Conservative Ben Carson reportedly set to enter 2016 presidential race

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: Salon



Mere days after Republicans routed Democrats in the midterm elections, neurosurgeon-turned-conservative pundit Ben Carson is slated to be the first major candidate to dive into the 2016 presidential race, ABC News reports.

Carson, who rose to conservative stardom after denouncing Obamacare in a 2013 address before the National Prayer Breakfast as President Obama sat feet away, will air a 40-minute ad this weekend designed to get voters acquainted with him. The ad, titled “A Breath of Fresh Air: A New Prescription for America,” will air in 22 states and Washington, D.C.

Assuming he enters the race, Carson’s hard-right views will easily be among the most inflammatory of the 2016 field. He calls abortion “human sacrifice,“ does not accept the theory of evolution, and has compared homosexuality with bestiality and pedophilia. Carson also wishes to abolish Medicare and Medicaid, replace welfare programs with private charity, and implement a flat income tax.

As with such headline-grabbing conservatives like Donald Trump and Michele Bachmann in 2012, early polls on the 2016 GOP race show Carson performing well. He finished second behind Mitt Romney in a recent poll of Iowa Republicans and won a recent GOP straw poll there, as well.


Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/11/06/it_begins_conservative_ben_carson_reportedly_set_to_enter_2016_presidential_race/

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Looks like Mr. NAMBLA Tourettes is the first passenger in the clown car, mounting his presidential run/book tour/TV show audition.

Here's hoping as many nutcases as possible throw their hats in the ring, guaranteeing another embarrassing round of infighting during the primaries.

Pity GOP leadership nixed the weekly debates. It's going to deprive us of some true TV comedy.

[bravenak]

1. Yay!!

A less fun Herman Cain!!

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

3. at least Cain was sort of likable in a self-depracating way

and you can't completely hate a guy who is nutty enough to quote Pokemon in a speech.


"Herman Cain, I chose you!"

Carson is just a pompous ass who is a tad in love with himself.

[bravenak]

6. I secretly liked Herman Cain.

He was fun. Remember the smoking ad? I always knew he was fake running for President and enjoyed him playing the right wing like that. There is no way he was serious.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Gotta include the video

[tridim]

29. When I play sudoku I mumble numbers as I fill it in.

Not sure why I do that, but it helps my brain decode the puzzle.

Anyway, whenever I'm dealing with 9's I say "NINE NINE NINE" in my best Herman Cain voice. It's fun!

[savalez]

38. "Blame Yourself!"

That always comes to mind when appropriate.

[vadermike]

2. this dude

This dude is a real nutbag.. but what scares me.. if we dont continue to vote this is what we may get.. scares the hell outta me... !! People don't often learn from history.. when Hitler was running for leadership of his country.. Germany was desperate.. as alot of our middle class is now.. and believed he had all the answers.. in fact .. not many people know this.. but he actually received votes from the Jews too.. everyone was so desperate... this country can't afford any more of this crap!!! What scares me too, is that 2016 .. the Pres party in the Oval usually historically doesnt get three termsi na row.. we could conceivably be looking at total Repub control for a long time...i hope i am wrong.. we need to get our shit together quickly!!!!

[vadermike]

4. herman cain

Cain was a likable douche.. i could stand him.. as a joke.. but this guy Carson is real dangerous.. we need to take him seriously!!!

[yellowcanine]

34. "Cain was a likable douche"

Yes, who can resist "Nine, Nine, Nine" and quoting "Pokemon:The Movie 2000" FOUR times?

[DeSwiss]

40. :-)

[joshdawg]

5. Don't we already have enough RWNJ's?

This guy is loony and dangerous.

[bigdarryl]

7. Just remember the loonies won big on Tuesday so we better take him seriously

I'm just saying we better be careful anything can happen in politics.Our party right now is in shambles with the top democratic party leadership and now everyone in the party thinks it's a good idea to have a primary fight with Hillary that would doom us for 2016.We are 5 keys down one more (Primary fight within the party in power) would be number 6 http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/208673-why-democrats-need-hillary-clinton-in-2016

[Ilsa]

8. The Koch Bros will fund him,

The ads will lie about his positions, and people will be suckered into voting for this man who has "their values".

They are ALL DANGEROUS.

[JHB]

42. I'm not so sure "will" is the appropriate word...

...after all, who's funding a 40-minute ad buy in over 20 markets?

[BumRushDaShow]

9. He will collect millions in dark Super PAC money

once his ridiculous attempt to ride in the clown car has ended.

Candidates are prohibited from using campaign money for their personal expenses, but there’s no such restriction for PACs, several campaign lawyers said in interviews.

The Federal Election Commission, which regulates campaign money, has repeatedly asked Congress to amend the law to prohibit PACs from spending donations on non-political expenses. Lawmakers, who often use political contributions for personal expenses through vehicles known as leadership PACs, haven’t followed through on the request.

Once the presidential contenders are no longer candidates, they could take over for their former aides and spend the million-dollar contributions as they wish — for a political purpose or anything else.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2012/01/04/gIQAe6ZObP_story.html

Then he'll write a book, be fronted hundreds of thousands by the publisher for it, go on a book tour (which includes appearing on hundreds of RW talk shows touting the extreme RW positions leading up to 2016), while RW loon groups buy tens of thousands of copies of that book to artificially shoot it up on the NY Times Best Seller list (to hand out at the myriad of Conservadumb "conferences&quot . The media will deem him the newest "rising star" and will feverishly report on him as if he were actually a valid candidate versus the reality - a GOP fund-raising commodity. Wash.Rinse.Repeat.

[Paladin]

10. Thank God---finally some good news for Democrats. (nt)

[underpants]

11. He should have his head checked

The clown car picture is perfect

[MarianJack]

12. News like this inspires me to stand up and...

...rip a HUGE fart!

He'll get temporary lip service from teabaggers so they'll "appear" to not be bigots, but he won't actually get anywhere in the clown show. Wanna bet on a Paul/Ernst ticket for 2016? Yuck and YIKES!!!

PEACE!

[HoosierCowboy]

14. How would Sun Tzu handle Ben Carson?

Something like "When your adversary is doing to themselves what you would have to do yourself, like destroying their credibility, don't for one minute stop them.

Keep up the good work, Doctor Ben. Let's make sure that you are the face of the GOP going into 2016.

[Enrique]

15. why is everyone saying "Herman Cain?"

he's very different than Cain. His life is very different and his politics are very different.

[Orsino]

18. Different name. Same tokenism.

I'd love to gelieve that Fox and the GOP valued Carson for something beyond his skin color, but the evidence is not there.

[tanyev]

16. And so it begins.

[Orsino]

17. Twice the elitism of a Herman Cain, and half the charisma.

[mnhtnbb]

19. I saw a Ben Carson 2016 bumper sticker here in progressive Chapel Hill.

We have been invaded by the clown car!

On edit, it was on a honkin' big, black, pick-up truck.

[shenmue]

22. I saw one near Tampa

[LeftinOH]

20. Let's hope he gets the chosen for V.P. on the 2016

Republican ticket. Hopefully, he (or someone like him) could be the Sarah Palin of the 2016 elections!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

21. He's the latest Republican black toy, nothing more and nothing less.

The guy they tout out as their great black hope, to prove once and for all that the Republicans aren't a party synonymous with racism, and that they can have their own Barack Obama that will cause African American voters to abandon the Democratic party in droves and pin on their elephant lapel pins.

We've seen it before. Michael Steele. Allen West. Herman Cain. Same song, same dance.

The thing though is, for an African American to rise to the level of cognitive dissonance that would allow him or her to embrace the ideals of the Republican Party, we can't expect the most emotionally balanced individuals. And thus, they flame out quickly. Very quickly.

Hence, that's the reason we talk about Steele, West and Cain in the past tense and not in the present. Because they were done in by their own inevitable flaws. On the other hand, the Democratic Party has guys like John Lewis that have been a force in the party for decades. Because they don't have to wake up every morning and constantly lie to themselves. And it's that constant lying to themselves that I think throws black Republicans off the rails mentally.

What's worse, though, is that the GOP leadership doesn't really care. If one black Republican fails--and they inevitably do--they'll just replace him with another one. And they'll replace that guy with the next. And so on and so forth. So Steele gets replaced by West gets replaced by Cain gets replaced by Carson gets replaced by who knows? I'm sure Mia Love will be thrown in the mix sometime soon, and then probably spit out just as quickly.

Meanwhile, the Republican party remains so incredibly stupid in thinking that blacks will flock to their party simply because they'll throw out a black Republican to vote for. Such a thinking is incredibly patronizing of the African American community, who knows it is much smarter than what the GOP takes it for.

[yellowcanine]

32. You forgot probably the greatest of the "Great Black Republican Hopes"

Alan Keyes - former candidate for just about everything....
U.S. Senate (MD) - 1988, 1992
U.S. Senate (IL) - 2004 - recruited by Illinois Repubs to run against Obama
President - 1996, 2000, 2008

Oh yeah, and big time Birther from November 2008 to present.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

33. Oh yeah, him too.

Another one who's cognitive dissonance probably pushed him off the proverbial deep end.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

43. and let's not forget "the next big thing in Republican politics" J.C. Watts

who the media pushed endlessly in the 90s, along with Christie Todd Whitman and Susan Molinari, as someone who was going to help the GOP break wide open the various demographic groups the Democrats always won.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

23. He's throwing his hat in for Veep

...and probably knows he has no shot.

[UTUSN]

24. The key to this jerk is that he is IN LOVE with HIMSELF (like CRUZ). Self-involved n/t

[Mz Pip]

25. Another authoritarian zealot.

There are days I fear for my secular government.

[Jackpine Radical]

26. Uh-oh--

There goes .0004% of the black vote…

[packman]

27. And they come crawling out of the dark corners

I guess God talked to him and told him to run after he saw the waters parted Tuesday.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

28. The GOPers will never nominate a black guy.

They know their base would never stand for it, even if one as totally wingnutty as Carson. They wouldn't pick up the black vote with him, either - the tokenism would be as painfully obvious as when Poppy Bush picked Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court.

[Mike Daniels]

30. Debates should be a kick in 2016

Just how low will the GOP candidates go to get an applause line this time around?

Will the yahoos in the audience cheer requiring creationism be taught in science class, will they boo another gay soldier....the mind boggles at the possibilities.

[yellowcanine]

31. Dare we hope that this is true?

If Carson jumps in early he may start sucking up a lot of big name endorsements and money. That could force others in before they are ready (Think Ted Cruz) and also push others to the right in order to try to peel away supporters in the RW evangelical base. This can only be good for the Democratic nominee in the general election. I don't think Carson as a prayer of winning the nomination but he could force the nominee to stake out far right positions which will not work out so well in the general election.

[bluevoter4life]

35. Hey GOP.....

About that whole inexperienced black man thing......

[Myrina]

36. Anything to split the GOP voting base.

Sign 'em up.

[PSPS]

37. Another megalomanic's "presidential run" inevitably doomed to failure

What is it with all these "pundits," "talk show hosts" and "celebrities" thinking they can go directly from private citizen to president? I guess that happens when you're surrounded by and talk to only fans and other sycophants all day every day.

[davidpdx]

39. I'm just wondering what secrets he has that haven't come out

Illegitimate child, mistress, using of prostitutes, etc.

[DeSwiss]

41. ....

- Like she says.......

[AnnieBW]

44. Politicians Shouldn't Be Doctors

And doctors shouldn't be politicians. Just look how well that worked with Ron and Rand Paul, and Bill Frist.

[KinMd]

45. I'm assuming he'll tell us the God told him to run..

my personal belief is that God is goofing on these people.