Tied with businessman Donald Trump at the top of the polls, Dr. Ben Carson made his pitch for the Republican presidential nomination in Orlando on Friday night, urging conservatives and Republicans to stand united.
Even before Carson took the stage, as a campaign video was played, the crowd was cheering for the celebrated surgeon who moved to the Sunshine State after ending his career at Johns Hopkins.
“I am absolutely delighted to be back home in Florida,” Carson told the crowd at the Republican Party of Florida’s (RPOF) Sunshine Summit in Orlando. While he generally remained reflective and thoughtful in his address, Carson took a shot at the “people’s republic of Maryland” and insisted Florida’s business climate made it far more appealing.
“Florida appealed to use because of the taxes,” Carson said. “It’s such a pleasant place, such a beautiful place.”
Pacing back and forth on the stage, Carson took aim at “political correctness” at colleges and universities across the nation, calling out the recent controversies over race and academic leadership at the University of Missouri before talking about how his mother raised him, encouraging him to pursue an education and rise out of poverty.
“I didn’t mind being poor,” Carson said. “That was something I could change.”
Turning to public affairs, Carson praised education as the gateway to the American dream but called out liberals for being more concerned with getting less fortunate Americans angry instead of encouraging them to succeed.
“If you get a good education, you get to write your own ticket,” Carson said. “I want to create ladders of opportunity.”
Carson insisted it wasn’t the government’s responsibility to provide those ladders, calling out Democratic presidents like Woodrow Wilson and Lyndon Johnson. “Everything is not only worse, it’s much worse.”
Continuing on that theme, Carson said it was up to individuals to help others rise up and the government could not help much there. Carson said that America’s divisions, immigration policy, cuts to military spending and economic policies were leading to the destabilization of the nation, a gameplan that America’s enemies would follow.
“Any semblance to what’s going on now is purely coincidental,” Carson said to a cheering crowd.
Calling for America to “turn things around,” Carson insisted the stakes were high next November and noted 93 million Americans--including 30 million evangelicals--did not vote.
“We have to convince them when they don’t vote, they are voting, they are voting the wrong way,” Carson said.
Carson called for conservatives to back the GOP, even if they are not fully in agreement with whoever ends up as the party’s candidate.
Turning to the economy, Carson called for ending “unnecessary regulations” to get the economy moving and slammed Obama’s federal health-care law. Slamming the Democrats’ “asinine policies," Carson encouraged more saving, less regulations and lowering the national debt.
Carson closed with a plea for listeners to get people out to vote. “Now is the time for America to get back to where it should be,” he told the cheering crowd.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
