In sixth grade — you’ll have to excuse me if I’m fuzzy on the details; this happened more than a decade ago – my English teacher gave our class a reading assignment about world-renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Eleven (or maybe 12) year-old me was instantly inspired. I thought about everything Dr. Carson had overcome, how he started so far at the bottom and rose so far to the top. I thought about him often as I grew up, even as my classmates seemed to forget. My family was really in to crime documentaries, which led me to an interest in medical oddities and mysteries (I was a weird kid), and sometimes Dr. Carson would be a featured surgeon. Looking at IMDB, I must have seen him in a couple shows: “Hopkins 24/7” and “Horizon.”
Back then, I wasn’t even interested in politics. I didn’t become politically active or find what side of the aisle I leaned toward until 2008.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2575923
So imagine my excitement when, in 2013, an inspirational figure from my childhood made headlines in politics — by criticizing President Obama over Obamacare.
But as Dr. Carson’s political star rose, I became dismayed by what I heard from him on national TV and in the press: using slavery as a means to discuss abortion and Obamacare, suggesting prison rape proves homosexuality is a choice and the recent claim that the pyramids were built to store grain, to name but a few examples of his ridiculous statements.
Each time he says something like this, I groan, and force myself to remember what drew me to him in the first place. He was still one of the world’s best neurosurgeons.
And with each debate, I wonder more and more why Dr. Carson is still crushing the polls — and on an upward trajectory, no less. When I consider for my post-debate write-ups where each candidate did well and where each did poorly, I always struggle to find something positive to write about Dr. Carson.
He has no energy or charisma on stage, aside from the stray humorous remark (in the first debate he talked about his work as a brain surgeon, saying: “I’m the only one to take out half of a brain, although you would think if you went to Washington that someone had beat me to it”). His answers are incoherent and rambling, and they evince a stunning ignorance of policy, especially on economic and foreign affairs.
Take Tuesday night’s debate, for instance, when Dr. Carson was asked about the Middle East. He began his response by discussing special ops troops in Syria, then suggested China is in Syria (it’s not), then talked about making jihadists “look like losers” before finally discussing an “energy field” in Iraq.
But clearly I am missing something, because his answer (well, at least the last line about destroying “them” before they destroy us) elicited a hearty applause. And after every debate where I think he performed poorly, he continues to rise in the polls (with the notable exception of the second debate, after which his numbers dipped, though he remained in second place).
I get the outsider appeal, and the fact that Dr. Carson would be able to argue against Obamacare while opposing the Democratic candidate, but I don’t understand supporting a candidate who performs so poorly in front of a microphone. Carson spoke the least on Tuesday, and it’s clear why: He didn’t have anything to add to the conversation. Economic policy is not his strong suit.
I must be missing something. I’ve been in D.C. for only four years, have I become too cynical and entrenched? Maybe it’s a personal thing, seeing a former hero in an unpleasant light. Whatever the reason, I’m down on Dr. Carson and I simply don’t get why he’s at the top of the polls.
