It's never a good sign when a candidate's most inspirational message is reduced to "no, I'm not quitting yet." But it's been the Ben Carson presidential platform for some time now, and is the subject of his stirring new Fox News op-ed. Short version: Politics is very mean and stupid and you pundits calling for me to drop out should be ashamed of yourselves, because the American people are going to start supporting me any minute now:
Unfortunately, these pundits have gotten too lost in the gladiatorial spectacle to see what truly matters: the will of “We the People” of America. [...]
I trust that the American people will soon wake-up and realize that leadership is not about how one speaks, but rather the life one leads.
I don't know how you square the will of the people with nobody is voting for me and come up with a path to victory, but doing so has been the Ben Carson plan since the very first debates. His campaign looked great on paper, but the momentum of it drained a bit more every time Dr. Ben Carson had to opine on some actual issue, so here we are.
But Ben Carson really does seem to believe that there's still a possibility America will any minute now decide that they were all fools for supporting the candidates they were previously supporting, and there'll be a run on Dr. Ben Carson. That's kind of depressing, actually.
Who knows, though. This election year has been, on the Republican side, a cornucopia of various insanities; there is still the possibility that Donald Trump and Marco Rubio will get in a savage debate-night knife fight and won't they be glad when someone screams is there a doctor in the house and Dr. Ben Carson whips out a leather bag from under his own podium and goes to work saving lives while dispensing gentle, sleepy-eyed wisdom. That'd be enough for a surgeon general spot, I'd imagine. Who knows; in a Trump administration it might be worth a spot at the Pentagon.