The presidential candidacy of Ben Carson, a tea party star who has catapulted into the top tier of Republican contenders, has been rocked by turmoil with the departures of four senior campaign officials and widespread disarray among his allied super PACs.
In interviews Friday, Carson’s associates described a political network in tumult, saying the retired neurosurgeon’s campaign chairman, national finance chairman, deputy campaign manager and general counsel have resigned since Carson formally launched his bid last month in Detroit. They have not been replaced, campaign aides said.
The moves gutted the core of Carson’s apparatus and left the 63-year-old first-time candidate with only a handful of experienced advisers at his side as he navigates the fluid, crowded and high-stakes contest for the Republican nomination.
Carson is a hot commodity on the right-wing speaking circuit and has fast become a leading candidate, winning straw votes at conservative gatherings and rising in public polls.
But his campaign has been marked by signs of dysfunction and amateurism, alarming supporters who privately worry that Carson’s sprawling circle of boosters is fumbling his opportunity. And, they argue, the candidate has been nonchalant about the unrest.
I have little doubt that Carson will find more political leaches ready and willing to climb onto his campaign to nowhere, but I think the fact that this thing is ultimately going to crash on the rocks is already a foregone conclusion.
In fact my anticipation of Carson's self immolation during the first handful of debates is right up there with my anticipation of the new Jurassic World movie opening this week.
My only question is will he be the first to spontaneously combust or will he be preceded by the likes of Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, or Rick Perry?
All I know is that this is going to be some of the most entertaining television since Breaking Bad went off the air.
He may be a brilliant surgeon but he's an equally brilliant fool and an asshole. Perhaps we'll be doubly entertained as Ben Carson shuffles out of the limelight to Badfinger's rendition of Baby Blue. Good riddance.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! How can someone with an education in medicine spout the nonsense he does.
DeleteHopefully he is the first of many right wing idiots to fall.
dadada
DeleteShades of Herman Cain? I believe certain very cynical GOP operatives encourage these guys knowing they'll fail miserably, probably to ensure that no African American presidential candidate is ever taken seriously again. See same with female candidates. Case in point: Carly Fiorina.
ReplyDeleteAnd they really blew it with Sarah Palin who refuses to just STFU and go away.
At this point my fear is that Ben's campaign will quietly implode before giving us a chance to enjoy the tasty spectacle of a debate "performance." :(
ReplyDeleteI mean, I can only think of three things that would cause high level advisors to abandon ship after only a month:
1. His ability to pay them came into question
2. They've been recruited by another campaign with more money/better chance to win the nomination
3. Behind the scenes it has become clear that he is SO profoundly disastrous a candidate that they fear for their future employability
Totally agree with your assessment Boscoe and my money is on reason #3.
DeleteAnybody who's been watching Ben Carson's political career so far should realize he's in it for the same reason Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich, and a handful of others in 2011-2012 and now are campaigning: they're selling books and lining up future speaking engagements. They don't want to be President, just like Sarah Palin doesn't want to be President: too much work, not enough pay.
ReplyDeleteCarson has a huge ego and his narcissistic arrogance drips off every page of his "auto"biography, Gifted Hands. I read it because my evangelical sister loves him, but it was very difficult to stomach.
Delete"The campaign of Tea Party favorite Ben Carson is apparently self destructing. "
ReplyDelete----------------------------
Good riddance. I've had it with these worthless pieces of shit who have never once shown that they can govern, who have never been elected to so much as a city council, but who decide one fine day that they have what it takes to start governing at the top with the presidency of a demographically heterogeneous, geographically vast, and globally critical country of more than 330,000,000 people.
FFS. There should be a fee equal to at least 50% of the net worth of any narcissistic blowhard who decides to tie up the national bandwidth with their self-aggrandizing toddler-like obsession with their own imaginary fabulosity.
The fee would be used to advance voting rights for all citizens and fight vote suppression and disenfranchisement of non-republican voters.
I think the GOP has just lost it's "token" nod and tip of their hats to launching "The new and improved Party of Inclusion", no skin off my back, but I have to question someone who was once a neurosurgeon's wisdom if he fell for the Tea Party's Bullcrap. Maybe he can get some campaigning wisdom from that woman from wasilla, what's her name again? Victoria Jackson? Something Palin?
ReplyDeleteRacist. Do you call all black people not in the democrat party 'token', Anita? You believe own them and their vote? If black people show any independence you plaster them with your racist and demeaning labels?
DeleteSee... the thing about Carson (and Huckabee and on and on) is that running for president is a GREAT way to haul in GREAT BIG mounds of cash.
ReplyDeleteIt has very little to do with any actual desire to WIN.
It's all about the money.
and there is LOTS of it available.
LOTS of it.
Even after you lose.
(see: Sarah Palin)
Why should Carson be immune from the rest of the Clown Car. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are busy opening their mouths inserting a foot and then shooting it. Huckabee is defending Duggaring and the more Jeb talks the less people like him, not that they liked him to begin with. I can't wait until Rick "Ooops" Perry has his first debate.
ReplyDelete