James Antle explores for the Washington Examiner why gaffes on the campaign trail seem to have done more damage to Ben Carson’s presidential bid than to Donald Trump’s.
Republicans told the Washington Examiner that there is a big difference between Trump’s gaffes and Carson’s. So far, they said, Trump’s missteps aren’t undermining his supporters’ confidence in the way Carson’s are.
“No matter what you think of what he has to say, Trump exudes confidence,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. “Carson gets that deer in the headlights look when he makes a mistake or doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The voters might not know that you’re wrong about an issue, but they will recognize a deer in the headlights.”
Paradoxically, Trump may benefit from his willingness to bluster through conflicts and even factual errors rather than apologizing for them. Meanwhile, Carson’s own camp has at times signaled that their candidate is dealing with a learning curve on major public policy issues.
While Trump and Carson are both political neophytes, the former has far greater experience dealing with the national media than the latter. Trump has been widely interviewed, has a proven track record of generating ratings as a reality television star, has personal relationships with some of the high-profile journalists and TV personalities covering him and began talking about political issues in public years before finally running for office.
None of this is true of Carson, whose impressive personal story had attracted attention before and who occasionally expressed his political opinions prior to challenging President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013. But he has never had the level of exposure that would prepare him for the level of scrutiny a presidential candidate faces.
