[August 30, 2015] Inspirational Leadership! Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson is a Republican running for his party’s nomination to be the next U.S. president. Since the early August Republican debates where he held his own, his campaign has come alive with inspirational speeches. His campaign continues to grow despite what many talking heads have predicted.
Carson makes it clear what he is not; he is not an experienced politician.1 He provides his audience with tales of his life-saving medical work and his hardscrabble Detroit upbringing. This has positioned him somewhat uniquely before the American electorate that has recently soured on the entire political class.
This anti-establishment trend has helped to also propel Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina, and Bernie Sanders to greater popularity and create obstacles for the career politicians in the race. The question that many people have been asking themselves is why have all the political experts been so wrong on so many of the Republican and Democratic candidates? For example, they dismissed Carson’s campaign as timid, based on outdated values, underfunded, and thus likely to fail early.
Yet, his campaign continues to gain momentum notwithstanding expert analysis. Recent polling from Iowa shows that he is in second place behind Donald Trump and closing the gap quickly.2 The reason is simple. Carson’s ability to personally relate American values and to the troubles Americans are experiencing economically and socially.
He does this inspirationally through well-delivered storytelling. At this point in time Carson, like the other non-traditional political candidates, does not have a political machine with which to wage a successful campaign. Some also say that he has no chance to win because he lacks a certain “charisma” in debates and on the campaign stump. The experts have been wrong before.
What Dr. Ben Carson will surprise us with over the next few months will be interesting indeed and determine how well he competes with other Republican candidates.
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- http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/17/politics/ben-carson-carly-fiorina-donald-trump-gop-race/index.html
- https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-29/ben-carson-edging-close-to-front-runner-trump-in-latest-iowa-poll
[Disclaimer] I have no affiliation with any presidential candidate, nor do any of my relatives. I’m a registered Republican with a history of voting. The views here are mine and mine alone and I am responsible for any errors contained in my blog.