Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson took to Facebook late Wednesday night to address voters’ lingering concerns that he doesn’t have the experience to serve as president.
“You are absolutely right — I have no political experience,” Carson told his readers. “The current Members of Congress have a combined 8,700 years of political experience. Are we sure political experience is what we need[?]”
In an essay that appeared both heartfelt and free of the polish usually provided by political consultants, Carson wrote that the nation was founded by citizen statesmen who found a way to serve their new country. Carson argued that he, too, found a way to serve in his career as a surgeon.
“I spent my life treating very ill children,” Carson wrote. “Over 15,000 times I gave my all to prolong their lives. I was blessed to do it…While I admire the Bush family’s dedication to service, I too served — nights, weekends, holidays, birthdays and anniversaries with severely injured patients were my public service.”
“I do not have political experience,” Carson repeated. “I have a life journey.” That experience includes an impoverished youth, and knowing “what it is like to see water fountains you are not allowed to drink out of because of your skin color.”
“I bring all of the pain and joy, the success and failure, the lessons learned through love and sorrow in my life’s journey,” Carson wrote. “Bill Clinton was famous for saying ‘I feel your pain’ — well, I have walked in your shoes.”
Finally, Carson, who said “my faith is strong and my ego is small,” argued that his experience has some important gaps: “I didn’t go to embassy cocktail parties or beg lobbyists for money.” His time was spent instead in an operating room.
Carson ended on a note that, intentionally or not, echoed Barack Obama’s campaigns for the White House. “No where in the world, other than America, could a man whose ancestors were slaves, rise to become a leading brain surgeon and one day seek the office of president,” Carson wrote. “The very fact that I am running is testament to the greatness of America.”
