Let’s not kid ourselves. We know why Ben Carson’s poll numbers continue to climb. And it’s a lot more than being an easy-going, candid outsider who grew up in poverty and worked his way to uncommon accomplishment in neurosurgery.
He is, to be sure, all that nice-guy, rags-to-riches scenario, even if he’s not who Horatio Alger had in mind. But Carson is black. Impoverished, inner-city Detroit black–not who the Republican Party has it mind as a constituency.
As such, he provides the appeal of a possible dual-purpose upside.
First, he’s a presumed PR plus during this pre-primary season that has been more reality TV series than serious political campaign for the most important office in the world. Dr. Carson gives the minority-challenged Republican Party some much-needed branding help: “See, one of our most serious contenders is a black guy. That’s hardly the hallmark of a racist party.” At some point, don’t be shocked to hear those words from RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.
Second, Dr. Carson provides psychological succor for individual Republicans who could use some feel-good validation about their ideology. We saw a variation of this phenomenon in 2012 with Herman Cain.
In effect, how can you be a racist and think–and speak–so highly of Dr. Ben Carson? You couldn’t write a better rationalization Rx.
Alas, the increasingly apparent reality is that while Dr. Carson has a great story and seems like an especially nice guy in the context of political opportunists, he can’t expect an electorate to ultimately not see his “politically incorrect” utterances as frame-of-reference gaffes and fiscal-and-foreign-policy deficits.
In short, Ben Carson is no Barack Obama. Just better at brain surgery.