Eli Watkins, CNN – January 20, 2016
Ben Carson’s former campaign manager said Wednesday that the neurosurgeon’s lack of political experience — coupled with his refusal to learn or use the “Washington lexicon” — contributed to his campaign woes. “He’s also a 64-year-old African-American male, who culturally is what he is right? He’s not comfortable with homosexuality, right?” said Barry Bennett, Carson’s former campaign manager, at an event at the Georgetown Institute of Politics.
Chris Kerns, Marketing Land – January 14, 2016
Here in the Spredfast Research & Insights department, we’ve been collecting data about candidates and their messages over the past few months. We’ve been particularly interested in the language used by each candidate and how audiences are responding to various talking points, topics and calls to action.
Janet Hook, Wall Street Journal – December 7, 2015
When people were asked in the last Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll how they felt about GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson, nearly one out of five said they weren’t sure or didn’t know his name. But when they were asked about Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, just about everyone (all but 1%) had an opinion. That explains a lot about the volatility of Mr. Carson’s fortunes—and the challenge Mrs. Clinton faces–in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Samantha-Jo Roth, Huffington Post – December 6, 2015
Ben Carson told veterans at an event in Waterloo, Iowa, on Saturday that the military is not the place to deal with the “transgender thing.” “I do not appreciate using our military as a laboratory for a social experiment,” Carson said at a town hall hosted by Concerned Veterans for America. “You know, we have too many important things to do.”
Hillary Kelly, Glamour – December 3, 2015
This week, the State Department released another batch of emails sent and received by Hillary Clinton while secretary of state. In an email from August 20, 2012, Philippe Reines, one of Clinton’s top advisers, sent the secretary and her daughter, Chelsea, (called “H” and “Diane Reynolds” in the email) a rather funny, unsolicited piece of analysis as to why Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy was doomed to fail: He has no daughters. While Romney’s five sons actively campaigned for their father on the trail, he had precedent against him. “It has been half a century since we’ve had a president without a daughter,” Reines wrote in the email. “It’s happened only once in the past 80 years.”
Gregory Krieg, CNN – November 12, 2015
Donald Trump said Thursday that Ben Carson’s self-described “pathological temper” is incurable — adding that it’s like the sickness of a “child molester.” “It’s in the book that he’s got a pathological temper,” Trump told “Erin Burnett OutFront,” speaking about Carson’s autobiography. “That’s a big problem because you don’t cure that … as an example: child molesting. You don’t cure these people. You don’t cure a child molester. There’s no cure for it. Pathological, there’s no cure for that.”
Carol Felsenthal, The Hill – October 23, 2015
Although Candy has remained in the background, her story, like his, is a tale of excelling despite tough childhood circumstances. She was one of five siblings in inner-city Detroit, daughter of a teacher and a factory worker, and, in her words, “grew up poor.” Yet she studied classical violin and won a scholarship to Yale University, where she triple-majored in music, psychology and pre-med and played in the Yale Symphony Orchestra and the Bach Society.
Liz Olson, Fortune – October 23, 2015
Carson received a sizable boost in support from women voters in Iowa, helping him surpass Trump in the latest polls.
Chris Johnson, Washington Blade – October 8, 2015
“We’ve got to stop paying attention to the PC police who say every lifestyle is exactly of the same value,” Carson said. “No, it’s not of the same value. It is very clear that intact, traditional families with traditional, intact values do much better in terms of raising children. So let’s stop pretending that everything is of equal value.”