Ben Carson Was Not Always Nice, Pulls Ahead of Trump in Some Polls

Republican Presidential hopeful Ben Carson, apparently reacting to charges he is “too nice” to be President, has made a rather odd admission.  

Carson told NBC’s meet the press on Sunday “As a teenager, I would go after people with rocks and bricks and baseball bats and hammers and, of course, many people know the story when I was 14 and I tried to stab someone. And, you know, fortunately my life has been changed and I’m a very different person now.”

“I have plenty of energy. But you know, I am soft spoken. I do have a tendency to be relaxed. I wasn’t always like that. There was a time when I was, you know, very volatile. But I changed”

We are not sure what to make of this, but Mr. Carson is certainly adding a new dimension to the perception of his character. Carson did not say what circumstances or events changed him.

Carson has pulled ahead of Trump in one Iowa poll (Trump says he doesn’t believe it…), and a New York Times/CBS poll released Tuesday shows Carson beating Trump by a slim margin 26% to 22%. The margin of error for this poll is 6% but it shows a substantial relative drop for Trump and relative gain for Carson.

Author’s note:  Look for the rhetoric against Carson to intensify, especially from the Trump camp which has the most to lose.

Carson’s bad boy play is a smart move, in my opinion, providing a counterpoint to the low energy criticism. A slight chance it may backfire, but for it to work, he has to double down and get the meme out there, or it likely will be ignored.