Wolf Blitzer was huffing and puffing at Ben Carson’s door, trying to get the neurosurgeon to trip himself up on guns and murders in an Oregon school.
Blitzer ended the encounter asking something like this: so you don’t want any more gun laws. And Carson answered something this: we don’t need mindless people on two sides of a question, we need to sit down and find workable answers.
The presidential candidate seemed entirely reasonable. The news anchor seemed like a stereotypical questioner trying as hard as possible to get agreement or catch up the candidate in some sort of contradiction.
Throughout the interview, Blitzer did what professionals like him always do. Take some of a quotation and use the boilerplate that has emerged and use it to attempt catching the victim in a trap.
Carson will not bow to that. He goes back and recreates the circumstances -- usually an answer to a similar gotcha question -- and interprets what he said. Whether he can quote himself or not, may not be known because usually the full incident recorded on tape is not used.
Carson differs from most candidates in similar situations. Others may try to the Carson approach but end up accusing the questioners of unprofessionalism. Carson retains the same physician-to-patient tone when broaching the reality of mortality.
Whether Carson is nominated or not, it would be refreshing should his interviewee style become more common. Maybe then potential voters could really learn whether they believe or do not believe the politician. More important. questioners might become more interested in being more dutiful to the purpose of the free press and more unlike a personality trying to win an emmy.
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