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November 08, 2015 07:44 AM UTC

Trump Moves In For The Kill on Carson--Too Soon?

  • 29 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Donald Trump.
Donald Trump.

As The Hill reports, Republican presidential co-frontrunner Donald Trump is cranking up the rhetoric against Ben Carson, the only other candidate even close to him in opinion polls after gains made in recent weeks:

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump says primary rival Ben Carson’s violent childhood indicates that he has a “pathological disease” that has still not been treated.

“When you suffer from pathological disease, you’re not really getting better unless you start taking pills and things,” Trump said on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” on Friday.

“Do you think that’s the right temperament to be president? I don’t think so,” he added.

Ben Carson.
Ben Carson.

Naturally, Trump has exactly zero problems with the media turning their scrutiny to Carson–whose bizarre statements about such far-flung topics as the origins of the Egyptian pyramids, allusions to a violent childhood that friends and neighbors can’t themselves remember, and most recently an admission that a major point in Carson’s biography was fabricated have richly earned him the less-then-fawning attention he is presently receiving.

Trump added that the media investigation into Carson’s past is worthwhile and not just a witch hunt.

“I don’t think it’s small ball if you have somebody that admits that he suffers from pathological disease,” Trump said.

Despite the fact that Carson hasn’t fared well under this latest round of factual scrutiny from mainstream media, we do wonder if Trump suddenly turning his trademark brand of nasty on Carson might provoke a sympathy backlash that helps Carson and hurts Trump. The fact is, every Republican with a functioning cerebral cortex wants an alternative to Trump, and Carson has the pseudo-nonpolitical outsidery-ness the “Tea Party” base is demanding. The latest polls of early states show a ten-point gap between Trump, Carson, and the rest of the GOP pack, which has so far failed to thrive.

Far be it from us to offer advice to The Donald, but there may be an argument for not going, you know, “full Trump” on Carson–at least not just yet. And it wouldn’t surprise us if, despite a rough couple of weeks, Carson receives more than the usual benefit of the doubt from the Republican pundit class while he gets his bio straight.

Because for all his warts, Republicans might actually need this guy.

Comments

29 thoughts on “Trump Moves In For The Kill on Carson–Too Soon?

    1. The Jesus selfie painting doesn't really bother me – the man is entitled to his faith and his personal relationship with his savior, and all that. One could wish that he would read up on those early Christian teachings – but again, he's entitled to his own version of the gospels.

      What bothers me is that Ben Carson seems to live in an alternate reality, many versions of which contradict each other, and he passionately believes in all of them, simultaneously, and is really angry when people point out that they contradict each other. Check out his Friday press conference – it's disturbing.

      If somehow this unstable fanatic got elected, I could see him triggering nuclear war to bring on the rapture and the end of days.

        1. He makes me wonder whether he isn't somewhere on the very high functioning Asperger's scale, able to focus in on one area of knowledge and thus able to become a world famous brain surgeon, coupled with a stunning degree of ignorance, for someone smart enough to both master and innovate in the field of brain surgery, outside of that field.

          There just seems to be no other area in which his views aren't completely uninformed by any legitimate body of knowledge on the subject in question to the extent of being inexplicable in a man who literally does (or did) perform brain surgery. Brilliant brain surgery. It's such a head scratcher. Is he some kind of what used to be called an idiot savant?

          1. I know a couple of Aspies and the same thought has crossed my mind. So it's not just me, B.C. I feel better now. Carson may indeed be a savant.

            And Duke, it’s not his general cluelessness that makes me wonder about autism. It’s that he seems to have no understanding of how he’s perceived by others, and not much concern, either.

        1. Michael, that painting reminds me of one that's displayed at the Christian church in Denver. It's a very darkly-complected Jesus with his head thrown back in uproarious laughter. I think it's the nicest depiction I'’ve ever seen. Apparently it was done many years ago by a parishioner.

  1. Compared to Trump, Fiorina, Rubio, Huckabee, Christie, or Cruz, and probably JEB¿, Carson is a fountain of truth, wisdom, and sanity…

    … so, he's pretty much fucking toast — no pointy heads tolerated in the GOP!

      1. Not a bath robe…its one of those karate getups like my grandson wears…I hear Jesus was a bad ass….particularly if you were like …a banker, say….

  2. Carson is doing just fine with the right. Take a look at Facebook, especially the pages of any family members who are Fox inclined, and all you see is how the liberal biased media is out to get him and how Obama never came under this kind of scrutiny. Seriously. The birther thing is just the longest lived. There was also his pastor, other associations, a careful combing through of his books, his wife's comments. Oh and let's not forget all the Kenyan anti-colonial (like that's a bad thing) Mao Mao stuff. But ….never mind. 

  3. Carson has this great narrative that he did all these things but it is the media that is saying he didn’t. What an awesome con. “Just because the media says I didn’t find a cure for cancer doesn’t make is false.”

    1. What I still don't get is how he thinks that story he told about how he directed some guy pointing a gun at him to target the guy behind the counter instead is good story to tell about himself. What am I missing?

      1. Your problem, BC, is that you are applying logic and rationality to procesing wing nut lore. Dr Carson's followers process information differently than most of us do.

        Look at how his followers react when the media point out the impossibility of some of his tales (most recently, the lack of scholarships to West Point). Blame the messenger!

        Charles Blow has a column in the NY Times about the psychology class that never existed which Dr. Carson claimed he took at Yale. The prof told the class that the final exams had been destroyed, that they would need to take the test over again, it was harder the second time, and that everyone walked out except……you guessed it, Dr Carson. He claimed to have been photographed and featured in the Yale school newspaper. Problem is that he wasn't.

        I don't know this is an old tale simply being retold by Blow or something new, but it's the first I've heard of it. Then again, I don't claim to be an expert in Carson-lore. 

        1. I heard it too and that neither the course name or number Carson sites existed at the time or ever as far as records show. So what he does is throw out stories and, when challenged on their veracity, claims that no one can prove they aren't true and any evidence that they present is simply the result of being out to get him. 

          Oh and I also read where he disputes scientists' claims that, rather than being bulit as granaries by Joseph, the pyramids were built with the aid of aliens from space. Yes. He claims scientists say this.

      2. The Gospel lesson here BC is that when confronted with a deranged gunman, you forcefully act to save yourself by throwing somebody else (preferably poor and powerless) under the bus.  In a party that values the individual ego above all else, ego preservation stories that highlight ingenious ways that you save your ass are the stuff of campaign legends.  "There I was looking down the barrel of big magnum Glock when I spied that immigrant looking loser behind the counter.  Over there I shouted.  He's speaks Spanish and with that I was out the door without having to pay for my Tacos."

  4. His personal peculiar ideas (I assume they are his? Grain silos, Hitler and Jews, the Founding Fathers, etc.) … but mostly the defensiveness. The whole package reminds me of Scientology – highly motivated people who get extremely defensive about a belief system that's whacky. 

    1. I guess it's OK if you're a crazy Republican presidential candidate. The ridicule would be reaching epic proportions in the rightie blogospere if he was a Dem.

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