The recent revelations about Ben Carson’s proclivity for embellishing his life story are certain to present him with problems going forward. He has now been found to have been less than truthful about a scholarship offer to West Point. On the same subject he said that he met with General Westmoreland at time that he was hundreds of miles away. His recollections of childhood hostility have come under scrutiny for having changed in substantive ways on each telling. The tale of cowardice in a fast food restaurant when he directed a gunman to assault someone else has no evidence of ever having occurred. He appears to be making up his legend as he goes along.
As serious as that sort of mendacity is, it is still not the biggest problem with Ben Carson and his improbable candidacy for president. That’s because, in just the past few days, Carson has added to a series of strikingly ignorant commentaries. It is truly baffling that a respected neurosurgeon can utter such nonsense. It is equally baffling that so many Americans can be fooled into supporting him. And the examples herein don’t even include the stupendously idiotic assertion that the great pyramids of Egypt were built to store grain.
The three most blatantly harebrained remarks that Carson made this week should make any voter cringe. For instance, defending his absence of political experience, Carson conceded that…
“I have no political experience. The current Members of Congress have a combined 8,700 years of political experience. Are we sure political experience is what we need. Every signer of the Declaration of Independence had no elected office experience.”
The argument that a lack of political experience is an endorsement of one’s fitness to be the Leader of the Free World makes about as much sense as a brain surgeon boasting that he’s never actually performed surgery. But Carson’s comment is also off base because nearly every signer of the Declaration of Independence had elected office experience. Whoever is doing Carson’s research should be fired.
In another attempt to exalt the inexperienced, Carson turned to the bible and constructed an analogy that in his dementia he must have thought supported his argument. he said that…
“It is important to remember that amateurs built the Ark and it was the professionals that built the Titanic.”
Is he now advocating that all shipbuilders be interrogated to assure that they have never actually worked on ship construction? Just hire the ones with the most piety and confidence that God will guide them to build a nice boat. What’s more, Carson is comparing the seaworthiness of Noah’s Ark, a vessel for which there is no evidence that it ever sailed, or even existed, with the infamous Titanic. The logical flaw in this analogy is that the Titanic, which existed, was extremely well built. It didn’t sink due to any construction or design flaw, but due to the bad navigation and judgment of the captain and crew who steered it into an iceberg. Consequently, this analogy undercuts Carson’s point, because it’s the experience of the sailors that would have made the difference.
The introduction of God into Carson’s political philosophy occurs with great frequency. He freely mixes religion into matters of politics and science. For instance, he believes that the Big Bang Theory and evolution are the work of Satan. However, he also believes that…
“The good Lord has provided me with mechanisms like my syndicated column and like Fox News. We’d be Cuba if there were no Fox News.”
Who knew that the Lord Almighty was directly responsible for Fox News and for making it available to Carson? What’s more, who knew that Fox News is the only reason that the United States is not a tiny communist island? The notion that America would have fallen into the sphere of Soviet style communism, but for the existence of a cable news network that is watched by about one percent of the population, is further evidence of Carson’s acute derangement. What kept America from becoming Cuba prior to 1996 when Fox was launched?
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.
Indeed, it is important to be able to believe what those who aspire to lead the nation say. Hillary Clinton is getting a lesson in the value of trust herself. But she doesn’t go around spouting fables as facts and turning history into mythology. So Carson, as many people are now learning, may be a bald-faced liar, but that isn’t nearly as bad as his being a totally unhinged schizoid who is convinced that God sent him to save America and the world.
[Update:] As if to affirm his utterly insane perspective, Carson went on an epic rant complaining that the media was responsible for his misrepresentations of reality. In the course of his barely lucid explanation he rattled off a bunch of old and widely debunked conspiracy theories about President Obama, saying “I do not remember this level of scrutiny for one President Barack Obama when he was running.” He included: Frank Marshall Davis, Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, and Obama’s “sealed” academic records. Of course, upon examination, there was either no truth or nothing controversial in any of these issues. But more to the point, and despite his faulty memory, they were all scrutinized by the media in far greater depth than anything Carson has experienced yet. Why he doesn’t recall months and months of endless reporting on these and other phony issues is another reason to question his fitness for office.
The argument that a lack of political experience is an endorsement of one’s fitness to be the Leader of the Free World makes about as much sense as a brain surgeon boasting that he’s never actually performed surgery.
Isn’t it amazing? Ben Carson, the brain surgeon we have yet to acknowledge actually possesses a brain, is making the argument that a candidate’s complete lack of political experience should not be considered an issue [when you are a Rethuglican], but one of the TeaGOP’s major condemnations of Barack Obama was his so-called “lack of political experience.” Not to mention Obama’s all-consuming crime of “being president while black,” which the TeaGOP insists should not be considered an issue with Carson. As always, IOKIYAR.
I’m not really sure why people are fixated on Mr Carson’s embellishment of his record after he said the pyramids were grain silos not tombs. I would suggest you evaluate which more completely renders a candidate unfit for office.
I would agree, in principle; lying doesn’t prevent one from gaining or keeping political office.
Mental stability would be a plus, however; and I’m sure it could be argued that lack of it hasn’t prevented some from gaining or keeping political office either. Here’s looking at you Don Young.
Well a liar is not a really good way to start a campaign. How do we know when he is telling the truth when he lies so much. Beside the pyramids is just one of many examples of his trouble with reality. I don’t expect my candidates to be completely lie free, but I also don’t accept them lying on a daily basis.
Carson is going nowhere in this campaign, thankfully. The Republicans have a huge field and not one of them is fit to be President, especially Carson. He is selling a book and that is his main priority. He maybe deluded enough to think he is a viable candidate but I got news for him-he sucks and is pathetic as a candidate.
” It is equally baffling that so many Americans can be fooled into supporting him.”
Not really. All it takes in the Rethuglican party is, for the candidate to be the most religious, or say something outrageous . When that happens, everyone else jumps on the bandwagon. If any of the other candidates would come out and say all Muslims need to be deported, they would poll at 75%.
Carson’s longstanding relationship with grifter par excellence, Armstrong Williams (Carson’s campaign manager), should tell you all you need to know about the well-seasoned grifter, Ben Carson.