Posted on 09/28/2015 8:34:55 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Early as it is, recent polls are beginning to tell us something about the 2016 presidential election.
For one thing, it is becoming increasingly unlikely that Jeb Bush will be the Republican nominee. Not only is he a weak fifth (at 7%) in the just released NBC/WSJ poll, Republicans, as of now anyway, just don’t like him. In a new Fox News poll, he has a net favorability rating (like/dislike) among GOP voters of a measly one percent.
For comparison, favorability ratings for Trump are +12, Cruz +21, Fiorina +30, Rubio +35, and Carson an unprecedented +52. Almost everybody likes him. (I thought Republicans were supposed to be bigots.) Carson is also creeping up behind Trump over all, only one point behind in the aforementioned NBC/WSJ poll, 21-20. (Fiorina and Rubio are tied for third at 11.)
Perhaps more telling, in another just released poll of North Carolina voters by Elon University, in a hypothetical NC general election matchup we find Trump losing to Clinton by 7%, but Clinton herself losing to Carson by 11%. That’s a huge 18 percent swing! (I don’t think you’ll find Donald bragging about that one on Hannity.)
Something is clearly going on here, Mr. Jones. But what is it? First off, voters have liked Dr. Carson from the beginning for his life story and his authenticity. But lately he has shown more than that. His statement that he would not support a Muslim for president — and then giving his reasons, specifically that sharia law with its legislated misogyny and homophobia, not to mention immutable fusion of church and state, is in direct contradistinction to our Constitution — has highlighted issues for the electorate that no other candidate has thus far dared to raise, at least to the level that Carson has. And he has resonated with the public on the subject across party lines. (In one poll, 51% agreed with Carson and 28% disagreed.)
Moreover, Carson is talking seriously about substantive ideological issues like taqiyya – the principle in both Shia and Sunni versions of sharia law allowing Muslims to lie to non-Muslims for the advancement of Islam — that rarely are discussed in political campaigns (or, for that matter, in Iran negotiations). The public, some small part of it anyway, is being educated.
Not surprisingly, this – dare we call it – uppityness on the part of the neurosurgeon has elicited a fair amount of cognitive dissonance or, in Andy McCarthy’s term, willful blindness from the liberal punditocracy. Jake Tapper on his Sunday show acted as if he could scarcely understand what Carson was saying, even though it is quite simple. Fortunately for us, CNN itself published a transcript. From Carson:
Let me tell you what I would advocate, I would advocate that people go back and look at the transcript of what I actually said. …I would have problems with somebody who embraced all the doctrines associated with Islam. If they are not willing to reject sharia and all the portions of it that are talked about in the Quran. If they are not willing to reject that, and subject that to American values and the Constitution, then of course, I would. I would ask you, would you be willing to do that? Would you be willing to advocate for somebody who would not do that? Probably not. …Is it possible that maybe the media thinks it’s a bigger deal than the American people do? Because American people, the majority of them, agree and they understand exactly what I am saying.
Thankfully, they do.
Now wise friends of mine still tell me that the former pediatric neurosurgeon cannot be president, even though he has done such pioneering things in the operating room and even though he is arguably the most extraordinary individual to run for president since Lincoln and Washington. And I understand what they’re saying. It would be something very different. But those same people were telling me that Trump could not be president months ago, until Trump showed he had staying power in the polls. We don’t know anything anymore. But what is clear is that Ben Carson is formidable. I would suggest that in this instance (as in many instances actually) the quiet man may emerge to be stronger than the loud man. Maybe he already he is.
And here’s something else for Republican voters to think about. Wouldn’t a Carson-Rubio ticket, or vice-versa, someone from the inside and someone from the outside, do more to destroy the despicable identity politics the Democratic Party has been exploiting to everyone’s detriment for generations than just about anything you could think of? It would upend all the reactionary nonsense Obama has stood for on symbolism alone. Worth pondering, no?
And, as Steve Jobs would say (hey, there’s a movie coming out), ONE MORE THING: Joe Trippi — a smart liberal pundit who is not a bad guy — has written an L.A. Times oped today insisting “No, pundits, Hillary is not collapsing.” Maybe he’s right. Maybe Sanders and Biden can’t really overcome her, unless, of course, she’s indicted. But the essence of what Joe T. is saying is that the ethnic (read: black) vote will save Hillary after she goes down in white-bread Iowa and New Hampshire, where her numbers look really bad. That, however, is all the more reason to put Carson on the Republican ticket (if he doesn’t get there by himself, which he well might). Ben would DESTROY Hillary in the general election. Besides the fact that he’s authentically black, as opposed to “Clinton black,” Ben’s already got Kanye West on his side. Game over!
Roger L. Simon – Co-founder and CEO Emeritus of PJ Media and PJTV – is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and multi-award winning novelist. He is covering the election at Diary of a Mad Voter. You can find him on Twitter @rogerlsimon.
@eddriscoll’s artwork above was adapted from the climax of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
“a better question is “who are you to judge him ?””
A citizen with one vote, trying to figure out the best way to invest it. I and every other voter has the right to vote as we see fit. To decide that, I have to judge whether a candidate is prepared.
I’m warming up to him. I’m still backing Trump, because he’s still the only one promising to do something about illegal immigration. Carson’s been a little squishy on that, but Simon is right, Carson is emerging as a soft-spoken but “formidable” character. I’d love for the nomination to come down to a fight between these two very worthy men, who distinguished themselves outside of government.
The bastards in the media tried to create a false controversy over what Carson said. Didn’t work. Carson didn’t back down, but instead referred to his actual words.
Talk about hyperbole.
I agree that those two should be ineligible for consideration (by us, not technically) for either President or VP. The set of reasons are different — Carson because of inexperience and naivete, Fiorina because she’s just not good in so many ways and she would wilt in a general election.
I see you’ve brought reality to the old false meme of Trump’s inheritance/experience, Lumper ;)
Question for Gentle Ben: How many FRONT of the checks, has Dr Ben signed? That’s where a guy/gal puts it all on the line. The risk taker, not the OPM manager.
Crip you have me wrong sir, in matters here in the US as far as Conservatism I am kown to be to the right of Attila the Hun. But aqll people not being equal a way must be found to gather as many as possible together not as “victim groups”
Trump while not as pure a Conservative as many would like is a step in the right direction, and If Cruz is VP then the next 16 years will be an ascension to where we want to be versus a dogmatic fight over Culture which is EXACTLY what the Dems want
We may win on style points but that hard of a turn has risks as well
Stay the course my friend
Just a guess, because he supports amnesty.
For one thing, it is becoming increasingly unlikely that Jeb Bush will be the Republican nominee.
Hope it did not take you this long to figure this out. Jeb was not going to be the nominee the same day he announced he was running.......
The three position papers he has published so far don’t scream liberal to me. The things he has to say certainly don’t either. His books are not liberal, and his success in business is not typical of a liberal either. So exactly what is it that you say Trump is a faux conservative?
Yep, you’re right on target there.
More dreams at the expense of Trump...
These people couldn’t assess the dynamics of a local PTA vote.
Well, his donations to leftists over the years, his idea that a leftist would make a great Supreme Court Justice, his threatening to sic the FCC on someone, his economically disastrous protectionist policies. There are more. I am suspicious. This is Donald on health care on 60 minutes. Reagan had a very different idea.
If Trump's name were replaced with Obama's, below, Freepers would be *howling.*
Donald Trump: There’s many different ways, by the way. Everybody’s got to be covered. This is an un-Republican thing for me to say because a lot of times they say, “No, no, the lower 25 percent that can’t afford private. But–”
Scott Pelley: Universal health care.
Donald Trump: I am going to take care of everybody. I don’t care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now.
Scott Pelley: The uninsured person is going to be taken care of. How? How?
Donald Trump: They’re going to be taken care of. I would make a deal with existing hospitals to take care of people. And, you know what, if this is probably–
Scott Pelley: Make a deal? Who pays for it?
Donald Trump: –the government’s gonna pay for it. But we’re going to save so much money on the other side. But for the most it’s going to be a private plan and people are going to be able to go out and negotiate great plans with lots of different competition with lots of competitors with great companies and they can have their doctors, they can have plans, they can have everything.
I didn't know we hired a CEO to "run us."
We used to be free to run ourselves. And Ben Carson believes in that.
I didn't know we hired a CEO to "run us."
We used to be free to run ourselves. And Ben Carson believes in that.
While Dr. Carson is not my first choice (Ted Cruz is my first choice, for the record), I would have no problem voting for him. While I may question his executive experience, Dr. Carson is clearly an American, highly intelligent and a good man with a set of very real fundamental values and principles. That sets him apart from Obama (and almost all of the Republican leadership) in a very big way.
No, only Obama’s black half is president...
That’s not entirely true. Dr. Carson has a considerable following among evangelicals.
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