Ben Carson's advisErs think he's stupid

[meltoine]

Title mine. 

nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/11/ben-carson-presidency-terrifies-carson-advisers.html?mid=facebook_nymag#

Ben Carson has now topped the Republican primary polls long enough that, perhaps in combination with the recent attack in Paris, his advisers now appear genuinely terrified that he might be elected president and are doing everything in their power to stop it. Or else they hate him. Whatever the reason, in a series of on-the-record interviews with New York Times reporter Trip Gabriel, Carson advisers have supplied several brutal assessments of his foreign-policy acumen, or complete lack thereof.

Former CIA director Michael Hayden said on "Morning Joe," “I had one lengthy phone call with Ben Carson two months ago, and his instincts are all right, but this is a database in which he’s very unfamiliar.” Okay, so Carson came into this campaign lacking basic factual knowledge of world affairs.

Still, he has good instincts, right? No! Armstrong Williams, Carson’s business manager, tells Gabriel that Carson gave an ignorant interview to Fox News because he choked in the clutch: “He’s been briefed on it so many times,” he said. “I guess he just froze.”

Okay, so he lacks background knowledge, and he freezes up in the face of questioning. But at least he’s able to process information in calm, private settings, right? No! Duane R. Clarridge, a top Carson adviser on the Middle East, tells Gabriel, “Nobody has been able to sit down with him and have him get one iota of intelligent information about the Middle East.”

Let's sum up what we have learned. The candidate’s advisers are saying on the record he doesn’t know anything, has trouble learning anything, and cannot seem to recall even what little information he has managed to assimilate. I don’t see how a Carson presidency could go wrong.

[elleblue]

This feels like a test. And I'm concerned at least half of our populace will fail.

[earlgreyhot]

I wish I could visit some of the candidates brains just to see what the hell they are thinking.

[ajj]

I just talked to someone on Sunday that thinks Carson is the smartest person ever. He wants him for president. I didn't know what to say. There is no denying that Carson was great at his job. But I'm flabbergasted by the people that assume that automatically translates to him being smart at all the things. It's like I couldn't even let that conversation go any further because I knew how it would end, so I just changed the subject.

[mominatrix]

grammarist.com/spelling/adviser-advisor/


No?

[Velar Fricative]

But who cares about other countries and stuff? AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!

[WanderingWinoZ]

The fact that Carson's entire campaign may have just been an MLM scheme to start with & got way out of hand, totally cracks me up.

talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/is-carson-for-prez-a-direct-mail-scam
Is Carson For Prez A Direct Mail Scam?


If you remember the plot of Mel Brooks' classic movie, The Producers, the idea was that the scammers set out to produce the worst possible play imaginable to be certain it would close after one night. Yet, they made it so bad it broke through the membrane of awful into the sublime. And they were screwed. Which brings us to the Ben Carson campaign. There is a lot of evidence, coming from a variety of angles, that Carson for President is actually a direct mail scam. Or at least that it started that way.

First, let me explain a bit about what I mean.

Hucksters and cheats can be found everywhere. But particularly on the right there is a significant layer of people in the business of fleecing outraged and/or low-information conservatives of their money. Some of it you see with those advertisements for buying gold on Fox News. Another is supplements! Supplements, supplements, supplements - a topic we'll get back to, given Carson's controversial relationship with supplement maker Mannatech. But the big thing on the right are various fundraising groups that exist largely to fundraise. So for instance, you'll have Americans Against RINOs which sends out a ton of direct mail, raises lots of money from conservatives who've just had it up to here with RINOs like Boehner and McCain and McConnell selling the country out to Obama. But instead of that money going to fight the RINOs, most of the money goes back into raising more money.

So where's the money going? Well, the direct mail business is very lucrative. And usually you'll find that Americans Against RINOs has a tight relationship with AAR Direct Mail Inc which is making a pretty penny servicing Americans Against RINOs. You get the idea. Obviously there are crooked charities that run this way. But it's a prevalent model on the right.

And Ben Carson's campaign look a bit similar. Ed Kilgore looked at some of the details here. David Graham has more here at The Altantic. Carson's raising a lot of money from small donors - the usual marks. And at least until recently he's shown very little inclination to invest in a field operation or really any of the things campaign raise money to do.

Now there are some explanations for this. Fundraising is often front loaded. You need to pour in money at the outset to build lists you'll harvest more money from. And Carson's not a 'traditional' candidate so maybe he doesn't need a campaign. But these are the sorts of things you usually get from folks who are soaking their givers.

There are other versions of this story. Like why is Mike Huckabee running for President? Because he thinks he's going to be president? Or because of the next Fox News gig or to draw a check or just to keep the name out there for the next promotion deal for Golds R' Us or your home bunker and survival kit? There was some hint of this with the Gingrich campaign in 2012 before he improbably took off for his run as the anti-Romney.

In any case, as I said, whatever role Carson did or didn't have with Mannatech, that's a bit of a tell for me since, as I said, 'supplements' are an endemic part of the wingnut fleecing industry. And to be clear, I'm not saying that all vitamins and supplements are scams. But the ones that are scams know that conservative direct mail and digital advertising is the best place to go to sell their nostrums.

Back a couple weeks ago, one of the big questions was whether Trey Gowdy was fundraising off Benghazi. Well, "Trey Gowdy" was raising tons of money. But most of that was groups that at least had no legal connection to Gowdy and weren't sending the money to Gowdy. And, you guessed it, most of the money they raise for "Trey Gowdy" goes into raising more money for "Trey Gowdy" or maybe next for "Ben Carson". Who knows? It's a dirty business.

Do I think Carson's going to grab all the money and run off to Venezuela if he gets the nomination? No. I'm sure he's pretty into this right now. But "Ben Carson" clearly comes out of this world. And his operation still seems mired in it.

[aurora]

Nov 17, 2015 18:40:05 GMT -5 mominatrix said:

grammarist.com/spelling/adviser-advisor/


No?

Advisor is still more common in academic circles.

Which I realize is irrelevant to this story.

And I know I just started a sentence with "which," and another one with "and."

[aurora]

Nov 17, 2015 18:03:22 GMT -5 earlgreyhot said:

I wish I could visit some of the candidates brains just to see what the hell they are thinking.

I actually think some of them are thinking "how the f*** did I get here, and what do I do now?"

[meltoine]

Nov 17, 2015 18:40:05 GMT -5 mominatrix said:

grammarist.com/spelling/adviser-advisor/


No?

See, I wrote advisors first, then the link tripped me up because it says advisers, so I changed it. Which is why it's randomly capitalized. 

[mominatrix]

Nov 17, 2015 19:13:31 GMT -5 meltoine said:

Nov 17, 2015 18:40:05 GMT -5 mominatrix said:

grammarist.com/spelling/adviser-advisor/


No?

See, I wrote advisors first, then the link tripped me up because it says advisers, so I changed it. Which is why it's randomly capitalized. 

Ah! I thought you were calling the NYT on a grammar issue.



Edit...
NY mag! Argh!

[ttt]

Every time I read anything about Ben Carson, I think of him in this:

[ajj]

Nov 17, 2015 21:56:30 GMT -5 ttt said:

Every time I read anything about Ben Carson, I think of him in this:

   Tears! I can't stop laughing!

[sushi]

Nov 17, 2015 21:56:30 GMT -5 ttt said:

Every time I read anything about Ben Carson, I think of him in this

Me, too. His was the only genuinely funny bit.

This pen goes here

Shh, I'm doing a puzzle.