Carson’s Stumbles Could Benefit Ted Cruz in Iowa

National Review ^ | November 6, 2015 | Eliana Johnson

[Isara]

There are whispers in Iowa that volunteer supporters of Ted Cruz have been spreading malicious rumors about Dr. Ben Carson, claiming he is a supporter of mandatory vaccinations and conducted research using the tissue of aborted babies. Though they could hurt Carson with the evangelical voters who have flocked to him in Iowa and across the country, none of these attacks have gotten much oxygen on the national stage - certainly not from Cruz himself.

Cruz has the ability and desire to appeal to the Christian conservatives who tend to dominate the Iowa caucuses, but Carson has emerged as the primary obstacle in his way. The retired pediatric neurosurgeon has risen to the top of the polls there - and nationally - over the past few weeks, and he is far and away the most popular Republican candidate in the race. But he has stumbled in recent days, as reporters unearthed inconsistencies and flat-out fabrications in his memoir, and as he puzzled many with statements about the Biblical origins of the Egyptian pyramids. If these struggles take a toll on Carson's poll numbers, it will benefit Cruz most of all.

Until now, Carson has presented a dilemma for Cruz. Attacking any candidate, but particularly a candidate as well liked as Carson - his favorability rating is +13 in Iowa, according to the latest Public Policy Polling numbers - can backfire. Attacks inevitably boost the negative perception of their purveyors, and the sort of evangelical voters Carson has attracted are typically loyal and difficult to peel off. That explains why Cruz's approach to Carson's rise has been to hold him close, hug him tight, smile . . . and count on his campaign imploding down the line. With the emergence of new details calling into question the veracity of key aspects of Carson's inspirational life story, it's beginning to look like a savvy strategy.

If he has been a brutal critic of his Senate colleagues, Cruz has made a point of not attacking his Republican challengers on the campaign trail. When others were denouncing Donald Trump as a madman and a narcissist, Cruz was more sanguine, praising the real-estate mogul for "speaking out boldly and brashly on illegal immigration."

It's not only that in attacking Carson, Cruz would be reversing himself on a boldly stated principle of his campaign. Political strategists also say that it would be dangerous for him to attack Carson, who is wildly popular among the Republican base, which also happens to be Cruz's base. The Iowa talk-radio host Steve Deace, who has endorsed Cruz, says that attacking Carson is risky because his supporters are potential Cruz supporters. He likens it to "dropping [a] bomb on your neighbor."

Though he is a Detroit-bred neurosurgeon who spent most of his professional life in Baltimore, temperamentally, Carson shares a lot in common with Iowa's Republican voters. He is gentle, soft-spoken, and devoutly Christian. "People who attack Carson do so at their own peril," says Jamie Johnson, the longtime Republican national committeeman from Iowa who joined Rick Perry's short-lived campaign earlier this year.

There's also a view gaining currency among Iowa politicos that Cruz doesn't need to win the state, but just to perform well there. "You have to be one of the three tickets punched out of Iowa," says Deace. He argues that a conservative, an outsider, and an establishment candidate will emerge from the caucus intact. "If Cruz finishes second to Carson," he says, "that's a win." Johnson characterizes the caucus as a "three-camp race" among proven public servants, outsiders, and "everybody else the establishment is a little worried about," which leaves room for Carson to emerge victorious among the outsiders and Cruz to win among those who give the establishment the willies.

Carson's greatest weakness is in the realm of policy, where he is a self-proclaimed neophyte, and where Cruz can easily run circles around him. But when?

Carson's greatest weakness is in the realm of policy, where he is a self-proclaimed neophyte, and where Cruz can easily run circles around him. But when? "I think right now it's a very vulnerable place," says Amy Walter, national editor of the Cook Political Report. "Do you wait to make that argument until January? Do you make it in December? Do you make it when 95 percent of Republicans think of him positive [as opposed to] just 85 percent?"

You could see Cruz dipping his toe in the waters after Carson took to CNN to explain why he was troubled by the prospect of a Muslim president.

Cruz did not hesitate to weigh in on the matter, telling a local Iowa outlet, without naming Carson, that, "The Constitution specifies there shall be no religious test for public office and I am [a] constitutionalist."

Carson's deficiencies on matters of policy were on full display when he made the rounds on the Sunday shows trying to explain his proposal to reform Medicare. At one point, he proposed replacing the program with health-savings accounts, subsidized by the government, "starting from the time you are born until the time you die." Then he reneged on the government subsidies, on doing away with Medicare, and on forcing anybody to adopt a savings account.

"I do not believe in imposing things upon people. I believe in presenting things that are so attractive that people will very quickly migrate to them," Carson told Fox News's Chris Wallace. Puzzled, Wallace asked, "So how does the health-savings account work if there's no government subsidy? How do you get the money for your health-savings account. . . . I'm a little confused. If I'm just a regular person, I'm not indigent, and you're gonna give me a health-savings account but you're not going to give me any money, why wouldn't I want Medicare?"

Carson, who has never held political office, may also be starting to wilt after weeks under the spotlight inevitably shined on the front-runner: A Politico report Friday revealed that Carson fabricated a story - relayed in his bestselling autobiography, Gifted Hands - about receiving a full scholarship to West Point. It came on the heels of a controversy over his account in the same book of attempting to stab a friend as an angry teenager. Carson clarified on Thursday that in fact he had attempted to stab a close relative.

If such problems with the truth leave Carson vulnerable to broader criticism on matters of policy, it will be good news for Cruz.

[Isara]

FYI

[stocksthatgoup]

National Review another group of lazy journalists

[Isara]

Presidential Candidates Comparison (Carson vs. Cruz vs. Rubio vs. Trump)

Please click on the pictures at the top of the columns for more details on the ratings of the candidates.

Budget, Spending & Debt
Civil Liberties
Education
Energy & Environment
Foreign Policy & Defense
Free Market
Health Care & Entitlements
Immigration
Moral Issues
Second Amendment
Taxes, Economy & Trade

More at Conservative Review: https://www.conservativereview.com/2016-presidential-candidates

Note: If you don't like the ratings for any reason, please contact Conservative Review's Editor-in-Chief, "The Great One," Mark Levin. But I have to warn you that you may get this response from him: "GET OFF THE PHONE, YOU BIG DOPE!"

[boycott]

I would love to see a Trump - Cruz ticket. It would be smackdown time on Hillary and Obama.

[vette6387]

Just how many times are you going to post this? I think everyone gets it that you are a Cruz supporter. Personally, I don’t know what or who the “Conservative Review” is. And in looking at their “scoring’ of the candidates, I’d have to say this organization is in the tank for Cruz so the information is suspect. Please save us some space and put this “hit piece” away!

[Isara]

Trump supported TARP, auto bailout and Porkulus bill.

Trump's Record on Free-market Issue: (from the Conservative Review)

Trump has a terrible record on free market issues. The only bright spot is the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing, but this glimmer is countermanded by his repeated support for bailing out Wall Street and the auto industry, and increased stimulus spending. Of particular concern is Trump's belief that the government can use eminent domain powers to seize private property in the name of private economic development. This comes as no surprise, given his support for using eminent domain to profit his own company.

Trump supported the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of London, allowing public authorities to seize private land for economic development by private investors; Trump said, “I happen to agree with [the decision] 100 percent.” (National Review)  This is no surprise given Trump’s attempt to use eminent domain in his own line of work. (Institute for Justice)

Trump supported President Obama’s 2009 stimulus, saying: “The word stimulus is probably not used in its fullest…you know, certain of the things that were given weren't really stimulus. They were pork, as we call it, or they were gifts to certain people. But overall, I think he's [President Obama] doing very well. You do need stimulus and you do have to keep the banks alive.” (CNN) 

Trump supported TARP, saying, "You had to do something to shore up the banks, because ... you would have had a run on every bank." (CNN) 

Trump supported the 2008 auto bailout, saying, “I think the government should stand behind them 100 percent. You cannot lose the auto companies. They’re great. They make wonderful products.” He also said that the federal government could “easily save the companies.” (Daily Caller) 

Trump criticized the Federal Reserve’s intervention in the debt market, saying quantitative easing creates “phony numbers” that mislead the marketplace and “will not ultimately benefit the economy. The dollar will go down in value and inflation will start rearing its ugly head.” (CNBC) 

Donald Trump has a history of using eminent domain to complete business deals. Multiple times Trump has supported the use of government agencies to take possession of homes and businesses for use in his private business plans. Eminent domain seizures are reserved only for public use of property rather than abuse by the government taking property from one individual and giving to another. (Washington Post) 

Donald Trump has sought and received crony capitalist tax breaks for his commercial properties in New York. These tax breaks, and even an abatement, force the property taxes of other property owners to rise at the expense of the connected. Special treatment for one business or industry over another with the tax code conflicts with free market principles. (National Review) 

In 2009, Trump supported Barack Obama's call for limits on the pay of executives. (CNN)

[SoConPubbie]

Just how many times are you going to post this? I think everyone gets it that you are a Cruz supporter. Personally, I don’t know what or who the “Conservative Review” is. And in looking at their “scoring’ of the candidates, I’d have to say this organization is in the tank for Cruz so the information is suspect. Please save us some space and put this “hit piece” away!

Isara, keep posting this. It gives a clear picture of the differences between the top candidates.

And if I am not mistaken, as you yourself, Isara, have posted before, this is Mark Levin's outfit, so it has to be accurate.

[MNJohnnie]

I would not be too quick to tie your candiate to a smear job

Turns out the liar is Politico not Carson. Another embarrassing accusation for them to retract.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/960/no-ben-carson-didnt-lie-about-west-point-its-ben-shapiro?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=110615-news&utm_campaign=benshapiro

At the end of my twelfth grade I marched at the head of the Memorial Day parade. I felt so proud, my chest bursting with ribbons and braids of every kind. To make it more wonderful, We had important visitors that day. Two soldiers who had won the Congressional Medal of Honor in Viet Nam were present. More exciting to me, General William Westmoreland (very prominent in the Viet Nam war) attended with an impressive entourage. Afterward, Sgt. Hunt introduced me to General Westmoreland, and I had dinner with him and the Congressional Medal winners. Later I was offered a full scholarship to West Point. I didn’t refuse the scholarship outright, but I let them know that a military career wasn;t where I saw myself going.

[SoConPubbie]

I would not be too quick to tie your candiate to a smear job

That was a smear in, and of, itself.

[newfreep]

Here’s a few scorecards that discredit CR...

Rand Paul 93%
Jeff Sessions 82%
Marco Rubio 80%

Jeff Sessions a grade LOWER than Rand Paul?
Jeff Sessions same as Marco Rubio?

I don’t think so!

[Dr. Sivana]

Please save us some space and put this “hit piece” away!

My main beef with Isara posting that chart repeatedly is that it gives me a craving for those candy buttons that are stuck to the white paper I got as a kid.

This is part of the Free Republic environment. Frankly, I think that isara is being light on Rubio concerning moral issues.

The Trump folks have been good about promoting Trump as being best on immigration, and a can do guy. Most of us agree that he has caught the GOPe completely off-balance.

Carson is a gentleman whose supporters are not as visible here, but they stick up for him.

The Rubio people, well, they might show up sometime . . . maybe.

[Georgia Girl 2]

The problem with this line of thinking is that Trump tends to be the second choice of Carson supporters. But hey I want Carson gone so whatever it takes. :-)

[Isara]

And if I am not mistaken, as you yourself, Isara, have posted before, this is Mark Levin's outfit, so it has to be accurate.

Yes, Mark Levin is the Conservative Review's Editor-in-Chief.

[oldplayer]

I stand with Ted!

I am certain (with nothing to base it on but my opinion) that Cruz is not involved at all. POLITICO’s lying attacks against Carson are despicable. Politico is a Dim/RINO mouthpiece. Cruz is neither.

As I type this, Rush is ripping Politico and all the media that is picking up on Politico’s story. Rush is showing exactly how a smear is spread by the left. Rush reminds us that Politico also is the source of the sex rumours about Herman Cain in the last cycle. He says they now have the scalps of two conservative blacks who dared wander off the Democrat Plantation.

Oldplayer

Are you surprised that the media have run to Erik Erickson of Red State for confirming negative statements about Carson?

[Pietro]

This recent onslaught against Ben Carson is unbelievable.

They're coming at him from every direction.

This is reminds me of the hatch job they did on Palin.

The establishment media are a collection of worms and vermin.

[RIghtwardHo]

Probably. Sure wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Ben Carson needs to go away NOW. All he des is hurt us. I have never seen such a blithering moron in all my years of following politics. I wouldn’t vote for him to handle a bubble pipe.

[SoConPubbie]

Jeff Sessions a grade LOWER than Rand Paul?
Jeff Sessions same as Marco Rubio?

I don’t think so!

Frankly, I'll take Mark Levin's ratings, over yours, anyday!

[vette6387]

Good response Dr S! Thanks for your post!
I love seeing the give and take here, and apart from the GOPe candidates (mostly Hebbie and Rubio) who don’t get much play, most all the stuff posted is good to see. That said, some like Isara, are simply” pot bangers” for this guy or that and it gets boring to see their repetitive posts. The other types of posts that are problematic for me are those who think everyone but their guy (gal) needs to get out of the race for “the good of the country.”

[Dr. Sivana]

That said, some like Isara, are simply” pot bangers” for this guy or that and it gets boring to see their repetitive posts. The other types of posts that are problematic for me are those who think everyone but their guy (gal) needs to get out of the race for “the good of the country.”

The ones that get me are the ones who say " Can't win in November." and then gives no reason why without subsequent coaxing.

[C210N]

I'm not buying ANY polls these days. Its just plain agenda-drive krap.

That said, one can try and read between the lines here. I'm surmising that the polls are about to turn on Carson, and as the enemedia are wont to do, this pollutico hit piece is planted so as to be used in the next week or so to justify the new polls.

[note: apostrophes removed as per earlier FR request, to improve readability]