Thursday, August 20, 2015

Guardian has an August 19, 2015, item profiling Ben Carson. Then, a segue to the shoe drops on family turf.

First, Carson, this link, brief excerpting:

Throughout his campaign for president, Carson has touted his social conservative bona fides, portraying himself as an uncompromising hardliner on issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion, in particular, even though his record on the latter is actually somewhat mixed.

[...] even as he has attacked Planned Parenthood, Carson has stood by his support for fetal tissue research – which he has carried out himself in his own medical career.

He has also expressed support for the use of RU-486, an abortion pill opposed by the pro-life community since it is typically administered five to seven weeks into a pregnancy.

Conservatives, at least for now, do not seem to be troubled by Carson’s past record on abortion, [...]

“There appears to be a strong contingent of ‘anyone that is not of DC’ voters in the primary, people who want something new, and they keep rearranging themselves among Trump, Carly [Fiorina], and Carson, with a few landing on [Ted] Cruz or [Rand] Paul,” Rory Cooper, a Republican strategist who is not affiliated with any 2016 candidates, told the Guardian. [...]

While Carson is personally wealthy due to his success as a surgeon and service on several corporate boards, he is no Trump.

Whereas Trump does not have to rely on fundraising, Carson’s fledging political career has been plagued by a number of super PACs which use his name to raise money from of the conservative faithful.

One organization, the Draft Ben Carson Committee, raised $12.2m in the period before he announced his campaign and spent $12m of that total, mostly on fundraising. Its successor, the 2016 Committee, spends large sums of money on pro-Carson billboards and distributing copies of a book, written by one of the group’s leaders, arguing why Carson can win. These activities have siphoned money, energy and volunteer resources away from the Carson campaign and undermined efforts to directly promote his candidacy.

[...] Carson nonetheless appears unfazed and has pressed on in his bid to dethrone Trump as the official Republican frontrunner. He embarked on a tour of the US-Mexico border on Wednesday, tapping into the contentious issue of immigration that Trump has exploited to great success since launching his own campaign.

[links in original omitted] How does a black Republican candidate square with the Nixon Southern Strategy? I.e., does a black man square well with red necks? Or has the south changed, from 1954 days, when Brown v. Board of Education was fresh, and with George Wallace's candidacy between then and now? There has recently been the flag stuff. But - Besides flag-wise, do you believe there's been a change?

Next, shoe fly (yes, the children's song goes "shoo fly ..." but homophones for today rule - and as a bonus for diligent readers wanting real kitsch, this link).

SHOE FLY, put another way, is PLEASE, PLEASE, NOT MORE OF THE SAME

Wikipedia's "Bushduck.png" photo; see also their text.

One has to ask, would Jeb have been swift enough to duck. Of interest, the thrown shoe, Bushduck, happened in December 2008, mere months after W and his econ team in September of that year totally tanked the securitized mortgage derivatives market, thereby tanking the entire economy so badly that we have not yet fully recovered. A good bet is Jeb in W's place would not have ducked that one either.

Please, anyone but Jeb. Even [shudder] Ted Cruz. Jeb is that bad, the family that bad going back to Prescott's days at Brown Brothers Harriman.

____________UPDATE____________
Did any reader adventurous enough to follow that real kitsch link make it past the 30 second mark?

_________FURTHER UPDATE________
Guardian has Aug. 19 Huckabee coverage too. At least Huckabee is not Jeb, but beyond that ...

Same dateline, Planned Parenthood coverage at Guardian.