The impressive Ben Carson

By Tom Quiner

I seek three attributes in a potential presidential candidate: wisdom, integrity, and leadership.

The current president possesses none of these, and the country is paying a monumental price for his deficiencies. The question is, do any of the potential candidates on the horizon exhibit any of these critical attributes?

I heard Dr. Ben Carson speak Saturday night at a political event here in Des Moines.

I was impressed.

This is a wise man. For example, he commented on the polarizing racial politics wielded by the first African-American president, Barack Obama. Dr. Carson, a highly regarded surgeon, dismissed this destructive tactic.

He explained that as a brain surgeon, when he cut into a person, he understood how unimportant skin color was. The important stuff is inside.

What a wise insight.

Liberal politicians hammer into the minds of voters that race is everything; that people with certain skin colors, especially if their skin is dark, are victims of people whose skin is white, and that it’s politically-incorrect to say otherwise.

Dr. Carson said it is time to rid ourselves of the dangerous censorship at the heart of political correctness. He vowed not to be cowed by the Thought Police on the political left who work overtime to shut down conservative free speech.

How can we solve our nation’s problems if we’re only allowed to discuss the progressive ideas championed by the liberal elite?

Dr. Carson is an intelligent thinker who says we are smart enough to solve vexing problems like healthcare and structural budget deficits.

As a doctor, he said he relied on data to heal people.

Should he run for president, he said he will do the same. Honest data, not the Gruberized garbage employed by Team Obama, supports the conservative solutions that America longs for.

Something really struck me about Dr. Carson in contrast to Barack Obama. Dr. Carson thinks the American people are ultimately smart. Barack Obama thinks we’re dumb. His people publicly say so.

A guy like a Dr. Carson will shoot straight with us, unlike Mr. Obama. Anyway, that’s how Dr. Carson came across to me.

He related a story that I think is an important one. At some point in his career, after he had gained renown as one of the top neurosurgeons in the world, he was approached by an attorney trying to shake him down for some money. He was accused of fathering an out-of-wedlock child, and the woman wanted child support.

Dr. Carson said no and simply ignored them. He smiled at the audience and said that he had only slept with one woman in his life, and that was his wife.

In this era of identity politics, think about the significance of what Dr. Carson said. If you are a black conservative, or for that matter, a female conservative, the left will try to destroy you for rejecting the gospel of victimization preached by the high progressive priests of the left.

Remember the hi-tech lynching inflicted on Clarence Thomas?

Remember the sexual harassment claims leveled against Herman Cain?

Remember the left’s savagery directed toward Sarah Palin?

Dr. Carson will need a pristine record to withstand the dirty politics that will inevitably come if his candidacy gains traction. By all accounts, he has one.

Dr. Carson is a guy who puts his money where his mouth is. He is critical of the trend to put the federal government in charge of our kids’ educations. He said education should be left in each individual community. He and his wife started the Carson Scholars Fund in 1994 which has dispensed some 5700 scholarships to kids between the grades of 4–11 for “academic excellence and humanitarian qualities.”

So the final question is: can Dr. Carson lead? I suspect the answer is yes because he has such stature. People look up to him and can’t but help appreciate his impressive resume’.

The man is smart. He is wise. And he’s honest.

Yes, I think a lot of Americans would enthusiastically follow him should he seek the presidency of the United States.