[ilovesarah2012]

Full headline:

Ben Carson emerges as sleeper threat in N.H. Republican Party event straw poll, as Rand Paul and Chris Christie lead the field

[Flying Circus]

Ben Carson may be a good guy with good ideas, but he is a doctor with absolutely no executive or political experience. The president needs to be a superb politician and executive in order to move an agenda forward and succeed at making changes. Dr Carson would make an excellent advisor, maybe even cabinet member, for the president but cannot be the leader to make those ideas reality.

[Redcloak]

The real take-away from this, which the author is failing to see, is that the Party's anointed candidate failed to win this straw poll. "New Jersey Fats" was supposed to win this. He's the Establishment candidate; like Romney and McCain before him. (Well... Like every GOP candidate over the last 100 years with the exception of Ronald Reagan!) And despite their stacking the deck in his favor, "Fats" couldn't win.

It gets worse.

This conclave was supposed to be packed with Party loyalists. If that's the case, then why did so many of them vote for Sen. Paul, Dr. Carson and others? How is it that a room full of devout Party members failed to follow their marching orders and vote for the Party's Great White Whale Hope? Instead, they cast 87% of their votes for someone else.

So now the real question is: Will the Party Elites listen to the Party this time? If they follow their pattern from 2008 and 2012 (and earlier), they'll shove their candidate down the throats of the rank-and-file again and elect the next Obama.