OVER the first few days in May, three new candidates were added to the GOP’s growing list for the official party nomination of the 2016 presidential race. A total of six contenders are running for the Republican Party ticket.
Ben Carson
Retired neurosurgeon and conservative star Ben Carson, 63, announced his official run for president on Monday, May 4, to a packed crowd at the Detroit Music Hall, in the center of his hometown.
Introducing his family, Carson called for Americans to “rise up and take the government back.” He told the story of his rise from poverty to getting his MD at the University of Michigan and becoming a world-renowned brain surgeon, the first to separate conjoined twins connected at the head. A theatrical and sharp-tongued orator, he promised to not change his signature style, framing himself as an outsider against the political elite.
“I’m probably never going to be politically correct because I’m not a politician,” he said. “I don’t want to be a politician. Because politicians do what is politically expedient—I want to do what’s right.”
He took sharp jabs at everything from the media to President Obama’s policies, calling for an end to social programs that “create dependency,” and, signaling he may seek to play in Capitol Hill battles, telling supporters that if their lawmakers voted to raise the debt limit, they should be “thrown out of office.”
He also demanded that voters elect “people with common sense who actually love our nation, and are willing to work for our nation, and are more concerned about the next generation than the next election.”
Commenting on the recent civil unrest in Baltimore, Carson noted that “the real issue is that people are losing hope” because of an unpromising economy.
“They don’t feel that life is going to be good for them, no matter what happens, so when an opportunity comes to loot, to riot, to get mine, they take it, not believing that there is a much better way to get the things that they desire,” he said.
So far, Ben Carson is the only African-American presidential candidate from either party.
Carly Fiorina
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina also formally announced her candidacy on Monday, becoming the first declared female candidate seeking the GOP’s nomination.
“Yes, I am running,” she said in a video that aired on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I think I’m the best person for the job because I understand how the economy actually works. I understand the world; who’s in it.”
Fiorina, 60, who worked in tech capital Silicon Valley and unsuccessfully ran for Senate in California in 2010, has never held public office. She is now one of the few women ever to seek the GOP’s nomination for president, joining Michele Bachmann and Elizabeth Dole.
Casting herself as an experienced candidate in the private sector, Fiorina is known for her criticism of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her work in government, calling her “untrustworthy” and “not transparent about things that matter.”
“If you’re tired of the sound bites, the vitriol, the pettiness, the egos, the corruption; if you believe that it’s time to declare the end of identity politics; if you believe that it’s time to declare the end of lowered expectations; if you believe that it’s time for citizens to stand up to the political class and say enough, then join us,” Fiorina said in a video on her campaign website.
An articulate communicator and energetic politician, Fiorina has recruited veteran political strategists and also announced the news of her rigorous campaign (Carly for America, a super PAC) on social media. She will travel to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina to meet with leaders later in the week. Her new book, “Rising to the Challenge,” was released this week.
“As CEO of a major corporation, I gained critical executive skills that would serve well in the White House,” she told CNN. “HP requires executive decision-making, and the presidency is all about executive decision-making.”
Mike Huckabee
The following day, May 5, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, 59, officially launched his bid for the party nomination. Once the host of a popular Fox News talk show “Huckabee,” he is the sixth candidate and is considered a long-shot in the growing race to represent the Republican Party.
“I don’t come from a family dynasty, but a working family. I grew up blue-collar, not blue-blood,” he said at the formal announcement in the small town of Hope, Arkansas, which both he and Bill Clinton call their hometown.
A former pastor in a Southern Baptist church, Huckabee’s speech emphasized the plight on blue-collar American workers who have been left behind in the country’s rebound from the Great Recession. He aimed to expand his fanbase beyond social conservative voters whom he rallied to an early, surprise victory on the 2008 White House race.
Huckabee made clear he wants “the Christian right” behind him again in 2016, pitting himself against like-minded rivals like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Florida Governor Jeb Bush and the Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
The Christian candidate took a bold stand on his long-held opposition to abortion and gay marriage. He mentioned the too-low paychecks of many hard-working Americans, who are “too often left behind” in today’s economy, and blamed President Obama for the current situation.
Ninety-three million Americans don’t have jobs,” Huckabee said. “And many of them who do have seen their full-time job with benefits they once had become two part-time jobs with no benefits at all.”
“We were promised hope, but it was just talk,” he said, referring to Obama’s campaign theme in his 2008 bid.
(With reports from Reuters, CNN, The Daily Beast)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend May 9-12, 2015 Sec. A pg.6)
