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Good for what ails you

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The 2016 Republican nomination may come down to an ophthalmologist and a neurosurgeon.  We already know about the incredible rise of Randall Howard Paul, aka "Rand" Paul, from a Kentucky eye doctor to US Senator on the back of the Tea Party in 2010, but the Tea Party is currently punch drunk in love with Dr. Ben Carson, a noted neurosurgeon, who has been outspoken in his criticism of the Affordable Care Act, taking the President to task at a National Prayer Meeting in 2013, which made him an overnight celebrity.

The President and Vice-President sat politely as the good doctor referenced the Bible, the Founding Fathers,  Alexis de Toqueville, the War of 1812, and the Bald Eagle in his condemnation of "Obamacare."  Dr. Carson has been riding this hobby horse the past year, and has inspired a great number of Teabaggers who see him as their political savior.

Unlike Herman Cain, the only skeletons in the good doctor's closet have long been banished and there is virtually no likelihood of a woman to emerge to challenge his fidelity, unlike "Hermanator" in 2012, who loved to boast of his virility at the expense of Obama.  A "Ben Carson for President" spokesman calculated that all Uncle Ben has to do is get 17% of the "Black vote" and "Hillary loses every swing state in the country."  Pretty compelling numbers, assuming Carson can get through the ugly nomination process.  He doesn't seem to like to field questions.

Carson did place third in a recent CPAC Straw Poll, so one has to consider him a serious contender.  It seems Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers are interested, but Carson is aiming at the religious heart of the rank and file of the Republican Party with his evangelical messages.

He found God toward the end of high school, pulled his inner-city life together and got into Yale Medical School where he excelled in pediatric neurosurgery, eventually being honored by George W. Bush.  You can see his life story in a made-for-TV-movie from 2009.

At a Heritage Foundation conference last year, Carson launched his harshest broadside yet at "Obamacare," claiming the ACA to be the "worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery."  He seems to have forgotten all about Jim Crow, which he is old enough to remember.   No matter, his views are perfectly in sync with the Republican National Committee and political pundits at Fox News where he is often called in to offer his expert views on the subject.

Now that he is being considered as a presidential candidate, Ben has tried to expand his range of views, weighing in on everything from the Ukraine crisis to energy reserves in this op-ed piece for The Desert Sun, repeating the old Cold War maxims Republicans love to hear, but showing he is in tune with the current trends in renewable energy resources without stating any specific one that might get him in trouble.

Yep, Uncle Ben seems to be the man of the hour, the anti-politician who just might save America from the rampages of Socialism we have seen these two terms of Barack Obama, or so some Republicans would like to think.

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