In fairness to Dr. Carson, if you’ve spent the majority of your adult life learning about and dealing with the medically complex issues required for him to excel in his profession, that realistically doesn’t leave much spare time left over to learn details about religions or cultures different from one’s own.
He’s out of his field in the political spectrum as well as dealing with the exacting media questioning. Clearly his comments on Islam were off the cuff and not rigorously thought out.
But, unlike the vapid Sarah Palin who was hard pressed to name any magazines she reads regularly, at least he has a more viable excuse as I’m sure none of us could make heads or tails of the multiple professional journals he had to read to stay abreast of new developments in his field. For years his attention was pretty narrowly focused upon his field of expertise and I’m sure that there were many patients and their families who were mighty glad that was the case.
So, I’m willing to give him a pass for being less than astute answering politically motivated Qs. However, he does have some catching up to do if he wants to continue to remain a viable candidate.
Plus, I’m not overly fond of his stance on many of the relevant issues anyhow so it would be no big loss to me were he to return to Neurosurgery.