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Dozens of Republican lawmakers, activists, and media figures graced the stage during this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), but most of the speeches were not aired live on national television. Fox News, for example, chose not to broadcast remarks from Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, or even Mitt Romney.
But the network did offer live coverage of Dr. Benjamin Carson's CPAC speech on Saturday morning. For folks who don't watch Fox News regularly, I suspect the next question is, who's Dr. Benjamin Carson?
Regular readers may recall we talked about Carson a month ago, when he appeared at the National Prayer Breakfast. Though the traditions of the event mandate that speakers avoid partisan attacks or sharply political speeches, Carson used his time at the podium to condemn the Affordable Care Act, with President Obama a few feet away.
To put it mildly, the Republican base was thrilled, and a video of Carson's speech went viral in right-wing circles, generating 2.5 million views on YouTube.
Over the course of about a month, he became something of a Republican celebrity. Carson started appearing on Sean Hannity's program; Sunday show invitations soon followed from ABC and CNN; and the religious right and the Wall Street Journal editorial page quickly began encouraging the far-right physician to run for president in 2016, despite never having held public office at any level.
One gets the sense he's enjoying the attention.
In a question-and-answer session following his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Carson announced that he is retiring from medicine because he wants "to quit while I'm at the top of my game, and there are so many more things that could be done."
Asked whether he planned to run for office, he demurred, saying he wants to focus on education -- but at one point added, "but who knows what will happen?"
Carson, during his speech, received a standing ovation and enthusiastic applause from the crowd when he speculated what might happen if "you magically put me in the White House."
We'll get a better sense of Carson's ambitions as time goes on, but his is a name worth watching.
Update: Media Matters recently published an interesting report on Carson, and to put it mildly, it appears Fox News has been very eager to promote him.
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OT - No post/link/commentary on an EU country Govt. hijacking bank depositor money?
Blanks, nobody cares what you think.
America winds up in the out house?
A BLACK man in the White House? Shirley, you jest!
I'm constantly amazed that these African-Amers, gays, women, any minority repugs, dont realize that the repug party hates them!
No, no, Day. This is conservative diversity, a black man they can control in the Oval Office...
If Carson is looking for credibility on the national stage, then why did he go to CPAC?
I mean, did he speak before or after Sarah Palin and Donald Trump?
"Carson's CPAC speech on Saturday morning."
makes you wonder how many was there to give a standing ovation.
or maybe just after the minority outreach work shop.
What is it about the GOP that each year finds totally unqualified people thinking about running for the presidency?
That's a good question for Mike Gravel. Or perhaps the rent is too damn high.
And while that might be funny (might be), your point is well taken that the GOP Primaries of late bring out the truly loony far, far, FAR more than the DemPrimaries ever did.
Seeing Bachman, Cain, Perry and Santorum make it as far as they did was a national embarrassment, regardless of Party affiliation.
How much woodwork is left for these guys to crawl out of?
So, the extreme fringe of the right wing denounces the Obama presidency and claims he was elected because of race or graft (anything but merit) gives a standing ovation to another black man who expects to be magically elected? IOKIYATP, I guess.
The good doctor is a religious zealot who hijacked the Prayer Breakfast. That says alot. A National event about what he is about, religion, and he blatently broke the code. Modern right wingers who approve of breaches as long as their side does them love the guy...
It seems the good doctor is not satisfied with doctor money. He's angling for Sarah Palin money.
The kind of money you quit being a governor for, or in his case, quit fixing kids' brains.
The GOP is DESPERATE for a black guy who hates Obama as much as they do. West and Cain were too crazy even for the wingnuts. This guy is making them swoon.
"but who knows what will happen?"
I'll take a wild guess .
You sir are the current shiny object . Because you are a black man and a right wing nut the MSM will pay attention to you for a while because Republicans like to hold you up and say "See, we attract people of color too" Now vote for us . They will kick you around for a while but your right wing rhetoric will get old and you will be cast aside. Maybe Faux will offer you a job maybe not . (see West, Allen)
Ask Michael steel how being the Black Guy in the Republican party worked out . He ended up on MSNBC
Dr. Carson is a pediatrician. If you polled all doctor specialists, my educated guess is that more peds support the ACA than any other specialty. These doctors see kids all day, so for this selfish loser to stand there at a Prayer Breakfast and try to make sure millions of kids get no insurance is utterly disgusting...
It's a new Republican gimmick. Find someone obscure to embrace- the more outrageous the better- and ride it to the bank.
For example, the Fredrick Douglas Republicans this past weekend. Cherry pick history, start a kerfluffle, and become a cause celebre. Then hold out you paw for some Koch Bux.
According to the report the guy is a pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Making the kind of money that neurosurgeons make puts you in the top of the top 1%, so it isn't exactly surprising to see him doing what he's doing.
But the thing that totally turns me off on this guy as being a real whackjob is that, according to the same report, he's a creationist. That puts him in the John Broun category that doesn't believe in the Big Bang, embryology or evolution since those concepts come straight from Hell. Apparently being a whackjob is a requirement to be a republican, and we don't need someone in a position of power doing something because voices in his head told him to do it. One Iraq War was enough.
Benjamin Solomon "Ben" Carson, Sr. is a neurosurgeon. He is the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. I was a Nurse at Hopkins and although I did not work with him I saw him almost daily. He was well respected amongst the Nursing and professional staff. However, I did not and do not agree with his religious beliefs. His freshly revealed political ideas show his current ignorance of the poor. I'm sure his mother could remind him of her struggle and the need for compassion, forgiveness and control over anger.
@Lebowski #10.1 and @mfleagle #11
Turns out he's both neurosurgeon and pediatrician...a recent CNN article describes him as a "pediatric neurosurgeon."
The Republicans keep trotting out minority members so they can tell the voters their party is diversified. But their convention tells another story. The optics speak louder than words. They would like to believe that there is no problem with the message and they only need to change how it is discussed. The election results should be the big clue, but apparently Republicans can't see it. If the Republicans want to keep deluding themselves, then we should not discourage them. A few more election losses will be the route to an epiphany.
Well, the US did support François "Papa Doc" Duvalier all those years in Haiti... why not here? Duvalier was a well-respected doctor -- whose God Complex never let human and civil rights get in the way of his leadership.
And considering the disdain Dr. Carson already has for people and institutions that try to take governance and civitas seriously, he is off to a wonderful start!
So the Republicans have another token Black man. How many of the rank and file teaparty racists would actually vote for him as president? Since they hate the truly qualified black man who has been elected twice by a healthy majority of Americans, what make them think even a majority of right wing Republicans would vote for this guy?
How many would even have a beer with him?
Another black egomaniac -- this time a doctor. After a while he will blend in with Herman Cain, that West cat -- all trying to out angry and hate each other on the current resident of the White House. You see, to a narcissistic egomaniac, there is no identification with RACE per se. These guys do not identify with being black -- which is why they are so comfortable in a party that actually hates their race -- they truly do not see themselves as in any way black (or by extension, inferior) to anyone! And Carson is a Pediatric neurosurgeon to boot. In his mind, HE is God or God's immediate agent on earth. Seriously. None of them will get past the book circuit with their loud, angry and hateful speech and positioning. It is very sad in a way. As a black woman, I hear them and I just cringe for the lost opportunity. Instead, we see several resentful and self centered black mean men, demonstrating the qualities that no one would want to emulate as a true leader.
The GOP wise men love to trot out women and black and brown faces to pitch their message. Is Dr. Carson the new Mr. 999? Enough already. When politicians advocate policies that will hurt most Americans, demographics shouldn't give them a pass.
Hippocratic Oath
English Translation, version 1
Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:
To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art - if they desire to learn it - without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but to no one else.
I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.
I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.
I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.
Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.
What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself holding such things shameful to be spoken about.
If I fulfill this path and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath
There's nothing new here. Carson thinks poor people just need to work harder and raise their kids better (just like him and his mother) and that you shouldn't "hurt" rich people, by expecting them to pay a higher percentage than people who are already struggling to feed themselves at the bottom end of society's earners.
This is the same old stuff that American right wingers have been saying for decades.
No matter how otherwise well-educated, there seems to be something about the "Republican brain" that compels articulate, even brilliant people, to adhere to a stubborn delusion that keeps them insisting -- until the cows come home -- that 'up' is 'down'. Sadly, from what I've seen of Carson, he is no exception.
There are medical studies that attempt to explain Conservative thinking, with some pretty interesting results. Honest... I'm not making that up.
And I would like to point out that by mentioning these studies, I am certainly not labeling Conservatism as a medical disorder, or some kind of psychosis brought on by an aberrant chemical imbalance. I'll leave that for the medical professionals.
I bet they say they are hard working people who are tired of the lazy libs suckling off their hard work. If you like communism so much their are plenty of countrys to choose from. America has always been the place you could make it with hard work and determination. Latley it has become the place to live off others who have worked hard. I for one am tired of working hard to have half of what I make sucked away from me to give to people who choose to stay home and watch dancing with the stars instead of working their butt off like I do to support my family and I suspect yours too. Thats what conservitives think. also I dont care what you do just dont make me pay for it.
..and sometimes its not about the "conservative" mind at all. Sometimes its just plain ol jealousy and resentment of the success of others... There are people, after all, who cannot abide that others' may have skills, abilities and other attributes better than their own...
I totally agree with your analysis of the situation. I do agree with hard work and determination that anyone can be successful. Trust me if I can do it anyone can.
That is not Johny Carson!
Great, another sociopath.. What a surprise!
Just for the record, Dr. Carson is a registered Independent, who happens to have conservative views. As an African American, I can tell you that Dr. Carson is greatly admired in the African American community. He is seen as a great role model to our youth and adults. Contrary to popular belief, African Americans are not monolithic in their thinking or beliefs. A large percentage of African Americans are conservative in their beliefs, even though they are registered as democrats. It's unfortunate, that most of the comments on this site are so disparaging toward Dr. Carson. Just because he differs in opinion or ideology from you, does not mean you have to insult man. Why don't you invite him to come on MSNBC, I'm sure he would except the invitation.
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Why have you edited my original comment? It was very respectful.
Inoticed all comments were onlly attacks on a fellow american humen being. There were zero comments or debates on what he said. I hope that medical research will find a cure for the lack of development of the human brain that there comment has demenstrated.