And Then There's Ben Carson

Sometimes I ask myself, "Why would anyone want to run for president?"  And then I remember: Ben Carson.  It's a great way to make money.  I know, immediately you think: Make money?  It costs a fortune. Yes, it does.  But you've got a campaign going to bring in millions, and if you aren't really serious about winning the office (and maybe even if you are), you don't spend it all, plus you get the publicity.

I think Ben's been spending too much of his swag on drugs, though.  Why did he stand behind the curtain after his name was called to the stage on the last debate (there's always the possibility that he decided if he couldn't be first, he'd be last, as in saving the best for last**), and why did he rush home from Iowa, rather than head on to the next debate stop?  To get a change of clothes, his campaign said.  Sure.  That makes sense.

Is he going to turn around and parlay those donor and volunteer lists into partnership with a company or a direct-mail outfit, or is he really going to try to ride this to the White House?

  Rolling Stone

He's going to ride it as far as it will take him and still make a profit.

There is another explanation, one that embraces the contradictions and ties together many of the loose threads of the Ben Carson experience.

Being an ace doctor — an ace surgeon especially — is a helluva drug. [...] And Ben Carson might well have been the best in the world at what he did.

Which blows my mind. He shows himself to be downright ignorant about so much.

It's possible that it's been decades since Ben Carson heard the word "no" in any meaningful way. [...] Ben Carson might have stopped registering the objections, input or even the basic reality of ideas originating outside of Ben Carson sometime in the mid-Eighties.

[...]

Even his speaking demeanor drips with disregard [...] [A]lmost the only time Carson raises his voice, opens his eyes and looks directly at someone for a response is when he's angered. Like Jabba the Hutt, he only stops nap-talking and stares when he's surprised or denied his expectations.

Ben Carson might just be running an incompetent and confused campaign with a dubious funding apparatus because it has become impossible for him not to conceive of his every feint as another move along the board of the Fisher-Spassky match playing in his mind.

True enough.

Ben Carson might be so brilliant and talented that he cannot detect how often he's being an absolute moron.

He's not crazy, just ignorant. He's fine. Everything is fine.

But, he might also be crazy. He's at least shifty.

"I'm running for President because it's time for accountability and integrity, and the only way we can make a difference is for all of us as citizens to take a stand."

  Ben Carson Texas GOPVote

Integrity like claiming he was such a badass before he found Jesus when people who knew him back when say he was a nerd, and integrity like claiming to have gotten a $10 reward for integrity in a college course that never happened.

"That includes holding the media to account when it spreads false or misleading information."

While he can spread it all he wants.


...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

**He says he didn't go on at the NH debate because he didn't hear his name called. Then why was he out at the edge of the stage rather than in the area behind the curtains with everyone else? And why did he not go on stage when a stage director came out and waved him to go? He's not blind.  He and Donald Dick may have been in cahoots or competition, since the Donald came out and stood beside Carson when his name was called, and they walked onstage together.  And, it may have all been due to the simple answer:  they fucked up.