HIGH NOON: CARSON VERSUS TRUMP: As Roger Simon writes, “indeed, it’s not difficult to envision Ben Carson as a kind of Gary Cooper-type for our time, come to clean up America and return her to her former greatness. The more humble he is in the process, the better, the more likely to succeed in the deepest sense:”
Of all candidates, Carson’s qualifications to handle the first of these disasters is unparalleled. We know less of his qualifications for the second, but he says he has been boning up on foreign policy and (hello, Hugh Hewitt) he should be tested on that at the debate Wednesday. My guess is that, unlike Donald Trump, Carson will know the difference between Hamas and Hezbollah.
This is not to say I bear any enmity toward Trump. On the contrary, his influence on the electoral season has been hugely positive on balance. He has brought attention to a process that is often largely ignored. But more than that, his focus on the immigration crisis has proven prescient, not just because of the murderous domestic behavior of illegal aliens (Fisherman’s Wharf, etc.) but because of the escalating migrant crisis in Europe and the Middle East that is bound to hit our shores. He has also spoken out definitively against the Iran deal. Bravo, Donald!
I just think, however, that the time is ripe for Gary Cooper. The bigger question is whether America is ready for him. Do we deserve Ben Carson if he is as moral a person as he appears to be? Or will his political inexperience prove to be more important than some of us think? Is a decent man unfit to be president in the modern world?
RELATED: A Timely Reminder from Eisenhower and Reagan.
