Neurosurgeon Ben Carson Inundated With Donations After Politically Incorrect Speech
Move over Dr. Oz, it looks like Dr. Benjamin Carson is America's favorite new physician and the people are loving his political incorrectness, too.
After throwing political caution to the wind in his candid speech at the National Prayer Breakfast last Thursday, renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson of Johns Hopkins Hospital is riding his popularity with high sales of his books and being flooded with donations to his Carson Scholars Fund celebrating "intellectual superstars" in America's schools.
"The Prayer Breakfast speech has caused a lot of people to go to the Carson Scholars Fund website and many became excited about what we are doing. It is a gratifying response, the gist of which is still being assessed," said Sheila Butler, expansion coordinator at the Carson Scholars Fund, in an interview with The Christian Post on Thursday.
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Another representative from the Fund, who asked not to be identified for the story because the individual was not authorized to speak to the media, told CP this week that: "Since Thursday we have been getting a lot of donations. We've seen checks from $30,000 to five dollars. Some donors want to remain anonymous while others don't really care. They are mostly just excited."
On Friday, book rankings on the website of the world's largest online retailer Amazon.com, showed that the paperback version of Dr. Carson's latest book, America the Beautiful, released by Zondervan Publishers in January, broke into its top 100 bestselling book list around the time Carson made his speech. On Friday, the book was ranked number four of the top 100, while it rested at the number three spot on the "Hot New Releases" list.
Carson, who will retire from his position as head of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md. this June, has continually highlighted his passion for education. During his speech last Thursday, Carson told the audience, that included President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, about his passion for education and put forward the Carson Scholars Fund as one solution to America's education problem.
"I am very passionate about education because it made such a big difference in my life but here we are at a time in the world, the information age, the age of technology, and yet 30 percent of the people that enter high school in this country do not graduate, 44 percent of people who start a four-year college program do not finish it in four years. What is that about?" he asked.
Carson co-founded the Carson Scholars Fund with his wife, Candy, in 1994 to promote America's "intellectual superstars" and academic excellence in the nation's schools.
The doctor's forthright speech is now an internet sensation and he has been making the rounds in national media where speculation about his political ambitions, including a 2016 presidential buzz, has been high.
According to the Fox News Insider, on Friday night at 9 p.m. EST, Dr. Carson will sit down with Sean Hannity and a distinguished audience in a one-hour special about saving America.
