Knock it off.
If you’re going to cite the Onion, at least cite something about Carson, not random faux gay bashing.
[ /Moderating ]
Quite true. But I would like to see an obviously unqualified individual take coaching well enough to make it a kind of performance art, expose the political game for what it is. Carson’s smart enough to pull that off. It would be nice for a change for the media to step out of the horse race mentality for a moment and say, “Man, this guy Ben Carson, he sure sounds good, but it’s all the work of handlers, there’s nothing there.” Of course, I’m probably being too optimistic to expect them to hold any other politician to that standard. Becuase it’s not like he’s the only guy out there who needs handlers to keep from looking like he has no idea what he’s talking about. He’s a heck of a lot smarter than 90% of politicians, he just hasn’t yet learned the skill of staying on script and avoiding questions he can’t answer.
What makes you think Carson is smart? I haven’t seen any indication that he’s intelligent in any field besides medicine. In fact, from what I’ve seen, he’s positively unintelligent – uncurious, ignorant, and foolish – in the fields of politics and history.
Carson takes a bold stand against selfies.
He sounds just like every other retired, bored crank writing letters to the editor, he really does.
$20 says Carson won’t win 300 delegates. Deal?
Carson was the youngest head of Johns Hopkins’ pediatric neurosurgery department. Brain surgery is considered a supergenius specialty for a reason. He’s ignorant in history and politics because he hasn’t applied himself to those fields yet. We’ll find out how smart he is though. He’s got six months or so to figure it out before things get serious. I hope he succeeds, if only to hear his detractors say, “But… But… six months ago he said X! He’s just covering up his true beliefs and being coached by experts!” Well yeah, just like every other politician. Now what are we going to do about that?
No. I’d be very poor if I bet based on my predictions vs. nothing. But I will bet on my prediction vs. your prediction. Give me a number of delegates you think he is likely to win and winner is who comes closer. If he drops out before the primaries, then neither of us win. Since he is undeclared, rather than going to the trouble of trying to be the candidate I think he’s capable of being, he might just decide he’d rather do something else, like take a Fox News gig. But if he is in this for real, then I think he can outperform Rick Santorum’s 2012 performance.
ACtually, I’ll make it simple. Carson will get at least 300 delegates if he’s an active candidate when the iowa caucuses occur. So he has to drop out of the race(or win it) with at least 300 delegates in order for me to win, or less than 300 in order for you to win. If he drops out or suspends his campaign without ever having competed in Iowa, the bet is just void. Deal?
That sounds pretty pathetic to me – “sure, he’s an idiot right now in major subjects that every adult should be moderately knowledgeable on, but that’s just because he hasn’t tried yet”. If I hold him to the standard of “American adult with a degree”, he’s an ignorant, uncurious idiot.
I would really, really dispute that the average adult is moderately knowledgable about the things he’s gotten wrong. Plus he got one thing right: he knew there were three Baltic Republics. Wish he’d known they were in NATO, but at least he remembered something from his days studying geography at Yale, that school that produces mainly morons.
That’s not what I’m saying – I’m saying I’m holding him up to the standard of what an average, educated adult should know. I’m well aware that many or most Americans wouldn’t meet this standard… but a presidential candidate should. That Carson doesn’t speaks extremely poorly of him – despite being a lot older, and with a lot more advanced education, than me, he’s much, much more ignorant than me. That’s pathetic for a presidential candidate.
This makes it worse, not better.
Even if so, should the President be no more knowledgeable, curious, and intellectually active than an average adult, if that?
Hint: We’ve already tried that. We’re still cleaning up the mess.
You should not be so hard on GWB.
Who is smarter than the average American, to be sure, smart enough to earn an MBA; but much dumber than the average POTUS. His record shows how dangerous it is to let a even a pretty-good-but-subpar mind have that much power.
Even well-regarded doctors can go astray: http://www.aol.com/article/2015/04/16/physicians-want-dr-oz-gone-from-columbia-medical-faculty/21173259/?ncid
It is and it isn’t. Tons of money is spent on things prisoners don’t need, and not enough on what they do(safety). Doesn’t mean Carson’s right, but our prisons suck for stupid reasons.
For example, why cable TV but shitty food? Why a computer room but uncomfortable beds? It’s like on one hand we’re trying to keep a traditional idea of what a spartan prison should be while on the other trying to move past it, while fully accomplishing neither. And most importantly, why do we not only let prisoners rape each other, but even consider it appropriate to wish prison rape on convicts?
Who is “we”? :dubious:
Might as well bump this thread, since two state polls show him with a nice bump from the debate:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/
He’s 2nd in Iowa, 3rd in Michigan. Which means he’s 1st in Iowa, 2nd in Michigan, since Trump is still not building an actual campaign. Carson is.
Carson, who is one of the most virulent Planned Parenthood attackers, has been proven to be a hypocrite, since he has used fetal tissue in his own research. However, that’s different, because he wasn’t the one killing the babies.