Ben Carson: Bungling Surgeon

Yep, and similar could be said about 01 to 09. Seven years ago might've been when this malady bloomed into full blown disease, but let's not pretend rationality ruled in the Republican base during the Bush/Cheney/Rove/neo-con junta days, or for that matter the Sarah Palin lunacy immediately thereafter. The roots of this descent into madness were evident well before the election of a black president with a muslim name finally sent those folks tumbling clear over the edge.

 

That's no way to speak of Starman.

 

Dems were so reasonable during the Bush years.

Hell, Hary Reid was deranged at the thought of a Mitt Romney presidency.

 

Romney wasn't hurt by being "not conservative enough." He was hurt by being Not Obama. President Obama is a gifted politician. Romney's good but he's not that good. This ain't rocket science.

 

Romney was a nominee altered almost beyond previous recognition. He became a candidate who couldn't beat a candidate that the right spent four years bashing with every insult and accusation imaginable, a candidate that I'm frankly not sure wanted to be president again until Romney smugged him all over the floor in the first debate.

The party's changed. I mean, really changed. If you don't know that, go ask somebody. It's really been about 35 years in the making, but you've seen it come more to head in the last 10-12 years and even moreso since Obama got elected. Some of that is just the Internet -- blogs, Fox News, Breitbart, etc. Some of that comes from changes in campaign finance laws and Supreme Court decisions. But it's a much different party, much more like the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, actually, in its demand or unceasing ideological purity.

One way in which it has changed is you have some total flakes and amateurs as governors and congresspeople. Some people are being sent to government to troll it. the result is just bad governance. Hirings and firings, staff turnover, mediocre fundraising, average-to-middling spokespeople.

Cruz? He's a true believer, and smart. But he has a pollyannish, dangerous worldview. And when I write he's disliked, I mean, "anybody but that effin guy" among more than a few on the Hill. Again, that he'd win a whole state like Iowa, that's a manipulation by the conservative media of some order, if that happens.

 

He was hurt by being too conservative, or having to adopt too conservative of positions to grab the nomination from the handful of boors that nipped at his heels.

Obama is skilled, sure, but his first debate performance against Romney in 2012 was the worst ever. I mean, the worst. Romney pummeled him.

CNN's Candy Crowley - and by proxy Obama - won the second debate, while Obama won the third. It helped that Biden's smirk-fest helped reveal Paul Ryan as the disingenous liar the campaign made him.

Biden was 2-0 in his debates. Cheney was 1-0-1, trying up John Edwards when the presumption was Edwards would shine.

Whoever wins the nomination on the GOP side would be wise to go with a safe, solid VP pick, preferably with foreign policy credentials.

 

Ben Carson's Africa trip is off...

 

Meanwhile, Hillary still can't manage to put Bernie Sanders away.

He leads by 10 in the latest CNN/WMUR poll:

RealClearPolitics - Election 2016 - New Hampshire 2016 Democratic Primary

And, it's only her big lead among Dem women that has her ahead on Iowa:

Women are buoying Clinton's lead, supporting her nearly 2-to-1, according to the poll. Women support Clinton 59 percent to 32 percent, while men back Sanders 52 percent to 39 percent.

Iowa poll: Clinton maintains lead over Sanders

 

They count, too, right?

 

Sure. It just shows how narrow her support is.

 

You're got to love Ben's optimism, as reflected in the WaPo headline:

Ben Carson predicts a one-term presidency for himself

Before setting off on a swing of northern Nevada, former neurosurgeon Ben Carson told a room of local Republicans that if he wins the 2016 race, his presidency would probably last only one term, casting himself as a White House caretaker who would sacrifice popularity to make difficult decisions.

"If I'm successful in this endeavor to become president of the United States, it’s very likely I would be a one-term president," Carson said. "There are some tough things that need to be done."

It was one of several ominous notes in a short speech and Q&A delivered to a local party fundraiser that did not quite fill the banquet room of a Maggiano's on the Las Vegas Strip. The most ominous was a theme that Carson had used in Tuesday night's debate, a reference to the seven-year-old revelation of a document that some have held up as an example of Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the United States.

Ben Carson predicts a one-term presidency for himself