To almost non-Americans – and, I suspect, many Americans – the current success of Ben Carson in the race to become the Republican candidate for the US Presidency is simply amazing. The retired neurosurgeon with no experience of politics has now overtaken Donald Trump – himself a political outsider – who has previously been in the lead for six months.<\/p>\n
A profile in today’s “Observer” newspaper notes of Carson:<\/p>\n
“He has \u2026 coined some of the most outlandish statements ever uttered on the national stage, a purveyor of bizarre conspiracy theories and a provocateur who compares abortion to slavery and same-sex marriage to pedophilia.\u00a0This week, Carson restated his belief that the pyramids were built by the biblical Joseph to store grain, and not by Egyptians to entomb their kings. He believes that Vladimir Putin, Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Abbas attended school together in Moscow in 1968. He believes that Jews with firearms might have been able to stop the Holocaust, that he personally could stop a mass shooting, that the Earth was created in six days and that Osama bin Laden enjoyed Saudi protection after 9\/11.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And yet:<\/p>\n
“Carson\u2019s favorability rating among Republicans, at 74%, towers over the field. His devout Christianity has made him a darling among evangelicals, who count for about a third of caucus participants in Iowa, the first state to vote. And in the last quarter the Carson campaign reported contributions of $20m, more than any of his rivals.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n