Nice to see he's getting so much of their attention.
The brilliant retired doctor, author and public speaker Ben Carson has made quite a name for himself in the last few years. Even better, his foes are exactly the people you don't want on your side during a fight. An example of how Carson is getting under the skin of all the right people could be heard on Al Sharpton's radio show Monday. (Audio after the jump)
With Sharpton absent while he hawks his latest ghost-written book, radio host Andre Eggelletion filled in and author, academic and media critic Earl Ofari Hutchinson (shown in photo) was among his guests. Eggelletion wasted no time getting to the main subject at hand (h/t for audio, Brian Maloney, mrctv.org) --
EGGELLETION: Ben Carson, let's start out on him.
HUTCHINSON: Yeah, Ben Carson. (guffaws as if Carson's name is inherently hilarious). I'm intrigued by the good doctor. All right, for those that don't know, oh, a few days ago he was at it again. You know, the rever- (did Hutchinson confuse Carson with Sharpton ...?), no, I'm not going to anoint him, doctor, Dr. Ben, he essentially seems to have a penchant for shoot-from-the-lip kind of little quips and digs and pithy little sayings (operative word here -- "little." As opposed to the august pronouncements from Sharpton, Jackson, et al., that exude gravitas, especially when they rhyme), and always aimed at, it seems, either blacks, women, gays and especially President Obama. Now, what's his latest gem that he's dropped on us -- Obamacare, I love this one, Andre, Obamacare is worse, the worst thing that happened to us since slavery, presumably meaning us African Americans. Now at first glance somebody might say, what's this guy been smoking? (as they might, for example, after nearly anything stated by Marion Barry). I mean, what, is this guy on drugs or alcohol? I mean, to say something as ridiculous, over the top, on another planet, extraterrestrial as that, I mean, almost makes no sense. I mean, it's almost like a laugh track for "Saturday Night Live." (I mean, he really, really means this).
But I submit there's a method to the madness and the method to the madness is this. (Yes, this man does enjoy the sound of his voice). The GOP, Andre's good friends in the GOP, we know that they essentially have been groping, they've been searching, they've been looking desperately, let's put a black face, two or three would be better, a black face on all the dirt, all the muck, all the grime, all the just everything we can think of that's negative that the GOP has made their stock in trade the last few years. Let's put some black faces, maybe some Latino faces, but especially black faces out there because we know how African Americans think about, and rightly so, think about and view the GOP.
Now, Ben Carson, I think, fits into the plan. You take someone who on the surface has a compelling life story. Many people know that. They've read his book, they've heard him lecture over time, they know his tremendous accomplishments as a medical professional overcoming many odds. So he's almost tailor-made to be a stalking horse, Andre, to say stupid things, to say dumb things, but more importantly, to say very, very pointed things. In other words, he's almost -- no, not almost -- he is the black racial hit man. Essentially, he can say things that a lot of white GOPers, conservatives can't, don't feel comfortable saying, because if they say it they'll be branded racist. So they leave it to the Ben Carsons, the Herman Cains and folk like that, the Clarence Thomases when, the rare times he opens his mouth, for them to say these kinds of things, knowing that you might pause, or at least hoping where you might pause for a minute or a second before branding them stupid, dumb and most importantly, bigoted. So I think Carson fits into that.
EGGELLETION: I, I agree with you 100 percent.
"Black racial hit man" -- in other words, traitor to his race. If liberals were honest (unlikely, but bear with me) they'd admit the source of their anger toward Carson and Cain and other black conservatives -- that they deprive liberals of their cherished, reptilian response to criticism of Obama from conservatives, that it is based solely or almost exclusively on race. Only if Carson and Cain and other black conservatives consider themselves abhorrent too.
I'll go out on a limb and suggest that most objective observers would rather hear what a retired John Hopkins neurosurgeon (Carson) says about health care instead of a sociologist (Hutchinson), whatever the hell that actually is.
