WHY is Dr Ben's back story important? you ask. Because he's made it a centrepiece of his 'rags to riches' 'thug to hug' history, and it's narrative that undergirds his support among his religious-right base. Insofar critics of Carson -- and I am one -- have NOT been able to dent his support by otherwise conventional means (his lack of qualifications, lack of policy specifics, his theocratic understanding of government, points that his base don't care about) the West Point story has become his chink in his armour. He has become, finally, rattled. He is expressing confusion. Watch his increased nervous hand motions, rotations, and butterfly folding of fingers and uptick in his fluttering eyelids as a marker of this. Carson is a high-functioning autistic. Like anyone afflicted as he is, if his pattern of thought is side-tracked (i.e. West Point), he loses it. Main stream media won't go there yet on his point. So finally, a means to take him down. Much worse than Trump, who's simply the PT. Barnum of our time. Carson is the Fr Coughlin of our era. He needs to be STOPPED! Facts might not matter. But lying? Just maybe.
