Is the vetting of Ben Carson unfair
Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson is taking a lot of heat from the media right now. He calls this unfair. He said:
" I'm getting special scrutiny. Because, you know, there are a lot of people very threatened … they're worried. There is no question about it. And, you know, every single day, every other day or every week, you know, they're going to come out with, 'Well, you said this when you were 13.' And the whole point is to distract the populace, distract me. You know, if you've got a real scandal, if you've got something that's really important, let's talk about that."
This is nothing particularly new. The origin of this kind of media scrutiny of everything, not just the candidate's political record can be traced back to this:
Gary Hart practically dared the media to look into his personal life when he was a candidate for the presidency in 1984. So they did and they learned he was up to some "monkey business" on a boat that had the same name.
Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Dr. Carson can't have their political records examined and scrutinized by the media. They don't have any political records, except of course for campaign contributions. None of them have ever served in elective office. So when people who are political outsiders run, they run on their story. The media has every right to look into that story.
Back in 1987 I had the chance to interview Pat Robertson. It was before his formal declaration that he was seeking the Republican nomination for the 1988 presidential election. While he wasn't a declared candidate, it was clear he was running. I asked him tough questions about the Equal Time Doctrine and his libel suit against former U. S. Congressman Pete McCloskey over what Mr. McCloskey had said about Robertson's claim to have earned three battle stars for his service in the Korean War. I'd been warned not to ask about the war service issue directly so I reluctantly complied. It didn't matter. He ducked every single tough question with the smooth ease of a practiced professional politician.
Ben Carson has nothing but his story as he's told it, and whatever ideas he shares with us to run on. Therefore, looking into that story is very important. He claims to have had a violent nature in his youth, but no one can be found who remembers him that way. He's made claims about events that seem particularly specious or at best, embellished. He said he had dinner with General William Westmoreland in Detroit at a time when the general's schedule reveals that he was elsewhere.
It is one thing to have poor recall of events that have transpired in one's life. That's not what is going on here. He wrote these things in his own book. If the publisher didn't bother to verify them prior to publication, that's on them. It is no secret that politicians tell lies. As we're told in the current film "Our Brand is Crisis", campaign strategists will tell you that the truth is what they tell the electorate it is.
I have another question for Dr. Carson that no one has presented to him yet. Here's a quote from his edited Facebook post where he made a major gaffe about the elected service of some of our founding fathers.
" I spent my life treating very ill children. Over 15,000 times I gave my all to prolong their lives. I was blessed to do it. But when it came time for me to retire, I simply could not sit back any longer."
15,000 times. Does that mean he performed 15,000 surgeries during his career? Because if that's the meaning, these numbers bear further scrutiny. Dr. Carson began his residency in 1977 and retired in 2013. That's roughly 36 years. 15,000 divided by 36 = 416.6666 surgeries per year. I've checked and the average neurosurgeon does between 175 and 300 surgeries per year. Given that some of Dr. Carson's surgeries were admittedly amazing efforts that took many hours, it makes his total seem inflated. IF, that is what he meant by the claim.
It's one thing to punch up a resume. It's another to tell an outright lie.
But to prove I have a sense of humor, I leave you with this, which thanks to some nice sound effects being added, makes Secretary Clinton's lie seem truthful.
" I'm getting special scrutiny. Because, you know, there are a lot of people very threatened … they're worried. There is no question about it. And, you know, every single day, every other day or every week, you know, they're going to come out with, 'Well, you said this when you were 13.' And the whole point is to distract the populace, distract me. You know, if you've got a real scandal, if you've got something that's really important, let's talk about that."
This is nothing particularly new. The origin of this kind of media scrutiny of everything, not just the candidate's political record can be traced back to this:
Gary Hart practically dared the media to look into his personal life when he was a candidate for the presidency in 1984. So they did and they learned he was up to some "monkey business" on a boat that had the same name.
Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Dr. Carson can't have their political records examined and scrutinized by the media. They don't have any political records, except of course for campaign contributions. None of them have ever served in elective office. So when people who are political outsiders run, they run on their story. The media has every right to look into that story.
Back in 1987 I had the chance to interview Pat Robertson. It was before his formal declaration that he was seeking the Republican nomination for the 1988 presidential election. While he wasn't a declared candidate, it was clear he was running. I asked him tough questions about the Equal Time Doctrine and his libel suit against former U. S. Congressman Pete McCloskey over what Mr. McCloskey had said about Robertson's claim to have earned three battle stars for his service in the Korean War. I'd been warned not to ask about the war service issue directly so I reluctantly complied. It didn't matter. He ducked every single tough question with the smooth ease of a practiced professional politician.
Ben Carson has nothing but his story as he's told it, and whatever ideas he shares with us to run on. Therefore, looking into that story is very important. He claims to have had a violent nature in his youth, but no one can be found who remembers him that way. He's made claims about events that seem particularly specious or at best, embellished. He said he had dinner with General William Westmoreland in Detroit at a time when the general's schedule reveals that he was elsewhere.
It is one thing to have poor recall of events that have transpired in one's life. That's not what is going on here. He wrote these things in his own book. If the publisher didn't bother to verify them prior to publication, that's on them. It is no secret that politicians tell lies. As we're told in the current film "Our Brand is Crisis", campaign strategists will tell you that the truth is what they tell the electorate it is.
I have another question for Dr. Carson that no one has presented to him yet. Here's a quote from his edited Facebook post where he made a major gaffe about the elected service of some of our founding fathers.
" I spent my life treating very ill children. Over 15,000 times I gave my all to prolong their lives. I was blessed to do it. But when it came time for me to retire, I simply could not sit back any longer."
15,000 times. Does that mean he performed 15,000 surgeries during his career? Because if that's the meaning, these numbers bear further scrutiny. Dr. Carson began his residency in 1977 and retired in 2013. That's roughly 36 years. 15,000 divided by 36 = 416.6666 surgeries per year. I've checked and the average neurosurgeon does between 175 and 300 surgeries per year. Given that some of Dr. Carson's surgeries were admittedly amazing efforts that took many hours, it makes his total seem inflated. IF, that is what he meant by the claim.
It's one thing to punch up a resume. It's another to tell an outright lie.
But to prove I have a sense of humor, I leave you with this, which thanks to some nice sound effects being added, makes Secretary Clinton's lie seem truthful.
posted by me at 8:16 AM
<< Home