Ben Carson is leading polls in Iowa and is second after Trump everywhere else. What’s the appeal?
— All In w/Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) October 24, 2015
Part of the appeal may be his gentle, even soporific, persona:
That smile and his soft voice makes people very comforted,†said Miriam Greenfield, a farmer in Jewell, Iowa.
“He is kind when he speaks, and he doesn’t have an agenda to set himself up as wonderful,†said Donna Christiansen, a retiree in Ames.
Retiree Donna Christiansen might want to notice this:
Yesterday in Ames, Iowa, in the course of suggesting raising the retirement age for Social Security and asking people to voluntarily give up their monthly checks, Ben Carson said …
Ben Carson called for “groupthink†to combat the looming funding crisis in the country’s Social Security program at a campaign rally in Ames on Saturday.
“We have to start thinking, have groupthink in this country,†Carson said in response to a question from the crowd about unfunded entitlement liabilities.
“We need to maximize the potential of all our people if we’re going to be able to compete in the future. So we have to start thinking corporately as an entity.â€
Carson also promises to abolish Medicare and Medicaid and replace them with savings accounts. And he’s ahead of Jeb! and Rubio in the polls.