The Tea Party's brain surgeon
by digby
Over at Salon this morning I took a look at the latest right wing sensation, Dr. Ben Carson:
Dr. Carson is a truly accomplished person, a leader in his field who, prior to becoming a political activist, was best known as the first neurosurgeon to successfully separate twins who had been conjoined at the back of the head. He was head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins for many years and also wrote books and served as board member on numerous corporations. There was even a film starring Cuba Gooding Jr based upon his autobiography called “Gifted Hands, the Ben Carson story” made for TNT back in 2009. It wasn’t until he gave a barn burning keynote speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013 that he came to the attention of conservative activists, however, and his political career took off like a rocket. The very next morning the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial headlined “Ben Carson for President.”
He's getting an ecstatic response from the Tea party faithful everywhere he appears on his latest book tour. I guess what's most astonishing is the extent to which such an obviously intelligent, worldly fellow can be so fully enveloped in the right wing bubble that he is signing on to every cracked conspiracy theory he's being exposed to. It's one thing for a man of his stature and accomplishment to be a conservative. There are plenty of people like him in the GOP. But he's wallowing in the toxic fever swamps, spreading the craziest ideas they have to offer. It's just odd.
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