Ben Carson began Sunday morning with a soft-spoken prayer in front of a packed Hall County megachurch before delivering a measured defense of God as part of the fabric of American government.
Donald Trump took the stage in Norcross on Saturday afternoon bobbing his head along with Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” reveling in the roars of thousands of supporters. Trump bragged in an hour-long speech of how he has upended political convention this year in the name of liberating the nation from its feckless leaders.
Trump and Carson hold the top two spots in polls for the Republican presidential nomination next year, and both spent their weekend courting Georgia voters with a night-and-day contrast.
The real estate mogul Trump trades in bombast. Cross him, and you feel the burn. He ridiculed his political opponents, from Jeb Bush to Marco Rubio to Hillary Clinton. He excoriated the “stupid” people now running the country, contrasting them with the master deal-maker he promised to be in the Oval Office.
Carson’s jokes were mostly at his own expense, about his poor childhood and bad grades in school. The former neurosurgeon did not mention other candidates by name. In denigrating the new health care law, Carson referred to it as “the so-called Affordable Care Act” instead of its colloquial name, Obamacare.
On the campaign trail, the two have circled each other without clashing, aside from a brief dust-up.
At a news conference, Trump pointed out that Carson apologized for a statement seen as dismissive of Trump's faith, "which is a very honorable thing to do."
“I love it when they hit me because so far, as you know, everybody I’ve hit has gone down the tubes,” Trump said.
Asked by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about his and Trump’s shared success, Carson said it’s a sign of a public searching for something new.
“It says that the people are waking up and they’re starting to realize that listening to the pundits and the experts and the news media probably is not the right thing to do because it’s not leading us in the right place,” Carson said at a book signing Saturday in Lawrenceville.
He said he had no idea Trump had been nearby just hours before.
Their Georgia supporters this weekend had much in common in backing two candidates who have never run for office.
“We always had people who have been in government — yet it’s still not working,” said Terrance Hunter of Atlanta.
Standing behind Hunter in line for Carson’s book signing in Lawrenceville, Sandra Hopkins of Bremen, jumped in.
“Amen!” she said, sharing a high-five with Hunter. “How many thousands of years of experience did (previous presidents) have in Congress and the Senate?”
Trump’s success in real estate and Carson’s steady hand in brain surgery — and his compelling climb from poverty — were satisfactory real-world qualifications for the presidency, their supporters said. They were confident the novice politicians could surround themselves with the right experts in order to master national security and domestic policy.
While some of Carson’s fans interviewed by the AJC were fine with Trump, several turned up their noses at the billionaire’s approach.
Carson is “bold, but he’s a quiet, controlled bold,” said Linda Gore of Athens. “Whereas Trump is all pomp and noise and stuff.”
Trump’s supporters, meanwhile, are fond of the swagger.
“He’s got the presidential stature that we need back in the White House,” said Wanda Raper of McDonough.
The Trump fans interviewed by the AJC, while disdainful of traditional politicians, mostly embraced the fellow outsider Carson.
Trump “articulates, like Ben Carson is starting to articulate, these things that outside of the coasts of the country, people really do think this way, and they’re bashed for it all the time,” said Larry Wachs of Peachtree Corners, who attended the Trump rally and used to star on the local radio show “The Regular Guys.”
“There’s nothing wrong with saying ‘I love America,’ but we’re presented as rednecks and idiots. It’s shocking to the media when Ben Carson says ‘I don’t want a Muslim being president.’ But it’s not to most of America.”
The backers of both men share the candidates’ dim view of the current state of America. Trump’s diagnosis is, in part, a failure of negotiating know-how against other nations.
“What China has done to the United States may be the greatest theft in the history of the world,” Trump said. “They’ve taken our jobs. They’ve taken our money. They’ve taken our base. They’ve really taken our spirit. We feel horrible.”
Carson said “you’re hard-pressed to find anybody who thinks this is the right direction.” But he quickly moves to optimism in the land of opportunity, which can be turned around with more faith in God — and a defeat of political correctness.
“America is worth saving,” Carson said. “If that means getting into a war with the PC police, I’m ready to fight that war. And I hope you will join me.”
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