http://www.nationalreview.com/node/423730/print Meet Candy Carson, the Anti–Michelle Obama
She’s smart, she’s talented, and she loves America.
By Michelle Malkin — September 9, 2015
After nearly seven 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 by 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 stand-alone 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 the Yale 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 and dubbed it the “Carson Four.”
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