The Confusing, Anticlimactic Demise of Ben Carson

This spring, as you may have noticed, there is a true outsider—a newcomer to electoral politics—who is leading the race to become the next Republican candidate for President. Even observers who have been paying close attention may find it hard to explain how, exactly, this situation came to pass. And many of them may find it surprisingly easy to forget that, just a few months ago, there were two of them: dual (but not quite duelling) political amateurs, both of them outpolling the professionals. From early September until early December, the Republican leaders in the RealClearPolitics polling average were Donald J. Trump and his unlikely counterpart, Dr. Ben Carson. But while Trump continued to defy pundits’ expectations, Carson fulfilled them: in the months leading up to the Iowa caucus, his poll numbers collapsed. And on Friday he said, “I am leaving the campaign trail”—although by then, the trail had long since left him.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

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