the politics of it all as would be the case in a big prestigious medical center and teaching hospital like Hopkins. He’d have to know and be adept at dealing with hospital administrators and sometimes smooshing with donors and potential donors and working with other neurosurgeons at other prestigious hospitals like he did when he led the 50+ person team that separated the German Siamese twins at Johns Hopkins in 1985 in a very risky but ultimately successful surgery utilizing techniques never used before in similar surgeries where he consulted with and worked with a multi-national team of surgeons.
No. One can’t be a “total idiot” and do what he has accomplished over his career.
FWIW, I did not meet him per se, I never had a personal conversation with Dr. Carson, but in 1997 my father underwent quadruple bypass surgery at Johns Hopkins.
While my brother, my SIL and I were sitting in the waiting room outside of the surgical ward, after some 4 hours of waiting for news about my father’s surgery, there was a young couple who had already been waiting for over 12 hours for news about their young child’s brain surgery when a man dressed in green scrubs came in to the waiting room to talk with these very anxious parents.
I immediately recognized the man in the green scrubs was the “famous and renowned” Dr. Carson. But I wasn’t about to eavesdrop on their very privavate and personal conversation or intrude but I just happened to be seated close enough to hear him talk to the parents.
My very first impression of him that day was that of a very humble and of a very human man, not at all a prima donna, a “famous” surgeon by then. He very quietly approached the parents and from what little I overheard (not trying to eavesdrop), he told them that their child’s surgery went well but that she and her parents had a very long and difficult road ahead. He was very positive but he was also very honest, very straightforward explaining the risks and difficulties that would be ahead, but also in his demeanor, he was very caring and compassionate person. I watched as he held the hands of this couple and hugged them and quietly prayed with them.
About an hour later my father came out of his surgery. His surgeon was also a great doctor and I am and was very grateful for his skill but when he came to talk to us about my father’ surgery, he might have as well been talking about replacing the carbonator in my father’s car – it was very cold and matter of fact and clinical, very much different from what I observed in Dr. Carson.
Now is that to say that these qualities would make him a successful POTUS? But in comparison to Teh One? Well we know were Carson was born, who is parents were, were he went to school, how he did in school, what his religious beliefs are and Carson’s autobiography is not a work of fiction.
The presidency is not an entry-level job and the current administration provides ample evidence of that truth. Dr. Carson may be a fine man but he should run for Congress, not the White House.
This is one of the things that frustrates me every election season with Free Republic. NO ONE is ever quite good enough. Unless a conservative candidate matches every single point of every single issue that some poster. Here has - No, they’re unqualified, they’re not as strong on this or that.
The truth is no human being is going to fulfill every’s ideal conservative candidate. If Renaldus Magnus were running today I seriously doubt several Freepers would find him acceptable.
I love the way some Freepers “know” everyone else’s motives for supporting Dr Carson - only because he’s black! Really? I like him for his conservatism, common sense approach, and his honesty.
We haven’t even got to the primaries but some here are already acting as though they know how candidates are going to handle the anal exam they all will surely receive (at least the conservatives will). So let’s see what happens for awhile. What Dr Carson is will come out. If he doesn’t pass muster, then fine. But, quit acting as though you’ve got him all figured out and there’s nothing else about this man that would cause you to consider him to be president.
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