We’re learning that Ben Carson, despite being a talented neurosurgeon, is an ignorant and self-indulgent man who lives in an ostentatious mansion featuring a portrait of him with Jesus. There’s a growing body of evidence that he’s also dishonest in a way going far beyond the exaggeration, self-promotion, and puffery typical of megalomaniacs. The latest allegation against him: Carson’s books, the main vehicle of his rise to fame, contain stolen words.
Back in January, when the plagiarism charges first erupted, Carson issued an apology. It turns out that entire sections of “America the Beautiful,” published in 2012, were lifted from other publications. He didn’t acknowledge using other authors’ work until Buzzfeed exposed it. His and his publisher’s response was to promise to attribute the copied material in future printings. Read that story here and here.
It’s interesting to note that among the various mea culpas in his book, “Gifted Hands,” some of which are fiction in the tradition of crazy people confessing to crimes they didn’t commit, Carson wrote that he plagiarized while in college. He lies so much, who knows whether he did or didn’t?
Isn’t it time for Carson’s supporters to connect dots and realize his campaign promises may be fiction, too?
Photo: This amateur makes professional politicians and holy rollers look honest by comparison.