Dr. Ben Carson: ‘Somebody has to stand up to the bullies’
As has been well reported over the right wing media, last week, Johns Hopkins Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery Dr. Ben Carson gave a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, and with President Obama seated just to his right, he indirectly criticized Obama’s signature achievement, the Affordable Care Act by suggesting that children be given health savings accounts the day they are born. He also took indirect aim at the recent tax increases on the wealthy that were part of the “fiscal cliff” settlement, as Obama looked more and more visibly annoyed as the speech went on.
Now conservative columnist Cal Thomas was a lone voice on the right in criticizing Carson for using an occasion “devoted to drawing people closer to God and bridge partisan and cultural divides” to deliver a lecture on his politics, but elsewhere, he is being hailed as a hero. Now Carson’s personal story is truly remarkable (it was dramatized in the 2009 TV movie Gifted Hands, with Cuba Gooding Jr. playing Carson), but five’ll getcha ten it was this comment to Neil Cavuto, where he took direct aim at the “PC Police” which has made him an instant celeb:
DR. BENJAMIN CARSON: There are a group of people who would like to silence everybody and have everybody go along to get along, but that’s not going to be very helpful for us in the long run, in terms of solving our problems. And somebody has to be courageous enough to actually stand up to, you know, the bullies.
The bully in this instance is Obama, and Carson stood up to him, just as Romney did during the first presidential debate last year, just as wingnuts wish Newt Gingrich or Allen West could have had an opportunity to put this radical liberal Marxist Fascist Maoist Stalinist Nazi gay married community organizer in his place. The Christianist rhetoric about a tax policy that “comes from the Bible,” and the fact that he does not believe in evolution was merely being icing on the cake. Now it was a very eloquent speech, but he blew the right dog whistles, and the dogs all came running with leash in mouth, hoping it’s time for walkies.
And I think this is the chief reason there is talk that he should (or will) run for president in 2016, which is, coincidentally, a possibility Carson left open at the end of his segment with Cavuto, the entire video of which can be seen here.