CHRISTIAN ADAMS: The Truth About Ben Carson and West Point:
By the age when an adult Ben Carson wrote this book, he should have learned to be more precise in his language. It seems that Dr. Carson hasn’t found a remedy to what ails him: he doesn’t seem to have any idea what he is talking about — not in his book about West Point, and not now while he is running for president. In instance after instance, Carson just doesn’t seem ready for the spotlight. Perhaps he should run for a county council seat somewhere first to hone his tongue and bone up on basic skills besides opening up someone’s skull.
Worse, Carson had layers of editors who would have asked him about this statement in his book. At some point, the statement “I was offered a scholarship to West Point” would leap from the page and he would have been asked about it. By the time Carson wrote these words, he should have known that there are no such things of offers of a scholarship to West Point unless one is accepted to West Point.
That might be a distinction Team Carson dismisses as insignificant. Sure enough, defenders like Dave Weigel (who loves when the left engages in word trickery to get themselves out of a jam) are defending Carson. That’s a bad sign.
Other bad signs continue to mount for Ben Carson that the presidency simply isn’t the office he should be seeking. Adults writing books should know enough about their country to know that everyone in West Point is on scholarship. That if one is offered a “scholarship” to West Point, it means they have been accepted as a student.
The threat from the Politico story to Carson isn’t that he tells tall tales, but rather that it reinforces the idea that he simply doesn’t understand the complexities of his newfound profession.
Or perhaps he simply underestimated how much the long-knives* would come out for anyone daring to stand in the way of another DNC-MSM coronation. But it does demonstrate the excruciating standards to which a Republican candidate is vetted versus a Democrat — reporters actually read the GOP candidates’ biographies.
*Pun not intended, given the other biographical question the MSM is currently pressing Carson on.
By the way, note that Politico has already airbrushed its story after Carson’s team pushed back — “Politico changes headline and lede on Ben Carson piece — removes line that his campaign admitted to ‘fabrication,'” Alex Pappas of the Daily Caller tweets. In any case, as Allahpundit quips, “So Ben Carson’s going to spend the next week or two running against the media. Think that’ll work in a GOP primary?”
Allah also asks a very good question: “Who ordered the code red on Ben Carson?”
Update: Politico stealth edits Carson story.