Serious Question

17 Comments

1. 

   Cervants on November 7, 2015 at 11:12 am

   Au contraire, it’s his best feature.

2. 

   donnah on November 7, 2015 at 11:30 am

   Well, it’s a Republican thing. If a Democrat had lied as blatantly and as often as Ben Carson has, he would be in the dust bin. The Democrats and Republicans alike would be all over him.

   But let’s remember the mentality of the Republican party: arrogant, narrow-minded, and scared shitless at this stage of the game. They take positive job report numbers and skew them to be a negative. They take positive, factual data about the success of Obamacare and make it a tragedy. They take the horrifying numbers of gun deaths and make them seem like nothing.

   No matter what these yahoo Republican candidates say, their party will defend it, even if it means completely twisting the actual meanings of words to do it. The Republicans are shameless, stupid, and desperate. Of course they will do anything to stay alive.

   • 

     Marie3 on November 7, 2015 at 11:47 am

     The difference is that the media and public tread softly in challenging the lies of the god-fearing folks.  They are a huge sector of the electorate and don’t take kindly to facts or the unmasking of one of their high-profile god-fearing charlatans.  Once a large population has swallowed the big lie, conforming little lies sell themselves.

     • 

       oaguabonita on November 7, 2015 at 2:05 pm

       …the big lie, conforming little lies sell themselves.

       That’s very well observed and very well put!

3. 

   Marie3 on November 7, 2015 at 11:33 am

   So many loony statements, so little time.

   Politifact Ben Carson says Mahmoud Abbas, Ali Khamenei, Vladimir Putin knew each other in 1968 Moscow.

   Source for this one seems to be Cliff Kincaid (another one in the rightwing, propaganda loony bin).

   Politifact verdict:

   The idea that the three men developed lifelong ties as students in the late-1960s-era Soviet Union is ridiculous. Pants on Fire!

   Has Dr. Ben lost Murdoch?  Wall St. Journal: Ben Carson’s Past Faces Deeper Questions.  In harsh light of presidential politics, parts of his inspirational biography are questioned.

4. 

   boran2 on November 7, 2015 at 11:34 am

   No because he tells such appealing lies in a soft spoken manner.

5. 

   mainsailset on November 7, 2015 at 11:35 am

   Well yesterday’s Politico adventure made a fool out of their story. But in doing so it also involved CNN’s story and CNN is not taking it lightly. They’re starting to dig more, now the WSJ is digging and it may become one of those micro moments where the media decides to fight back. The all conservative panel on CNN this morning on Smerconish took an interesting twist when Larry Elder started out with Clinton comparisons and shoving the unfairness meme around then the other two turned the tables to say Rep can’t continue to point to liberal treatment to get their candidate off the hook.

   They promoted getting to the bottom of the story so their candidates were vetted. Was an interesting twist.

   Part of the problem has always been the victimhood that Palin played a part in teaching the Party. If the media decides to fight back could be a good watch.

   • 

     mainsailset on November 7, 2015 at 11:44 am

     Kevin Drum’s piece

6. 

   on November 7, 2015 at 12:29 pm

   Think for a moment about a supernatural being who is keeping a dossier on every one of us, who performs miracles sometimes, and sometimes shows murderous indifference.

   This supernatural being occupies a place in the minds of most people in the world. Humanity has been trained to accept lies of their betters.

7. 

   Marie3 on November 7, 2015 at 1:19 pm

   A nit to pick:  From the Politico article on Carson and West Point

   When presented by POLITICO with these facts, Carson’s campaign conceded he never applied.

   “Dr. Carson was the top ROTC student in the City of Detroit,” campaign manager Barry Bennett wrote in an email to POLITICO. “In that role he was invited to meet General Westmoreland. He believes it was at a banquet. He can’t remember with specificity their brief conversation but it centered around Dr. Carson’s performance as ROTC City Executive Officer.”

   “He was introduced to folks from West Point by his ROTC Supervisors,” Bennett added. “They told him they could help him get an appointment based on his grades and performance in ROTC. He considered it but in the end did not seek admission.”

   Carson would have been a JROTC student and not a ROTC student.

   • 

     shan on November 7, 2015 at 4:57 pm

     The media has also checked Westmoreland’s diary and he was not in Detroit for any banquet where he would have met Carson.

     • 

       Marie3 on November 7, 2015 at 6:53 pm

       Didn’t happen at as Carson retold the story.  From Poltico report:

       There are, however, several reports of an event in February of that year, similar to the one Carson described. Then, Westmoreland was the featured guest at a 1,500-person banquet to celebrate Medal of Honor recipient Dwight Johnson. The event drew prominent guests, including the governor at the time, the mayor of Detroit, the president of Ford Motor Company and nine previous Medal of Honor awardees, according to an Associated Press account of the event.

       Carson, a leader of the city’s ROTC program at the time, may have been among the invited guests at the $10-a-plate event.

       Now there’s push back on Politico’s report because Carson never specifically claimed that he’d been admitted to West Point. As if when he said,

       “More exciting to me, General William Westmoreland (very prominent in the Viet Nam war) attended with an impressive entourage. Afterward, Sgt. Hunt” — his high school ROTC director — “introduced me to General Westmoreland, and I had dinner with him and the Congressional Medal winners. Later I was offered a full scholarship to West Point.”

       Meant something different from what his words said.  

8. 

   on November 7, 2015 at 1:24 pm

   The connection to the nutrition supplement stuff might matter, but I haven’t seen anything yet that will kill him in a GOP electorate.  

   He may benefit from all of this given politico’s partial walk back.

   • 

     Bearpaw on November 7, 2015 at 1:53 pm

     <foil beanie>
     Maybe the whole thing was intentional?

     Now people can play the Dubya AWOL game and pretend that because the report was faulty, it was entirely wrong.
     </foil beanie&gt

   • 

     Marie3 on November 7, 2015 at 2:48 pm

     No, shilling for Mannatech placebos and lying about it won’t hurt him because of the large number of wealthy (and potentially wealthy) supplement scammers that inhabit the rightwing political landscape.  (Doubt the customers for this junk are limited to Republicans.)

     However, I’m not sure Carson is white enough to get a pass on the West Point fabrication.  Not when various other fibs are also coming to light.  

9. 

   Bearpaw on November 7, 2015 at 1:50 pm

   Conservatives might have a problem with it.  Republicans won’t.  

10. 

    keepinon on November 7, 2015 at 2:44 pm

    At this point I don’t even know what to hope for from the conservatives. I think surely his poll #s will drop now and that will make room for….. uh, that will make ro…..never mind.