On Friday we featured the Stand Up and Cheer speech by Dr. Benjamin Carson, Sr.
The speech has received widespread coverage in the right-media, but I’ve notice the left-media, which normally will viciously attack black conservatives, is relatively silent. (I could only find one fourth-tier bottom feeder who criticized it, not worth a link.)
Did I miss something, or have the usuals mostly gone silent on Carson? If so, previously glowing profiles of him at places Daily Kos may be one of the reasons.
Instead, the most vigorous criticism of Carson has come from Bob Beckel (no surprise there) and Kirsten Powers (surprise there), as detailed at Twitchy.
This panel also explored whether it was inappropriate for Carson to make his comments, via Mediaite:
“Whoa,” said CNN anchor Candy Crowley after playing a portion of Carson’s speech in which he linked the biblical principle of proportional tithing to a flat taxation system.
“This was really interesting, number one for the venue, number two for the person doing this,” Crowley said.
Former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) said that this moment reminded her of an earlier National Prayer Breakfast she attended when Mother Teresa took a stand against abortion. She said that the room became uncomfortable after Mother Teresa came out against abortion, and the people she has spoken to say the atmosphere was similar after Carson delivered his speech last week.
“I think his other point, his main point, was that political correctness has just gone beyond bizarre,” Hutchison said. “I just thought it was a great message.”
Crowley turned to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and asked if she found “anything offensive” in Carson’s speech.
“I think that there is a political correctness that he was trying to use to appeal to a conservative audience,” Schakowsky said. “I think it’s really not really an appropriate place to make this kind of political speech and to invoke God as his support for that kind of view.”
I assume you will find some nastiness out there, but compared to what could have been expected, it seems relatively quiet.
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Well, the knee-jerk “raaaacist” just sort of falls flat.
As does the “crackpot” meme they lodge against Col. West.
Give them time. They have top minds working on how to pull Dr. Carson down.
Top. Minds.
In the meantime, they’ll do their best to ignore him. Pretend his speech never happened.
or the rovians will cain him.
Kinda hard to criticize him when Michelle was clapping enthusiastically for his ideas.
Jesus said not to make His father’s house a den of thieves. He was speaking to the thieves within their professional pretext of acceptability. So was Carson.
Of course, Jesus took a whip to the backs of the elites in the Temple. Not very PC.
I think they would be thrilled for the good doctor to just slip away quietly, hoping nobody will notice. Out of sight, out of mind. And so funny how we have socialist Shakowsky actually telling someone what they can say and when, and especially how one chooses to invoke God…so typical it’s disgusting! But I guess I’ve come to expect that anymore from these folks.
It’s a PRAYER breakfast.
“Schakowsky said. “I think it’s really not really an appropriate place to make this kind of political speech and to invoke God as his support for that kind of view.””
If you can’t invoke God, then….when can you?? And appropriate place for politacal speech??…When doesn’t the other side use “anything” for polital reasons (and speech)
Thank you. I was just going to make the same comment.
“It’s a prayer breakfast.”
Exactly so. It is entirely appropriate, even expected at a national prayer breakfast to refer to the content of faith, and see where that leads on national issues. It is conventional to do so, and expected by the audience, who are the hosts in a sense.
Contrast with, just hypothetically, calling out a coequal branch of the government in a state of the union, in fact making a false assertion of the content of one of their decisions, right in their faces on national TV. This is neither conventional for the event, nor expected, nor even respectful of the hosts.
The national prayer breakfast is not an arm of government. The congress is not an agent of the executive. And to complete the trifecta, a press conference to respond to the house’s budget proposal is not the place to repeatedly slime your negotiating partner, again in public.
The smartest thing Boehner’s done yet is announce his return to “regular order.” Stop “negotiating” in private with dishonest brokers, while being demagogue in the press by the same people.
The invited speaker at the national prayer breakfast speaking his truth despite President Obama’s presence is another kind of “regular order.” Just because he’s shown up is not a directive for dissent to shut up. The President as figurehead is owed deference, ad military funerals, for example. This is borrowed gravitas, on loan from the country. The President as politician and policy maker is always fair game.
Sorry about the run away italics. Should have previewed.
“The invited speaker at the national prayer breakfast speaking his truth despite President Obama’s presence is another kind of “regular order.” Just because he’s shown up is not a directive for dissent to shut up. The President as figurehead is owed deference, ad military funerals, for example. This is borrowed gravitas, on loan from the country. The President as politician and policy maker is always fair game.”
This is an excellent point, and it SHOULD apply to the MSM as well! Unfortunately for the naton as a whole, the MSM will never get it…!
KB Hutchison is a well known pro-death politician in Texas!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9KgSKA84JY
You know, the intolerant, war on women, Republican Party kept electing this woman to represent in one of the most conservative states in the Union!
They can’t assault Dr. Carson’s logic, his standing or call him a racist, so they’re left with distractions like “That’s rude.” and “Look, the WSJ has gone all swoon-y.”
That’s just crap.
It was perfectly polite, perfectly on point, and the WSJ is being a tad ironic, in the “Ted Nugent for President” sense. (He may be bat-guano crazy, but out of his mouth sometimes comes stuff that’s been too long unsaid – spelling it out for the faux-obtuse, there.)
And the secularists are missing – perhaps with deliberate faux-obtouseness – the fact that in a life of faith, that faith and its consequences come first. This wasn’t a Presidential appearance with a bunch of church folk. This was a faith-based event which the President chose to attend.
At this prayer breakfast, Dr. Carson spoke about the large issues confronting the country from the perspective of a life grounded in achievement, responsibility and faith. His over-arching point is that these three things go together. The operative word is “prayer”, with “national” meaning geography not government, and scope of issues, again not government. Their faith and preferences are not dependent on which President is there or not. Their agenda is their own, as it has been all along, at the juncture of national issues and faith, as it has been all along.
It’s not Dr. Carson’s fault that the President’s policies and preferences are at odds with their hosts’ beliefs and agenda – and what has brought them together since before there was a Dr. Carson or a President Obama. It’s no surprise the kind of speaker they’d invite for inspiration. The hosts, the prayer breakfast, the people, their religions and the teachings of their faith(s) come first. The President is the interloper.
If the President’s preferences and perspective are so divergent from his hosts’ he might not want to attend. Were I cynical, I might think President Obama’s attendance was a political ploy. If his hosts and the invited speaker do not speak their truth at odds with his it look like endorsement – a “fig leaf” of sorts for his policies. Cynically, I might believe that deference to the office was what he was counting on, with the outrage-y outrage mostly because the ploy didn’t work.
There is no need to demean the speaker, as has started here and there in the state media. Dr. Carson has been a public person for some time, as a frequent speaker with several books, a foundation and more. So, unless his being a clean, articulate black man is noteworthy (See what I did there?) who wrote what, when in his speech is a distraction – cynically, I might think a deliberate one – from the four teachings arising from that speech, by that man, at that event:
* He, there demonstrates an alternative path to an alternative kind of accomplishment – neither the crumbs of patronage nor the spoils of riding the system – available to all, yes even a black man born to poverty.
* He asserts and demonstrates the grounding of that accomplishment & the life that produces it in Judeo Christian ethics. (Ethics also present in other faiths and cultures – that’s its name, not an exclusive claim.)
* Many of our national policies and the rationales for them are starkly, stunningly at odds with that ethic, and perhaps the results are telling.
* And most significant an inspirational speech at a prayer breakfast attended by the president demonstrates the primacy of the people and their autonomous lives over the clerks and figureheads we appoint to execute on our beliefs, on our behalf.
The President is free to set the agenda for campaign events, and expect deference at political & government events. At a long-standing independent, faith-based event he is a guest. Expecting his hosts to subjugate their purpose to his presence is presumptuous.
Can’t say it better. Hear, hear!
Beautifully said. What struck me and Mr. Gabilange was how AMERICAN Dr. Carson sounded. One does not have to agree with everything, nor his theology even, but we “get” what he is saying. He was inspiring. And just said what he had to say, toughy lucky if you don’t agree. Even Ms Obama seemed to forget herself in her enthusiasm. Obama looked squirmy, fidgety. It’s amusing that Powers has to resort to a prissy assessment like “he was wude to the pwezidint. It snot nice.” Too silly.
Thank you (both). I try to live up to my handle.
Bias by Omission.
The media is silent because they can’t win on this one.
So, they pretend it never happened and minimize the exposure.
Exactly so.
So, we keep putting it out there, with the best, most compelling representatives we can find & support. Culture is upstream of politics said Breitbart, correctly.
More important, one guy they can smear and slime into unacceptability. A relentless chorus of the decent and grounded … not so much.
We need Dr. Carson to speak, and keep speaking, not to run. We need to speak as he does. Put the irrefutable truths out there where they can’t be buried and the running, and the winning will follow.
I have found that most discussions and comments regarding Dr. Carson’s speech have focused in the last few minutes as the strongest challenge to Obama. Personally, I thought that the four scriptures he cited at the beginning of the speech were the most devastating- he nailed him!!
He still has to prove his mettle, but he is a contender, if that is what he chooses.
They will try to demonize him – but since he is an internationally respected and admired individual, a brilliant neurosurgeon with several books and published works, I believe they know (knee-jerk or by instinct) that to try to attack him will just backfire and expose them for the bottom-dwellers posing as “enlightened” leaders that they truly are.
Thus, they will do it subtly, soto voce, so as to not bring attention to his demonization. Or choose to ignore him, hoping it will slip into the collective amnesia our society has for something as “trivial” as a “prayer breakfast.” So their twisted logic goes, at least.
Because they just can’t afford for people the world over to WAKE UP and see the evil that is masquerading as an administration and political party, can they?!
The media ignore Senator Tim Scott the same way. Shame on the Republicans for happily tolerating it. Beltway GOP insiders hate principled conservatives almost as much as the Left does.
Should the GOP be parading Sen. Scott around on their shoulders?
On what predicate…besides race?
Sen. Scott will make his own mark…or not. I think, based on what little I know, he will.
“Should the GOP be parading Sen. Scott around on their shoulders?”
Um, no.
The GOP should be a shrewd as the Democrats with respect to its minority voices…and they probably would be if they were seriously interested in fighting Dems with every resource that they have. But they seem to be more interested in going for sloppy seconds in screwing the American people.
“what predicate…besides race?”
Intelligence, passion, charisma, principled conservatism, a compelling “rags to riches” example of the American dream … is that not enough?
The GOP is missing opportunities to counter the MSM-Dem narrative on supposed GOP racism and bigotry and exclusivity.
But this isn’t only about race. Whether it’s Tim Scott or Bobby Jindal or Ted Cruz or any number of its lilly white conservatives, the GOP has failed to make good use of many of its best and brightest because the party doesn’t want conservatives to get in the way.
Since I don’t really see CNN or any of these jokers on this panel of any relevance, frankly I don’t give a damn what these idiots have to say.
As for Dr. Carson, I so very much respect this man. He is the real deal, a man with a free mind and critical thinking skills, his very presence makes jacka$$es like Candy, CNN and the others on the panel uncomfortable.
Nice side shot of the Crowster …. well, I’ll leave it at that.
CHEW MAIL POUCH
Did you read Althouse? “…1. He had the opportunity to speak at a prayer breakfast with President Obama alongside him on the dais, and he used it to deliver a political lecture. I don’t think that’s right…”2…Who is the speechwriter? If it was Carson himself, alone, I’d be extremely impressed. And extremely surprised…”.
That is really disgusting for an educated legal beagle to write but then she probably has only heard Dr. Carson once. Dr. Carson is widely read, highly educated not only in pediatric neurosurgery but self-educated in economics, freemarket, the Bible. He is extraordinarily well informed. Remember he said his mother required two book reports every week, well, he continues to be a bookworm. I really had a higher opinion of Althouse and read her column regularly. What a disappointment!
She voted Obama in 2008. What more needs be said?
Althouse has a blind spot on the place of faith and community in some people’s lives.
She couldn’t believe T-Paw’s stated reasons for not running, not on evidence, or because he’s a sleeze, but because nobody could possibly put family ahead of career that way.
The idea that career enables family or community, or more broadly that self is subordinate to any other demand, was totally foreign to her.
Well, that’s just Jan the Communist. Remember, her husband Robert “Bank Fraud/Tax Evasion” Creamer basically wrote Obamacare from his cell at the Graybar hotel. What can she do, except clumsily try to bridge to a non sequitur: “…an economy we can live with.”
All I can say is that I enjoyed the anointed one being dressed down in a location where he could not fight back. He squirmed, rolled his eyes and played ignorance but he didn’t fool anyone who had a couple neurons to rub together.
Oh, Candy Crowley is just another hack to be ignored…
We have the video of Dr Ben Carson’s entire speech at the Nat’s Prayer Breakfast posted here…
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com/2013/02/dr-benjamin-carsons-amazing-speech-at.html
I fell hopelessly in love with Dr. Carson last year when he came to Emory to speak and it was learned he rejects Darwinian evolution and actually believes the Bible is truth. The left came down on him like a ton of bricks –
Nearly 500 professors, student and alumni signed a letter (see full text below) expressing concern that Carson, as a 7th Day Adventist, believes in creationist theory that holds that all life on Earth was created by God about 6,000 years ago. It rejects Darwin’s theory of evolution, which is the central principle that animates modern biology, uniting all biological fields under one theoretical tent, and which virtually all modern scientists agree is true. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ben-carsons-creationist-views-spark-controvery-over-commencement-speech/2012/05/08/gIQAi0vsBU_blog.html
He never backed down. You can find his response at the link above.
I fell hopelessly in love with Dr. Carson last year
Hee! Just noticed my icon’s a man. NTTBAWWT
They can’t say he’s stupid.
Wait a bit though, the plantation negro overseers, Jesse and Al, will come out and start something eventually. Carson’s comments cannot be allowed to stand. He’s achieved to much and might give people the wrong ideas. Those on the plantation might actually start thinking about freedom.
That’s because their normal arguments never hold up against the Truth, which is why they, liberals/socialist marxists, must use alinsky-ite tactics to destroy and silent the messenger, for exposing the truth that contradicts and refutes everything they say and do, what they promulgate and purport – anti-Americanism / Socialist Marxism.
Dr Carson’s words are purely American, purely opposite of everything Obama believes, says, and does.. everything Obama implements, ie; Socialist Marxism. As opposed to everything We the People, the Tea Party folks like Dr Carson believe in and support- American core values and principles of Individual Freedom, Liberty, personal responsibility and accountability, and self-determination.
All the while Obama sat bitterly hating every word Dr. Carson spoke, as you see the disdain of contempt look on his face because he hates America, he hates Freedom and Liberty, he hates the U.S. Constitution for We the People- ie; He, Obama, hates We the People.
[…] Dr. Benjamin Carson, Sr., has them mostly silent […]
In terms of character and intelligence, Sharpton is to Carson as the eight track is to iPod.