For reasons known only by him and God, Dr. C. went the Rodney King "Can't we all just get along?" route on an issue so emotionally-charged that anybody who knows the first thing about politics would know better than to try to play neutral mediator and cast both sides as moral equivalents. Particularly if you're a Republican presidential candidate who has made one side of that emotionally-charged issue a core plank of your campaign and whose votes you pretty much have to have to win Iowa.
This is why rookies don't make it to the White House.
Or, "Stick a fork in Gentle Ben, he's done":
Pro-Life leaders are furious with presidential hopeful Dr. Ben Carson for his comments yesterday that pro-life rhetoric is partially responsible for the shootings that took place in Colorado last week.
On CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday morning, Carson said, “Hateful rhetoric exacerbates the situation…You don’t ever solve them [problems] with hateful rhetoric. Both sides should tone down the rhetoric and engage in civil discussion.”
On ABC’s This Week Carson said, “There’s a lot of extremism coming from all areas. We get into our separate corners and we hate each other, we want to destroy those with whom we disagree.”
I don't think a presidential candidate has self-destructed in real time on live national television like this since Barry Goldwater said, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" in his 1964 GOP convention acceptance speech. It displayed an utter tone-deafness and inability to hear how his words would sound to his core supporters without making any inroads with his detractors. Millard Fillmore didn't botch the slavery issue this badly with the Compromise of 1850.
Listen and weep, Carsonites:
In exclusive interviews with Breitbart News, a number of national pro-life leaders condemned Carson’s statements.
Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue and a board member at the Center for Medical Progress, said, “Doctor Carson just ended his presidential candidacy.”
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of American, that has seven hundred chapters on college campuses around the country, says:
Did Carson take his talking points from Planned Parenthood? He completely missed the mark, casting suspicion on pro-lifers who had nothing to do with this tragedy and only furthering the deceitful narrative that the abortion industry has already laid out in the media. Compassion and love, not violence, are at the heart of the pro-life movement and motivate us to protect life in its stages and we extend that same love and compassion to the victims and their families of this horrible tragedy.
The Grande Dame of the pro-life movement, Judie Brown of American Life Leagues, said, “Outrageous. What is Carson missing in all this other than a known dysfunctional man with a history of undependable behavior. What did any of us say to provoke that? Carson is dead wrong, period.”... [emphasis added]
Anybody who knows the first thing about politics should also be acutely aware that no branch of "true conservatism" EVER forgives betrayal, either real or perceived. You're either with them or you're against them, and mistakes are neither tolerated nor believed as being mistakes.
I agree with Eeyore that this was almost certainly the grand bull moose gold medal winner of brain farts by the Doc in trying torturedly to keep with his "national healing" campaign theme instead of standing by one of his core constituencies in its time of need. Some issues cannot be bridged, nor its antagonists reconciled, there being no other choice but to fight for what's right. We can quibble and quarrel over strategies <AHEM> but the need to battle on is a settled question.
That is the line across which Ben Carson stumbled yesterday, and would not have had he not been the amateur and greenhorn he is. Imagine the unforced errors he'd make if he became president.
THIS is why we need experienced, professional politicians, my Tea Party friends. Because our all-hallowed principles don't mean a damn thing if we can't get our candidates elected to put them into public policy. It really is as simple as that.
Or at least, it ought to be.
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