Ben Carson rises, delivering same tune as Trump in a different key

Ben Carson, a renowned brain surgeon turned presidential aspirant, can accurately boast that he is the only candidate who voters approach on the campaign to thank for his medical services.

 “There’s hardly an event we go to where someone doesn’t come up and say, ‘You saved my wife’s life, you saved my sister’s life, you saved my niece’s life, thank you so much,’” said Doug Watts, spokesman for the campaign. “There’s no one more accomplished in the race. He’s an American hero and he has a resume for anyone to marvel at.”

Indeed, Carson, the only African-American candidate in the race, has a biography that sets him apart from his competitors. Raised by a single mom with only a third-grade education in inner-city Detroit, Carson went on to become the head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the first African-American and youngest doctor to hold the position. In 1997, he led a team of surgeons in successfully separating conjoined twins attached at the head, an accomplishment that led him to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.   

It’s that unique background mixed with a brand of fiery conservatism that appeals to grassroots Republican activists, all wrapped in a more understated demeanor than his rival, Donald Trump, that appear to be propelling Carson closer to the top tier of the 2012 GOP nominating contest. A Monmouth University poll, released Thursday, found Carson in second place nationally among Republican and Republican-leaning voters, securing 18 percent of the vote versus Trump’s 30 percent.

In particular, Carson appears to be making inroads among evangelicals and social conservatives in Iowa, the state that holds the crucial first in the nation caucuses. There, Carson has secured 18 percent of the vote, to Trump’s 23 percent, according to a recent Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll.

“He’s genuine, he’s nice, he’s smart, he understands the issues and he connects with people,” said state Sen. Rob Taylor, Carson’s Iowa co-chair.  “He’s not a political insider—he comes from the private sector, from health care, business and philanthropy, and all three of those sectors connect and affect people in this state.”

But don’t expect Carson, another political outsider with no experience in elected office, to soothe the Republican establishment. He may lack Trump’s bombastic manner, but Carson is no stranger to controversy and some observers have questioned whether he’s any more electable than Trump.

Watts concedes that Carson’s essential message was the same as the larger-than-life business mogul’s and tapping into the same rising frustration from GOP voters—just delivered in a more low-key way.

“It’s a similar song, a similar tune in a different key and I think people make a choice of which key they like,” he said. “I understand the brashness of Donald Trump…but the quiet appeal and the quiet leadership of someone of Dr. Carson’s intellect appeals to a lot of voters.”

Carson became a darling of conservative media in 2013 when he delivered a scathing assessment of the Obama administration’s policies at the National Prayer Breakfast, a typically nonpartisan venue, standing only feet away from where President Barack Obama himself sat. Comparing the United States to ancient Rome, Carson railed, "Moral decay. Fiscal irresponsibility. They destroyed themselves. If you don’t think that can happen to America, you get out your books and you start reading."

The calls for him to run for president began shortly thereafter, despite Carson’s lack of political experience.

Since then, Carson has said Obamacare, the administration’s signature health care law, is “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery,” and that being gay is a choice, citing people who go into prison and change their sexual orientation as an example. He has called for the dismantling of the Department of Veterans Affairs and cited the Bible in pointing out the wisdom of a flat tax. And despite conducting research himself as a neurosurgeon that used tissue from aborted fetuses and referring patients to doctors who performed abortions, Carson has campaigned as stridently anti-abortion and called for the defunding of Planned Parenthood, an organization that came under fire last month for conducting such research.  

Steffen Schmidt, a political science professor at Iowa State University and a long-time observer of the Iowa caucuses, said outsider firebrands like Carson have a certain currency with voters who are disenchanted with the system of governance as it stands and are willing to try something new.

“There is a real crisis in the legitimacy of politicians and especially elected politicians at the national level,” he said. “It’s not surprising that the voters are frustrated and essentially looking for saviors— people who can try something different and don’t have that political baggage.”