<p>Republican Presidential hopeful Ben Carson, apparently reacting to charges he is &#8220;too nice&#8221; to be President, has made a rather odd admission.  ;</p>
<p>Carson told NBC&#8217;s meet the press on Sunday &#8220;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&#8217;m a very different person now.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I have plenty of energy. But you know, I am soft spoken. I do have a tendency to be relaxed. I wasn&#8217;t always like that. There was a time when I was, you know, very volatile. But I changed&#8221;</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Carson has pulled ahead of Trump in one Iowa poll (Trump says he doesn&#8217;t believe it&#8230;), 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.</p>
<p><strong>Author&#8217;s note:</strong>  ;Look for the rhetoric against Carson to intensify, especially from the Trump camp which has the most to lose.</p>
<p>Carson&#8217;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.</p>