Ben Carson, who has recently been gaining ground as a Republican presidential candidate and was reported to be the leading candidate in Michigan as recently as last week, is widely acknowledged as a supremely gifted surgeon. He is quickly gaining a reputation as an equally gifted liar. Or, for those who prefer the kinder, gentler, and more careful description, there is growing concern in certain circles that Dr. Carson may be suffering from a troubling difficulty discerning a measurable difference between what is probably true and what is, well, you know, not.
Predictably, Carson has been striking out at members of the media, claiming that this is all part of some “witch hunt”, and that no such vetting process was ever conducted against President Barack Obama or frontrunner Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Seriously? Obama and Clinton were given a pass by the media?
Yeah. OK. Moving on.
The list of wild and crazy utterances delivered by Carson since he began his quest for the nation’s highest office has gotten so long that at some point someone is likely to ask whether Dr. Carson is feeling OK, or whether he has just plain snapped and gone Fruit Loops. Is he one of those guys who is so bright that his brain occasionally jumps the track, or what exactly is going on here? Because how can anyone who is known to be so brilliant say with a straight face that the pyramids were probably used as grain silos? Or that Obamacare is the worst thing since slavery? And that’s just for starters.
What began the currently – and hotly – trending story build-up related to Dr. Carson’s fibs was the recent discovery that Carson was probably lying about a certain dramatized portion of his childhood where he claimed that he once tried to stab a friend of his named Bob in a fit of crazed, pathological rage. But the knife struck Bob’s belt buckle and broke, after which the young Dr. Carson apparently apologized to Bob (good move), then ran home and found God. Or something like that. From CNN:
“He writes in ‘Gifted Hands’ that his religious epiphany took place in the bathroom of his family’s tiny home in southwest Detroit, after he says he had tried to kill a young friend over a dispute about what music to listen to on the radio. It was the last in a string of violent acts that Carson says were spurred by a roiling anger that threatened to derail his dream of becoming a doctor.
Crying, and praying to God for deliverance, Carson found his answer when he picked up a Bible and opened it to the book of Proverbs and a passage on the importance of controlling one’s temper.
Carson writes in his book that he spoke directly to God in that moment: ‘Lord, despite what all the experts tell me, You can change me. You can free me forever from this destructive personality trait.’
When he left that bathroom, he told voters at the September Commonwealth Club event in San Francisco, ‘I was a different person’.”
So, let’s pause here for a moment, shall we? Because even before the intense media scrutiny of this particular life-altering episode began, one would have raised a severely arched eyebrow when reading this section of Carson’s book, later made into a movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr. Because, let’s face it, this sounds like a made-for-TV movie moment if there ever was one. As in a moment that probably never happened except in the overactive imagination of…someone. And at least nine of Carson’s childhood acquaintances and neighbors have questions too, which is why they all spoke up to say that none of this rings true with them. Once again from CNN:
“The violent episodes he has detailed in his book, in public statements and in interviews, include punching a classmate in the face with his hand wrapped around a lock, leaving a bloody three-inch gash in the boy’s forehead; attempting to attack his own mother with a hammer following an argument over clothes; hurling a large rock at a boy, which broke the youth’s glasses and smashed his nose; and, finally, thrusting a knife at the belly of his friend with such force that the blade snapped when it luckily struck a belt buckle covered by the boy’s clothes.
‘I was trying to kill somebody,’ Carson said, describing the incident — which he has said occurred at age 14 in ninth grade — during a September forum at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
But nine friends, classmates, and neighbors who grew up with Carson told CNN they have no memory of the anger or violence the candidate has described.”
Later in the story, several of those childhood neighbors and schoolmates discuss in much more detail why Carson’s story appears to be completely fabricated. But then came the West Point story, where Carson claimed he had dinner with General William Westmoreland, who apparently was so impressed with young Carson that he encouraged him to apply to Westpoint. Carson claims he did so, and that the folks at Westpoint were so blown away that they offered him a full scholarship! Which, of course, he turned down…
Except that there is no such thing as a full scholarship to Westpoint, because Westpoint is tuition free. From Politico, which broke the story:
“Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Friday conceded that he never applied nor was granted admission to West Point and attempted to recast his previous claims of a full scholarship to the military academy — despite numerous public and written statements to the contrary over the last few decades.
West Point has occupied a central place in Carson’s personal story for years. According to a tale told in his book, “Gifted Hands,” the then-17 year old was introduced in 1969 to Gen. William Westmoreland, who had just ended his command of U.S. forces in Vietnam, and the two dined together. That meeting, according to Carson’s telling, was followed by the offer of a “full scholarship” to the military academy.
West Point, however, has no record of Carson applying, much less being extended admission.
‘In 1969, those who would have completed the entire process would have received their acceptance letters from the Army Adjutant General,’ said Theresa Brinkerhoff, a spokeswoman for the academy. She said West Point has no records that indicate Carson even began the application process. ‘If he chose to pursue (the application process), then we would have records indicating such,’ she said.
When presented by POLITICO with these facts, Carson’s campaign conceded he never applied.”
But wait. There’s more. There’s that other episode, also recounted in “Gifted Hands,” where Carson talked about how he discovered he was the most honest student in the classroom at Yale University. From Charles Blow’s column in The New York Times:
“On Friday, The Wall Street Journal looked into another episode: “In his 1990 autobiography, ‘Gifted Hands,’ Mr. Carson writes of a Yale psychology professor who told Mr. Carson, then a junior, and the other students in the class — identified by Mr. Carson as Perceptions 301 — that their final exam papers had ‘inadvertently burned,’ requiring all 150 students to retake it. The new exam, Mr. Carson recalled in the book, was much tougher. All the students but Mr. Carson walked out. ‘The professor came toward me. With her was a photographer for the Yale Daily News who paused and snapped my picture,’ Mr. Carson wrote. ‘ “A hoax,” the teacher said. “We wanted to see who was the most honest student in the class.” ’ Mr. Carson wrote that the professor handed him a $10 bill.”
But here is the kicker, according to The Journal: “No photo identifying Mr. Carson as a student ever ran, according to the Yale Daily News archives, and no stories from that era mention a class called Perceptions 301. Yale Librarian Claryn Spies said Friday there was no psychology course by that name or class number during any of Mr. Carson’s years at Yale.”
But the Wall Street Journal wasn’t through with Carson yet. Carson also claimed that he shielded white students at his school from the rioting that occurred after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968. According to Raw Story:
“The Journal could find no evidence the event occurred.
‘It may have happened, but I didn’t see it myself or hear about it,’ Gregory Vartanian, a white high school classmate of Carson’s who was on ROTC with him and is now a retired U.S. Marshal, told the Journal.
In Carson’s account to the Journal last month, black students unleashed fury and grief over the slaying of King on white classmates at Detroit’s Southwestern High. As a junior, Carson had a key to the biology lab because he worked there part-time. Carson claimed he hid a few frightened white students inside to shield them from the unrest. He could not recall any of their names.
None of the half-dozen former classmates of Carson or his high school physics teacher could recall white students hiding from rioting the in the biology lab when interviewed by the Journal — though they all remembered the riot itself.”
So what gives? Why would such a tremendously prominent and gifted black man apply a blowtorch to his own hard-fought legacy at this point in his life? Knowing how much harder he had to work than everyone else to achieve what he did? Why would he drench himself in invented Tales From the ‘Hood? Wasn’t his own real life story enough? Wasn’t it enough to grow up as a poor black kid from Detroit who went on to reach stellar heights of accomplishment? Did he think inventing a story about stabbing his friend, beating folks with bats, and other stories of aimless rage would make him more authentically black? Did the narrative of the converted ‘angry black male’ who found Jesus sound better at focus groups than the frustrated black nerd? Was the story of him saving terrified white students from the wrath of his fellow angry black classmates supposed to be some sort of redemption tale?
Dr. Ben Carson was once considered to be one of the most admired men in America because of his truly inspirational life story. The parts of his life story that are known to be true are more than enough to inspire anyone. He could have been the pride of Detroit and a national hero and role model.
Instead, he is now at risk of becoming a national joke and punchline.
