What a Differnce Party-Affiliation Makes

It appears that the media is going through Ben Carson's biography Gifted Hands (1990) with a fine toothcomb in order to demonstrate that he is not qualified for the Presidency.  So far, there have been stories about his informal invitation to attend West Point, his self-reported but unconfirmable (by the media) violent youth, his meeting of General Westmoreland, and even his claim that he ushered some white students into a lab to protect them from a riot in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.  All of these take place in the mid to late 60s.  I suspect more such attacks will commence when the reporters read the chapters that cover the 70s and 80s.  This is fine.  Past writings are fair game and a politician should be made to clarify or defend such writings.

 

Of course, Ben Carson is not the first black man to run for president who had a biography in his past.  Indeed, Barack Obama had two biographies: Dreams from My Father (1995) and The Audacity of Hope (2006).  Between these two books, Obama admits drunk driving, regular use of marijuana in his teens, use of cocaine, a communist mentor, a political kickoff at the home of a former terrorist, and admiration for a reverend who 'damned' America in a sermon.  Oddly, the media was mostly disinterested in these biographies and the revelations therein.  Yes, he had to answer for Reverend Wright in a speech where he placed Wright's comments in historical context.  After that, the matter was dropped by the media.  Interestingly, Hillary Clinton grabbed hold of it in a later debate and said that Wright's anti-American sermon immediately in the wake of 9/11 was intolerable.  Further, she pointed out that we don't chose our family but we do chose our church.  John McCain gave Obama a pass on Reverend Wright and went on to lose the election.

 

A Democratic candidate admitted crimes and associations with communists and terrorists and the media shrugged.  Nothing to see here.  A Republican candidate - at worst - boasts of events in his youth and is branded a liar!  No double-standard at all.