Seriously, is the man even still running for president?
When Saturday Night Live’s Will Ferrell reprised his role of George W. Bush a few weeks ago, he offered commentary on the current candidates.
When it came time to talk about Ben Carson, his chief complaint was that the guy talked so quietly he couldn’t even hear him.
And to be honest, I kind of have to agree.
Who kidnapped Ben Carson? Just a few months ago, this guy was actually leading some polls in Iowa, and yet just days away from the caucuses, he appears to be hanging out with Carmen San Diego and Waldo.
That’s a ’90s reference if you don’t get it… What I mean is where in the world is Ben Carson?
Talk About a Fall from Grace
I’ll go ahead and confess in full disclosure that I was never a big Ben Carson fan.
Fascinatingly enough, part of it was indeed due to the way he talked. He does sound a little quiet, whispery, and honestly weird.
Then when the stories came out that he might’ve fabricated or exaggerated the time he almost stabbed a kid growing up, it kind of creeped me out a little bit.
Love it or hate it, the American masses vote their perception of people almost to a fault.
There is no doubt in my mind that people would rather have a beer with former President George W. Bush than potential President Al Gore.
There is no doubt in my mind that people would rather go to a party hosted by former President Bill Clinton than former President George Bush Senior.
I’m not saying presidential politics are the equivalent of a high school popularity contest, but there is certainly an element to it.
According to Real Clear Politics polling, on October 25, 2015, Ben Carson led the polls in Iowa with 29.2%.
According to that same poll as of today, Carson is bringing in a whopping 8.2%.
In just three months’ time, Carson went from being the leading candidate to a distant fourth. And yet as the elections near, we don’t hear from the guy.
I mean, for a person who said he was quick to stab another human being, he certainly knows how to give up on a fight quite quickly.
The National Election
But hey, you might say this is just Iowa, and New Hampshire is right around the corner.
Except in New Hampshire, the man is polling in sixth place after falling from a respectable second.
Nationally he is still polling around fourth, but it is a pretty distant fourth.
It is a fascinating fall from grace, and it makes you wonder if the guy is still in the election just to please donors to date.
The one candidate who seems to have benefited from his fall is Ted Cruz, and remarkably, the knock on Cruz is that no one seems to really like him, either.
Bob Dole trashed the guy, and no one in the Senate seems to be in his fan club.
Rather, they are picking him as the alternative to Donald Trump the way a kid eats his vegetables.
And while support for Trump drops off steeply once you get past the diehard fans, it does seem that the GOP is having trouble coming up with a likable alternative.
The thought of Carson weirded them out, and now they choke on the broccoli that is Ted Cruz. Cruz, at least, is still fighting for the nomination, whereas Carson is just somewhere in the closet talking quietly to himself.
If you support Ben Carson, that’s fine — a good number of people still do. But a remarkably larger number of people used to support Ben Carson, and that means something.
It is quite common in politics for a nobody to rise from obscurity and steal the nomination, but it is rare for a leader to fall from grace and rise again from the ashes.
The American public got to know Ben Carson, and it appears they did not like what they saw.
Either that, or someone kidnapped Ben Carson. So I’ll ask again: Where in the world is Carmen San Diego… I mean, Ben Carson?
