Ben Carson's Self-Summary At 2nd GOP Presidential Candidate Debate



Alan: Ben Carson's 3rd-grade-educated mother instilled a work ethic that instilled Carson's evangelical belief that anyone can pull himself up by his own bootstraps.

American conservatives are powerfully drawn to "The Good News" of personal responsibility, coupled with will power.

These twin virtues assure the GOP rank-and-file that "the world can be set straight" - simply and with not need for charitableness or government intervention.

Despite the widespread appeal of this view, I doubt there is an extended family in America that does not harbor someone who is incapable of raising herself up.

"We hear what we want to hear and disregard the rest."

Full Transcript of Debate: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/16/annotated-transcript-september-16-gop-debate/#


Ben Carson's Self-Summary:

"Well, you know, I was a radical Democrat before I started listening to Ronald Reagan. And he didn't sound like what they said Republicans were.

He sounded logical. And I hope that I sound logical also. Because when I look at what is going on with the United States of America, I see a lot of things that are not logical.

I see us allowing people to divide us, when in fact our strength is in our unity. I see people exercising the most irresponsible fiscal habits that anyone could possibly do. And hiding it from the American people, so that the majority of people have no idea what our financial situation is.

So, when someone comes along and says, free college, free phones, free this and that, and the other, they say, "wow, that's nice," having no idea that they're destabilizing our position. And I think also that Ronald Reagan was a master at understanding that a pinnacle nation has to be a nation that leads.

If we learn to lead in the Middle East right now, a coalition will form behind us, but never they do it if we just sit there and talk about it.

Real leadership is what I would hopefully bring to America."