For weeks now, Joe Scarborough has been expressing befuddlement over Ben Carson's appeal. It boiled over on today's Morning Joe, as Scarborough went on an extended anti-Carson rant.
Scarborough unleashed after clips were played from town halls in Iowa and New Hampshire in which Republican voters expressed strong support for the notion of Carson as a qualified president. Calling Carson unqualified to be president, Joe railed that he'd seen people like Carson on school boards who got into trouble because they were in "over their heads."
Scarborough took a pre-emptive shot at "idiots" who would call him a Manhattan elitist. "I'm not being an elitist when I say Ben Carson is not qualified to be President of the United States."
Scarborough sought to assure conservatives: "I don't want [the GOP] to be a moderate party . . . I want a rock-ribbed conservative who can kick ass and not only win elections but can take this country back. And a mellow dude who happened to know how to take conjoined twins apart, that's not the ticket."
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I still have a blind spot about Ben Carson. I have seen guys and women running for City Council in Pensacola, Florida who were good people, who got in there and because they didn't know how to govern, they had no experience, they didn't know how to negotiate, they didn't know how to do deals they didn't know how to work with other people, they didn't know how to handle constituent services, that on a local level in Pensacola, Florida, they were a disaster.
I have seen people on school boards that were good, Christian people. That got elected because they were good, Christian people. They went on school boards and ended up with grand juries coming after them not because they were bad people but because they were so over their heads on the Escambia County school board!
And people are looking at this guy and saying he's a good, decent, Christian guy and they are ready for him to be President of the United States. I am sorry, I'm going to stop right here. And I'm not going to get on this train where I say I understand why people would vote for Ben Carson as President of the United States. And I can tell you, we're going down a dangerous path as a party and a dangerous path as a country if we Republicans or Democrats start electing people because they're nice Christian folk
. . .
I just want to say right here that, [gestures at camerman to focus on him] right here, right here, that, right here. Okay, I know there are a couple of idiots that are going to say ohh, Manhattan elites and Joe Scarborough, da da da da. No, all of these people [in the focus groups], I know them. They all voted for me. And quite frankly if I ran again they would vote for me again despite what I'm saying right now about Ben Carson. I'm not being an elitist when I say Ben Carson is not qualified to be President of the United States. I don't get why they aren't talking about someone who can actually get us out of the mess--I say this as a Republican--Barack Obama has put us in
. . .
This is not about me not getting my party. I don't want it to be a moderate party, I don't want it to be a Rockefeller. I want a rock rib conservative that can kick ass and not only win elections but can take this country back and a mellow dude who happened to know how to get conjoined twins taken apart, that's not the ticket.
