By Count Friedrich von Olsen
I am an adherent of the Eleventh Commandment, which forbids me from speaking ill of a fellow Republican. We are now engaged in the early run-up to the 2016 election, and it seems like a dozen Republican presidential hopefuls have emerged. There is Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina, maybe Chris Christie and a few others. I will say nothing derogatory about any of them, as they certainly present superior alternatives to whatever is on the Democratic side. But I hope my readers will forgive me if I say nothing laudatory about any of them, since in the field is a candidate I would prefer to devote my words and your attention to…
Ben Carson stands head, shoulders and most of his torso above his closest competitor. I feel I need make no case that he should be our next president beyond reciting some biographical details, which upon consideration, should convince just about anyone that I am correct. You will quickly see that he is not a politician or a man of empty rhetoric, but a man of intelligence, intensity, dedication, character, action and accomplishment…
Dr. Carson was born in Detroit, after his African-American parents moved there from rural Georgia. He was in the JROTC in high school. He was offered entry to West Point but instead went to Yale. He received his M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School. At the age of 33, he became the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the youngest major division director in the hospital’s history. He was also a co-director of the Johns Hopkins Craniofacial Center. In 1987, he was the first surgeon to successfully separate conjoined twins joined at the head. Both twins survived after a 22-hour long operation that involved a 70-member surgical team performing a series of procedures mapped out by Dr. Carson, and executed by him and a group of surgeons he personally selected….
Dr. Carson specializes in traumatic brain injuries, brain and spinal cord tumors, achondroplasia, neurological and congenital disorders, craniosynostosis, epilepsy, and trigeminal neuralgia, whatever that is. He is now a professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery, and pediatrics. He has written six books, some of which have been bestsellers. Their titles alone speak volumes: Gifted Hands, Think Big, The Big Picture, Take the Risk, America the Beautiful, and One Nation. He has served on the boards of the Kellogg Company, Costco, and the Academy of Achievement. He is an emeritus fellow of the Yale Corporation…
He has never run for or held elective office as far as I know. I personally don’t see that as a drawback. There is some question and some risk as to whether he can translate his obvious talent and ability in the medical realm to the world of governance. There have been in American History a few examples of highly competent individuals failing to live up to their perceived potential once they came to occupy the White House. I suppose such a risk attends Dr. Carson. I for one, am willing to make that gamble, as his level of achievement thus far in his life signals he promises far more in terms of vision, leadership, commitment, perseverance, intelligence and execution than any of the others, who themselves are subject to the same or greater chance of failure or inability to actuate their vision as he is…