Why Republican Elites Are In Panic Mode - Exhibit B

Today, frequent blind squirrel Ruth Marcus slips on her reality glasses and focuses her op/ ed on Dr. "Mental Ben" Carson, with a swipe at co- front runner Donald "Rump" Trump.  She says:

"... [the question] about Carson isn’t whether the retired neurosurgeon is a fabulist, and therefore whether he has the right character to be president. It’s whether he has the knowledge and understanding to be president. The evidence is rather conclusive that he doesn’t.

Why single out Carson? This is a fair question in a Republican race whose other front-runner is Donald Trump. But Trump’s brand of blustery unpreparedness is more self-evident, more accessible, than Carson’s. Trump will build a tremendous wall. He’ll stop making stupid deals. If voters are credulous enough to be seduced by his supposed managerial skills and convinced by his grandiose promises — well, that’s on them, though woe to the rest of us.

Carson’s ignorance is of a more subtle sort, delivered with his genial bedside manner. It unfolds not in indignant sound bites but in paragraphs of pure blather. Carson doesn’t just need fact-checking. He needs thought-checking.  (our emphasis)

Meanwhile, both Rump and Mental Ben continue to score with the appallingly awful Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ Crazy Party base:

A new poll finds Donald Trump surging well above his chief 2016 rival Ben Carson after week that included a Saturday Night Live appearance and a GOP debate.

Forty-two percent of likely GOP voters supported Trump in a five-day rolling poll released Friday by Reuters/Ipsos, up from 25 percent last week. Carson was also polling around 25 percent last week and his support among GOP voters has since dipped slightly.  (our emphasis)

Mmmmm.  Let's see.  Forty- two percent plus 25 percent equals [tap tap click click] 67 percent (!!!). No wonder the money boys and the insider Republican elites are "in panic mode."

Contrary to the wishful thinking in the Republican hack writers guild that the Rump and Carson melt downs are finally happenin' (no, this time for realz!), the co- front runners show no signs that their bizarre ideas and behavior are negatively affecting their standing among the folks residing in the asylum right- wing bubble.  In fact, the more bizarre the talk and the walk, the more they're clasped to the bosoms of the True Believers.  For this despicable party, the chickens cuckoos are coming home to roost with a vengeance.