Is Ben Carson starting to look even more weird?

[CathyA]

Oh....I guess it was a hammer with his mom and not a knife.
He just seems like a very strange person to me. At first, he seemed very peaceful, honest, etc. But now he's looking like a crazy.
I had to laugh when Trump heard this stuff and said something like "He needs some meds.". What a couple-a-guys we have here!

Yes, Rodeo.......on the news, one political reporter said that it seemed like Carson was trying to make it look like he had had a tough life and was a tough guy.
I'm not sure when this book was written though. In any case, something is rotten in Denmark.

[catherine]

From what I understand, the narrative is he was an "angry young man" until he had a conversion experience and turned his life over to God.. so these anecdotes about attacking his mother and a kid as school etc. are part of the story. People in America LOVE redemption stories, and they say that this is a big draw for Carson. If you take that away from him, he loses something among his base, IMHO.

[CathyA]

So catherine, are you thinking that he sort of revised his personal history to make it look like he had come a long way and was a good man now?

[Williamsmith]

If you know anything about Saul of Tarsus......you might figure some of it out.

[catherine]

If you know anything about Saul of Tarsus......you might figure some of it out.

Exactly.
Cathy, he may not be lying, I haven't read enough about it--although he seems to have stretched the truth, but yes--the story of a rebel being struck by God (in the bathroom no less) makes for more a interesting tale than a quiet, nerdy guy growing up to be a doctor.

[oldhat]

Everybody likes a good redemption story, and the fundamentalist evangelical types* who form a large part of Carson's base like one most of all. Yes, it is a Saul of Tarsus kind of thing--a need to believe that a lifetime of bad behavior can be wiped clean in an instant through divine intervention. It's very convenient. I have a friend who's an alcoholic and lives in Texas, and when she started going to AA meetings she heard the same thing over and over: "I was on the wagon and doing fine, but then SATAN tempted me and I couldn't resist. But I know that Jesus forgives me!" There's a certain mindset (one that Robert Duvall captured beautifully in his film "The Apostle) that believes if you repent with sufficient histrionics, all is well--until the next time. Think Jimmy Swaggart.

Carson may very well be a psychopath, or at least have psychopathic tendencies. There's no contradiction here, as someone already observed, psychopathy isn't uncommon among surgeons (probably not among politicians, either). He's having his Herman Cain moment. My guess is his campaign will now start to unravel, although he'll maintain a corps of true believers who will go to their graves thinking that his serial, um, embellishments are all a conspiracy by the liberal media to bring down a truly godly man.

*I don't mean to say that evangelical Christians are bad people. Quite the contrary, I've known some very nice ones. When my dad was undergoing chemotherapy, his girlfriend's mother, an elderly Baptist lady, picked him up from the hospital and cared for him for days afterward because she felt it was her Christian duty to do so. Of course, if she were still alive she'd probably be a Carson supporter.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I had to laugh when Trump heard this stuff and said something like "He needs some meds.". What a couple-a-guys we have here!

really, the certifiable narcissist we have with Trump is opining on other people needing meds ... but then it's not a narcissist's style to think anything is wrong with *them* ...

My guess is his campaign will now start to unravel, although he'll maintain a corps of true believers who will go to their graves thinking that his serial, um, embellishments are all a conspiracy by the liberal media to bring down a truly godly man.

or the Republican establishment, it's Bushes turn isn't it? Although they seem to have allowed Trump quite free rein, like they are almost ok with a Trump presidency, scary times these are.

[freshstart]

It's all over the news. http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/05/politi...hood-violence/

Interestingly, surgeons are on the list of "most psychopaths per capita profession" or some such (which makes me much less sanguine about a knee operation...)

I suspect surgeons have a greater propensity to be sociopaths, it seems like almost a nurtured trait, doesn't it?

Ben Carson is one strange bird and my cousin, who admits she votes the way her husband tells her to so she doesn't have to keep up with the news (?!?!), says they are voting Carson. Luckily, they are the only ones I know who will even admit to thinking about voting for him. Worst part is the husband is smart, educated and is still choosing this position.

As an aside, his mom and Obama's mom were distant cousins, who did not know each other, he is ashamed of this and he runs that poor man into the ground so bad, I have given up even trying to respond and leave the room.

[CathyA]

I'm having trouble understanding how a former pediatric surgeon can think he could run the country. It's sort of like Trump thinking that just because he was a good businessman, that he could run the country. There are a few other types of challenges/issues facing a president. DUH! Maybe it's good that these guys have started their campaign so early. It gives us time to see their masks fall off.

What a circus this has become, and it embarrasses me.

[Ultralight]

From what I understand, the narrative is he was an "angry young man" until he had a conversion experience and turned his life over to God.

Convenient.