Ben Carson Blames the 'Liberal Press' for Making Him Sound Crazy
Jan 15, 2015 7:42 PM CST
The potential Republican presidential candidate airs his grievances with the liberal media.
Michael C Bender
CORONADO, California—Speaking to Republican Party leaders for the first time since apologizing for plagiarizing parts of a book, neurosurgeon-turned-activist Ben Carson delineated many of his most controversial moments, blaming a liberal media for misquoting him and turning him into a caricature.
“Carson says all these crazy things," Carson said at the Republican National Committee winter meeting, mocking the "craziness narrative" about him in the mainstream media. "Every time a liberal press does something about me they say, 'Oh you know, he’s the one that said Obamacare is worse than slavery.' First of all I never said that. I said it’s the worst thing since slavery.”
Carson, 63, spoke Thursday to about 250 Republicans who dined on apple cider braised chicken breasts and white and chocolate mousse in the Hotel del Coronado's Crown Room, a ballroom with a high-vaulted, sugar pine ceiling decorated with four crown-shaped chandeliers.
"I never said that."
Ben Carson
It was the first chance for many in the room to hear Carson, who said he has visited four to five states per week during the past year while considering whether to run for president in 2016. A renowned surgeon who speaks just louder than a whisper, Carson has captivated much of the party's conservative base. In Iowa, which holds the nation's first presidential nominating contest, he was behind only Mitt Romney as the first choice of Republican caucus-goers, according to the Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll in October.
Carson was warmly received by the Republican crowd that had gathered near San Diego, earning a standing ovation when he started and winning applause throughout his 35-minute speech. Still, he failed to win over many converts. "Oh, no," Joanne Moore, a California Republican attorney in California, said when asked whether she'd consider back him for president. "That would be like throwing me into an operating room. You're going to die."
His lack of experience was among the litany of potential deficiencies, controversies and hurdles Carson tried to address during his speech.
“A lot of people have said to me, ‘Now, why would you even think about running for public office? You have no political experience,’” Carson said. "Anybody who says that has not worked in an academic medical center."
“I will confess," he added, "I do not have experience in certain things, like empowering special interest groups, and growing the government, and wasting taxpayers' money, and dishonoring our military, and deserting our allies, and lying to the people and submitting to the PC police. I have no experience in that and I hope to never have any experience in that.”
Carson denied he was a plant for a glyconutrients company, saying, "A lot of companies hire me." He never compared the U.S. to Nazi Germany, he said. He denied equating homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality.
"I never said that," Carson said. "But they have to say that. It has to fit their craziness narrative because they can’t find anything else."
Carson did acknowledge that "mistakes were made" in his 2012 book, parts of which were plagiarized. "It was a historical book and it had a lot of quotations," Carson said. "We happened to miss a couple. I take responsibility for that."
Thomas Buestrin, the Wisconsin finance director for Ronald Reagan's presidential campaigns in 1976 and 1980, said Carson was "getting it all out in the open."
"I don't think he should do it every time he speaks, but this is a friendly group," Buestrin said. "I didn't disagree with anything he said."
Carson painted himself as someone who could bring excitement to the presidential race, and inspire new voters.
"I've heard so many people say, 'I've never been involved in politics, but now I think I'm going to get involved. And if you run, I'm going to volunteer, I think I'm going to sell my house,'" Carson said. "I don't want them to do that, obviously."
Huckabee: ‘Cultural Divide’ Stops Obama Kids From Liking ‘Wholesome’ Music
Source: The Raw Story & ABC News 'This Week'
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee suggested on Sunday that President Barack Obama had not taught his children that Beyonce’s music was not “wholesome” because the Obamas lived on the wrong side of the “cultural divide.” Huckabee had said that he didn’t understand why the Obamas could be so concerned about what their daughters ate, “and yet they don’t see anything that might not be suitable for a teen in some of the lyrical content and choreography of Beyoncé.”
On Sunday, the former Arkansas governor told ABC host Martha Raddatz that people needed understand the “context” of his comments. “Beyonce is a wonderful talent,” he admitted. “My point is, she doesn’t have to do some of the things that she does in the lyrics because it’s not necessary. She has nothing to make up for. She’s an amazing talent.”
“My point was, even in speaking about the Obamas, and I said about them in book, they’re great parents,” Huckabee continued. “But it was President Obama in Glamour who said that some of the lyrics, he won’t listen to with his daughters because it embarrasses him.” “Well, here’s my point, if it embarrasses you then why would you possibly think it’s wholesome for your children to put it into their heads?”
Huckabee, who recently quit his Fox News hosting job to explore a presidential campaign, argued that Barack and Michelle Obama were “great parents… they’re careful about making sure their kids get a lot of vegetables and eat right.” “Well, what you put in your brain is also important,” he added. “It’s about this cultural divide, the disconnect between the three bubbles of New York, D.C. and Hollywood vs. the land of ‘Gods, Guns, Grits and Gravy.’”
Read more:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/huckabee-defends-beyonce-slam-cultural-divide-stops-obama-kids-from-liking-wholesome-music/
Smoking Gun? Remember how Perry kept saying there was an EMERGENCY at the border??
Houston Chronicle may have dug up real reason Perry vetoed funding
for the Public Integrity Unit (and not the fact that head of unit had a DUI)....
Officials said the earlier Public Integrity Unit investigation focused on more than $20 million in no-bid contracts given to Virginia defense contractor Abrams Learning and Information Systems Inc. to help Texas develop its border security strategies.
The Virginia firm, founded by retired Army Gen. John Abrams, initially got a $471,800 contract in March 2006 to help the state establish a Border Security Operations Center in Austin, according to state documents. The deal went through the no-bid process because officials said it was in response to "an emergency."
An internal memo that later surfaced in news reports showed that the declaration of an emergency was based on public statements by Perry, who at the time was in a tough re-election campaign in which border security was a big issue.
Three months after its first contract, Abrams received a second emergency deal, for $679,600, that greatly expanded the company's responsibilities. Over time, state records show, officials quietly added more and more responsibilities to the contracts until they grew to more than $20 million and covered work in most segments of the state's growing border-security programs.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/texas/article/Perry-veto-killed-investigation-into-no-bid-6021479.php?t=5ef6a4cc2829895b84&cmpid=twitter-premium
New Jersey Misused $54 Million Meant to Protect Children from Lead Poisoning
A decade-old program designed to get lead out of the home lives of children in New Jersey has been routinely underfunded despite the dictates of state law.
An investigation by the Asbury Park Press found lawmakers, including Republican and Democratic governors, approved the shift of $54 million in funding from the Lead Hazard Control Assistance Fund (pdf) over a 10-year period.
“At least $77 million and up to $154 million in dedicated sales tax revenues was supposed to go into the lead fund through fiscal 2015,” journalist Todd Bates reported. “But only $23.3 million went to the fund to date.” Only once, in 2006, was the fund fully seeded with tax revenues collected from the sale of paints and surface coatings, the newspaper discovered.
Arnold Cohen, senior policy coordinator at the Trenton-based Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey, told Bates: “It's another horrible example of the governor taking money that was designated for an important purpose and putting it in the general fund.”
The decision to divert the money, which was used to pay state bills and salaries, left the lead fund nearly empty. Lawmakers have yet to approve legislation that would restore some monies into it.
Meanwhile, thousands of children have been left at risk to lead exposure and poisoning, which can result in brain damage, learning disabilities and other health problems. Every year, above-average lead contamination is found in more than 5,000 New Jersey children, most of whom are low-income minorities who live in cities where older buildings were made with lead-based materials, according to Bates.
There are more than half a million American children who have higher than normal levels of lead contamination.
@bobsal u1553115,
This is why people question you Bob. You want to call out CJ, which is fine, but MM questions you, and you only come back with a question. You are really on the loosing end of this debate. You can't and won't answer questions. You played the same game with me when it came to answering questons about why you consider yourself a Republican.
You can only turn things around and deflect. It really is a defense that is worthy of you and your inability to answer questions.
What makes you a better expert on Islam then CJ?
Can you imagine a GOP president or Romney doing this? Nope, neither can I imagine it.
@Baldimo,
He did in fact answer your questions about why he is a Republican. I saw it and read it. And his answer was cogent. The radical right stole his party from him and perverted it.
@MontereyJack,
It took him months of being asked to share his reasons, and he finally shared his reasons less then a month ago. I give him no credit as I give others no credit who answer a question with a question.
He's not a Republican, he might be a little right of center, but it really doesn't show. He's a Democrat and he knows it. Claiming to be Republican only gives him a "reason" to blast the GOP.
It’s Official: President Obama Is The Best Economic President In Modern Times
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/09/06/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/
Maybe the GOP can find a way to impeach him over this! (cynical)
Rupert Murdoch Slams Mitt Romney – Former Romney Backers Express Doubts About 2016
http://samuel-warde.com/2015/01/former-romney-backers-not-sure-this-time/
