Big Ben Walks It Back
Ben Carson
Former brain surgeon and Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson poured gasoline on a fire the other day when he declared he would not support a Muslim president.
Fox News reports that Carson is now “clarifying that he was referring to Muslims who had not rejected Islamic Sharia law.”
Right, Ben.
Here’s what Carson originally said when NBC’s Chuck Todd asked, “Do you believe that Islam is consistent with the Constitution?”
“No, I do not,” Carson responded. “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.”
Here’s CNN with Carson’s latest position on religion and the presidency: “I don’t care what a person’s religion [sic] beliefs are or religious heritage is,” he said at a news conference in Sharonville, Ohio. “If they embrace our Constitution and are willing to place that above their religious beliefs, I have no problem with that.”
We call that a 180.
Also known as a flip-flop.
Let’s Pander
Carson was pandering to the Christian Right and NBC’s Chuck Todd tossed him a hand grenade so that he could then yank the pin.
And hold it.
In fact, Todd’s question inappropriately introduced a candidate’s religion into the discussion, a fact Carson, in his pandering frenzy, failed to grasp.
And, so much for the decades old myth that Catholic John Kennedy slayed the “religion as barrier to the presidency” dragon with his West Virginia Primary win.
It reminds one of Mike Huckabee’s recent plan to visit Kentucky court clerk Kim Davis in the slammer after she refused to issue civil marriage licenses to homosexuals.
But, as they say where I am from, she done got let out.
Obama to Blame
This is what you get when you elect a black man as president.
Eight years of sputtering pent-up racial animus where (some) candidates gleefully take positions designed to undermine our civil government as they assuage the constipated crackers.
Why, even a black brain surgeon gets to be a bigot.
I guess that’s what passes for Republican equality.
(Photo credit: Gage Skidmore)