Trump tweets to Clare McCaskill

Hi Claire,

Two problems with your tweet:

1. Dr. Ben Carson did not have a seat in this pic because he was sitting in First Class with my family

2. Dr. Carson is not a "thing," he is a world renowned, life-saving neurosurgeon

Anyway, how's unemployment? https://t.co/icZKsu9YFn

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 4, 2020

Four new Cabinet members sworn in by Vice President Pence

Vice President Pence has been busy swearing in new cabinet members. You can watch the swearing in ceremonies below, starting with Governor Rick Perry as Secretary of Energy, followed by Ben Carson at HUD. Many Democrats voted against each of these two highly accomplished men.

Take that, Mr. snarky liberal!

Will Dr. Carson do the surgery that is needed?

Francis Menton writes at Manhattan Contrarian about the fuss the Left is making about Ben Carson as the nominee to head HUD.

...the people who recently thought it was no problem at all to have someone with a background as "community organizer" and two years in the Senate as President now seem to think that experience specific to subsidized housing is critical to running one little department of the government.

you only have to look into it for a few minutes to realize that the business of HUD is creating poverty traps to make the supposed "beneficiaries" into government dependents for life. HUD is not merely a failure as an anti-poverty program; it is a disaster. It operates substantially on the model of socialism ("to each according to his needs"; assets in public ownership), and it achieves results that would make Cuba or Venezuela or East Germany proud. Readers here know that HUD's flagship, the New York City Housing Authority, is an unspeakable disaster at every level. Its properties, housing about 7% of New York City's population, sit on vast acreage of prime real estate -- some of it (e.g., miles of Manhattan waterfront) among the most valuable in the world -- and its residents receive subsidies in many cases worth $50,000 and $100,000 per family per year, and yet the poverty rate in its projects exceeds 50%, turnover is almost non-existent as residents remain in poverty for life, the rents cover barely a third of operating costs and nothing for capital projects or property taxes, and HUD throws some $2 billion down the rathole every year only to maintain the poverty and dependency.

And then there's HUD's latest big initiative, the program known as "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing," by which the Obama HUD has sought to force middle-class and wealthy communities around the country to build more subsidized public housing. Supposedly the theory is that the thing holding back the poor from entering the middle class is isolation in poor inner cities, and once such people are placed in wealthier areas they will begin to rise up. That's right: the geniuses at HUD seem not to have noticed that the 120,000 or so of the residents of certain existing projects, otherwise known as the NYCHA residents in Manhattan, despite living in the midst of the wealthiest county in the country, and many of them directly next door or across the street from the very most expensive condos in the country, nevertheless remain mired in poverty for life. The glaring disproof of the whole theory behind AFFH is right in front of their eyes, and yet they refuse to look and they march forward pushing more of their disaster by force and coercion.

Well, that's what "expertise" and "experience" in the field of publicly-subsidized housing will get you. It gets you a bureaucracy firmly committed to the socialist model, to be run by themselves of course, in which they can earn cushy life-time salaries while they keep their inferiors trapped in poverty for life. It gets you a bureaucracy with absolutely no concern or interest whatsoever in ending dependency and getting people out of poverty, but an overriding concern for one thing and one thing only, which is growing their own budgets and staffs and empires year over year. Are you surprised that the only head of agency they would find acceptable is one of their own -- i.e., someone with the right "experience"?

...Where is Carson on any of this? He hasn't had a whole lot to say specifically on the subject of subsidized housing, but here is a relevant statement from a 2015 speech:

Dr. Ben Carson kicked off the Conservative Political Action Conference, telling an attentive audience that the next President must "get rid of dependency" that some Americans might have on the U.S. government. "We need to understand what true compassion is to reach out to individuals who think that being dependent is reasonable as long as they feel safe," said Carson, the first speaker to address this year's annual keynote conservative conference. "It's not compassion to pat them on the head and say, 'There, there, I'm going to take care of all your needs, your health care, your food.' That's the opposite of compassion."

You can see why The Blob would hate and fear this guy. Sounds like a good appointment to me.

At the Manhattan Institute's City Journal Online, Howard Husock calls Carson "just the man for that job," and lays out a program for Carson to implement on taking office. The program includes things like time limits for living in public housing, bringing private management to projects, and ending the ridiculous AFFH. Fair enough, as far as it goes. But even Husock stops short of calling for radical surgery. How about just giving away the projects to the residents and getting out of the business?

Read more here.

Ben Carson to be nominated as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Trump has announced that he is appointing Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. A brilliant neurosurgeon, Carson was appointed head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopins Children's Center at age 33! In that position he

garnered national acclaim for directing the first surgery to separate twins connected at the back of the head.

I think he can handle the HUD job, don't you? Well, if you are a doubter, you will enjoy the "reporting" by AP and CNN.

A phase of moral descent

Newt Gingrich is not the only Trump ally who is criticizing Trump for his comments about the judge in the Trump University case.
Ben Carson, who almost immediately jumped on the Trump train after dropping out of the presidential race, had this to say:

“Every human being is an individual first rather than a member of an identity group. The moment we forget that is the moment we enter into a phase of moral descent.”

He doesn't believe the Enquirer story

Jeff Dunetz at The Lid writes,

But on Friday the Cruz story erupted, and things I should have noticed when I first read the story on Wednesday came to light.
For example, three of the five women have been identified, one of the women Amanda Carpenter I know personally. Not that we are good friends but she is more of a friend to some of my good friends. And from everything I know about Amanda, everything I’ve read about her, and from posts on her Facebook page about her family, I feel comfortable betting big money on the fact that Amanda has never cheated on her husband with Ted Cruz, or any one else.

Amanda vehemently denied the story on CNN today (see the video below). Another of the five women who have been identified is Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson who has denied the accusations and a third who has been identified is former Carly Fiorina staffer Sarah Isgur Flores who hasn’t denied it yet, but I am sure it’s coming.

The Enquirer piece neglected to mention that National Enquirer owner David Pecker is a close friend of Trump’s and this is not the first time the magazine tried to destroy a Trump rival.

his past October 7th issue, on the same cover that announced Ben Afflack and Jennifer Lopez were once again an item (no one told them), the National Enquirer promoted a story about how Ben Carson butchered a child’s brain. Inside they published a story about Dr. Ben Carson (who just so happened to be catching up to Donald Trump in the polls) called “Bungling Surgeon Ben Carson Left Sponge in Patient’s Brain!” (which btw sounds like the title of a great horror film). Per the article, Carson “brandished a scalpel like a meat cleaver!” (meat cleaver? Who knew he did circumcisions). The article said he botched surgeries leaving patients disfigured and in pain. According to the author of the piece “Judging by White House wannabe Ben Carson’s track record as a neurosurgeon, his presidential campaign should be declared dead on arrival!”



When Carly Fiorina had an excellent debate in September and began to rise in the polls the Enquirer ran an article called, “Homewrecker Carly Fiorina Lied About Druggie Daughter”joan-rivers2

Why would the Enquirer run a hit pieces on Donald Trump’s opponents when they just so happened to be creeping up in the polls on “The Donald?” According ot an October 2o15 issue of New York Magazine:
Trump and Enquirer CEO David Pecker have been friends for years. “They’re very close,” said a source close to the Enquirer. In July 2013, Trump even tweeted that Pecker should become CEO of Time magazine, which at the time was being spun off from its corporate parent, Time Warner. “He’d make it exciting and win awards!”

Read more here.

Town Hall versus Clown Show

John Podhoretz in the New York Post reports on the CNN Town Halls last night, featuring Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson. Podhoreta also reports on the "Clown Show" held last night on MSNBC with Donald Trump.

Cruz argues that he will ignite the innate conservatism of the electorate and bring voters together as Ronald Reagan did in 1980 — and his fire will forge the bonds.

Rubio ended his 45 minutes with a specific promise to serve as the president even of those people who did not vote for him — a clever dig at Obama, but also an implicit argument that he can reach out from the Republican coalition to others in the middle and get them to the polls on Election Day.

But so what? Rubio and Cruz are losing to Trump. The GOP electorate is surrendering its commitment to conservative ideas in its desire for a strong man who makes ridiculous promises about making us great again that he has no idea how to fulfill.

The next six weeks are either going to represent a rebirth of electoral conservatism at the national level or its death knell.

Read more here.

"Poor me, I'm a victim"

I am very disappointed that Ben Carson has chosen to play the victim card. I thought he was above that. He is taking no responsibility for having been out-organized in Iowa. If there is one thing black Americans need more than anything else, it is for other black Americans seeking leadership positions to avoid playing the "poor me, I'm a victim" card.

The Carson controversy

Steve Deace gives us the timetable of the Ben Carson story on the night of the Iowa caucus.

Ben Carson: "I will not sit by and watch a theft!"

Nolan D. McCaskill and Kyle Cheney explain in Politico that Carson was reacting to a Washington Post report that

nearly two-dozen establishment party figures were prepping for a potential brokered convention as Donald Trump continues to lead most polls.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus held a dinner in Washington on Monday, and, according to five people who spoke with the Post, the possibility of Trump heading into the Cleveland convention with a substantial number of delegates was a topic of discussion. Some attendees suggested the establishment lay the groundwork for a floor fight that could lead the party’s mainstream wing to unite behind an alternative. Carson rejected this approach.

“If the leaders of the Republican Party want to destroy the party, they should continue to hold meetings like the one described in the Washington Post this morning,” Carson said in a statement released by his campaign.

Carson said he prays the Post’s report is incorrect and threatened to leave the GOP. “If it is correct, every voter who is standing for change must know they are being betrayed. I won’t stand for it,” said Carson, who added that if the plot is accurate, “I assure you, Donald Trump won’t be the only one leaving the party.”

The retired neurosurgeon said that next summer’s Cleveland convention could be the last Republican National Convention if leaders try to manipulate it.

“I am prepared to lose fair and square, as I am sure is Donald,” Carson said. “But I will not sit by and watch a theft. I intend on being the nominee. If I am not, the winner will have my support. If the winner isn’t our nominee, then we have a massive problem.”

Carson told ABC News on Friday that he had no plans to run as an independent. “But I certainly don’t want to be a part of corruption,” he said, stopping short of saying he would drop out of the race if he left the Republican Party.

“I’ll leave that up to you to speculate,” he added with a smile.

Just days earlier, Carson had suggested that a third-party bid by Trump could be unnecessary. "I believe that the party has pledged to be fair to him and to be fair to everybody," he told CNN. "So I don’t see where that would be necessary quite frankly. Obviously, if the people choose him, we have an obligation to respect the will of the people."

GOP candidates Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina on Friday jumped into the fray. In an interview with Boston radio host Jeff Kuhner on WRKO, Paul expressed solidarity with Carson and Trump. “If the establishment tries to block an outsider from winning the nomination, there’ll be war within the party, and they’ll destroy the party,” the Kentucky senator warned, adding that if voters’ efforts are “thwarted” there will be a “real problem.”

Fiorina took a different stance, bashing Carson's threat in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “No, I’m not gonna threaten to leave the party because I actually am a Republican,” Fiorina said. “I don’t actually understand, quite, the point that Dr. Carson is making. Nobody in the party determines whether or not there’s a brokered convention. The voters are going to determine whether there’s a brokered convention.”

Sean Spicer, chief strategist for the RNC, downplayed the significance of Monday's dinner. “This was a discussion about the delegation selection process,” he said, likening it to past sessions held for the media. “A question was asked on whether we are ready. We are always ready.”

Read more here.

"They want to go back home."

Jose A. DelReal reports in the Washington Post,

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson — fresh from a recent visit to two Syrian refugee camps in Jordan — called Sunday for the United States and its international allies to focus on supporting existing facilities that shelter those who have fled the Syrian civil war.

“We're hearing that they all want to come here to the United States. And that's not what they want. They want to go back home,” Carson said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week," live from Amman, the Jordanian capital. “But they said the United States and other nations could be much more supportive of the herculean efforts manifested by the Jordanians in taking in people at a lot of expense to themselves.”

...He added that other countries in the region also should be asked to step in and accept a greater number of refugees, which would keep them near their home country.

...When pressed on how he would combat the Islamic State, Carson indicated that he was in favor of continuing to work with Kurdish forces in the region.

“What we've discovered that works is, you know, for instance, when we took Sinjar back. The Kurds were able to cut off the supply routes. and that softened the target,” Carson said, referring to the Iraqi city that was recently recaptured from the Islamic State. “And then, our special ops people were able to work with the Kurds very effectively, along with our air power, to take it back. That's a model that works. And that can be applied to other places, you know. Why reinvent the wheel? Just take the things that work.”

Read more here.

Taking the gloves off, pathologically

Donald Trump is now a mental health expert. Here he tells us that there is no cure for Dr. Ben Carson's "pathological" temper. That Carson wrote in a book admitting he hit a friend in the face with a padlock, tried to hit his own mother over the head with a hammer, and that he stabbed a friend, but luckily the knife hit the friend's belt. Trump wonders how the people of Iowa and the nation could be so stupid as to put a man like Carson in "second place." Trump also sees the press as "garbage, scum."

The extrovert versus the introvert

One of the things I find most interesting about Trump and Carson being at the head of the GOP pack entering tonight's debate is that Trump is an extrovert and Carson is an introvert. It is rare for an introvert to be in politics. I have a substantial introvert side to my personality. Maybe that's why I root for Carson to do well.

How would Carson fare in a debate with Hillary Clinton?

This is something I don't want to hear. Dick Morris, an experienced political analyst, says Hillary would eat Dr. Carson alive in a debate, and spit him out. Why? because she is super aggressive, and he is laid back and soft-spoken. He also believes Carson has a very limited knowledge base about American government. Moreover, Morris thinks Carson as a candidate would be a combination of Sarah Palin, who "never did her homework," and John McCain, who was "so soft-spoken he never made his points." Morris was also appalled by Carson's reply to a question in the last debate about what Carson would have done in responding to 9-11.

I hope Morris is wrong, like so many of the pundits we have come to rely upon for analysis. I'd love to see an introvert be president! And a brilliant one, too!

Despite the criticisms of Morris and others we have come to acknowledge as reputable pundits, both Carson and Trump continue to outflank the rest of the GOP candidates, as we get ready for tomorrow night's third debate.

Watch the Morris video here.

Will Donald Trump prove to be his own worst enemy?

Jim Geraghty writes at National Review,

You know how Donald Trump likes to bring up the polls in his speeches and remarks? I think he may shake that habit pretty soon.

Ben Carson has taken a narrow lead nationally in the Republican presidential campaign, dislodging Donald J. Trump from the top spot for the first time in months, according to a New York Times/CBS News survey released on Tuesday.

Mr. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, is the choice of 26 percent of Republican primary voters, the poll found, while Mr. Trump now wins support from 22 percent, although the difference lies within the margin of sampling error.

The survey is the first time that Mr. Trump has not led all candidates since The Times and CBS News began measuring presidential preferences at the end of July.

So Donald will come out with metaphorical guns blazing in Wednesday night’s debate, right? It’s easy to imagine that backfiring. Ben Carson has the highest favorable numbers of any GOP candidate. He has an 84 percent favorable rating among Iowa Republicans. Trump already made an out-of-the-blue comment about Carson’s Seventh Day Adventist faith that some construed as a veiled criticism. Even people who aren’t supporting Carson generally like him and respect him; how will they respond if Trump harangues and belittles Carson for two hours?

For what it’s worth, Nate Silver said yesterday: “Iowans are paying more attention to the race than people elsewhere in the country, so they may be early adopters of trends we’ll see elsewhere. In other words, once Trump starts getting Iowa-type scrutiny in other states, he might fade.”

Read more here.

Latest poll: Carson now in the lead

It's about to get interesting.

Ben Carson has surpassed Donald Trump and now narrowly leads the Republican field in the race for the nomination in the latest national CBS News/New York Times Poll.

Twenty-six percent of Republican primary voters back Carson, giving him a four-point edge over Trump (22 percent). Support for Carson has quadrupled since August.

The rest of the Republican presidential candidates lag far behind in single digits. Marco Rubio is now in third place (eight percent), followed by Jeb Bush (seven percent) and Carly Fiorina (seven percent). All other candidates are at four percent or lower.

I see Carson and Trump as being very different men. Personally, I prefer Carson. But, one thing they surely have in common is that they both are outside the traditional Republican establishment.

I wonder if Trump will attack Carson in tomorrow night's debate. My guess is that he will.

Read more here.

Ben Carson

I just heard a wonderful interview conducted by Glenn Beck with Dr. Ben Carson. I am so impressed with Carson. The interview was on Glenn's radio program. Try to find it on the internet.

Calm, even tone, or outrage?

David French writes at National Review about our Leftist media's relentless attacks on Ben Carson.

Each time, the pattern is the same: Carson expresses his opinion — typically grounded in common sense and widely shared by the American people — the media declares that some people are “offended,” and he doubles down, restating his position again and again in the same calm, even tone.

Here he is, for example, addressing his comments about the Oregon shooting:



This is what sets him apart from Donald Trump. While Trump claims to disdain political correctness, he often tries to deploy it as a weapon against his opponents, demanding apologies and terminations when he feels offended.

This isn’t escaping political correctness; it’s reinforcing outrage culture with more outrage. Both Carson and Trump are connecting with voters who are tired of cautious politicians, of “leaders” who head for the hills in the face of controversy. But Carson’s way is the better way, the way best calculated to not only drain the outrage merchants of their power but also to change hearts and minds. No wonder he has the highest favorability rating in the GOP field, and remains the only Republican candidate to consistently outpoll Hillary Clinton.

Read more here.

Why the media is trying to lynch Ben Carson

Justin Sullivan/AP Photo

Why is Ben Carson being so mercilessly flogged by the mainstream media? Jerome Hudson at Breitbart believes he knows the answer:

...Why is it this way? Carson’s political flogging, if you will, serves two purposes.

First, it serves as a warning to blacks, Hispanics, women, and any other member of the Liberal Victimhood Class System that should you ever decide to leave The Liberal Thought Plantation, we’ll sic the dogs on you!

Second, the mainstream media is a 24-hour propaganda mill charged with protecting a false narrative about American life for blacks, Hispanics, and women in 2015 to benefit the Democratic party. There are Cardinals of Faith that liberal media elites must propagate and protect. And Ben Carson–his life story, his politically incorrect character–is a threat and is anathema to the preferred progressive orthodoxy.

...No matter that before he was surgically splitting brains, Ben Carson was being raised in poverty by a single mother. The disgusting, and yet prevailing, wisdom among far too many Americans is that if black people grow up impoverished like Ben Carson did, their unfortunate fate is a fixture of an America that is, always was, and always will be a devoutly racist place. And if you are black in America, you should never expect to achieve any meaningful socioeconomic success–like becoming a brilliant brain surgeon–simply because of the barriers American racism persistently permit.

Of course, this is fallacy.

...More pointedly, Ben Carson rebukes that bitter ethos and the victim-focused racial identity it breeds. And now that–as a national figure running for president–he has chosen not to be a mindless minstrel puppet, tap dancing, performing, like a good boy, for his white liberal media gatekeepers, he is being whipped, strung up, and left to hang.

Read more here.