as seen on tv
Senator
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/1/ben-carson-takes-major-step-toward-presidential-ca/
Ben Carson has formed a “political action committee” as a first step towards declaring his candidacy for president in 2016.
Color me skeptical.
I do applaud the idea of black Americans hearing the message of hard work, educational achievement, and sobriety from a high achieving black leader. This is likely to scare democrats – and for good reason. Nobody in their right mind wants to continue with the democratic party/teachers union status quo – sky high wages and benefits; unbreakable tenure; and a 50% inner city “defect rate” – that is, 50% of inner city high school students fail to get a degree. Make that 60% if we’re talking about DC, where federal subsidies have resulted in the cost of “educating” a student rising to the same level as a year at Harvard.
Ben Carson – please address this. And please tell people not to use marijuana, whether they’re “sick” or not, or whether it’s legal or not. I’ve never read about anyone improving their intelligence, making an important scientific discovery – or even being allowed to drive a bus – while on narcotics. As a physician, this is your area of expertise. Narcotics are not well understood by pandering politicians who would legalize rape and prostitution if they believed it was key to their re-election.
But Ben, I’m skeptical about the presidential bid. When was the last time someone with ZERO political experience got elected to the white house? Well, it was more recently than some here would guess. That would be Dwight D. Eisenhower. Former commander in chief of the army that crushed Hitler. And although I general endorse Eisenhower’s belief “that which governs least governs best” , he DID bring us Richard Nixon as his veep; failure to act on america's apartheid system; and political/cia intrigue in half a dozen countries which had signficiant blowback. Well, nobody’s perfect.
Not even you, Ben Carson. There’s more to being president than inspiring speeches, as Obama found out to his everlasting chagrin. You need to assemble a white house team which can sort good ideas from bad, fend off the crazies in your own party, and has an instinctive feel for what the american people will accept. The Obama white house is zero for three on this – a negative hat trick. Which is why his popularity is now lower than anyone named bush, carter, Roosevelt, or Hoover. He might be above Nixon – someone here on PJ will know.
Ben, you’re the alpha black-male Sarah Palin – with a higher IQ. But that won’t keep the extreme left press from dogging you 24-7 with insults, fake scandals, and an “exclusive” on every white woman you shook hands with. Do you want to go through that, and put your family through it? Do you want to get ambushed with questions like "who is the prime minister of Ukraine this week?" or "Explain the difference between Hamas, Hezbollah, and Hummus"?
The presidency is a job for professionals. The operating theater is as well. I’m not sure either set of skills translates into success in the other. If we’ve learned anything from Obamacare, it’s this: politicians don’t know jack about medicine. And probably vice versa.
