Let’s begin with two propositions: There is a difference between an admirable man and a perfect man, and there is a difference between “vetting” and viciousness. The collective goal of the liberal media is now clear — to take one of America’s most admired and brilliant men and somehow transform him into a dishonest, stupid extremist. The vetting of Ben Carson has become vicious, and to what end? An admirable man has been exposed as imperfect.

The first round of attacks, focusing on Carson’s alleged extremism, failed utterly. Under fire — for claiming that it would be better if victims rushed mass shooters rather than hiding, for asserting that Hitler would have been less likely to accomplish his aims if the German people had been armed, and for comparing the debate over abortion to the debate over slavery — Carson refused to back down. A conservative public, wearily familiar with politicians kowtowing to media-generated outrage, took notice.

Rather than deal directly with Carson’s statements, the media twisted his words, scurrilously asserting that he was “blaming the victims” of school shootings and claiming that German Jews alone could have stopped the Holocaust (when he’d plainly referred to the “German people,” not just German Jews). As for the abortion–slavery comparison, even Vox noted that conservatives have been making that argument for decades. The comparison is controversial, certainly, but hardly “extreme.”