Ben Carson gets ready

He is the un-Obama. If Obama was elected without having accomplished much of anything, Carson’s accomplishments — in 1987 he became the first physician to separate conjoined twins — are undeniable. If Obama has lived a thoroughly political life, charting his path from community organizer to president in a matter of years, Carson made a name outside of politics and, until recently, inhabited a world apart from it. So thoroughly did he ignore the traditional rules of politics and decorum that he burst onto the national scene when he delivered the president a verbal spanking as Obama sat just a few feet away at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013.  

But, according to Giles, Carson may be the man to unite the country in 2016.

“Forget about Republicans and Democrats, we need a president of the United States who’s going to bring people together,” he says. “And the guy who’s going to do that is not going to be the fiery type, he’s not going to be the guy who [makes us] say, ‘Oh, wow, he’s full of passion up on that stage because he raises his voice or he’s angry.’ Ben is thoughtful, he’s inclusive, he’s a great listener. He has some skill sets that we as the public ought to be looking for in a president but so often don’t. So in our campaign, we’ve got to get that message across.”