Dr. Ben Carson delivered an electrifying speech at the National Prayer breakfast. The neurosurgeon became a YouTube sensation with a speech that decried nonsensical policies on the debt, health care, . and taxation that left some people talking about Ben Carson for President.
The idea while well-meaning is far from practical. As much as we decry career politicians, we perpetuate them in our demands that presidential candidates be able to sound informed on even the most obscure issues and provide answers even if their answers are cliched sound bytes that really will tell us nothing of what they’d do in office because the candidates won’t really know until they confront the situation. Herman Cain learned that the hard way.
What Mr. Cain also learned is the new standard for “serious allegations” allowed the press to report anonymous and non-specific allegations of misconduct confirmed by anonymous sources who (of course) spoke on condition of anonymity. Dr. Carson is popular because of his inspirational Horatio Algerlike life story. I pray he’s not foolish enough to actually consider a run for President.
However, the strong reaction to Dr. Carson’s speech tells us a lot about the Republican establishment on Capitol Hill. If some random guy we’ve never seen shows up on YouTube giving a basic conservative speech and it creates a sensation it goes to show how little, the GOP establishment has been doing to communicate those core values. Rather than articulating common sense, they’ve become lost in the nonsense of Washington, of making compromises that will lead future generations over a massive cliff.
The Ben Carson phenomena suggests that Americans are starved for leadership and the Republicans are worthy of blame for the shortage.
