After nearly eight years of the East Wing's politics of mope and complain, it's refreshing to see a presidential candidate's spouse who is always smiling.
Candy Carson -- wife of GOP 2016 hopeful Dr. Ben Carson, mother of three sons, and grandmother of two -- is the anti-Michelle Obama. She's a quiet but confident ray of sunshine: down-to-earth, devoutly Christian and proudly patriotic.
While Mrs. Obama first gained notoriety carping about racism and trashing America, Mrs. Carson helped kick off her husband's 2016 bid by playing the violin with a gospel choir as they performed a joyful, rousing rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.
I met the couple, who recently celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary, a few weeks ago during a campaign stop in Colorado Springs. Dr. Carson's dazzling career as a Johns Hopkins pediatric neurosurgeon is well known. But Mrs. Carson's own personal story is remarkable as a standalone exemplar of the American Dream achieved.
The daughter of a teacher and a factory worker, Candy Carson grew up poor in inner-city Detroit with four siblings. She earned a scholarship to attend Yale University, where she met her future husband and fellow Detroit native. Mrs. Carson triple-majored in music, psychology and pre-med. She played violin for the Yale Symphony and Bach Society. Just as her church-organist mother insisted that all her children learn to play instruments, Mrs. Carson formed a string quartet (two violins, cello and viola) with her own three sons dubbed the "Carson Four."
Feminists loved Mrs. Obama's relentless jokes openly denigrating her spouse's shortcomings as a husband and father on the campaign trail. Victory did not improve her dour disposition. Even after moving into the White House and enjoying multiple taxpayer-financed vacations around the world, President Obama's bitter half bizarrely lamented her plight as a "busy single mother."
So. Put. Upon.
By contrast, Mrs. Carson revels in her role as family matriarch and life partner in her husband's endeavors. "The calling of a neurosurgeon isn't easy to live out, and Ben has been required to go above and beyond the call of duty many times," she writes in her upcoming memoir, "A Doctor in the House." "The life of a neurosurgeon's wife isn't much easier. But it's all been worth it. Together, we've been through poverty, tragedy, wealth, and joy, and I've come to love Ben more as each year has passed."
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Attitude is everything. The narcissism and nihilism of the Beltway stand in stark contrast to the faith of the Carsons in God, their country and each other. However their political adventure turns out, they are "ready to follow ... whatever He has in store for us next," Mrs. Carson writes.
Keep smiling, work hard, be grateful, and play on. This is what makes America great.