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RETIRED NEUROSURGEON BEN Carson has drawn even with front-running billionaire Donald Trump in a poll in the early-voting state of Iowa, as political outsiders surge in the US presidential race.
Real estate magnate Trump has spent weeks dominating the Republican field, and has emerged as a credible White House candidate for many voters in Iowa, the first crucible of the 2016 nominating contest.
But with Carson’s stellar showing in a series of recent polls in Iowa and nationwide, and another survey showing Senator Bernie Sanders nipping at Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s heels, the second-place candidates are exhibiting considerable power on the campaign trail.
Trump and Carson are deadlocked at 23%, according to the Monmouth University poll.
Only one other candidate polls in double digits: Another political novice — former Hewlett-Packard boss Carly Fiorina, with 10%.
Senator Ted Cruz, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and former Florida governor Jeb Bush round out the top five.
“These results mark a significant shake-up in the leaderboard from Monmouth’s Iowa poll taken before the first (Republican presidential) debate” in early August, Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray said.
At that point, Walker, of neighboring Wisconsin, led the rankings.
The calm-demeanored Carson’s favorability rating is sky-high at 81% to 6%, while Fiorina also shines at 67 to eight. Trump’s favorability is 52-33.
Bush by comparison is deep underwater at 32-51%, according to Monmouth.
Carson (63) is aiming to become the first African-American to win the Republican nomination.
He entered the nation’s political consciousness two years ago with a speech criticising President Barack Obama’s policies in front of Obama himself.
Controversy
Carson, like Trump, is no stranger to making controversial comments. He previously said Obamacare is “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery”.
His White House bid announcement was also a little unusual.
Carson, who despite a childhood of “dire poverty” in Detroit, rose to become one of the nation’s most respected medical professionals through his presidential campaign is seeking political “healing” and a renewed sense of compassion in America.
His campaign has been low-key compared to the braggadocious Trump, but Carson is seen as earning strong support from Christian conservatives, an important voting bloc in Iowa.
“Trump and Carson, one bombastic and the other sometimes soft-spoken, could hardly be more different in their outward presentations,” according to respected pollster Ann Selzer, who released a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers on Saturday showing Trump leading with 23% and Carson second with 18%.
“Yet they’re both finding traction because they don’t seem like politicians and there’s a strong demand for that right now.”
Cruz and Walker are tied for third with 8% in the Des Moines Register poll.
Bush and Senator Marco Rubio are next at 6%, while Fiorina earned 5%.
Shunning the political establishment is occurring to a degree on the Democratic side as well, according to the Register poll.
While results show Clinton ahead with 37%, she has lost one third of her support since May, while the liberal Sanders is now just seven points behind in the Democratic nomination race, at 30%.
- with reporting from Órla Ryan
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So your guaranteed remission regardless of behavior inside ? That’s absolutely ridiculous. Remission should be used in extreme circumstances where a prisoner has really showed signs of turning their life around. What’s the point in a criminal been good when there is no punishment.
I think between suspended sentences, serious sentences been run concurrently and light sentences its clear there is not enough space in prisons.
Time for a new one demolish the Dublin ones, sell the lands for housing and fund a new super max in the middle of nowhere and send them all there.
@Lie Smeller: The land around Mountjoy would be worth a fortune, turn the main building into a new hotel and the grounds can be used for apartment blocks… the price of the sale would cover a new prison in the midlands somewhere..
@Dotty Dunleary: a new hotel? Sher there’s already a hotel on that land
@Dotty Dunleary: I think that the main building is already a hotel.
Not surprising really. The whole criminal justice system in this country is broken. Criminals constantly being re-released to inflict more pain amd suffering on society, so why would they worry about attacking prisoner officers. There is no real deterrent.
@kevin: We need at least one really tough prison like Alcatraz for the incorrigibles. It needs to be under the control of “The Dept. of Defence” and well beyond the influence of the Bleeding hearts P.C brigade!!
Utterly outdated and inadequate facility, not enough room to segregate and separate Ireland’s most Unwanted!
The Prison officers in that place aren’t paid enough by half to deal with the worst of society!
Send in the Army!
Stats, lies, stats, lies? It’s how ya tell em.
It makes me smile. the people who take these well paid jobs and then complain.
@Sean Conway: so you think that if someone is“well paid “ by your standards it is ok to be assaulted or seriously injured?
@Sean Conway: Why don’t you take one of these ‘well paid jobs’ ?we’ll see how long it will take before that smile is wiped off your face when reality bites.
@Sean Conway: starting salary is very low until you move up the scale if you do and can you stick it.
@Sean Conway: I’m sure that smile would be on the other side of your face if you were to take up work in the prison service.
@Sean Conway:
Can we take then assume nurses, ambulance crew, fire fighters, children detention staff, bus drivers, taxi drivers and everyone else who works frontline with the public should put up and shut up too?
Unbelievable!
@Sean Conway: if that makes you smile then you’re one sick puppy
@Sean Conway: As somebody with family and friends who work there you’d be a lot better doing some research before making comments like that.
If you think its that good the prison service is recruiting at the moment , could be your big chance to make your fortune.
@Ray Farrell: Who’s making them do it? the same goes for joining the army.
@Sean Conway: Prison Staff know there are risks involved in doing the Job. But those risks should be minimised as much as possible. And keeping an accurate record of All incidents where violence has been used against staff is part and parcel of that process.
It is the Prison Officers on the floor that are the ones have to place their own safety at risk to protect others.
And it is the Job of those in charge to enable the staff to work in an environment where there is zero tolerance to Any act of violence towards them.
@Honeybee: I am afraid that is not only reality that bites but also some inmates who are still out early because of ” good” behaviour.
@Sean Conway: it makes me smile, when idiots miss the point…
@Ray Farrell: The same thing that makes you do your job, that is if you have one. And if you do I hope your not going into a job every day where your putting yourself in danger. Just be glad that you can sleep nice and cosy in your bed at night deep in the knowledge that there are men in women in this country putting their personal safety at risk so you can stay like that.
@Sean Conway: well paid? I wouldn’t lift a finger for that kind of money. Completely underpaid dangerous job should be paid double, especially for the people in the front line, the pencil pushers not so much though!
Anyway, ludicrous statement Sean!
I worked as a corrections officer in North America for a while. I never had a problem. If you act the bol**ks and don’t treat inmates with simple respect and dignity, if you throw your weight around simply because you can, if you act like you’re something special because you wear uniform instead, then you will end up getting a hammering. I never read a prisoner’s file or asked why they lost their liberty and made no secret of the fact. I just treated the guys how I like to be treated. That’s not to say if they were breaking the rules that I wouldn’t deal with them. They recognised that and I was always fair and straight with them. I had more problems with chronic staff than I ever had with any inmate.
@Niall Sheridan: The difference between the US System and ours in how those involved in violence towards staff are treated. Assault an officer over there and you are likely to get pepper sprayed at a minimum, tazed or in extreme cases shot. The Irish Prison System has no such protocols.
@Greg Mumble: Because in Ireland Pepper Spray and Tazers are considered as Firearms under the Law and Prison staff have not been issued with either. Even the issue of Asp Batons are only issued to Staff on external duties such as Prisoner escorts, they are not currently issued to Staff on internal duties.
@Greg Mumble: They are not allowed the use of tazers in prisons here in case you tazer somebody and its triggers a reaction to their heart. That would be terrible.
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